Mrs. O

I may be having some problems with her husband on certain issues but wowzer... when was the last time we saw such a stunning woman in the WH?

Arakawa (1936-2010)

I met him on my 42nd birthday after having corresponded with his wife & partner.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

like everything in Tinseltown this gimmick began as a way to make money. yes   a construction company came up with the idea hoping to get more jobs.

the initial 1500-plus names were chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. from the gitgo politics playd a part in the process. Charles Chaplin Jr. sued because his father wasn't in the original group.

nowadays a star can be bought.

but even knowing that the gimmick works. & the walk is as much a part of Hollywood history as the prints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

now there's a website where you can find those on the walk. for instance   my friend Lois Wilson (who was on TCM overnite).

on my birthday I walkd from the Roosevelt to Grauman's   echoing a line in my Victor Kilian poem. when I got to Lois' star I knelt down & touchd it. I was in Hollywood when she died & stoppd by her star then. there were flowers on it.

"Satie's Umbrellas"

after the burial
his friends finally
saw the apartment

compositions were stuffd
in pockets of
his velvet suits

84 identical handkerchieves
were lined up
in a drawer

& here there
eveywhere the umbrellas
stopping the rain

only Erik heard

on the cutting room floor

reading abt the new documentary by Ron Pajak got me to thinking.

Pajak filmd me in Las Vegas 7 years ago for a doc he was doing on photographer Bryan Ockert. that project was never finishd. likewise the last time Richard Myers filmd me -- alongside James Broughton no less -- he didn't use that footage. (altho I do appear in 2 of Dick's earlier films.)

in 1973 David Hockney drew me in Paris. he didn't particularly like the drawings. so if they still exist they've never been publishd. in 1976 Lainard Bush videotaped me in a performance of "Crossing" which I've never seen. in 1977 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders photographd me with Lois Wilson in Beverly Hills. I've never seen whatever he did & have no idea if it survives. in 2006 Kimberly Nichols taped part of my reading at Palm Springs Art Museum but didn't know how to use the camera & got nothing.

it feels odd to know that these little shards of my life disappeard before they ever appeard.

the gayest exhibition

I've ever seen at our local art musuem opend yesterday. this is the first thing you see on entering "Sole Mates: Cowboy Boots & Art" :



& it keeps getting gayer. alongside boots are ads for vintage cowboy duds as well as homoerotic art by Delmas Howe. there's a large Bill Schenck painting that appears to have an Audrey Totter movie still as its source. also an early John Fincher painting of a saddle. & this old postcard:




"Sole Mates" is a hoot.

for musical theater junkies

absent from this montage are the Roses of Mitzi Green (Las Vegas) & Angela Lansbury (London). & the last episode of "Glee" featurd what may be the first ever male rendering of "Rose's Turn" but obviously without this intro.

I love that

"Hellboy II" begins with a tribute to Howdy Doody.

Carl Dixson

was one of my favorite models of the '60s. we met in Akron in spring of 1968 when he was in the chorus of "Hello Dolly" starring Dorothy Lamour.

in fall of 1971 he invitd me to the opening of a small movie he'd made. calld "School Play"   it was the work of Charles Rydell   who had appeard in a couple of off-Broadway musicals & may or may not have been a boyfriend of Andy Warhol. the film featurd underground stars Brigid Berlin & Wini Bryan. Carl's name in the credits is Oliver Kronen. I believe he told me he had to use another name for union reasons.

the film opend at Bleecker Street Cinema with Warhol in attendance along with everybody from Kenneth Koch to J. J. Mitchell. it was on a double bill with another short film   Larry Rivers' "Tits." I don't remember much of either film. I do recall that Carl had a scene running thru a field & another in which we get a glimpse of him naked.

to my surprise I just found the movie online. at just over an hour long   it's a chore to sit thru. but what a joy to see Carl again. & at the height of his beauty. over the years we lost touch. I have no idea what happend to him.

