Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog, page 2
October 27, 2010
Robert Sherwood and Gunfight at the OK Corral
This Week
Robert E. Sherwood and The Round Table
Shootout at the OK Corral
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck
Escape from Vanity Fair
When Dorothy Parker was fired by Vanity Fair for a review indiscretion, Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood both resigned and joined Dotty in her perp walk straight to The Algonquin Round Table.
Sherwood was six feet eight inches tall. Dorothy Parker described the threesome this way. 'When we walked down the street together, Sherwood six-feet-eight, Benchley six-feet, I'm five-feet-four, we looked like a moving pipe organ.'
Robert Sherwood had no trouble finding writing or editing assignments, his problem was that he didn't want to make a career out of that kind of work. What he wanted to do was write plays, but he found himself in a self imposed rut.
One day during a general conversation with Edna Ferber Robert brought up the subject. He told her that he wanted to write plays and that he had started work on several projects, but with his regular work piling up and racing around from one job to another he never could finish anything. He needed to find a way to get some order in his life and maybe find some kind of peace and quiet.
'Sounds like you need a vacation. Why don't you break your routine and get out of town for a while.'
For the next several days he thought about what Edna had said and within a week he boarded a train for Kansas City. Then he settled into a small apartment, worked out a routine of research and study spending a lot of that time at the library. He made notes and and eventually returned to one of the projects he had given up on earlier. Then it suddenly started to happen, those notes began to take form and he found himself writing freely about a subject that had escaped him earlier.
Robert Sherwood's retreat produced two three act plays 'The Road to Rome' and 'The Love Nest.'
'The Road to Rome' was a comedy about Hannibal’s botched invasion of Rome. The play opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theater on January 31, 1927 got excellent reviews and had a successful run.
'The Love Nest' opened in December 1927, got tepid reviews and played for 23 performances. Fortunately the Road to Rome had made its mark and gave Sherwood the confidence he needed to write and write he did.
He wrote 14 plays for Broadway and more than half of them were adapted for movies.
Robert Sherwood won three Pulitzer prizes for his plays, 'Idiots Delight,' 'Abe Lincoln of Illinois' and 'There shall be no night.'
Among those plays adapted for movies was 'The Petrified Forest,' starring Leslie Howard, Betty Davis and Humphrey Bogart.'
The role of Duke Mantee, a bitter and complex sociopath, made Bogart a movie star, and his performance helped to define the way Hollywood would portray gangsters in the future.
Sherwood was a sought after Hollywood screenwriter and was on David Selznick's A list. Selznick assigned Robert Sherwood to work with Joan Harrison and adapt Rebecca, the novel into a screenplay. Alfred Hitchcock directed the film.
Excerpt from Variety's review of Rebecca: 'Picture is noteworthy for its literal translation of Daphne du Maurier's novel to the screen, presenting all the somberness and the dramatic tragedy of the book.'
Rebecca was nominated for 11Oscars in 1940: David Selznick won for Best Picture, and George Barnes for Best Cinematography in Black and White.
Sherwood and Harrison were nominated for Best Screenplay but didn't win.
During the war years Sherwood's patriotism led him to Washington where he did a number of jobs including speech writer for President Roosevelt. He recounted those war years in a book 'Roosevelt and Hopkins,' for which he won his fourth Pulitzer prize.
And in certain respects being at the nerve center of the war set him up perfectly for his next work assignment in Hollywood. Samuel Goldwyn Robert Sherwood to write the screenplay for, 'The Best Years of Our Lives': The film received 9 Oscar nominations and won 8 of the 9. Best Picture, Best Actor, Fredric March, Best Director, William Wyler, Best Screenplay, Robert Sherwood, Best Supporting Actor, Harold Russell and several technical awards.
(To be continued) Next week will be a potpourri of stories about Algonquin Round Table regulars and a few irregulars.
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone
Excerpt: Shootout at the OK Corral
Tombstone, Arizona October 26, 1881
Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday stand in the intersection of Fourth and Allen:
Virgil turned to Doc and asked, "Can you manage without the cane?"
"Sure thing, its just window dressing anyway."
"Then give it to me and you take this short Parker and keep it under your coat," Virgil then smiled and said judiciously, "I'm makin' you a deputy, Doc."
Doc nodded, they made the exchange and in one motion, he snapped the Parker open and saw two bran new double-ought buckshot shells in place. He closed the piece and adjusted his coat to cover the shotgun.
Virgil gazed toward Frank and Johnny standing at the other end of the block and finally signaled it was time to move. He took the lead and walked slowly up the middle of Fourth Street. Wyatt was on his left. Doc followed three paces behind Wyatt with Morgan to his right.
The physical activity of walking broke the tension and they all seemed relaxed as they sauntered up Fourth Street.
The Tombstone grapevine had been most effective in clearing the streets. Eyes peered out from every window on the block, beginning with Haffords Corner Saloon on the near end all the way up to the Post Office.
George Spangenberg stood beside a half opened door to his gun shop and Virgil called to him, "George, do those fellows have guns?"
George answered with an affirmative nod and a frown. In a vacant lot half way up the block Wes Fuller, an obvious lookout, leaned on a fence post between the Zeckendorf Building and the New Orleans Saloon, surveyed the four for a time then turned and ran toward the OK Corral.
As the Earps and Holliday marched along, Virgil gave a friendly salute with the cane to Sol Israel, standing on the sidewalk in front of his Union News Depot. Sol’s return gesture was one of strict neutrality.
Doc had trouble getting that cup of coffee off his mind and wasn't helped much by the smell of cooking mixed with the aroma of coffee coming from the New Orleans Restaurant kitchen.
Everyone in the group saw the worried look on Millie's face as she pulled the curtains aside and gazed out the front window of the restaurant. Doc smiled and thought, lighten up Millie. Morgan winked at the cute little waitress and got a half grin in return.
Sheriff Behan and Frank McLowry moved away from the intersection and hurried west.
The Earps and Holliday continued their pace, as they turned left into Fremont Street following the path taken by the sheriff and Frank McLowry..
Virgil extended his lead by a half dozen steps as they proceeded west. Doc slowed his pace a bit, giving the group a more spread out formation.
A ring hanger-on, Billy Allen, crouched beside a pile of lumber next to the Papago Cash Store. Doc gave Billy a withering look that froze him in place.
Johnny Behan ran back toward the group, waving his hands and shouting, “Earp, for God's sakes, don't go down there, they will murder you."
Virgil calmly said, "Johnny, I'm going down to disarm them."
"I've disarmed them," Behan said nervously.
"Did you arrest them?" Morgan asked.
"Well, sort of," the sheriff muttered without conviction.
"Sort of what?" Doc questioned.
The sheriff looked anxiously toward the cowboys as the Earps and Holliday brushed past him without breaking stride.
Wyatt, Morgan and Doc closed ranks and caught up to Virgil.
The cowboys stood in a vacant lot, looking hostile and defiant.
Virgil stopped at the edge of Fly's boardinghouse. A half dozen paces from the cowboys. Wyatt took a position six feet past the chief of police. Morgan continued to a spot near the Harwood House and Doc filled the gap between Wyatt and Morgan.
The lookout, Wes Fuller, ran south across the block and disappeared past the OK Corral. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne held tentative positions near the boarding house wall, facing Virgil. Then strung out in an irregular line across the front of the lot were Billy Clanton, Tom McLowry and Frank McLowry. Tom stood nearly hidden behind Frank's horse.
Doc calmly looked over the opposition lineup. With the exception of the two men in front of Virgil, they were all even man for man.
Billy Claiborne turned pale and cowered behind Ike Clanton.
Virgil knew he was bucking the odds for a peaceful settlement, but holding Doc's cane out like an olive branch, he said, "Throw up your hands boy’s! I've come to disarm you."
Frank McLowry and Billy Clanton answered by drawing their six-guns.
"Hold on now. I don't mean that," Virgil said calmly, "I've come to disarm you."
Billy Claiborne grabbed Ike's coattails for a moment, then lost his nerve and bolted toward Fly's Photograph Gallery.
Virgil saw a glimmer of hope as cold sweat broke over Ike Clanton's face and he threw up his hands.
Hope was short lived though -- Frank McLowry and Billy Clanton leveled their pistols and commenced to cock the hammers.
Wyatt and Morgan responded to the outlaws by drawing their own six-guns.
Tom McLowry struggled to steady Frank's horse by holding onto the saddle girth and at the same time reaching for the Winchester in the scabbard. When he was unable to get a hand on the rifle he went for the revolver that he had concealed in his right front pocket.
Doc followed Tom McLowry with the Parker tucked in the crook of his left arm. Then he drew his Colt thirty-eight with his right hand. Fish or cut bait.
Doc's pulse quickened and he fixed his concentration on Billy Clanton's trigger finger... watched it tighten then just as the hammer respond Doc’s thirty-eight flashed a quick preemptive strike on Billy's forty-five.
Doc scored a hit on Billy's right wrist. And at that same instant, a shot from another angle doubled young Clanton over and drove him backwards with a slug to his belly.
Sweat poured off Ike Clanton's face. He grabbed Wyatt's coat collar and whined, "I'm not armed, please don't kill me."
“Either fight or get out, Ike!" Wyatt shouted over the din of gunfire.
Ike Clanton turned and ran away, leaving his brother and the McLowry’s to do his fighting.
Tom McLowry hid behind the horse, but poked his revolver over the animals’ loin, fired and hit Morgan Earp with a searing shot that traced across his upper back. Morg yelled as he fell to the ground. But like a stunned fighter, he bounced right back to his feet.
Close gunfire spooked Tom's cover. The horse bucked and jerked the reins out of Frank McLowry's hands and raced east on Fremont Street. Tom McLowry stood exposed and panic stricken, but quickly collected his wits and aimed again at Morgan.
Doc read Tom's sight line and took his own measure as he squeezed the triggers and fired both barrels of the Parker.
Tom McLowry reeled from the buckshot's impact; recovered, grabbed his bloody chest, then shuffled forward, staggered and fell bleeding into Fremont Street.
Doc glanced at the fallen cowboy, then turned to his left only to be looking down the muzzle of Frank McLowry's forty-five. Doc tossed the empty shotgun away, ducked and wheeled into a crouch position. Dammit! He felt the hot sting of Frank's bullet and an unmistakable sharp pain. But he was still on his feet and stared directly into the shooter's eyes.
Doc, Wyatt and Morg zeroed in on the outlaw and all three guns exploded as one, and Frank's body immediately bent and jerked like a broken piñata before falling hard onto the dusty street.
A chilly wind swirled, but the gun smoke hovered and clung head high above the place. In less than thirty seconds it was over. The only action left was a blood soaked Billy Clanton, sitting on the ground, glassy eyed, waving his forty-five and searching for a target.
Buck Fly came out of his boarding house and mercifully took the gun out of Billy's hands.
Frank and Tom McLowry appeared to be dead and Billy Clanton was bleeding to death from his several wounds.
Virgil and Morgan Earp, wounded, gritted their teeth and suffered the pain.
Doc determined his own hit was no hit at all, but a ricochet off his gun belt that had caused a painful bruise.
Numerous bullets pierced the skirt of Wyatt's coat, but he didn't have a scratch.
The acrid and pungent smell of gunpowder had not had time to dissipate when Johnny Behan came out of hiding, counted the dead and realized the street fight had been a disaster for the ring-cowboy faction.
Behan's alternative was to put the ring's backup plan on the table. Blame the Earps and Holliday. Show them to be the culpable party and the cowboy’s as innocent victims.
The sheriff got the attention of the lawmen with a sneering smile, and a tone designed to infect the gathering crowd, announced, "I'll have to arrest you."
"We won't be arrested today," was Wyatt’s terse reply. “We're right here and we're not going away. You have deceived us, Johnny. You lied to us, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Johnny Behan backed down and quickly made a hasty retreat.
Virgil limped over to the front doorstep of the boarding house, squeezed his right leg and grimaced with pain. Morgan stood nearby, bent over, breathing heavily and hurting.
Doc ignored his own pain as he observed the predicament of his friends. "Somebody grab a bandanna and tie a tourniquet around Virg's leg."
Mr. Comstock took a kerchief out of his pocket and tied it into place. "I don't understand the sheriff saying what he did. Couldn't he see you fellows were just doing your job?"
Morgan stood upright, put his arm around Doc and leaned on him for support.
Wyatt called out, "Somebody go for Dr. Goodfellow. Tell him to meet us at Keatney's Pharmacy.”
(To Be Continued)
Writers Notebook:
John Steinbeck: If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it – bypass it and go on. When you’ve finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave you trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
If you’re using dialogue say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Here’s another wrinkle on Steinbeck’s dialogue line. Use his method, but when you’re finished take a little cassette tape recorder and record those pieces of dialogue you’re working on and play them back. Take it from me; you’ll know if they sound real or not.
Tom's Books and Blogs:
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
Robert E. Sherwood and The Round Table
Shootout at the OK Corral
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck
Escape from Vanity Fair
When Dorothy Parker was fired by Vanity Fair for a review indiscretion, Robert Benchley and Robert E. Sherwood both resigned and joined Dotty in her perp walk straight to The Algonquin Round Table.
Sherwood was six feet eight inches tall. Dorothy Parker described the threesome this way. 'When we walked down the street together, Sherwood six-feet-eight, Benchley six-feet, I'm five-feet-four, we looked like a moving pipe organ.'
Robert Sherwood had no trouble finding writing or editing assignments, his problem was that he didn't want to make a career out of that kind of work. What he wanted to do was write plays, but he found himself in a self imposed rut.
One day during a general conversation with Edna Ferber Robert brought up the subject. He told her that he wanted to write plays and that he had started work on several projects, but with his regular work piling up and racing around from one job to another he never could finish anything. He needed to find a way to get some order in his life and maybe find some kind of peace and quiet.
'Sounds like you need a vacation. Why don't you break your routine and get out of town for a while.'
For the next several days he thought about what Edna had said and within a week he boarded a train for Kansas City. Then he settled into a small apartment, worked out a routine of research and study spending a lot of that time at the library. He made notes and and eventually returned to one of the projects he had given up on earlier. Then it suddenly started to happen, those notes began to take form and he found himself writing freely about a subject that had escaped him earlier.
Robert Sherwood's retreat produced two three act plays 'The Road to Rome' and 'The Love Nest.'
'The Road to Rome' was a comedy about Hannibal’s botched invasion of Rome. The play opened on Broadway at the Playhouse Theater on January 31, 1927 got excellent reviews and had a successful run.
'The Love Nest' opened in December 1927, got tepid reviews and played for 23 performances. Fortunately the Road to Rome had made its mark and gave Sherwood the confidence he needed to write and write he did.
He wrote 14 plays for Broadway and more than half of them were adapted for movies.
Robert Sherwood won three Pulitzer prizes for his plays, 'Idiots Delight,' 'Abe Lincoln of Illinois' and 'There shall be no night.'
Among those plays adapted for movies was 'The Petrified Forest,' starring Leslie Howard, Betty Davis and Humphrey Bogart.'
The role of Duke Mantee, a bitter and complex sociopath, made Bogart a movie star, and his performance helped to define the way Hollywood would portray gangsters in the future.
Sherwood was a sought after Hollywood screenwriter and was on David Selznick's A list. Selznick assigned Robert Sherwood to work with Joan Harrison and adapt Rebecca, the novel into a screenplay. Alfred Hitchcock directed the film.
Excerpt from Variety's review of Rebecca: 'Picture is noteworthy for its literal translation of Daphne du Maurier's novel to the screen, presenting all the somberness and the dramatic tragedy of the book.'
Rebecca was nominated for 11Oscars in 1940: David Selznick won for Best Picture, and George Barnes for Best Cinematography in Black and White.
Sherwood and Harrison were nominated for Best Screenplay but didn't win.
During the war years Sherwood's patriotism led him to Washington where he did a number of jobs including speech writer for President Roosevelt. He recounted those war years in a book 'Roosevelt and Hopkins,' for which he won his fourth Pulitzer prize.
And in certain respects being at the nerve center of the war set him up perfectly for his next work assignment in Hollywood. Samuel Goldwyn Robert Sherwood to write the screenplay for, 'The Best Years of Our Lives': The film received 9 Oscar nominations and won 8 of the 9. Best Picture, Best Actor, Fredric March, Best Director, William Wyler, Best Screenplay, Robert Sherwood, Best Supporting Actor, Harold Russell and several technical awards.
(To be continued) Next week will be a potpourri of stories about Algonquin Round Table regulars and a few irregulars.
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone
Excerpt: Shootout at the OK Corral
Tombstone, Arizona October 26, 1881
Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday stand in the intersection of Fourth and Allen:
Virgil turned to Doc and asked, "Can you manage without the cane?"
"Sure thing, its just window dressing anyway."
"Then give it to me and you take this short Parker and keep it under your coat," Virgil then smiled and said judiciously, "I'm makin' you a deputy, Doc."
Doc nodded, they made the exchange and in one motion, he snapped the Parker open and saw two bran new double-ought buckshot shells in place. He closed the piece and adjusted his coat to cover the shotgun.
Virgil gazed toward Frank and Johnny standing at the other end of the block and finally signaled it was time to move. He took the lead and walked slowly up the middle of Fourth Street. Wyatt was on his left. Doc followed three paces behind Wyatt with Morgan to his right.
The physical activity of walking broke the tension and they all seemed relaxed as they sauntered up Fourth Street.
The Tombstone grapevine had been most effective in clearing the streets. Eyes peered out from every window on the block, beginning with Haffords Corner Saloon on the near end all the way up to the Post Office.
George Spangenberg stood beside a half opened door to his gun shop and Virgil called to him, "George, do those fellows have guns?"
George answered with an affirmative nod and a frown. In a vacant lot half way up the block Wes Fuller, an obvious lookout, leaned on a fence post between the Zeckendorf Building and the New Orleans Saloon, surveyed the four for a time then turned and ran toward the OK Corral.
As the Earps and Holliday marched along, Virgil gave a friendly salute with the cane to Sol Israel, standing on the sidewalk in front of his Union News Depot. Sol’s return gesture was one of strict neutrality.
Doc had trouble getting that cup of coffee off his mind and wasn't helped much by the smell of cooking mixed with the aroma of coffee coming from the New Orleans Restaurant kitchen.
Everyone in the group saw the worried look on Millie's face as she pulled the curtains aside and gazed out the front window of the restaurant. Doc smiled and thought, lighten up Millie. Morgan winked at the cute little waitress and got a half grin in return.
Sheriff Behan and Frank McLowry moved away from the intersection and hurried west.
The Earps and Holliday continued their pace, as they turned left into Fremont Street following the path taken by the sheriff and Frank McLowry..
Virgil extended his lead by a half dozen steps as they proceeded west. Doc slowed his pace a bit, giving the group a more spread out formation.
A ring hanger-on, Billy Allen, crouched beside a pile of lumber next to the Papago Cash Store. Doc gave Billy a withering look that froze him in place.
Johnny Behan ran back toward the group, waving his hands and shouting, “Earp, for God's sakes, don't go down there, they will murder you."
Virgil calmly said, "Johnny, I'm going down to disarm them."
"I've disarmed them," Behan said nervously.
"Did you arrest them?" Morgan asked.
"Well, sort of," the sheriff muttered without conviction.
"Sort of what?" Doc questioned.
The sheriff looked anxiously toward the cowboys as the Earps and Holliday brushed past him without breaking stride.
Wyatt, Morgan and Doc closed ranks and caught up to Virgil.
The cowboys stood in a vacant lot, looking hostile and defiant.
Virgil stopped at the edge of Fly's boardinghouse. A half dozen paces from the cowboys. Wyatt took a position six feet past the chief of police. Morgan continued to a spot near the Harwood House and Doc filled the gap between Wyatt and Morgan.
The lookout, Wes Fuller, ran south across the block and disappeared past the OK Corral. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne held tentative positions near the boarding house wall, facing Virgil. Then strung out in an irregular line across the front of the lot were Billy Clanton, Tom McLowry and Frank McLowry. Tom stood nearly hidden behind Frank's horse.
Doc calmly looked over the opposition lineup. With the exception of the two men in front of Virgil, they were all even man for man.
Billy Claiborne turned pale and cowered behind Ike Clanton.
Virgil knew he was bucking the odds for a peaceful settlement, but holding Doc's cane out like an olive branch, he said, "Throw up your hands boy’s! I've come to disarm you."
Frank McLowry and Billy Clanton answered by drawing their six-guns.
"Hold on now. I don't mean that," Virgil said calmly, "I've come to disarm you."
