Happy Late Night, Sweet Baby,
I am back at Pearl's, writing from her kitchen where all is quiet except for the sounds of KUSC playing softly in the background. Today was mostly about getting re-situated and doing a little shopping at the produce market. It was actually warm today, about 80 degrees during the afternoon, though tomorrow the rain is supposed to return and with it, the fruh-heezing cold.
Tonight I watched another classic Noir : "I Wake Up Screaming", starring the handsome Victor Mature, the famous WW2 Pin-Up Girl Betty Grable, and the beautiful but tragic Carol Landis. Mature plays a sports promoter who walks into a restaurant and spies a waitress (Landis) who he thinks he can make into a Star, which will catapult him into high society. If you notice a theme from last night's film (man walking into restaurant and spying waitress), then you may note that this film could have been taken from the same script as "Fallen Angel", with a few alterations. Landis, the waitress in this one, is murdered just like Linda Darnell's waitress was in "Fallen Angel". And there is a Bad Cop in each film, tonight played by the hulking but brilliant and also tragic Laird Cregar, who only lived to be 30 years old. Hollywood was tough for many of it's Golden Era stars, but anyhow, Cregar is great as the bad guy, the cop who tries to frame Victor Mature for Landis' murder. Mature, meanwhile, falls in love with her sister Betty Grable. Once again there are plot twists galore, and fantastic Hollywood Glamour Lighting and b&w photography. Man, did they ever know how to crank out these Noirs in those days. Just one classic after another. But the Studio System and the sudden fame was rough on many of these early era stars. They were among the first to deal with the fame and pressures that go along with being in movies, and when you look at their IMDB profiles (which I investigate after every movie I watch), you see that a good many of them did not have long lives.
So, God Bless 'Em, I say, and God Bless all Artists and Entertainers, because To Entertain Through The Arts is, I think, one of the most noble pursuits a person can strive toward.
I hope you had a nice day. I did see a couple posts. One was Sarah's post about Ramen.........and I had to say, "hey........wait a minute! What about me"? lol. :) I'm a "men"........ :)
But I understand because ramen, and noodles in general, are pretty hard to beat. Men take note!
I also saw your teacher's post about Debbie Reynolds. I am assuming she was your teacher, maybe for choir? Anyhow, what a great story about DR coming through her living space - in a theater - to do a show, and what a way to meet such a person. Debbie Reynolds had a husband named Harry Karl in the 60s. Here in the west, there was a chain of shoe stores called Karl's Shoes. They were everywhere, and were owned by Harry Karl. But he was not a good guy. He was addicted to gambling, and he was a card cheat. When I was a kid, my Dad had two brothers as associates in the SMPTE (Society Of Motion Picture and Television Engineers), named Harry and Ben Tietelbaum. They were a couple of crooks, too, and they were involved in card cheating schemes in Las Vegas with Harry Karl, who was caught by ceiling cameras in a Vegas casino, as was Ben Tietelbaum. I always remembered this because the Tietelbaums were close associates of Dad's, and all of a sudden "Ben was going to the Pen", as Dad put it. To prison.
I don't know if Harry Karl went to prison, but he should have. He took most of Debbie Reynolds' money to pay off his gambling debts, and left her almost broke. Your friend the choir teacher wondered in her post why DR would be doing dinner theater, and she knew the basic reasons, but that was the specifics. Harry Karl, her no-good husband, ripped her off. But she kept going anyway, and your friend had a great story to tell.
That's Hollywood, that's Show Business. Some are no good, and some are so good they can't be stopped, no matter what happens.
That's all I know for tonight, SB. See you in the morn.
I Love You. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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