TV LISTING FOR SUEZ IN THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (1986)
Suez••• (1938) - Tyrone Power, Loretta Young. Story based on the monumental effort to build the Panama Canal.
end of column item in The New Yorker (November 3, 1986) ** WATCHING PATRICIA NEAL GRIN
"Watching Patricia Neal grin is like tasting ice cream for the veryv first time." Rex Reed in Conversations in the Raw ** CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S FLEA ROUTINE & KAY BALLARD
The classic flea routine that Chaplin performs in his 1952 film "Limelight" was taken verbatim from Ballard's cabaret act, an idea she had hired a young Mel Brooks to script for her.
iMDb Trivia for Kay Ballard ** WATCHING ROMAN POLANSKI DIRECTING YVONNE FURNAUX IN REPULSION, or arrogant director as God
"To maintain the film's tension, the director constantly needled cast members, trying to maintain a low hum of resentment while the cameras were rolling. "Ms. Furneaux eventually complained to Michael Klinger, an uncredited producer. 'Tell that little bastard to leave me alone,' she was said to have remarked. "When Mr. klinger confronted him, Mr.Polanski responded: 'Michael, I know she's a nice girl. She's too bloody nice. She's supposed to be playing a bitch. Every day I have to make her into a bitch.'"
Alex Williams. "Yvonne Furnaux, 98, Actress Who Found Fame With Fellini," obituary in The New York Times (August 5,2024) **
THE CHARACTER OF COLONEL SAITO IN THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI
Colonel Saito was inspired by Major Risaburo Saito, who, unlike the character portrayed in this movie, was said by some to be one of the most reasonable and humane of all of the Japanese prison camp commandants, usually willing to negotiate with the P.O.W.s in return for their labor. Such was the respect between Saito and Lieutenant Colonel Toosey (upon whom Colonel Nicholson was based), that Toosey spoke up on Saito's behalf at the war crimes tribunal after the war, saving him from the gallows. Ten years after Toosey's 1975 death, Saito made a pilgrimage to England to visit his grave."
iDMb Trivia ** THE FIRST GREAT WESTERN MOVIE STAR
Hart went on to become one of the first great stars of the motion picture Western. Fascinated by the Old West, he acquired Billy the Kid's "six shooters" and was a friend of legendary lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. He entered films in 1914, and after playing supporting roles in two short films, he achieved stardom the same year as the lead in the feature The Bargain. Hart was particularly interested in making realistic Western films. His films are noted for their authentic costumes and props, as well as Hart's acting ability, honed on Shakespearean theater stages in the United States and England.Beginning in 1915, Hart starred in his own series of two-reel Western short subjects for producer Thomas Ince, which were so popular that they were supplanted by a series of feature films. Many of Hart's early films continued to play in theaters, under new titles, for another decade. In 1915 and 1916 exhibitors voted him the biggest money making star in the United States." Wikipedia
THE WILLIAM S. HART MUSEUMIN SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
The Hart Museum showcases Hart's personal belongings and art collection, while the park is home to a herd of American Bison, a vast picnic area, and a series of hiking trails. ** LAURETTE TAYLOR, WHO PLAYED AMANDA IN THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' THE GLASS MENAGERIE, MAKES A SCREEN TEST
"She was so natural that you forgot she was acting. It was as if they had pulled some woman directly off the street and onto the stage. A screen test that Miss Taylor did for one of the major studios in Hollywood is included in Rick McKay's documentary Broadway: the Golden Age (2003). The performance is brilliant, but the studio turned her down because they didn't feel she was acting." Kaye Ballard
Kay Ballard, with Jim Hesselman. How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 years (New York: Backstage Books, 2006)
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 ** WHO'S ON FIRST?
In the film Arrival the alien creatures are nicknamed Abbott and Costello, who are the Bud and Lou (respectively). ** MOVIE DIALOGUE
Whenever somebody in a movie says "Don't worry. Nobody's going to get hurt." you know right away that somebody is going to get hurt ** PLAYING ME
Olivier, Barrymore, Brando Threw up their hands: “No way! Impossible.”
Surrounded By a supporting cast Of thousands,
Perhaps 10,000, I auditioned For the starring role.
Why shd I always be The heavy? Call Cary Grant!
Women Seated in the front row Rolled their eyes.
I forgot my lines, Stumbled over the good parts. I cd not sing nor dance,
Nor get a handle On what The Director wanted.
Went home, Reread the script. Not much sex or violence.
Many good laughs. I demanded That the ending Be changed.
" March 15 is too important a day to ignore. As the man who taught me to use a chainsaw said, it is immortalized by Shakespeare’s famous warning: “Cedar! Beware the adze of March."
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON MAR 16,2024 ** **
WALTER MATTHAU AT AGE 7
" He became a voracious reader, and when he was young as seven years old he began reciting Shakespeare. He may not have comprehended what he was saying but was transfixed by the by the beauty and fluidity of the language and its contrast to the Lower East Side dreariness. Often, he recited out loud for hours at a stretch, in the privacy of the bathroom. 'There'd be one for four families,' he recalled, 'and I'd be in there until someone threw me out.'"
Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg. Matthau: a Life (New York: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002) **
VIRGINIA WOOLF & SHAKESPEARE
" In a letter to Thoby, she (WOOLF) writes, “I read Cymbeline just to see if there mightn’t be more in the great William than I supposed. And I was quite upset! Really and truly I am now let in to the company of worshipers — though I still feel a little oppressed by his — greatness, I suppose.” That tone again: worshipers, the oppression of greatness. One thinks of the mock-religious deference in Woolf’s “Orlando” when the heroine resists taking the divine name in vain: “Or was it Sh — p — re? (For when we speak names we deeply reverence to ourselves we never speak them whole.)”
from :"The curious connection between Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf" Marjorie Garber’s ‘Shakespeare in Bloomsbury’ traces the playwright’s powerful influence on Woolf and her circle. Review by Dennis Duncan in THE WASHINGTON POST (September 30,2023) **
CHARLES MACKLIN AS SHYLOCK
The eighteenth-century audiences were used to seeing a comic Shylock.y Samuel De WildeMacklin wanted a different path to playing this character. While Macklin did not return to Shakespeare's script exactly as it was written, he did make his own edits to his script that were much closer than Granville's text. Instead of portraying Shylock as the usual comic pantolone, he played him as darkly villainous, serious, and highly satirical. Next, rather than dress Shylock as a clown, Macklin researched his role. He studied Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews, and in the old testament. He learned that Italian Jews, especially from Venice, were known to wear red hats, so he took that as a basis for his costume. In seeking to portray Jews exactly how they looked, Macklin emphasised the notion of historical accuracy in costuming, which would later become an inherent feature of realism in the 19th century. Macklin did not merely "study" the Jews. According to Appleton, "he actually interacted with them in marketplaces and learned to gradually adapt their way of speech"
Wikipedia ** HAMLET, the 1937 Version at the Old Vic
“In 1937, Olivier played Hamlet at the Old Vic.
