Tom Barnes's Blog: Tom's 'RocktheTower' Blog, page 3
August 18, 2010
Selznick, Paramount and The Creek Indian War
This Week
Selznick Memos
Tungee's Gold and a Legend
Writers Notebook: Sherwood Anderson
Memos:
According to Rudy Behlmer, editor of David O. Selznick's Memos, David's first official memo was written to Mr. Harry Rapf on October 15, 1926. The subject was in regards to the film, 'The Armed Cruiser Potemkin.' The memo expressed his enthusiasm for the picture and suggested that MGM executives should look at it with the idea of acquiring the services of the film's director Sergi Eisenstein.
Possibly after one too many memos and an argument Hunt Stromberg, producer of White Shadows in the South Pacific, David Selznick found himself without a job and on the street again.
Following several months of inactivity his phone rang and he was asked to come to B.P. Schulberg's office at Paramount.
Schulberg offered David a job, but with less money, David declined the offer and walked out of the office.
Schulberg thought Selznick was arrogant and figured good riddance.
Several of David's pals director William Wellman, Paul Bern, B.P. Feinman and Bernie Zeidman heard what had happened, they thought Schulberg had made a mistake and told him so.
Schulberg bowed to the pressure and gave David two weeks to prove himself. Following the two week trial Schulberg apparently agreed with Wellman and the others and appointed David Selznick his executive assistant.
During that trial period David had proposed several good picture ideas, and at the same time proved to be a whiz at making up great picture titles. Paramount was giving a hundred dollar bonus for titles that were used and David made out like a bandit.
Those were the years of transition from silent to sound and every studio in Hollywood was racing to get talkies to the market. Giant sound stages were being built all over Hollywood. Paramount had their own sound stage under construction when the unfinished structure caught fire and unfortunately burned to the ground.
Paramount was never at a loss for innovative ideas though and this tragedy was no exception. B.P. Schulberg called a meeting that night to discuss a plan he'd come up with. They would put every sound picture they had on their schedule into production immediately. The only difference was that they would shoot at night. Hire off duty police to control traffic and cut down on street noise, then proceed to make movies.
The plan worked and the old slogan of turning lemons into lemonade was alive and well at Paramount. The tragic fire had actually given them an edge. So if you ever get the chance to see any of those early Paramount films, you might think – what a novel idea.
A memo sent to B.P. Schulberg July 2, 1928 regarding a planned film Dirigible gives us an idea about the importance Selznick placed on special effects, at the time referred to as trick photography. Other memos reflected his thoughts about public previews and editing as a way to shape audience emotions.
One particular subject was constantly on the minds of Paramount executives, and that was story material for the stars they had under contract. In 1929 some of their star players were Richard Arlen, Nancy Carroll, William Powell, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Ruth Chatterton, Gary Cooper, Buddy Rogers and George Bancroft.
There was one picture that got more memo traffic and buzz at meetings than any other and that was 'Paramount on Parade' 1930. David Selznick alone put in several dozen memos.
.Variety's review of the film sums it up very nicely. 'Paramount on Parade' 1930 links together an almost incredible smoothness of achievements from the smallest technical detail to the greatest artistic endeavor. Interspersed through the twenty numbers and eleven songs was the work of thirteen writers...' Writing credit went to Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
To fill out that ensemble you need to go behind the camera and find the eleven directors then view the stars through the lens. The directors were Dorothy Arzrner, Victor Heerman, Ernst Lubitsch, Edward Sutherland, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Lothar Mendes, Edmund Goulding, Rowland V. Lee, Victor Schertzinger and Frank Tuttle.
Leading the parade of actors was Maurice Chevalier, Jean Arthur, Gary Cooper, Clara Bow, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, Clive Brooks, Leon Errol, Stuart Erwin and Kay Francis. (You late night old movie buffs will recognize those stars.)
During his years at Paramount, that lasted from early 1928 to June of 1931, David Selznick was in the middle of the decision making process at the executive level. As B.P. Schulberg's executive assistant he acquired practical experience he could not have purchased any other place at any price. And while he didn't produce a single film during that period he had input at executive planning sessions along with his own memos and suggestions to Schulberg.
Don't get the impression that David Selznick was all work and no play, he went to parties, drank with the best of them and he gambled. At one of those social events he met, fell in love with Irene Mayer. They married on April 29, 1930.
David had worked hard during the year of 1930 and with thoughts of raising a family he believed he deserved a raise in pay. On February 2, 1931 David sent a long memo to his boss B,P. Schulberg citing chapter and verse on the subject of executive pay. He compared his and other executives with directors and line producers and felt there was a wide disparity. He felt that his hours alone were worth more than he was being paid for. He got no answer to his memo, however, on June 15, 1931 he wrote Mr. Schulberg in reply to Schulberg's general memo asking all executives to decide and propose their own salary cut.
David Selznick fired off an answer announcing that he was not about to take a pay cut.
He was asked to resign, which he did in late June 1931.
(To be continued) Next is RKO Hepburn, Barrymore in 'Bill of Divorcement.'
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Tungee Cahill background. Creek Indian War.
Hawkinsville, Georgia
Summer, 1836
Mama Sue Cahill wore a buckskin dress and sat on the front steps. Her raven hair fell loosely to her waist and she softly sang the words of an old hymn. “Amazing.Grace ... 'Tis grace hath brolt me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home ... “
The quiet of the afternoon was broken only by her gentle voice blending with the summer sounds of crickets and the river waters slapping against the boat dock at the bottom of the hill.
The boys watched their mother from the porch swing. Tungee was-twelve and looked like his Scottish father, Davy was two years younger and resembled Mama Sue, a full blood Creek Indian.
Davy whispered. "What is it this time, Tungee?"
"I don't know, but Mama is sure worried."
A bird call came from far up river and that was soon followed by the muffled sounds of hoofbeats. Riders were approaching along the river road at the gallop.
Soon two Creek braves, leading a third horse, came into the clearing and turned toward the house. The warriors sat erect and rode slowly up the hill and stopped in the front yard. The third horse, Papa Cahill's sorrel, halted just behind the others. The sorrel carried a blanket covered body strapped to the saddle. Papa's familiar leather boots hung across the horse's neck at the withers.
Mama Cahill stopped singing and tears coursed down her cheeks and she began to sob. The boys ran to her side and even as Tungee tried to comfort his mother, his emotions spilled into the open. "Damn you, Papa," he wailed, "it's all been a lie."
Mama Sue heard her son's invective, but ignored it for the moment. Papa had to be buried and the sooner the better. She drew a deep breath, scanned the area and quickly pointed to a plot hidden from the river by the scuppernong arbor.
As the braves dug a grave for their comrade they told the family what had happened. Their war party rode out of Hawkinsville expecting to take part in two or three small raids. But by the time they got to West Georgia a full scale war had broken out between the Indians and white settlers.
Their party was ordered to ride south along the Chattahooche River and take part in an attack on a white village below Columbus. Some Alabama Creeks got there early and set fire to the town. The Hawkinsville party rode into the middle of a fire fight and a burning inferno. Smoke was so thick you couldn't see more than a dozen yards. Robert caught a stray bullet that knocked him out of his saddle and he was dead by the time he hit the ground.
The men finished digging the grave and gently lowered Papa Cahill into the clay pit. Mama Sue read from the Bible while a sullen Tungee and tearful Davy stood beside their father's grave. As soon as the final prayer was said, the braves filled in the pit. And by the time they packed the dirt down and scattered a few leaves on top, there was no sign of a burial plot.
(To be Continued
Writers Notebook:
Sherwood Anderson on writing integrity:
Consider for a moment the materials of the prose writer, the teller of tales.
His materials are human lives. To him these figures of his fancy, these people
who live in his fancy should be as real as living people. He should be no more
ready to sell them out than he would sell out his men friends or the woman he
loves. To take the lives of these people and bend or twist them to suit the need
of some cleverly thought out plot to give your readers a false emotion is as
mean and ignoble as to sell out living men or women. For the writer there is no
escape, as there is no real escape for any craftsman… That is the truth.
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 Memos
Tungee's Gold and a Legend
Writers Notebook: Sherwood Anderson
Memos:
According to Rudy Behlmer, editor of David O. Selznick's Memos, David's first official memo was written to Mr. Harry Rapf on October 15, 1926. The subject was in regards to the film, 'The Armed Cruiser Potemkin.' The memo expressed his enthusiasm for the picture and suggested that MGM executives should look at it with the idea of acquiring the services of the film's director Sergi Eisenstein.
Possibly after one too many memos and an argument Hunt Stromberg, producer of White Shadows in the South Pacific, David Selznick found himself without a job and on the street again.
Following several months of inactivity his phone rang and he was asked to come to B.P. Schulberg's office at Paramount.
Schulberg offered David a job, but with less money, David declined the offer and walked out of the office.
Schulberg thought Selznick was arrogant and figured good riddance.
Several of David's pals director William Wellman, Paul Bern, B.P. Feinman and Bernie Zeidman heard what had happened, they thought Schulberg had made a mistake and told him so.
Schulberg bowed to the pressure and gave David two weeks to prove himself. Following the two week trial Schulberg apparently agreed with Wellman and the others and appointed David Selznick his executive assistant.
During that trial period David had proposed several good picture ideas, and at the same time proved to be a whiz at making up great picture titles. Paramount was giving a hundred dollar bonus for titles that were used and David made out like a bandit.
Those were the years of transition from silent to sound and every studio in Hollywood was racing to get talkies to the market. Giant sound stages were being built all over Hollywood. Paramount had their own sound stage under construction when the unfinished structure caught fire and unfortunately burned to the ground.
Paramount was never at a loss for innovative ideas though and this tragedy was no exception. B.P. Schulberg called a meeting that night to discuss a plan he'd come up with. They would put every sound picture they had on their schedule into production immediately. The only difference was that they would shoot at night. Hire off duty police to control traffic and cut down on street noise, then proceed to make movies.
The plan worked and the old slogan of turning lemons into lemonade was alive and well at Paramount. The tragic fire had actually given them an edge. So if you ever get the chance to see any of those early Paramount films, you might think – what a novel idea.
A memo sent to B.P. Schulberg July 2, 1928 regarding a planned film Dirigible gives us an idea about the importance Selznick placed on special effects, at the time referred to as trick photography. Other memos reflected his thoughts about public previews and editing as a way to shape audience emotions.
One particular subject was constantly on the minds of Paramount executives, and that was story material for the stars they had under contract. In 1929 some of their star players were Richard Arlen, Nancy Carroll, William Powell, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Ruth Chatterton, Gary Cooper, Buddy Rogers and George Bancroft.
There was one picture that got more memo traffic and buzz at meetings than any other and that was 'Paramount on Parade' 1930. David Selznick alone put in several dozen memos.
.Variety's review of the film sums it up very nicely. 'Paramount on Parade' 1930 links together an almost incredible smoothness of achievements from the smallest technical detail to the greatest artistic endeavor. Interspersed through the twenty numbers and eleven songs was the work of thirteen writers...' Writing credit went to Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
To fill out that ensemble you need to go behind the camera and find the eleven directors then view the stars through the lens. The directors were Dorothy Arzrner, Victor Heerman, Ernst Lubitsch, Edward Sutherland, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Lothar Mendes, Edmund Goulding, Rowland V. Lee, Victor Schertzinger and Frank Tuttle.
Leading the parade of actors was Maurice Chevalier, Jean Arthur, Gary Cooper, Clara Bow, Jack Oakie, George Bancroft, Clive Brooks, Leon Errol, Stuart Erwin and Kay Francis. (You late night old movie buffs will recognize those stars.)
During his years at Paramount, that lasted from early 1928 to June of 1931, David Selznick was in the middle of the decision making process at the executive level. As B.P. Schulberg's executive assistant he acquired practical experience he could not have purchased any other place at any price. And while he didn't produce a single film during that period he had input at executive planning sessions along with his own memos and suggestions to Schulberg.
Don't get the impression that David Selznick was all work and no play, he went to parties, drank with the best of them and he gambled. At one of those social events he met, fell in love with Irene Mayer. They married on April 29, 1930.
David had worked hard during the year of 1930 and with thoughts of raising a family he believed he deserved a raise in pay. On February 2, 1931 David sent a long memo to his boss B,P. Schulberg citing chapter and verse on the subject of executive pay. He compared his and other executives with directors and line producers and felt there was a wide disparity. He felt that his hours alone were worth more than he was being paid for. He got no answer to his memo, however, on June 15, 1931 he wrote Mr. Schulberg in reply to Schulberg's general memo asking all executives to decide and propose their own salary cut.
David Selznick fired off an answer announcing that he was not about to take a pay cut.
He was asked to resign, which he did in late June 1931.
(To be continued) Next is RKO Hepburn, Barrymore in 'Bill of Divorcement.'
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Tungee Cahill background. Creek Indian War.
Hawkinsville, Georgia
Summer, 1836
Mama Sue Cahill wore a buckskin dress and sat on the front steps. Her raven hair fell loosely to her waist and she softly sang the words of an old hymn. “Amazing.Grace ... 'Tis grace hath brolt me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home ... “
The quiet of the afternoon was broken only by her gentle voice blending with the summer sounds of crickets and the river waters slapping against the boat dock at the bottom of the hill.
The boys watched their mother from the porch swing. Tungee was-twelve and looked like his Scottish father, Davy was two years younger and resembled Mama Sue, a full blood Creek Indian.
Davy whispered. "What is it this time, Tungee?"
"I don't know, but Mama is sure worried."
A bird call came from far up river and that was soon followed by the muffled sounds of hoofbeats. Riders were approaching along the river road at the gallop.
Soon two Creek braves, leading a third horse, came into the clearing and turned toward the house. The warriors sat erect and rode slowly up the hill and stopped in the front yard. The third horse, Papa Cahill's sorrel, halted just behind the others. The sorrel carried a blanket covered body strapped to the saddle. Papa's familiar leather boots hung across the horse's neck at the withers.
Mama Cahill stopped singing and tears coursed down her cheeks and she began to sob. The boys ran to her side and even as Tungee tried to comfort his mother, his emotions spilled into the open. "Damn you, Papa," he wailed, "it's all been a lie."
Mama Sue heard her son's invective, but ignored it for the moment. Papa had to be buried and the sooner the better. She drew a deep breath, scanned the area and quickly pointed to a plot hidden from the river by the scuppernong arbor.
As the braves dug a grave for their comrade they told the family what had happened. Their war party rode out of Hawkinsville expecting to take part in two or three small raids. But by the time they got to West Georgia a full scale war had broken out between the Indians and white settlers.
Their party was ordered to ride south along the Chattahooche River and take part in an attack on a white village below Columbus. Some Alabama Creeks got there early and set fire to the town. The Hawkinsville party rode into the middle of a fire fight and a burning inferno. Smoke was so thick you couldn't see more than a dozen yards. Robert caught a stray bullet that knocked him out of his saddle and he was dead by the time he hit the ground.
The men finished digging the grave and gently lowered Papa Cahill into the clay pit. Mama Sue read from the Bible while a sullen Tungee and tearful Davy stood beside their father's grave. As soon as the final prayer was said, the braves filled in the pit. And by the time they packed the dirt down and scattered a few leaves on top, there was no sign of a burial plot.
(To be Continued
Writers Notebook:
Sherwood Anderson on writing integrity:
Consider for a moment the materials of the prose writer, the teller of tales.
His materials are human lives. To him these figures of his fancy, these people
who live in his fancy should be as real as living people. He should be no more
ready to sell them out than he would sell out his men friends or the woman he
loves. To take the lives of these people and bend or twist them to suit the need
of some cleverly thought out plot to give your readers a false emotion is as
mean and ignoble as to sell out living men or women. For the writer there is no
escape, as there is no real escape for any craftsman… That is the truth.
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
August 11, 2010
David Selznick, Doc Holliday and Blogging
This Week
David O.Selznick – The Early Years
Facts about Doc Holliday
Writers Notebook: On Blogging
David O. Selznick:
David Selznick was a staunch advocate of transferring literature as it was written to film. David was an avid reader and grew up with the classics including Dickens and Tolstoi. As a film producer Selznick is remembered best for his production of Gone With the Wind and if that was his only accomplishment he would have had a successful career. However, that was not the case and as Al Jolson said in The Jazz Singer, 'You ain't seen nothin' yet.'
David Selznick was born on May 10, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the youngest of three sons born to Lewis and Florence Selznick. The boys Howard, Myron and David grew up in New York City. Their father was in the early motion picture business. Myron and David would follow their father into the movie business. Their older brother Howard had health issues and he didn't take part in the business.
David's world revolved around his father and the motion picture business, everyday after school, he went to his father's office in Times Square and worked with his father.David skipped school every chance he got believing it was more important to learn the movie business and analyze actors for his father than it was to follow tradition and attend school every day.