"and the rice grows by itself"

Joel Singer has returnd to filmmaking.

his collaborations with James Broughton were some 25 years ago. in those he was usually behind the camera -- altho he famously appeard in "Hermes Bird."

it's wonderful to see him making films again.

sweets

for Valentines Day Bill Berger sent my mother personalizd M&Ms. there are 4 different "messages": her name   mine   "Bill & Emma"   Emma's face.

Mom saved a bag for me.

back from Elyria

where I had a lovely time with Mom

happy Mothers Day

r.j.s. sent me

this link to Ed Sanders' piece on d.a. levy

celebrating his third

the 3 musketeers of Brother Abdon
(Phil & Rita & I)
pose with Cinco on his birthday

timing

is
the great determinant
in biography

50 years ago today

"The Fantasticks" opend at Sullivan Street Theater for its record-breaking run.

I first heard the Jones-Schmidt musical on the original cast recording. I no longer recall who brought it to the office of the Daily Kent Stater in Merrill Hall. but we playd it over & over.

then in early may of 1963 David Freeman -- who wd become a celebratd playwright & screenwriter -- did a campus production. my friend Duane Hartzell was David's assistant. Ron Policy was a dashing El Gallo & Jamie L. Brown was the old actor. my fellow DKS journalists joind me to see it several times during its short run in University Auditorium. altho memory fades   I recall this as one of my happiest times sitting in a theater.

it's been some time since I've seen a production so I don't know how it holds up. it was the simplest of shows. & I suspect having been so young was a factor in my liking it so. but I'm happy that it was in my life when it was.

yesterday's event

Rick Lupert reports that Percy & Bess was downloaded 54 times.

thx to all of you who visitd Poetry Superhighway yesterday.

I'm esp grateful for Kevin Killian's comment:

"Your accounts of Percy Helton's great movies and about the mysterious Bess Flowers are lovely.

Now alerted, I will be watching for them till I die!"

"Percy & Bess"

the opening nite of the TCM Film Festival brought the latest restoration of George Cukor's "A Star is Born" to the giant screen of Grauman's Chinese Theater. & there were a pair of my favorites: character actor Percy Helton with several lines & "queen of the dress extras" Bess Flowers in one of her hundreds of quick appearances. it wasn't the only movie featuring both performers but I've never seen them bigger.

now the two are back together again. my chapbook featuring works abt them is available for a free download for 24 hours only as part of the annual Poetry Super Highway project. go here for the book.

my thx to Rick Lupert for doing this project & to Bill Berger for his cover & to Tom Beckett for originally publishing the Helton poems.

I need to offer one disclaimer. for some reason when I make a pdf of a manuscript the spacing gets changd & I don't seem to be able to return it to the original. it happend again with this book. I think you'll be able to tell where each poem begins & ends. but it is frustrating to see it less than perfect.

"The Eyes of Jack LaRue"

did any man
menace with
a look like his

Jack had
no need
for a gun

that look
& you knew
you were gone

Bradbury Bldg

just discoverd this loving tribute to LA architecture & film..... & their intersection.

"reading the lines of a young poet"

I am the old man
you fear becoming

but inside
we are the same age

we both have put on
clothes of another

both bled for love
wept at deaths

reading yr lines
I live my life over

outside the festival but on the boulevard

Lin Yu Chun


Guillermo

on my birthday

with Tab Hunter


reading "Tony Curtis" while Tony Curtis (in white hat) signs autographs

festival guests

David Kamp & Peter Bogdanovich introduce "The Magnificent Ambersons"


Illeana Douglas introduces her grandfather's film "A Woman's Face"

more festival

Cheryl Crane & I discussd Frank O'Hara's "Lana Turner has collapsed!" in the historic Blossom Room


