Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog - Posts Tagged "mark"

Let’s go to the Movies

I grew up watching dozens of nameless faces on that giant silver screen. Saturday at the Bijou or in my case the Princess Theatre in Jackson, Georgia you’d likely see two features a western, Bulldog Drummond, a thriller serial with a cliffhanger ending, a newsreel and a couple of cartoons all for a dime. Wow – what a bargain.
Saturday was the day when we became familiar with many of those nameless faces. There was a lot of typecasting with the expected bad guys almost always playing their regular heavies roles and likewise the good folks that would eventually form a posse and go chasing the heavies.
Many of those nameless faces were among the UNCREDITED cast members that worked on ‘Gone With the Wind.’
Of the 72 players listed on the uncredited roster about two thirds could be called professional extras. Today they’re known as background performers. In 1939 most of those people were proud of their work and it showed on the set, the AD (assistant director) or the director gave them instructions as to what their action would be during the scene and they did their job without question. Some of those players owned extensive wardrobes and came to work dressed in the period the movie was depicting and they got extra pay for those costumes. There is also extra pay for special business or silent bit assignments given out on the set. And once in a while someone will be given a piece of dialogue to perform, which automatically makes that person a day player with a substantial increase in pay.
The other third of that group was made up of one-time feature players in silent films or sound that were simply past their prime while some of the younger players among them were on their way up. These people listed below will give you an idea of how the casting department followed Selznick’s guidelines and put those faces on the screen to compliment an almost perfect main cast.
Ralph Brooks was featured in ‘Smash Up’ an Oscar nominated film with Susan Hayward for best actress and Dorothy Parker for best original story. Brooks was in ‘Tulsa’ another Susan Hayward film that won an Oscar for best effects and special effects.
Eddy Chandler pops up in many films and he is prominent in Charlie Chan ‘In the Secret Service.’
Wallis Clark, Frank Coghlan Jr, Gino Corrado and Lester Dorr all had long bits and extra résumé’s.
Tommy Kelly had a brief but good run as a child actor while Si Jenks padded his long resume playing old men in westerns.
Dirk Wayne Summers had a long resume and did several episodes on ‘Golden Girls.’
Emerson Treacy, Philip Trent, Julie Ann Tuck, Ernest Whitman, Guy Wilkerson and John Ray all had long résumé’s listing small roles in feature films and TV.
George Meeker was featured in a string of movies playing disagreeable characters, the guy you loved to hate.
Charles Middleton was outstanding in the very popular Flash Gordon serial playing Ming the Merciless. Middleton played dozens of feature roles but Ming might have been the highlight of his film career.
Alberto Morin had an amazing career doing features and small parts in both movies and TV. Morin Played General Le Claire in ‘Two Mules for Sister Sara’ starring Clint Eastwood and Shirley MacLaine. Morin worked in Hellfighters with John Wayne and played scores of roles in TV including multiple episodes on ‘Dallas’ and ‘I Love Lucy.’
David Newell had an extensive background in movies and TV. Newell is best known for his role as the postman in ‘Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.’
Marjorie Reynolds came up through the ranks and at the top of her career was cast in a leading role alongside Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in the film ‘Holiday Inn.’
The three remaining names on my list all went on to have stellar acting careers and deserve TOP BILLING:
Frank Faylen, Tom Tyler and Richard Farnsworth.
Frank Faylen played the average guy in more than 200 movies and TV films. The most memorable might have been the likeable cab driver working with James Stewart in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’
Tom Tyler had a long and profitable career beginning in the silent film era. He starred in the ‘Captain Marvel’ serial and played leads in numerous B westerns and scores of feature roles in major films.
Richard Farnsworth: Farnsworth began working in film in 1937 as stuntman and actor. He achieved stardom in the 1982 film ‘The Grey Fox’ for which he won the Genie award. Then in 1999 Richard Farnsworth was nominated for an academy award as best actor for the film ‘The Straight Story.’
David Selznick demanded and got the best talent available for GWTW from stars to the minor roles and the class of those actors’ shows today when you watch the film on TV or your DVD.