“At one performance the most ‘dreadful’ thing happened during the duel . Laertes fell splendidly on his back, legs akimbo, but his codpiece burst open. He raised a downstage knee to hide his manhood from the audience and the play continued. The problem was next evening’s performance the very first scene on the battlements of Elsinor when the soldiers were expecting the ghost to appear. “’What’ Marcellus asked , ‘Has this thing appeared again tonight?’ it was no good. The actors’ convulsed laughter brought the curtain down, long before the Crowing of the Cock.”
Tarquin Olivier. My Father Laurence Olivier (l992)
Gyles Brandreth. The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020) **
THE ONLY THING THAT PAYS IN THE THEATRE
"Shakespeare found that the only thing that paid in the theatre was romantic nonsense, and that when he was forced by this to produce one of the most effective samples of romantic nonsense in existence -- a feat which he performed easily and well -- he publicly disclaimed any responsibility for it pleasant and cheap falsehood by borrowing the story and throwng it in the face of the public with the phrase As You Like It." George Bernard Shaw **
"To this dayI can't read King Lear, having had the advantage of studying it occasionally in school." Alfred North Whitehead ** TEEN-AGE BOYS IN WILLIAM GOLDMAN'S NOVEL TEMPLE OF GOLD DISCUSS HAMLET
"Quite right," Zook said. "Yes. We have Man coming to grips with the one force he is unable to combat." "What force is that?" Few asked. "The Air Force," I butted in, slapping my knee. "Get it? The..." They ignored me. "You see ," Zock went on, "Hamlet is equipped to handle almost every situation. He is brave; he is strong; he is brilliant. But then, whammy, comes this one problem he can't handle, and he's done for. How's that?" "Great," I said."Marvelous. It stinks." "What's wrong with it?" "Jesus Christ," I told him. "If you believe that, who do you put the blame on?" "Set me down," Zock said. Fee did. "Now," he continued, "Why do you have to blame somebody?" "Forty people are murdered in this play, for chrissakes. That's why."
William Goldman. Temple of Gold (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957) ** EVERYDAY MY ARIEL
Everyday, my Ariel. I put the world behind me, but it shoot back, With one generation & the next, Light as sunlight thrushing, As thru the Spanish Cedars flash Comorants magnetic with their hooked beaks. Always a fitful cornucopia To take the breath away. I press my life to the jumping dayshine. What do I demand? More space? More freedom? Freedom to do what? Hungering for magic, I stand on Prospero's Isle. Could I have been so wrong about my life? Far out on the ocean, Replenished & green, One anonymous sailor Fastens his shrouds.
For the top of the 9th inning, the Pirates are shown taking the field but without wearing baseball gloves/mitts. It was common practice until the mid-1950s for major league baseball players to leave their baseball gloves on the field at the end of a half inning instead of taking them back to the dugout. A new ruling in 1954 specifically stipulated that ballplayers cannot leave equipment on the field. As this film was released in 1951, it pre-dates the 1954 ruling and, thus, the players leaving the dugout and taking the field 'gloveless' is accurate.
iDMb Trivia **
“DANCING ON MY OWN” & THE BOSTON RED SOX’
“Even though the song is such a critically acclaimed hit that it ranks No 20 on Rolling Stone’s 2021 edition of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, “Dancing on My Own” is the most unexpected update to the Red Sox’ 21st century song catalog, which includes mainstays like Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” which Fenway Park has played in the middle of the eighth inning, and the Standelis’ “Dirty Water,”: which is played after every win”
Joe Lemire. “Sorry, Caroline, The Red Sox Have Moved On,” in The New York Times (October 17,2021)
*If the song is played after every Red Sox win, the song is not played that often. **
ALL -TIME BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS (revised in 2024 to include statistics from the Negro Leagues)
l. Josh Gibson .372 6. Turkey Stearnes. .348 2. Ty Cobb .367 7.Ed Delahanty .346 3. Oscar Charleston .363 8. Buck Leonard .345 4. Rogers Hornsby. .358 9. Tris Speaker .345 5. Jud Wilson .350 10. Ted Williams .344
major league baseball ** "Catching a fly ball is a pleasure. But knowing what to do with it after you catch it is a business." Tommy Henrich (Yankee outfielder) **
First known photo of flipping the bird in US. The first visually documented use of the finger—the man standing in the back row, far left side. Photo by unknown, public domain. Linguist Jesse Sheidlower traces the gesture's development in the United States to the 1890s. According to anthropologist Desmond Morris, the gesture probably came to the United States via Italian immigrants. The first documented appearance of the finger in the United States was in 1886, when Old Hoss Radbourn, a baseball pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters, was photographed giving it to a member of their rival the New York Giants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_finger#:~:text=The%20first%20documented%20appearance%20of,rival%20the%20New%20York%20Giants. ** EDGAR GUEST'S TRIBUTE TO HANK GREENBERG
When Hank Greenberg, the Tiger's Jewish star chose not to play on Yom Kippur, in the heat of a pennant race , Edgar Guest, the syndicated newspaper poet, wrote:
The Irish didn't like it when they heard of Greenberg`s fame For they thought a good first baseman should possess an Irish name; And the Murphys and Mulrooneys said they never dreamed they`d see A Jewish boy from Bronxville out where Casey used to be. In the early days of April not a Dugan tipped his hat Or prayed to see a ''double'' when Hank Greenberg came to bat. In July, the Irish wondered where he`d ever learned to play' 'He makes me think of Casey!'' Old Man Murphy dared to say: And with 57 doubles and a score of homers made The respect they had for Greenberg was openly displayed. But on the Jewish New Year when Hank Greenberg came to bat And made two home runs off Pitcher Rhodes-they cheered like mad for that. Came Yom Kippur-holy fast day worldwide over to the Jews- And Hank Greenberg to his teaching and the old tradition true Spent the day among his people and he didn't come to play. Said Murphy to Mulrooney, ''We shall lose the game today! We shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the bat But he`s true to his religion and I honor him for that!' **
LOU GEHRIG & ROCKY GRAZIANO
"Gehrig, forced to stop playing in 1939 by neuromuscular disease, worked in retirement as a parole board official. In early 1941, when the twenty-two-year-old Graziano appears before him for violating parole, Gehrig sends him back to reform school. Graziano's response to the Pride of the Yankees: 'Go to hell, Mr. Gehrig." Jon Krampner. Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2022)*
* Jon Krampner's book is dedicated to Willie Mays. ** FIRST GAME DEBUTS
Forrest Jacobs: "In his major league debut, Jacobs got four straight hits. This is the major league that Delino DeShields tied 36 years later in 1990. Interestingly, Jacobs and DeShields lived 18 miles apart in Delaware."