Father and sons worked hard at the business until 1923 when the bottom fell out of their world. The Selznick Pictures business model didn't work, and when Lewis Selznick determined that he was unable to compete, he filed for bankruptcy and sold all the family possessions. That was a setback for the family yet David was not about to give up, he was certain that he could and would be a success in the motion picture business.
It was quite a come down for the Selznick's as they were forced to move out of a huge Park Avenue apartment, with servants, to a three room flat. However, they all took it in stride, especially the mother. Florence Selznick set the tone by doing the cooking and house cleaning without a whimper. His mother's strong will had apparently rubbed off on David and he began to think of ways to rehabilitate his and the family image. When he looked around at successful motion picture executives he was drawn to men like Cecil B. DeMille and Louis B. Mayer. He looked close at those names in print and at that moment decided that adding a middle initial to his name might be helpful, so he added an O and became David O. Selznick.
David was a natural born promoter and entrepreneur. As he looked back at his father's business career he recognized some of the mistakes. Cost was never an issue with his father and it was obvious to David that Selznick Production's spent far too much on advertising and not enough on content and product development.
Starting out with no budget David had to find a low cost project with potential high end results. During his search for a project he came up with the idea of using a boxing match with a title 'Will he Conquer Dempsey?' He would make a two-reeler using the prize fighter Luis Firpo in training for his fight with Jack Dempsey.
David figured it would cost about two thousand dollars to make the film. He spent a couple of weeks promoting the idea and when he came up with the cash he approached Firpo and told him he'd give him a thousand dollars a day for his work.
Firpo agreed and David scouted locations all over Manhattan Central Park, the Battery, street scenes and rooftop boxing rings. He worked out the shooting schedule and just after dawn they began to shoot the star. David ran the fighter ragged from one location to the next using nothing but natural light. At the end of the day David announced that the film was finished.
Firpo got his thousand dollars, but just how many hours were actually in that day we'll never know. Apparently it was enough because when David edited and put the film together he had his first film in the can. The two-reeler sold and made a profit for the investors and for David O. Selznick.
David ran across his next project quite by accident. He read that Rudolph Valentino was not working because of a dispute with Paramount and of course the public wanted to see him. David seized on the idea of making Valentino a judge at an upcoming beauty pageant. He went to the pageant people and asked if they would like to use Rudolph Valentino as one of their judges. They were interested from the start and once Valentino agreed all David had to do was take advantage of the situation and get as much film as he could of the star.
It worked to perfection, David got the film and made a two-reel film of the great lover. The cost of the film and lights at Madison Square Garden were all the expenses he had – he made a cool $15,000.00 dollars profit.
His next film was called Roulette, which featured an all star cast including several stars he engaged for only an hour or two. Roulette didn't do nearly as well as Judge Valentino but you couldn't count it a loss because of the practical knowledge David got from the experience.
Myron Selznick had moved to Hollywood and urged his brother to come out and join him. David obliged and his first job in Hollywood was with Associated Exhibitors to scout around and find two-reelers that the company could release. David found several, unfortunately though Associated Exhibitors went out of business before the deals could be acted on, which left him without a paycheck.
Using some of his father's contacts he talked himself into a $75.00 dollar a week job at MGM. He was hired as a reader for producer Harry Rapf and not only did he read during those first few weeks he did something that might have been the precursor to his memo writing. There was a suggestion box at the studio and as it worked out it might just have been his lifeline. David stuffed that box with suggestions every day and it apparently got someones attention because within a couple of weeks he was promoted from reader to Manager of the Writers Department. That was a title without distinction, although it did get him some recognition and in a short time he was moved up to story editor. Next he became one of Harry Rapf's assistants. (They were called stooges at the time.)
David Selznick had proved his worth at every level and was very effective as an assistant to Producer Rapf. His next move came as an unexpected surprise when he was asked to produce Tim McCoy westerns simply because the McCoy producer got tired of the format and wanted out.
David accepted the job with some trepidations thinking how in the world can I make a reputation producing westerns?
It was a stepping stone though and he did a good job. After he made several films he could see a way to make two films for the price of one. By using two scripts and two leading ladies they could shoot two different films using the same setups. As it turned out it worked and with that innovation David had won his spurs as a producer.
(To be continued)
In the coming weeks we'll look at many David Selznick memos and films as well as some of the careers he launched: Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones and writer producer Alfred Hitchcock.
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
False accusations and outright lies Aimed to darken the Holliday legend were not lost on journalist, Lucy Caldwell and producer, Bobby Anderson. They were convinced that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated. Lucy and Bobby work independently, searching for the real Doc Holliday, but success comes only after they join forces and fully explore the love story involving his cousin, Mattie Holiday.
The storybook romance between John Henry and Mattie is cut short by disease and family strife. The young dentist is forced by circumstance and failing health to abandon Mattie for a life in the West. And by using his gambling skills and caustic wit, Doc Holliday plays out the hand life had dealt him.
On the road to Tombstone Doc encounters some familiar names Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Eddie Foy and Kate Elder to name a few.
In a card game at Ft. Griffin Doc, when forced to defend himself, kills a card cheater. The cheaters pals want retribution, but Kate plans and executes a daring escape from the hostile mob. Doc owes his life to Kate and even as they forge a salty and sometimes tumultuous relationship, he would never forget her act of heroism at Ft. Griffin.
Doc’s courage and loyalty are tested when he rushes in to save Wyatt Earp from a gang of drunken cowboys and a hangman’s noose at Dodge City. Three years later he once again shows his true character when he stands with the Earp’s in the shootout, at the Ok Corral. Doc survives the gunfight, but death from tuberculosis is never far away.
Mattie, desperate in her loneliness, writes Doc that she has returned to St. Vincent’s Academy, become a nun, and has taken a new name -- Sister Mary Melanie. Doc is stung by the news, but is quick to realize that it was his own neglect, of the girl he left behind, that had placed Mattie in the nunnery.
“...Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone is splendid. And it has the best telling of the gunfight at the OK Corral that I’ve ever read. I wish I’d written it.” --Martin Meyers, author of the Patrick Hardy mysteries, co-author of The Dutchman Series.
Writers Notebook:
On Internet Blogging:
Think of blogging as a community bulletin board.
Simply put; you blog to share information with others and you can blog about anything Aunt Suzie’s favorite recipes, politics, pop art, gardening or fly-fishing.
The political classes are having a field day in the blog world.
My ‘RocktheTower’ blog reflects many of my personal experiences including writing, acting and my 1945 season with the original Navy Hurricane Hunters.
Most writers have files filled with stuff (and some is just that – stuff) we’ve written in the past articles, essays etc. If you’ve written a book you’re in good shape because you have lots of material to fall back on. Use excerpts to promote your book or make a point.
You set your own schedule and deadline to post. My idea is to work with consistency in order to make that deadline. One of the incentives I use is that at the end of the day I will have accumulated enough material to edit into a book about storytelling on the blog.
Twitter is something you might look into, it will give you another way to generate new ideas and feed your blog: something to think about.
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 O.Selznick – The Early Years
Facts about Doc Holliday
Writers Notebook: On Blogging
David O. Selznick:
David Selznick was a staunch advocate of transferring literature as it was written to film. David was an avid reader and grew up with the classics including Dickens and Tolstoi. As a film producer Selznick is remembered best for his production of Gone With the Wind and if that was his only accomplishment he would have had a successful career. However, that was not the case and as Al Jolson said in The Jazz Singer, 'You ain't seen nothin' yet.'
David Selznick was born on May 10, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the youngest of three sons born to Lewis and Florence Selznick. The boys Howard, Myron and David grew up in New York City. Their father was in the early motion picture business. Myron and David would follow their father into the movie business. Their older brother Howard had health issues and he didn't take part in the business.
David's world revolved around his father and the motion picture business, everyday after school, he went to his father's office in Times Square and worked with his father.David skipped school every chance he got believing it was more important to learn the movie business and analyze actors for his father than it was to follow tradition and attend school every day.
Father and sons worked hard at the business until 1923 when the bottom fell out of their world. The Selznick Pictures business model didn't work, and when Lewis Selznick determined that he was unable to compete, he filed for bankruptcy and sold all the family possessions. That was a setback for the family yet David was not about to give up, he was certain that he could and would be a success in the motion picture business.
It was quite a come down for the Selznick's as they were forced to move out of a huge Park Avenue apartment, with servants, to a three room flat. However, they all took it in stride, especially the mother. Florence Selznick set the tone by doing the cooking and house cleaning without a whimper. His mother's strong will had apparently rubbed off on David and he began to think of ways to rehabilitate his and the family image. When he looked around at successful motion picture executives he was drawn to men like Cecil B. DeMille and Louis B. Mayer. He looked close at those names in print and at that moment decided that adding a middle initial to his name might be helpful, so he added an O and became David O. Selznick.
David was a natural born promoter and entrepreneur. As he looked back at his father's business career he recognized some of the mistakes. Cost was never an issue with his father and it was obvious to David that Selznick Production's spent far too much on advertising and not enough on content and product development.
Starting out with no budget David had to find a low cost project with potential high end results. During his search for a project he came up with the idea of using a boxing match with a title 'Will he Conquer Dempsey?' He would make a two-reeler using the prize fighter Luis Firpo in training for his fight with Jack Dempsey.
David figured it would cost about two thousand dollars to make the film. He spent a couple of weeks promoting the idea and when he came up with the cash he approached Firpo and told him he'd give him a thousand dollars a day for his work.
Firpo agreed and David scouted locations all over Manhattan Central Park, the Battery, street scenes and rooftop boxing rings. He worked out the shooting schedule and just after dawn they began to shoot the star. David ran the fighter ragged from one location to the next using nothing but natural light. At the end of the day David announced that the film was finished.
Firpo got his thousand dollars, but just how many hours were actually in that day we'll never know. Apparently it was enough because when David edited and put the film together he had his first film in the can. The two-reeler sold and made a profit for the investors and for David O. Selznick.
David ran across his next project quite by accident. He read that Rudolph Valentino was not working because of a dispute with Paramount and of course the public wanted to see him. David seized on the idea of making Valentino a judge at an upcoming beauty pageant. He went to the pageant people and asked if they would like to use Rudolph Valentino as one of their judges. They were interested from the start and once Valentino agreed all David had to do was take advantage of the situation and get as much film as he could of the star.
It worked to perfection, David got the film and made a two-reel film of the great lover. The cost of the film and lights at Madison Square Garden were all the expenses he had – he made a cool $15,000.00 dollars profit.
His next film was called Roulette, which featured an all star cast including several stars he engaged for only an hour or two. Roulette didn't do nearly as well as Judge Valentino but you couldn't count it a loss because of the practical knowledge David got from the experience.
Myron Selznick had moved to Hollywood and urged his brother to come out and join him. David obliged and his first job in Hollywood was with Associated Exhibitors to scout around and find two-reelers that the company could release. David found several, unfortunately though Associated Exhibitors went out of business before the deals could be acted on, which left him without a paycheck.
Using some of his father's contacts he talked himself into a $75.00 dollar a week job at MGM. He was hired as a reader for producer Harry Rapf and not only did he read during those first few weeks he did something that might have been the precursor to his memo writing. There was a suggestion box at the studio and as it worked out it might just have been his lifeline. David stuffed that box with suggestions every day and it apparently got someones attention because within a couple of weeks he was promoted from reader to Manager of the Writers Department. That was a title without distinction, although it did get him some recognition and in a short time he was moved up to story editor. Next he became one of Harry Rapf's assistants. (They were called stooges at the time.)
David Selznick had proved his worth at every level and was very effective as an assistant to Producer Rapf. His next move came as an unexpected surprise when he was asked to produce Tim McCoy westerns simply because the McCoy producer got tired of the format and wanted out.
David accepted the job with some trepidations thinking how in the world can I make a reputation producing westerns?
It was a stepping stone though and he did a good job. After he made several films he could see a way to make two films for the price of one. By using two scripts and two leading ladies they could shoot two different films using the same setups. As it turned out it worked and with that innovation David had won his spurs as a producer.
(To be continued)
In the coming weeks we'll look at many David Selznick memos and films as well as some of the careers he launched: Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones and writer producer Alfred Hitchcock.
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone
False accusations and outright lies Aimed to darken the Holliday legend were not lost on journalist, Lucy Caldwell and producer, Bobby Anderson. They were convinced that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated. Lucy and Bobby work independently, searching for the real Doc Holliday, but success comes only after they join forces and fully explore the love story involving his cousin, Mattie Holiday.
The storybook romance between John Henry and Mattie is cut short by disease and family strife. The young dentist is forced by circumstance and failing health to abandon Mattie for a life in the West. And by using his gambling skills and caustic wit, Doc Holliday plays out the hand life had dealt him.
On the road to Tombstone Doc encounters some familiar names Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Eddie Foy and Kate Elder to name a few.
In a card game at Ft. Griffin Doc, when forced to defend himself, kills a card cheater. The cheaters pals want retribution, but Kate plans and executes a daring escape from the hostile mob. Doc owes his life to Kate and even as they forge a salty and sometimes tumultuous relationship, he would never forget her act of heroism at Ft. Griffin.
Doc’s courage and loyalty are tested when he rushes in to save Wyatt Earp from a gang of drunken cowboys and a hangman’s noose at Dodge City. Three years later he once again shows his true character when he stands with the Earp’s in the shootout, at the Ok Corral. Doc survives the gunfight, but death from tuberculosis is never far away.
Mattie, desperate in her loneliness, writes Doc that she has returned to St. Vincent’s Academy, become a nun, and has taken a new name -- Sister Mary Melanie. Doc is stung by the news, but is quick to realize that it was his own neglect, of the girl he left behind, that had placed Mattie in the nunnery.
“...Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone is splendid. And it has the best telling of the gunfight at the OK Corral that I’ve ever read. I wish I’d written it.” --Martin Meyers, author of the Patrick Hardy mysteries, co-author of The Dutchman Series.
Writers Notebook:
On Internet Blogging:
Think of blogging as a community bulletin board.
Simply put; you blog to share information with others and you can blog about anything Aunt Suzie’s favorite recipes, politics, pop art, gardening or fly-fishing.
The political classes are having a field day in the blog world.
My ‘RocktheTower’ blog reflects many of my personal experiences including writing, acting and my 1945 season with the original Navy Hurricane Hunters.
Most writers have files filled with stuff (and some is just that – stuff) we’ve written in the past articles, essays etc. If you’ve written a book you’re in good shape because you have lots of material to fall back on. Use excerpts to promote your book or make a point.
You set your own schedule and deadline to post. My idea is to work with consistency in order to make that deadline. One of the incentives I use is that at the end of the day I will have accumulated enough material to edit into a book about storytelling on the blog.
Twitter is something you might look into, it will give you another way to generate new ideas and feed your blog: something to think about.
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 4, 2010
Bogart, Houston, The African Queen and a Turkey
This Week
Bogart
The Goring Collection Review
Writers Notebook
Bogart Part 4
Humphrey Bogart's fame didn't end with his death in January 1957. Fact is his popularity has grown through the years from one generation to the next. Some call him an icon, but that doesn't fit very well because there were too many facets to Bogies personality.
He was a great husband, even to the three wives that didn't work out. To Betty Bacall Bogart and their two children Stephen and Leslie – he was just the best husband and father.
Bogie had a fascination with the sea, he loved to sail and his first sailboat Sluggy was named after his third wife Mayo Methot. He later purchased a fifty five foot sailing yacht and named it Santana. Betty Bacall got her sea legs on the Santana and learned to sail under the guidance of Bogie. And over a period of time Betty Bacall Bogart became an accomplished sailor.
Most of us know Humphrey Bogart from his movies and the characters he played. Bogart played such a wide range of characters that it gives every fan a chance to pick a different film. They range from Captain Queeg in the Cain Mutiny to Rick in Casablanca, the tough saloon owner in one instance to the romantic, 'We'll always have Paris,' in another.
Humphrey Bogart and John Houston.
Following the Maltese Falcon Bogart and Houston teamed up in Across the Pacific. After working out early script problems they wound up with, according to Variety 'A breezy, fast paced film with a good cast with Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor.'
Next came The Treasure of the Sierra Madre adapted by Houston from a novel written by an obscure writer by the name of B. Traven. It's the story of the search for gold and the greed it brings out in man.
Cast along with Bogart was John Houston's father, Walter Houston, Tim Holt, and Bruce Bennett.
Key Largo: Variety opens its review with; 'A tense film thriller has been developed from Maxwell Anderson's play, Key Largo.'
The emphasis is on tension in the telling and effective use of dramatic mood has been used to point up the suspense. Edward G. Robinson is the menace and he gets great support from the cast of Bogart, Lionel Barrymore, Clair Trevor, Lauren Bacall and Thomas Gomez.
The African Queen was shot in Africa, not one of Bogart's favorite locations. The story was adapted for the screen by James Agee and John Houston from a C.S. Forester novel. The film was shot almost entirely in the Belgian Congo and Uganda.