Billy Claiborne grabbed Ike's coattails for a moment, then lost his nerve and bolted toward Fly's Photograph Gallery.
Virgil saw a glimmer of hope as cold sweat broke over Ike Clanton's face and he threw up his hands.
Hope was short lived though -- Frank McLowry and Billy Clanton leveled their pistols and commenced to cock the hammers.
Wyatt and Morgan responded to the outlaws by drawing their own six-guns.
Tom McLowry struggled to steady Frank's horse by holding onto the saddle girth and at the same time reaching for the Winchester in the scabbard. When he was unable to get a hand on the rifle he went for the revolver that he had concealed in his right front pocket.
Doc followed Tom McLowry with the Parker tucked in the crook of his left arm. Then he drew his Colt thirty-eight with his right hand. Fish or cut bait.
Doc's pulse quickened and he fixed his concentration on Billy Clanton's trigger finger... watched it tighten then just as the hammer respond Doc’s thirty-eight flashed a quick preemptive strike on Billy's forty-five.
Doc scored a hit on Billy's right wrist. And at that same instant, a shot from another angle doubled young Clanton over and drove him backwards with a slug to his belly.
Sweat poured off Ike Clanton's face. He grabbed Wyatt's coat collar and whined, "I'm not armed, please don't kill me."
“Either fight or get out, Ike!" Wyatt shouted over the din of gunfire.
Ike Clanton turned and ran away, leaving his brother and the McLowry’s to do his fighting.
Tom McLowry hid behind the horse, but poked his revolver over the animals’ loin, fired and hit Morgan Earp with a searing shot that traced across his upper back. Morg yelled as he fell to the ground. But like a stunned fighter, he bounced right back to his feet.
Close gunfire spooked Tom's cover. The horse bucked and jerked the reins out of Frank McLowry's hands and raced east on Fremont Street. Tom McLowry stood exposed and panic stricken, but quickly collected his wits and aimed again at Morgan.
Doc read Tom's sight line and took his own measure as he squeezed the triggers and fired both barrels of the Parker.
Tom McLowry reeled from the buckshot's impact; recovered, grabbed his bloody chest, then shuffled forward, staggered and fell bleeding into Fremont Street.
Doc glanced at the fallen cowboy, then turned to his left only to be looking down the muzzle of Frank McLowry's forty-five. Doc tossed the empty shotgun away, ducked and wheeled into a crouch position. Dammit! He felt the hot sting of Frank's bullet and an unmistakable sharp pain. But he was still on his feet and stared directly into the shooter's eyes.
Doc, Wyatt and Morg zeroed in on the outlaw and all three guns exploded as one, and Frank's body immediately bent and jerked like a broken piñata before falling hard onto the dusty street.
A chilly wind swirled, but the gun smoke hovered and clung head high above the place. In less than thirty seconds it was over. The only action left was a blood soaked Billy Clanton, sitting on the ground, glassy eyed, waving his forty-five and searching for a target.
Buck Fly came out of his boarding house and mercifully took the gun out of Billy's hands.
Frank and Tom McLowry appeared to be dead and Billy Clanton was bleeding to death from his several wounds.
Virgil and Morgan Earp, wounded, gritted their teeth and suffered the pain.
Doc determined his own hit was no hit at all, but a ricochet off his gun belt that had caused a painful bruise.
Numerous bullets pierced the skirt of Wyatt's coat, but he didn't have a scratch.
The acrid and pungent smell of gunpowder had not had time to dissipate when Johnny Behan came out of hiding, counted the dead and realized the street fight had been a disaster for the ring-cowboy faction.
Behan's alternative was to put the ring's backup plan on the table. Blame the Earps and Holliday. Show them to be the culpable party and the cowboy’s as innocent victims.
The sheriff got the attention of the lawmen with a sneering smile, and a tone designed to infect the gathering crowd, announced, "I'll have to arrest you."
"We won't be arrested today," was Wyatt’s terse reply. “We're right here and we're not going away. You have deceived us, Johnny. You lied to us, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Johnny Behan backed down and quickly made a hasty retreat.
Virgil limped over to the front doorstep of the boarding house, squeezed his right leg and grimaced with pain. Morgan stood nearby, bent over, breathing heavily and hurting.
Doc ignored his own pain as he observed the predicament of his friends. "Somebody grab a bandanna and tie a tourniquet around Virg's leg."
Mr. Comstock took a kerchief out of his pocket and tied it into place. "I don't understand the sheriff saying what he did. Couldn't he see you fellows were just doing your job?"
Morgan stood upright, put his arm around Doc and leaned on him for support.
Wyatt called out, "Somebody go for Dr. Goodfellow. Tell him to meet us at Keatney's Pharmacy.”
(To Be Continued)
Writers Notebook:
John Steinbeck: If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it – bypass it and go on. When you’ve finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave you trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
If you’re using dialogue say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Here’s another wrinkle on Steinbeck’s dialogue line. Use his method, but when you’re finished take a little cassette tape recorder and record those pieces of dialogue you’re working on and play them back. Take it from me; you’ll know if they sound real or not.
Tom's Books and Blogs:
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
October 20, 2010
Robert Benchley, Tungee's Gold and the Slave Ship MFC
This Week
Benchley, Hollywood and New York
King Kumi Talks to the Children
Writers Notebook: Ernst Lubitsch
New York to Hollywood and back.
Robert Benchley was one of the Round Table regulars that worked in Hollywood even before sound became a part of the motion picture industry. His heart was always with the New York theater even as he traveled to and from the West Coast.
Unlike many of his Round Table pals Benchley's humor was not satirical or cutting. It was in fact subtle and self deprecating. Benchley's humor matured during his time at Harvard and his work with the Lampoon Society. During that time his style formed and matured into a genteel kind of humor.
His earliest work in Hollywood was writing screenplays for Jesse L. Lasky at Paramount. He also wrote dialogue cards for silent films. The first in that arena was for Raymond Griffin’s film 'You'd Be Surprised.'
Robert Benchley's first short film was 'The Treasurer's Report' released in 1928 and was both a critical and financial success. He participated in two other talking films that year 'The Sex Life of a Polyp' and another starring, but not written by him 'The Spellbinder' all made in the Fox Movie Tone sound on film system.
What set Benchley apart from most actors was the fact that he was a natural performer and had such a laid back kind of delivery that the audience hung on his every word.
Hollywood could see a good thing and signed him to produce more films before he took the train back to New York. Benchley's travels between east and west were a classic example of the times and for him it gave him a number of days to relax and get away from the business of writing. The fact is that was when he actually got some of his best writing done.
It was during the early years of the depression that Benchley got his real introduction to the motion picture industry. When he arrived in town he would almost immediately get calls from studios and while he was more interested in writing than acting his talent for both was sought after. He did film work at Universal Pictures, RKO and MGM.
One of his more important roles as an actor was a salesman in the RKO film Rafter Romance with Ginger Rogers. That gave him a showcase and attracted other offers. MGM offered him a lot of money to do a series of short films. Benchley accepted the offer, since he almost never turned down a job.
During that same period William Randolph Hearst signed him to do a syndicate column, which worked out fine for Benchley because he could film the shorts in New York and write his column at the same time.
Before heading back to New York he did an acting role at MGM on a film called 'Dancing Lady' starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable and featuring Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy and the Three Stooges. Benchley was also featured in a film called China Sea that starred Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery and Rosalind Russel.
Back in New York Harold Ross signed Benchley on as theater reviewer for the New Yorker. The Robert Benchley generation of readers loved his decade of New Yorker theater reviews. As an actor and writer, he adored the drama. One of Benchley’s great strengths as a comic humorist were his unexpected one liner twists. Here are a couple of good review illustrations. 'As far as this week’s drama page is concerned, you are over into the advertising right now. There need be nothing to detain you here, unless you like the monotonous hissing of plays on the pan—and not very much of that. For Spring, the Great Reaper, is here, and the pall of vernal death is slowly settling down on Broadway.'
This one takes a different turn, after viewing a great acting performance in Marc Connelly’s The Green Pastures, Benchley opines, 'If the Lord is really anything like Mr. Harrison, maybe I have been wrong all these years.'
During the mid 20's Benchley's pal Dorothy Parker was between marriages and her choice of male companions was just awful. Mark Connelly once said, 'Dotty was always falling in love with some bum. He was always handsome and had the romantic responsibility of an alley cat.'
Dorothy had terrible bouts with depression and a number of times she wound up in the hospital with razor cuts to her wrists. Early one morning after one of those scenes her pal Robert Benchley eased along side her bed, leaned over and said, 'Dotty, you've got to be more careful, or one of these days you're really going to hurt yourself.'
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Excerpt: On Board the Slave Ship MFC
The MFC had plowed into the lower Caribbean and was within forty-eight hours of their destination. The bell struck midnight. King Kumi and his inner circle were all sitting near the forecastle. Kumi looked up at the stars and sucked in a deep breath of the cool night air and sat in silent meditation. He was well aware that as a political and religious leader, he had to walk a fine line between his people's old traditions and the ways taught by the missionaries.
Kulando came awake from a nap and began to wipe the sleep from his eyes. He sat across from Kumi, between Sasika and Isbele. The boy stretched and yawned. "I have just returned from a long journey."
"Where have you been, my son?" Kumi asked.
"I know not where, but I do know it was with the gone befores. The spirits of my ancestors."
"Your mind is receptive and much of what we have told you may be firing your imagination," Ekoi said as a wry grin played across his face. "Perhaps they are expanding your dream world."
"I heard them talk. I saw them take the evil mask and exchange it for the good."
Isbele gripped the boy's hand.
Kumi sighed. "You have been somewhere and that somewhere is your own private place, a part of the world that you will share with no one. You may tell of it, but you will not truly share it with anyone."
Kulando was no longer a child. His face bathed in the moonlight had grown far beyond his age. Maturity and wisdom had knocked and the messenger had opened the door and welcomed them in.
Kumi prayed. "May my Lord be tolerant and forgiving in a way that will allow some contact with our spirit world. May we ask our gone befores to mark the path? God, please allow the spirits of our ancestors to guide me and my people across the river."
Siepe cautioned. "Let us all remember this. We are Christians and I have no wish to disavow my Ebo heritage, but please be aware that when our Lord saved us, we turned away from many of our past beliefs. Are you, Kumi, asking us to go back to those ways just before the end?"
"No, my dear. My thinking is this, we should ask God to allow our gone befores spirits to shed some light on the most important act of our lives. It is God's help that we are all seeking." Kumi then looked toward the sky and chanted. "Vultures are the birds of death, scavengers who hover over the dying ready to claim their corpses silently, patiently waiting for the end. Those scavengers have made a pact with death and death has made war on my house. Queen Sarai and our firstborn have died at the hands of that war, where greed in the form of money hungry men of the trade plundered and pillaged mankind. They take one man's freedom, jail his spirit, extracting a profit for one on the back of another.''
Ekoi put his hand on Kumi's and quietly said. "Amen."
Kumi looked into all their faces and said, "My children, I am not asking you to follow me like sheep, just for mine and Sarai's sake, but follow if you must for those of future generations. We must tell the world that no one has the right to sell his fellow man the way he would bargain away a sparrow."
Writers Notebook:
Here's a bit about Ernst Lubitsch. Garson Kanin in a conversation with Billy Wilder told about the way George S. Kaufman, Carol Reed and other writers would begin work on a story with lots of enthusiasm. And that lasted for a while, but later on they’d begin to find fault, then pick it apart and eventually abandon the project. “Not me,” said Billy. “I always come back to it – so I can tear it down and abandon it again.”
“You know who did not work like that?”
“Who?”
“Our hero, Ernst Lubitsch. He always concentrated on the affirmative aspects – and kept looking for what was good and sort of ignoring the bad, sweeping it under the carpet – and finally he’d built so much strength that the weaknesses didn’t seem to matter.”
“We can’t all be Lubitsch,” Billy said.
“We can try.”
Tom's Books and Blogs
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Benchley, Hollywood and New York
King Kumi Talks to the Children
Writers Notebook: Ernst Lubitsch
New York to Hollywood and back.
Robert Benchley was one of the Round Table regulars that worked in Hollywood even before sound became a part of the motion picture industry. His heart was always with the New York theater even as he traveled to and from the West Coast.
Unlike many of his Round Table pals Benchley's humor was not satirical or cutting. It was in fact subtle and self deprecating. Benchley's humor matured during his time at Harvard and his work with the Lampoon Society. During that time his style formed and matured into a genteel kind of humor.
His earliest work in Hollywood was writing screenplays for Jesse L. Lasky at Paramount. He also wrote dialogue cards for silent films. The first in that arena was for Raymond Griffin’s film 'You'd Be Surprised.'
Robert Benchley's first short film was 'The Treasurer's Report' released in 1928 and was both a critical and financial success. He participated in two other talking films that year 'The Sex Life of a Polyp' and another starring, but not written by him 'The Spellbinder' all made in the Fox Movie Tone sound on film system.
What set Benchley apart from most actors was the fact that he was a natural performer and had such a laid back kind of delivery that the audience hung on his every word.
Hollywood could see a good thing and signed him to produce more films before he took the train back to New York. Benchley's travels between east and west were a classic example of the times and for him it gave him a number of days to relax and get away from the business of writing. The fact is that was when he actually got some of his best writing done.
It was during the early years of the depression that Benchley got his real introduction to the motion picture industry. When he arrived in town he would almost immediately get calls from studios and while he was more interested in writing than acting his talent for both was sought after. He did film work at Universal Pictures, RKO and MGM.
One of his more important roles as an actor was a salesman in the RKO film Rafter Romance with Ginger Rogers. That gave him a showcase and attracted other offers. MGM offered him a lot of money to do a series of short films. Benchley accepted the offer, since he almost never turned down a job.
During that same period William Randolph Hearst signed him to do a syndicate column, which worked out fine for Benchley because he could film the shorts in New York and write his column at the same time.
Before heading back to New York he did an acting role at MGM on a film called 'Dancing Lady' starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable and featuring Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy and the Three Stooges. Benchley was also featured in a film called China Sea that starred Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery and Rosalind Russel.
Back in New York Harold Ross signed Benchley on as theater reviewer for the New Yorker. The Robert Benchley generation of readers loved his decade of New Yorker theater reviews. As an actor and writer, he adored the drama. One of Benchley’s great strengths as a comic humorist were his unexpected one liner twists. Here are a couple of good review illustrations. 'As far as this week’s drama page is concerned, you are over into the advertising right now. There need be nothing to detain you here, unless you like the monotonous hissing of plays on the pan—and not very much of that. For Spring, the Great Reaper, is here, and the pall of vernal death is slowly settling down on Broadway.'
This one takes a different turn, after viewing a great acting performance in Marc Connelly’s The Green Pastures, Benchley opines, 'If the Lord is really anything like Mr. Harrison, maybe I have been wrong all these years.'
During the mid 20's Benchley's pal Dorothy Parker was between marriages and her choice of male companions was just awful. Mark Connelly once said, 'Dotty was always falling in love with some bum. He was always handsome and had the romantic responsibility of an alley cat.'
Dorothy had terrible bouts with depression and a number of times she wound up in the hospital with razor cuts to her wrists. Early one morning after one of those scenes her pal Robert Benchley eased along side her bed, leaned over and said, 'Dotty, you've got to be more careful, or one of these days you're really going to hurt yourself.'
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Excerpt: On Board the Slave Ship MFC
The MFC had plowed into the lower Caribbean and was within forty-eight hours of their destination. The bell struck midnight. King Kumi and his inner circle were all sitting near the forecastle. Kumi looked up at the stars and sucked in a deep breath of the cool night air and sat in silent meditation. He was well aware that as a political and religious leader, he had to walk a fine line between his people's old traditions and the ways taught by the missionaries.
Kulando came awake from a nap and began to wipe the sleep from his eyes. He sat across from Kumi, between Sasika and Isbele. The boy stretched and yawned. "I have just returned from a long journey."
"Where have you been, my son?" Kumi asked.
"I know not where, but I do know it was with the gone befores. The spirits of my ancestors."
"Your mind is receptive and much of what we have told you may be firing your imagination," Ekoi said as a wry grin played across his face. "Perhaps they are expanding your dream world."
"I heard them talk. I saw them take the evil mask and exchange it for the good."
Isbele gripped the boy's hand.
Kumi sighed. "You have been somewhere and that somewhere is your own private place, a part of the world that you will share with no one. You may tell of it, but you will not truly share it with anyone."
Kulando was no longer a child. His face bathed in the moonlight had grown far beyond his age. Maturity and wisdom had knocked and the messenger had opened the door and welcomed them in.
Kumi prayed. "May my Lord be tolerant and forgiving in a way that will allow some contact with our spirit world. May we ask our gone befores to mark the path? God, please allow the spirits of our ancestors to guide me and my people across the river."
Siepe cautioned. "Let us all remember this. We are Christians and I have no wish to disavow my Ebo heritage, but please be aware that when our Lord saved us, we turned away from many of our past beliefs. Are you, Kumi, asking us to go back to those ways just before the end?"
"No, my dear. My thinking is this, we should ask God to allow our gone befores spirits to shed some light on the most important act of our lives. It is God's help that we are all seeking." Kumi then looked toward the sky and chanted. "Vultures are the birds of death, scavengers who hover over the dying ready to claim their corpses silently, patiently waiting for the end. Those scavengers have made a pact with death and death has made war on my house. Queen Sarai and our firstborn have died at the hands of that war, where greed in the form of money hungry men of the trade plundered and pillaged mankind. They take one man's freedom, jail his spirit, extracting a profit for one on the back of another.''
Ekoi put his hand on Kumi's and quietly said. "Amen."
Kumi looked into all their faces and said, "My children, I am not asking you to follow me like sheep, just for mine and Sarai's sake, but follow if you must for those of future generations. We must tell the world that no one has the right to sell his fellow man the way he would bargain away a sparrow."
Writers Notebook:
Here's a bit about Ernst Lubitsch. Garson Kanin in a conversation with Billy Wilder told about the way George S. Kaufman, Carol Reed and other writers would begin work on a story with lots of enthusiasm. And that lasted for a while, but later on they’d begin to find fault, then pick it apart and eventually abandon the project. “Not me,” said Billy. “I always come back to it – so I can tear it down and abandon it again.”
“You know who did not work like that?”
“Who?”
“Our hero, Ernst Lubitsch. He always concentrated on the affirmative aspects – and kept looking for what was good and sort of ignoring the bad, sweeping it under the carpet – and finally he’d built so much strength that the weaknesses didn’t seem to matter.”
“We can’t all be Lubitsch,” Billy said.
“We can try.”
Tom's Books and Blogs
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
October 13, 2010
Round Table Regulars, Tungee's Gold and Katharine Hepburn
This Week
Algonquin Round Table West
Tungee's Gold: Review
Writers Notebook: Katharine Hepburn
Algonquin Hotel 59 West 44th Street
Banter at the Round Table
What started, as a two-hour roast became a gathering place for talented writers, journalists and actors to banter, boast and brag with an air of lighthearted conviviality.
Through the twenties there were dozens of Algonquin Round Table participants, but to keep the numbers reasonable I'll use the characters pictured in Al Hirschfeld's famous cartoon drawing of the affair and call them the regulars: Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Robert E. Sherwood, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman.
Most of the Round Table regulars found their way to Hollywood at one time or another during their career.
This might be like mixing metaphors, but here goes. It's too bad that Oscar winning writer Frances Marion didn't spend more time in New York and take a chair as a Round Table regular. Her humor would have fit right in with the others. In Marion's biography 'Off With Their Heads' she tells about a market strategy session at MGM, which included title ideas. They were discussing a sophisticated film starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert directed by Edmund Goulding. When the title came up for discussion several ideas were tossed around and considered, but finally somebody said, 'I've got it. I've got a wow that'll bring 'em into the theater in droves!'
Frances said they all leaned in eagerly waiting for the word to come out. 'It's 'Heat.' It'll be great. Never been used before. What do you think, Frances?'
'I think it would be a good ad for Dante's Inferno, but I'd hate to see on the billboards – 'Greta Garbo in Heat.'
Edmund Goulding doubled over with laughter. The meeting finally settled down and came up with a more sensible title, 'Love.'
But whether it came out of New York or Hollywood wit and humor were infectious during the days of the flappers, speakeasies and bath tub gin.
A snippet or two on some of the regulars:
Alexander Woollcott; NY Times drama critic, “The most interesting things in life are either immoral, illegal or fattening.”