Burnham Holmes. One Shining Moment: Sports Heroes For a Day (New York: HarperTorch, 2003) **
BIG LEAGUE POETRY “Ted Williams is better known than any of our poets.”Jim Bouton in Ball Four
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Slud into 2nd base, Pound, the Umpire, Bellowed “Out!” 60,000 of us were stomping, Shouting “Explicate the Ump!" We were playing for the Champ- ionship when R. Frost was called upon To pinch-hit.“Geezus,” we sd. The manager is a lst-class chump. We need a soupcon of a single, To bring the Belle of Amherst Home from third. & Frost won’t bunt."
The manager, a pint-sized Caesar, a runt Whose head is a muddle Of moldy caesuras.” The league's leading reliever-- Edgar Guest -more popular than ever-- Was called from the bull- Pen. Ogden Nash was sent the showers. Many fans feared the wors- t when Frost Swung at the lst pitch, A dribbler,a squib, Nash grabbed it like a hot squab, Got rid of it too fast, Tossed The ball a way past T.S. Eliot who was covering lst base. The ball ended up in The Waste Land, & Emily Dickinson -- Dashed home with The winning run.
I know I am biase- d, but isn’t Poetry base- ball in-cred ble!
Louis Phillips
With Yogi running out to the mound, To leap & hug & shout.
When we think on the glory Of your perfect game Does it make us young again? Nah! But we wd like To think so.
Democrat is an unincorporated community in Letcher County, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Democrat remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1985.[2] The community was so named because the postmaster, Isom Sergent, was politically a Democrat.
"In Democrat, KY, the postmistress totted up , announced that Republicans outnumbered Democrats -- 50 to 10." Time (August 2, 1948) ** " AN OUTLAW OF THE OLD WEST
Pearl Hart was a Canadian-born outlaw of the American Old West — who committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States and became notorious for the shocking heist. For the robbery, Pearl cut her hair and dressed as a man and stole over $400 from the stagecoach passengers — a small fortune at the time. Following the heist, Pearl went on the run in the desert but was eventually caught by sheriffs."
U.S. TRIVIA site (June 12, 2024) ** SILLY SALLY
"The term originated from a fairground game in the mid-1800s. The game involved throwing sticks at a human figurine to dislodge a pipe from her face. The figurine depicted a Black woman and was named Sally. This was a common name for women enslaved in the US. For example, a woman enslaved by Thomas Jefferson was called Sally Hemings. Over time, the figurine has evolved into a more abstract “doll”.
Anu Garg. WORDSMITH (May 30, 2024)
**
ON PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND
Harrison is a wise man Cleveland is a fool. Harrison rides a white horse. Cleveland rides a mule.
Campaign song of 1892 **
THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE AUTOMOBILE
'The 1950s were a transformative decade for transportation in the United States. Factors such as postwar prosperity, suburban living, and a decline in public transit led to a major increase in car ownership. At the start of the decade, approximately half of Americans owned an automobile; by 1960, nearly 75% of Americans owned at least one car, and many owned two. It was the golden age of the automobile."
HISTORY FACTS (JULY 16, 2024) ** SHERMAN'S SOLDIERS & BUMMERS
The designation "bummers" was used, both by soldiers and civilians, to describe Sherman's soldiers, official and unofficial, who "requisitioned" food from Southern homes along the route of the Army's march. Often highly destructive in nature, bummers became notorious among Southerners for looting and vandalism, and they did much to shatter the illusion that the Confederate Army was successfully defending its territory on all fronts. The bummers' activities in Georgia and the Carolinas helped ensure that the South would be unable to sustain its war effort..." WIKIPEDIA
**& Hercules Posey (1747?-1812)
Three years after Alice’s death, in the second year of Washington’s presidency, the capital relocated from New York City to Philadelphia. In November 1790, Washington summoned Hercules to cook diplomatic—and personal—meals for him in the President’s house.8,9 In Philadelphia, Hercules gained public renown. Known as an exacting and skilled cook, he produced elaborate, multi-course meals for Washington, politicians, and others.10 Washington’s step-grandson George Washington Parke Custis later wrote that Chef Hercules was a commanding presence who enjoyed fine clothes and the Early Federal Philadelphia social scene. While in Philadelphia, Hercules earned money, with Washington’s permission, by selling “slops” or leftovers from the kitchen. He earned a $200 yearly salary that was more than four times that of an overseer at Mount Vernon."
https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/ ** AMERICA'S FIRST SPY
Often recognized as America’s first spy, Nathan Hale was a young patriot who volunteered for a dangerous intelligence-gathering mission behind British lines during the Revolutionary War in 1776. Despite all precautions, he was recognized by a British officer who tricked him into confessing his allegiance by pretending to be a Patriot himself.He was captured and promptly hanged as an illegal combatant, but his last words, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," were remembered long after his death and immortalized his bravery."
Dictionary Scoop website (July 27, 2024) ** WAKING UP IN THE MORNING THINKING ABOUT BILLY THE KID
Out of the blue it comes to me, What Pat Garrett sd About Billy the Kid, That Billy "Drank and laughed, Rode and laughed, Talked and laughed, Fought and laughed, And killed and laughed." Damn it!Today's Tuesday. That's exactly what I want to do.
