Midnight...
I feel like the yawning cat on the post below!... Being old and staying up late should never be used in the same sentence!
I forced myself to stay awake until midnight last night so that I could go on line to listen to The Gregg Hunter Show. He's the man I mentioned in other posts who has a call in-radio show and talks about old movies and old stars and or does interviews concerning the Hollywood industry.
Last night he happened to be doing a very interesting interview with the author of "Exiles in Hollywood. His name is David Wallace. Names began to fly as I tried to keep awake enough to listen..
Otto Preminger / Alfred Hitchcock / Charles Laughton and Ellsa Lanchester / Greta Garbo / Heddy Lamar ..and on and on! The likes of these names will never be forgotten by many, but many others will never hear of them. And that is really sad.
Big name directors and actors of a time gone by... it was a time before "special effects" so the actors had to portray it all. (don't get me wrong.. i love, love, love, special effects! But only where they are really needed to enhance a story) It was a time when actors were owned by the studios, and directors ruled the production. It was a time when many actors made a "salary"..not the sort of money they make today!
For anyone interested in movies.. it was a time you should find some books and read about it!
That being said.. I could only stay awake about 40 minutes when I knew I was no longer really hearing what was being said, so I went to bed. Ohhhh, how I miss hearing that show! But I know as long as some sort of repeat of the show isn't put on at an earlier time for the East Coast, it will be seldom I manage to stay awake to hear it. And that makes me sad because hearing others speak of names that just don't come up everyday is interesting, and brings back memories of the old movies.
Just the mention of Charles Laughton, after remembering he was married to Ellsa Lanchester ( Bride of Frankenstein 1935 and she was in the movie I mentioned not long ago of "Murder By Death" 1976. Her list of credits reads 96 movies!) I then thought of Laughton's : Mutiny On the Bounty 1935 (Capt. Bligh), The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1935 ( Quasimodo ), and he was also in Spartacus in 1960 as Sempronius Gracchus. (among his movie list of 62 movies).
The stars of yesteryear worked at their craft!!
Though I will never have an opportunity to meet the likes of these sort of creative talents, I'm happy when I do get to meet or hear some that are still with us like Kevin McCarthy.
Which brings me to the fact that as of Friday I will be gone for the entire weekend to a Lord Of The Rings convention, so I will not be posting those days.. ya'll get a break!
I am happy that I will have a chance to meet and hear Sean Astin speak at this convention. I guess, without really considering it, I am a fan of his. He happened to have made a few other movies that I absolutely love. (Including LOTR of course).. and they would be Goonies, and yet another movie I've mentioned before: Rudy. I'm not much of a hand raiser to ask questions but I hope someone asks about those movies so that he will talk about them. I realize it's a LOTR convention, so it will remain the top subject of the weekend.. but dang...he sure was good in those other movies too!
I forced myself to stay awake until midnight last night so that I could go on line to listen to The Gregg Hunter Show. He's the man I mentioned in other posts who has a call in-radio show and talks about old movies and old stars and or does interviews concerning the Hollywood industry.
Last night he happened to be doing a very interesting interview with the author of "Exiles in Hollywood. His name is David Wallace. Names began to fly as I tried to keep awake enough to listen..
Otto Preminger / Alfred Hitchcock / Charles Laughton and Ellsa Lanchester / Greta Garbo / Heddy Lamar ..and on and on! The likes of these names will never be forgotten by many, but many others will never hear of them. And that is really sad.
Big name directors and actors of a time gone by... it was a time before "special effects" so the actors had to portray it all. (don't get me wrong.. i love, love, love, special effects! But only where they are really needed to enhance a story) It was a time when actors were owned by the studios, and directors ruled the production. It was a time when many actors made a "salary"..not the sort of money they make today!
For anyone interested in movies.. it was a time you should find some books and read about it!
That being said.. I could only stay awake about 40 minutes when I knew I was no longer really hearing what was being said, so I went to bed. Ohhhh, how I miss hearing that show! But I know as long as some sort of repeat of the show isn't put on at an earlier time for the East Coast, it will be seldom I manage to stay awake to hear it. And that makes me sad because hearing others speak of names that just don't come up everyday is interesting, and brings back memories of the old movies.
Just the mention of Charles Laughton, after remembering he was married to Ellsa Lanchester ( Bride of Frankenstein 1935 and she was in the movie I mentioned not long ago of "Murder By Death" 1976. Her list of credits reads 96 movies!) I then thought of Laughton's : Mutiny On the Bounty 1935 (Capt. Bligh), The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1935 ( Quasimodo ), and he was also in Spartacus in 1960 as Sempronius Gracchus. (among his movie list of 62 movies).
The stars of yesteryear worked at their craft!!
Though I will never have an opportunity to meet the likes of these sort of creative talents, I'm happy when I do get to meet or hear some that are still with us like Kevin McCarthy.
Which brings me to the fact that as of Friday I will be gone for the entire weekend to a Lord Of The Rings convention, so I will not be posting those days.. ya'll get a break!
I am happy that I will have a chance to meet and hear Sean Astin speak at this convention. I guess, without really considering it, I am a fan of his. He happened to have made a few other movies that I absolutely love. (Including LOTR of course).. and they would be Goonies, and yet another movie I've mentioned before: Rudy. I'm not much of a hand raiser to ask questions but I hope someone asks about those movies so that he will talk about them. I realize it's a LOTR convention, so it will remain the top subject of the weekend.. but dang...he sure was good in those other movies too!
posted by DesLily | 1:24 PM
3 Comments:
Ewwww weeeee, me and Sean Astin go way way back. The Goonies is like an all time favorite for me and he also made a movie back in the day called "White Water Summer" with Kevin Bacon. Those two actually carry more weight with me than the LOTR trilogy. I'm sentimental like that i guess.
As for special effects, they're getting out of hand i think. Used in moderation is good but when it's too much, it ruins the movie for me.
I watch Goonies every time it's on television! Now he has kids nearly the age he was when he made goonies!
Elsa Lanchester was a member of Theatre West for a number of years...an very eccentric marvelously talented being, she was...! I remember the very first time I saw her perform on stage back in 1947 at a WONDERFUL little theatre on La Cienga Blvd, here in L.A., called "The Turnabout Theatre"....I really should write about that because it was a most unusual theatre in evey respect...and at the same time that summer of '47, Laughten was doing a play down the street at The Coronet Theatre, "Galileo" (spelling doesn't look right...)They were quite a team of talented creative artists...!
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