Category: Beatles

And that’s the way he was…

The Old Guard has now truly come to an end. As Bismo said tonight, it’s perhaps fitting that Walter Cronkite passed away during the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s flight to the Moon. This video clip is from a 2007 CBS special celebrating Cronkite’s 90th birthday. The program was produced by Nancy Kramer, who Carol and I helped last year with some background material for an installment of 48 Hours|Mystery.

I also agreed with Bismo when he said that he never warmed up to Huntley and Brinkley as TV news anchormen. Many adults apparently preferred the team, but they were much too severe to appeal to kids. Cronkite was The Man. He narrated the audio book of his autobiography, “A Reporter’s Life”, and I listened to it twice, all the way through. It was abridged from his book, but I trusted Walter to leave in all the good stuff.

Cronkite is indelibly associated with not only NASA in the 60’s, but his live coverage of the assasination of JFK, and his landmark editorial asserting that the Vietnam War, in his opinion, could not be won. Cronkite’s credibility and judgment were held in such high esteem that LBJ realized his Presidency was doomed and he declined to seek re-election.

Another noteworthy accomplishment of Cronkite’s was that he helped introduce The Beatles to America. Here is a video clip from Nancy Kramer’s TV special that I first posted over a year ago.

© 2007 CBS Worldwide Inc.
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Lastly, I would like to point out that Walter Cronkite was a big fan of the comic strip Peanuts, and he wrote the introduction to volume 2 of The Complete Peanuts. Walter cried on air when John Kennedy died, he cried on camera again when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, he denounced the Vietnam War, he has a Beatles connection, and he loved Charlie Brown and Snoopy. I loved the man and everything he stood for.

Cronkite on Schulz

Cronkite on Schulz

Cronkite on Schulz

Prue-fection

Here is something very special indeed. This is a portrait of Prudence Bury at age seventeen, while she attended the Royal School of Ballet. It was taken by Antony Armstrong-Jones, before he married Princess Margaret and was named the 1st Earl of Snowdon. Lord Snowdon is known for many things, among them his numerous portraits of Lady Diana, Princess of Wales.

Prudence Bury, age 17
© Lord Snowdon (Antony Armstrong-Jones)

This is a photo of a framed photo. In the reflection you can see one of Prue’s sons taking the picture, and some bookcases behind him.

Thank you, Prue! 🙂

The Death of Ron Decline

Do I have anything good to say about the late Allen Klein? No, I don’t. He was an opportunistic, dishonest, unscrupulous scumbag. Eric Idle and John Belushi were dead-on with their Ron Decline parody in “The Rutles”. Hey look, there’s Al Franken, the new senator from Minnesota, with his old comedy partner Tom Davis.

The first LP I ever bought with my own money was “Let It Be” the day it was released, and I immediately noticed that Apple Records had become “an abkco managed company”. Even as a kid of fourteen I was suspicious of what that meant.

In this picture the second scan is from an 80’s British LP copy of “Let It Be”, and you’ll notice that the name Harold Seider is missing. Seider was Klein’s attorney, and later he was John Lennon’s lawyer.

An ABKCO managed company

Since “Let It Be” I have tried to avoid Allen B. Klein Company products, with the only exceptions being on vinyl. As a consequence, my Rolling Stones collection is minimal. One of the exceptions is the Stones outtakes LP, “Metamorphosis”. I bought it for a couple of bucks in college as a cut-out, only a year after its release in 1975.

“Metamorphosis” has a some tracks worth noting, including the Dylan-influenced “Memo From Turner” and a good alternate version of “Out Of Time”. The best song, I think, is “Each and Every Day of the Year”. Unfortunately, it’s in fake stereo that includes phase shifting as well as frequency separation, so it sounds lousy if forced into mono.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/EachAndEveryDay.mp3]

Catch Prue If You Can

For its American release, the 1965 Dave Clark Five movie “Catch Us If You Can” was given the title “Having a Wild Weekend.” If you look quickly, you can catch a couple glimpses of Prue Bury, where she’s made up to look almost like the original Goth girl!

Prue Bury in \

Prue even dances with… the Wolfman?? There’s a costume party later in the movie with a man dressed as Frankenstein.

Prue Bury in \

The gent with the hat is Clive Swift, best known as Richard Bucket, the long-suffering husband in the English TV series “Keeping Up Appearances.” Here’s one last quick shot of Prue that I found.

Prue Bury in \

Anna Quayle in AHDN and beyond

One of the best of the many memorable vignettes in “A Hard Day’s Night” is the exchange between John and “Millie,” played by the wonderful character actress Anna Quayle. In this video is the full scene, followed by Quayle a few years later in an episode of “The Avengers”, and then in a brief role from the 1981 production of “Brideshead Revisited.” Nickolas Grace is the outrageous Anthony Blanche, with a performance that’s over-the-top, yet more reserved than Tim Curry probably would have done it. I end the clip with Anna Quayle talking about her part in AHDN.

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