"At Joe Allen, a restaurant on Forty-sixth Street where denizens of the theatre world have been convening for nearly six decades, the walls are lined with posters of Broadway's legendary duds. In the early days, for a show to make the display, it had to close in less than a week. Qualifying flops included such productions as 'Drat! The Cat!,' a sex farce about a Victorian Cat burglar (eight performances), and 'Via Galactica,' a seventies rock opera about a trash collector who lives on an asteroid (seven performances)." Rachel Syme. "ShowStoppers" in The New Yorker (June 3,2024) ** ON FOUL PAPERS "In the Elizabethan Theatre, the original manuscript of a play. To avoid plagiarism the dramatist sold his 'foul copy' to his company, which would produce a 'scrivener's copy' from it. This would then be endorsed and officially licensed on the last page." Terry Hodgson. The Drama Dictionary. New York: New Amsterdsam Publishers, 1988) ** ON CREATING THUNDER WITH CELLOPHANE
"...Peter Harvey, who designed a cheery bosky dell in the park, complete with a cellophane thunderstorm. You don't see many cellophane thunderstorms these days, and I was suitably grateful."
Brendan Gill, reviewing the musical "Park" in The New Yorker (May 2, 1972) ** ON THE THEATRICAL PHRASE "BREAK A LEG" TO WISH THEATER PERSONS WELL
Superstition against wishing an actor Good Luck! has led to the adoption of this phrase in its place. Popular etymology derives the phrase from the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. John Wilkes Booth, the actor turned assassin, leapt to the stage of Ford's Theater after the murder, breaking his leg in the process." Internet information
I prefer another explaination of the origin of the phrase: In some English theaters the curtains were weighted at the bottom with piano legs. To wish an actor "break a leg" meant you hoped the curtain would be raided and lowered so many times with great enthusiasm that a piano leg or more than one leg would break. **
JONATHAN MILLER ON DIRECTING & DIAGNOSTIC MEDICINE
"Condemnation and ridicule of the Actors' Studio style of training is general. 'I don't care how somebody feels about a part -- that's between him and his conscience,' Jonathan (Miller) says ' What I want is an actor who can say a line eighteen different ways. I am not running a clinic.' Yet a few minutes later he is talking about the relation between his current job and the one he was trained for. 'Directing and diagnostic medicine are mirror images. In both cases you're concerned with small physical signs which connote deep inner states. But you work in opposite directions."
Alison Lurie. "What Happened in Hamlet" in Words and Worlds : from Autobiography to Zippers (Encino, Ca.Delphinium Books, 2019) ** THE POET/CRITIC RANDALL JARRELL WANTED TO WRITE A PLAY
"I spent last winter translating The Three Sisters and Cheryl Crawford is going to produce it with the Actor's Studio. I want to write a play myself but it's rather like joining some church-- I need to believe in the plot first."
Randall Jarrell in a letter to Robert Penn Warren (July 1954)Randall Jarrell's Letters, edited by Mary Jarrell (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985)
SO WRITE A PLAY --SPEECH FROM AN 18th CENTURY COMEDY
VAPID: Now do write a play - and if any accident happens, remember,it is better to have written a damn'd play than no play at all -- it snatches a man from obscurity.
Frederick Reynolds. The Dramaid (1793) ** MOTHERS IN CLASSICAL AMERICAN DRAMAS
"Classic American drama is haunted by monstrous mothers. Vain, vampiric mamas prowl through plays from Tennessee Williams's 'The Glass Menagerie" to Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night," from Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women" to Sam Shepard's "Buried Child." For those guys, mothers are either harpies or sirens --villains or traps."
Helen Shaw., "Mothers of Us All" in The New Yorker (May 13, 2024)*
ACTORS NEED NOT BE EXTROVERTS
"...folk assume actors must be extroverts, but a lot aren't; many performers are big presences on stage, but quite shy off. There is, after all, a huge difference between pretending your somebody else and being yourself."
John Cleese. So, Anyway... (New York: Random House, 2014) ** HOW TALL MUST A PLAYWRIGHT BE?
2 October 2005 --- "Some drunken lads at the buffet bar as we are queuing to get off the train at King's Cross, one of whom was trying to explain to the others who I was. 'Really? He's tall for a playwright." Difficult to tell if this was wit or drink, but quite funny nevertheless.
Alan Bennett. Keeping on Keeping on (New York,Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) **
ONE OF THE BEST CURTAIN SPEECHES DELIVERED BY A PLAYWRIGHT
On the opening night of THE GREEN PASTURES (winner of the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) by Marc Connolly
"Years ago, George Kaufman and I made a pact. If either of us ever dared address a first night-audience, the other was privileged to open fire immediately with an elephant gun. Mr. Kaufman happens to be sitting on the aisle in row B. I bid you good night."
Marc Connelly. Voices Offstage (Chicago: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968)
** STAGE PERSONALITIES
Harris, Rex Was not Mex- ican. (Say, does this verse scan?)
Burton, Richard While rehearsing Hamlet heard Some critic dubbed him "The Frank Sinatra of Shakespeare." What he felt about that sobriquet is not entirely clear.
Ethel Merman Cd afford to buy ermine, Or, if she preferred, mink. She had no interest in living like a monk.
David Mamet -- His characters rarely said "Damn it." No. Their dialogue ran along the lines of "#N$^** %$#@@@E%$@@^)(*^$#@$fuck off!"
A popular joke of the 1920s was "Don't step on it; it might be Lon Chaney!" iMDb trivia-Lon Chaney ** The Oldest Recorded JokeThe oldest joke on record dates back to 1900 BCE in ancient Sumer, the earliest known civilization in Mesopotamia. Rather than a conventional setup and punchline structure, the joke is more of an observation: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” The double-negatives throw in a bit of confusion, but the joke gets at a primary urge to hide certain imperfections from a romantic partner. "
HISTORY FACTS WEBSITE (July 24, 2024) ** THE PHILOSOPHER HENRI BERGSON, COMEDY, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TELLING JOKES
"Bergson saw comedy as distinctly human. That may be in part because he understood that'it's deeply, inescapably social. We not only laugh more in groups,ut also what we find funny depends on who is telling the joke. A punch line about a car crash will be hilarious ... but it can require emotional intelligence to make them work. What makes people crack up is not just the joke but also the connection with a human conciousness telling it."
