What Becomes A Legend Most?

This has been one of those weeks. The grippe has had me in its clutches. (Grippe is a good word, it hasn't been used in a long while, and vividly describes this cold or flu from a place I certainly hope is mythologically based, as I'm certainly headed there based on the precepts of various religions.) There has also been a mad rush of work to help get our local Community Radio Station, WVEW back on the air before we lose our license. More about that next week.

Mentioning religion is appropriate, as this is Easter Week. I've been trying to find time to write about my favorite Big Religious Epic movies. I still hope to do that, by the way. At the moment, all that is being set aside. As it turns out, today is Bette Davis' birthday.

As a kid growing up in a small town in the 1950's and 1960s, you couldn't get me to watch a Bette Davis or Joan Crawford movie. I just wasn't interested in "weepers". But one blessed day, when I was about 18 years old, Betty Black came into my life. She was from a wealthy Philadelphia area family, and was one of the most fun women I knew. We hung out together for awhile when I was living in Ocean City, New Jersey.

One day she found out that I had never seen a Bette Davis movie. She insisted that I correct the situation, and threatened to tie me to a chair if that's what it took to get me to do so. We watched my first Bette Davis movie on tv in the little house off the alley that I used to rent. (A tiny little cottage, I used to say that it looked like a doll's house, noting that every time I slammed the door it was the beginning of modern theatre.) We watched Now, Voyager. Davis morphs from frumpy maiden aunt into a fashionable socialite, and ends up taking care of the child of the man she loves but can't marry. "Let's not ask for the moon - we have the stars!" Good God, what an overwrought, over the top, silly, unrealistic, and absolutely wonderful movie. A few years later, it would be the third 16mm sound feature to enter my film collection.

Ms. Davis as Charlotte Vale, of the Boston Vales (one of the lesser ones), with Paul Henreid in "Now, Voyager".

I remember once I was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I don't remember if I was in the city on a visit, or if I had already moved there (which would make it after November 1972). What I do remember is that they were showing a Bette Davis movie that day. The movie was "Dark Victory".

In it, a young heiress goes through the hell of accidentally discovering that she's "Prognosis Negative" - with an unspecified fatal disease.She still marries her doctor beau George Brent, flirts with stable hand Humphrey Bogart ("Are you afraid to burn, Michael? Are You afraid to die?", "What a relief to know that you're no better than I am.") and  moves to the country. At one point she and the hubby prepare to pick up a friend arriving at the local train station in Brattleboro, Vermont. After more exquisite suffering, she goes blind while gardening, packs her husband off to an important conference while pretending that nothing is wrong, lays down on a bed and closes her eyes forever as the angels sing. I'm not kidding. As the audience left the auditorium, I noted that a group of black high school kids had been in attendance. One of the boys made fun of the story. His girlfriend upbraided him on the spot, "Don't you have any feelings?", she asked through tears. Here was a black teenager, 30 years and a world away from the one which created this movie, who had become totally invested in the story. As had her girlfriends. Such is the power of a Bette Davis movie.


Davis had an incredible career, full of famous moments, iconic performances, and fights with the studio system. She co-founded the Hollywood Canteen, a popular club and service organization for the soldiers of WWII. She was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (whose most public work is in giving out the "Oscars" - which she named, by the way, when she noted that the statuette's backside reminded her of her husband's). She would win the award twice, and be nominated 10 times. Over the years, she changed the way Hollywood worked, went from ingenue to respected box office actress, fell out of favor when movie styles changed, and reemerged in now classic low budget horrors like "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane". She probably had more well known quotable lines that any other performer in the business. And she has provided me with a great deal of entertainment pleasure.

From the opening scene (really!) of "The Letter".

Actress Bette Davis signs autographs at a Vermont War Bond rally.

"What a dump!" from "Beyond the Forest".

A theatre poster featuring her character in "All About Eve".

"Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies."

"The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

"Today everyone is a star - they're all billed as 'starring' or 'also starring'. In my day, we earned that recognition."

"With the newspaper strike on, I wouldn't consider dying."

 Thank You, and Happy Birthday, Ms. Davis. (And Thank You, Betty Black!)

The Way Things Work

Some years back, there was a wonderful book called "The Way Things Work". I seem to recall that it was very popular. Sadly, it didn't go into the way things really work. My case in point is the sad sad story of the young man in Florida who was shot to death by a a man who has been variously reported as being associated with, being the Captain of, or having no relationship with the local Neighborhood Watch of the gated community in which the event occurred.

Disclaimer: For the last several days I have been besieged by the grippe. Perhaps I'm just cranky from it. Perhaps it's the lack of sleep followed by sudden four hour naps. Whatever. Here's the story.

Late this afternoon, one of the web portals I use featured a news story at the top of its webpage. The headline read, "Public opinion shifts on Treyvon Martin case". It was the top item in a "News for You" section. The website/web portal involved is Yahoo. I read the story, which involved the shift of public opinion away from the idea of arresting the man who shot the kid (the kid obviously up to no good as he was wearing a hoodie and armed with a pack of Skittles). The basis for this news story was a study done by WPA Opinion Research two days after a CNN poll which showed most Americans thought the shooter should be arrested. CNN I had heard of. I decided to look up WPA Opinion Research. It turned out to be Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research. They have a website that is a little bit frightening, considering what I found in their own write ups:

"WPA's research is grounded in traditional research techniques but adds the latest behavioral science and communications science discoveries to show our clients how to change opinions and behaviors."