Jean-Paul Belmondo got one of the first planes out of France following the volcano mess so he cd introduce the new 50th anniversary print of "Breathless" at Grauman's Chinese Theater

on Hollywood Blvd

Cher & Robert Osborne at festival's opening nite party at Kress


Carl Reiner at unveiling of Mel Brooks' star on Walk of Fame

TCM film festival

chatting with Juanita Moore for the first time in 51 years




Tony Curtis & friend

at a certain age

one must ignore birthdays or make them stunning. I vacilate between the two positions. but when I learnd Turner Classic Movies was throwing a film festival during the time of my natal day I made the decision to celebrate this time around.

headquarters for the festival was the Hollywood Roosevelt. altho I've visitd many times over the decades I hadn't been in residence there in 35 years. so that was a treat.



& the festival itself was one of the best. its host was the channel's gentlemanly interlocutor Robert Osborne.

"Ghosts of the Roosevelt"

woke on my 67th birthday
at Hollywood Roosevelt
where the mirror Marilyn haunts
is in storage

the day I checkd in
I passd Montgomery Clift's room
but didn't hear his bugle

later I peekd into the bar
where Victor Killian had too many
the nite he was murderd

the ghosts here are many
Johnny Grant lived & died here
& Todd Moore was a guest
Elizabeth Short walkd thru the lobby
where elderly Mack Sennett
sat alone for hours
John Carlyle workd the front desk
& Eleanor Powell told tales
to a dinner of cinephiles
in the Blossom Room

I sit in the lobby
listening to water bubble up
in the fountain
wondering how soon
I too will be a ghost

offline

for a while.

420

sometimes I'm so out of it...

I cdn't understand why some folks on Facebook were celebrating today. I had to look up 420 & learn abt the Waldos in the early '70s & the time of their meetings at the Pasteur statue.

o sure I smoked pot back in the day but as a non-smoker I found it unpleasant. I never really got high because it was just too difficult to hold that smoke down in my lungs. I did try hash brownies a couple of times & found that experience quite blissful.

Allen Swift (1924-2010)

altho I saw him in an O'Neill play   Swift was best known as a voice actor. he gave voice to everyone from Eisenhower to Popeye -- even Santa Claus.

but he had a special moment in tv history. he was the voice of Mr. Bluster & other characters on "The Howdy Doody Show." & for abt a year he actually was Howdy's voice.

Swift's son is actor Lewis J. Stadlen.

here's a famous cartoon for which Swift did all the voices:

weeding

is an activity which bores me so I don't do it with frequency.

but thinking is an activity which often riles me so that I need a replacement.

so for a short time today I crouchd in gravel to pick weeds from the drive. I tried to empty my mind while dirt collectd under my nails. it didn't last long.

old flannel shirts

are like comfort food
or a healer's touch

Joan Woodbury (1915-1989)

she was one of those minor actresses who always grabbd me. I think it was something abt her nose. tonite I saw her in one of her many forgotten pictures. she was as good as the script. but when she was on screen I cdn't keep my eyes off of her.

garlicphilia

to make up for yesterday

I adore garlic & when home eat at least a raw clove daily.

cilantrophobia

how wonderful to learn that Julia Child had an aversion to cilantro too.

I love to eat & dislike few edibles. but cilantro has such an awful taste to me that it can destroy an entire meal. so I'm careful to ask if it's in certain ethnic dishes. & when I do encounter it -- like Julia -- I pick it out.

spring

plus = blossoms

minus = winds

Phil & Rita & I

Kevin O'Malley took this in front of Eliza Thompson House as we were waiting for a cab to the airport yesterday

the other Mercer

Mercer House became famous because of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. long before the Jim Williams tenure however it was the residence of General Hugh Mercer. but it was his great-grandson Johnny Mercer who is ubiquitous in Savannah today. this statute was erectd in Ellis Square last year for his centennial.

you knew I had to go here

the murder took place in the room you see behind me

azalea time in Savannah

away

for a few days.

let's hear it for the flops

with the loss of Ted Hook's Backstage & Barrymore's I guess the only theater restaurant from my past that's still around is Joe Allen.

the wall on the restaurant side is a sort of Hall of Fame for Broadway flops. here is a display of the posters of those shows.

what in the hell

is wrong with airlines?

on the heels of this carry-on fee comes news that an Irish airline is considering a fee to use the restrooms.

maybe we shd all pee in the aisles.