Jason Zingman. "Are Comedian Bots Ready to Kill?" in The New York Times (Sunday, August 20, 2023) ** THE PRE-WORLD-WAR I GERMAN SENSE OF HUMOR
W.C. Fields while juggling "kept dropping hats, he couldn't seem to get under them. He was unused to German audiences at this time and had no idea how things were going, but he fancied that they could scarcely be worse. At last, with another hat down, he stepped forward in a perfect rage and kicked it far out over the footlights. The spectators were charmed...."...they yearned for something new. 'Ya, iss gute,'Oh, fonney!' and 'Ha,ha, ein mann vill kicken der hat!' Were among the pleased cries that floated up to Fields."
Robert Lewis Taylor. W.C. Fields: His Follies & Fortunes (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1949) **
THE UNSPOKEN PACT WITH THE AUDIENCE
"Every comic has an unspoken pact with the audience....Whether or not critics like me think authenticity is important, it matters to the audience. So does honesty. And comics understand that. It's no accident that many of the political comedians working today,especially in television, employ researchers from traditional newssources. Getting facts right matter, especially when the comedy isabout grave social issues."
Jason Zingman."Can Comics Stretch the Truth too Far" in The New York Times (September 21, 2023 ** ONE MORE ASPECT OF JOKE MAKING
But another aspect of joke making is to express what many people are thinking about. As Joan Rivers commented,"I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking."Or expressing what people may be thinking but can't quite bring themselves to say out loud: Since the days of Pigmeat Markham, not to mention Lenny Bruce, the comedian's job has been to say the unsayable -- to give voice to the things that stink or bite us in the heart.
Hilton Als. "Bros' Night Out," in The New Yorker (February 10, 2020) ** BEST NEW COMEDIAN OF THE DECADE (1960s)
"Playboy magazine hailed me as the best new comedian of the decade," Mr. Newhart wrote in his autobiography. "I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This: And Other Things That Strike Me as Funny" (2006), during this period. :"Of course, there were still nine more years left in the decade."
from The Obituary for Bob Newhart in The New York Times (July 19, 2024)
** WHEN VICTOR BORGE AND HIS WIFE FLED FROM THE NAZIS AND ARRIVED IN AMERICA, HE KNEW NO ENGLISH AND COULD NOT PEFORM HIS MUSIC/COMEDY ACT
"While the Danish comedian could speak Swedish, French, and German, he knew no English. After trying unsucessfully to learn from his wife and from a language school, he taught himself American English by going to inexpensive movies and sitting through many showings while he repeated the'dialogue with the actors. This he did for months, sometimes picking up a gangsterism or comic dialect which he would later have to discard, but finally he was able to translate some of his comedy routines into English and memorize them."
Current Biography 1946 ** "Never Squat on Your Spurs"--Will Rogers ** "I take vitamins. They drop and roll under the refrigerator. I don't pick them up. I have years of vitamins under the refrigerator. I'm going to come home one night and find a six foot roach singing 'I feel good!" Elayne Boosler ** JOE E. LEWIS & THE JOKER IS WILD
"When I was very young, to supplement my income,I wrote one liners for him - he paid me twenty-five dollars a page. Much later, after Frank Sinatra played Joe E. in The Joker is Wild --a picture in which Frank was surrounded with pretty women -- I gave Joe E. ajoke to use at the Copa. He would come out and tell the audience, 'I went to see The Joker is Wild. And I realized that Frank Sinatra had more fun playing my life than I had living it."
Alan King, with Chris Chase. The Life and Lies of Alan King:Name-Dropping (New York: Scribners, 1996) **
"I’m not offended by blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb…and I also know that I’m not blonde."— Dolly Parton ** JOHHNY INKSLINGER IN A BAR WITH ROBERT BENCHLEY, DOROTHY PARKER, KRAZY KAT, OGDEN NASH, JAMES THURBER, ARCHY, MEHITABEL, et. al. MOURNS THE DECLINE OF AMERICA'S SENSE OF HUMOR
Here come smolder and snarl ask those 2 for their autographs it seems to me pal 365 days of lent our gloomside 'tis of thee quack quack ducks of morose didja hear the one about... forget it boss if it don't have bubonic celery dynamite doom prosecuting attorneys no one wants it fizz fizz mouthwatering human effervesce light verse vaporized into high-minded giggle bring me a plate of boarfish with fries diazine cocktail this is America better to be a glottochronologist than coax a smile out of those suckers
"While Bringing Up Baby was being filmed much was heard about the leopard and the way the whole cast had to be sprayed with perfume to keep him in a good temper. The filming of Marco Polo revealed that elephants rent for $50 a day, camels for $25."
Margaret Farrand Thorp. American At The Movies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1939) ** REAL LIFE IN THE 1938 MOVIE BRINGING UP BABY
"The scene in which Susan's dress is ripped was inspired by something that happened to Cary Grant. He was at the Roxy Theater one night and his pants zipper was down when it caught on the back of a woman's dress. Grant impulsively followed her. When he told this story to Howard Hawks, Hawks loved it and put it into the film." iMDb trivia ** THE JOYS OF FILM-MAKINGFOR ELEANOR COPPOLA
" The down draught of the helicopter's rotor blades, as it landed blew her and her tripod off the ground. Smoke from earth-shaking explosions shut down her view entirely. A trek through a rice paddy ended with the camera almost being sucked under. The firing of four thatched huts by the special-effects department destroyed the prop store where she kept her gear; her camera cases lay in the doorway, melted. Yet Eleanor Coppola took it all in stride. She was so elated to be usefully working, recording the disaster-every-minute makiing of her husband Francis's 'Apocaypse Now', that this was a small price to pay."
Unsigned obituary for Eleanor Coppola. The Economist (May 4, 2024). ** CENSORSHIP & THE MOVIE CASABLANCA
"There was more substantial trouble with the second and third sections of the script. Breen* was particularly disturbed by the character. 'Specifically, we cannot approve the present suggestion that Capt. Renault makes a practice of seducing the women to whom he grants visas,' Breen wrote to Warner on May 21. He also found it unacceptable that Ilsa was married when she fell in love with Rick in Paris. A month later Breen waa warning Warner that script made it appear that Rick and Ilsa slept together when she came to his apartment to get the Letters of Transit."Joseph Ignatius Breen was the major voice in enforcing the Production Code Administration. The Production Code was also reinforced the Catholic Legion of Decency.Aljean Harmetz. The Making of Casablanca (New York: Hyperion, 2002)**
THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR & NORTH BY NORTHWEST & MOUNT RUSHMORE"
"This was the McCarthy tinged '50s and egged on by upstanding, red-blooded Americans , the Department of the Interior and National Park Service took exception to this national shrine being desecrated by enemy agents, mayhem, killing, and --perhaps worst of all -- foreign actors. 'Just who does the English director Alfred Hitchcock think he is that he can send another Englishman running up and down Lincoln's face?' one letter to the Park Service inveighed."
