6/14/22
Newsletter11
I woke up early at 3:30. It’s now 3:50 and it’s the middle of the night.
The first great special effects man in Hollywood was Willis O’Brien, who did the 1933 “King Kong.” Willis, even on the effects stage, always wore a bowler hat. Somewhere in the middle of an effects shot with Kong in the foreground and a miniature jungle behind him, someone spotted a full-size wrench in the miniature jungle, somewhat hidden behind miniature foliage. They had already put in many, many hours animating the shot and didn’t want to start over. So instead, Willis O’Brien cleverly animated the wrench out of the shot, frame by frame, making it crawl out of the scene. It’s not noticeable.
The only international word is “OK.” Martin Van Buren was from Kinderhook, NY, and his nickname was, “Old Kinderhook.” When he ran for president in 1837 his campaign slogan was, “Van Buren is O.K.” It was meant to mean “Old Kinderhook,” but everyone took it to mean he was good.
The youngest president of the United States was Teddy Roosevelt at 43 years old, but he wasn’t elected. He was Vice President when President McKinley was assassinated. The youngest elected president was John Kennedy at 45.
The winner of the most Supporting Actor Oscars was Walter Brennan with three. Walter Brennan’s first screen appearance was in a Three Stooges short. Lloyd Bridges and Dan Blocker from “Gunsmoke” both started in Three Stooges shorts.
In 1935 Errol Flynn went from being an extra playing a corpse in his first film, to starring in his next movie, “Captain Blood.” He was immediately voted the most popular movie star in Hollywood.
My old buddy’s old girlfriend, Diane, was sweet, very attractive, but kind of dumb in a funny way. My buddy said, “I went to San Antonio and saw the Alamo.” Diane asked, “Is that a boat?”
Artillery Captain Harry Truman fired more shells in one day during WWI than were fired by both sides during the entire Civil War.
Ronald Regan was a great . . . lifeguard. He saved 27 people’s lives during three summers as lifeguard on the Illinois River. There’s a statue there commemorating his courageous feats, made out to Ronald “Dutch” Regan. When Regan was governor of California in the 1960s, he had a party at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento. A little black girl fell in the pool. Governor “Dutch” Regan dove in and saved her, making her the 28th person he saved from drowning.
I love historical perspective. For instance, when I was born in 1958 there were 3 billion people on the planet. 63 years later there are nearly 8 billion. That’s an enormous increase.
63 years before 1958 was 1895. President Grover Cleveland was serving his second, non-consecutive, term, and is the only president to ever do that. The first auto race was held in France. The first professional football game was played in America, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. A German fellow named Rudolf Diesel invented a new kind of fuel called, uh . . . oh that’s right, Diesel fuel. Notable births that year were: J. Edgar Hoover, Babe Ruth, Lorenz Hart, Hattie McDaniel, Jack Dempsey, Paul Muni (two-time Oscar-winner, whose real name was Muni Weisenfreund), Buster Keaton and Busby Berkely.
In the “I didn’t know they were Jewish” category, I found out yesterday that the lead singer of the Ramones, Joey Ramone, was Jewish. His real name was Jeffry Ross Hyman. I had no idea that both Kirk and Spock were Jewish until about ten years ago.
When I arrived in New Zealand in 1993 to work on Hercules, Mickey Rooney had just been there shooting the “Black Stallion” TV series. Everybody agreed that he was an astounding asshole. The camera department cleverly named a camera move after him. If you push the camera very slowly toward an actor, they named it “A Mickey Rooney” because it’s a little creep.
It’s 5:05 and the tiny bit of blue in the sky is beginning to silhouette the trees.
May the force be with you.