That was from their homepage. On one of their other pages, I found this:

 "Market research from Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research provides unmatched information that can make or break a politician, election, organization, lobbyist, or political objective."

Although their home page lists them as having been in business for a decade, it turns out that they've only been around for a year (formed March 2011). Previously, the company was known as Wilson Research Strategies. They used to have an entry on Wikipedia, but it was deleted by a user whose credentials are listed as being a translator of Portuguese to English.

The Wilson part of WPA turns out to be Chris Wilson. He used to be the Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas back when George W. Bush was governor. According to his Wikipedia entry, he worked for Karl Rove. (Which he seems to have forgotten to list in his WPA company bio.) Interestingly enough, he was also the person who leaked the story of former candidate for the Presidency Herman Cain sexually harassing a female employee of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. It was the beginning of the end of Cain's candidacy. Wilson is elsewhere listed as a supporter of Texas governor Rick Perry. He did the polling for the Super PAC that supported Perry's presidential candidacy.

The Perkins part of WPA is Chris Perkins, who ran the "Independent Expenditure" unit of the Republican National Committee. Before that, he was director of the Americans for a Republican Majority PAC, which was created by and run for the benefit of Former House Speaker Tom Delay. It was fined and shut down by the Federal Elections Commission.  Delay was convicted on charges of money laundering.

Now look, let's be clear. I can't afford lawyers and what not, and since this information was turned up in web searches, I am not saying that WPA is comprised of shady characters, and I am most certainly not saying that because they worked for a couple of the known lairs and thieves of the Republican business trade that they themselves are tainted. Guilt by association is not the kind of pejorative reference that should be used. But these things should be noted, that's all. I'm just sayin'.

Oh, before I forget, if you're wondering about the A in WPA, it's for third partner Bryon Allen, who directed political polling projects for the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies.

Now, I use two other web portals, both based on their various news providers. Neither listed this story nor the poll results from WPA.

I looked at the story again. Aha! It wasn't from a news source at all (even though presented along with the news). It was from a political blog called "The Daily Caller", which has been referred to as the conservative answer to the Huffington Post. It is run by conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, and Neil Patel, former adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Now, while I like the idea that political blogs of various viewpoints are included in the telling of a news story, I do not like them being passed off as real news. Especially when there are so many "clues" from a bit of web research which point to manipulated opinion making news stories. Why on earth would Yahoo position this as a featured news story? Might it have something to do with the situation in which Yahoo has found itself? It's revenues and influence declining, its CEO was recently replaced with the guy who used to run Pay Pal. This was done after investors got a bit upset when the former CEO led the company to refuse a very lucrative offer to be bought out by (Oh, excuse me, I meant "merge with") Microsoft. One investment company which has a billion dollars in the Yahoo kitty is hedge fund Third Point. They started buying Yahoo last September. Their owner and CEO, Daniel Loeb (best known for writing publicly published letters critical of various businesses' management) insisted that Third Point get four new seats on the Yahoo Board. One of the seats would have been for Jeff Zucker, NBC-Universal's former CEO, who presided over that company's descent in ratings from first place to fourth. NBC-Universal has been bought by Comcast, who forced Zucker out.  One seat would have gone to a former MTV Networks executive. One of the seats would be for himself. Loeb, by the way, is a supporter of the presidentail candidacy of Mitt Romney.

So what I want to know now is why are these alleged movers and shakers of the Republican Party getting behind stories supporting the poor schmuck who did the shooting in this sad story down in Florida?

Have you heard the news, there's good rockin' tonight

Well.
The news is out, Dick Cheney has had a heart transplant.
My guess is that it won't help.
Considering how few people get heart transplants, out of a waiting list of thousands, I don't think it untoward to ask what part money, power and influence had in getting him a heart.  Especially when
there really isn't anything in that black bag for the rest of us.The rest of us includes anyone without healthcare, anyone struggling to make their bills due to the cost of healthcare, and etcetera.  The Health Care legislation that was the first priority of the Obama presidency, is about to have a hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States to determine if it is legal. The bill requires every citizen to have healthcare insurance, or to pay a penalty if not. It is based on a similar bill passed in the state of Massachusetts when Presidential wanna-be Mitt Romney was governor. The bill does not say how one is to afford the cost of such insurance. The bill does not create a low cost National Insurance policy. It does create business, and lots of it, for the insurance companies, who were big financial backers of Mr. Obama's campaign for the Presidency. And the rich get richer.

Speaking of the elite and reactions against them, the folks behind the "Occupy" movements (at least I think it is them) have called for a national/international strike on May the 1st. Mayday. A term with more than one implication.