Jon Krampner. Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success (Lexington, Kentucky:UniversityPress of Kentucky, 2022) ** HOW MANY SONS PORTRAYED THEIR FATHERS INMOVIES?
In The Day of the Locust (1975), film star Dick Powell was portrayed by his son Richard Powell. Will Rogers,Jr. played his father in the 1952 movie THE STORY OF WILL ROGERS. Mario Van Peebles, portrayed his own father Melvin Van Peebles in in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971). ** JOHN WAYNE ON THE MOVIE HIGH NOON
"It's the most most unAmerican thing I've ever seen in my whole life. The last thing in the picture is old Coop putting the United States marshal's badge under his foot and stepping on it." Playboy interview, May, 1971. **
** from This was Hollywood by Carla Valderrama. How Hollywood became Hollywood:
“Hollywood became the film capital of the world through the flip of a coin. In 1911, director Al Christie was making Westerns in New Jersey and had grown tired of the inappropriate landscape there. He wanted to try filming in California. His producer, David Horsley, favored Florida, thinking it would be cheaper. Christie had a silver dollar. ‘Heads for California and tails for Florida,’ he declared. It was heads. On the train west, the two met a theatrical producer who told them Hollywood was a pretty place. ‘None of us had heard of Hollywood before,’ Christie recalled. '"
DELANCY PLACE (July 26, 2024)
** ON FILMING AN EARLY DISASTER SCENE
"D.W, Griffith's 1920 mdlodrama 'Way Down East,' featuring the climactic rescue of a woman being carried off on an ice floe in raging currents , was filmed in a real river after a real blizzard. The movie's star , Lillian Gish, suffered frostbite that afflicted her for the rest of her life..." Richard Brody. "Heavy Weather" in The New Yorker (July 29,2024) * **
HOW MANY SCRIPTWRITERS DOES IT TAKE TO WRITE A FILM?
A YANK IN OXFORD (1938) "Although only 8 scriptwriters are credited in the movie, at least 31 are known to have been employed to work on the screenplay. Among those were Herman J. Mankiewicz, John Paddy Carstairs, Hugh Walpole and F. Scott Fitzgerald."
iMBd trivia ** AFTER THE MOVIES
The cowboy rides off Into the sunset, Or Abbot & Costello Blast off to Mars, But end up on Venus.
I am 11 years old. After the movie is over, I return to Earth, Riding in the back seat Of my parents' green Plymouth. The radio is on: Somebody is always President Edmund Hilary & Tenzing Norgay Climb Mt. Everest. A war in Korea goes on.
My parents too are climbing Their own Everest: Grocery shopping on the way home, 3 chidren to be fed, Bills to be paid.
Every Saturday, My day off from school, Movie-going time, They work 9 to 9 Selling clothes to strangers. No stranger rides into town To protect them From their lives, From the need to protect Myself, my 2 younger sisters & my grandmother Who lives with us.
Poetry is a way of living, I think.It's a human activity like baking bread or playing basketball. At least I think it should be. . It ought to have that quality. What ought to distinguished it in that way is craftsmanship which is not distancing, though it does throw your attention off yourself and onto the work to be done."
Robert Hass. Interview by David Remnick in
The Chicago Review (Spring 1981)
**
"Poetry is the Journal of a sea animal
living on land, waiting to fly in the air."
Carl Sandburg
**
JOHN KEATS AS SURGEON
John Keats " ... studied medicine and was trained in surgery for as many years as he wrote poetry. Even people who know of Keats's early training have assumed that he was pushed into medicine against his will, resented it and left it as soon as possible. Not so, according to Robert Gittings, an English bigrapher of Keats. The poet picked a medical career on his own, worked hard at a sound training program and did well, and had actually qualified as a general practioner when he gave up medicine to devote the rest of his life (four years, as it turned out) to the joys and pain of writing."
50,100, & 150 Years Ago: innovation and discovery as chronicled in Scientific American, compiled by Mark Fischetti, Scientific American (June 2023)
**
U.S. PRESIDENTS WHO WROTE POETRY
On May 18, 2023, Nick Ripatrazone in The Literary Hub published a wOnderful column on on the Poetic Aspirations of American Presidents--"Who Was the only sitting President to contribute to a lterary journal." He wrote:
"Adams had regularly published in Port Folio, a Philadelphia-based journal of politics and literature, from 1801 to 1812. Like other contributors, his work was unsigned, but reveals a lifelong devotion to poetry. In fact, Adams’s stated goal was “to excite a taste for poetry.” He translated Juvenal for the magazine. He wrote critical essays, book reviews, and politically minded poems.
"Adams is not the only president who wrote poetry. Abraham Lincoln’s poetry once appeared in an Illinois newspaper. Jimmy Carter’s collection of poetry, Always a Reckoning, was published in 1995. .... Barack Obama’s poems appeared in his undergraduate literary magazine, Feast, and were good enough to later receive praise from Harold Bloom."
**
THINKING ABOUT THIS POEM
Reading this poem
Will make you more intelligent,
But just think
What not reading this poem
Can do for you.
**
DOROTHY SAYERS, NOT DOROTHY PARKER, PENNED
THE FOLLOWING LIGHT VERSE
THAT’S WHY I DO NOT READ MODERN NOVELS
As I grow older and older,
And totter towards the tomb,
I find that I care less and less
Who goes to bed with whom.
**
ROBERT BURNS & AULD LANG SYNE
“Some music historians call “Auld Lang Syne” “the song nobody knows,” though that doesn’t stop people from trying to sing it each year. The title is often interpreted as “times long past” or “days gone by,” but its literal translation from the Scots language is “old long since.” The melody was first paired with lyrics by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788, after he heard someone sing the traditional tune.