I've never

flown on Spirit Airlines & I hope I never will. they are going to charge for CARRY-ON luggage.

according to BlogPulse

every day there are some 40000 new blogs.

mugs

"Morning Cantata"

train whistling past General Industries
wakes me in my boyhood bedroom

Dad’s snore is base line
clock’s metronome numbers my pulse

cars drone down Broad St
while I await twack of Plain Dealer on porch

I flail under sheets
hearing a morning long ago:

Mom hiding Disney figurines
around living room

& later telling her little boy
they were left by the Easter bunny

musics past & present
collide in my ears

till tears blotch wrinkles
under my eyes

time to get up   gas the gridle
for Dad to flip flapjacks


(reprintd from Elyria: Point A in "Ohio Triangle"
publishd by Crisis Chronicles Press in 2009)

Easter cheese

I don't have the family recipe. but it's a favorite boyhood memory of that holiday.

Mom & Dad broke many eggs into a large pot to which they'd add milk & cinnamon. that's all the ingredients I remember. after it came to curdle the contains were pourd into a cheesecloth which was hung from a door handle overnite.

I no longer recall if it was the taste of the cheese or the experience of its making which was more important.

art openings

Steve Bogdanoff


Lance Letscher

national poetry month

& many folk out there writing a poem a day all month. I first did that 40 years ago & feel no need to try again.

but I do feel a need to write something abt poetry. I rarely do because it always sounds so presumptious. there are poets who proclaim & pontificate until I get a headache.

I suspose my avoidance of manifestos can be interpretd as shallowness. abt the only glorious thing abt aging is that I don't care much abt what people think. I've been at this poetry thing for such a long time I trust that what I'm doing is authentic.

I think I wantd to write something abt poetry because last week in Las Vegas I experiencd one of those rare rushes -- 3 poems in one nite. I felt so giddy I cdn't sleep.

what spring produces a poem? I honestly don't know. there are times when I've ploppd down before a pad & made myself write. some of those results were instant meals for the wastebasket. other times I'm walking to the gym & a poem begins. I allow it to go where it needs to go. that means that sometimes it's raw autobiography & sometimes fanciful fiction   pieces of rainbow or shards of beer bottles.

an early criticism of my work was that it hemorrhagd language. when young we tend to imitate those we admire -- whether wearing the jeans & red jacket of James Dean or pilfering the dictionary of Hart Crane. altho some of those word-heavy pieces from my beginnings make me wince I can't deny they're mine. today I tend to write a starker verse altho I admit that a word can still make me hard.

I've been writing poems for at least a half century & it's still a mystery to me. I appreciate the kind of rush I had last week & respect the occasional lull. I like some poems better than others. I don't have the hubris to believe I'm writing for a society or even a generation. I'm just me doing what I have to do.

again

pollen plus wind

TV Guide

James Robert Parish -- knowing of my friendship with silent screen star Lois Wilson -- brightend my morning by sending me a pdf of the 1st issue of TV Guide which featurd Lois & her good friend Gloria Swanson on the cover.

I can almost hear the trivia experts gasp. they say everyone knows that Desi Arnaz Jr. was on the 1st cover in 1953:



well it gets complicatd. yes that was the 1st national issue of TV Guide. however it began in NYC 5 years earlier with Lois & Gloria as the original cover girls. (price of that issue was a dime. today a copy is worth $3000.) also in 1948 there were similar regional publications in Chicago & Philadelphia. the 3 mergd to form the national publication.

for a year or so during my teens I sent the magazine's covers to its subjects asking for autographs. among my papers at Kent State are signd covers from Steve Allen & Bennett Cerf   Bob Hope & Ricky Nelson. & I kept one as a personal souvenir: Walt Disney.