Meanwhile, down in Florida, the case of the black teenager who was gunned down dead has stoked a new fire this time of righteous anger, and brought up old resentments. The usual suspects, leaders quick to find the closest network camera, were a little slow on the uptake, but are now busy fanning the flames. Protests are growing. So is an insane and reprehensible response as in this graphic found on Facebook:

Also found were claims that this skinny 17 year old was seen on top of the much heavier shooter as he was beating the shooter with his fists. And that the voice crying out in pain or fear on the tape of the 911 call was actually the shooter, not the dying 17 year old. Which doesn't explain why there is a witness who says that they saw the 17 year old, face down on the ground, with the shooter on top of the kid, knee pressed into the kid's back. The shooter only moved away when he realized there was a witness. The kid was found face down on the ground when the police got there, by the way. People are also pointing out media "bias", not just by using a 'less threatening' picture of the kid at 14, but in using a mugshot of the shooter. And there is a report that a new version of what was represented as the Black Panther party has offered a $10,000.00 reward for the capture and arrest of the shooter, who has gone into hiding.

The Associated Press reported last week that it is becoming commonplace for prospective employers to demand job seeker's passwords to their Facebook accounts so the prospective employer can rummage around in the job seeker's personal life. If denied their request, some prospective employers then ask the job seeker to "friend" the employers' personnel department, which gives access to anything someone might have restricted from mass availability viewing to just their 'friends'..

This past week, a Supreme Court decision found that workers in government jobs (federal or state) can not cite the Family and Medical Leave Act in lawsuits against their public employers. This means that anyone needing medical leave - or pregnancy or childbirth leave - has no recourse if they are then dismissed from their jobs. And, as a case which came up a couple of weeks ago in New Mexico made evident, there doesn't seem to be any protections from teachers publicly humiliating an 8th grade student for being pregnant and kicking her out of school.

How much more can or will people take? Especially when the flames are being fanned by the self righteous? We must understand that there is a war on in the United States. It is most definitely a class war. Over the last several years, we have had an economic restructuring which reduced the size of the middle class while enlarging the size of the poor and underclass. There are now more workers available for desperation wages, and the pool of National Guard soldiers and potential volunteer army recruits is larger for those bigger and better wars to come. I guess that's better than having so many folks forever on the public dole. Speaking of which, in 2011, around 36 states had some form of proposed legislation requiring any person receiving any form of public assistance to undergo drug testing. Better have a prescription for that pill there. If you smoke a little pot (which leaves a little traceable residual chemical something in your body for several months after smoking), no food stamps for you.
Forget assistance you out of work mothers of fatherless children. 

Silly sheeple - drugs, and their use, are for the rich who can afford them. 

On New Year's Eve 2011, at 9pm or so (when there would be little notice taken) , President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act. It authorizes $662 Billion Dollars (I guess they were worried about the deficit) for the defense of the country at home and abroad. This includes the arrest and military detention of any US citizen - without charge or trial - if suspected of terrorist leanings. That part really isn't new, it goes back to the 2001 version if I remember correctly. But I think the part including arrests of citizens on US soil is new. There doesn't seem to be a part where what constitutes proper terror accusations are clearly defined. To a bank, say one of the banks bailed out at taxpayer expense, protesters demanding repayment of the government 'loan', or maybe the jailing of thieving executives, could be terrorism interfering in the country's business. When the President signed the act, he also released a lengthy signing statement disagreeing with provisions in it. But he still signed it. A few days ago, on March the 16th, he also signed the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of 2012. It's an update of what is allowed in times of National Emergency, which has been around since pre WWII days. Most presidents have updated it. One of the changes is that the responsibility for many of its provisions have changed from FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to National Security agencies - like the Department of Defense, as well as the Secretaries of the Department of Commerce, of Transportation, of Agriculture, of Energy, and of Health and Human Services. So, what does all this mean? Not much. Unless there is war with Iran. Or North Korea. Or disturbances with civil unrest here at home. I wonder if that includes protests over a dead teenager, Mayday strikes, or demands to treat women as something other than chattel?

This post had been intended to be a reminiscence of the country wide Moratoriums against the Vietnam War in which I participated in the late 1960's, contrasted with the hopeful signs of mass protests and the call for Mayday 2012 strikes.  Like so many things today, things got a little out of hand. I started thinking, and I should have known better. Thinking, say, about all the unused trailers in camps FEMA has sitting in out of the way (i.e.otherwise inhospitable to human life and human habitation?) locations. And how it seems like forces are pushing the country to huge mass protests, which God (whose, one wonders?) knows are needed for various reasons. And how these executive orders are there for use by any president of any party, those currently in power, or those yet to be elected. I shouldn't think about these things, I guess. Because then I begin to wonder how long it will be before a leader of the people, not of the government, gets openly assassinated and turned into a martyr.
Or Poland gets annexed.

Being Alive

It was May of 1970. At the time, I was living in Ocean City, New Jersey, and was in New York City for a day trip. I went to see a Broadway musical whose New York Times review had persuaded me that seeing it was a matter of great importance. It had only a semblance of a story, being told in vignettes surrounding a bachelor's birthday party. The revolutionary set used elevators and moving platforms to constantly remake itself into various New York City apartments and suggest their buildings. The leading man had been replaced just after the show opened. There was feeling it might not last.