Source: Readers Digesr
https://www.historyquiz.com/quiz/61b93a99db8e6c00070b7012?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=639d39589c2e11f91de973b9
**
POETS HAVE ALL KINDS OF LIVE JUST
"English literary history provides few opportunities for generalization. In fact, on the basis of the past two or three centuries, there may be only one maxim that can be ventured with confidence: poets have bad lives. High rates of fatal illness (tuberculosis, typhoid), suicide, death by misadventure (drowning, brawling, buggy accidents, falling from bar stools) and alcoholism ensure that many are short. When they are longer – and they are almost never very long – other problems present themselves. Milton’s blindness. Pound’s treason and imprisonment."
Hannah Sullivan "Frozen Love"in TLS (March 3, 2023)
**
HENRY DAVID THOREAU ON WILLIAM WORDSMITH
"To judge from a single conversations, he made the impression of a narrow and very English mind; of one who paid for his rare elevation by general tameness and conformity. Off his own beat, his opinions were of no value."
**
ROBERT FROST REDUX
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
One more state project screw-up.
**
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Just for a handful of silver he left us.
Just for a riband to stick in his coat.
Robert Browning
**
**
THE HANDWRITING OF PERCY BISSHE SHELLEY
"Shelley's handwriting, wrote his friend Trelawny, 'might have been taken for a sketch of a marsh overgrown with bullrushes, and the blots for wild ducks.'"
Mark Doty. The Art of Description (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2010)
**
THE PRIZE-WINNING POET MARIANNE MOORE COMES UP WITH NAMES FOR A NEW CAR TO BE MANUFACTURED BY THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY, or WOULD
YOU BE COMFORTABLE DRIVING A PASTELOGRAM?
In 1955, the Ford Company contacted the prize-winning poet Marianne Moore and asked if she would be interested in coming up with a name for a forthcoming new automobile. Ms. Moore agreed. Here are some of her suggestions:
1. The Ford Silver Sword
2. Hirundo
3. Aerundo
4. Hurricane Hirundo (swallow)
5. Hurricane Aquila (eagle)
6. Hurricane Accipter (hawk)
7. The Impeccable
8. Symmechromatic
9. Thunderblender
10. The Resilient Bullet
11. Intelligent Bullet
12. Bullet Cloisoné
13. Bullet Lavolta
14. The Intelligent Whale
15. The Ford Fabergé (That there is also a perfume Fabergé seems to me to do no harm, for here allusion is to the original silversmith)
16. The Arc-en-Ciel (the rainbow)
17. Arcenciel
18. Mongoose Civique
19. Anticipator
20. Regna Racer (couronne a couronne) sovereign to sovereign
21. Aeroterre
22. Fée Rapide (Aerofee, Aero Faire, Fee Aiglette, Magi-faire) Comme Il Faire
23. Tonnere Alifère (winged thunder)
24. Aliforme Alifère (wing-slender a-wing)
25. Turbotorc (used as an adjective by Plymouth)
26. Thunderbird Allié (Cousin Thunderbird)
27. Thunder Crester
28. Dearborn Diamanté
29. Magigravure
30. Pastelogram
**
ON TAKING THE FINAL EXAMINATION
FOR MY INTRODUCTION TO POETRY CLASS
So much depends
Upon
My understanding
Of
Some stupid wheel
Barrow
Before my eyes
Glazed
With boredom
Turn
My attention
To
The sexy
chicks.
Louis Phillips
"Why use words? You know why? To communicate with somebody else, you see. The real life, the real reality...It's not on earth. It's what we cannot explain with words." George Balanchine Jennifer Homans. Mr. B: George Balanchine's 20th Century (New York: Random House, 2022) ** FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GREAT DETECTIVES
Detectives investigate. What does it mean to investigate? One of my favorite books is Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories by Wilfred Funk (New York: Bell Publishers, 1950). Here is Dr. Funk’s paragraph on the word investigate:
When detectives investigate a murder, it is likely today that they first look for fingerprints. And yet If the crime had been committed on a snowy night they would search for footprints too. And here we have the sealed-in picture of investigate: Latin in,”in” and vestigo,”follow a footprint.” From vestigium, “footprint.”This latter , of course, gives us the word vestige, as “there is not a vestige of truth in the statement. “ That is, not a trace or a footprint of truth. ** GOBBLYGOOK VS. PLAIN LANGUAGE
"A spectre haunts our culture. It is that people will eventually be unable to say, 'We fell in love and married...but will, as a matter of course say 'Our libidinal impulses being reciprocal, we integrated our individual erotic drives and brought them within the same frame of reference." Sir Ernest Gowers
William Cole and Louis Phillips. Sex: Even More Fun You Can Have Without Laughing (New York: St. Martin's Press,1994) **
** I HOPE THAT THE FOLLOWING ITEM IS TRUE, NOT PHONY
This note on the origin of the word phony originally appeared as part of the excellent internet site DICTIONARY. COM for December 7, 2019):
“Although the exact origins of phony are unknown, it's likely the word comes from an old con known as the fawney rig. Fawney is from an Irish word for "finger ring," and rig, an old term for a "trick" or "swindle." Here's how it worked: the swindler would "accidentally" drop a piece of cheap jewelry in front of their mark, or target. Then, they would pick it up while expressing relief that they hadn't lost such a valuable ring, pretending it was worth a lot (as if made of gold). If they were lucky, they'd sell it to the mark for much more than it was worth. By the 20th century, the spelling of the word was eventually modified from fawney to phony and came to refer to anything fake or counterfeit.” ** WORD COINED BY DR. MARDY GROTHE OXYMORONICA ox-y-mor-on-i-ca (OK-se-mor-ON-uh-ca) noun, plural: Any variety of tantalizing, self-contradictory statements or observations that on the surface appear false or illogical, but at a deeper level are true, often profoundly true. See also oxymoron, paradox.examples: "Melancholy is the pleasure of being sad."Victor Hugo "To lead the people, walk behind them."Lao-tzu "You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap."Dolly Parton Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History's Greatest Wordsmiths by Mardy Grothe (New York: Harper Collins, 2009) ** Sawbones "Dickens came up with this slang term in The Pickwick Papers in 1837, and described it thusly for readers: “I thought everybody know’d as a sawbones was a surgeon.” We don’t see this word often, but it is still listed in the dictionary as an informal term for a doctor or surgeon.