During the shooting of the film everyone came down with dysentery except Betty and Bogie. To avoid drinking any water – he even brushed his teeth with Scotch.
The African Safari was rugged in every respect, Bogart griped and griped, but he also worked and worked. What exasperated Bogie most, Houston said was Katie Hepburn's calm acceptance of the heat, and the damp, and the stinks, and the crawling life in the jungle.
However, once the location shooting, fire ants, mosquitoes, a sinking boat and even the dysentery were in the past, the films results put it all into a good prospective . Both the critics and public loved the film and Oscar nominations abounded and Bogart won his Oscar.When his name was called out he kissed Betty on the cheek and quickly moved to the stage. Bogie had planned and rehearsed a cryptic remark, but once he got the Oscar in his hands those plans went out of his head and he looked around and thanked everybody in sight.
What a leap from his first Broadway review. In the short lived play Swifty, Alexander Woollcott's review of Bogart's acting read, 'The young man who embodies the aforesaid Sprig was what might mercifully be described as inadequate.'
Beat the Devil.
The Oscar winning success of The African Queen might have foretold a clinker on the horizon. And if you've never seen Beat the Devil you might pick up a DVD and look at it. Only then will you fully understand the dilemma Bogie and Houston had on their hands. The screenplay was based on a James Hevlick novel and adapted by John Houston, Anthony Veiller, and Peter Viertel.
The basic story is a quartet of swindlers, posing as vacuum cleaner salesmen, sailing on a steamer to Africa and get stranded in Italy, while the ship is being repaired. They are heading to Africa to buy land supposedly rich in uranium, the salesmen meet a seemingly-innocent British couple also en route to Africa. Things are not as they seem, identities are revealed and true intentions are eventually discovered. (Now, does that sound like a plan?)
Well, ready or not the film company gathered in Italy with a cast of Bogart, Jinnifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley and Peter Lorre. Any outsider just looking at the cast and crew would figure it to be a shoo in for good reviews.
Second thoughts:
Before a single scene had been shot Houston decided the script wouldn't work and put a hold on the production. Houston and Bogie both knew they needed fresh ideas so Houston called the most fertile writing mind he could think of. And after a half hour of begging and cajoling, Truman Capote agreed join them and see what he could do.
Two days later Capote arrived on the set and immediately went to work and straightened out some of the sharp edges. Capote's enthusiasm was infectious and production soon got under way.
Once they got going there was a lot of horseplay on the set and the actors actually enjoyed making the film.
After the Beat the Devil was finished and cut the production team as well as some of the actors that viewed the film gave it high marks as a well made spoof.
The general public and many of the theater owners didn't buy a bit of it. Even so, within a year or two Santana Productions got its print cost back.
In recent years Beat the Devil has had a kind of rebirth as a cult film. The theory is that those new fans see Bogart doing what they sense he always has been doing. Playing the part of the leader of a gang of international scoundrels trying yo get hold of some uranium money over in Africa.
Bogart was never one to relive the sins of his past, but on this particular film he said, 'Only the phonies think it's funny. It's a mess.'
'Well, that's Bogie for you.'
The Goring Collection Review by Lenora Smalley
Some readers may have forgotten or never knew that Hermann Goring, Hitler's ruthless second in command, was in charge of looting and hiding thousands of museum paintings created by some of Europe's most famous artists and some whose work would become more valuable during proceeding decades. They have become known as The Goring Collection. Hundreds of these paintings are still missing today.
Tom Barnes has written a well researched, exciting story initiated by a stolen painting. Jacob Meyers saw his father's Pissarro among the paintings at The Old World Auction House in Manhattan. When he starts asking questions, the painting disappears. Since Mayers owns an intelligence agency, he immediately alerts Interpol . Two paintings, a Manet and a Cezanne sold as copies by an international cartel in Berlin show up at the Berghoff Gallery in Chicago. Mayers's agency investigates this con game of the cartel from a mansion in the state of Georgia across the country to a notorious odds maker in Las Vegas. The action and excitement of the story are propelled by the characters in the agency who are tracking the stolen paintings. Their intriguing personalities and working relationships make you hope the author writes a sequel to allow them to solve more international mysteries.
Writers Notebook:
Words and phrases – the search goes on.
Ever get hung up on a word that’s almost but not quite right?
Peg Bracken has and she gives us some thoughts on the subject. ‘I do a great deal of rewriting. Almost never is a paragraph right the first time or the sixth or seventh time either for that matter. You are always looking for that right word. There’s a grave difference between a B and a B flat. And it matters too where it falls in the measure. I believe there’s only one best word. Of course one doesn’t always find that best word, but it is the thing to aim for.’
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
Bogart
The Goring Collection Review
Writers Notebook
Bogart Part 4
Humphrey Bogart's fame didn't end with his death in January 1957. Fact is his popularity has grown through the years from one generation to the next. Some call him an icon, but that doesn't fit very well because there were too many facets to Bogies personality.
He was a great husband, even to the three wives that didn't work out. To Betty Bacall Bogart and their two children Stephen and Leslie – he was just the best husband and father.
Bogie had a fascination with the sea, he loved to sail and his first sailboat Sluggy was named after his third wife Mayo Methot. He later purchased a fifty five foot sailing yacht and named it Santana. Betty Bacall got her sea legs on the Santana and learned to sail under the guidance of Bogie. And over a period of time Betty Bacall Bogart became an accomplished sailor.
Most of us know Humphrey Bogart from his movies and the characters he played. Bogart played such a wide range of characters that it gives every fan a chance to pick a different film. They range from Captain Queeg in the Cain Mutiny to Rick in Casablanca, the tough saloon owner in one instance to the romantic, 'We'll always have Paris,' in another.
Humphrey Bogart and John Houston.
Following the Maltese Falcon Bogart and Houston teamed up in Across the Pacific. After working out early script problems they wound up with, according to Variety 'A breezy, fast paced film with a good cast with Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor.'
Next came The Treasure of the Sierra Madre adapted by Houston from a novel written by an obscure writer by the name of B. Traven. It's the story of the search for gold and the greed it brings out in man.
Cast along with Bogart was John Houston's father, Walter Houston, Tim Holt, and Bruce Bennett.
Key Largo: Variety opens its review with; 'A tense film thriller has been developed from Maxwell Anderson's play, Key Largo.'
The emphasis is on tension in the telling and effective use of dramatic mood has been used to point up the suspense. Edward G. Robinson is the menace and he gets great support from the cast of Bogart, Lionel Barrymore, Clair Trevor, Lauren Bacall and Thomas Gomez.
The African Queen was shot in Africa, not one of Bogart's favorite locations. The story was adapted for the screen by James Agee and John Houston from a C.S. Forester novel. The film was shot almost entirely in the Belgian Congo and Uganda.
During the shooting of the film everyone came down with dysentery except Betty and Bogie. To avoid drinking any water – he even brushed his teeth with Scotch.
The African Safari was rugged in every respect, Bogart griped and griped, but he also worked and worked. What exasperated Bogie most, Houston said was Katie Hepburn's calm acceptance of the heat, and the damp, and the stinks, and the crawling life in the jungle.
However, once the location shooting, fire ants, mosquitoes, a sinking boat and even the dysentery were in the past, the films results put it all into a good prospective . Both the critics and public loved the film and Oscar nominations abounded and Bogart won his Oscar.When his name was called out he kissed Betty on the cheek and quickly moved to the stage. Bogie had planned and rehearsed a cryptic remark, but once he got the Oscar in his hands those plans went out of his head and he looked around and thanked everybody in sight.
What a leap from his first Broadway review. In the short lived play Swifty, Alexander Woollcott's review of Bogart's acting read, 'The young man who embodies the aforesaid Sprig was what might mercifully be described as inadequate.'
Beat the Devil.
The Oscar winning success of The African Queen might have foretold a clinker on the horizon. And if you've never seen Beat the Devil you might pick up a DVD and look at it. Only then will you fully understand the dilemma Bogie and Houston had on their hands. The screenplay was based on a James Hevlick novel and adapted by John Houston, Anthony Veiller, and Peter Viertel.
The basic story is a quartet of swindlers, posing as vacuum cleaner salesmen, sailing on a steamer to Africa and get stranded in Italy, while the ship is being repaired. They are heading to Africa to buy land supposedly rich in uranium, the salesmen meet a seemingly-innocent British couple also en route to Africa. Things are not as they seem, identities are revealed and true intentions are eventually discovered. (Now, does that sound like a plan?)
Well, ready or not the film company gathered in Italy with a cast of Bogart, Jinnifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley and Peter Lorre. Any outsider just looking at the cast and crew would figure it to be a shoo in for good reviews.
Second thoughts:
Before a single scene had been shot Houston decided the script wouldn't work and put a hold on the production. Houston and Bogie both knew they needed fresh ideas so Houston called the most fertile writing mind he could think of. And after a half hour of begging and cajoling, Truman Capote agreed join them and see what he could do.
Two days later Capote arrived on the set and immediately went to work and straightened out some of the sharp edges. Capote's enthusiasm was infectious and production soon got under way.
Once they got going there was a lot of horseplay on the set and the actors actually enjoyed making the film.
After the Beat the Devil was finished and cut the production team as well as some of the actors that viewed the film gave it high marks as a well made spoof.
The general public and many of the theater owners didn't buy a bit of it. Even so, within a year or two Santana Productions got its print cost back.
In recent years Beat the Devil has had a kind of rebirth as a cult film. The theory is that those new fans see Bogart doing what they sense he always has been doing. Playing the part of the leader of a gang of international scoundrels trying yo get hold of some uranium money over in Africa.
Bogart was never one to relive the sins of his past, but on this particular film he said, 'Only the phonies think it's funny. It's a mess.'
'Well, that's Bogie for you.'
The Goring Collection Review by Lenora Smalley
Some readers may have forgotten or never knew that Hermann Goring, Hitler's ruthless second in command, was in charge of looting and hiding thousands of museum paintings created by some of Europe's most famous artists and some whose work would become more valuable during proceeding decades. They have become known as The Goring Collection. Hundreds of these paintings are still missing today.
Tom Barnes has written a well researched, exciting story initiated by a stolen painting. Jacob Meyers saw his father's Pissarro among the paintings at The Old World Auction House in Manhattan. When he starts asking questions, the painting disappears. Since Mayers owns an intelligence agency, he immediately alerts Interpol . Two paintings, a Manet and a Cezanne sold as copies by an international cartel in Berlin show up at the Berghoff Gallery in Chicago. Mayers's agency investigates this con game of the cartel from a mansion in the state of Georgia across the country to a notorious odds maker in Las Vegas. The action and excitement of the story are propelled by the characters in the agency who are tracking the stolen paintings. Their intriguing personalities and working relationships make you hope the author writes a sequel to allow them to solve more international mysteries.
Writers Notebook:
Words and phrases – the search goes on.
Ever get hung up on a word that’s almost but not quite right?
Peg Bracken has and she gives us some thoughts on the subject. ‘I do a great deal of rewriting. Almost never is a paragraph right the first time or the sixth or seventh time either for that matter. You are always looking for that right word. There’s a grave difference between a B and a B flat. And it matters too where it falls in the measure. I believe there’s only one best word. Of course one doesn’t always find that best word, but it is the thing to aim for.’
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
July 28, 2010
Bogart's Wives, Doc Holliday and Kate
This Week
Helen, Mary, Mayo and Betty Bogart
Dodge City Street – Doc and Kate
Writers Notebook
After three marriages' went wrong – along came Betty Bacall
In baseball it's three strikes and you're out – not so with Bogie, he got another chance with a bright and talented young model/actress named Lauren Bacall.
Bogie's first three wives were all well known and talented actresses'.
Bogie's first marriage was to actress Helen Menken in May of 1926 using the marriage license they had acquired some four years earlier. It obviously took Bogie a while to make up his mind, The ceremony didn't go well and their relationship went down hill from there. In less than a month It became obvious that neither of them were ready for marriage, and certainly not to each other. They went through the motions marriage for a year and a half before finally calling it quits.
His second wife to be was actress Mary Philips. Bogie ask her out for a drink and it wound up as part of an endless tour of speakeasies where a courtship was carried out between drinks. They hit it off from that first drink. They became great friends, enjoyed each others company and loved talking about show business.
Their courtship lasted for about a year before they decided to get married. Unlike his first attempt Bogie's marriage to Mary Philips got off to a good start. They were both working at the time and that might have had something to do with their easy going relationship.
Later in 1929 when David Belasco was casting for a new play called It's a Wise Child, he gave Bogart a role. And when the comedy opened it turned out to be the sensation of the season.
The problem was not the season, but the year, it was 1929. There was fear and panic both on Wall Street and Main Street in America. Broadway was turning out turkey's at the rate of about three to one over hits, and the Hollywood film industry didn't fare much better.
Once both Bogie and Mary were out of work they decided to pack up and move to Hollywood. Well, Bogie managed to get his foot in the door at Fox and one film seemed to lead to another. On the other hand Mary didn't fare so well. Eventually Mary decided it might be best if she went back to New York for another try at Broadway. Bogie didn't like the idea at first, but finally agreed to go along, at least for a while. That decision to go back to New York was a big stroke of luck because not too long after they got back he was cast in the role of Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.
Married life was good during the run of the play on Broadway. Problems started when they returned to Hollywood for the movie.
Mary was a professional actress and wanted to work. She got no offers in Hollywood and really felt left out, so again she decided to move back to New York. Bogie understood her problem from a professional level, while he argued against the move from his personal point of view. But in the end she went back to New York.
Mary's return to Broadway probably doomed their marriage and they got a divorce in 1938.
Bogie's wife number three was Mayo Mathot, and she was nothing like the first two, to give you an idea, he nicknamed her 'Sluggy.' Bogie and Mayo carried on a tumultuous relationship that was completely irrational. Mayo drank too much and had a temperament that bordered on the psychotic. When gossip began to float around Hollywood that their marriage was on the rocks, Bogie denied it. And in defense of his wife he once said, 'My wife's an actress, she a clever actress, it so happens that she's not working right now. But even when an actress isn't working, she's got to have scenes to play. And in this case I've got to give her the cues.'
Well, he not only gave her the cues he also became her own private punching bag. And during one drunken rage she almost killed him with a knife.
Mayo had a fit of jealously during the production of Casablanca when she heard about Bogie's and Bergman's romantic scenes together.
Over a period of time Mayo had gone from a beautiful trim blond to an overweight puffy faced woman without distinction.
During Bogart's next four pictures Action in the North Atlantic, Thank your Lucky Stars, Conflict and Passage to Marseilles he held his home life together with the patients of Job.
However, a couple of things happened during the making of Passage to Marseilles that changed his life. It was during that period that he signed on to make 'To Have and Have Not' with Howard Hawks and fell in love with his next leading lady, Lauren Bacall.
Obviously the chemistry was right because Bogart and Bacall fell in love with each other. The fact that he was forty-five and she was only nineteen made little difference to them.
Of course it did raise some eyebrows and ginned up a few gossip columns inside the film colony, but their ages certainly were setting no precedents – it had happened before.
Mrs. Bogart put up a good front for a while but she was no match for the young Betty Bacall.
Eventually Mayo left Hollywood for her mother's home in Portland, Oregon. Six years later she died alone in a motel after a long illness brought on by what was likely alcohol poisoning.
To Have or Have Not was Bacall's first film and she was very much aware of her lack of experience. She said, 'I was playing a scene with Bogie and had to catch a box of matches he tossed me and lite a cigarette. My hands trembled so much I kept dropping the matches. Bogie pretended to ignore it, which was just what I needed.'
The payoff line in the film was when she said, 'If you want anything, all you have to do is whistle.'
The critics bought her performance and hailed her a new and important star. The film was a hit and some of the critics considered it equal to Casablanca – it wasn't. The story line was thin, however, the quixotic cast of characters gave life to a screenplay that could have easily bordered on dull. Walter Brennan and Hoagy Carmichael get high marks along with the editor for keeping up a good pace.
Bogie and Betty Bacall did a total of four films together, the other three were The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.
The film made just prior to Key Largo was The Treasure of Sierra Madre, a film that many critics and fans remember as one of Bogie's best.
Bogart fans are Bogart fans, but they still have their favorites. The seventh film following Key Largo, The African Queen is one of those and according to some was the greatest Bogart film while others say it isn't so.
We Bogart fans are a diverse lot and to give you something to shoot at -- my two favorite Bogart films are Casablanca and The African Queen. They are also in my top twenty best films ever.
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone – Excerpt
Doc Holliday and Humphrey Bogart had something in common: Kate and Mayo.
Dodge City Kansas 1878
Next day the cowboys were sobering up in jail and the streets of Dodge City were so quiet you could hear a spur jingle a block away. Inside the saloons there were three main topics of conversation Doc Holliday saving Wyatt Earp's bacon, the end of the ‘78 cattle season and the Santa Fe railroads efforts to recruit guns for an operation in Eastern Colorado.