The show, called "Company", concerned itself with alienation, with one man's loneliness in life, with the nature of friendships, with disillusion and disappointment. It was not your everyday musical comedy. There was one moment in particular, late in the second act, in which one character drunkenly savages her world and realizes that she is herself one of the "Ladies Who Lunch". It was devastating. That was the day I became a fan of Stephen Sondheim, the man who conceived the idea of, and wrote the music and lyrics for that show.

I was still living in Ocean City when a full page black and white ad appeared one Sunday in the New York Times' Arts and Leisure section. In those days, newspapers did not yet print color - it was only used for the Sunday funnies. The ad was relatively simple, yet complex, and made me think of Sondheim. There was something of a modern psychedelic feel about it. I taped it to my living room wall.

I knew immediately that whatever it was, I would be going to New York to see it. It tuned out to be an ad for Stephen Sondheim's new show, a nostalgic anti-nostalgia musical, which only reinforced my desire to go. Seeing it was one of the great experiences of my life. I ended up going to see that show three times. When I first tried to describe the multi-song finale (which consisted of spectacular "follies" styled numbers taking place in the leading character's minds) to friends, I said it was as if Federico Fellini had directed a Broadway musical. I was enormously gratified some years later to read a history of the show in which its producer/director (Hal Prince) described the concept for the staging of the finale in the same words.

Two more shows followed, both brilliant (A Little Night Music, and Pacific Overtures), both of which I was gratified to attend. Then came word that Sondheim's next show would be a bit of Grand Guignol based on an old melodrama.

One afternoon in 1979, my best friend Jerry Campbell and I were hanging out in his apartment in the East 90's. He had just purchased the newly released cast album for that show, which I hadn't seen yet, and insisted that I hear one particular number, "A Little Priest". I made him play it again. And again. It ends the show's first act, and, while composed in a standard musical comedy form, completely subverted the genre. I soon talked my good friend and former roommate, musicologist Keith Lacey into going to see it with me. It was another of the great experiences of my life. I saw it twice, once with the original cast, and once with the replacement cast. Here's the Little Priest number from the First National Tour, which was the Broadway production, with the original Mrs. Lovett (Angela Lansbury) and the 2nd Sweeny Todd (George Hearn). Mr. Todd, a barber seeking vengeance for a horrible wrong, has just slit the throat of someone who has recognized him. His landlady, Mrs. Lovett, who has a business making and selling meat pies, helps him think the situation through:



As the years after Sweeny ticked by, I ended up moving to Boston. One of the things which helped me decide to do so was a song from Sondheim's Pulitzer Prize Winning show Sunday in the Park With George. Before I left, an excerpt played on my answering machine.



 I returned to New York City for what turned out to be the last time with the express purpose of seeing Sondheim's Into the Woods as my birthday present to myself. Eventually, I moved here to Brattleboro. I soon found myself working three jobs to get by. One was at the Brattleboro Food Coop. I remember one shift, having just come out of the walk-in freezer, spying one of the meat department's two young female employees standing behind the counter a few feet away. She was having difficulty with a customer. After the customer left, I looked at her, and said something on the order of "Haven't you got poet or something like that?" She replied "The trouble with poet is how do you know it's deceased?" We've been friends ever since. It was Laura, now the proprietress of the blog "Austanspace". Although I'm not sure I've ever said this to her, she's been my best friend for the last decade at least. She's also the person who nicknamed me "Stevil".

At any rate, I wanted to take a moment here to briefly note how much I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim, which has greatly influenced and enriched my life.
Today is his birthday, and I can't believe that he is supposed to be 82 years old.
He's not, it's that simple.
Theater Gods do not age.

When good people do nothing

Now it's happening in Idaho. A bill has just passed that state's Senate which would force a woman seeking an abortion to undergo and view an ultrasound before proceeding with the operation. Idaho is one of ten states actively working on such legislation. Eight states have already passed such laws. (Click here for a link to the Guttmacher list of states and their requirements) In Virginia, a new law soon to take effect originally called for a "transvaginal" insertion of a 10 inch sonogram device. Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau dubbed it the "Shaming Wand". Alabama and Pennsylvania are currently considering this practice as part of their proposed legislation.

In the United States, abortion has been legal since 1972's Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. Since that day, there has been a growing and dangerous attempt to divide this country along politically religious lines. Unable to overturn the law, the religious have resorted to everything from outright murder of abortion providers (rather ironic for a group which refers to itself as "pro-life"), bombings of abortion clinics, to insane, belittling and costly laws such as these. The people behind these laws bemoan what they see as government intrusion into their lives (again missing the irony of their advocacy). They are the conservative right. They are Tea Party members. They are candidates for the Presidency of the United States. And they insist on having their way. It does not, and will not, stop at abortion. Their arguments justify laws against gay people, people of other faiths, immigrants, and basically anyone who doesn't believe as they do. They are the mentality that makes up the Taliban.

