6/22/22
Newsletter19
It’s 5:29, the sky is already brightening, and the silhouettes of the trees are visible.
Dorothy Parker, writer, wit, bon vivant, was reviewing theater in New York in the early 1930s. She saw Katherine Hepburn in her first starring role on Broadway in 1931. Dorothy Parker was so unimpressed that she wrote, “Newcomer Katherine Hepburn covered the gamut of emotions, from A to B.”
At the premiere of Otto Preminger’s three-hour film, “Exodus,” about the Jews coming to Palestine after WWII, NY critic Robert Benchley stood up after two-and-a-half hours, turned to Preminger and said, “Otto, let my people go.”
Frank Capra’s early talkie, “Dirigible,” in 1931, took place in the Antarctic. They shot in a refrigerated warehouse in L.A., but it wasn’t cold enough to see their steaming breath. Since the actors were wearing furry hoods, the FX department came up with little wire mesh cages with dry ice in them to breathe through that were hidden by the hoods. The system didn’t work very well, so one of the actors said, “I know what will work better,” removed the hunk of dry ice from the cage and put it in his mouth. He subsequently had to have his jaw amputated.
Cinematographer Ernest Haller won two Oscars, one for “Gone With the Wind.” He wound up his long career in television shooting, among other things, several episodes of the original “Star Trek” series.
Henry Hathaway was a terrific director, but renowned as an asshole. While shooting a western in the early 1950s, the lead Indian was played by young Ricardo Montalban, who told this story as an old man in a wheelchair. Montalban fell off his horse onto sharp rocks and injured his back. Henry Hathaway, being the understanding man he was, went over to Montalban who was prostrate on the ground screaming in pain. Hathaway began kicking him in the back and yelling, “You Goddamn spics are worthless.” Montalban ended up with permanent spine damage, finally putting him in a wheelchair.
A week into shooting the 1959 version of “Ben Hur,” my favorite director, William “40-Take” Wyler, stepped up the Charleton Heston frowning. Heston asked what was wrong, and Wyler shook his head sadly and said, “Chuck, you’re just not good enough.” Heston asked, “What can I do about it?” Wyler shook his head, said, “I don’t know,” and walked away. Carleton Heston won the Oscar for Best Actor that year.
On “Jezebel” in 1938, young Henry Fonda (in his breakthrough part), did a scene and Wyler just kept making him do it over and over again with no direction, simply saying, “Again.” Finally, after about 40 takes, Fonda broke down and whimpered to Wyler, “Willy, I’ve done it standing, sitting, smoking, happy, sad, what’s wrong with it?” Wyler said, “It stinks, do it again.”
The only sister and brother to win Oscars were Warren Beatty and Shirley Mclaine. He father and daughter to win Oscars were Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie.
The great sports announcer, Jim Lamply, once said during a boxing match, “Ah-ha! The fulcrum turns.” Well, the fulcrum doesn’t move; the teeter-totter sits on top of it.
After Muhammed Ali (then Cassius Clay) beat Sonny Liston the second time, he entered the locker room looking glum. Howard Cossell said, “Cassius, you seem truculent.” Ali perked up and said, “Howard, I don’t know what that means, but if it means good, I’m that.”
It’s a sunny day.