Now let’s go from make-believe to one mans story -- living with Multiple Sclerosis.
The Gang’s All Here
By Chris Tatevosian

“The Monster and His Friends"
My marriage of ten years began dissolving when the “Monster” invited his friends to live in my house. If you have MS, you’ve probably met the gang. There was the kingpin, Stress, his best friend Anger and his twin, Misdirected. Of course a feeling of worthlessness was always there along with inadequacy, low self-esteem and depression. You can also add worry, anxiety and lack of communications to the mix. And all of those characters hung around and never left -- but my wife did.
Sounds like the cast of a real nightmare. At that point of my life it literally was a nightmare, and I couldn’t see myself ever waking up. MS can destroy relationships between spouses, family members and friends. Eventually I turned on a more positive attitude and wrote the book, “Life Interrupted, It’s Not All About Me,” a self-help memoir, my real life story of marriage interrupted by multiple sclerosis. It could have been any chronic illness or disability and it could have been anyone’s relationship. Still, this book is intended to help others going through a similar situation deal with the stress and hardship put on one’s relationships as a result of a chronic illness or disability.
My story is not always pretty, but it’s real. I have written this book to help others in similar situations avoid making the same mistakes that I did. You’re not alone, and there is hope when facing and dealing with the stress put on a relationship as a result of life being interrupted, as in my case by -- MS.
I got remarried last April. My new bride, Jane, is fantastic. And even though my disease is worse than during my first marriage I could not ask for more. So what’s changed? We truly have a wonderful relationship. Why is my marriage working so well now, even though my MS has continued to progress over the past eight years? I can attribute this to two factors. First, Jane is truly a special person, and second. I have written this book, which has afforded me the opportunity to slow down and examine my life. The obvious fact is, we have the choice to go through life dealing with whatever trials and tribulations we must, and deal with either a smile or a frown. Yes, we have an affliction, but that doesn’t mean we have to go through the rest of our lives ticked off at everything and everyone, and as a consequence live life in complete misery.
My wife Jane and I laugh and laugh together and at one another all the time. Sure, I have slip ups, get frustrated and angry. It happened just the other night. I became so frustrated with Jane during the middle of the morning. Actually it was 3:17 am; I have one of those giant digital alarm clocks for the legally blind. When I can’t sleep, believe me I know what time it is. You see, Jane suffers from restless leg syndrome and the other night she was kicking me in the shin, and other places all night long. BAD! Of course I have to deal with nocturnia, which means every time I wake up I have to empty my bladder. I take prescription Flomax so normally I can sleep through the night without having to get up to visit the bathroom. Needless to say, it was a long night and I was ready to yell at my wife, which I would have done in my previous marriage. So what’s the difference, what’s changed? The difference is that I have written, re-written, read and re-read my book so many times that when I do begin to slip-up it’s so obvious that I usually catch myself. Of course Jane has read the book too, so when I slip up she’s quick to point out, “Chris, I think you need to revisit page 76 “and we have a good chuckle. I never thought I would get married again. After all, who would marry damaged goods? At one point prior to my marriage I said to my wife to be, why would you marry someone with MS it’s like buying a vase with a hole in the bottom. Her response was, maybe I want it to hold dried flowers. So these dried flowers are happily married and loving every minute of it.
If you’d like to learn more about the dissolving of my first marriage and strengthen your own, please visit my web site www.lifeInterrupted-nolonger.com

Writers Notebook:
Samuel Langhorne Clemons
Mark Twain worked with words most of his life. At the age of twelve he took a job in a print shop as an apprentice. His storytelling jargon came from newspaper headlines and stories, not from the editorial pages. Twain wrote for the masses and he wrote in their vernacular, and always inserting a healthy dose of his unique sense of humor.
Mark Twain has shared a special writing tip with us, his approach to writing an autobiography. ‘Start it at no particular time in your life; talk only about the things which interest you for the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale; and turn your talk upon the new and more interesting theme that has intruded itself into your mind.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com

This Week
Let's Go to the Movies: The age of the flapper.
Wyatt Earp: First defence witness..
Writers Notebook: Tips from great artist's.

Hollywood Silents 1914-1929 (Part 9)
America and Hollywood are on the cusp of something big.

The Prohibition Amendment is ratified.
Dial telephones are introduced.
Influenza epidemic takes between 20 and 40 million lives.
Einstein's Theory of Relativity confirmed.
Chicago White Sox throw World Series.
National Negro Baseball League is formed.
The 19th Amendment, giving the vote to women, is ratified.
First radio broadcasts are heard.
Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street.
First organized professional football league is formed.
Speakeasies open around the country and the flapper age is born.
Eight Chicago White Sox are indicted for fixing the Series.

In the early Hollywood years the major show business magazine was Variety. And during the first five years Variety's Movie Section reviewed a total of four Hollywood films Birth of a Nation, Intolerance and Judith of Bethulia all D.W. Griffith films, along with a John Ford film called Hell Bent.

