12 November 2008

I have existd in several landscapes

one of the richest for me is Hollywood. I walk the streets whenever I'm able. & when I'm unable I walk the streets in their replication on screen.

the 1st movie I remember seeing is "The Wizard of Oz." many years after that initial screening I was there to hear Judy Garland sing "Over the Rainbow." I was there to see Margaret Hamilton on stage. I was there to walk the backlot of MGM where that cast had walkd. I ate in the Culver City hotel where the Munchkins lived. I walkd among the surviving Munchkins just last year. that movie & its endless ripples are as much a part of my life as any person or event.

I used to worry abt writing so much abt Hollywood. abt movies. abt "stars" so few now remember. but I remember & that's what I want to write abt. so I can put Eddie Quillan on a street corner. I can make Virginia Grey a cigaret girl in a posh nite club. I can declare Howard Wendell a moment. I live in the movies. & as I age I'm no less a fan than that boy who awkwardly offerd his autograph book to Denise Darcel in front of the Capitol Theater on Broad St in Elyria.

I'll stop writing abt Hollywood when they put dimes on my eyes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

People have no taste. Do it and forget about them, that's my advice to artists. (Literally quoting myself.)

We can't choose what we care about, what stimulates us to (hate the word) "art." I don't believe there is a non-biographical artist.