If that seems like an outrageous statement, let me note a couple of things. Lets take a quick look at Iraq. Remember Iraq? The country we invaded because the no longer loyal to US dictator had allegedly acquired weapons of mass destruction and had some tenuous connection to the events of Sept 11th, 2001? After the US invaded, Iraq saw the rise of extremely conservative religious movements. In the last few weeks, according to news stories which lasted in the public eye for oh, about 15 minutes, it was reported that in Baghdad's conservative Sadr City district, teenagers and young adults who adopted what is labelled the "emo" lifestyle (a form of rebellion which includes having longish hair and wearing black clothes) are being killed at an alarming rate. About 60 dead in the last six weeks. Read that again - 60 - sixty - dead in six weeks. That's just the ones we know about, in one area of one city. There are pictures, but they are too disturbing to publish here. With one exception, the dead "emo" loving youth were perceived as being gay men. Lists appear as warning to the named targeted individuals to change their ways. Here's a typical message:

"We warn in the strongest terms to every male and female debauchee," the Shiite militia hit list says. "If you do not stop this dirty act within four days, then the punishment of God will fall on you at the hands of Mujahideen."

When found, the victim's heads are smashed in with cinder blocks. After they are tortured. Ever so much more effective than a shaming wand. Oh, by the way, seven of the dead were simply shot. No arrests have been made.

The best known modern Mujahideen came into being in Afghanistan in the late 1970's, as guerrilla fighters against the Soviet Occupation. Financed and trained by, among others, the United States, Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, and various Europeans. Ronald Reagan called them "freedom fighters". As the various mujahideen groups fought each other in Afghanistan's civil war, a Pakistani backed mujahideen group headed by mullah Mohammed Omar seized control of that country. They became known as the Taliban.

Of course, you say, such extreme actions and government can't happen here. In that case, you might want to know about the problem of teenage suicides in now withdrawn Presidential contender Congresswoman Michelle Bachman's home state. Nine kids have killed themselves in one school district in two years. Bachman's conservative evangelical supporters passed laws which restricted any discussion of gay issues. The dead teens were gay, or bullied because they were perceived to be gay. There was not one adult at their schools they could turn to. A supportive teacher could, after all, be fired. There is no law protecting them. In these schools, gay-straight alliances were labelled "sex clubs". I'm not making this up. Click here for an article in Mother Jones, and click here for an article in the February 2012 issue of Rolling Stone.

I could go on and on, but I won't. How do these people keep getting elected and getting their laws passed? They are not the majority. They have taken over because no one else wants to get involved in the day to day business of government under the media glare and conditions which have been prevalent for quite some time now. No one seems willing to stand up to them - especially when one considers that their demands are often crazily out of kilter with the way Americans live their lives in the here and now. And so they win, because every day good people do nothing.

Meanwhile, in the insanity haven known as Broward County, Florida (home of the last stand of the hanging chad which helped give you George W. Bush president) 14 members of a law firm were fired Friday for wearing orange shirts. They wanted to be identified as a group at their after work happy hour held at a local cocktail lounge. The law firm said that there was a rumor they were protesting something (unspecified at this point). The employees have no legal protection, Florida is a "right to work" state.

It was also in Florida that a black teenager, on the way home  from a store where he bought his younger brother a package of candy, was shot and killed in his gated community by an Hispanic wanna-be cop vigilante who had been told by police to cease pursuing the young man whom he found "suspicious". In his cell phone call, the shooter is heard to refer to "fucking coons". This man has been claiming that he shot the teenager (armed with a pack of Skittles) in self-defense. No arrests have been made. (I've heard that phrase before.) In just a few minutes, the Justice Department is scheduled to announce that they are stepping into the more than 3 week old case.

Rick Santorum, religous conservative candidate for US President, recently announced that he was "sickened" by John F. Kennedy's assertion that as President, he would put his Catholic faith aside when governing. At the time, Kennedy had been accused of potentially taking orders from the Pope. He clarified that he would be the President of all the people, not just Catholics. Rick Santorum may have been sickened at the time, but it would have been because he was two years old and probably choking on his own bile. Yesterday, Santorum noted that unemployment and the economy were not his issues for this campaign. His issue, along with stamping out pornography, is "freedom". The quote: “We need a candidate who's going to be a fighter for freedom." Freedom fighters. I've heard that term before, too.

Hymn for a Sunday morning

It's safe to say that I'm
sick of daylight saving time.
Especially as we near the Spring,
to have Darkness back to do its thing
As I trudge to work in early mourn
once again feeling so forlorn
to wend through darkness I must pass
and blow this savings time out my ass.

This morning does have a saving grace or two. It's my day off. And it's the birthday of Douglas Adams, who left us all to soon. I still rue the day I sold my hardcover first editions of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy (I had all five books) to do something so mundane as keep the electricity on and pay the rent. I first discovered the series when I was living in New York City and episode one debuted on our local public broadcasting radio station. I was heartbroken when the series ended (also far too soon), and was replaced with a "Prairie Home Companion", which is the main reason I never much cared for that program. Adams' works have a particular effect on me: they make me giggle. I become a veritable puddle of giggle. I start giggling just thinking about Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, or Zaphod Beeblebrox. It is a quote from Adams which gets me through the semiannual injection of daylight savings: "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so". 