Doc had put in a full day at the office and was visibly tired by the time he ushered his last patient out of the office. He planned to have supper with Kate, but was tardy.
Kate waited in the hotel lobby, her patience wearing thin at his lateness. Deacon Cox was working the desk and noticed Kate sitting on the far sofa. She frowned as she looked toward the stairs.
"You sure Doc didn't go out yet?" Kate questioned.
"Quite sure." Cox said. "He had a last minute patient, I believe."
Doc appeared on the stairs and said languidly, "Howdy, Deacon." Deacon Cox cleared his throat and in a warning tone said, "Doc, the eh, Misses is waiting.”
Doc acknowledged the hint, turned toward the petulant Kate and said, "Ready for supper?"
"You're late, Doctor Holliday."
"Had a last minute tooth to pull. The poor fellow was in pain," Doc said as held out his hand, only to be rejected by Kate. She turned on her heels and quickly walked out the front door.
Doc followed along and when he overtook her asked, "What's the matter, Kate?"
"You're just full of excuses, ain't you," Kate spat.
"Now hon, I'm in no mood for a fight. I've had a long tiring day and I'm hungry and thirsty."
"Well I'm sick and tired of you being tired ... You weren't tired yesterday when you became an instant hero."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, our hero is innocent and tired. You know damned well what I'm talkin' about. It's all over town how the great Doc Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life."
"Gosh, I never thought of it that way, but what if I did. If you're keeping score, you're in the running, you saved my neck once."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
Doc stopped dead in his tracks. Kate continued to walk a dozen steps before she realized he wasn't at her side. She stopped and turned around, then sallied forth with a sharp reproof, "Well, are you comin’ or not?"
Doc stood in place and made no physical movement. His mind raced as he wrestled with a decision he had put off far too long. "I can't do it any longer, Kate."
She made a slight, but conciliatory move in his direction and muttered. "Do what?"
"Live with a live volcano."
"What?"
"I can't drink enough whiskey to hide both my physical and your mental problems, Kate."
"What are you saying, darlin’?" She said as she reached out emotionally to Doc.
"I don't have the strength to put up with a natural disaster every day of my life. I never know from one day to the next, will it be a tornado or an earthquake.”
Then with a purpose, Doc turned and strode across the street leaving Kate standing in place.
"Where are you going?" Kate demanded. "You can't leave me in the street like this."
Doc called over his shoulder. "Maybe I can't, but I am."
Kate started to tremble and then screeched, "I hate you Doc Holliday." Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she began to sob. "Don't you know I love you, you son-of-a-bitch.”
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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Helen, Mary, Mayo and Betty Bogart
Dodge City Street – Doc and Kate
Writers Notebook
After three marriages' went wrong – along came Betty Bacall
In baseball it's three strikes and you're out – not so with Bogie, he got another chance with a bright and talented young model/actress named Lauren Bacall.
Bogie's first three wives were all well known and talented actresses'.
Bogie's first marriage was to actress Helen Menken in May of 1926 using the marriage license they had acquired some four years earlier. It obviously took Bogie a while to make up his mind, The ceremony didn't go well and their relationship went down hill from there. In less than a month It became obvious that neither of them were ready for marriage, and certainly not to each other. They went through the motions marriage for a year and a half before finally calling it quits.
His second wife to be was actress Mary Philips. Bogie ask her out for a drink and it wound up as part of an endless tour of speakeasies where a courtship was carried out between drinks. They hit it off from that first drink. They became great friends, enjoyed each others company and loved talking about show business.
Their courtship lasted for about a year before they decided to get married. Unlike his first attempt Bogie's marriage to Mary Philips got off to a good start. They were both working at the time and that might have had something to do with their easy going relationship.
Later in 1929 when David Belasco was casting for a new play called It's a Wise Child, he gave Bogart a role. And when the comedy opened it turned out to be the sensation of the season.
The problem was not the season, but the year, it was 1929. There was fear and panic both on Wall Street and Main Street in America. Broadway was turning out turkey's at the rate of about three to one over hits, and the Hollywood film industry didn't fare much better.
Once both Bogie and Mary were out of work they decided to pack up and move to Hollywood. Well, Bogie managed to get his foot in the door at Fox and one film seemed to lead to another. On the other hand Mary didn't fare so well. Eventually Mary decided it might be best if she went back to New York for another try at Broadway. Bogie didn't like the idea at first, but finally agreed to go along, at least for a while. That decision to go back to New York was a big stroke of luck because not too long after they got back he was cast in the role of Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest.
Married life was good during the run of the play on Broadway. Problems started when they returned to Hollywood for the movie.
Mary was a professional actress and wanted to work. She got no offers in Hollywood and really felt left out, so again she decided to move back to New York. Bogie understood her problem from a professional level, while he argued against the move from his personal point of view. But in the end she went back to New York.
Mary's return to Broadway probably doomed their marriage and they got a divorce in 1938.
Bogie's wife number three was Mayo Mathot, and she was nothing like the first two, to give you an idea, he nicknamed her 'Sluggy.' Bogie and Mayo carried on a tumultuous relationship that was completely irrational. Mayo drank too much and had a temperament that bordered on the psychotic. When gossip began to float around Hollywood that their marriage was on the rocks, Bogie denied it. And in defense of his wife he once said, 'My wife's an actress, she a clever actress, it so happens that she's not working right now. But even when an actress isn't working, she's got to have scenes to play. And in this case I've got to give her the cues.'
Well, he not only gave her the cues he also became her own private punching bag. And during one drunken rage she almost killed him with a knife.
Mayo had a fit of jealously during the production of Casablanca when she heard about Bogie's and Bergman's romantic scenes together.
Over a period of time Mayo had gone from a beautiful trim blond to an overweight puffy faced woman without distinction.
During Bogart's next four pictures Action in the North Atlantic, Thank your Lucky Stars, Conflict and Passage to Marseilles he held his home life together with the patients of Job.
However, a couple of things happened during the making of Passage to Marseilles that changed his life. It was during that period that he signed on to make 'To Have and Have Not' with Howard Hawks and fell in love with his next leading lady, Lauren Bacall.
Obviously the chemistry was right because Bogart and Bacall fell in love with each other. The fact that he was forty-five and she was only nineteen made little difference to them.
Of course it did raise some eyebrows and ginned up a few gossip columns inside the film colony, but their ages certainly were setting no precedents – it had happened before.
Mrs. Bogart put up a good front for a while but she was no match for the young Betty Bacall.
Eventually Mayo left Hollywood for her mother's home in Portland, Oregon. Six years later she died alone in a motel after a long illness brought on by what was likely alcohol poisoning.
To Have or Have Not was Bacall's first film and she was very much aware of her lack of experience. She said, 'I was playing a scene with Bogie and had to catch a box of matches he tossed me and lite a cigarette. My hands trembled so much I kept dropping the matches. Bogie pretended to ignore it, which was just what I needed.'
The payoff line in the film was when she said, 'If you want anything, all you have to do is whistle.'
The critics bought her performance and hailed her a new and important star. The film was a hit and some of the critics considered it equal to Casablanca – it wasn't. The story line was thin, however, the quixotic cast of characters gave life to a screenplay that could have easily bordered on dull. Walter Brennan and Hoagy Carmichael get high marks along with the editor for keeping up a good pace.
Bogie and Betty Bacall did a total of four films together, the other three were The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo.
The film made just prior to Key Largo was The Treasure of Sierra Madre, a film that many critics and fans remember as one of Bogie's best.
Bogart fans are Bogart fans, but they still have their favorites. The seventh film following Key Largo, The African Queen is one of those and according to some was the greatest Bogart film while others say it isn't so.
We Bogart fans are a diverse lot and to give you something to shoot at -- my two favorite Bogart films are Casablanca and The African Queen. They are also in my top twenty best films ever.
(To be continued)
Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone – Excerpt
Doc Holliday and Humphrey Bogart had something in common: Kate and Mayo.
Dodge City Kansas 1878
Next day the cowboys were sobering up in jail and the streets of Dodge City were so quiet you could hear a spur jingle a block away. Inside the saloons there were three main topics of conversation Doc Holliday saving Wyatt Earp's bacon, the end of the ‘78 cattle season and the Santa Fe railroads efforts to recruit guns for an operation in Eastern Colorado.
Doc had put in a full day at the office and was visibly tired by the time he ushered his last patient out of the office. He planned to have supper with Kate, but was tardy.
Kate waited in the hotel lobby, her patience wearing thin at his lateness. Deacon Cox was working the desk and noticed Kate sitting on the far sofa. She frowned as she looked toward the stairs.
"You sure Doc didn't go out yet?" Kate questioned.
"Quite sure." Cox said. "He had a last minute patient, I believe."
Doc appeared on the stairs and said languidly, "Howdy, Deacon." Deacon Cox cleared his throat and in a warning tone said, "Doc, the eh, Misses is waiting.”
Doc acknowledged the hint, turned toward the petulant Kate and said, "Ready for supper?"
"You're late, Doctor Holliday."
"Had a last minute tooth to pull. The poor fellow was in pain," Doc said as held out his hand, only to be rejected by Kate. She turned on her heels and quickly walked out the front door.
Doc followed along and when he overtook her asked, "What's the matter, Kate?"
"You're just full of excuses, ain't you," Kate spat.
"Now hon, I'm in no mood for a fight. I've had a long tiring day and I'm hungry and thirsty."
"Well I'm sick and tired of you being tired ... You weren't tired yesterday when you became an instant hero."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, our hero is innocent and tired. You know damned well what I'm talkin' about. It's all over town how the great Doc Holliday saved Wyatt Earp's life."
"Gosh, I never thought of it that way, but what if I did. If you're keeping score, you're in the running, you saved my neck once."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
Doc stopped dead in his tracks. Kate continued to walk a dozen steps before she realized he wasn't at her side. She stopped and turned around, then sallied forth with a sharp reproof, "Well, are you comin’ or not?"
Doc stood in place and made no physical movement. His mind raced as he wrestled with a decision he had put off far too long. "I can't do it any longer, Kate."
She made a slight, but conciliatory move in his direction and muttered. "Do what?"
"Live with a live volcano."
"What?"
"I can't drink enough whiskey to hide both my physical and your mental problems, Kate."
"What are you saying, darlin’?" She said as she reached out emotionally to Doc.
"I don't have the strength to put up with a natural disaster every day of my life. I never know from one day to the next, will it be a tornado or an earthquake.”
Then with a purpose, Doc turned and strode across the street leaving Kate standing in place.
"Where are you going?" Kate demanded. "You can't leave me in the street like this."
Doc called over his shoulder. "Maybe I can't, but I am."
Kate started to tremble and then screeched, "I hate you Doc Holliday." Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she began to sob. "Don't you know I love you, you son-of-a-bitch.”
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.
Facebook and Twitter
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
July 21, 2010
Bogart Films, Casablanca and Civil War Journal
This Week
Bogart Films
Battle of Manassas
The Goring Collection (excerpt)
Writers Notebook: Conflict
Bogart: Part 2
Humphrey Bogart's resume shows seventy five films, however I lop off the top ten that were made before The Petrified Forest. He was miscast in those films the same as he had been on Broadway where he played the genial and easygoing man about town, which was exactly opposite to what Bogart could deliver.
His eleventh film The Petrified Forest broke him out of that mold. The problem was that Warner Brothers, for the most part, kept him in gangster roles for the next thirty films. In picture number forty Bogart finally got a script called High Sierra that challenged his talent.
That isn't to say there weren't some good films in that run of thirty, there were a few, but they were shooting so many films back to back that he had no time to find the character and wrap his talent around the role. Bogie once said, 'I use to have to look at the newspapers to find out what I'd been in the week before.'
Bogart did a couple of westerns during that period where he just looked out of place. Dark Victory was not a bad film but it was all Betty Davis.
But even as Bogart pretended to hate most of the films he did during that period the public was beginning to take note and even with bad scripts Bogart was attracting an audience as well as the Hollywood press.
The High Sierra, which we talked about last week, was one of those breakout moments when Bogart really connected with the character.
The second film after High Sierra both luck and chemistry came together and made Hollywood history – it was called The Maltese Falcon. John Houston took the Dashiell Hammett novel and wrote a screenplay that gave us Sam Spade, the hard-boiled private-eye, prototype for many of the detectives stories to follow.
John Huston was faithful to the novel, using most of Hammett’s original dialogue.
The casting also fell into line with Bogart as Sam Spade; Mary Astor as Brigid 0′Shaughnessy; Sydney Greenstreet as Caspar Gutman; Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo; and Elisha Cook, Jr., as the little gunsel, Wilma.
John Houston used a precise directorial style that brought out the full viciousness of the characters. The film was a hit when it came out in 1941 and through the years has become a classic. Something else about the film, it never grows old and is not dated. Even after seeing the film multiple times one can still feel that same cutting dialog that remains amazingly fresh and vibrant.
A classic if there ever was one.
The Bogart film that probably stands up best with the general public, from generation to generation, is Casablanca. In December 1941 a manuscript of the stage play 'Everybody comes to Ricks' written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison arrived at Warner Brothers. A reader by the name Stephen Karnot read the play, did a short synopsis and turned it into his boss.
It didn't get immediate acceptance, but when it did it was given to Howard Koch to adapt, and he was eventually joined by the brothers writing team Julius and Philip Epstein.
The production was a few cuts above the gangster product Warner Brothers was known for but nothing special.
During the first half of the film production went off in good order, then it slowed down for lack of an acceptable script. There was bickering in the front office and the writers were running into unforeseen story problems.
The director Michael Curtiz and the cast headed by Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and backed up by Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt and S.Z. Sakall sat around and fretted.
Bergman said she didn't know how to play the part – she had no idea who she was to go off with in the end.
She was told to play it cool, which she did. And obviously cool worked.
One major problem, at the end of the film, Julius and Philip had to figure a way to get Bogie (Rick) out of a jam after he shot Major Strasser.
They worked on several scenarios that didn't work and according to Julius it suddenly came to them. When the police arrived on the scene, they had Claude Rains (Captain Renault) say 'Round up the usual suspects.' That worked, making the tag scene between Rick and Captain Renault easy to write.
Once the final cut was made, it became obvious that it was worth the chaos experienced during production.
Jack Warner had seen the film and also looked on as a local preview audience watched a screening. The audience was spontaneous with its reaction as the film played out and the preview cards corresponded with their enthusiasm for the film.
At that point the studio executives began to see Bogart in another light. He apparently had sex appeal and that meant only one thing to them, good box-office.
Jack Warner wanted to test it further so he made arrangements to be at the opening of Casablanca at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. That audience would be the largest cross section of American film goers to see the film. Good or bad, that large audience would provide Warner with what he needed to market the film.
The Radio City Music Hall:
The Rockettes with their vibrant energy, stage presence, trademark kick line and sex appeal were the big draw, the movie came second – most of the time.
The Rockettes' finished their routine and made their exit as the lights dimmed. A large map of North Africa and a narrator sets the scene as the word Casablanca splashed across the large screen.
The audience was hooked within the first five minutes of the picture and responded enthusiastically throughout the film.
Then as the last scene played out and screen credits began to crawl audience applause built from mild to thunder, then shouts, cheers and bravos came from every side of the theater.
A wide grin crossed Jack Warner's face and he almost ran to a phone booth in the lobby, dialed the studio number and announced – 'We've got a hit on our hands.'
(To be continued) Betty Bacall, Bogie's three other wives and The African Queen next.
Civil War Journal: 99 Days from Fort Sumter.
Saturday, July 20, 1861
Manassas Junction was shaping up to be the first major battle of the American Civil War.
Union forces are presently concentrating to the north, the Confederates from the west and south. By Saturday noon Joseph E. Johnston's fighting force is in place. Three brigades have arrived Thomas J. Jackson, Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow. The only missing infantry is Kirby Smith delayed at Piedmont with train trouble.
'The Goring Collection' (excerpt)
Flashback to the Battle of Manassas:
Sam Brannan was fully aware that he was being followed.
As Sam walked among the monuments he thought about that warm July morning back in 1861. Union and Confederate Armies had been moving into the area for days and when word reached the Capital that the first major battle of the war was imminent, the Washington gentry packed their picnic baskets, hitched their teams, and drove to a hill overlooking Bull Run. Then after finding a spot, well out of harms way, they spread their lunches and settled in to watch the Union and Confederate Armies begin the fight that could resolve the, long festering, differences between the North and South.