Franklin P. Adams; a well known NY newspaper columnist, who could be counted on by his friends, to keep their careers alive by frequent mentions in his around town column called “The Conning Tower.”
Dorothy Parker; a versatile writer and the sharpest wit at the table, “That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say no in any of them.”
Robert Benchley; humorist raconteur and the most easy going person at any lunch, if he ever made a cutting remark it was usually about himself, like this one, “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”
Robert Sherwood wrote Abe Lincoln of Illinois, Idiot's Delight and The Petrified Forest among others.
George. S. Kaufman once said, “Satire is the play that closes on Saturday night.”
Edna Ferber; this little lady painted her words with a wide brush and turned out works that matched her strokes, Showboat, Cimarron and Giant.
The group as a whole has been called intellectual lightweights and while this may be true, they turned out a lot of good work with more than a dozen Pulitzer prizes among them. Best pals in the group were Parker, Benchley and Sherwood. At one time they all worked for Vanity Fair magazine. Dorothy was doing a critic's column and blasted producer Flo Ziegfeld’s wife Billie Burke who was playing the title role in “Caesar’s Wife,” on Broadway. Ziegfeld had enough clout, with all his advertising, at the magazine to have Parker fired. Benchley and Sherwood showed their loyalty by following Dotty out the door.
Parker and Benchley rented a small office to work out of; Cable code PARKBENCH. They poked a lot of fun at themselves about the smallness of their office. Describing the size of their workspace, Benchley once said, “One cubic foot less and it would be called adultery.”
Once when Benchley and his wife were on vacation, Dotty wrote him and said it's so dull I'm thinking of putting three letters on the door, to liven the place up a bit, M E N.
Dorothy Parker and her second husband Alan Campbell came to Hollywood about the middle of the great depression. And they followed the pattern of many writers in from the east and rented a cottage at The Garden of Allah. It was a good central location and they could be assured of companionship because many writers in from the east stayed there. Dotty's old pal Robert Benchley was a resident there and many others took up short residences including William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Elmer Rice and Thornton Wilder.
The Garden was a piece of antiquity and history of early Hollywood, a stones throw from Schwabs Drug Store where Lana Turner was supposed to have been discovered.
Dorothy and Alan both signed short term contracts with Paramount Pictures. But their main Hollywood work came from freelance writing, and they did a lot of that, a few scenes on this picture a batch of dialogue on another.
Their largest pay check came when they signed a contract with David Selznick to collaborate with Robert Carson and write the screenplay for 'A Star if Born.'
The film was nominated for seven academy awards and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Dorothy was a friend of Lillian Hellman writer of Little Foxes, which probably lead to her work writing additional dialogue for the Little Foxes film.
Another Academy nomination came to Dorothy Parker when she worked with Frank Cavett on a film called Smash Up, The Story of a Woman starring Susan Hayward.
Dorothy Parker's most lasting works came out of a collaboration with an old Round Table regular Alexander Woollcott to produce an anthology of her work as part of a series published by Viking Press for servicemen stationed overseas. Somerset Maugham wrote the introduction. The volume was made up of Parker short stories along with selected poems such as Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, Death and Taxes.
The book was released in 1944 with the title The Portable Dorothy Parker and it was only one of three of the portable series along with The Bible and William Shakespeare to remain in continuous print.
Dorothy Parker quotes have great longevity, the best known being 'Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.' One with a little more substance is 'The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.'
That is no doubt the kind of thinking that made Dorothy Parker an icon .
(To be continued)
Tungee's Gold Review
Tungee's Gold, The Legend of Ebo Landing is an exciting story with a twist for an ending. As I read it I began to wonder if the story was true so I "Googled" the words "legend of Ebo landing" and several sites came up, including Glynn County, Georgia where Ebo Landing is located. The thought that the story may have really happened makes it all that much more compelling.
Tom Barnes does a great job of using description to set up his story lines. His smooth conversations lend to a more believable text. Just as his first book, Doc Holliday's Road To Tombstone was a novel based on real facts, Tungee's Gold is a historically accurate novel.
Barnes' stories are timeless but teach us about certain periods in history. I really enjoyed this book. It gives you the other side of slavery. The dialog with the slave king gives the reader an understanding of what it was like to be one of the African slaves being brought to America on a slave boat.
I highly recommend the book.
Sally Rains author of The Making of a Masterpiece
Writers Notebook:
Several years ago Paula Zahn was interviewing Katharine Hepburn on the CBS morning show. Paula asked about the main difference in films today versus earlier motion pictures. Miss Hepburn’s answer was, “Writers, Writers, Writers. Wit… Humor… You see when I started out there was great wit and humor, there isn’t now.”
Miss Hepburn’s words are as true today as they were when she said them. Lighten up writers and laugh at yourself once in a while.
Robert Benchley once said, “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Algonquin Round Table West
Tungee's Gold: Review
Writers Notebook: Katharine Hepburn
Algonquin Hotel 59 West 44th Street
Banter at the Round Table
What started, as a two-hour roast became a gathering place for talented writers, journalists and actors to banter, boast and brag with an air of lighthearted conviviality.
Through the twenties there were dozens of Algonquin Round Table participants, but to keep the numbers reasonable I'll use the characters pictured in Al Hirschfeld's famous cartoon drawing of the affair and call them the regulars: Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Robert E. Sherwood, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman.
Most of the Round Table regulars found their way to Hollywood at one time or another during their career.
This might be like mixing metaphors, but here goes. It's too bad that Oscar winning writer Frances Marion didn't spend more time in New York and take a chair as a Round Table regular. Her humor would have fit right in with the others. In Marion's biography 'Off With Their Heads' she tells about a market strategy session at MGM, which included title ideas. They were discussing a sophisticated film starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert directed by Edmund Goulding. When the title came up for discussion several ideas were tossed around and considered, but finally somebody said, 'I've got it. I've got a wow that'll bring 'em into the theater in droves!'
Frances said they all leaned in eagerly waiting for the word to come out. 'It's 'Heat.' It'll be great. Never been used before. What do you think, Frances?'
'I think it would be a good ad for Dante's Inferno, but I'd hate to see on the billboards – 'Greta Garbo in Heat.'
Edmund Goulding doubled over with laughter. The meeting finally settled down and came up with a more sensible title, 'Love.'
But whether it came out of New York or Hollywood wit and humor were infectious during the days of the flappers, speakeasies and bath tub gin.
A snippet or two on some of the regulars:
Alexander Woollcott; NY Times drama critic, “The most interesting things in life are either immoral, illegal or fattening.”
Franklin P. Adams; a well known NY newspaper columnist, who could be counted on by his friends, to keep their careers alive by frequent mentions in his around town column called “The Conning Tower.”
Dorothy Parker; a versatile writer and the sharpest wit at the table, “That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say no in any of them.”
Robert Benchley; humorist raconteur and the most easy going person at any lunch, if he ever made a cutting remark it was usually about himself, like this one, “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”
Robert Sherwood wrote Abe Lincoln of Illinois, Idiot's Delight and The Petrified Forest among others.
George. S. Kaufman once said, “Satire is the play that closes on Saturday night.”
Edna Ferber; this little lady painted her words with a wide brush and turned out works that matched her strokes, Showboat, Cimarron and Giant.
The group as a whole has been called intellectual lightweights and while this may be true, they turned out a lot of good work with more than a dozen Pulitzer prizes among them. Best pals in the group were Parker, Benchley and Sherwood. At one time they all worked for Vanity Fair magazine. Dorothy was doing a critic's column and blasted producer Flo Ziegfeld’s wife Billie Burke who was playing the title role in “Caesar’s Wife,” on Broadway. Ziegfeld had enough clout, with all his advertising, at the magazine to have Parker fired. Benchley and Sherwood showed their loyalty by following Dotty out the door.
Parker and Benchley rented a small office to work out of; Cable code PARKBENCH. They poked a lot of fun at themselves about the smallness of their office. Describing the size of their workspace, Benchley once said, “One cubic foot less and it would be called adultery.”
Once when Benchley and his wife were on vacation, Dotty wrote him and said it's so dull I'm thinking of putting three letters on the door, to liven the place up a bit, M E N.
Dorothy Parker and her second husband Alan Campbell came to Hollywood about the middle of the great depression. And they followed the pattern of many writers in from the east and rented a cottage at The Garden of Allah. It was a good central location and they could be assured of companionship because many writers in from the east stayed there. Dotty's old pal Robert Benchley was a resident there and many others took up short residences including William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Elmer Rice and Thornton Wilder.
The Garden was a piece of antiquity and history of early Hollywood, a stones throw from Schwabs Drug Store where Lana Turner was supposed to have been discovered.
Dorothy and Alan both signed short term contracts with Paramount Pictures. But their main Hollywood work came from freelance writing, and they did a lot of that, a few scenes on this picture a batch of dialogue on another.
Their largest pay check came when they signed a contract with David Selznick to collaborate with Robert Carson and write the screenplay for 'A Star if Born.'
The film was nominated for seven academy awards and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Dorothy was a friend of Lillian Hellman writer of Little Foxes, which probably lead to her work writing additional dialogue for the Little Foxes film.
Another Academy nomination came to Dorothy Parker when she worked with Frank Cavett on a film called Smash Up, The Story of a Woman starring Susan Hayward.
Dorothy Parker's most lasting works came out of a collaboration with an old Round Table regular Alexander Woollcott to produce an anthology of her work as part of a series published by Viking Press for servicemen stationed overseas. Somerset Maugham wrote the introduction. The volume was made up of Parker short stories along with selected poems such as Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, Death and Taxes.
The book was released in 1944 with the title The Portable Dorothy Parker and it was only one of three of the portable series along with The Bible and William Shakespeare to remain in continuous print.
Dorothy Parker quotes have great longevity, the best known being 'Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.' One with a little more substance is 'The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.'
That is no doubt the kind of thinking that made Dorothy Parker an icon .
(To be continued)
Tungee's Gold Review
Tungee's Gold, The Legend of Ebo Landing is an exciting story with a twist for an ending. As I read it I began to wonder if the story was true so I "Googled" the words "legend of Ebo landing" and several sites came up, including Glynn County, Georgia where Ebo Landing is located. The thought that the story may have really happened makes it all that much more compelling.
Tom Barnes does a great job of using description to set up his story lines. His smooth conversations lend to a more believable text. Just as his first book, Doc Holliday's Road To Tombstone was a novel based on real facts, Tungee's Gold is a historically accurate novel.
Barnes' stories are timeless but teach us about certain periods in history. I really enjoyed this book. It gives you the other side of slavery. The dialog with the slave king gives the reader an understanding of what it was like to be one of the African slaves being brought to America on a slave boat.
I highly recommend the book.
Sally Rains author of The Making of a Masterpiece
Writers Notebook:
Several years ago Paula Zahn was interviewing Katharine Hepburn on the CBS morning show. Paula asked about the main difference in films today versus earlier motion pictures. Miss Hepburn’s answer was, “Writers, Writers, Writers. Wit… Humor… You see when I started out there was great wit and humor, there isn’t now.”
Miss Hepburn’s words are as true today as they were when she said them. Lighten up writers and laugh at yourself once in a while.
Robert Benchley once said, “It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.”
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
October 6, 2010
Orson Welles, Citizen Kane and Tungee's Gold
This Week
Orson Welles
Tungee's Gold
Writers Notebook
Orson Wells and Citizen Kane
Orson Welles born May 6, 1915 died October 10, 1985. Welles was an American filmmaker, actor, director, screenwriter, and producer.
He went on stage, in his home town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, as a child actor and his talent was apparent from the beginning.
Orson went to New York in his early twenties, made the rounds and In 1933 played opposite Katharine Cornell as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and Marchbanks in Candida. He also worked for some time with the Federal Theater project and staged a number of highly successful productions including Macbeth in 1936 and Dr. Faustus in 1937.
It was in that same year when Welles and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theater.The Mercury Theater made an immediate impact on the theater world and was noted for its off beat, innovative and dramatic productions.
Welles first found national fame as director and narrator of the 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Welles novel The War of the Worlds. The Mercury Theatre broadcast to an American audience was taken by some listeners as a news cast, and caused panic in some communities when they thought they were hearing the details of an actual invasion from outer space. Those people that believed the broadcast was factual were probably few in numbers, but the overall effect of the production was so tremendous that it rocketed Welles to instant notoriety.
Following that successful War of the Worlds broadcast Welles got immediate offers from several Hollywood studios. Welles told the company and in short order, John Housman and the other Mercury Theater members agreed to move their operation to Hollywood.
Welles listened to all the offers, and in the end signed a contract with RKO. The Studio was so high on Welles and his talent that even as an untried director he was given the freedom to develop his own story and use his own cast and crew. He was also given final cut privilege. That kind of contract was almost unheard of, but given his shining star status at the time you can understand why RKO didn't want to see Orson Welles sign with another studio.
That whole sequence of events had gone off in such rapid fire order that the main ingredient in putting a film project together had been left out of the mix. The story. Not just any story, in Orson Welles mind it had to be drama on a grand scale.
Although he didn't have a particular story in mind he did know that the main character would be powerful and well known. His initial thought was to rule out politicians because half the population don't trust them and should you pick the wrong party you'd probably alienate another half and then where's your audience. Howard Hughes was high on the list. Other considerations might be a powerful industrial tycoon or a newspaper magnate.
During this early Hollywood time Orson's ex wife Virginia moved to Los Angeles. She was in her twenties, beautiful and intelligent, she was also in the upper tier social circle and had suitors lined up at her door. Among that group was Charles Lederer a member of the Hollywood literary circle, which included some of the old Algonquin Round Table regulars Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott. Lederer was a favorite nephew of actress Marion Davies and intimate friend of William Randolph Hearst. And Lederer was often a guest at the Hearst Castle at San Simeon.
For someone in Welles position, looking to find status in the film community, being invited to San Simeon would have been an important boost to his career. However, the fact that Virginia and Lederer were part of the circle made it awkward for Hearst to invite Welles.
Herman J. Mankiewicz was a friend of Orson Welles and was once on the Mercury Theater payroll. At one time Mankiewicz had been a regular guest at Hearst parties, but no more. His drinking had gotten him banished from Hearst activities. So for one reason or another both Welles and Mankiewicz had wound up on the wrong side of the tracks – according to the Hearst house rules.
For his first movie Welles wanted a good collaborator, a working writer with a creative mind and Herman Mankiewicz was that, he was also good company.
Mankiewicz listened to Welles pitch and agreed to give it a try. As to the story, they only had a general idea about a strong leading character. Mankiewicz said sometime later that the Hearst and Marion Davies characters came out of a discussion about technique. The main character would be shown in a March of Time sequence and then the film would go on and tell about the person.
Once they worked out a scenario in rough form they got down to work and did a couple of rewrites. Welles passed a draft along to the RKO legal department and it was promptly rejected with a note that Hearst will sue your pants off.
Back to the drawing board and more rewrites. This time Welles and Mankiewicz had input from John Housman and Joseph Cotton during their rewrite sessions. In order to fictionalize the story they added the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Roosevelt in Miami. Finally they had a story and even though it still contained a lot of William Randolph Hearst in the screenplay it wasn't considered libelous by the legal departmant.
'In 1940, alone at his fantastically surrealistic and magnificently opulent estate known as Xanadu Charles Foster Kane dies at the age of seventy. When he dies his last word is 'Rosebud' and from his hand a glass ball – one of those novelties containing a miniature snow scene....'
Then the search is on for who or what is Rosebud?
Citizen Kane is often times considered the greatest film of all time and particularly praised for its innovative cinematography, music, and narrative structure. The film was nominated for Academy awards in nine categories; it won an award for best original screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles.
Citizen Kane was a critical success but failed in its first run to recoup it's negative cost.
The film quickly faded from view, but its reputation was restored by French critics and even more widely after its American revival in 1956. There is a kind of consensus among film critics that Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made. Roger Ebert quipped, 'So it's settled, Citizen Kane is the official greatest film of all time.'
It has topped both the AFI 100 best movies and the tenth anniversary update as well as all the sight and sound polls of the ten greatest films for more than half a century.
Orson Welles continued to produce films but none of them reached the heights of Kane. Some of the others were The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Othello, Touch of Evil, The Trial and F is for Fake.
You Tube has a good collection of Orson Welles movie clips.
Don't miss this one. Citizen Kane movie trailer: Click Here
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
An introduction to a historical and adventure novel.
Tungee Cahill is shanghaied at San Francisco into a world where conspiracies, distortions and lies are the rule. Tungee joins the skipper in a battle of bigots and bullets just to stay alive. It took a mutiny, the icy hell of Cape Horn and a brush with the African slave trade to make him take a hard look at himself.
The idea for this historical novel came from an old slave tale, ‘The Legend of Ebo Landing.’ I first heard the story in Savannah, Georgia while doing research and writing a series of documentaries for PBS Television.
The human tragedy got my attention and I followed up by going to the source of the story, Saint Simons Island. After talking to the natives and tromping around the place I began taking notes and asking myself the obvious question, why? The answer came in the form of a novel I call ‘Tungee’s Gold.’
(More to come)
Writers Notebook:
Edna Ferber from A Peculiar Treasure.
…’You read what you wrote yesterday. Not so terrible. With a soft lead pencil you make some changes, tightening a line here, crossing out a word there, inserting a margin note for the next draft.
I have learned not to tear up my stuff until I’ve slept on it. I have sometimes written page after page through the work day in a kind of agony of ineffectualness, feeling weary, limp and unvital, only to discover on reading it bright and fresh next morning that the stuff has, somehow miraculously, pace and meaning.’
Stephen King agrees with Ferber’s overnight concept as pointed out in an earlier segment of Writers Notebook.
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
Orson Welles
Tungee's Gold
Writers Notebook
Orson Wells and Citizen Kane
Orson Welles born May 6, 1915 died October 10, 1985. Welles was an American filmmaker, actor, director, screenwriter, and producer.
He went on stage, in his home town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, as a child actor and his talent was apparent from the beginning.
Orson went to New York in his early twenties, made the rounds and In 1933 played opposite Katharine Cornell as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and Marchbanks in Candida. He also worked for some time with the Federal Theater project and staged a number of highly successful productions including Macbeth in 1936 and Dr. Faustus in 1937.
It was in that same year when Welles and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theater.The Mercury Theater made an immediate impact on the theater world and was noted for its off beat, innovative and dramatic productions.
Welles first found national fame as director and narrator of the 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Welles novel The War of the Worlds. The Mercury Theatre broadcast to an American audience was taken by some listeners as a news cast, and caused panic in some communities when they thought they were hearing the details of an actual invasion from outer space. Those people that believed the broadcast was factual were probably few in numbers, but the overall effect of the production was so tremendous that it rocketed Welles to instant notoriety.
Following that successful War of the Worlds broadcast Welles got immediate offers from several Hollywood studios. Welles told the company and in short order, John Housman and the other Mercury Theater members agreed to move their operation to Hollywood.
Welles listened to all the offers, and in the end signed a contract with RKO. The Studio was so high on Welles and his talent that even as an untried director he was given the freedom to develop his own story and use his own cast and crew. He was also given final cut privilege. That kind of contract was almost unheard of, but given his shining star status at the time you can understand why RKO didn't want to see Orson Welles sign with another studio.
That whole sequence of events had gone off in such rapid fire order that the main ingredient in putting a film project together had been left out of the mix. The story. Not just any story, in Orson Welles mind it had to be drama on a grand scale.
Although he didn't have a particular story in mind he did know that the main character would be powerful and well known. His initial thought was to rule out politicians because half the population don't trust them and should you pick the wrong party you'd probably alienate another half and then where's your audience. Howard Hughes was high on the list. Other considerations might be a powerful industrial tycoon or a newspaper magnate.
During this early Hollywood time Orson's ex wife Virginia moved to Los Angeles. She was in her twenties, beautiful and intelligent, she was also in the upper tier social circle and had suitors lined up at her door. Among that group was Charles Lederer a member of the Hollywood literary circle, which included some of the old Algonquin Round Table regulars Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Alexander Woollcott. Lederer was a favorite nephew of actress Marion Davies and intimate friend of William Randolph Hearst. And Lederer was often a guest at the Hearst Castle at San Simeon.
For someone in Welles position, looking to find status in the film community, being invited to San Simeon would have been an important boost to his career. However, the fact that Virginia and Lederer were part of the circle made it awkward for Hearst to invite Welles.
Herman J. Mankiewicz was a friend of Orson Welles and was once on the Mercury Theater payroll. At one time Mankiewicz had been a regular guest at Hearst parties, but no more. His drinking had gotten him banished from Hearst activities. So for one reason or another both Welles and Mankiewicz had wound up on the wrong side of the tracks – according to the Hearst house rules.
