7/17/22
Newsletter44
The Ass Crack of Dawn
I enjoy seeing it go from night to day in the course of writing this newsletter.
I made an unwoke observation last night as I watched the 1970 documentary, “Woodstock.” It was hot that weekend and many of the boys are shirtless, and many of the girls are in bikini tops – nobody is fat. Half a million people; nobody’s overweight. Since most everyone was white at Woodstock, I checked out, “Wattstax” (1973), the “Black Woodstock,” which is a good documentary, and, once again, everybody is skinny. What happened to our food supply in the past 50 years?
The 1970 film, “Woodstock,” was edited by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker. Thelma has since edited most of Scorsese’s movies, and is one of the truly great editors in the business. She won an Oscar for her breathtaking editing of “Raging Bull.”
I thought that “Groovy” was a 1960s term. Many years ago I was watching, “Till the End of Time” (1946), and a boy and a girl start jitterbugging in a soda shop. The soda jerk (that’s what they called the guy behind the counter), is grinning, snapping his fingers, and proclaims, “Groovy!” So the word is at least 20 years older than I thought.
Since there is a new movie about Thor: Thor comes down from Valhalla to make love to a mortal woman, but doesn’t tell her who he is. The next day he admits, “I’m Thor.” She says, “Tho am I.”
Being a movie geek does come in handy on rare occasions. The special guest at the 1991 Houston Film Festival was the elderly Ginger Rogers in a wheelchair. I don’t care about autographs, but I got in the long autograph line just to meet her. Every single person ahead of me in that line said to Ms. Rogers, “You were great in those films with Fred Astaire.” She smiled vaguely, signed her name, mumbled, “Thank you,” and on to the next person. When I got there I said, “You were great in ‘Tight Spot’” (a snappy little crime drama from 1955). As I suspected, Ginger Rogers lit up, stopped signing autographs, and with exuberance said, “Now that was a good picture. Eddie Robinson was wonderful, and who was male lead?” I said, “Young Brian Keith.” She said, “Oh, yes, Brian. What a joy,” then she gave me her autograph.
And since I’m on the topic of annoying movie stars, I was a “guest” at a comic book convention about 10-12 years ago, and another guest was Dean Stockwell. He was there regarding some stupid sci-fi TV show he was in during the 1980s. I mainly know him as the biggest kid actor in Hollywood in the late 1940s and early ‘50s. He worked with everybody.
We first met outside the building before the convention started. I was smoking a cigarette and an extremely short person stepped up beside me with a long cigar, and it was Dean Stockwell. Without hesitation I said, “I loved ‘The Boy With Green Hair’” (a low-budget, 1948 film, directed by the soon-to-be-blacklisted, Joseph Losey). Stockwell didn’t even give me a glance, but said, “Yes, that was a good film.” I asked, “What was Joseph Losey like?” Stockwell said, “He was great. He gave me a Chihuahua dog.” I said, “Losey moved to England and made some really good films that were very British, for an American.” Dean Stockwell finally turned and looked at me, his big cigar in hand, and with an expression of deep disdain said, “He was in England due to a thing called the Blacklist, which you young people know nothing about,” and he walked away.
As it turned out, Dean’s table was across from mine. Aside from signed photos, he also sold signed plastic work lights like the one he used in “Blue Velvet.” I went over, paid him $25 for an autograph I didn’t want, and asked, “What was Gregory Peck like?” Stockwell co-starred with Peck in the 1947 Best Picture, “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” directed by Elia Kazan. Deeply bored, Stockwell said, “He was nice.” I went back to my table. I just paid 25 bucks for, “He was nice.” I went back to my table and thought. Oh, yeah, Stockwell is in “Valley of Decision” with Greer Garson. Well, folks, if I think of Greer Garson’s film debut in 1939 in “Goodbye Mr. Chips,” I still get wood. I went back and asked, “What was Greer Garson like?” He said, “She was nice.” I sat at my table fuming. For hours. And then I got it. I went back to his customerless table and said, “I directed Anthony Quinn in one of his last performances and he said that Elia Kazan was evil.” Dean Stockwell woke up. “Anthony Quinn said Elia Kazan was evil? Fuck Anthony Quinn! He was a shitty actor!” I said, grinning, “He did win two Oscars.” Stockwell yelled, “Fuck his Oscars! He was a shitty actor!”
That was worth 25 bucks.
Alas and alack, the sky is just lighting up with a pinkish hue. Red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning. My grass could use some rain.