Sam was familiar with the top generals involved, their battle strategies, and how it played out. He visualized the early probing attacks by the Union Divisions of Heintzelman, Porter, Burnside and Sherman as they moved their blue forces into position to confront Confederates Bartow, Bee and Evans. The dawn brought on an eerie silence while the two armies trooped to colors and companies moved into battle formation. But at a precipitous moment an eight-pound Parrot shot ripped across the Stone Bridge shattering the morning silence. The pageantry was startling as the men slowly moved up to point blank range and orders are given to fire at will. The scathing rattle of muskets begins and soldiers aim, fire and reload in a desperate effort to – kill or be killed. But as the battle wore on skirmish lines began to move with the ebb and flow of a restless wind while bodies piled up like cordwood and the pungent odor of gunpowder hung just above the fray.
Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson shades his eyes from the blinding sun, and observes the gray lines outnumbered two to one begin to waver. The general thrust his arm into the air and points as he urged Little Sorrel forward, leading his brigade out of the tall pines, and down Henry Hill. When Jackson and his men arrive the Confederate lines stiffen, and halt the Union avalanche. Then with bayonet and bravado the gray men turn the tide and chase the Union forces from the field.
And by the time picnickers packed their baskets and returned to Washington, the Confederates had won the battle. Stonewall Jackson was proclaimed the hero of Manassas and a legend was born.
Sam Brannan stood silently beside fallen General Bee’s Memorial and after a long moment of reflection removed Jacob’s twig from his pocket, eased around the Monument and wedged the microfilm into a crevice. Then as he turned away, and strolled up the path he mused over the cat and mouse game he was playing with his shadows. Sam chuckled when he recalled a spy operation dubbed “The Pumpkin Papers.” It became a defining moment in the Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss spy scandal, a subject that still gets a rise out of the lefties when it comes up at Washington cocktail parties.
Sam continued up the path, casually walked out of the park, got into the Lexus, and drove back to Washington.
Writers Notebook:
Picture the scene as you write and write what you see. (Subconscious) But when you need to be a bit more demonstrative, you might try Barbara Dawson Smith’s method.
“Help readers visualize each scene by using specific details of action, the five senses and dialogue. Rather than tell readers ‘she was angry.’ Show the characters emotion by having her throw a plate at the wall or by arguing with someone.”
Conflict demands attention.
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Bogart Films
Battle of Manassas
The Goring Collection (excerpt)
Writers Notebook: Conflict
Bogart: Part 2
Humphrey Bogart's resume shows seventy five films, however I lop off the top ten that were made before The Petrified Forest. He was miscast in those films the same as he had been on Broadway where he played the genial and easygoing man about town, which was exactly opposite to what Bogart could deliver.
His eleventh film The Petrified Forest broke him out of that mold. The problem was that Warner Brothers, for the most part, kept him in gangster roles for the next thirty films. In picture number forty Bogart finally got a script called High Sierra that challenged his talent.
That isn't to say there weren't some good films in that run of thirty, there were a few, but they were shooting so many films back to back that he had no time to find the character and wrap his talent around the role. Bogie once said, 'I use to have to look at the newspapers to find out what I'd been in the week before.'
Bogart did a couple of westerns during that period where he just looked out of place. Dark Victory was not a bad film but it was all Betty Davis.
But even as Bogart pretended to hate most of the films he did during that period the public was beginning to take note and even with bad scripts Bogart was attracting an audience as well as the Hollywood press.
The High Sierra, which we talked about last week, was one of those breakout moments when Bogart really connected with the character.
The second film after High Sierra both luck and chemistry came together and made Hollywood history – it was called The Maltese Falcon. John Houston took the Dashiell Hammett novel and wrote a screenplay that gave us Sam Spade, the hard-boiled private-eye, prototype for many of the detectives stories to follow.
John Huston was faithful to the novel, using most of Hammett’s original dialogue.
The casting also fell into line with Bogart as Sam Spade; Mary Astor as Brigid 0′Shaughnessy; Sydney Greenstreet as Caspar Gutman; Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo; and Elisha Cook, Jr., as the little gunsel, Wilma.
John Houston used a precise directorial style that brought out the full viciousness of the characters. The film was a hit when it came out in 1941 and through the years has become a classic. Something else about the film, it never grows old and is not dated. Even after seeing the film multiple times one can still feel that same cutting dialog that remains amazingly fresh and vibrant.
A classic if there ever was one.
The Bogart film that probably stands up best with the general public, from generation to generation, is Casablanca. In December 1941 a manuscript of the stage play 'Everybody comes to Ricks' written by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison arrived at Warner Brothers. A reader by the name Stephen Karnot read the play, did a short synopsis and turned it into his boss.
It didn't get immediate acceptance, but when it did it was given to Howard Koch to adapt, and he was eventually joined by the brothers writing team Julius and Philip Epstein.
The production was a few cuts above the gangster product Warner Brothers was known for but nothing special.
During the first half of the film production went off in good order, then it slowed down for lack of an acceptable script. There was bickering in the front office and the writers were running into unforeseen story problems.
The director Michael Curtiz and the cast headed by Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and backed up by Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Conrad Veidt and S.Z. Sakall sat around and fretted.
Bergman said she didn't know how to play the part – she had no idea who she was to go off with in the end.
She was told to play it cool, which she did. And obviously cool worked.
One major problem, at the end of the film, Julius and Philip had to figure a way to get Bogie (Rick) out of a jam after he shot Major Strasser.
They worked on several scenarios that didn't work and according to Julius it suddenly came to them. When the police arrived on the scene, they had Claude Rains (Captain Renault) say 'Round up the usual suspects.' That worked, making the tag scene between Rick and Captain Renault easy to write.
Once the final cut was made, it became obvious that it was worth the chaos experienced during production.
Jack Warner had seen the film and also looked on as a local preview audience watched a screening. The audience was spontaneous with its reaction as the film played out and the preview cards corresponded with their enthusiasm for the film.
At that point the studio executives began to see Bogart in another light. He apparently had sex appeal and that meant only one thing to them, good box-office.
Jack Warner wanted to test it further so he made arrangements to be at the opening of Casablanca at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. That audience would be the largest cross section of American film goers to see the film. Good or bad, that large audience would provide Warner with what he needed to market the film.
The Radio City Music Hall:
The Rockettes with their vibrant energy, stage presence, trademark kick line and sex appeal were the big draw, the movie came second – most of the time.
The Rockettes' finished their routine and made their exit as the lights dimmed. A large map of North Africa and a narrator sets the scene as the word Casablanca splashed across the large screen.
The audience was hooked within the first five minutes of the picture and responded enthusiastically throughout the film.
Then as the last scene played out and screen credits began to crawl audience applause built from mild to thunder, then shouts, cheers and bravos came from every side of the theater.
A wide grin crossed Jack Warner's face and he almost ran to a phone booth in the lobby, dialed the studio number and announced – 'We've got a hit on our hands.'
(To be continued) Betty Bacall, Bogie's three other wives and The African Queen next.
Civil War Journal: 99 Days from Fort Sumter.
Saturday, July 20, 1861
Manassas Junction was shaping up to be the first major battle of the American Civil War.
Union forces are presently concentrating to the north, the Confederates from the west and south. By Saturday noon Joseph E. Johnston's fighting force is in place. Three brigades have arrived Thomas J. Jackson, Barnard Bee and Francis Bartow. The only missing infantry is Kirby Smith delayed at Piedmont with train trouble.
'The Goring Collection' (excerpt)
Flashback to the Battle of Manassas:
Sam Brannan was fully aware that he was being followed.
As Sam walked among the monuments he thought about that warm July morning back in 1861. Union and Confederate Armies had been moving into the area for days and when word reached the Capital that the first major battle of the war was imminent, the Washington gentry packed their picnic baskets, hitched their teams, and drove to a hill overlooking Bull Run. Then after finding a spot, well out of harms way, they spread their lunches and settled in to watch the Union and Confederate Armies begin the fight that could resolve the, long festering, differences between the North and South.
Sam was familiar with the top generals involved, their battle strategies, and how it played out. He visualized the early probing attacks by the Union Divisions of Heintzelman, Porter, Burnside and Sherman as they moved their blue forces into position to confront Confederates Bartow, Bee and Evans. The dawn brought on an eerie silence while the two armies trooped to colors and companies moved into battle formation. But at a precipitous moment an eight-pound Parrot shot ripped across the Stone Bridge shattering the morning silence. The pageantry was startling as the men slowly moved up to point blank range and orders are given to fire at will. The scathing rattle of muskets begins and soldiers aim, fire and reload in a desperate effort to – kill or be killed. But as the battle wore on skirmish lines began to move with the ebb and flow of a restless wind while bodies piled up like cordwood and the pungent odor of gunpowder hung just above the fray.
Confederate General Thomas J. Jackson shades his eyes from the blinding sun, and observes the gray lines outnumbered two to one begin to waver. The general thrust his arm into the air and points as he urged Little Sorrel forward, leading his brigade out of the tall pines, and down Henry Hill. When Jackson and his men arrive the Confederate lines stiffen, and halt the Union avalanche. Then with bayonet and bravado the gray men turn the tide and chase the Union forces from the field.
And by the time picnickers packed their baskets and returned to Washington, the Confederates had won the battle. Stonewall Jackson was proclaimed the hero of Manassas and a legend was born.
Sam Brannan stood silently beside fallen General Bee’s Memorial and after a long moment of reflection removed Jacob’s twig from his pocket, eased around the Monument and wedged the microfilm into a crevice. Then as he turned away, and strolled up the path he mused over the cat and mouse game he was playing with his shadows. Sam chuckled when he recalled a spy operation dubbed “The Pumpkin Papers.” It became a defining moment in the Whitaker Chambers and Alger Hiss spy scandal, a subject that still gets a rise out of the lefties when it comes up at Washington cocktail parties.
Sam continued up the path, casually walked out of the park, got into the Lexus, and drove back to Washington.
Writers Notebook:
Picture the scene as you write and write what you see. (Subconscious) But when you need to be a bit more demonstrative, you might try Barbara Dawson Smith’s method.
“Help readers visualize each scene by using specific details of action, the five senses and dialogue. Rather than tell readers ‘she was angry.’ Show the characters emotion by having her throw a plate at the wall or by arguing with someone.”
Conflict demands attention.
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
July 14, 2010
Tungee, Bogie and The Maltese Falcon
This Week
The Petrified Forest
Tungee's Gold
Writers Notebook: Obituary
Bogart, Broadway to Hollywood
During the 1920's Humphrey Bogart was a Broadway and radio actor. Toward the end of that decade he looked at his position and decided that perhaps Hollywood might be a better place to search for work. He made the move and
with a little luck along with a good Broadway resume he managed to get a small player contract with Fox. His debut film was in a short called Broadway Like That costarring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Then over the next several years Bogart did more than a dozen films and with some good people. One was Up the River for John Ford, Women of all Nations for Raoul Walsh, and he did Big City Blues and Three on a Match for Mervyn LeRoy.
Humphrey Bogart was doing very well in Hollywood, but for some reason he got the urge to go back to New York and give Broadway another try.
His timing was perfect and during the late fall of 1934 he got a call to audition for a Robert Sherwood Play, The Petrified Forest.
Bogart arrived at the theater and was given the same sides all the gangster types were getting. He studied the lines and eventually he was called to go onstage and stand next to the work light. He listened for his cue and got into the scene. He hadn't said more than three or four lines when Leslie Howard – sitting in the third row of the theater nudged the writer and producer. 'That's our Duke Mantee.'
The reading was stopped and the powers at be huddled and questioned, 'Does he have the experience for this demanding role?'
Howard said, 'He's right. I have a good sense about him and I'll coach him.'
Humphrey Bogart was hired.
Robert Sherwood's play,The Petrified Forest, rehearsed and then played two weeks in Boston before opening in New York at the Broadhurst theater on January 7, 1935 with Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart and Peggy Conklin in leading roles.
The play was given an enthusiastic review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times saying it was a peach of a play and he gave high marks to Bogart for his portrayal of Duke Mantee.
Warner Brothers bought the film rights to the play and signed Leslie Howard to do the lead and optioned Humphrey Bogart to play his role of Duke Mantee.
However, when Bogart arrived in Hollywood he learned that Edward G. Robinson had been assigned to play his role. Bogart would be paid, but he wanted to play the part. During the run of the play he had become a good friend of Leslie Howard and Leslie had said that if he was asked to star in the film he would insist that Bogart play Duke Mantee. Bogie believed Howard to be a man of his word and sent him a telegram explaining the situation.
The following day Jack Warner got a telegram from Leslie Howard informing him that if he was to play the led in The Petrified Forest Humphrey Bogart would play Duke Mantee. Otherwise the deal was off.
Jack Warner didn't like Leslie Howard's discontent but he wanted to use the star and just to show them who was still boss he insisted on Bogart undergoing more than a dozen screen tests before signing him for the picture and giving him a contract.
Then as they say in Hollywood, the rest is history.
Following The Petrified Forest Bogart made 29 gangster films one after another for Warner Brothers. They turned out about one a week and their lineup of star players was James Cagney, Paul Muni, John Garfield, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson – Bogart got the leftovers.
He grumbled to management about his never ending one dimensional roles as well as his measly $650.00 weekly player contract and got nowhere.
Humphrey Bogart wasn't without support though – The Petrified Forest gave him a great start with the press and before long, even with lousy gangster roles, his screen personality began to take over and the public adored him.
Toward the end of that long stock gangster run Bogart finally caught a break. Two films turned down by George Raft were eventually assigned to him. High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The High Sierra film could have been nothing more than a typical pot boiler, but for some reason the audience connected and empathized with Bogart's characterization of Roy Earle, a psychopathic naïve killer.
During a trip to New York to publicize High Sierra Bogart was mobbed by his fans and actually had to move out of the Algonquin Hotel to a theater dressing room to avoid the melee.
Warner Brothers finally had to admit that they had another star on their hands.
The Maltese Falcon, which George Raft had turned down because of the new and untested director, John Houston, put the exclamation point to Humphrey Bogart's star status.
Dashiell Hammett established a whole new genre of detective stories. Sam Spade, the cool private detective, Bogart down played and used the subtleties of satirical humor with great effect. Hammett having been a detective himself wrote the story with convincing realism and the director along with an excellent cast of Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, Jr and even the small part actors captured that sense on film.
The tight screenplay, direction and the characters he had to play off of Humphrey Bogart had finally found that three dimensional character he'd been looking for.
(To be Continued)
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
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 storylines. 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 Tippett Rains, Author of The Making Of A Masterpiece, Margaret Mitchell and Gone With The Wind (www.GWTWbook.com)
Writers Notebook:
Most weeks this section is devoted to famous writers tips on writing, an occasional review or a marketing tip.
For this post I'm going to talk about research, research having to do with the Humphrey Bogart story and where it led me. The Petrified Forest play was a key part of my story and while I knew some of it I was missing a few pieces. I had to look up the dates, the theater and the cast. Well, I put most of it together. The exception was a leading lady. I Googled and searched using all kinds of word combinations and inquiries with no luck. I figured that someone of stature must have played the Gabby, Betty Davis, role – but who?
I was getting blurry eyed when I finally spotted an actress obituary and in the text of that blurb I saw a title The Petrified Forest. I clicked and opened it, and this is what I found.
Peggy Conklin, a stage actress who found early success in ''The Petrified Forest'' in 1936 and followed it with a wide variety of dramatic and comic roles on Broadway, died last Tuesday at her home in Naples, Fla. She was 96.
Ms. Conklin had leading or featured roles from the 1930's through the 1950's. She made a brief detour to Hollywood in 1934, making five films in a few years, then returning to New York.
She was Gabby Maple, the filling-station waitress, in Robert Sherwood's ''Petrified Forest.'' The drama featured Humphrey Bogart as the desperate killer Duke Mantee, a role that would help make him a star. Ms. Conklin also appeared with Helen Hayes in ''The Wisteria Tree,'' Joshua Logan's 1950 adaptation of Chekhov's ''Cherry Orchard.'' She was Janice Rule's anxious mother in William Inge's ''Picnic'' (1953), which also starred Ralph Meeker, Eileen Heckart, Kim Stanley and Paul Newman.
In 1941 she originated a role on Broadway that was to remain popular for decades on radio and television: Pam North, the amiably ditzy wife of Jerry North in Owen Davis's 1941 adaptation of Richard Lockridge's detective story ''Mr. and Mrs. North.'' Playing opposite Albert Hackett, the urbane New York couple stumble into a murder mystery: a corpse in their closet.
''Peggy Conklin's charm keeps Mrs. North's informality from being the annoyance it probably is,'' the theater critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times.
The irony doesn't stop: Two posts back I wrote that The Lux Radio Theater opened in Hollywood with 'The Thin Man' the movie version of 'Mr. and Mrs. North.'
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
The Petrified Forest
Tungee's Gold
Writers Notebook: Obituary
Bogart, Broadway to Hollywood
During the 1920's Humphrey Bogart was a Broadway and radio actor. Toward the end of that decade he looked at his position and decided that perhaps Hollywood might be a better place to search for work. He made the move and
with a little luck along with a good Broadway resume he managed to get a small player contract with Fox. His debut film was in a short called Broadway Like That costarring Ruth Etting and Joan Blondell. Then over the next several years Bogart did more than a dozen films and with some good people. One was Up the River for John Ford, Women of all Nations for Raoul Walsh, and he did Big City Blues and Three on a Match for Mervyn LeRoy.