For his first movie Welles wanted a good collaborator, a working writer with a creative mind and Herman Mankiewicz was that, he was also good company.
Mankiewicz listened to Welles pitch and agreed to give it a try. As to the story, they only had a general idea about a strong leading character. Mankiewicz said sometime later that the Hearst and Marion Davies characters came out of a discussion about technique. The main character would be shown in a March of Time sequence and then the film would go on and tell about the person.
Once they worked out a scenario in rough form they got down to work and did a couple of rewrites. Welles passed a draft along to the RKO legal department and it was promptly rejected with a note that Hearst will sue your pants off.
Back to the drawing board and more rewrites. This time Welles and Mankiewicz had input from John Housman and Joseph Cotton during their rewrite sessions. In order to fictionalize the story they added the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Roosevelt in Miami. Finally they had a story and even though it still contained a lot of William Randolph Hearst in the screenplay it wasn't considered libelous by the legal departmant.
'In 1940, alone at his fantastically surrealistic and magnificently opulent estate known as Xanadu Charles Foster Kane dies at the age of seventy. When he dies his last word is 'Rosebud' and from his hand a glass ball – one of those novelties containing a miniature snow scene....'
Then the search is on for who or what is Rosebud?
Citizen Kane is often times considered the greatest film of all time and particularly praised for its innovative cinematography, music, and narrative structure. The film was nominated for Academy awards in nine categories; it won an award for best original screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles.
Citizen Kane was a critical success but failed in its first run to recoup it's negative cost.
The film quickly faded from view, but its reputation was restored by French critics and even more widely after its American revival in 1956. There is a kind of consensus among film critics that Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made. Roger Ebert quipped, 'So it's settled, Citizen Kane is the official greatest film of all time.'
It has topped both the AFI 100 best movies and the tenth anniversary update as well as all the sight and sound polls of the ten greatest films for more than half a century.
Orson Welles continued to produce films but none of them reached the heights of Kane. Some of the others were The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Othello, Touch of Evil, The Trial and F is for Fake.
You Tube has a good collection of Orson Welles movie clips.
Don't miss this one. Citizen Kane movie trailer: Click Here
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
An introduction to a historical and adventure novel.
Tungee Cahill is shanghaied at San Francisco into a world where conspiracies, distortions and lies are the rule. Tungee joins the skipper in a battle of bigots and bullets just to stay alive. It took a mutiny, the icy hell of Cape Horn and a brush with the African slave trade to make him take a hard look at himself.
The idea for this historical novel came from an old slave tale, ‘The Legend of Ebo Landing.’ I first heard the story in Savannah, Georgia while doing research and writing a series of documentaries for PBS Television.
The human tragedy got my attention and I followed up by going to the source of the story, Saint Simons Island. After talking to the natives and tromping around the place I began taking notes and asking myself the obvious question, why? The answer came in the form of a novel I call ‘Tungee’s Gold.’
(More to come)
Writers Notebook:
Edna Ferber from A Peculiar Treasure.
…’You read what you wrote yesterday. Not so terrible. With a soft lead pencil you make some changes, tightening a line here, crossing out a word there, inserting a margin note for the next draft.
I have learned not to tear up my stuff until I’ve slept on it. I have sometimes written page after page through the work day in a kind of agony of ineffectualness, feeling weary, limp and unvital, only to discover on reading it bright and fresh next morning that the stuff has, somehow miraculously, pace and meaning.’
Stephen King agrees with Ferber’s overnight concept as pointed out in an earlier segment of Writers Notebook.
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
September 29, 2010
The Man Behind King Kong and Gone With the Wind
This Week
Selznick Bows Out in Style
John Henry and HC Talk Family
Writers Notebook: Somerset Maugham
David Selznick Part 8
The film Rebecca would ring down the curtain on Selznick International Pictures, ending the run of the most successful independent motion picture company of its time.
There were many reasons for ending production and liquidating the company and here are a few. One was financial – they had accumulated too much income from Gone With the Wind and Rebecca to take ordinary tax write offs that would give them a profit. Another was Selznick's need to take out money in order to finance other films that he had an interest in. The war in Europe and the looming possibility of American becoming involved.
The end of Selznick International didn't take him out of the business. He formed his own company without outside partners as David O. Selznick Productions, Inc. In a sense though he did have partners, they were executives he had worked with for years.
In late 1941 Selznick Productions bought into United Artist with a twenty five percent share.During that period he was also working on two projects Since You Went Away and Spellbound.
Since You Went Away
Directed by John Cromwell produced by David Selznick and screenplay by David Selznick. Cast Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Monte Woolly and Robert Walker.
Variety gives the film a good review. 'Since You Went Away' is a heart warming panorama of human emotions, reflecting the usual wartime frailties...'
The film got a Best Picture nomination from the Academy.
Spellbound
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by David Selznick with a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Angus MacPhail and starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck.
Spellbound caused major contention, not the first, between Alfred Hitchcock and David Selznick. Selznick wanted Hitchcock to make a movie based upon Selznick's own positive experience with Psychoanalysis. He even brought in May Romm M.D., who was credited in the film as a technical adviser. Dr. Romm and Hitchcock clashed frequently. There is no doubt that there was conflict and contention on the set of Spellbound, but in the end it was worth it.
The film got good reviews and Daily Variety said, 'The story, employing as it does psychiatry and psychoanalysis in a murder mystery... Gregory Peck, suffering from amnesia, believes that he committed a murder, but has no memory of the locale or circumstances surrounding the crime. Ingrid Bergman as a psychiatrist in love with Peck tries desperately to save him from punishment for the crime she is certain he could not have committed, and doing so risks her career and almost her life....
Salvador Dali designed the dream sequence with all the aids of futurism and surrealism in his sets...
Spellbound won a nomination for Best Picture by the Academy.
Duel in the Sun
Directed by King Vidor, produced by David Selznick, screenplay by David Selznick.
Cast included Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotton, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish and Walter Houston.
The film got favorable reviews and while it didn't win any prestigious awards it scored big at the box office and was one of the highest grossing films ever up to that time.
The Paradine Case
Director Alfred Hitchcock, produced by David Selznick, screenplay by David Selznick.
Cast included Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.
This dramatic courtroom drama plot concerns a murder of a blind man by his wife so she can marry her lover. The story, cast and film are applauded by Daily Variety in their review.
Portrait of Jennie
Directed by William Dieterle, screenplay by Paul Osborne and Peter Berneis. Cast included Joseph Cotton, Jennifer Jones, Ethel Barrymore, David Wayne and Lillian Gish. Daily Variety says , 'The story of ethereal romance between two generations is told with style, taste and dignity. William Dieterle has given the story sensitive direction and his guidance contributes considerably toward the top performers from the meticulously cast players. '….Joseph Cotton endows the artist with a top performance, matching the compelling portrait by Jennifer Jones.
Selznick said he stopped making films in 1948 because he was tired. He was a hard driving producer that had been producing for twenty years. Something else, at that time the motion-picture industry was taking a terrible beating from television. Overall it seemed to be a good time to take stock and to study objectively the obviously changing public tastes. Selznick was born into and wedded to the business so he had no intention of staying away from production for too long. He spent most of the 1950s nurturing the career of his second wife, Jennifer Jones. His last film, the big budget production of A Farewell to Arms (1957) starring his wife and Rock Hudson.
In 1954, Selznick ventured into television, producing a two hour extravaganza called Light's Diamond Jubilee, which in true Selznick fashion made TV history by being telecast simultaneously on all four TV networks: CBS, NBC, ABC, and DuMont.
David Selznick was always a great promoter and here is a brief description of the event and what it was all about.
THE legend "Produced by David O. Selznick" will appear for the first time tonight on television, preceded by the title "Diamond Jubilee of Light." A foreword to the show describes it as "a potpourri of dramatics, whimsicality and oratorical flight (with bits of music too) celebrating the birth of the electric bulb; paying tribute to the American individual and his offspring, and including some commentary on a few of the lights that guide them.
Some of the stars that will appear are Judith Anderson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Benchley, Walter Brennan, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Dandridge, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Gobel, Helen Hayes, David Niven and Debbie Reynolds.
And that was the man behind King Kong and Gone With the Wind – a motion picture producer with a touch of genius and a large portion of P.T. Barnham.
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
After the celebration. John Henry and his pal H.C. Talk about the past.
“And that puts your father right in the middle.”
“He put himself into that spot, got married much too soon after Mama died. And in my book that’s when he dishonored her name.”
“I guess you have every right to feel that way, John Henry. But just to let you know where I stand I’ll tell you that Major Holliday is a good man. Mama told me how you felt. She said you wouldn’t go to the wedding.”
“Aunt Susie got that right,” John Henry snapped.
“Listen, my friend. I might not have ever said this before, but outside of Mama, your mother and father were the most important people in my life.”
“I appreciate that, HC.”
“I think I can explain my feelings better by telling you about something that happened while we were still in Griffin. Remember my accident on the lime-spreader where I messed up my hand?”
“Yeah and I still blame myself for that.”
“No such thing, the fault was my own, but that’s not what I’m getting at. It has to do with my recollection of what happened when you all came in the carriage and your father picked me up and got back into the seat. I guess I had lost a lot of blood and everything seemed a little foggy to me. But after a long ride in the carriage, I was still cradled in his arms. And I remember we were going up some steps and I thought, where are we going, Papa?”
“You called him Papa?”
“Not out loud, but that’s what I thought at the time and I say that just to let you know how I feel about your father. Major Holliday was a good man that afternoon and I bet he’s still a good man.”
John Henry nodded.
They arrived early at the station and stood on the platform for a while before John Henry began to cough.
“Maybe we ought go inside, seems a little chilly, now the bourbon is wearing off,” HC said.
“No, let’s walk, I’m OK.”
“Now that you’re a dentist, what comes next? Go back to Valdosta and open an office.”
“No. That’d be the last place I’d go. My fi rst choice is Griffin, and if that doesn’t work I might fi nd something in Atlanta.”
“What are you and Mattie are gonna do?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just what I said, are you going to marry the girl or what?”
“I wish I knew. First I have to establish some kind of practice then there’s that nagging reality that we are cousins.”
“Plenty of cousins get married.”
“I know that, HC and Mattie doesn’t seem to mind—not about us and our being cousins, but we both worry about family reactions.”
“I expect you’re right about that, but I’ll bet you two can work it out.” Then HC abruptly changed the subject. “Tell me something, how’s that horse of yours doing?”
“The Gent?” John Henry said as he broke into an open smile.
“That character is a joy, HC. He’s always been healthy and can he run.”
“Do you think he could compete?”
“We’ve had him in some match races, down home. He won every event he started.”
“That sounds good to me. You know when I get tired of sitting at the keyboard, I let go, take the train out to Long Island and spend a day at the races.”
John Henry shook his head at the remark and laughed. “What with all the stalls you mucked out back home, I’d think horses would be the last thing you wanted to see.”
“You may not believe this, but some of the best days of my life were spent down home working around the barns.”
The train chugged in and boarded passengers. John Henry said good-bye to HC and stood on the platform and watched the train ease out of the station and head north.
Get away day.
It happens every year, pack you belongings say good-bye and go out into the real world. The down stairs hall and parlor area at Mrs. Greens boarding house looked like a baggage terminal, bags packed and strewn all over the place. Hacks and drivers parked on the street were waiting for fares.
John Henry and Robert McReynolds had gathered up their luggage and headed for the front door when Arnold Primrose, with a bag in each hand, walked down the wide staircase. John Henry glanced up and they made eye contact.
McReynolds nudged John Henry and suggested he forget what happened last night. Arnie wore an affable smile on his chubby face as he descended the stairs and crossed the room. Then when he got close he suddenly dropped the bags and extended a hand toward John Henry. “Guess I owe you an apology.”
“You guessed right for one time in your life, Primrose.” McReynolds quipped.
A wry grin crossed John Henry face. “I’m listening, Arnie.”
Primrose cleared his throat and with his bad Southern accent said, “Ah should be most honored, Doctor Holliday. I Arnold Primrose, in the most humble manner I can command, wish to apologize for the scene I caused last evening. I apologize to you and I apologize to your friend, Mr. Glover. And now, descending from my soapbox, may I add that I feel somewhat like an ass.”
John Henry widened his grin. “I accept your apology, Mr. Primrose and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the part about the soapbox and the ass.”
Writers Notebook:
The idea for my writing notebook came from Somerset Maugham. Maugham's notebook was a kind of journal while mine is a collection of conversations and tips that have been passed along by some of our famous writers.
This one is guaranteed to get your attention and might even make you think. Ray Bradbury says, ‘Write from the heart, not from the mind. Go ahead and jump over the cliff – build your parachute on the way down.’
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
Selznick Bows Out in Style
John Henry and HC Talk Family
Writers Notebook: Somerset Maugham
David Selznick Part 8
The film Rebecca would ring down the curtain on Selznick International Pictures, ending the run of the most successful independent motion picture company of its time.
There were many reasons for ending production and liquidating the company and here are a few. One was financial – they had accumulated too much income from Gone With the Wind and Rebecca to take ordinary tax write offs that would give them a profit. Another was Selznick's need to take out money in order to finance other films that he had an interest in. The war in Europe and the looming possibility of American becoming involved.
The end of Selznick International didn't take him out of the business. He formed his own company without outside partners as David O. Selznick Productions, Inc. In a sense though he did have partners, they were executives he had worked with for years.
In late 1941 Selznick Productions bought into United Artist with a twenty five percent share.During that period he was also working on two projects Since You Went Away and Spellbound.
Since You Went Away
Directed by John Cromwell produced by David Selznick and screenplay by David Selznick. Cast Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Monte Woolly and Robert Walker.
Variety gives the film a good review. 'Since You Went Away' is a heart warming panorama of human emotions, reflecting the usual wartime frailties...'
The film got a Best Picture nomination from the Academy.
Spellbound
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by David Selznick with a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Angus MacPhail and starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck.
Spellbound caused major contention, not the first, between Alfred Hitchcock and David Selznick. Selznick wanted Hitchcock to make a movie based upon Selznick's own positive experience with Psychoanalysis. He even brought in May Romm M.D., who was credited in the film as a technical adviser. Dr. Romm and Hitchcock clashed frequently. There is no doubt that there was conflict and contention on the set of Spellbound, but in the end it was worth it.
The film got good reviews and Daily Variety said, 'The story, employing as it does psychiatry and psychoanalysis in a murder mystery... Gregory Peck, suffering from amnesia, believes that he committed a murder, but has no memory of the locale or circumstances surrounding the crime. Ingrid Bergman as a psychiatrist in love with Peck tries desperately to save him from punishment for the crime she is certain he could not have committed, and doing so risks her career and almost her life....
Salvador Dali designed the dream sequence with all the aids of futurism and surrealism in his sets...
Spellbound won a nomination for Best Picture by the Academy.
Duel in the Sun
Directed by King Vidor, produced by David Selznick, screenplay by David Selznick.
Cast included Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotton, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish and Walter Houston.
The film got favorable reviews and while it didn't win any prestigious awards it scored big at the box office and was one of the highest grossing films ever up to that time.
The Paradine Case
Director Alfred Hitchcock, produced by David Selznick, screenplay by David Selznick.
Cast included Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.
This dramatic courtroom drama plot concerns a murder of a blind man by his wife so she can marry her lover. The story, cast and film are applauded by Daily Variety in their review.
Portrait of Jennie
Directed by William Dieterle, screenplay by Paul Osborne and Peter Berneis. Cast included Joseph Cotton, Jennifer Jones, Ethel Barrymore, David Wayne and Lillian Gish. Daily Variety says , 'The story of ethereal romance between two generations is told with style, taste and dignity. William Dieterle has given the story sensitive direction and his guidance contributes considerably toward the top performers from the meticulously cast players. '….Joseph Cotton endows the artist with a top performance, matching the compelling portrait by Jennifer Jones.
Selznick said he stopped making films in 1948 because he was tired. He was a hard driving producer that had been producing for twenty years. Something else, at that time the motion-picture industry was taking a terrible beating from television. Overall it seemed to be a good time to take stock and to study objectively the obviously changing public tastes. Selznick was born into and wedded to the business so he had no intention of staying away from production for too long. He spent most of the 1950s nurturing the career of his second wife, Jennifer Jones. His last film, the big budget production of A Farewell to Arms (1957) starring his wife and Rock Hudson.
In 1954, Selznick ventured into television, producing a two hour extravaganza called Light's Diamond Jubilee, which in true Selznick fashion made TV history by being telecast simultaneously on all four TV networks: CBS, NBC, ABC, and DuMont.
David Selznick was always a great promoter and here is a brief description of the event and what it was all about.
THE legend "Produced by David O. Selznick" will appear for the first time tonight on television, preceded by the title "Diamond Jubilee of Light." A foreword to the show describes it as "a potpourri of dramatics, whimsicality and oratorical flight (with bits of music too) celebrating the birth of the electric bulb; paying tribute to the American individual and his offspring, and including some commentary on a few of the lights that guide them.
Some of the stars that will appear are Judith Anderson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Benchley, Walter Brennan, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Dandridge, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Gobel, Helen Hayes, David Niven and Debbie Reynolds.
And that was the man behind King Kong and Gone With the Wind – a motion picture producer with a touch of genius and a large portion of P.T. Barnham.
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
After the celebration. John Henry and his pal H.C. Talk about the past.
“And that puts your father right in the middle.”
“He put himself into that spot, got married much too soon after Mama died. And in my book that’s when he dishonored her name.”
“I guess you have every right to feel that way, John Henry. But just to let you know where I stand I’ll tell you that Major Holliday is a good man. Mama told me how you felt. She said you wouldn’t go to the wedding.”
“Aunt Susie got that right,” John Henry snapped.
“Listen, my friend. I might not have ever said this before, but outside of Mama, your mother and father were the most important people in my life.”
“I appreciate that, HC.”
“I think I can explain my feelings better by telling you about something that happened while we were still in Griffin. Remember my accident on the lime-spreader where I messed up my hand?”
“Yeah and I still blame myself for that.”
“No such thing, the fault was my own, but that’s not what I’m getting at. It has to do with my recollection of what happened when you all came in the carriage and your father picked me up and got back into the seat. I guess I had lost a lot of blood and everything seemed a little foggy to me. But after a long ride in the carriage, I was still cradled in his arms. And I remember we were going up some steps and I thought, where are we going, Papa?”
“You called him Papa?”
“Not out loud, but that’s what I thought at the time and I say that just to let you know how I feel about your father. Major Holliday was a good man that afternoon and I bet he’s still a good man.”
John Henry nodded.
They arrived early at the station and stood on the platform for a while before John Henry began to cough.
“Maybe we ought go inside, seems a little chilly, now the bourbon is wearing off,” HC said.
“No, let’s walk, I’m OK.”
“Now that you’re a dentist, what comes next? Go back to Valdosta and open an office.”
“No. That’d be the last place I’d go. My fi rst choice is Griffin, and if that doesn’t work I might fi nd something in Atlanta.”
“What are you and Mattie are gonna do?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just what I said, are you going to marry the girl or what?”
“I wish I knew. First I have to establish some kind of practice then there’s that nagging reality that we are cousins.”
“Plenty of cousins get married.”
“I know that, HC and Mattie doesn’t seem to mind—not about us and our being cousins, but we both worry about family reactions.”
“I expect you’re right about that, but I’ll bet you two can work it out.” Then HC abruptly changed the subject. “Tell me something, how’s that horse of yours doing?”
“The Gent?” John Henry said as he broke into an open smile.
“That character is a joy, HC. He’s always been healthy and can he run.”
“Do you think he could compete?”
“We’ve had him in some match races, down home. He won every event he started.”
“That sounds good to me. You know when I get tired of sitting at the keyboard, I let go, take the train out to Long Island and spend a day at the races.”
John Henry shook his head at the remark and laughed. “What with all the stalls you mucked out back home, I’d think horses would be the last thing you wanted to see.”
“You may not believe this, but some of the best days of my life were spent down home working around the barns.”
The train chugged in and boarded passengers. John Henry said good-bye to HC and stood on the platform and watched the train ease out of the station and head north.
Get away day.
It happens every year, pack you belongings say good-bye and go out into the real world. The down stairs hall and parlor area at Mrs. Greens boarding house looked like a baggage terminal, bags packed and strewn all over the place. Hacks and drivers parked on the street were waiting for fares.
