30 December 2014

Jo Van Fleet (1914-1996)



in celebrating her centennial I'd be remiss if I didn't quote one of my favorite lines from Frank O'Hara:

Who do you think you are, anyway? Jo Van Fleet?

28 December 2014

Dad was in my dream last nite

& then today I rememberd where he was 70 years ago.



I watchd this with tears.

thank you Dad. I love you & miss you.

25 December 2014

Xmas 1986



poor Tobias doesn't look thrilld. but most of the times he didn't mind being held this way.  in fact I have lovely memories of dancing with him.

23 December 2014

31 years ago

last nite I was going thru old "stuff" & found a cache of receipts from my holiday trip to Italy.



on Xmas eve 1983 I attended the pope's mass. I went for the show biz angle & it was that in spades. & then there was a memorable NYE in Venice.

18 December 2014

major housecleaning

third day of work. altho I dislike the toil part I'm enjoying moving things around the house. re-envisioning what my most intimate environment looks like.

15 December 2014

GWTW

"Gone With the Wind" had its premiere 75 years ago today.  & no Auntie Vera I wasn't there.

I once saw it at Manhattan's legendary Palace Theater with Richard Nelson (not the playwright but Lord & Taylor's graphic designer). then there was 1989 in Wheeling when the screening was introduced by Butterfly McQueen.




09 December 2014

change

it's hard. gets harder with age. but I'm working to make change a springboard.

08 December 2014

Sam Harris (1877-1965)

last nite I got my Carolyn Jones fix by seeing "Last Train from Gun Hill."  it's a predictable western worth seeing only for Jones whose brilliance often elevatd mundane material. at one moment she stood next to Sam Harris. now I see this man almost every week. he was in some 600 films from 1928 right up till his death.




but last nite I wonderd why he hasn't been the subject of more discussion. if Bess Flowers is veneratd as "the queen of the dress extras" (as well she shd be) then Harris deserves to be king. apparently those in the business calld him "The Major." & some sources list him as Major Sam Harris. perhaps this is why the sobriquet "the king of the extras" isn't used. but when I think of the world of Hollywood extras it's always Flowers & Harris who come to mind first.