Variety apparently took notice of Hollywood's growing importance to the entertainment industry and during the next three years doubled their total review output to eight. Camille, Broken Blossoms, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Kid, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Sheik, The Three Musketeers, and Way Down East.
That group of films not only indicates the quality of work coming out of Hollywood, but it also gives more recognition to the actors performing in the films.
Then as if to emphasize the point three of the major stars and one pioneer producer formed United Artist Films in order to maintain some control over their work. Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith were members of that group and the top films of that time gives immediate credibility to their newly formed United Artist Film Company.

Broken Blossoms, a D.W. Griffith film cast included Lillian Gish, Donald Crisp, and Richard Barthelmess.
Camille, a Metro Film; scenario by June Mathis; heading the cast were Nazimova and Rudolph Valentino.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a Metro Film; scenario by June Mathis; cast members included Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Alan Hale, and Wallace Beery.
The Kid, a Charles Chaplin/United Artist Film; cast Charles Chaplin and child actor Jackie Coogan.
Little Lord Fauntleroy a Pickford/United Artist Film starring Mary Pickford.
The Sheik, a Paramount Picture; cast members include Agnes Ayers, Rudolph Valentino, Adolph Menjou and Walter Long.
The Three Musketeers a Fairbanks/United Artist Film; cast included Douglas Fairbanks and Adolph Menjou.
Way Down East, a Griffith/United Artist Film; cast members included Lillian Gish, Richard Barthelmess and Lowell Sherman.

Hollywood did not thrive on just a few screen stars there were others hard working actors that were gaining, almost stealthily, public recognition and support. Among that group of actors were Mable Normand, Frank Lloyd and Buster Keaton.
Mable Normand was the daughter of a vaudeville musician and grew up around show business.
She worked at Biograph with Mack Sennett and later moved to California with Sennett and became a big part of his Keystone organization. Normand became very popular with the public and worked both in front of and behind the camera. Normand worked with and directed several of the Keystone stars including Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle.

Frank Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska and grew up working in the local theater. When he later moved to California he first worked with the old Edison Motion Picture Company alongside fellow struggling actor and director Hal Roach.
Lloyd eventually earned recognition and worked in scores of silent films. In most of his films Lloyd had some kind of thrill sequence written into the story and he did many of the dangerous stunts himself. Harold Lloyd was not flashy but you can judge his success by comparing his box office figures to those of Charlie Chaplin. Over the years Lloyd's films made $15.7 million to $10.5 million for Chaplin.

Buster Keaton was born into a vaudeville family. His Father owned a traveling show that featured Harry Houdini.
Keaton began working early in silent films and his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname 'The Great Stone Face.'
Keaton was also a director and his work in front of and behind the camera won applause not only from the public but from the film community as well.

While Hollywood gins up for a new decade -- scandal looms on the horizon.
(To be continued.)

'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone' Excerpt
Spicer Hearing: 'Defense call your first witness.'
Wednesday, November 16th...
There was a dull quiet in the courtroom as the first defense witness was sworn and took the stand.
"My name is Wyatt S. Earp. I was thirty-two years old the nineteenth of last March. Born at Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois...I reside in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona and have resided here since December 1st, 1879 and at present am a saloon keeper, also have been deputy sheriff and detective."
The gawky Price unlimbered. "I object to the witness reading from a prepared statement, Your Honor."
"You're overruled, Mr. Price. The statute is very broad and court feels the accused can make any statement he pleases, whether previously prepared or not." Judge Spicer then turned to Wyatt. "Go ahead with your testimony."
Wyatt sat for a moment glaring at Ike Clanton. "First thing I'd like to do is contest Ike Clanton's big lie stating that this whole tragedy stemmed from a scheme on the part of the Earps to assassinate him and thereby bury the, confessions we were supposed to have made about, 'Piping away coin from Wells Fargo shipments.' There's not a shred of truth in that story.
Price objected. Spicer overruled.
Wyatt then calmly said, "A little over a year ago I followed Frank and Tom McLowry and two other parties who had stolen six government mules from Camp Rucker. Myself, Virge and Morgan Earp and Marshall Williams, Captain Hurst and four soldiers. We traced those mules to McLowry's ranch--.”
"Your Honor," the district attorney said, "I must respectfully move to strike the above as irrelevant. It has absolutely nothing to do with the case."
"Overruled," Judge Spicer snapped, "Continue Mr. Earp.”
(To be continued.)

Writers Notebook:
Great artist’s and writer’s plumb experience from their subconscious. Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never worked a day in his life. All his humor and writings were due to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reservoir of his subconscious mind.
Shakespeare might not have been aware of the subconscious, but he put it this way. ‘Your thoughts write on the inside, which performs experience on the outside.’
Hemingway goes a step farther in his little book ‘A Moveable Feast’ as he writes about his life in Paris during the 1920’s. ‘… It was in that room that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious mind would be working on it.’

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com