John Henry and Robert McReynolds had gathered up their luggage and headed for the front door when Arnold Primrose, with a bag in each hand, walked down the wide staircase. John Henry glanced up and they made eye contact.
McReynolds nudged John Henry and suggested he forget what happened last night. Arnie wore an affable smile on his chubby face as he descended the stairs and crossed the room. Then when he got close he suddenly dropped the bags and extended a hand toward John Henry. “Guess I owe you an apology.”
“You guessed right for one time in your life, Primrose.” McReynolds quipped.
A wry grin crossed John Henry face. “I’m listening, Arnie.”
Primrose cleared his throat and with his bad Southern accent said, “Ah should be most honored, Doctor Holliday. I Arnold Primrose, in the most humble manner I can command, wish to apologize for the scene I caused last evening. I apologize to you and I apologize to your friend, Mr. Glover. And now, descending from my soapbox, may I add that I feel somewhat like an ass.”
John Henry widened his grin. “I accept your apology, Mr. Primrose and I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the part about the soapbox and the ass.”
Writers Notebook:
The idea for my writing notebook came from Somerset Maugham. Maugham's notebook was a kind of journal while mine is a collection of conversations and tips that have been passed along by some of our famous writers.
This one is guaranteed to get your attention and might even make you think. Ray Bradbury says, ‘Write from the heart, not from the mind. Go ahead and jump over the cliff – build your parachute on the way down.’
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
September 22, 2010
Oscar, Selznick International and Doc Holliday
This Week
Selznick Oscars
Doc Holliday Celebrates Graduation
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck
David O. Selznick Part 7
Gone With the Wind, Intermezzo and Rebecca
Three of the most important Selznick International films were Gone With the Wind, Intermezzo and Rebecca. Gone With the Wind was first when in early 1936 David Selznick's New York literary agent Katherine Brown sent him a memo urging him to read the book Gone With the Wind. The asking price $50,000.00 for the rights were too high for his present circumstances. He also gave a number of excuses why a Civil War story about the South wouldn't be particularly successful at the box office, in any event in his memo written on May 25, 1936 he said no to the idea.
Miss Brown was tenacious though and pitched her idea to Jock Whitney, one of Selznick Internationals main financial backers. He liked it so much that he decided to purchase the rights and work something out with David later.
It couldn't have been much later because as I look at the dates on two memos there must have been a flurry of telephone calls between the East and West Coast that evening. The memo written on the 25th to Kay Brown had said no to the Gone With the Wind idea. The following day a memo was sent indicating that the answer was yes, he was interested.
Gone With the Wind production story Part 1 of 18 Click Here
The European version of the film Intermezzo was released in 1936. In short order Selznick's New York office spotted it, sent him a copy and as we now know he bought the rights to remake the film in English and he also signed Ingrid Bergman to a personal management contract.
Rebecca, the other important film proved to be more difficult to manage than either of the other two, although in the end it proved to be worth all the aggravation.
Selznick had few ally’s when it came to Rebecca, he liked the story and was very enthused about it. He was also an exception to an old Hollywood slogan that reads, 'Don't judge a book by it's movie.'
Without a doubt David Selznick was the most rigid producer in Hollywood when it came to transferring a book with its actual content to the screen. He was adamant in the respect to sticking to the story and in many cases using actual dialogue from the book.
During the time Selznick was making a deal for the film rights to Rebecca he was also in communication with Alfred Hitchcock to sign him to a contract with Selznick International as writer and director.
A habit had prevailed for too long in Hollywood to buy the rights to a best selling novel then write a screenplay that had little to do with the content of the book. They'd use the title and authors name to give it recognition and then jazz the story up any way they liked. Fortunately for movie goers David Selznick helped to turn that trend around.
Alfred Hitchcock had been commissioned to write a treatment on Rebecca. After the work was received and read Selznick wrote a memo in reply on June 12,1939. 'Dear Hitch, it is my unfortunate and distressing task to tell you that I am shocked and disappointed beyond words by the treatment of Rebecca. I regard it as a distorted and vulgarized version of a proven and successful work, in which, for no reason that I can discern, old-fashioned movie scenes have been substituted for the captivating and charming du Maurier (Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca) scenes...'
'We bought Rebecca, and we intend to make Rebecca.'
Fortunately Selznick and Hitchcock ironed out their differences. Hitchcock came to America and directed Rebecca.
Another problem came up in casting Joan Fontaine. Selznick was in her corner, alone. As tests and time went along the situation came to be similar to that of the Katherine Hepburn episode when he cast her in Bill of Divorcement. Of course he expected to take some flack when he cast a leading lady in a role that no one else could see. Sam Goldwyn didn't like her, Hal Roach didn't care for her. RKO had put Joan Fontaine in a couple of good roles, but dropped her contract when it ran out. Some of the people in Hollywood were saying that Fontaine had so little talent that they called her 'the wooden woman.' Nobody at Selznick International, except for David Selznick himself, could see her for dust. But he persisted and eventually Joan Fontaine played the female lead in Rebecca.
The film was released in 1940. Alfred Hitchcock directed, Screenplay was written by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison. The cast included Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce and Reginald Denny.
Rebecca got a glowing review from Daily Variety.
'Picture is noteworthy for its literal translation of Daphne du Maurier's novel to the screen. Presenting all the somberness and dramatic tragedy of the book. Alfred Hitchcock pilots his first American production with capable assurance...'
And they went on to applaud every member of the cast as well as the production.
Rebecca won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1940.
Gone With the Wind had almost run the table the year before on Oscar night.
Intermezzo didn't win an Oscar – but it brought us Ingrid Bergman and without Bergman would Casablanca have been the same?
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Dental College Graduation Night.
(Continued excerpt)
John Henry and H.C. chatted past the William Penn House and caught a cold blast of wind coming in from the Delaware River just as they were about to go into the Bookbinders Restaurant. They checked their great coats and joined the graduation party already in progress.
John Henry introduced HC to his Philadelphia cronies and each introduction was accompanied with another sip of bourbon.
A special dinner of steak and lobster had been prepared and individual menus with lamb, poultry and fish dishes were offered by the popular restaurant. The din of chatter continued throughout the meal and later a kind of ritual started where each graduate would stand up and say a few words before giving a short toast.
John Henry took his turn, held up his glass and smiled. “To the class of seventy-two. May you all be good at your task and gentle with your patients.”
The response was a collective, “We’ll drink to that.”
John Henry stayed on his feet and said; “Now I’d like to say something about my guest, a lifelong friend, I grew up with down in Georgia, HC Glover. And as it happens he’s a very talented musician, plays for the clubs in New York and I haven’t asked him, but I expect if we twist his arm a little, he will go to that upright in the corner and liven up our evening.”
The crowd responded with applause as HC got to his feet, and with just a hint of boyish embarrassment, moved toward the piano.
Arnie Primrose, a classmate from New York, that had failed to graduate, moved toward John Henry, and with a mocking Southern accent snarled, “Why, I didn’t realize a good old Southern boy like, John Henry Holliday would own up to bein’ a friend of a Nigger,
let alone, a lifelong friend.”
John Henry leapt to his feet and stared in disbelief as Arnie continued. “Did y’all suck from the same mammy?”
“Primrose, you are drunk. But if we weren’t in the company of some pretty decent folks—you would already be minus a couple of teeth—you owe us all an apology and especially HC,” John Henry declared. “And I expect that apology right now!”
Arnie winked at his audience, “Now, now, I’m beginning to wonder if old John Henry just might be double-gated too.”
Robert McReynolds recognized a fight was brewing and hurried across the room to break it up.
Mac was a little late as John Henry unloaded a right cross to Arnie’s temple and a left uppercut to his jaw, but Mac was in time to grab Arnie, as his eyes glazed over, and guide the unconscious heap into a chair.
The quick knockout didn’t end the party but it did reinforce John Henry’s view that Southern folks didn’t have exclusive rights to hypocrisy and bigotry.
HC didn’t miss a beat and played right through the altercation.
The audience warmed to his performance and John Henry settled in, sipped his bourbon, and listened with a sense of pride. He recognized his pals’ accomplishments as a musician and that he had developed a unique style. But more than that HC had become a skilled entertainer that knew exactly how to connect with his audience.
Long after the celebrants had gone home, John Henry and HC walked toward the railroad station. John Henry made an apology for his quick fists. “I swear I tried to hold back, but I guess bigots bring out the rebel in me faster than just about anything.”
“You best be careful then, John Henry ’cause there are lots of them about.”
“So you’ve got a few in New York?”
“More than a few.” Then after several moments of silence, HC said, “John Henry, I want to ask you a personal question.”
“Go ahead and ask.”
“Its about your father.”
John Henry had an idea what it was about but said, “I’m listening.”
“I get letters from Mama now and then and she told me that
after Miz Alice died your father married again and that you don’t
get along much with his new wife.”
“That’s an understatement, HC. I don’t get along with her and she can’t stand me.”
“And that puts your father right in the middle.”
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
Answering a friend’s call for help in writing an important biography John Steinbeck wrote and said, ‘…Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm, which can only come with a kind unconscious association with the material.
Forget your generalized audience. In the first place the nameless faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place unlike the theatre it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person – a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.’
If that phrase ‘write freely and as rapidly as possible’ seems familiar it’s because you might have heard it quoted by Stephen King. King takes a similar approach.
Tom's Books and Blogs
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Selznick Oscars
Doc Holliday Celebrates Graduation
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck
David O. Selznick Part 7
Gone With the Wind, Intermezzo and Rebecca
Three of the most important Selznick International films were Gone With the Wind, Intermezzo and Rebecca. Gone With the Wind was first when in early 1936 David Selznick's New York literary agent Katherine Brown sent him a memo urging him to read the book Gone With the Wind. The asking price $50,000.00 for the rights were too high for his present circumstances. He also gave a number of excuses why a Civil War story about the South wouldn't be particularly successful at the box office, in any event in his memo written on May 25, 1936 he said no to the idea.
Miss Brown was tenacious though and pitched her idea to Jock Whitney, one of Selznick Internationals main financial backers. He liked it so much that he decided to purchase the rights and work something out with David later.
It couldn't have been much later because as I look at the dates on two memos there must have been a flurry of telephone calls between the East and West Coast that evening. The memo written on the 25th to Kay Brown had said no to the Gone With the Wind idea. The following day a memo was sent indicating that the answer was yes, he was interested.
Gone With the Wind production story Part 1 of 18 Click Here
The European version of the film Intermezzo was released in 1936. In short order Selznick's New York office spotted it, sent him a copy and as we now know he bought the rights to remake the film in English and he also signed Ingrid Bergman to a personal management contract.
Rebecca, the other important film proved to be more difficult to manage than either of the other two, although in the end it proved to be worth all the aggravation.
Selznick had few ally’s when it came to Rebecca, he liked the story and was very enthused about it. He was also an exception to an old Hollywood slogan that reads, 'Don't judge a book by it's movie.'
Without a doubt David Selznick was the most rigid producer in Hollywood when it came to transferring a book with its actual content to the screen. He was adamant in the respect to sticking to the story and in many cases using actual dialogue from the book.
During the time Selznick was making a deal for the film rights to Rebecca he was also in communication with Alfred Hitchcock to sign him to a contract with Selznick International as writer and director.
A habit had prevailed for too long in Hollywood to buy the rights to a best selling novel then write a screenplay that had little to do with the content of the book. They'd use the title and authors name to give it recognition and then jazz the story up any way they liked. Fortunately for movie goers David Selznick helped to turn that trend around.
Alfred Hitchcock had been commissioned to write a treatment on Rebecca. After the work was received and read Selznick wrote a memo in reply on June 12,1939. 'Dear Hitch, it is my unfortunate and distressing task to tell you that I am shocked and disappointed beyond words by the treatment of Rebecca. I regard it as a distorted and vulgarized version of a proven and successful work, in which, for no reason that I can discern, old-fashioned movie scenes have been substituted for the captivating and charming du Maurier (Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca) scenes...'
'We bought Rebecca, and we intend to make Rebecca.'
Fortunately Selznick and Hitchcock ironed out their differences. Hitchcock came to America and directed Rebecca.
Another problem came up in casting Joan Fontaine. Selznick was in her corner, alone. As tests and time went along the situation came to be similar to that of the Katherine Hepburn episode when he cast her in Bill of Divorcement. Of course he expected to take some flack when he cast a leading lady in a role that no one else could see. Sam Goldwyn didn't like her, Hal Roach didn't care for her. RKO had put Joan Fontaine in a couple of good roles, but dropped her contract when it ran out. Some of the people in Hollywood were saying that Fontaine had so little talent that they called her 'the wooden woman.' Nobody at Selznick International, except for David Selznick himself, could see her for dust. But he persisted and eventually Joan Fontaine played the female lead in Rebecca.
The film was released in 1940. Alfred Hitchcock directed, Screenplay was written by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison. The cast included Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce and Reginald Denny.
Rebecca got a glowing review from Daily Variety.
'Picture is noteworthy for its literal translation of Daphne du Maurier's novel to the screen. Presenting all the somberness and dramatic tragedy of the book. Alfred Hitchcock pilots his first American production with capable assurance...'
And they went on to applaud every member of the cast as well as the production.
Rebecca won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1940.
Gone With the Wind had almost run the table the year before on Oscar night.
Intermezzo didn't win an Oscar – but it brought us Ingrid Bergman and without Bergman would Casablanca have been the same?
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Dental College Graduation Night.
(Continued excerpt)
John Henry and H.C. chatted past the William Penn House and caught a cold blast of wind coming in from the Delaware River just as they were about to go into the Bookbinders Restaurant. They checked their great coats and joined the graduation party already in progress.
John Henry introduced HC to his Philadelphia cronies and each introduction was accompanied with another sip of bourbon.
A special dinner of steak and lobster had been prepared and individual menus with lamb, poultry and fish dishes were offered by the popular restaurant. The din of chatter continued throughout the meal and later a kind of ritual started where each graduate would stand up and say a few words before giving a short toast.
John Henry took his turn, held up his glass and smiled. “To the class of seventy-two. May you all be good at your task and gentle with your patients.”
The response was a collective, “We’ll drink to that.”
John Henry stayed on his feet and said; “Now I’d like to say something about my guest, a lifelong friend, I grew up with down in Georgia, HC Glover. And as it happens he’s a very talented musician, plays for the clubs in New York and I haven’t asked him, but I expect if we twist his arm a little, he will go to that upright in the corner and liven up our evening.”
The crowd responded with applause as HC got to his feet, and with just a hint of boyish embarrassment, moved toward the piano.
Arnie Primrose, a classmate from New York, that had failed to graduate, moved toward John Henry, and with a mocking Southern accent snarled, “Why, I didn’t realize a good old Southern boy like, John Henry Holliday would own up to bein’ a friend of a Nigger,
let alone, a lifelong friend.”
John Henry leapt to his feet and stared in disbelief as Arnie continued. “Did y’all suck from the same mammy?”
“Primrose, you are drunk. But if we weren’t in the company of some pretty decent folks—you would already be minus a couple of teeth—you owe us all an apology and especially HC,” John Henry declared. “And I expect that apology right now!”
Arnie winked at his audience, “Now, now, I’m beginning to wonder if old John Henry just might be double-gated too.”
Robert McReynolds recognized a fight was brewing and hurried across the room to break it up.
Mac was a little late as John Henry unloaded a right cross to Arnie’s temple and a left uppercut to his jaw, but Mac was in time to grab Arnie, as his eyes glazed over, and guide the unconscious heap into a chair.
The quick knockout didn’t end the party but it did reinforce John Henry’s view that Southern folks didn’t have exclusive rights to hypocrisy and bigotry.
HC didn’t miss a beat and played right through the altercation.
The audience warmed to his performance and John Henry settled in, sipped his bourbon, and listened with a sense of pride. He recognized his pals’ accomplishments as a musician and that he had developed a unique style. But more than that HC had become a skilled entertainer that knew exactly how to connect with his audience.
Long after the celebrants had gone home, John Henry and HC walked toward the railroad station. John Henry made an apology for his quick fists. “I swear I tried to hold back, but I guess bigots bring out the rebel in me faster than just about anything.”
“You best be careful then, John Henry ’cause there are lots of them about.”
“So you’ve got a few in New York?”
“More than a few.” Then after several moments of silence, HC said, “John Henry, I want to ask you a personal question.”
“Go ahead and ask.”
“Its about your father.”
John Henry had an idea what it was about but said, “I’m listening.”
“I get letters from Mama now and then and she told me that
after Miz Alice died your father married again and that you don’t
get along much with his new wife.”
“That’s an understatement, HC. I don’t get along with her and she can’t stand me.”
“And that puts your father right in the middle.”
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
Answering a friend’s call for help in writing an important biography John Steinbeck wrote and said, ‘…Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm, which can only come with a kind unconscious association with the material.
Forget your generalized audience. In the first place the nameless faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place unlike the theatre it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person – a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.’
If that phrase ‘write freely and as rapidly as possible’ seems familiar it’s because you might have heard it quoted by Stephen King. King takes a similar approach.
Tom's Books and Blogs
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
September 15, 2010
Prisoner of Zenda, Intermezzo and Doc Holliday in Philadelphia
This Week
Selznick signs Ingrid Bergman
Doc Holliday Graduates Dental College
Writers Notebook: Quick Fix for Writers Block
Selznick: Part 6
The Prisoner of Zenda followed The Star is Born in the Selznick International production lineup. From a screenplay by John L. Balderston, Wells Root and Donald Ogden Stewart, and directed by John Cromwell. The Stars were Ronald Coleman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, David Niven and Raymond Massey.
The public and a majority of the critics liked the picture Daily Variety took a different stand. The reviewer said, 'Zenda is hokum of the 24-carat variety, a shear piece of romantic nonsense about a European mythical kingdom.
Even though Variety was at odds with the story line they liked the overall production and cast. Action scene depicting mounted horsemen in body armor crossing the drawbridge is exciting and drew a lot of attention, a night scene between Carroll and Coleman was excellent and the sword fight between Coleman and Niven looks so real that, at moments, is almost too freighting to watch.
Facts about the latter scenes: The so called renunciation scene at twilight between Coleman and Carroll was actually directed by George Cukor. The sword fight between Coleman and Niven was directed by Cromwell, but once it was edited, sliced and diced it was thrown out and re shot under the direction of W.S. 'Woody' Van Dyke.
Mr. Perfection Selznick at work.
The followup picture to Zenda Nothing Sacred directed by William A. Wellman, screenplay by Ben Hecht and Starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March was well received by critics and public alike.
The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Young in Heart and Made for Each Other were all well produced and accepted by the public.
Selznick International produced two films in 1939 that put them on top of the heap. Intermezzo: A Love Story and Gone with the Wind.
The Intermezzo a Selznick International picture introduced Ingrid Bergman to an American audience.
Here is a brief back story on how Ingrid Bergman came to Hollywood.
The importance of good story material was constantly on David Selznick's mind and in the early stages of organizing Selznick International he sent a memo to his New York office and alerted his people to be on the lookout for European films that might be adapted and produced by Selznick International.
Elsa Neuberger assistant story editor to Kay Brown saw the Swedish film Intermezzo, that featured Ingrid Bergman, and sent a copy along to Culver City.
Once Selznick saw the film he wired the New York office to find particulars about remake rights on Intermezzo, and authorized Kay Brown to take the next boat to Sweden and not to come home without a contract with Miss Bergman.
Kay Brown was apparently successful. Selznick International made a deal for the remake rights of Intermezzo and also signed Miss Bergman to a personal management contract.
Ingrid Bergman had starred in a number of European films, but had not become a box office draw at that point in her career. Selznick was sure that she could be, although he wasn't sure that her given name would work in America. He discussed the possibility of changing her name with several people on his staff and he discussed the possibility with Miss Bergman. The lady argued that she had worked hard at her career using her own name and if at all possible she would like to keep it that way. In the end Selznick agreed that she would continue to use her given name.
There was also a small language problem, Bergman spoke and understood English well, but needed work on her accent.
Miss Bergman agreed with that assessment and was diligent in her studies and worked very hard with her dialogue and English coaches to develop more of an American accent.
The last and final problem proved to be the most challenging.
While doing screen and wardrobe tests they discovered that Ingrid Bergman was not an easy photographic subject. In one of his memos Selznick voiced an opinion that the difference in her photography is the difference between great beauty and a complete lack of beauty. 'And unless we can bring off our photography so that she really looks divine, the whole picture can fall apart.'