& one last Rhyolite image

at the bottle house

"what I was told was the whorehouse"

"the fragment of a bank"

Death is one step away

the year after
Shorty & Ed
found gold there
in 1904
the town of Rhyolite
was establishd

by 1908
its popultion
was 10000

in 1910
the mines faild

in 1920
its population
was 20

in 2010
I walkd
its dirt roads

the fragment
of a bank
had the feel
of a Greek ruin

what I was told
was the whorehouse
stood breathless

at the cemetery
I left a penny
for the dead
then departd
with friends
for a big city

we laughd
over salads
then lookd
both ways
before
crossing
the street

been crying

almost since I got here & I don't even gamble.

pollen is fierce. couple that with these winds.

a good day

another fabulous breakfast at Hash House a Go Go with my buds Darryl & Gary. then we went to a ghost town near Death Valley. pix when I return.

spent

1st part of day at City Center. this 66-acre playground on the strip in Las Vegas isn't totally complete but enuf is open to get an idea of it. I'm not much of a shopper but it's a fun place.

snow so
went west

Cherie DeCastro (1922-2010)

I was 11 when "Teach Me Tonight" was a huge success & one of my favorites. the record was the only major hit by the DeCastro Sisters but fixd them forever in my memory bank.

the group began as a sort of Cuban version of the Andrews Sisters. they appeard in a Carmen Miranda movie & "Over the Santa Fe Trail" later making their mark as headliners in Las Vegas. but "Teach Me Tonight" is their legacy.

I can't find my 45 of the song but did dig out this picture from that time which I got from a Cleveland radio station.



Cherie -- who was once married to cowboy star Monte Hale -- was the last surviving sister of the trio.

another day in DC

the noise of the crowd woke John Boehner. he rose from the tanning bed like Dracula from his coffin & lookd at the people. Boehner began to bellow abt deficits when one of the crowd spit on him. a look of shock came over his face. then he began to cry. Eric Cantor -- who happend to be nearby -- came running over. he cleand up the spit with his hanky then huggd Boehner. "faggots" the crowd began to yell.

Boehner & Cantor lookd at each other in horror & began to run. the darker of the two got out his phone & calld Mitch McConnell for help.

"the American people do not want me to take this call" McConnell sd & hung up.

he knew Michele Bachman had a home in the area & calld her. she answerd from the fallout shelter in her backyard. when Boehner askd for help she sd "but you told me to always say no."

"call Rush" Cantor told the man with the dark skin. Boehner punchd in that number. a woman answerd. "I'm sorry. Mr. Limbaugh is on his way to Costa Rica."

Mamie & me

what a wonderful surprise to find myself making a quick cameo (at 3:10) in this video.

Joe Bonamassa at the Lensic

the teabaggers must feel proud

at today's demonstrations in DC they yelld the most despicable epithets at John Lewis & at Barney Frank.

on the way back

from errands this ayem I saw large paw marks in mud along my arroyo. cd these be from the mountain lion? do I live dangerously while simply walking?

some days

I'm full of so much but it won't filter into a poem. today is like that.

on the way home from the gym I walkd the street where a mountain lion was caught yesterday. online I followd Dan Choi chaining himself to a White House fence & being arrestd but when I watchd the evening news there was nothing abt that. I keep waiting for the NY Times to report on Todd Moore's death. I keep waiting for Republicans to say yes   for teabaggers to stop shouting   for the rodent pope to react to the video of that ancient Brazilian priest having sex with an altar boy.

my head is all over the place today. no idea lasts.