And, it was on this day in 1927 that the Roxy Theatre opened. It wasn't just a movie theater. It was THE movie theater. It's advertising called it "The Cathedral of the Motion Picture". Depending on the source you read, it had anywhere from 5,920 to 6,200+ seats. And it regularly filled them all. That's about half the population of Brattleboro at one go. It was just up from Times Square, between 6th and 7th Avenues at 50th Street, its marquee and entrance attached to the Hotel Taft.

It was conceived by early silent movie producer Herbert Lubin. The enormous popularity of the movies had encouraged exhibitors to build lavish theatres which would be as much an attraction as the movies themselves. In New York City, that meant hiring Samuel Rothafel, who created and managed most of the great "movie palaces" in the Times Square area. Lubin hired him for a large salary, stock options, a percentage of the gross, and promised to name the theatre after him. Roxy was Rathafel's nickname.

The Roxy had an orchestra pit that seated 110 musicians and rose on hydraulic lifts to stage level. It had the largest theatre organ ever built, a Kimball  pipe organ which had three consoles (also on hydraulic lifts) which could be played simultaneously. There was a separate organ in the main lobby. There were stage shows before the movie. These included a ballet troupe, a precision dancing group of chorus girls named the Roxyettes, vaudeville and radio stars, and a male chorus, all in a program usually tied to the theme of the movie. The show changed every week when the movie changed. In order to produce it, the theater had the largest music library in the world (with three curators to run it), two stories of private dressing rooms, three stories of chorus dressing rooms,  rehearsal halls, a private screening room of 100 seats, a private infirmary with staff, a costume department,  a barber shop, hairdressers, cafeteria, a gym, showers & etc. The etcetera, by the way, included a menagerie for animal acts. 

There were uniformed ushers, trained by an ex Marine officer, so famous in their own right that they were mentioned in Cole Porter's song, "You're the Top". The ushers would show you to your seat, and hand you the weekly program. 

You entered under the huge marquee at 50th and 7th, bought your ticket at one of the booths, and made your way through the entrance foyer, then into a rotunda with the world's largest oval rug, and to the brass doors leading into the auditorium. The auditorium itself was a plush dream in red velvet and gold. The projection booth, in a move completely different from any other theater, was built into the front of the first balcony. The Roxy did not have to boast - it projected the best quality image in town. 

Oh, did I mention that there was a weekly radio program hosted by Roxy and broadcast live from the theater's own studio?

The rotunda in 1927. One of the theater's pipe organs can be seen n the balcony.

Roxy contemplates the main organ console

Pre-construction architect's rendering of the auditorium

By the time the time the theatre opened with a Gloria Swanson picture ("The Love of Sunya"), the Roxy was $2.5 million over budget, and cost over $12 million 1927 dollars, which today would be about $153 million. Lubin sold his controlling interest to movie mogul and theater owner William Fox for $5 million dollars. Plans for a circuit of Roxy theatres were scrapped; the only one built, the Roxy Midway on the Upper West Side, was sold to Warner Bros. It opened in 1929 as The Beacon. Rothaphel moved on to a new project, Radio City Music Hall. The Roxyettes went with him and were renamed the Rockettes.

The Roxy remained one of the premier movie theatres in the world. In the 1950's, new management reconstructed parts of the theatre for new widescreen processes. They rebuilt the stage to accommodate an ice rink for use in their stage shows. Eventually, it simply cost too much in a changing world, and the Roxy closed on March the 29th, 1960 with a Dirk Bogarde picture, "The Wind Cannot Read". The wreaking crews moved in. Where the outer lobby and entrance to the grand rotunda once stood, there is now a TGIFridays. On the site of the theatre itself, there is a nondescript office building. On October the 14th, 1960,  photographer Eliot Elisofon photographed Gloria Swanson in the rubble of what was thought to be the grand rotunda. Published in Life magazine, it inspired a musical about chorus girls reuniting in a theatre about to be town down, Follies by Stephen Sondheim. The show helped start a movement to save New York City's theaters. In 1979, the Radio City Music Hall was saved and is still in use today as a performance venue, as is The Beacon. 

The Kid Sister

Today is Marion Hutton's birthday. Most folks have probably never heard of her. For the elders among us, she probably sparks an uncertain memory. Her kid sister, Betty Hutton, became a fairly well known movie star in the mid to late 1940's and early 1950's.

When both girls were very young, their father abandoned his family for another woman, eventually ending his life a suicide. Their mother struggled to make ends meet until she found a career as a bootlegger. The sisters found work singing with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra. And then one day, Glen Miller found her and hired her as the girl singer for his band. She was 17 at the time. Miller and his wife Helen became Marion's legal guardian and foster parents.

Glenn Miller and Marion Hutton

At first, Miller wanted her to be billed as "Sissy Jones", thinking it enhanced her girl next door qualities. It lasted one night before she rebelled. The story may be apocryphal - her sister Betty was said to have appeared under the name once, too. The band called her by many names: The Kid, Kid Sister, Goldilocks, the Brat, the Whack, Tootsie-roll, the Dopey Duchess. The guys were, however, very protective of her. Even though she was so young and  the only female on the tour bus, she never had any problems with the guys. They saw to that, keeping each other in line.  I once heard that she could beat them all at shooting craps.