Humphrey Bogart was doing very well in Hollywood, but for some reason he got the urge to go back to New York and give Broadway another try.
His timing was perfect and during the late fall of 1934 he got a call to audition for a Robert Sherwood Play, The Petrified Forest.
Bogart arrived at the theater and was given the same sides all the gangster types were getting. He studied the lines and eventually he was called to go onstage and stand next to the work light. He listened for his cue and got into the scene. He hadn't said more than three or four lines when Leslie Howard – sitting in the third row of the theater nudged the writer and producer. 'That's our Duke Mantee.'
The reading was stopped and the powers at be huddled and questioned, 'Does he have the experience for this demanding role?'
Howard said, 'He's right. I have a good sense about him and I'll coach him.'
Humphrey Bogart was hired.
Robert Sherwood's play,The Petrified Forest, rehearsed and then played two weeks in Boston before opening in New York at the Broadhurst theater on January 7, 1935 with Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart and Peggy Conklin in leading roles.
The play was given an enthusiastic review by Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times saying it was a peach of a play and he gave high marks to Bogart for his portrayal of Duke Mantee.
Warner Brothers bought the film rights to the play and signed Leslie Howard to do the lead and optioned Humphrey Bogart to play his role of Duke Mantee.
However, when Bogart arrived in Hollywood he learned that Edward G. Robinson had been assigned to play his role. Bogart would be paid, but he wanted to play the part. During the run of the play he had become a good friend of Leslie Howard and Leslie had said that if he was asked to star in the film he would insist that Bogart play Duke Mantee. Bogie believed Howard to be a man of his word and sent him a telegram explaining the situation.
The following day Jack Warner got a telegram from Leslie Howard informing him that if he was to play the led in The Petrified Forest Humphrey Bogart would play Duke Mantee. Otherwise the deal was off.
Jack Warner didn't like Leslie Howard's discontent but he wanted to use the star and just to show them who was still boss he insisted on Bogart undergoing more than a dozen screen tests before signing him for the picture and giving him a contract.
Then as they say in Hollywood, the rest is history.
Following The Petrified Forest Bogart made 29 gangster films one after another for Warner Brothers. They turned out about one a week and their lineup of star players was James Cagney, Paul Muni, John Garfield, George Raft and Edward G. Robinson – Bogart got the leftovers.
He grumbled to management about his never ending one dimensional roles as well as his measly $650.00 weekly player contract and got nowhere.
Humphrey Bogart wasn't without support though – The Petrified Forest gave him a great start with the press and before long, even with lousy gangster roles, his screen personality began to take over and the public adored him.
Toward the end of that long stock gangster run Bogart finally caught a break. Two films turned down by George Raft were eventually assigned to him. High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. The High Sierra film could have been nothing more than a typical pot boiler, but for some reason the audience connected and empathized with Bogart's characterization of Roy Earle, a psychopathic naïve killer.
During a trip to New York to publicize High Sierra Bogart was mobbed by his fans and actually had to move out of the Algonquin Hotel to a theater dressing room to avoid the melee.
Warner Brothers finally had to admit that they had another star on their hands.
The Maltese Falcon, which George Raft had turned down because of the new and untested director, John Houston, put the exclamation point to Humphrey Bogart's star status.
Dashiell Hammett established a whole new genre of detective stories. Sam Spade, the cool private detective, Bogart down played and used the subtleties of satirical humor with great effect. Hammett having been a detective himself wrote the story with convincing realism and the director along with an excellent cast of Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, Jr and even the small part actors captured that sense on film.
The tight screenplay, direction and the characters he had to play off of Humphrey Bogart had finally found that three dimensional character he'd been looking for.
(To be Continued)
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
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 storylines. 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 Tippett Rains, Author of The Making Of A Masterpiece, Margaret Mitchell and Gone With The Wind (www.GWTWbook.com)
Writers Notebook:
Most weeks this section is devoted to famous writers tips on writing, an occasional review or a marketing tip.
For this post I'm going to talk about research, research having to do with the Humphrey Bogart story and where it led me. The Petrified Forest play was a key part of my story and while I knew some of it I was missing a few pieces. I had to look up the dates, the theater and the cast. Well, I put most of it together. The exception was a leading lady. I Googled and searched using all kinds of word combinations and inquiries with no luck. I figured that someone of stature must have played the Gabby, Betty Davis, role – but who?
I was getting blurry eyed when I finally spotted an actress obituary and in the text of that blurb I saw a title The Petrified Forest. I clicked and opened it, and this is what I found.
Peggy Conklin, a stage actress who found early success in ''The Petrified Forest'' in 1936 and followed it with a wide variety of dramatic and comic roles on Broadway, died last Tuesday at her home in Naples, Fla. She was 96.
Ms. Conklin had leading or featured roles from the 1930's through the 1950's. She made a brief detour to Hollywood in 1934, making five films in a few years, then returning to New York.
She was Gabby Maple, the filling-station waitress, in Robert Sherwood's ''Petrified Forest.'' The drama featured Humphrey Bogart as the desperate killer Duke Mantee, a role that would help make him a star. Ms. Conklin also appeared with Helen Hayes in ''The Wisteria Tree,'' Joshua Logan's 1950 adaptation of Chekhov's ''Cherry Orchard.'' She was Janice Rule's anxious mother in William Inge's ''Picnic'' (1953), which also starred Ralph Meeker, Eileen Heckart, Kim Stanley and Paul Newman.
In 1941 she originated a role on Broadway that was to remain popular for decades on radio and television: Pam North, the amiably ditzy wife of Jerry North in Owen Davis's 1941 adaptation of Richard Lockridge's detective story ''Mr. and Mrs. North.'' Playing opposite Albert Hackett, the urbane New York couple stumble into a murder mystery: a corpse in their closet.
''Peggy Conklin's charm keeps Mrs. North's informality from being the annoyance it probably is,'' the theater critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in The New York Times.
The irony doesn't stop: Two posts back I wrote that The Lux Radio Theater opened in Hollywood with 'The Thin Man' the movie version of 'Mr. and Mrs. North.'
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
June 30, 2010
Greetings From Hollywood
This Week
Hollywood Radio
Tungee's Gold – Cape Horn
Writers Notebook: Maxwell Perkins
The LUX Radio Theater
During the depression years of the 1930's radio was the center of family life. Americans listened in for Orson Wells' Mercury Theater, remember War of the Worlds, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Tom Mix, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly. Then there were the news folks Jimmy Fiddler from Hollywood and Walter Winchell with that great staccato delivery from New York.
And that's a good sample of what radio had to offer in those days, but the show that got the most attention was on the air for more than twenty years – The Lux Radio Theater.
When the audience tuned in they heard the familiar voice of Cecil B. DeMille announce, 'Greetings from Hollywood.'
And those were the words that would be spoken every Monday night to open the next production of The Lux Radio Theater.
But to get the story straight we have to go back to 1934 when the show originated from New York and featured abridged versions of Broadway plays.
Broadcasting from New York, the series premiered at 2:30pm, October 14, 1934 on the NBC Blue Network with a production of Seventh Heaven starring Miriam Hopkins and John Boles in a one hour adaptation of the 1922-24 Broadway production by Austin Strong.
However, from the beginning the New York version of Lux Radio Theater suffered from a shortage of adaptable plays, and when the ratings began to sag, they had to make drastic changes if they were to keep the show alive. They made those changes, moved the production to Los Angeles and hired Cecil B. DeMille to produce the show.
As it turned out the DeMille name was magic to theater goers and almost from the beginning the Hollywood version of The Lux Radio Theater was a hit.
It is said that 40 million listeners tuned into the show to hear Cecil B. DeMille say, 'Greetings from Hollywood.' Then he would introduce another radio adaptation of a famous Hollywood film, and as often as was possible they cast the film's original actors in the starring roles.
For two decades, from 1936 until 1955, Lux, the family of soap products from Lever Brothers, sponsored this highly successful program. The allure of Hollywood, the highly-paid big-name stars and films were what got the audience to tune in; behind the scenes however it was pure radio with a top company of faceless radio players handling the lion's share of the work.
Hollywood's first presentation of The Lux Radio Theater was 'The Thin Man' on the night of June 8, 1936. Broadcast from its Vine Street Studio with original stars William Powell and Myrna Loy supported by W.S. Van Dyke, James Seymour, Minna Gombell and Porter Hall.
Van Dyke announced that they were honored by a distinguished Hollywood audience, 'Bette Davis, Jimmy and Lucille Gleason, Bob Armstrong, Ollie Olson of "Olson and Johnson", Stu Irwin,: Mr. and Mrs. Leon Schlesinger?'
Then he added, 'Maybe it would interest you to know a little inside information on the show we're doing tonight, "The Thin Man" was a best selling novel by Dashiell Hammett. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich wrote a swell script. William Powell and Myrna Loy played the parts. They played them beautifully! Because Powell was just Powell, and Loy was just Loy, both of them wisecracking all the time and clowning right through the picture! And it is evident that people liked it. It has been very interesting to figure out out how they'll tell this story on the radio. Bill and Myrna had a lot of fun getting it ready for you, just as they did making the picture. And from the original story, from the original motion picture cast, we have, and are fortunate in having, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, William Henry, and Thomas Jackson here tonight. So here we go, with William Powell as Nick Charles and Myrna Loy as Nora in "The Thin Man."
Here they come, Bill Powell and Myrna Loy!
VAN DYKE:
We're in a fashionable cafe?, The Montmartre, in New York City. It's Christmas Eve and the well-appointed dining room is filling rapidly. From the bar comes a good-looking young fellow of about thirty-five. Tall casual and worldly-wise, he's Nick Charles, a well-known private detective, played by William Powell. And he's waiting for his charming wife Nora, played by Myrna Loy. As he takes his place at the table, a young girl on the other side of the room recognizes him and hurries over.
DOROTHY:
Aren't you Mr. Nick Charles? The detective?
NICK:
I am. Yes, I'm Nick Charles.
DOROTHY:
I thought I recognized you. My name is Dorothy Wynant.
NICK:
Oh yes? How do you do?
DOROTHY:
Do you mind if I sit down for awhile-
NICK:
No, but I expect my wife in a few minutes if you don't mind explaining your presence to her
DOROTHY:
Of course! That's my fianc? over there at the other table-
NICK:
-Oh, well that makes everything all right, doesn't it? Sit down!
DOROTHY:
Thank you.
For more snappy dialogue go to You Tube: Click Here
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing – Excerpt
(Continued)
The barometer had been steadily dropping along with the temperature. And not to be caught with his sails billowing out full when the gale struck, Foster had done the prudent thing by taking off large sections of canvas. All the sailors in the rigging were holding on a bit tighter as the running sea preceding the high wind caused the masts to sway like some giant pendulum swinging it's circle and exerting enormous centrifugal force.
Tungee was on the port side of the fore royal yard and saw the sky light up with a flash followed by the rolling crack-bang thunder bouncing off the building waves. Jeff was on his right Dobbs and the kid were below on the fore upper topsail completing their furl.
"Hang onto to what you've got now, men. The wind from the squall line is going to hit any minute," Tungee yelled.
Dobbs declared, "I've got me a grip on this here foremast that lovers just dream about, mate."
Cheny raced from the quarterdeck and took a position halfway between the main and foremast, leaned back and yelled new orders. "Yo, fore and main top men spill and secure your outer and inner jibs and all stays.
The men in the rigging had just gone to work on Cheny's order when the man in the crow's nest bellowed, "Land ho."
"Give me a point and what you see," Captain Foster ordered.
"Broad on the port bow, sir. They are distant, sir, but they are hills, make no mistake about that, sir."
The skipper knew that Wellington was behind them, present position had to put them off the Strait of Magellan. The crow's nest must be reporting the hills of Punta Arenas.
"Give me a distance," Foster demanded.
"I'd reckon a score of miles, sir."
"Helmsman, we'll wear ship to a starboard heading of one hundred ninety five degrees."
The MFC was nearer land than the skipper had intended and with that starboard maneuver the ship would likely be on a collision course with the storm. But Captain Foster figured it was better to stick his bow into the turbulent waters rather than drift toward the shoals and in the end be broadsided and slammed onto the rocks by the storm's fury.
All top men had returned to the deck and ducked inside the forecastle by the time white pebbles began to bounce off the mast and decking.
Tungee held onto a lifeline and made his way back to the quarterdeck where Foster and Cheny stood just outside the chart room observing the helmsman. They would soon find out how the ship handled in a real storm. She had weathered some rain and gale force winds, but nothing like old Cape Stiff could dish out.
Tuck Rogers was at the wheel and was as good a helmsman as you'd ever want to see, especially on tack and close haul sailing. By the time hailstones began to collect in the scuppers, intermittent sprinkles of freezing rain started to fall. The sea was running wild and a monstrous roller built up and moved ominously toward the starboard bow. The big one missed, but all of a sudden the men on deck were looking down at a trough below.
Captain Foster yelled, "We can tie the wheel down, if you'd like, Mr. Rogers."
"If you don't mind, I'll stick with her for now, sir."
"You feel you have some steerage then."
"Aye, she's a bit cranky, but that's to be expected in these crazy cross seas."
The ship rode the top of that giant wave for a few brief moments and then she plunged and dove down into a canyon. Dirty gray walls of water churned up on either side of the ship and they still hadn't hit bottom. When those huge walls collapse we'll be overwhelmed, Tungee thought. They bottomed out and he was forced to his knees. He knew the sides would come crashing in, but they didn't. Those gray walls held. The ship was in the pit of the trough and just as fast as they had fallen to the bottom they were spat up and out again.
The wind was not much more than gale force and it was somewhat dryer than they had expected, so the skipper ordered a modest sail change. "Call out the watch, Mr. Cheny. "I'd like to set the stays and jibs."
Tungee peered into the black night and worried about the overcast and how the captain planned to navigate when there was no chance to shoot the stars.
And before the night was done, the MFC had collected a veneer of ice that covered both deck and rigging. The storm raged and screamed as it blew in off the South Pole and sent the thermometer's mercury retreating far below zero.
For more on Tungee's Gold go to Amazon book page: Click Here
Writers Notebook:
May 17, 1945
Maxwell Perkins, editor to Hemingway, Fitzgerald , Thomas Wolfe and other famous writers, in answer to a young aspiring writers letter that came to him from overseas during the war.
Excerpt: '...I shall be greatly interested to read the story when it comes. I should think you have seen plenty by now, but I do not think you need to be impatient to put it into writing. I think, in truth the best writing is done long after the event. When they've been digested and reflected upon unconsciously... I don't mean that you should not write about all this now, but the best of it can only come after all the experience has been yours for a long time, and you have absorbed it and can see it in perspective. So don't worry about the time element.'
'As to perhaps a couple of years in college, I should think that might be of great advantage, in a general sense, but don't try to learn about writing there. Learn something else. Learn about writing from reading. That is the right way to do it. But then it can only be done by those that have an eye and ear, by seeing and listening. Very few of the great writers had that formal education, and many of them never mastered spelling and grammar. They got their vocabulary by reading and hearing. But the way they teach literature and writing in college is harmful. It results in one getting into the habit of seeing everything through a kind of film or past literature, they're not seeing it directly through one's own senses. It makes it so that when ever a man wants to write, for instance, an amiable old drunken Irish rascal he cannot do it as he really sees him, but has to do it as Thackeray saw him and pictured him in Captain Costigan. I should say that a couple of years in the newspaper business would be much better for one who wanted to be a writer than a couple of years in college. But there you are, of course, other advantages do come from the college....'
Of course there have been many changes in college writing courses since the 1940's, but still much of the advice Max Perkins gave that young man would be valid today. ed
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Hollywood Radio
Tungee's Gold – Cape Horn
Writers Notebook: Maxwell Perkins
The LUX Radio Theater
During the depression years of the 1930's radio was the center of family life. Americans listened in for Orson Wells' Mercury Theater, remember War of the Worlds, Rudy Vallee, Eddie Cantor, Tom Mix, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly. Then there were the news folks Jimmy Fiddler from Hollywood and Walter Winchell with that great staccato delivery from New York.
And that's a good sample of what radio had to offer in those days, but the show that got the most attention was on the air for more than twenty years – The Lux Radio Theater.
When the audience tuned in they heard the familiar voice of Cecil B. DeMille announce, 'Greetings from Hollywood.'
And those were the words that would be spoken every Monday night to open the next production of The Lux Radio Theater.
But to get the story straight we have to go back to 1934 when the show originated from New York and featured abridged versions of Broadway plays.