I think I'll settle down with a Joan Blondell DVD & a bag of M&Ms.

green chilis
in
my breakfast burrito

like the old days

so much of what I publish is online that the appearance of a print magzine is rare.

from Tony Trigilio in today's mail came a copy of the new issue of Court Green. the dossier section is on the 1970s. not only does it include a hay(na)ku of mine but also "Two Poems Written in April, 1970" by my professor & friend Jacob Leed. & a reprint of "The Day the Audience Walked Out on Me, and Why." Denise Levertov wrote that poem after a phone call from me. I originally publishd it in the 1971 portfolio Six Poems / Seven Prints & reprintd it in the 1992 anthology A Gathering of Poets. my co-editor on that last project was Maggie Anderson who also has a poem in this section.

cactus under snow

up

at 6 (which because of the goddamnd time change is really 5) & into the white to dig out from our newest snowdump.

guess what?

it's snowing again.

e-mail

something goofy is going on with my ISP & I'm currently unable to use mail.

more memories

Todd & Barbara (with Mark Weber) on their 1st visit to my house (july 1994)


Todd -- author of Dillinger -- with John Ericson -- who once playd Pretty Boy Floyd. at one of my xmas gatherings.

my plan for today

was to see "Alice in Wonderland." then I got the phone call from Jason Moore with the terrible news abt his father. didn't feel like the movies.

however I rememberd at our last lunch Todd & I had a lively conversation abt Johnny Depp -- an actor we both admire. Todd loved the movies as much as I do. so I went.

Todd Moore (1937-2010)

as he appears in Tie One On

so weary of this winter

even walking to the gym is a chore. like being back in Ohio.

dream of a high school classmate appearing on the cover of a book is interruptd. it seems it's time to awake. I lift the shade & outside is snow. white draped on my backyard like the black mantilla on Lila Lee in one of my favorite movie stills. I struggle into clothes & leave the house. a few doors down Rita has shoveld her way free. her dog Cinco runs to meet me. I finish the small patch of driveway she left. inside I flip on the news. another young actor dead of an overdose. cereal & coffee. call to Mom who reports a beautiful day in Elyria.

I've made the decision to be lazy & not trek to the gym. instead I'll write checks for bills. the grocery store is near. they have a sale on strawberries. I think strawberries will keep my mind off a winter I want so badly to expire.

think I'll run for Congress

so I can take showers with Rahm Emmanuel

neighborhood watch

spent the evening at city hall meeting with reps from local law enforcement

Paul Metcalf (1917-1999)

someone needs to begin a biography of this important writer while the people who knew him are still alive.

to keep the flame aglow I've begun a fan page for him on Facebook.

I used to be

the world's biggest awards junkie.

it startd when I was a kid. Mom let me take a nap after school so I cd stay up to watch Judy Garland win the Academy Award at the 1955 ceremony. she lost. that shd've told me something. but I was too young & didn't understand politics & commerce & the other things that shape awards. I was so young I thot they were abt art & talent.

in the ensuing decades I watchd every award show on tv. I went to the Tonys twice & the Grammys twice. & in 1981 I walkd the red carpet at Dorothy Chandler Pavillion & was there when Spacek & DeNiro took home the gold.

I can't pinpoint when I began to sour abt awards. I suspect it's all part of aging. we look deep & feel deeper. things that were important become less so. & things we take for grantd become precious.

along the way I had to wonder why the academy faild to give its best director statuette to Hitchcock or Altman   why the Pulitzer people bypassd Frank O'Hara   why the Nobel never went to Tennessee Williams.

I admit I still reluctantly tune in to several award broadcasts. am I looking for cheap entertainment or a return to my youth? for the most part they turn my stomach. even after I dismissd the Oscars as the crap they are I felt the Independent Spirit Awards had some integrity & a fun presentation. yesterday's broadcast was so dismal. a bunch of drunks in a room saying whatever tumbld from their caws.

yes I'll watch the Oscars tomorrow. it's like a train wreck. but the academy's decision to increase the best picture noms to 10 was such a blatant move to make more money. however one must reflect that these awards were inventd to boost box office. they have never been abt art or talent. just ask Judy Garland or Hitchcock or Altman.