Here's the Miller band from one of their two movies, Orchestra Wives. Marion is the vivacious blond who can be seen singing with the Modernaires, backing Tex Beneke's vocal. Sadly, there is no footage of her singing any of her big hits with the Miller band (i.e. I Want a Hat With Cherries, The Jumpin' Jive, etc.) Although Marion is only briefly seen, one can get an idea of the sheer fun she must have projected onstage. This is the complete number - in early experimental movie stereo! (Thank You Daryl Zanuck.) Be sure to click the full screen option on the YouTube window before the Nicholas Brothers start dancing (in a sequence carefully placed so that it could be cut from use in theaters in the Southern U.S.).
   



     

Marion didn't have the best voice, but she made up for it with spunk and verve. In later years, she noted that she'd never thought of herself as a singer - she thought herself more of an entertainer. She was enormously popular with audiences (for many years, she was more popular than her sister), and stayed with the band through it's final performance in September 1942 when Miller dissolved the band to go into the army. She then went on tour with Tex and the Modernaires, landed a few small roles in movies, and after a few years faded from public view, more interested in starting a family than in having a career. In 1947, she married her third husband, Vic Schoen, a bandleader and arranger for the Andrews Sistrers, Bing Crosby, and most of the top names in the business.
   

The Modernaires surround Marion. Glenn Miller is seated going over the band's arrangements.
     

In the mid 1960's, Marion began treatment for various addictions, went to college and earned two degrees in psychology. She and Vic joined AA, and founded a drug and alcohol treatment center in the state of Washington called Residence XII. They perfomed together in numerous concerts to raise funds for the center. It was one of the first treatment programs specifically targeted to women.

Her sister Betty also suffered addiction problems, and attempted suicide after losing her voice. Betty regained control of her life through the help of a Catholic priest, and made national headlines in the 1970's when she was discovered working as a dishwasher in a rectory in Rhode Island. She followed in her older sister's footsteps and went to college, earning a master's degree in psychology.

In 1987, Marion, still married to Vic, succumbed to cancer. Residence XII still exists and still serves women with addiction problems. Their website is not linked here, as they don't even mention Marion Hutton, their founder who was once America's kid sister.

Mental Hygiene

The Shorpy site has found another winner. I gather that most of their work is done by a guy named Dave, who searches out old photos from the Library of Congress and other sources. It's the kind of site that is very easy to get lost in - at least for me. There is usually an option to click on to get a hi-res pic which can offer sometimes stunning details. The pic that caught my attention on this morning's internet perambulation:

Washington, D.C., 1924. "Exhibit on Mental Hygiene." As we wash our hands, so must we wash our brains. Much poignantly straightforward signage. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

I've tried something different with this pic - instead of loading the hi-res version so that you and I can click on it (or right click on it to open it in its own window) I've tried linking it to the hi-res version at the Shorpy site. That way, you get to scroll around and have a bit of fun clicking on this and that. I do hope you'll try it, it took me a little while to work this out (Blogger moves the link to the caption unless you add the caption later.)

I clipped one of the posters on the wall; and well, this explains everything! I was a walking danger signal.

In case you're wondering how the site got such a name: it was the nickname of a real boy. He is the subject of the first photograph posted by the site, one of a series taken by Lewis Hine, whose pictures helped change child labor laws in the US.

December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

As the site became established, members of Shorpy's family added comments. (Shorpy shows up in four different photos.) One site visitor used the internet to see what he could find and talked to a couple of Shorpy's relatives, who were unaware of the Hine photos. He found that Shorpy died at the age of 32 in a mining accident. (If you're interested, his discoveries are posted on the Mornings on Maple Street blog.)

Some days, I really love the internet.

See It Now - March 9th, 1954

On March the 9th, 1954 (my God, 58 years ago!), I was 3 and a half years old. I certainly can't tell you what day of the week it was. But something happened that day that brought change to the United States and affected the world.

While there are memories I have from that age, I can't say that I remember that day's broadcast of a CBS News journalism program called "See It Now". I do remember the show's host, Edward R. Murrow. I liked him, and often watched his programs when I was a little older. "See It Now" was a sort of investigative news report with commentary. Today it would be called a News Magazine.  My memories of the show itself are very vague. I do remember specific Murrow programs, like "Harvest of Shame", a documentary on the lives of migrant workers in the US. I grew up in a farm area that depended on migrant workers. When a program is that immediate, you tend to remember it.

In 1953, Murrow and his producer, Fred Friendly, reported on the case of an American soldier by the name of Milo Radulovich. Radulovich was an Air Force lieutenant who was stripped of his rank and discharged for his continued association with suspected Communist sympathizers - his father and sister. His father had subscribed to several Serbian newspapers to keep track of events in his native Yugoslavia. One of the papers was "associated" with a Communist organization. His sister was known to have "liberal" tendencies.  As a result of the program, Radulovich was reinstated. The episode aroused the ire of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who began to focus on Murrow.

Murrow and Friendly responded by putting together a "See It Now" broadcast that was comprised of clips of McCarthy in action, accusing and interrogating Senate witnesses and making speeches. Today is the anniversary of that program's broadcast. It gave voice to the doubts of millions of Americans, and started the downfall of McCarthyism. In 2005, the story of that broadcast was told in the motion picture "Good Night, and Good Luck". I've long been familiar with the final comments made that night by Murrow. All these years later, here in our modern world, his words still have resonance.