They did more tests lighting, high and low camera angles, left and right profile and while they made some headway it was still insufficient according to Selznick.
The picture had just gotten underway when Selznick, after watching film rushes, made his decision to replace the Director of Photography Harry Stradling with Gregg Toland. Then working with Monty Westmore in makeup and doing another series of lighting and camera tests Toland found the key to photographing Ingrid Bergman.
(To Be Continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Philadelphia
March 1, 1872
The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery was holding its
16th Graduation Ceremony at stuffy old Musical Fund Hall. Twenty-six members out of the original class of sixty-three had completed their prescribed work, earned their degree’s, and became eligible to graduate.
John Henry Holliday, the fair-haired Georgian, sat on the second row among that elite group of cap and gown graduates.
Professor Tyson completed the valedictory address and moved away from the podium to a round of applause as the likeable Dr. W.W. Fouche stepped forward and took his place.
Dr. Fouche nodded recognition to the audience and immediately commenced with the ritual everyone had been waiting for. As he called the names in alphabetical order each graduate would gather up their gown and dutifully march up to the stage where they would receive personal congratulations and a diploma.
John Henry maintained an outward calm that would mask a stomach churning anxiety until he actually got the diploma in his hand. He wasn’t concerned about his grades, but had to admit that his card playing and general rebellious nature had drawn more than one reprimand during his stay in Philadelphia. However, his anxiety disappeared when the affable Dr. Fouche looked at him and called his name. John Henry rose from his seat and as he made his way to the stage caught the eye of fellow Georgian Robert Mc Reynolds gave him a high sign, quickly ascended the steps to the stage, accepted his diploma, and joined the others forming a semi circle behind the podium.
Once the certificate was in hand time seemed to pass more quickly and when the last special award was handed to Charles Hamilton Dr. Fouche peered over his gold-rimed glasses, and mimed a handclap. Decorum was then tossed aside with shouts, whistles and even a few jigs danced on the stage setting the celebration in motion.
John Henry discarded his cap and gown, and mingled with the crowd, exchanging jovial banter and good will. He made his way to the exit and as he neared the door felt a sharp slap on his back, turned and stood for a moment in complete disbelief at what he saw. “HC, you old rascal, gosh . . . where did you come from?”
“New York. Came down on the train this afternoon.”
“I can’t believe it’s you,” enthused John Henry. Then he stood back and smiled approvingly at his friend.
HC wearing an expensive, tailored, dark suit, cut with stylish lapels, matching waistcoat and a blue silk tie smiled and said, “This is a big night for you, John Henry, but I haven’t seen any of your folks?”
“None of them are here, but of course I didn’t expect them either.”
“What about Mattie, didn’t she want to come?”
“Sure, but she couldn’t come alone on the train and ship passage up the coast this time of year isn’t good either.”
“You sure have grown, John Henry.”
“Some I guess, but not as much as you, and something else, you’ve lost about half of your Southern accent.” Then he took HC’s arm and turned him toward the door. “We are going to Bookbinders for supper and a little celebration, what do you say we walk.”
HC nodded his acceptance and they made their way out of the hall and faced a chilly breeze as they strode up Arch Street in the direction of the restaurant.
“How are things down home?” HC asked.
John Henry shoved his hands into his coat pockets and mumbled, “Ok I guess. But I don’t want to get into that; I want to know how you’re doing. I heard that you did well in Cincinnati and then you went on to New York. How are you making out there?”
“Well, I’m playing the dives and bordellos in Lower Manhattan. And I’m not proud of the places I have to work, but the pay is good and it gives me a place to practice my technique.”
“Have you ever thought about the concert stage?”
“Are you serious?” HC said laughingly. “This is no time for a black man to put on tie and tails and walk on stage to entertain the gentry of America and Europe. That’s not my kind of music anyway. I’ve been told I was born with a musical gift. But your Mama taught me how to use it. Her sisters added something too, Miz Margaret and her fiddle, Miz Melissa’s guitar and Miz Eunice with that four-string banjo.”
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
'Ninety percent of the failures come from people who practice the habit of making excuses.' George Washington Carver
Writers block is nothing more than an excuse for procrastination.
To get off the dime, try this method for a jump-start.
Go to a large mirror and confront the monster. Look the character right in the eye and speak the truth. “You lazy spineless wimp — go back to work!” Don’t whine, just do it…
Turn on your computer or pick up the stub of a pencil and write something bold, daring — outrageous.
So what if it’s not your best effort, consider this. It’s a whole lot easier to rewrite something than it is to begin tomorrow with absolutely nothing.
Now this little quick fix is not the end all for everybody’s problems, some of you need to go back to your shrink. Just kidding. But don’t be too hard on yourself either, lighten up, relax and laugh at that character in the mirror. Then visualize the blank page being full of words and so what if the quality of the work isn’t up to snuff, it’s only a first draft. Remember what Truman Capote said about writing. Writing is not so much writing as it is rewriting. Trust yourself, the good stuff will begin to show up the second or third time around.
Tom's Books and Blogs:
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
Selznick signs Ingrid Bergman
Doc Holliday Graduates Dental College
Writers Notebook: Quick Fix for Writers Block
Selznick: Part 6
The Prisoner of Zenda followed The Star is Born in the Selznick International production lineup. From a screenplay by John L. Balderston, Wells Root and Donald Ogden Stewart, and directed by John Cromwell. The Stars were Ronald Coleman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, David Niven and Raymond Massey.
The public and a majority of the critics liked the picture Daily Variety took a different stand. The reviewer said, 'Zenda is hokum of the 24-carat variety, a shear piece of romantic nonsense about a European mythical kingdom.
Even though Variety was at odds with the story line they liked the overall production and cast. Action scene depicting mounted horsemen in body armor crossing the drawbridge is exciting and drew a lot of attention, a night scene between Carroll and Coleman was excellent and the sword fight between Coleman and Niven looks so real that, at moments, is almost too freighting to watch.
Facts about the latter scenes: The so called renunciation scene at twilight between Coleman and Carroll was actually directed by George Cukor. The sword fight between Coleman and Niven was directed by Cromwell, but once it was edited, sliced and diced it was thrown out and re shot under the direction of W.S. 'Woody' Van Dyke.
Mr. Perfection Selznick at work.
The followup picture to Zenda Nothing Sacred directed by William A. Wellman, screenplay by Ben Hecht and Starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March was well received by critics and public alike.
The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Young in Heart and Made for Each Other were all well produced and accepted by the public.
Selznick International produced two films in 1939 that put them on top of the heap. Intermezzo: A Love Story and Gone with the Wind.
The Intermezzo a Selznick International picture introduced Ingrid Bergman to an American audience.
Here is a brief back story on how Ingrid Bergman came to Hollywood.
The importance of good story material was constantly on David Selznick's mind and in the early stages of organizing Selznick International he sent a memo to his New York office and alerted his people to be on the lookout for European films that might be adapted and produced by Selznick International.
Elsa Neuberger assistant story editor to Kay Brown saw the Swedish film Intermezzo, that featured Ingrid Bergman, and sent a copy along to Culver City.
Once Selznick saw the film he wired the New York office to find particulars about remake rights on Intermezzo, and authorized Kay Brown to take the next boat to Sweden and not to come home without a contract with Miss Bergman.
Kay Brown was apparently successful. Selznick International made a deal for the remake rights of Intermezzo and also signed Miss Bergman to a personal management contract.
Ingrid Bergman had starred in a number of European films, but had not become a box office draw at that point in her career. Selznick was sure that she could be, although he wasn't sure that her given name would work in America. He discussed the possibility of changing her name with several people on his staff and he discussed the possibility with Miss Bergman. The lady argued that she had worked hard at her career using her own name and if at all possible she would like to keep it that way. In the end Selznick agreed that she would continue to use her given name.
There was also a small language problem, Bergman spoke and understood English well, but needed work on her accent.
Miss Bergman agreed with that assessment and was diligent in her studies and worked very hard with her dialogue and English coaches to develop more of an American accent.
The last and final problem proved to be the most challenging.
While doing screen and wardrobe tests they discovered that Ingrid Bergman was not an easy photographic subject. In one of his memos Selznick voiced an opinion that the difference in her photography is the difference between great beauty and a complete lack of beauty. 'And unless we can bring off our photography so that she really looks divine, the whole picture can fall apart.'
They did more tests lighting, high and low camera angles, left and right profile and while they made some headway it was still insufficient according to Selznick.
The picture had just gotten underway when Selznick, after watching film rushes, made his decision to replace the Director of Photography Harry Stradling with Gregg Toland. Then working with Monty Westmore in makeup and doing another series of lighting and camera tests Toland found the key to photographing Ingrid Bergman.
(To Be Continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
Philadelphia
March 1, 1872
The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery was holding its
16th Graduation Ceremony at stuffy old Musical Fund Hall. Twenty-six members out of the original class of sixty-three had completed their prescribed work, earned their degree’s, and became eligible to graduate.
John Henry Holliday, the fair-haired Georgian, sat on the second row among that elite group of cap and gown graduates.
Professor Tyson completed the valedictory address and moved away from the podium to a round of applause as the likeable Dr. W.W. Fouche stepped forward and took his place.
Dr. Fouche nodded recognition to the audience and immediately commenced with the ritual everyone had been waiting for. As he called the names in alphabetical order each graduate would gather up their gown and dutifully march up to the stage where they would receive personal congratulations and a diploma.
John Henry maintained an outward calm that would mask a stomach churning anxiety until he actually got the diploma in his hand. He wasn’t concerned about his grades, but had to admit that his card playing and general rebellious nature had drawn more than one reprimand during his stay in Philadelphia. However, his anxiety disappeared when the affable Dr. Fouche looked at him and called his name. John Henry rose from his seat and as he made his way to the stage caught the eye of fellow Georgian Robert Mc Reynolds gave him a high sign, quickly ascended the steps to the stage, accepted his diploma, and joined the others forming a semi circle behind the podium.
Once the certificate was in hand time seemed to pass more quickly and when the last special award was handed to Charles Hamilton Dr. Fouche peered over his gold-rimed glasses, and mimed a handclap. Decorum was then tossed aside with shouts, whistles and even a few jigs danced on the stage setting the celebration in motion.
John Henry discarded his cap and gown, and mingled with the crowd, exchanging jovial banter and good will. He made his way to the exit and as he neared the door felt a sharp slap on his back, turned and stood for a moment in complete disbelief at what he saw. “HC, you old rascal, gosh . . . where did you come from?”
“New York. Came down on the train this afternoon.”
“I can’t believe it’s you,” enthused John Henry. Then he stood back and smiled approvingly at his friend.
HC wearing an expensive, tailored, dark suit, cut with stylish lapels, matching waistcoat and a blue silk tie smiled and said, “This is a big night for you, John Henry, but I haven’t seen any of your folks?”
“None of them are here, but of course I didn’t expect them either.”
“What about Mattie, didn’t she want to come?”
“Sure, but she couldn’t come alone on the train and ship passage up the coast this time of year isn’t good either.”
“You sure have grown, John Henry.”
“Some I guess, but not as much as you, and something else, you’ve lost about half of your Southern accent.” Then he took HC’s arm and turned him toward the door. “We are going to Bookbinders for supper and a little celebration, what do you say we walk.”
HC nodded his acceptance and they made their way out of the hall and faced a chilly breeze as they strode up Arch Street in the direction of the restaurant.
“How are things down home?” HC asked.
John Henry shoved his hands into his coat pockets and mumbled, “Ok I guess. But I don’t want to get into that; I want to know how you’re doing. I heard that you did well in Cincinnati and then you went on to New York. How are you making out there?”
“Well, I’m playing the dives and bordellos in Lower Manhattan. And I’m not proud of the places I have to work, but the pay is good and it gives me a place to practice my technique.”
“Have you ever thought about the concert stage?”
“Are you serious?” HC said laughingly. “This is no time for a black man to put on tie and tails and walk on stage to entertain the gentry of America and Europe. That’s not my kind of music anyway. I’ve been told I was born with a musical gift. But your Mama taught me how to use it. Her sisters added something too, Miz Margaret and her fiddle, Miz Melissa’s guitar and Miz Eunice with that four-string banjo.”
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
'Ninety percent of the failures come from people who practice the habit of making excuses.' George Washington Carver
Writers block is nothing more than an excuse for procrastination.
To get off the dime, try this method for a jump-start.
Go to a large mirror and confront the monster. Look the character right in the eye and speak the truth. “You lazy spineless wimp — go back to work!” Don’t whine, just do it…
Turn on your computer or pick up the stub of a pencil and write something bold, daring — outrageous.
So what if it’s not your best effort, consider this. It’s a whole lot easier to rewrite something than it is to begin tomorrow with absolutely nothing.
Now this little quick fix is not the end all for everybody’s problems, some of you need to go back to your shrink. Just kidding. But don’t be too hard on yourself either, lighten up, relax and laugh at that character in the mirror. Then visualize the blank page being full of words and so what if the quality of the work isn’t up to snuff, it’s only a first draft. Remember what Truman Capote said about writing. Writing is not so much writing as it is rewriting. Trust yourself, the good stuff will begin to show up the second or third time around.
Tom's Books and Blogs:
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 Tungee's Gold, 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
September 8, 2010
The Whitney's, David Selznick and Doc Holliday
This Week
Selznick International
Doc Holliday: Fact or Fiction
Writers Notebook: Tip from Stephen King
David O. Selznick Part 5
David Selznick's stay at MGM was not without its rewards. The production facilities and personnel alone were a big plus and for the most part he managed to get good story material. There were a few exceptions such as Vanessa: Her Love Story and Meet the Barron, both of those stories found their way to Selznick's production unit through studio pressure.
Two other pictures were less than successful because of casting errors, Clark Gable was not suited to the part in Night Flight and Reckless was originally intended for Joan Crawford but replace by Jean Harlow, which didn't work out.
Dancing Lady was a rehab picture for Joan Crawford coming off two box offices failures Rain and Today we Live.
Dancing Lady was successful and with its large cast had a number of personal success stories outside the film.
The film starred Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone and it featured the screen debut of Fred Astaire, borrowed from RKO to play himself. Dancing Lady also featured the the first credited film appearance of Nelson Eddy. Robert Benchley an old Algonquin Round Table Regular had a featured role and in minor roles were three characters that were later to become the Three Stooges, Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine.
Quite a collection of characters, and it turned out to be a pretty good film.
Manhattan Melodrama was a low cost film that was a big box office hit that was no doubt helped by the casting of Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy. The chemistry between Powell and Loy might have sparked their later pairing for The Thin Man, which eventually turned into a series for both film and radio.
Manhattan Melodrama was also the lure that was used by The Lady in Red, an FBI informant, to bring John Dillinger out of hiding. As The Lady in Red and Dillinger left the Chicago theater Dillinger was gunned down by the FBI to the dismay of the general public. John Dillinger had become quite a folk hero to many Americans during those dull depression years.
Nearing the end of his contract with MGM, word got out that David Selznick would be leaving the studio. All the executives including L.B. Mayer pleaded with him to stay on with a renewed and better contract. Greta Garbo came to him and asked him to stay and produce all of her films. That would have been a great honor, but David Selznick was on track to fulfill his dream, produce pictures he could be proud of and without too much outside interference.
Financing was the first order of business and being in the middle of a depression it would not be easy. However his reputation as a first line producer had grown over the years both inside and outside the industry. It was no secrete that he was going to form his own company, Selznick International and produce first class motion pictures. David was not as sure about financing his company as he was in his own personal abilities as a producer. Fortunately, in this case, his reputation as a producer had grown even larger than his ego.
The proof of that remark came when Irving Thalberg and his wife Anne Sheridan became the first investors in Selznick International. They gave him $200, 000.00 in seed money and that was matched by David's brother Myron.
And with almost a half million dollars in the bank, David set off for New York again. He felt more confident this time as his associate Merian C. Cooper (of King Kong fame) introduced David to some of New York's old money millionaires. All of those contacts were interested, but the bulk of the financing for Selznick International came from the Whitney family. John Hay (Jock) Whitney, C.V. Whitney and Mrs. Charles S. Payson, Jock Whitney's sister.
Cooper and the Whitney's owned Pioneer Productions and part of the deal with Selznick was that he would take over certain responsibilities in Pioneer along with operational control of his own Selznick International production company.
Selznick International Pictures set up shop in Culver City, California only a few blocks from MGM. The building was originally The Thomas Ince Studio built in 1919 and located on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California. The Colonial style building, used as a movie set by Ince, was converted into an office building by Cecil B. DeMille during his independent years.
Little Lord Fauntleroy was the first film produced by Selznick International. Directed by John Cromwell written by Hugh Walpole with a cast that included C. Aubrey Smith, Freddie Bartholomew and Dolores Costello and was released in 1936.
Fauntleroy went through its production stages without a hitch. The same couldn't be said for The Garden of Allah directed by Richard Boleslawski, screenplay by W.B. Lipscomb and Lynn Rigggs.
The Actors were Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone and C. Aubrey Smith. During production of the film Dietrich got into a the habit of slurring lines and changing a few words of dialog form time to time. Selznick was scrupulous when it came to the proper word and when he saw Marlene drifting away from the script he made a fuss about it. To get his point across Selznick used a string of memos to the director, which eventually got Dietrich's attention. She argued and bridled a bit, but eventually began to use the words written in the script. The Garden of Allah was completed and released in 1936.
A Star is born was filmed in technicolor and directed by William A. Wellman from a script written by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars were Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, other cast members included Adolph Menjou, May Robson and Andy Devine.
The production was filmed during the months from October through December of 1936 and Premiered April 29, 1937 at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
The industry paper Variety's review said, ...'Although not the first film, which has attempted to capitalize the International reputation of Hollywood, it is unquestionably the most effective one yet made. The highly commendable results are achieved with a minimum of satiric hokum and a maximum of honest storytelling.' ...'The story relates the experience of a young girl who rises to cinema fame while her husband, having touched the heights, is on a swift descent. Love is the heroine; alcohol, the villain.'...
The scene of the falling star walking into the ocean at sunset caused Selznick and the whole production staff many sleepless nights trying to strike the right balance, was Norman Main's death the result of an accident or was it suicide?
(To be Continued)
The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday.
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone is a novel, using real and imaginary people, the story begins just as the American Civil War is coming to a close. It's the story of passion and deceit, loyalty and adventure – beginning in the old South and later plays out on the Western Frontier.
Most of the settings, characters and incidents are real, the births and deaths of family members within the Holliday household are documented by factual accounts.
John Henry Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia and the family’s move to Valdosta, Georgia in 1864 is a matter of record as is the death of his mother Alice Holliday in August of 1866. John Henry's father, Henry B. Holliday, caused an irreparable rift with his son when he courted and married Rachel Martin before Alice was cold in her grave.
John Henry's association and work with Dr. Frederick Frink of Valdosta led to his attending and graduating The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in March of 1872 are also a matter of record.
John Henry's return to Georgia and romantic relationship with his cousin Mattie Holliday, setting up a dental office in Griffin are more ambiguous. However, his inheritance of property in Griffin, Georgia, his being diagnosed as having tuberculosis, the death of his adopted brother Francisco from their shared disease is a matter of record.
The sale of John Henry’s Griffin real estate that coincided with Francisco’s death is recorded and was likely the reason John Henry went west in search of a drier climate.
Doc’s life in the West, his gambling, gun fighting, some time dentist, and tumultuous relationship with Kate Elder are well known. His friendship with Wyatt Earp is a part of Western Lore. And Doc's standing with the Earps on the side of law and order at the shootout at the OK Corral is well documented.
Following the shootout the Earps and Holliday were charged with murder and hauled into court. As you read Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone you will be inside Judge Spicer's courtroom every day of that 28-day hearing.
But even as law and order won the day in the courtroom, the night guns came out and everyone on the side of law and order were targets. Mayor Clum and judge Spicer were shot at and missed, but Virgil Earp was severely wounded and Morgan Earp was shot in the back and killed.
A blood bath ensued and when the killing, on both sides, got out of hand Doc decided to leave the shooting to others and go to Colorado. Wyatt argued against it, but eventually sided with Doc and followed his friend out of the Tombstone Territory.
Doc had several encounters, with the law, during his stay in Colorado, but the greatest tragedy came when Mattie wrote and told JohnHenry that she had entered St. Vincent's Academy to become a nun.