& yes I'm getting older. awards in any field have no consequence for me anymore.

up side down outlaw

thx to Klaus for posting my new poem.

Pope Jane with the Gentlemen of Her Holiness

another quiet day

nothing unusual happening.

another married politician who votes against gay issues bustd for DUI after leaving a gay bar.

the holier-than-thou Vatican involvd in a gay prostitution scandal.

hypocrisy lies heavy on the land. so it always has & so it always will be.

interview

Tom Beckett's interview with me is getting another look.

got thru

the 2nd anniversary of Dad's death. then this morning I crossd the arroyo to the middle school to vote for mayor. leaving the school I saw a father dropping off his son. my mind went back decades & suddenly tears streamd down my face.

excerpt from a 1976 letter to Tom Meyer

SCENES FROM THE BABY PICNIC

        The inevitable outcome of marriage is babies!
        Lewis Warsh (1969)

little Anne Byrd pissing on the Metcalfs' livingroom rug & later attacking Regan Bertolette

Paul pitching a softball to Clark Coolidge who slams it past Lewis Warsh

Peter Bertolette -- lost in a pair of Paul's trunks -- swimming in the pond across the road

Sheila Granda outremembering me by naming what Paul & Nancy & I had just finished for lunch that time we first met

Bernadette Mayer breastfeeding Marie

Cecily Coolidge wondering out loud why I'm teasing her & David [Meredith] later telling her two men at the party had fallen in love with her

a word I don't want to hear for a long time

PODIUM

preparing

harvest beets Greek style

double standard

are those dumbass Canadian broadcasters who suggestd Johnny Weir take a gender test demanding same treatment for the cigar-smoking members of their country's women's hockey team?

finish
one poem
before starting another
I told myself
so full
words
ran
like blood
from my mouth

rod in a towel

my poem "In the Beginning" begins
    Richard Barthelmess wearing a barrel
    Rod LaRocque a towel
    William Haines with his trousers down

I'm referring to images in Daniel Blum's A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen -- a volume as important to my development as any work of literature. & of that trio of images the most memorable is that of LaRocque.



Rod LaRocque had the sexy kind of name Henry Willson creatd. however the actor predates Willson & that's his real name. he had a significant career in silent films. with talkies he was leading man to Joan Crawford & Barbara Stanwyck in some of their earliest features before drifting into supporting roles. his career came to an end in the Capra classic "Meet John Doe."

this still is from "The Cruise of the Jasper B." I finally saw it at the 1979 Cinecon in NYC. but I had no clear memory of it so when I saw Grapevine Video had it on DVD I orderd a copy. it's a minor film with a silly script (partially written by a young Tay Garnett). the only cast member to challenge the star is the wonderful Snitz Edwards with his pliable face. but the film belongs to LaRocque who spends its entirity wearing as little as possible.

so after decades of that still in my mind it was thrilling to see it come to life again.

in the air

on the day I discoverd 2 of the Century Dimes had gone AWOL Mark Young postd a poem for me. I didn't read it till days later. but I continue to be struck by the fact I somehow "pickd up" his long-distance thinking on 2 fronts. this isn't the first time this has happend to me but it certainly is one of the shinier examples.

to keep the synchronicity ball rolling.... last nite I was going thru the papers that accumulatd while I was away. I learnd that this weekend a trio of local performers will be doing an Andrews Sisters tribute show.

so hubba hubba Mark.

TCD rock on film

& more

may 2005: Todd Moore decorates my brick in Cathedral Park with TCD


aug 2005: Jack Ramey celebrates Myrna Loy's centennial by placing TCD on her photo in Blum's A Pictorial History of the Talkies


oct 2008: with Henry Van Dyke at Morgan Dining Room
(photo by Regina Yando)