31 October 2011

"Charlotte Greenwood Kickd Me in the Heart"

when
we always want to know
was the first

some write
books abt it
embellishing
scent of memory

I barely recall
a time without
but the first
lies buried

maybe
it was when
I saw
that long leg
kick higher & higher
finally above her head

maybe
it was that stretch
that made me
movie mad

30 October 2011

don't know

what's become of Beat Hotel but Steve's other property -- Lautner Motel -- recently reopend.

28 October 2011


found this beautiful poster online. my friend May McAvoy with Ramon Novarro.

25 October 2011

looking

for something else I uncoverd this fading color photo:


it was taken in front of the building in which I was born. another photo taken at the same time was used for the cover of The Year Book
:

24 October 2011

"So This is Hollywood"

I've written before abt how much this 1955 NBC sitcom means to me & my affair with Tinsletown.


tonite I saw Mervyn LeRoy's "Show Girl in Hollywood" (1930) starring Alice White as Dixie DUGAN. early in the film she sends a postcard on which she writes "So this is Hollywood?"

that series I loved starrd Mitzi Green as Queenie DUGAN.

21 October 2011

remembering Paul Goodman

somehow I missd his 100th birthday last month but a new movie abt Goodman suddenly has him all over the place.

on the blog I've only written abt him once
but in The Year Book I wrote at the time of his death:

Paul Goodman
          who once held my hand
          in the backseat
          of a Staten Island taxi
          en route to Frank's Bar

20 October 2011

"Athena"

hard to believe I've had this album for more than 50 years.


but I hadn't seen the movie in as long. however I was able to find it on DVD & saw it last nite. it's hardly a great film but fun & a cinephile's delight because of the cast.



& of special interest to me because of certain cast members.

Edmund Purdom: he plays an important cameo near the end of my new book.

Howard Wendell: his parents were neighbors of mine when I was a boy. see last year's chapbook Elyria.

Bess Flowers: co-star of my recent chapbook Percy & Bess. "the queen of the dress extras" plays Wendell's wife & actually has lines in this film.

Linda Christian: I had a short but spiritd chat with her at a film event some years ago.

Virginia Gibson: co-star of one of the most important tv shows of my boyhood "So This is Hollywood."

& a phalanx of famous muscle men: Steve Reeves   Ed Fury   Dick DuBois   Bert Goodrich & the founder of Gold's Gym.

18 October 2011

listening

thx to Ron Silliman I've discoverd a magnificent site undertaken by Harvard.

so many glorious voices from the past:     Conrad Aiken     Weldon Kees     Laura Riding     Wallace Stevens.

17 October 2011

earthquake

local news tells me there was a 3.8 abt an hour & a half ago. didn't feel a thing.

12 October 2011

more of the gone

back in my boozing days I saved swizzle sticks. (what didn't I save?) of course many of the places they represent are history. I began thinking abt this when I postd those old Hollywood pix. I opend a cupboard & faced the glass holding the collection & there was the swizzle from Cock'n Bull. during the summer I postd my Sonny Tufts poem which recalls a famous incident at the Sunset Strip restaurant. altho I wasn't actually there for that I did chat with John Carradine at the Cock'n Bull. & had dinner there with my dear friend Richard Martin & other members of the costume fraternity when I was dabbling in that.


& representing the other coast -- the legendary Max's Kansas City.

10 October 2011

out of the past

from that same visit here are some shots of spots no longer there.

the legendary Schwab's & next to it what was left at that time of Googie's:


& the official closing of Tiny Naylor's:

09 October 2011

Hamburger Hamlet

James Duke Mason suggestd in a Facebook post that the original restaurant is closing. actor Harry Lewis opend the Sunset Strip restaurant years ago. it was a favorite spot of Marie Windsor & most of our lunches together over the years were there. here we are in front of the place in 1984:

I feel so cheap

just found a copy of one of my books for sale online for 52 cents.

08 October 2011

still here

this time I went right to my log on page.

after a gloomy day we're back to sun.

& here's another Gildzen site.

06 October 2011

future of this blog

if I go silent here it's because of technology.

to use my new cell phone I had to create a gmail account. in that process something happend with my Google log-in. all morning I was unable to get to the page which allows me to post. then without warning the old prompt came back & I'm able to post this.

but I can't be certain that I'll always have the opportunity to find the old log-in page.

05 October 2011

as I watchd

"The Last Station" I felt particularly old.

it's a period film. abt the final days of Tolstoy. & one of the characters was his daughter Sasha.

I met her in 1968.

04 October 2011

over the weekend

I pickd up the ceramic marker from "Dad's Last Garden" & brought it inside.


I suspect it'll eventually become part of my papers at Kent State.

03 October 2011

only a movie geek

will find this as exciting as I did.

I often ramble around IMDB checking movie casts. this ayem I lookd in on a movie I haven't seen in years which is now available on DVD -- "Athena."

to my surprise Howard Wendell (see Elyria: Point A in Ohio Triangle) plays the husband of Bess Flowers (see Percy & Bess).

01 October 2011

every day

I expect it to be the last of this superb weather. & then comes a gift of another stunner. this ayem I walkd to farmers market & back. & now I'm blending New Mexico harvest beets with Ohio garlic in a Greek recipe. doesn't get much better than this.