( Next week: Doctor John Henry Holliday graduates from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery)
Writers Notebook:
Inside the front flap of my writer’s notebook are several notes; among them is one that always makes me stop and think. ‘What is the single most important piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about writing?’ I’m not quite sure, but this note contained in that same flap is high on the list. Stephen King once said, ‘I write about four hours a day – first draft – just write. Let it all hang out – don’t stop for misspelled words – punctuation – nothing. Let the passion and heat of the moment take charge. And don’t rewrite that same day. Write in am and rewrite in pm – no, no, no. Leave it alone, at least overnight.’
Tom's Books and Blogs
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Selznick International
Doc Holliday: Fact or Fiction
Writers Notebook: Tip from Stephen King
David O. Selznick Part 5
David Selznick's stay at MGM was not without its rewards. The production facilities and personnel alone were a big plus and for the most part he managed to get good story material. There were a few exceptions such as Vanessa: Her Love Story and Meet the Barron, both of those stories found their way to Selznick's production unit through studio pressure.
Two other pictures were less than successful because of casting errors, Clark Gable was not suited to the part in Night Flight and Reckless was originally intended for Joan Crawford but replace by Jean Harlow, which didn't work out.
Dancing Lady was a rehab picture for Joan Crawford coming off two box offices failures Rain and Today we Live.
Dancing Lady was successful and with its large cast had a number of personal success stories outside the film.
The film starred Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone and it featured the screen debut of Fred Astaire, borrowed from RKO to play himself. Dancing Lady also featured the the first credited film appearance of Nelson Eddy. Robert Benchley an old Algonquin Round Table Regular had a featured role and in minor roles were three characters that were later to become the Three Stooges, Moe Howard, Curly Howard and Larry Fine.
Quite a collection of characters, and it turned out to be a pretty good film.
Manhattan Melodrama was a low cost film that was a big box office hit that was no doubt helped by the casting of Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy. The chemistry between Powell and Loy might have sparked their later pairing for The Thin Man, which eventually turned into a series for both film and radio.
Manhattan Melodrama was also the lure that was used by The Lady in Red, an FBI informant, to bring John Dillinger out of hiding. As The Lady in Red and Dillinger left the Chicago theater Dillinger was gunned down by the FBI to the dismay of the general public. John Dillinger had become quite a folk hero to many Americans during those dull depression years.
Nearing the end of his contract with MGM, word got out that David Selznick would be leaving the studio. All the executives including L.B. Mayer pleaded with him to stay on with a renewed and better contract. Greta Garbo came to him and asked him to stay and produce all of her films. That would have been a great honor, but David Selznick was on track to fulfill his dream, produce pictures he could be proud of and without too much outside interference.
Financing was the first order of business and being in the middle of a depression it would not be easy. However his reputation as a first line producer had grown over the years both inside and outside the industry. It was no secrete that he was going to form his own company, Selznick International and produce first class motion pictures. David was not as sure about financing his company as he was in his own personal abilities as a producer. Fortunately, in this case, his reputation as a producer had grown even larger than his ego.
The proof of that remark came when Irving Thalberg and his wife Anne Sheridan became the first investors in Selznick International. They gave him $200, 000.00 in seed money and that was matched by David's brother Myron.
And with almost a half million dollars in the bank, David set off for New York again. He felt more confident this time as his associate Merian C. Cooper (of King Kong fame) introduced David to some of New York's old money millionaires. All of those contacts were interested, but the bulk of the financing for Selznick International came from the Whitney family. John Hay (Jock) Whitney, C.V. Whitney and Mrs. Charles S. Payson, Jock Whitney's sister.
Cooper and the Whitney's owned Pioneer Productions and part of the deal with Selznick was that he would take over certain responsibilities in Pioneer along with operational control of his own Selznick International production company.
Selznick International Pictures set up shop in Culver City, California only a few blocks from MGM. The building was originally The Thomas Ince Studio built in 1919 and located on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California. The Colonial style building, used as a movie set by Ince, was converted into an office building by Cecil B. DeMille during his independent years.
Little Lord Fauntleroy was the first film produced by Selznick International. Directed by John Cromwell written by Hugh Walpole with a cast that included C. Aubrey Smith, Freddie Bartholomew and Dolores Costello and was released in 1936.
Fauntleroy went through its production stages without a hitch. The same couldn't be said for The Garden of Allah directed by Richard Boleslawski, screenplay by W.B. Lipscomb and Lynn Rigggs.
The Actors were Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone and C. Aubrey Smith. During production of the film Dietrich got into a the habit of slurring lines and changing a few words of dialog form time to time. Selznick was scrupulous when it came to the proper word and when he saw Marlene drifting away from the script he made a fuss about it. To get his point across Selznick used a string of memos to the director, which eventually got Dietrich's attention. She argued and bridled a bit, but eventually began to use the words written in the script. The Garden of Allah was completed and released in 1936.
A Star is born was filmed in technicolor and directed by William A. Wellman from a script written by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars were Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, other cast members included Adolph Menjou, May Robson and Andy Devine.
The production was filmed during the months from October through December of 1936 and Premiered April 29, 1937 at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
The industry paper Variety's review said, ...'Although not the first film, which has attempted to capitalize the International reputation of Hollywood, it is unquestionably the most effective one yet made. The highly commendable results are achieved with a minimum of satiric hokum and a maximum of honest storytelling.' ...'The story relates the experience of a young girl who rises to cinema fame while her husband, having touched the heights, is on a swift descent. Love is the heroine; alcohol, the villain.'...
The scene of the falling star walking into the ocean at sunset caused Selznick and the whole production staff many sleepless nights trying to strike the right balance, was Norman Main's death the result of an accident or was it suicide?
(To be Continued)
The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday.
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone is a novel, using real and imaginary people, the story begins just as the American Civil War is coming to a close. It's the story of passion and deceit, loyalty and adventure – beginning in the old South and later plays out on the Western Frontier.
Most of the settings, characters and incidents are real, the births and deaths of family members within the Holliday household are documented by factual accounts.
John Henry Holliday was born in Griffin, Georgia and the family’s move to Valdosta, Georgia in 1864 is a matter of record as is the death of his mother Alice Holliday in August of 1866. John Henry's father, Henry B. Holliday, caused an irreparable rift with his son when he courted and married Rachel Martin before Alice was cold in her grave.
John Henry's association and work with Dr. Frederick Frink of Valdosta led to his attending and graduating The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in March of 1872 are also a matter of record.
John Henry's return to Georgia and romantic relationship with his cousin Mattie Holliday, setting up a dental office in Griffin are more ambiguous. However, his inheritance of property in Griffin, Georgia, his being diagnosed as having tuberculosis, the death of his adopted brother Francisco from their shared disease is a matter of record.
The sale of John Henry’s Griffin real estate that coincided with Francisco’s death is recorded and was likely the reason John Henry went west in search of a drier climate.
Doc’s life in the West, his gambling, gun fighting, some time dentist, and tumultuous relationship with Kate Elder are well known. His friendship with Wyatt Earp is a part of Western Lore. And Doc's standing with the Earps on the side of law and order at the shootout at the OK Corral is well documented.
Following the shootout the Earps and Holliday were charged with murder and hauled into court. As you read Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone you will be inside Judge Spicer's courtroom every day of that 28-day hearing.
But even as law and order won the day in the courtroom, the night guns came out and everyone on the side of law and order were targets. Mayor Clum and judge Spicer were shot at and missed, but Virgil Earp was severely wounded and Morgan Earp was shot in the back and killed.
A blood bath ensued and when the killing, on both sides, got out of hand Doc decided to leave the shooting to others and go to Colorado. Wyatt argued against it, but eventually sided with Doc and followed his friend out of the Tombstone Territory.
Doc had several encounters, with the law, during his stay in Colorado, but the greatest tragedy came when Mattie wrote and told JohnHenry that she had entered St. Vincent's Academy to become a nun.
( Next week: Doctor John Henry Holliday graduates from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery)
Writers Notebook:
Inside the front flap of my writer’s notebook are several notes; among them is one that always makes me stop and think. ‘What is the single most important piece of advice you’ve ever gotten about writing?’ I’m not quite sure, but this note contained in that same flap is high on the list. Stephen King once said, ‘I write about four hours a day – first draft – just write. Let it all hang out – don’t stop for misspelled words – punctuation – nothing. Let the passion and heat of the moment take charge. And don’t rewrite that same day. Write in am and rewrite in pm – no, no, no. Leave it alone, at least overnight.’
Tom's Books and Blogs
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
September 1, 2010
David Selznick, Charles Dickens and Tungee's Gold
This Week
David Selznick Back to MGM
Tungee Cahill Tragedy in Georgia
Writers Notebook: A Tip From Neil Simon
David O. Selznick Part 4
David left RKO when his original contract expired. There were many reasons for his decision to leave, but I consider one line from an unsent memo dated February 3, 1933 to be the most obvious....'I consider that it would be completely impossible for any production head to operate if he had to submit himself to what Mr. Aylesworth demanded – the approval by himself of every script and budget...'
Of course David was married to MGM in more ways than one. His wife Irene might have been on father L.B. Mayer's side in urging a reluctant son-in-law to return to MGM.
The fact that he had, earlier in his career, been fired from the company had to be troubling to him. Of course the result is that he put all that behind him and accepted their offer to become a vice president at MGM with the agreement that he would be in charge of his own production unit.
The fact that he was now part of the family probably made the transition easier and also faster. It took only about two weeks for him to settle into his new office at MGM and firing off memos regarding his first production.
Dinner at Eight was David Selznick's first production on his return to MGM. George Cukor directed a screenplay that was adapted from George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's Broadway play by Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz and Donald Ogden Stewart.
The Movie starred Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore and Lee Tracy.
Dinner at Eight received good reviews, however it must be added that the first half was superior to the last according to most reviewers.
One of the outstanding films produced during Selznick's time at MGM was Viva Villa, which was also one of his favorites. Jack Conway directed the film from a screenplay by Ben Hecht. The stars were Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo and Fay Wray. (Lady in the arms of King Kong.)
Selznick was not alone in his enthusiasm for the film for Variety said Viva Villa was a Corking western. The public and the Academy agreed and gave it a best picture nomination.
Charles Dickens classic story of David Copperfield was another Selznick favorite for different reasons from Viva Villa. David had fallen love with the Dickens stories as a boy and he had a passion to bring Copperfield to the screen, which turned out to be quite a challenge.
George Cukor directed the film from a screenplay written by Howard Estabrook and Hugh Walpole. Cast included W.C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore, Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, Edna May Oliver and Roland Young.
Variety's review brings up the point of how difficult it was to bring the Dickens story to the screen, but agreed that Selznick's production had pulled all the parts together and the actors gave performances worthy of the material they were working with. W.C. Fields was perfect in the role of Micawber. The Academy of Motion Pictures gave the classic a best picture nomination.
David Selznick said in some of his correspondence that from early March of 1933 and the first day he set foot on the MGM lot following his stint at RKO he was having second thoughts. By June he was openly trying to get out of his contract. He wrote a very long memo explaining why he didn't want to be a part of MGM. There was no doubt in his mind that he had made a mistake, however, MGM management including his father-in-law stood fast to the present contract and would not give him a release.
Of course he was making $4,000.00 dollars a week, a very good salary for the time. David was aware that nepotism played a part and he hated the constant carping and son-in-law jokes that were all at his expense. The classic was 'the son-in-law also rises.'
He honored the contract and kept his commitment even as he bridled in his own displeasure. David did receive comfort from his wife Irene, the one person that was really caught between two strong willed men, her husband David Selznick and father L.B. Mayer.
However, personal problems notwithstanding, David Selznick continued to produce good films at MGM.
Anna Karenina directed by Clarence Brown from a screenplay by Clemence Dane, Salka Viertel and S.N. Behrman. The stars were Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Freddie Bartholomew, Basil Rathbone, Maurine O'Sullivan and May Robson.
Another Selznick boyhood classic A Tale of Two Cities directed by Jack Conway and written by W.B. Lipscomb and S.N. Behrman. The cast was Ronald Coleman, Elizabeth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen, Basil Rathbone and Blanche Yurka. The story line of A Tale of Tow Cities follows the turmoil and aftermath of the French Revolution.
The film got excellent reviews and was nominated for best picture of 1936.
(To Be continued)
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Excerpt background 1836 Central Georgia.
It was almost a year after they buried Papa Cahill. Tungee and Davy were riding home from the mill with burlap bags filled with cornmeal strapped to the back of their
saddles. Gunshots rang out in the distance and that was not unusual except that it sounded awfully close to their house.
Tungee urged his bay gelding to pick up the pace and Davy followed along on his pinto.
"Bet somebody just bagged a turkey or maybe a deer," Davy shouted.
Tungee hoped his brother was right, but something deep inside told him otherwise.
They pulled their mounts up near the kitchen and quickly poured the meal into a clean bin.
Davy, in almost a whisper, said, "Tungee?"
"What."
"Something ain't right."
"I know."
They called, "Mama," a dozen times, but all they got in return was a piece of an echo. The place was still and it seemed the only thing in the world that moved was the river at the bottom of the hill as it's muddy waters flowed past the boat dock.
The boys ran through the house and kept calling and opening doors and the doors didn't even make their proper sound. A muffled quiet was all they heard.
Davy said excitedly, "She must be down at the bee-hives."
They ran out the front door, jumped the porch rail, just missing Mama's flowers, and landed on the run. Tungee and Davy both called out as they crossed the sandy yard and raced for the brush covered trail that led to the hives.
They stopped short of the wood. Horrified at what they saw. Their mother's lifeless body was sprawled near the trees. She must have died instantly from a single gun shot wound to the head. Her protective bee clothing was still in tact. Her left hand clutched the smoker and her right lay lifeless beside a two-gallon pail of honey.
Davy grabbed one hand and Tungee took the other s they knelt down and called to her -- unsure about what to do.
A horseman could be heard thrashing through the brush. The youngsters froze in place, too scared to move. When the rider came into the clear they relaxed. It was their cousin, Ray, one of Mama's kin.
As soon a he saw the boys he put his finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet. Riding his sorrel bareback, Ray leaned over the mane, nudged his mount closer and whispered, "Tungee, you and Davy clear out. Run away. Hide yourself, don't stay here and don't take a boat. They're watchin' the river."
"What'll you do?" Tungee asked.
"I'm goin' West to join Menawa. He's gonna try and make a stand."
"Why can't we go with you?"
"Because I say you can't."
Ray wheeled his horse and kicked him into a trot. Then he called over his shoulder, "Now bury your ma and git."
As the hoofbeats faded in the distance the boys realized why the place was so quiet. The animals were gone. Stolen by the same people who killed Mama.
Tungee and Davy set about digging a grave and burying Mama Sue Cahill next to their father.
When the burial was done they went into the house and gathered a few belongings into two separate saddlebags, and walked back out to the front porch. They dropped the bags on the steps, ran down to the dock, scuttled and sank their two boats.
As they walked back up the hill Tungee's mind raced. Where do we go? Maybe we should go to Augusta and contact Uncle Mitchell Cahill. They had only seen their father's brother two or three times and he wasn't like Papa, he was a businessman who had always lived in a city. Tungee worried about the reception they might get. Then he remembered the most exciting place he had ever seen. Papa Cahill had taken him along on a business trip to Savannah. A quiver went through his body as he recalled the experience and his first look at the Savannah River. The wharf was lined with tall
ships, cargo and people from all over the world. And as they neared the houses he looked up at the sky and said to himself, I'm going to be a part of that world.
When they got back to the porch Davy said, "Should we lock the door?"
What a silly notion, Tungee thought. "No, we're going to burn the house."
"Why would you do a fool thing like that?"
Tungee set his jaw and said bitterly, "They may take the land, Davy, but they'll not have our home. We can't let them steal that."
Davy wasn't quite sure what his brother meant, but he followed him into the house. Tungee lighted a torch from the kitchen stove and instructed Davy to pour turpentine on the carpets and furniture in all the downstairs rooms. Then they set five small fires and ran to the front porch, picked up their saddlebags and strapped them into place.
They stood in the yard until the fire began to burn and produce flames and smoke. Then as they scrambled into their saddles, Davy asked, "Where are we going?"
Tungee took a long breath and announced, "Savannah."
The boys didn't need a map, they had hunted the woods and fished the streams, they knew the way. Follow the trail on the left bank of the Ocmulgee, ford the Ohopee, then take the shell road to the port city.
Writers Notebook:
Pay attention writers to this timely observation and tip made by one of Broadway’s most prolific comedy writers. Neil Simon develops character first, and then plot. But he has said on a number of occasions that the main force that drives his comedy is conflict. Keep that in mind when you're putting your plot together and look for ways to keep the conflict honest.
Tom's Books and Blogs:
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
David Selznick Back to MGM
Tungee Cahill Tragedy in Georgia
Writers Notebook: A Tip From Neil Simon
David O. Selznick Part 4
David left RKO when his original contract expired. There were many reasons for his decision to leave, but I consider one line from an unsent memo dated February 3, 1933 to be the most obvious....'I consider that it would be completely impossible for any production head to operate if he had to submit himself to what Mr. Aylesworth demanded – the approval by himself of every script and budget...'
Of course David was married to MGM in more ways than one. His wife Irene might have been on father L.B. Mayer's side in urging a reluctant son-in-law to return to MGM.
The fact that he had, earlier in his career, been fired from the company had to be troubling to him. Of course the result is that he put all that behind him and accepted their offer to become a vice president at MGM with the agreement that he would be in charge of his own production unit.
The fact that he was now part of the family probably made the transition easier and also faster. It took only about two weeks for him to settle into his new office at MGM and firing off memos regarding his first production.
Dinner at Eight was David Selznick's first production on his return to MGM. George Cukor directed a screenplay that was adapted from George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's Broadway play by Frances Marion, Herman J. Mankiewicz and Donald Ogden Stewart.
The Movie starred Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore and Lee Tracy.
Dinner at Eight received good reviews, however it must be added that the first half was superior to the last according to most reviewers.
One of the outstanding films produced during Selznick's time at MGM was Viva Villa, which was also one of his favorites. Jack Conway directed the film from a screenplay by Ben Hecht. The stars were Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo and Fay Wray. (Lady in the arms of King Kong.)
Selznick was not alone in his enthusiasm for the film for Variety said Viva Villa was a Corking western. The public and the Academy agreed and gave it a best picture nomination.
Charles Dickens classic story of David Copperfield was another Selznick favorite for different reasons from Viva Villa. David had fallen love with the Dickens stories as a boy and he had a passion to bring Copperfield to the screen, which turned out to be quite a challenge.
George Cukor directed the film from a screenplay written by Howard Estabrook and Hugh Walpole. Cast included W.C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore, Freddie Bartholomew, Frank Lawton, Edna May Oliver and Roland Young.
Variety's review brings up the point of how difficult it was to bring the Dickens story to the screen, but agreed that Selznick's production had pulled all the parts together and the actors gave performances worthy of the material they were working with. W.C. Fields was perfect in the role of Micawber. The Academy of Motion Pictures gave the classic a best picture nomination.
David Selznick said in some of his correspondence that from early March of 1933 and the first day he set foot on the MGM lot following his stint at RKO he was having second thoughts. By June he was openly trying to get out of his contract. He wrote a very long memo explaining why he didn't want to be a part of MGM. There was no doubt in his mind that he had made a mistake, however, MGM management including his father-in-law stood fast to the present contract and would not give him a release.
Of course he was making $4,000.00 dollars a week, a very good salary for the time. David was aware that nepotism played a part and he hated the constant carping and son-in-law jokes that were all at his expense. The classic was 'the son-in-law also rises.'
He honored the contract and kept his commitment even as he bridled in his own displeasure. David did receive comfort from his wife Irene, the one person that was really caught between two strong willed men, her husband David Selznick and father L.B. Mayer.
However, personal problems notwithstanding, David Selznick continued to produce good films at MGM.
Anna Karenina directed by Clarence Brown from a screenplay by Clemence Dane, Salka Viertel and S.N. Behrman. The stars were Greta Garbo, Fredric March, Freddie Bartholomew, Basil Rathbone, Maurine O'Sullivan and May Robson.
Another Selznick boyhood classic A Tale of Two Cities directed by Jack Conway and written by W.B. Lipscomb and S.N. Behrman. The cast was Ronald Coleman, Elizabeth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Owen, Basil Rathbone and Blanche Yurka. The story line of A Tale of Tow Cities follows the turmoil and aftermath of the French Revolution.
The film got excellent reviews and was nominated for best picture of 1936.
(To Be continued)
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Excerpt background 1836 Central Georgia.
It was almost a year after they buried Papa Cahill. Tungee and Davy were riding home from the mill with burlap bags filled with cornmeal strapped to the back of their
saddles. Gunshots rang out in the distance and that was not unusual except that it sounded awfully close to their house.