Iconography

It's time again for a birthday mention of someone who provided my humble self with a good deal of pleasure. It's a little late in the day, I know, but I just got around to looking at the Almanac.

Today is Cyd Charisse's birthday.

She's not someone whose name comes immediately to mind when you think of "movie stars". And she's not quite the first name you'd think of when someone mentions "musical comedy dancer". And yet, two of her film performances created images which are close to the top of the Hollywood American Dream factory.

She was born Tula Ellice Finklea, the poor thing. She started dancing lessons at the age of six to help rebuild her strength after a bout with polio. By the age of 14 she auditioned for (and and danced with) the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. While on a European tour, she married dancer Nico Charisse. After the outbreak of WWII, they returned to Los Angeles, where they had studied. She was hired by MGM, and was quickly brought into the Freed unit, famous for producing musicals.

In 1952, she was cast as the femme fatale in the Broadway Melody number in Singin' in the Rain. Her sultry character and dancing is a highlight of the movie. Even though I consider it sacrilegious to see just a clip from the entire number, I found the following on YouTube. (I'd cap and post the whole number, but it would run about 2 minutes longer than YouTube's allowed 10 minutes.)





The following year, she was paired with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon. She played a ballerina. He played a washed up movie musical star who turns to Broadway for work. Yes, you can name that movie cliche at 10 paces to Baker Street. But that doesn't mean that the film isn't a distinct pleasure - it is. And one of my favorite set pieces in all of moviedom is here, the "Girl Hunt Ballet". Needless to say, she played the girl. Here's the entire sequence (which, interestingly enough runs over the 10 minute YouTube time limit):





There are many other wonderful scenes, songs, and dances she performed which deserve to be noted here, but those two are forever etched into my memory and maybe the memories of film lovers everywhere. Certainly, images from the above used to be used everywhere whenever an illustration was needed for "Hollywood Musical".  But there is also the following, also from The Bandwagon. It is a simple number, really. A ballerina and a hoofer, working in the same show, trying to come to terms with each other. We know they will fall in love. They do it while "Dancing in the Dark", with an orchestration by Conrad Salinger - one of the best ever put together at MGM. I used to imagine myself courting/dancing to this number around the reflecting pool and fountain of the Christian Science Church centre in Boston... it's that kind of a moment. Movie magic. And it is the dance I always think of when I see, hear, or read Cyd Charisse's name.

Finishing touches

In one portion of  yesterday's post (the Jean Harlow birthday nod), I wanted to include a video clip from the movie "Dinner at Eight", which would explain that part's title. The clips available on YouTube were of poor quality, and one was even in the wrong frame ratio. So, since it is now within my power (and with many Thanks to the people who helped me lug my stuff around over the years) here's a clip which shows a bit of Harlow's delivery as she sets up Marie Dressler for one of the all time great double takes; a stevil  film favorite moment:




Oh, by the way, it was on this day in 1791 that Vermont became the 14th of the United States.

And there are a couple of birthdays today of people whose efforts have provided me pleasure, and of whom I'd like to take note: that ol' red headed priest and composer Antonio Vivaldi was born today in 1678 (I used to have a thing for chamber music, especially when played on period instruments),  silent serial queen Pearl White, illustrator Milt Gross (worth a long post of his own),

Shemp Howard (there was a time when I was a bigger Curly fan, but depending on my mood I kind of preferred Shemp the last time I checked), magician-card sharpe and author John Scarne, Avery Fisher (audio engineer and benefactor who paid for the acoustic redesign of what had until then been Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center),  actor Edgar Barrier (who I so enjoy in his role as Martok in one of my all time favorite movies, "Cobra Woman"), actor John Garfield (seen below with Lana Turner),

and Ward Kimball - who deserves a multi post of his own: one of Disney's "Nine Old Men", redesigner of Mickey Mouse, designer and animator of the likes of the dwarfs in Snow White, the crows from Dumbo, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat, the mice and Lucifer the cat from Cinderella, the hunters in Peter and the Wolf, etc. A short clip (again, from my stuff and from my private files on You Tube):



Kimball was also the trombonist of the dixieland styled band the "Firehouse Five Plus Two". I've played them on my radio show. He also had this thing with steam trains and restored one that he installed on his property in Southern California. He was the first person to do something like that, and it directly inspired Walt Disney's interest.

And last for today, it's time I take note of the passing of Davy Jones. These things are starting to hit close to home now. One guy I know, a few years younger than myself, noted, "I had a crush on Davy Jones, and I'm not even gay." He was pretty damn cute, with a kind of well scrubbed potential bad boy charm.

Reading some of the reminiscences published about him, one of the things that stood out: he decided that he wanted to become a rock star when he was standing in the wings on the Ed Sullivan Show as the Beatles made their first US appearance. He was there to perform as part of the moved over from England Broadway cast of Oliver, in which he played the Artful Dodger. You know I just have to do this:



Thank You for entertaining me, Davy Jones.
Rest in Peace.