Broadcasting from New York, the series premiered at 2:30pm, October 14, 1934 on the NBC Blue Network with a production of Seventh Heaven starring Miriam Hopkins and John Boles in a one hour adaptation of the 1922-24 Broadway production by Austin Strong.
However, from the beginning the New York version of Lux Radio Theater suffered from a shortage of adaptable plays, and when the ratings began to sag, they had to make drastic changes if they were to keep the show alive. They made those changes, moved the production to Los Angeles and hired Cecil B. DeMille to produce the show.
As it turned out the DeMille name was magic to theater goers and almost from the beginning the Hollywood version of The Lux Radio Theater was a hit.
It is said that 40 million listeners tuned into the show to hear Cecil B. DeMille say, 'Greetings from Hollywood.' Then he would introduce another radio adaptation of a famous Hollywood film, and as often as was possible they cast the film's original actors in the starring roles.
For two decades, from 1936 until 1955, Lux, the family of soap products from Lever Brothers, sponsored this highly successful program. The allure of Hollywood, the highly-paid big-name stars and films were what got the audience to tune in; behind the scenes however it was pure radio with a top company of faceless radio players handling the lion's share of the work.
Hollywood's first presentation of The Lux Radio Theater was 'The Thin Man' on the night of June 8, 1936. Broadcast from its Vine Street Studio with original stars William Powell and Myrna Loy supported by W.S. Van Dyke, James Seymour, Minna Gombell and Porter Hall.
Van Dyke announced that they were honored by a distinguished Hollywood audience, 'Bette Davis, Jimmy and Lucille Gleason, Bob Armstrong, Ollie Olson of "Olson and Johnson", Stu Irwin,: Mr. and Mrs. Leon Schlesinger?'
Then he added, 'Maybe it would interest you to know a little inside information on the show we're doing tonight, "The Thin Man" was a best selling novel by Dashiell Hammett. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich wrote a swell script. William Powell and Myrna Loy played the parts. They played them beautifully! Because Powell was just Powell, and Loy was just Loy, both of them wisecracking all the time and clowning right through the picture! And it is evident that people liked it. It has been very interesting to figure out out how they'll tell this story on the radio. Bill and Myrna had a lot of fun getting it ready for you, just as they did making the picture. And from the original story, from the original motion picture cast, we have, and are fortunate in having, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, William Henry, and Thomas Jackson here tonight. So here we go, with William Powell as Nick Charles and Myrna Loy as Nora in "The Thin Man."
Here they come, Bill Powell and Myrna Loy!
VAN DYKE:
We're in a fashionable cafe?, The Montmartre, in New York City. It's Christmas Eve and the well-appointed dining room is filling rapidly. From the bar comes a good-looking young fellow of about thirty-five. Tall casual and worldly-wise, he's Nick Charles, a well-known private detective, played by William Powell. And he's waiting for his charming wife Nora, played by Myrna Loy. As he takes his place at the table, a young girl on the other side of the room recognizes him and hurries over.
DOROTHY:
Aren't you Mr. Nick Charles? The detective?
NICK:
I am. Yes, I'm Nick Charles.
DOROTHY:
I thought I recognized you. My name is Dorothy Wynant.
NICK:
Oh yes? How do you do?
DOROTHY:
Do you mind if I sit down for awhile-
NICK:
No, but I expect my wife in a few minutes if you don't mind explaining your presence to her
DOROTHY:
Of course! That's my fianc? over there at the other table-
NICK:
-Oh, well that makes everything all right, doesn't it? Sit down!
DOROTHY:
Thank you.
For more snappy dialogue go to You Tube: Click Here
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing – Excerpt
(Continued)
The barometer had been steadily dropping along with the temperature. And not to be caught with his sails billowing out full when the gale struck, Foster had done the prudent thing by taking off large sections of canvas. All the sailors in the rigging were holding on a bit tighter as the running sea preceding the high wind caused the masts to sway like some giant pendulum swinging it's circle and exerting enormous centrifugal force.
Tungee was on the port side of the fore royal yard and saw the sky light up with a flash followed by the rolling crack-bang thunder bouncing off the building waves. Jeff was on his right Dobbs and the kid were below on the fore upper topsail completing their furl.
"Hang onto to what you've got now, men. The wind from the squall line is going to hit any minute," Tungee yelled.
Dobbs declared, "I've got me a grip on this here foremast that lovers just dream about, mate."
Cheny raced from the quarterdeck and took a position halfway between the main and foremast, leaned back and yelled new orders. "Yo, fore and main top men spill and secure your outer and inner jibs and all stays.
The men in the rigging had just gone to work on Cheny's order when the man in the crow's nest bellowed, "Land ho."
"Give me a point and what you see," Captain Foster ordered.
"Broad on the port bow, sir. They are distant, sir, but they are hills, make no mistake about that, sir."
The skipper knew that Wellington was behind them, present position had to put them off the Strait of Magellan. The crow's nest must be reporting the hills of Punta Arenas.
"Give me a distance," Foster demanded.
"I'd reckon a score of miles, sir."
"Helmsman, we'll wear ship to a starboard heading of one hundred ninety five degrees."
The MFC was nearer land than the skipper had intended and with that starboard maneuver the ship would likely be on a collision course with the storm. But Captain Foster figured it was better to stick his bow into the turbulent waters rather than drift toward the shoals and in the end be broadsided and slammed onto the rocks by the storm's fury.
All top men had returned to the deck and ducked inside the forecastle by the time white pebbles began to bounce off the mast and decking.
Tungee held onto a lifeline and made his way back to the quarterdeck where Foster and Cheny stood just outside the chart room observing the helmsman. They would soon find out how the ship handled in a real storm. She had weathered some rain and gale force winds, but nothing like old Cape Stiff could dish out.
Tuck Rogers was at the wheel and was as good a helmsman as you'd ever want to see, especially on tack and close haul sailing. By the time hailstones began to collect in the scuppers, intermittent sprinkles of freezing rain started to fall. The sea was running wild and a monstrous roller built up and moved ominously toward the starboard bow. The big one missed, but all of a sudden the men on deck were looking down at a trough below.
Captain Foster yelled, "We can tie the wheel down, if you'd like, Mr. Rogers."
"If you don't mind, I'll stick with her for now, sir."
"You feel you have some steerage then."
"Aye, she's a bit cranky, but that's to be expected in these crazy cross seas."
The ship rode the top of that giant wave for a few brief moments and then she plunged and dove down into a canyon. Dirty gray walls of water churned up on either side of the ship and they still hadn't hit bottom. When those huge walls collapse we'll be overwhelmed, Tungee thought. They bottomed out and he was forced to his knees. He knew the sides would come crashing in, but they didn't. Those gray walls held. The ship was in the pit of the trough and just as fast as they had fallen to the bottom they were spat up and out again.
The wind was not much more than gale force and it was somewhat dryer than they had expected, so the skipper ordered a modest sail change. "Call out the watch, Mr. Cheny. "I'd like to set the stays and jibs."
Tungee peered into the black night and worried about the overcast and how the captain planned to navigate when there was no chance to shoot the stars.
And before the night was done, the MFC had collected a veneer of ice that covered both deck and rigging. The storm raged and screamed as it blew in off the South Pole and sent the thermometer's mercury retreating far below zero.
For more on Tungee's Gold go to Amazon book page: Click Here
Writers Notebook:
May 17, 1945
Maxwell Perkins, editor to Hemingway, Fitzgerald , Thomas Wolfe and other famous writers, in answer to a young aspiring writers letter that came to him from overseas during the war.
Excerpt: '...I shall be greatly interested to read the story when it comes. I should think you have seen plenty by now, but I do not think you need to be impatient to put it into writing. I think, in truth the best writing is done long after the event. When they've been digested and reflected upon unconsciously... I don't mean that you should not write about all this now, but the best of it can only come after all the experience has been yours for a long time, and you have absorbed it and can see it in perspective. So don't worry about the time element.'
'As to perhaps a couple of years in college, I should think that might be of great advantage, in a general sense, but don't try to learn about writing there. Learn something else. Learn about writing from reading. That is the right way to do it. But then it can only be done by those that have an eye and ear, by seeing and listening. Very few of the great writers had that formal education, and many of them never mastered spelling and grammar. They got their vocabulary by reading and hearing. But the way they teach literature and writing in college is harmful. It results in one getting into the habit of seeing everything through a kind of film or past literature, they're not seeing it directly through one's own senses. It makes it so that when ever a man wants to write, for instance, an amiable old drunken Irish rascal he cannot do it as he really sees him, but has to do it as Thackeray saw him and pictured him in Captain Costigan. I should say that a couple of years in the newspaper business would be much better for one who wanted to be a writer than a couple of years in college. But there you are, of course, other advantages do come from the college....'
Of course there have been many changes in college writing courses since the 1940's, but still much of the advice Max Perkins gave that young man would be valid today. ed
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
June 23, 2010
Tungee's Gold and John Steinbeck's Spoken Word
This Week
2010 Hurricane Watch
Tungee's Gold – Bad Weather Birds
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck and the Spoken Word
The Hurricane Hunter: Forecasters see Risk of Tropical Storm and Hurricane Activity in Gulf of Mexico Next Week.
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing' Excerpt
A sea gull perched on top of the mizzen royal yard, a half dozen mews were flying a hundred feet above the ship and almost stood still as they labored against a steady breeze.
Tungee stood back from the foremast and looked up as Jeff, Dobbs and Blakely worked hard to repair a frayed halyard and a slipped brace on the fore upper topsail yard. The talkative Dobbs yelled down. "Just look at that bunch of birds, mates. Makes a pretty picture, don't you think."
Tungee called up, "Do you know what they are?"
"Not a clue."
"They're mews and some folks call them bad weather birds."
"Does that bad weather bird mean what it sounds like?"
Tungee smiled. "I'm afraid it does." Then he pointed to the gull back on the mizzen. "There's another part of the bad weather group."
Dobbs chuckled. "Many more of them birds in the rigging and we'll take on the look of Noah's Ark."
"It's just a rest stop," Tungee said. Their natural instinct tells them to move away from the storm."
"Smart little buggers, ain't they."
In final preparation for weather ahead, Captain Foster gave the order to remove all light sailcloth and replace it with heavy canvas. The crew turned to and by mid afternoon of the following day the changes had been made. The ship plowed through a medium swell at more than ten knots on a close haul starboard tack. Valparaiso was far astern on the port quarter.
A school of dolphin showed up off the port beam and put on an exhibition doing jumps and spins to the delight of the crew. The playful dolphin stayed with the MFC for two full days before making a final circle around the ship and heading into the sunset.
By the numbers the migration of bad weather birds had increased and you could see a buildup of clouds to the southwest, darkening and boiling down to a running sea.
Captain Foster called, "Mr. Cheny, let's begin to take off some canvas. We'll reef sail on fore, main and mizzen masts from t'gallant's down."
"Aye, skipper." Then Fritz Cheny cupped his hands round his mouth and blasted Foster's order verbatim.
The mizzen royal yard had become a resting-place for gulls on their way out of the area. Mews and terns had flopped down in the water for food and rest some one hundred yards aft. And the weather was changing; there was a definite chill in the air.
Gideon Foster had already decided to take the longer route known as Drake's Passage round the Horn, not chancing the sometimes treacherous, if shorter, Strait of Magellan. Keeping to the open sea had its merits, but it did put you nearer Antarctica and those frigid ice flows. The past two days had seen the midday temperature drop from a balmy seventy-five degrees to two points below freezing.
Almost to the man, the crew was wearing their oilskins. Hank Jensen had apparently found a supply of rum and was using it to help ward off the chill. For the past three days he had staggered from mast to lifeline, fallen into and then dragged out of the scuppers, soaking wet and quoting everything from the Bible to Shakespeare.
The crew had just shortened sail and most of the port watch top men had dropped down to the main deck. Jensen had gathered quite a congregation at the foot of the mainmast. The gathering storm in the path of the MFC and a heavy blanket of darkness seemed to encourage the tale telling second mate. The performer took a swig from his bottle, steadied himself against the mast, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and croaked out his version of an old seafaring tale.
"Twas on a dark and cheerless night to the southward of the Cape." He quoted every verse and added a few of his own. Then he wound up with, "The Sea all round was clad in foam and just up on our lee, we saw the Flying Dutchman come a bounding o'er the sea."
There were mixed emotions among the crew regarding that old canard. Some believed the thing was true while others called it nonsense. But whether they believed it or not, every man in the audience gave Hank Jensen a good round of applause for his efforts.
Gene Blakely looked across the waters as if he expected to see the Dutchman come bounding over the horizon.
Dobbs added a cryptic note. "It's been seen you know, that bloody old Flying Dutchman."
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
For all you writers that feel challenged in the area of English grammar, take heart and read John Steinbeck's response to a letter on the subject.
2441 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California, December of 1929.
In this excerpt John Steinbeck said, ...'I want to speak particularly of your theory of clean manuscripts, and spelling as correct as a collegiate stenographer and every nasty little comma in its place and preening of itself. “Manners,” you say is, and knowing the “trade” and the “Printed Word.” But I have no interest in the printed word. I would continue to write if there were no writing and no print. I put my words down for a matter of memory. They are more made to be spoken than to be read. In have the instincts of a minstrel rather than a scrivener. There you have it. We are not of the same trade at all and so how can your rules fit me? My sounds are all in place, I can send them to a stenographer who knows his trade and he can slip the commas about until they sit comfortably and he can spell the words so that school teachers will not raise their eyebrows when they read them. Why should I bother? There are millions of people who are good stenographers, but there are not so many thousands who can make as nice sounds as I can.'...
Fortunately the modern computer grammar and spellchecker software has almost solved your problem. Still there are many of you that tell stories by ear and instinct not by design. You storytellers that work by instinct are working in a way that is similar to musicians that produce music by ear.
A few examples are Jazz pianist Earl Garner and humorist, lyric and music writer Steve Allen, neither of which could read a lick of music and Ray Charles was blind from the age of seven.
So you storytellers challenged by some of the rules of grammar, set up by academia and the ivory tower crowd, take heart and get your stories into print. So what if you have to hire an editor to do a little clean up for you. I'm convinced that you folks have some good stories to tell and I look forward to reading some of them.
Next week we'll hear from Maxwell Perkins, famous editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe and others, when he shares some thoughts on how to approach writing.
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
2010 Hurricane Watch
Tungee's Gold – Bad Weather Birds
Writers Notebook: John Steinbeck and the Spoken Word
The Hurricane Hunter: Forecasters see Risk of Tropical Storm and Hurricane Activity in Gulf of Mexico Next Week.
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing' Excerpt
A sea gull perched on top of the mizzen royal yard, a half dozen mews were flying a hundred feet above the ship and almost stood still as they labored against a steady breeze.
Tungee stood back from the foremast and looked up as Jeff, Dobbs and Blakely worked hard to repair a frayed halyard and a slipped brace on the fore upper topsail yard. The talkative Dobbs yelled down. "Just look at that bunch of birds, mates. Makes a pretty picture, don't you think."
Tungee called up, "Do you know what they are?"
"Not a clue."
"They're mews and some folks call them bad weather birds."
"Does that bad weather bird mean what it sounds like?"
Tungee smiled. "I'm afraid it does." Then he pointed to the gull back on the mizzen. "There's another part of the bad weather group."
Dobbs chuckled. "Many more of them birds in the rigging and we'll take on the look of Noah's Ark."
"It's just a rest stop," Tungee said. Their natural instinct tells them to move away from the storm."
"Smart little buggers, ain't they."
In final preparation for weather ahead, Captain Foster gave the order to remove all light sailcloth and replace it with heavy canvas. The crew turned to and by mid afternoon of the following day the changes had been made. The ship plowed through a medium swell at more than ten knots on a close haul starboard tack. Valparaiso was far astern on the port quarter.
A school of dolphin showed up off the port beam and put on an exhibition doing jumps and spins to the delight of the crew. The playful dolphin stayed with the MFC for two full days before making a final circle around the ship and heading into the sunset.
By the numbers the migration of bad weather birds had increased and you could see a buildup of clouds to the southwest, darkening and boiling down to a running sea.
Captain Foster called, "Mr. Cheny, let's begin to take off some canvas. We'll reef sail on fore, main and mizzen masts from t'gallant's down."
"Aye, skipper." Then Fritz Cheny cupped his hands round his mouth and blasted Foster's order verbatim.
The mizzen royal yard had become a resting-place for gulls on their way out of the area. Mews and terns had flopped down in the water for food and rest some one hundred yards aft. And the weather was changing; there was a definite chill in the air.
Gideon Foster had already decided to take the longer route known as Drake's Passage round the Horn, not chancing the sometimes treacherous, if shorter, Strait of Magellan. Keeping to the open sea had its merits, but it did put you nearer Antarctica and those frigid ice flows. The past two days had seen the midday temperature drop from a balmy seventy-five degrees to two points below freezing.
