BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: FILM #27

IT'S DIFFICULT FOR FILM STARS TO PROTECT THEIR PRIVACY

ROBERT REDFORD “had become secretive. Not only did I know him, our wives knew each other, so did our kids. And he had asked me to come to Utah for the month to work with him —

—–And he wouldn’t give me his phone number.

  In order for me to contact him, I would have to call his secretary, and she would then call him and he would then call me.”

William Goldman. Adventures in the Screen Trade (New York: Warner Books, 1983)

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BILLY CRYSTAL (age 5) GOES TO A MOVIE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME (TAKEN THERE BY A FRIEND OF CRYSTAL’S FAMILY: JAZZ GREAT– BILLY HOLIDAY)

The Loews Commodore. “it later became known as the Fillmore East. And there sitting on Billie Holiday’s lap, I saw my first movie. And the movie was Shane: Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Jean Arthur and JACK PALANCE! and this kid who I looked like, Brandon De Wilde. He was an extraordinary eight-year-old-actor. I couldn’t believe it. It proved to me that even if you’re four foot six, you could be forty feet tall.
“At the end of the movie, Shane rides off into the sunset. The kid runs after him and he screams . ‘Shane…come back.’
And Miss Billie whispered in my ear, ‘ “He ain’t never coming back.”

Billy Crystal.  700 Sundays (New York: Warner Books, 2005  

**REAL PIRATES VS. MOVIE PIRATES

“Piracy’s leading historian , Marcus Rediker, estimates that just four thousand pirates sailed in the black-flag era. If he’s right. more people have worked on the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films than were actual pirates of the Caribbean.”

Daniel Immerwahr. “The Power of the Pirates” in The New Yorker (July 22, 2024)

The First Star Added to the Walk of Fame Belonged to Filmmaker Stanley Kramer

To get the Hollywood Walk of Fame off to a strong start and to drum up excitement, the creators made a sample walk in 1958, which included stars for Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward. Although Woodward is often cited as the first recipient, the inaugural star laid at today’s Hollywood Walk of Fame belonged to director/producer Stanley Kramer (It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Defiant Ones, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner); it was laid on March 28, 1960, near Hollywood Boulevard and Gower Street. However, Kramer was soon only one among many — 1,558 stars were installed in just the first year alone.”

Interesting Facts (August 9, 2024)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQVxtwrcnhsGqHRzNQjsVmgLVCT

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            ON ADAPTING BOOKS TO 

                  THE MOVIES                    

                 Robert Risken,

                 Reading a book by John Rusken,

                 The Stones of Venice,

                 Felt it needed murders & scenes of menace.

The Dog Who Played Toto Earned $125 per Week

Few dogs are more famous than the cairn terrier who played Toto in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. Terry, as she was known off-screen, was born in 1933 and rescued by Carl Spitz after being abandoned by her birth parents. Despite a tumultuous start to her life, she went on to have a prolific career in Hollywood that even many human actors would envy.

Spitz ran his own Hollywood Dog Training School, and although he initially took in Terry just as a pet, she quickly became his biggest star. His technique used silent hand signals, which gave him (and his dogs) an edge over other trainers who had to vocally call out their commands. With his help, Terry landed an uncredited role in 1934’s Ready for Love, and later that year starred alongside Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes. After appearing in several other films, Terry ascended to superstardom when she booked the role of Toto in The Wizard of Oz, earning $125 a week for portraying Dorothy’s trusted companion — more than some of her human castmates made.

INTERESTING FACTS WEBSITE (Augudst 19, 2024)

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CLAUDIA CARDINALE & HER MOVIE CONTRACT

She signed a contract forbidding her to cut her hair, marry or gain weight. Because of this, she told everyone that her newborn son (out of wedlock) was her baby brother. She did not reveal to the child that he was her son until he was 19 years old.

iMDb Trivia

UTTERLY

In The Island of Lost Souls,
Charles Laughton utters the immortal line:
“They are restless tonight.”
Not only are the natives restless,
Every word in this poem
Is restless.
These words want to be somewhere else.
Drums play all night,
But this poem is stuck here.
If the words go somewhere else,
They may look the same,
But they won’t be the same.
They shall be changed
Utterly.

Louis Phillips