Tungee urged his bay gelding to pick up the pace and Davy followed along on his pinto.
"Bet somebody just bagged a turkey or maybe a deer," Davy shouted.
Tungee hoped his brother was right, but something deep inside told him otherwise.
They pulled their mounts up near the kitchen and quickly poured the meal into a clean bin.
Davy, in almost a whisper, said, "Tungee?"
"What."
"Something ain't right."
"I know."
They called, "Mama," a dozen times, but all they got in return was a piece of an echo. The place was still and it seemed the only thing in the world that moved was the river at the bottom of the hill as it's muddy waters flowed past the boat dock.
The boys ran through the house and kept calling and opening doors and the doors didn't even make their proper sound. A muffled quiet was all they heard.
Davy said excitedly, "She must be down at the bee-hives."
They ran out the front door, jumped the porch rail, just missing Mama's flowers, and landed on the run. Tungee and Davy both called out as they crossed the sandy yard and raced for the brush covered trail that led to the hives.
They stopped short of the wood. Horrified at what they saw. Their mother's lifeless body was sprawled near the trees. She must have died instantly from a single gun shot wound to the head. Her protective bee clothing was still in tact. Her left hand clutched the smoker and her right lay lifeless beside a two-gallon pail of honey.
Davy grabbed one hand and Tungee took the other s they knelt down and called to her -- unsure about what to do.
A horseman could be heard thrashing through the brush. The youngsters froze in place, too scared to move. When the rider came into the clear they relaxed. It was their cousin, Ray, one of Mama's kin.
As soon a he saw the boys he put his finger to his lips, signaling them to be quiet. Riding his sorrel bareback, Ray leaned over the mane, nudged his mount closer and whispered, "Tungee, you and Davy clear out. Run away. Hide yourself, don't stay here and don't take a boat. They're watchin' the river."
"What'll you do?" Tungee asked.
"I'm goin' West to join Menawa. He's gonna try and make a stand."
"Why can't we go with you?"
"Because I say you can't."
Ray wheeled his horse and kicked him into a trot. Then he called over his shoulder, "Now bury your ma and git."
As the hoofbeats faded in the distance the boys realized why the place was so quiet. The animals were gone. Stolen by the same people who killed Mama.
Tungee and Davy set about digging a grave and burying Mama Sue Cahill next to their father.
When the burial was done they went into the house and gathered a few belongings into two separate saddlebags, and walked back out to the front porch. They dropped the bags on the steps, ran down to the dock, scuttled and sank their two boats.
As they walked back up the hill Tungee's mind raced. Where do we go? Maybe we should go to Augusta and contact Uncle Mitchell Cahill. They had only seen their father's brother two or three times and he wasn't like Papa, he was a businessman who had always lived in a city. Tungee worried about the reception they might get. Then he remembered the most exciting place he had ever seen. Papa Cahill had taken him along on a business trip to Savannah. A quiver went through his body as he recalled the experience and his first look at the Savannah River. The wharf was lined with tall
ships, cargo and people from all over the world. And as they neared the houses he looked up at the sky and said to himself, I'm going to be a part of that world.
When they got back to the porch Davy said, "Should we lock the door?"
What a silly notion, Tungee thought. "No, we're going to burn the house."
"Why would you do a fool thing like that?"
Tungee set his jaw and said bitterly, "They may take the land, Davy, but they'll not have our home. We can't let them steal that."
Davy wasn't quite sure what his brother meant, but he followed him into the house. Tungee lighted a torch from the kitchen stove and instructed Davy to pour turpentine on the carpets and furniture in all the downstairs rooms. Then they set five small fires and ran to the front porch, picked up their saddlebags and strapped them into place.
They stood in the yard until the fire began to burn and produce flames and smoke. Then as they scrambled into their saddles, Davy asked, "Where are we going?"
Tungee took a long breath and announced, "Savannah."
The boys didn't need a map, they had hunted the woods and fished the streams, they knew the way. Follow the trail on the left bank of the Ocmulgee, ford the Ohopee, then take the shell road to the port city.
Writers Notebook:
Pay attention writers to this timely observation and tip made by one of Broadway’s most prolific comedy writers. Neil Simon develops character first, and then plot. But he has said on a number of occasions that the main force that drives his comedy is conflict. Keep that in mind when you're putting your plot together and look for ways to keep the conflict honest.
Tom's Books and Blogs:
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
August 25, 2010
Hepburn, Astaire, King Kong and Ebo Landing
This Week
David Selznick at RKO
Tungee, Davy and Mama Sue
Writers Notebook: Steinbeck on dialogue
David O. Selznick Part 3
Hollywood Stonewall in New York
David Selznick's departure from Paramount was not so much a dead-end as was the case when was fired from MGM.
During the years at Paramount Selznick had put aside funds and built personal and business relationships with a large number of talented people in the Hollywood community.
David and Lewis Milestone, producer of All's Quiet on the Western Front and Front Page, had a hand shake agreement to organize a small production company. Ernst Lubitsch and King Vidor were to direct the first two films.
David went east to raise money for the project and also to arrange for a release for their films. He was unsuccessful in both instances. As it turned out he was blocked by his father-in-law Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM. Mayer and some of the other studio heads determined that if these small units were allowed to make pictures at will, they would would cut into the profits of the major studios.
So without a release for their films the fund raising went no where.
David understood why the big studios wanted to protect their turf, but his thinking was that he had to find a way to produce films without having to go through the studio system.
After weeks at a stalemate it became obvious that he needed someone with clout that was outside the Hollywood group. That someone turned out to be David Sarnoff the president of RCA, which at that time owned RKO Radio. David made his pitch and as it turned out General Sarnoff was sympathetic to his situation and after several days of negotiation David Selznick signed an agreement in October of 1931 to take over RKO Radio and RKO Pathe, and to merge the two companies into a production unit.
RKO was formed in 1928 when the Keith Albee Orpheum theater chains and Joseph Kennedy's Booking Offices of America studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger in order to create a market for the company's sound on film technology, RCA Photophone.
RKO was located just around the corner from Paramount Pictures. It's ironic but that was the case. The physical distance was two city blocks, to work out the the corporate details was a lot farther away. That took a trip to New York and almost a miracle to put Selznick and Sarnoff in a position to negotiate a deal.
Once they signed the agreement there was only one thing on David Selznick's agenda and that was the production of motion pictures.
'Bill of Divorcement' had been on David's mind as a possible film for a long time but he could never get anyone else interested. Now that he was head of a studio 'Bill of Divorcement' was one of his first acquisitions.
David wanted a fresh face for the leading lady and George Cukor talked him into testing Katherine Hepburn. Selznick wasn't sure her looks would pass public scrutiny and he took all kinds of abuse from people at the studio as they referred to Ms. Hepburn as Old Horse Face. David Selznick had a great instinct when it came to talent and something told him that Hepburn would be accepted. As it turned out the camera loved her face and there was something in her personality that transcended physical appearance, not to mention her quick wit and personality.
In spite of all the outside carping about Katharine Hepburn's looks the film was produced by David O. Selznick and George Cukor. And once the public saw the film Hepburn was not only accepted but declared 'a new star on the cinema horizon' by The Hollywood Reporter.
'Bill of Divorcement' cast included John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke and David Manners.
When Selznick took over RKO he immediately realized that the company had a large investment in an animation process conceived by Willis O'Brien. Selznick hired Merian Cooper, an executive he had worked with at Paramount, and one of his jobs was to study O'Brien's animation process with the idea of how best to utilize it in films. Cooper went a step farther and not only figured a way to put O'Brien's system to work, he came up with some ideas that would utilize the process and a jungle story as well.
Cooper pitched his idea to his boss and with great enthusiasm David Selznick gave him the go ahead.
King Kong was the film and it was co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernst Schoedsack, adapted for the screen by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman from a story by Merian Cooper and Edgar Wallace and produced by David O. Selznick. The film tells of an island dwelling gorilla like creature called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot and it opened in New York City on March 2, 1933 to good reviews.
Fred and Adele Astaire: Born in Omaha, Nebraska Adele and younger brother Fred were ushered onto the Vaudeville stage in the early teens by their stage mother.
During the 20s,the sister and brother act appeared on Broadway and on the London stage in Lady be Good, Funny Face and The Band Wagon. They won over theater audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and Fred's tap dancing got rave reviews by the critics. Robert Benchley wrote in 1930, 'I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred Astaire is the greatest tap-dancer in the world.'
On January 13, 1933 Selznick wrote an internal memo to Associate Producer Louis Brock and director Mark Sandrich lamenting the fact that RKO didn't have the budget to buy a bankable star. However, in the next paragraph he was enthused by New York's suggestion that Fred Astaire be considered. 'If he photographs he may prove to be a really sensational bet...' '...Astaire is one of the great artist's of the day a magnificent performer. A man conceded to be perhaps, next to Leslie Howard the most charming in American theater...' ...'He would be in my opinion, good enough to use in a lead in a million-dollar Lubitsch picture – provided only he photographs.'
Selznick signed Fred Astaire to an RKO contract, but the test made back in New York was clearly a disappointment to him and he said so. 'I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test.'
According to Hollywood folklore, the early screen test report from New York read: 'Can't sing, can't act, balding, can dance a little.'
(To be continued.)
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Background...Central Georgia 1836
Tungee, Davy and Mama Sue.
Tungee sat on the end of the boat dock and thought about his mother's story regarding the whereabouts of Papa Cahill.
'He's gone to Scotland, to take care of Grandfather Cahill's will and the family estate.' That was the lie she told and it was only after the Indian braves talked about the war party and how Papa Cahill died that Tungee's twelve year old mind began to comprehend the gravity of their situation. Of course he already knew the truce between white's and Indians was over. Washington had made that clear as they pressured the Creeks and their neighbors, the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee land owners to give up their homes and relocate to some promised land West of the Mississippi.
Mama Sue walked down the hill, crossed the dock and knelt down beside her son.
He looked out past the river and said quietly, "That sure was a whopper you told, Mama."
"You mean about Grandfather Cahill?"
"Uh huh."
"It was your father's idea and since he left in the middle of the night, he said it was best that you boys didn't know. None of the whites knew your father was fighting on the side of my people and taking part in those raids. He knew if they found out it would put all of us in jeopardy. Why, the land speculators would swoop in like vultures and take our home and our land."
Tungee thought for a moment and said, "I understand, Mama."
"Your father was committed to the Indian struggle long before we were married. He was involved in Creek politics for years, but that had to be kept secret."
Tungee's eyes brightened, "I never guessed that."
"It wasn't always easy keeping that secret from you and Davy." Then she sat upright and said with pride and affection, "Your father was a hero and he did make a difference. Robert just kept on looking for some sign of fairness from the government. But all we ever got from Washington was worthless treaties and broken promises."
Tears ran down Tungee's face. "I never got a chance to tell Papa I loved him. The last thing I ever said to him was, I hate you."
"What was that all about, son?"
"Same as usual, his drinking and whoring around. I hated him for that."
"Your father wasn't perfect, he drank and he may have strayed from time to time." Then she took her son's hand. "But you must forgive your father, Tungee."
He wasn't quite ready for that, but he didn't want to disappoint his mother either. So he nodded and said, "Yes, Mama." Then he sat upright. "What do we do now?"
"Tomorrow morning, you and Davy make the rounds, collect the pelts and furs. We must carry on the business and if anyone asks about your father, talk freely about your Grandfather Cahill and Papa's trip to Scotland. A little gossip will help to keep the lie."
Their white neighbors believed Papa Cahill had gone to Scotland. And it stayed that way for the better part of the next year. Eventually, though, there was implied doubt in the questions concerning his whereabouts. Mama Sue listened to the gossip and when the truth became part of the rumor, she knew it was only a matter of time. There was no doubt about their fate. They would be rounded up like the others and forced to march West in shackles and chains. The trail that had already become an American tragedy. A trail littered with graves of the dead and marked by blood and tears of the survivors.
(To be Continued)
Writers Notebook:
Another thought or two from Steinbeck: If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it – bypass it and go on. When you’ve finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave you trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
If you’re using dialogue say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Here’s another wrinkle on Steinbeck’s dialogue line. Use his method, but when you’re finished take a little cassette tape recorder and record those pieces of dialogue you’re working on and play them back. Take it from me; you’ll know if they sound real or not.
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
David Selznick at RKO
Tungee, Davy and Mama Sue
Writers Notebook: Steinbeck on dialogue
David O. Selznick Part 3
Hollywood Stonewall in New York
David Selznick's departure from Paramount was not so much a dead-end as was the case when was fired from MGM.
During the years at Paramount Selznick had put aside funds and built personal and business relationships with a large number of talented people in the Hollywood community.
David and Lewis Milestone, producer of All's Quiet on the Western Front and Front Page, had a hand shake agreement to organize a small production company. Ernst Lubitsch and King Vidor were to direct the first two films.
David went east to raise money for the project and also to arrange for a release for their films. He was unsuccessful in both instances. As it turned out he was blocked by his father-in-law Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM. Mayer and some of the other studio heads determined that if these small units were allowed to make pictures at will, they would would cut into the profits of the major studios.
So without a release for their films the fund raising went no where.
David understood why the big studios wanted to protect their turf, but his thinking was that he had to find a way to produce films without having to go through the studio system.
After weeks at a stalemate it became obvious that he needed someone with clout that was outside the Hollywood group. That someone turned out to be David Sarnoff the president of RCA, which at that time owned RKO Radio. David made his pitch and as it turned out General Sarnoff was sympathetic to his situation and after several days of negotiation David Selznick signed an agreement in October of 1931 to take over RKO Radio and RKO Pathe, and to merge the two companies into a production unit.
RKO was formed in 1928 when the Keith Albee Orpheum theater chains and Joseph Kennedy's Booking Offices of America studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger in order to create a market for the company's sound on film technology, RCA Photophone.
RKO was located just around the corner from Paramount Pictures. It's ironic but that was the case. The physical distance was two city blocks, to work out the the corporate details was a lot farther away. That took a trip to New York and almost a miracle to put Selznick and Sarnoff in a position to negotiate a deal.
Once they signed the agreement there was only one thing on David Selznick's agenda and that was the production of motion pictures.
'Bill of Divorcement' had been on David's mind as a possible film for a long time but he could never get anyone else interested. Now that he was head of a studio 'Bill of Divorcement' was one of his first acquisitions.
David wanted a fresh face for the leading lady and George Cukor talked him into testing Katherine Hepburn. Selznick wasn't sure her looks would pass public scrutiny and he took all kinds of abuse from people at the studio as they referred to Ms. Hepburn as Old Horse Face. David Selznick had a great instinct when it came to talent and something told him that Hepburn would be accepted. As it turned out the camera loved her face and there was something in her personality that transcended physical appearance, not to mention her quick wit and personality.
In spite of all the outside carping about Katharine Hepburn's looks the film was produced by David O. Selznick and George Cukor. And once the public saw the film Hepburn was not only accepted but declared 'a new star on the cinema horizon' by The Hollywood Reporter.
'Bill of Divorcement' cast included John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, Billie Burke and David Manners.
When Selznick took over RKO he immediately realized that the company had a large investment in an animation process conceived by Willis O'Brien. Selznick hired Merian Cooper, an executive he had worked with at Paramount, and one of his jobs was to study O'Brien's animation process with the idea of how best to utilize it in films. Cooper went a step farther and not only figured a way to put O'Brien's system to work, he came up with some ideas that would utilize the process and a jungle story as well.
Cooper pitched his idea to his boss and with great enthusiasm David Selznick gave him the go ahead.
King Kong was the film and it was co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernst Schoedsack, adapted for the screen by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman from a story by Merian Cooper and Edgar Wallace and produced by David O. Selznick. The film tells of an island dwelling gorilla like creature called Kong who dies in an attempt to possess a beautiful young woman. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot and it opened in New York City on March 2, 1933 to good reviews.
Fred and Adele Astaire: Born in Omaha, Nebraska Adele and younger brother Fred were ushered onto the Vaudeville stage in the early teens by their stage mother.
During the 20s,the sister and brother act appeared on Broadway and on the London stage in Lady be Good, Funny Face and The Band Wagon. They won over theater audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and Fred's tap dancing got rave reviews by the critics. Robert Benchley wrote in 1930, 'I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred Astaire is the greatest tap-dancer in the world.'
On January 13, 1933 Selznick wrote an internal memo to Associate Producer Louis Brock and director Mark Sandrich lamenting the fact that RKO didn't have the budget to buy a bankable star. However, in the next paragraph he was enthused by New York's suggestion that Fred Astaire be considered. 'If he photographs he may prove to be a really sensational bet...' '...Astaire is one of the great artist's of the day a magnificent performer. A man conceded to be perhaps, next to Leslie Howard the most charming in American theater...' ...'He would be in my opinion, good enough to use in a lead in a million-dollar Lubitsch picture – provided only he photographs.'
Selznick signed Fred Astaire to an RKO contract, but the test made back in New York was clearly a disappointment to him and he said so. 'I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test.'
According to Hollywood folklore, the early screen test report from New York read: 'Can't sing, can't act, balding, can dance a little.'
(To be continued.)
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Background...Central Georgia 1836
Tungee, Davy and Mama Sue.
Tungee sat on the end of the boat dock and thought about his mother's story regarding the whereabouts of Papa Cahill.
'He's gone to Scotland, to take care of Grandfather Cahill's will and the family estate.' That was the lie she told and it was only after the Indian braves talked about the war party and how Papa Cahill died that Tungee's twelve year old mind began to comprehend the gravity of their situation. Of course he already knew the truce between white's and Indians was over. Washington had made that clear as they pressured the Creeks and their neighbors, the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Cherokee land owners to give up their homes and relocate to some promised land West of the Mississippi.
Mama Sue walked down the hill, crossed the dock and knelt down beside her son.
He looked out past the river and said quietly, "That sure was a whopper you told, Mama."
"You mean about Grandfather Cahill?"
"Uh huh."
"It was your father's idea and since he left in the middle of the night, he said it was best that you boys didn't know. None of the whites knew your father was fighting on the side of my people and taking part in those raids. He knew if they found out it would put all of us in jeopardy. Why, the land speculators would swoop in like vultures and take our home and our land."
Tungee thought for a moment and said, "I understand, Mama."
"Your father was committed to the Indian struggle long before we were married. He was involved in Creek politics for years, but that had to be kept secret."
Tungee's eyes brightened, "I never guessed that."
"It wasn't always easy keeping that secret from you and Davy." Then she sat upright and said with pride and affection, "Your father was a hero and he did make a difference. Robert just kept on looking for some sign of fairness from the government. But all we ever got from Washington was worthless treaties and broken promises."
Tears ran down Tungee's face. "I never got a chance to tell Papa I loved him. The last thing I ever said to him was, I hate you."
"What was that all about, son?"
"Same as usual, his drinking and whoring around. I hated him for that."
"Your father wasn't perfect, he drank and he may have strayed from time to time." Then she took her son's hand. "But you must forgive your father, Tungee."
He wasn't quite ready for that, but he didn't want to disappoint his mother either. So he nodded and said, "Yes, Mama." Then he sat upright. "What do we do now?"
"Tomorrow morning, you and Davy make the rounds, collect the pelts and furs. We must carry on the business and if anyone asks about your father, talk freely about your Grandfather Cahill and Papa's trip to Scotland. A little gossip will help to keep the lie."
Their white neighbors believed Papa Cahill had gone to Scotland. And it stayed that way for the better part of the next year. Eventually, though, there was implied doubt in the questions concerning his whereabouts. Mama Sue listened to the gossip and when the truth became part of the rumor, she knew it was only a matter of time. There was no doubt about their fate. They would be rounded up like the others and forced to march West in shackles and chains. The trail that had already become an American tragedy. A trail littered with graves of the dead and marked by blood and tears of the survivors.
(To be Continued)
Writers Notebook:
Another thought or two from Steinbeck: If a scene or section gets the better of you and you still think you want it – bypass it and go on. When you’ve finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave you trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
If you’re using dialogue say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
Here’s another wrinkle on Steinbeck’s dialogue line. Use his method, but when you’re finished take a little cassette tape recorder and record those pieces of dialogue you’re working on and play them back. Take it from me; you’ll know if they sound real or not.
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 Tungee's Gold, 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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog
I do a variety blog and post every Wednesday. I am an actor, writer and hurricane hunter and my subjects are generally written about those fields. During Hurricane Season I do at least one story every
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