Almost to the man, the crew was wearing their oilskins. Hank Jensen had apparently found a supply of rum and was using it to help ward off the chill. For the past three days he had staggered from mast to lifeline, fallen into and then dragged out of the scuppers, soaking wet and quoting everything from the Bible to Shakespeare.
The crew had just shortened sail and most of the port watch top men had dropped down to the main deck. Jensen had gathered quite a congregation at the foot of the mainmast. The gathering storm in the path of the MFC and a heavy blanket of darkness seemed to encourage the tale telling second mate. The performer took a swig from his bottle, steadied himself against the mast, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and croaked out his version of an old seafaring tale.
"Twas on a dark and cheerless night to the southward of the Cape." He quoted every verse and added a few of his own. Then he wound up with, "The Sea all round was clad in foam and just up on our lee, we saw the Flying Dutchman come a bounding o'er the sea."
There were mixed emotions among the crew regarding that old canard. Some believed the thing was true while others called it nonsense. But whether they believed it or not, every man in the audience gave Hank Jensen a good round of applause for his efforts.
Gene Blakely looked across the waters as if he expected to see the Dutchman come bounding over the horizon.
Dobbs added a cryptic note. "It's been seen you know, that bloody old Flying Dutchman."
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
For all you writers that feel challenged in the area of English grammar, take heart and read John Steinbeck's response to a letter on the subject.
2441 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California, December of 1929.
In this excerpt John Steinbeck said, ...'I want to speak particularly of your theory of clean manuscripts, and spelling as correct as a collegiate stenographer and every nasty little comma in its place and preening of itself. “Manners,” you say is, and knowing the “trade” and the “Printed Word.” But I have no interest in the printed word. I would continue to write if there were no writing and no print. I put my words down for a matter of memory. They are more made to be spoken than to be read. In have the instincts of a minstrel rather than a scrivener. There you have it. We are not of the same trade at all and so how can your rules fit me? My sounds are all in place, I can send them to a stenographer who knows his trade and he can slip the commas about until they sit comfortably and he can spell the words so that school teachers will not raise their eyebrows when they read them. Why should I bother? There are millions of people who are good stenographers, but there are not so many thousands who can make as nice sounds as I can.'...
Fortunately the modern computer grammar and spellchecker software has almost solved your problem. Still there are many of you that tell stories by ear and instinct not by design. You storytellers that work by instinct are working in a way that is similar to musicians that produce music by ear.
A few examples are Jazz pianist Earl Garner and humorist, lyric and music writer Steve Allen, neither of which could read a lick of music and Ray Charles was blind from the age of seven.
So you storytellers challenged by some of the rules of grammar, set up by academia and the ivory tower crowd, take heart and get your stories into print. So what if you have to hire an editor to do a little clean up for you. I'm convinced that you folks have some good stories to tell and I look forward to reading some of them.
Next week we'll hear from Maxwell Perkins, famous editor for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe and others, when he shares some thoughts on how to approach writing.
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
June 19, 2010
Tropical Storms Along the Equator and Abby
2010 Hurricane Watch
Satellite images of the ares just north of the equator on the Pacific and Caribbean sides of Central America is filled with tropical storm activity. Tropical Storm Blas continues to churn in the eastern Pacific Ocean while depression four has strengthened into Tropical Storm Celia.
The area within a few hundred miles of the southern Mexico and Central America coasts in the Pacific continues to be a hotbed of storm activity.
On the Caribbean side of the continent tropical waves fill out the satellite picture. There is no tropical storm development seen in the present forecasts, but every time I see a string of tropical waves along the equator I think of Hurricane Mitch back in 1998.
Continuing Last week's post on the subject of Abby Sunderland.
(News from Australia said the French ship Ile De La Reunion brought Sunderland on board from her battered craft Saturday afternoon.)
That was the end of last week's post on the subject of rescuing Abby Sunderland after she aborted her around-the-world odyssey. All the hoopla in recent days has been about the cost of the rescue effort and who would foot the bill.
However, the cost becomes a moot point when honorable people are involved and simply follow Maritime Law. After the 1912 Titanic disaster, there was an international agreement to help any ship in distress at sea at no cost.
So the two countries involved, France and Australia, are simply following Maritime Law and have brushed off questions about the cost of the rescue.
The French fishing ship Ile De La Reunion that rescued Abby is not expected to arrive in its home-port until next week.
So why can't our congress and president take a lesson from France and Australia -- step up to the plate, read our Constitution, stop pointing fingers, roll up your sleeves and clean up the oil mess in the Gulf of Mexico. I expect you had best get on with it or a rash of hurricanes might do it for you.
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.comw
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
Satellite images of the ares just north of the equator on the Pacific and Caribbean sides of Central America is filled with tropical storm activity. Tropical Storm Blas continues to churn in the eastern Pacific Ocean while depression four has strengthened into Tropical Storm Celia.
The area within a few hundred miles of the southern Mexico and Central America coasts in the Pacific continues to be a hotbed of storm activity.
On the Caribbean side of the continent tropical waves fill out the satellite picture. There is no tropical storm development seen in the present forecasts, but every time I see a string of tropical waves along the equator I think of Hurricane Mitch back in 1998.
Continuing Last week's post on the subject of Abby Sunderland.
(News from Australia said the French ship Ile De La Reunion brought Sunderland on board from her battered craft Saturday afternoon.)
That was the end of last week's post on the subject of rescuing Abby Sunderland after she aborted her around-the-world odyssey. All the hoopla in recent days has been about the cost of the rescue effort and who would foot the bill.
However, the cost becomes a moot point when honorable people are involved and simply follow Maritime Law. After the 1912 Titanic disaster, there was an international agreement to help any ship in distress at sea at no cost.
So the two countries involved, France and Australia, are simply following Maritime Law and have brushed off questions about the cost of the rescue.
The French fishing ship Ile De La Reunion that rescued Abby is not expected to arrive in its home-port until next week.
So why can't our congress and president take a lesson from France and Australia -- step up to the plate, read our Constitution, stop pointing fingers, roll up your sleeves and clean up the oil mess in the Gulf of Mexico. I expect you had best get on with it or a rash of hurricanes might do it for you.
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.comw
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
June 16, 2010
Tungee's Gold, Rescue Abby and The Great Gatsby
This Week
Abby Sunderland and the Indian Ocean
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Writers Notebook: The Great Gatsby
Sixteen year old Abby Sunderland attempting to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe solo was feared missing for several hours on Thursday in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
There was a period from around 6 a.m. Thursday, PDT, until around 11:30 p.m. PDT when Abby Sunderland was feared missing. However, she activated two distress signals on her boat and a search plane from Australia spotted her boat in an upright position. After the search crew made contact they reported that the young sailor was very much alive and well. Once the girl was reported alive and her position was confirmed a French fishing vessel sailed toward her location to attempt a rescue in rough seas
If you've been following Abby's story you are aware that she has been rescued and the fishing boat is heading for Reunion Island where Abby Sunderland's parents are expected to meet her there.
I am adding an excerpt of 'Tungee's Gold' where Tungee and an American Clipper Ship find themselves in a part of the world and in circumstances not unlike that of Abby Sunderland.
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing -- Excerpt.
Tungee walked back to cabin C and as he reached for the door handle, a force reeled him backwards and slammed his body against the bulkhead. He braced himself upright and with a strong effort lunged for the door. He grabbed the handle and turned it only to find himself being hurled across the cabin. He grabbed the edge of the porthole and looked outside. The sea was running through mounting swells and the ship dove and rolled in her attempt to stay upright.
Jeff hung onto his bunk for dear life. "What in hell is going on, Tungee?"
"Thunder Parker said a squall was working up just before he died." Then Tungee grinned, "Looks like it's here. You just hang on, Jeff, I have to go topside."
He pulled himself through the cabin and scrambled up the ladder and onto the deck. Thank God, he thought, the sea is giving us a warning. The winds had yet to hit the ship with gale force. He moved along the deck holding onto the side rails and finally saw Foster and Cheny standing beside the binnacle.
Fritz Cheny called out above the noise of the sea. "The barometer's moving up and. down like a sea saw." The captain remarked. "The squall may have missed us, but let's play it safe and pull the canvas."
Cheny gave the order. "Ahoy, you men in the mizzen, get all the sail in save the jibs, stays and spanker. Pass the word."
The MFC was off her tack and she was bobbing and weaving like a punch-drunk fighter. The good part was that her sticks were still pointing toward the sky.
Tungee moved along the deck, holding onto anything he could get his hands on. He finally worked his way to the base of the foremast and laughed at what he saw. While the crew hurried onto the deck and began to climb into the rigging the capricious winds quit. And within a couple of minutes the waters flattened out to a gentle rise and fall.
The squall had reached out and grabbed and shook the MFC for a moment, then drifted off to the northeast.
Tungee stood near the foremast for a while and thought about that sharp encounter. Nature could be giving us an idea of what to expect from the waters around Cape Horn.
The captain threw up his hands and said, "Belay that last order" tie the sails back to the yards and, helmsman get ready to ware ship to starboard."
Tungee grinned as he entered Cabin C. "Congratulations, Jeff."
"For what?"
"You're out of the galley, that is if you still want to work up top."
Jeff hesitated. "What did Herman think about it?"
"Hated the idea and Cheny wasn't too thrilled either."
"Then what makes you think they'll let me out of the galley?"
"Overruled by Captain Foster."
"Cheny could make it tough on me."
"Hell that'll add character, Jeff," Tungee declared. "And besides, Cheny will come around."
Jeff took a long moment and said guardedly, "When do I make the change?"
"Next watch, so I suggest you gets some sleep. You've got work ahead of you, Mr. Randolph."
Then Tungee rolled into his own bunk and closed his eyes. But as he tried to go to sleep, he kept hearing the captain's voice repeating the word Liverpool.
Captain Foster figured the squall that had just missed them was a warning and he began preparing for the Cape. All hands were ordered to turn to and work and make the ship watertight. They would add extra tar, caulk every crack and put on a fresh coat of paint. The young sailors who had never had to weather Cape Horn found it hard to understand and grumbled about the extra duty. By the time they strung up lifelines around the deck and Walter Greenleaf issued foul weather gear, sou'westers, oilskins and boots they began to get the idea.
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
This story is not exactly on the same level of a rejection letter, in this case it's not an agent or publisher rejecting a manuscript it is a public reaction to a famous author's work.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews when it was published in April 1925. H.L. Mencken found the form 'no more than a glorified anecdote and a far inferior story at bottom.' But he recognized the novel was plainly the product of a sound and stable talent, conjured into being by hard work.'
As to positive reviews, the writers seem to trip over their own words in an effort to praise. '...There are pages so artfully contrived that one can no more emagine improvising them than one can emagine improvising a fugue.' Contrived is just the opposite of what a novel reader is searching for when they sit down to escape into that other world.
Commercially, the novel was a disappointment to Fitzgerald. He had expressed a hope for a sale of 75, 000 copies. The first printing of 20, 000 copies sold slowly. A second printing of 3, 000 was put through in August, but sales never caught up. And when Fitgerald died fifteen years later there were still unsold copies of that August printing in the Scribner warehouse.
The novel was never declared out of print; it had simply stopped selling. Of course the 1929 Stock Market crash and the depression years were no help. However The Great Gatsby managed to hang around in certain circles and eventually found life after a new printing in 1945 and another in 1953. The novel found a core readership and today it is widely regarded as a great American novel. The book has become a literary classic and a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature.
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
www.RocktheTower.com
http://thehurricanehunter.blogspot.com
www.tombarnes39.com
Abby Sunderland and the Indian Ocean
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing
Writers Notebook: The Great Gatsby
Sixteen year old Abby Sunderland attempting to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe solo was feared missing for several hours on Thursday in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
There was a period from around 6 a.m. Thursday, PDT, until around 11:30 p.m. PDT when Abby Sunderland was feared missing. However, she activated two distress signals on her boat and a search plane from Australia spotted her boat in an upright position. After the search crew made contact they reported that the young sailor was very much alive and well. Once the girl was reported alive and her position was confirmed a French fishing vessel sailed toward her location to attempt a rescue in rough seas
If you've been following Abby's story you are aware that she has been rescued and the fishing boat is heading for Reunion Island where Abby Sunderland's parents are expected to meet her there.
I am adding an excerpt of 'Tungee's Gold' where Tungee and an American Clipper Ship find themselves in a part of the world and in circumstances not unlike that of Abby Sunderland.
Tungee's Gold: The Legend of Ebo Landing -- Excerpt.
Tungee walked back to cabin C and as he reached for the door handle, a force reeled him backwards and slammed his body against the bulkhead. He braced himself upright and with a strong effort lunged for the door. He grabbed the handle and turned it only to find himself being hurled across the cabin. He grabbed the edge of the porthole and looked outside. The sea was running through mounting swells and the ship dove and rolled in her attempt to stay upright.
Jeff hung onto his bunk for dear life. "What in hell is going on, Tungee?"
"Thunder Parker said a squall was working up just before he died." Then Tungee grinned, "Looks like it's here. You just hang on, Jeff, I have to go topside."
He pulled himself through the cabin and scrambled up the ladder and onto the deck. Thank God, he thought, the sea is giving us a warning. The winds had yet to hit the ship with gale force. He moved along the deck holding onto the side rails and finally saw Foster and Cheny standing beside the binnacle.
Fritz Cheny called out above the noise of the sea. "The barometer's moving up and. down like a sea saw." The captain remarked. "The squall may have missed us, but let's play it safe and pull the canvas."
Cheny gave the order. "Ahoy, you men in the mizzen, get all the sail in save the jibs, stays and spanker. Pass the word."
The MFC was off her tack and she was bobbing and weaving like a punch-drunk fighter. The good part was that her sticks were still pointing toward the sky.
Tungee moved along the deck, holding onto anything he could get his hands on. He finally worked his way to the base of the foremast and laughed at what he saw. While the crew hurried onto the deck and began to climb into the rigging the capricious winds quit. And within a couple of minutes the waters flattened out to a gentle rise and fall.
The squall had reached out and grabbed and shook the MFC for a moment, then drifted off to the northeast.
Tungee stood near the foremast for a while and thought about that sharp encounter. Nature could be giving us an idea of what to expect from the waters around Cape Horn.
The captain threw up his hands and said, "Belay that last order" tie the sails back to the yards and, helmsman get ready to ware ship to starboard."
Tungee grinned as he entered Cabin C. "Congratulations, Jeff."
"For what?"
"You're out of the galley, that is if you still want to work up top."
Jeff hesitated. "What did Herman think about it?"
"Hated the idea and Cheny wasn't too thrilled either."
"Then what makes you think they'll let me out of the galley?"
"Overruled by Captain Foster."
"Cheny could make it tough on me."
"Hell that'll add character, Jeff," Tungee declared. "And besides, Cheny will come around."
Jeff took a long moment and said guardedly, "When do I make the change?"
"Next watch, so I suggest you gets some sleep. You've got work ahead of you, Mr. Randolph."
Then Tungee rolled into his own bunk and closed his eyes. But as he tried to go to sleep, he kept hearing the captain's voice repeating the word Liverpool.
Captain Foster figured the squall that had just missed them was a warning and he began preparing for the Cape. All hands were ordered to turn to and work and make the ship watertight. They would add extra tar, caulk every crack and put on a fresh coat of paint. The young sailors who had never had to weather Cape Horn found it hard to understand and grumbled about the extra duty. By the time they strung up lifelines around the deck and Walter Greenleaf issued foul weather gear, sou'westers, oilskins and boots they began to get the idea.
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
This story is not exactly on the same level of a rejection letter, in this case it's not an agent or publisher rejecting a manuscript it is a public reaction to a famous author's work.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby received mixed reviews when it was published in April 1925. H.L. Mencken found the form 'no more than a glorified anecdote and a far inferior story at bottom.' But he recognized the novel was plainly the product of a sound and stable talent, conjured into being by hard work.'
As to positive reviews, the writers seem to trip over their own words in an effort to praise. '...There are pages so artfully contrived that one can no more emagine improvising them than one can emagine improvising a fugue.' Contrived is just the opposite of what a novel reader is searching for when they sit down to escape into that other world.
Commercially, the novel was a disappointment to Fitzgerald. He had expressed a hope for a sale of 75, 000 copies. The first printing of 20, 000 copies sold slowly. A second printing of 3, 000 was put through in August, but sales never caught up. And when Fitgerald died fifteen years later there were still unsold copies of that August printing in the Scribner warehouse.
The novel was never declared out of print; it had simply stopped selling. Of course the 1929 Stock Market crash and the depression years were no help. However The Great Gatsby managed to hang around in certain circles and eventually found life after a new printing in 1945 and another in 1953. The novel found a core readership and today it is widely regarded as a great American novel. The book has become a literary classic and a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature.
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.
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