Word Genius Website (April 25, 2024) **
MARY'S BATH
" In the 13th century, the Catalan physician Arnold of Villanova made the first-known reference to a double boiler as “Mary’s bath,” using the Latin balneum Mariae. This was translated by other alchemist-authors into French, Italian, and Arabic. By the 17th century, bain-Marie had become the common term for the kerotakis, as well as for the water bath used in laboratories. From there, the term was applied to the similar water baths used for cooking."
"...I don't really like sandwiches," he said mildly. "Who doesn't like sandwiches," I said. Why don't you like them?" I don't trust them." "You don't trust them?" "Yes, I feel like they're hiding things." "They are hiding things --the stuff that's in them." "Yes, but there's always something else in there that no one mentioned. in my experience, anyway. I don't like surprises." "Surprises are a form of aggresion," I intoned wearily. "Who said that?" "My ex. But he stole it from someone else...speaking of untrustworthy." 'Yeah, that guy sounds like a total sandwich."
Minnie Driver. Managing Expectations: A memoir in essays ( New York: HarperOne, 2022) **
INTERJECTIONS
Oof! Meh! If it weren't for my parents & sexual attraction, I never wd have interjected My small being Into vastness of the universe Where so many sentences, alas! End with question marks Or exclamation points.
Of course, I am ashiver With astonishments. Gadzooks! Our planet is an oasis Of Holy-smoke- Taken-for-granted miracles: Today, for example, & power of interjections To open doors: Open Sesame!
1928: She became the highest paid movie star, receiving $35,000 per week. • Prince refers to her in his song "Condition of the Heart". The line goes, "There was a woman from the ghetto who made funny faces just like Clara Bow".
from iMDb Trivia **
CLARK GABLE LOOKS LIKE AN APE
"His ears are too big and he looks like an ape.” So said Twentieth Century-Fox founder Darryl F. Zanuck of the young actor who would become “the King of Hollywood” and appear in more than 60 films. Zanuck was initially no fan, but he eventually changed his mind — and that wasn’t the only time William Clark Gable confounded his critics. Screen idol Gary Cooper turned down a role that Gable accepted, stating, “[That film] is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me.” That film, by the way, was Gone With the Wind, and Gable’s portrayal of Rhett Butler is still legendary."
Interesting Facts website
** THE LAST LINE OF GONE WITH THE WIND
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot!" That was one of the proposed alternate choices for Butler's memorable final line, as Selznick was unsure whether "damn" would make it past the censors of the Motion Picture Production Code (more popularly known as the Hays Code). Although it's been reported that the producer was fined $5,000 for electing to go ahead with the line as is, an amendment to Production Code rules enacted before the film's release actually permitted the use of mild swearing in "proper historical context" or in "a quotation from a literary work." Thus, "I don't give a damn" was given the green light, sparing the audience from decidedly less juicy put-downs such as "the whole thing is a stench in my nostrils" or "it makes my gorge rise." HISTORY FACTS WEBSITE (MARCH 28, 2024) * ON DONALD O'CONNOR'S FAMILY
From a vaudeville family act, his father John Edward "Chuck" O'Connor was an acrobat with Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Baily Circus as a "leaper". His mother was a circus bareback rider and dancer named Effie. One of seven children, three died in infancy, but the rest were incorporated into show business. His mother kept the family going with extended family members despite many deaths (including her husband) until 1941.
iMDb Trivia
DAVID DENBY DESCRIBES JOAN CRAWFORD
"Her ferocious will to succeed seems a grim version of the life force itself. Few men go weak in the knees dreaming about her, as they might with Lana Turner or Rita Hayworth; nor is she the kind of woman men could imagine bantering with blissfully as a lover, as they might with Katharine Hepburn or Barbara Stanwyck. She’s the date who raises your blood pressure, not your libido. She was always a bigger hit with women than with men, but, at this point, young women eager to emulate her drive and success may shudder. The ravenous smile, the scything broad shoulders, the burdensome distress, the important walk and complicated hair—she’s too insistent, too laborious and heavily armed, and also too vulnerable."
David Denby. "The Glamorous, Messy Life of Joan Crawford" . New Yorker Classics,Sun, Jul 7, 2024 **
** ABOUT THE FILM "THE BIG KNIFE" starring Jack Palance
"Perhaps only movie in film history to carry screen credit for company that supplied "upholstered furniture."
iMDb trivIa **
ON CENSORING Ann Vickers (1933)
(JOHN) Cromwell filmed a then-controversial adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel Ann Vickers (1933). Irene Dunne played the eponymous character, a social reformer who exposes the degrading conditions in American prisons and has an affair with a jurist Walter Huston. Jane Murfin's screenplay reflected the characterizations in the Lewis novel, where Vickers is a "birth control advocate" who engages in an extramarital affair. The script drew the ire of the Production Code Administration and the Catholic Church. The Studio Relations Committee (SRC) chairman James Wingate called the script "vulgarly offensive". The SRC, overseeing the MPPDA, demanded an overhaul of the Murfin's script. RKO managers protested, and a compromise was reached when Dunne's character was relieved of adultery charges by a change in her marital status. Although awarded approval, the film helped spur the formation of the Production Code Administration, which later rigorously censored films for almost 25 years, largely under Catholic moral crusader Joseph Ignatius Breen. WIKIPEDIA--JOHN CROMWELL
BRIEF FILM QUERY
Miz cast – Miscast? ** LON CHANEY His knowledge of make-up was so vast that he wrote the entry on the subject for an edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica." iMDb trivia **
HOW I RULE MY KINGDOM WITH AN IRON HAND
Like some llth century Chinese Emperor Waiting for the Pagoda tree To bend golden leaves to his will, I find it difficult to rule my kingdom. To keep the peasants from revolting, I present them pleasing poems Like this one, free of rhymes. With noses in the air, With hands in their pockets, They walk away, whistling. Today, for example, all my loyal subjects Have gone to the movies.
REX REASON
Reason, Rex -- Never played Oedipus Rex But he did act in Taza, Son of Cochise. I ask you: Was that a wise choice?
The first visually documented use of the finger—the man standing in the back row, far left side. Photo by unknown, public domain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_finger#:~:text=The%20first%20documented%20appearance%20of,rival%20the%20New%20York%20Giants.
PhillipsMiscellany 