Deborah Kerr is gone. Kerr, one of the great beauties of all time in my opinion, was perhaps the most subtle and refined actress ever to gain wide acceptance in America.
Today, Kerr seems to be remembered more for From Here to Eternity than for The King And I; which is, I think, as it should be. Here are nine minutes from Eternity that I’ve spliced together. In subject matter, dialog, and presentation, this is truly outstanding adult material, in the proper sense of the term. It just doesn’t get any better than this, folks.
[flv:/Video/OCT07/FromHereToEternity.flv 400 300]
I’m posting this solely for the purpose of posting something today. I’m busy reading the Schulz biography among other things and, yes, I know Colbert has his faux presidential bid, having first watched his pre-announcement on Wednesday’s Daily Show.
Well, the book is out, and I didn’t wait till Christmas. Don’t know when I’ll have a chance to read it from start to finish, but I have it.
Again I express my respect for the family of Charles Schulz, and their honest and understandable objections, complaints and concerns about this book; but having said that, it’s obvious from even a quick glance that it contains much more basic information than I have ever read before. For example …
Charles and Joyce
(p. 223) In 1948, the nineteen-year-old Joyce had run off to New Mexico, fallen in love with a cowboy, married, gotten pregnant, been abandoned by her husband, and come home to Minneapolis to have the child — all within 20 months. When Sparky met her at a party, Joyce was twenty-two years old, divorced, with a baby and a curfew. Pulled away from a pretty face was her strawberry-blond hair.
He found her doing the dishes at her sister’s kitchen sink, and came over to help.
I strongly encourage you to read Nat Gertler’s commentary at The AAUGH! Blog. A couple more items about the book worth reading are a review in The New Yorker by author John Updike, and Newsweek’s take on the thing.
Joe Sinnott, October 16, 1926-June 25, 2020 Joe Sinnott is one of the greatest comic book inkers of all time. Actually, he’s the greatest. No finer hand has ever held pen and brush. I’ve been a fan of Joe’s work for over 40 years. Thirty years ago, when Joe made an appearance at a Boston comic book convention, I called him “a God of the industry,” and he still is.
Being a radio announcer at the time, I had access to a good quality portable tape recorder, making it possible for me to record an impromptu interview with Joe and a group of enthusiastic fans, including my best buddy, Dennis F. Rogers. Out of half an hour of tape I’ve spliced together a couple of clips.
In this part of the discussion, Joe Sinnott comments on comic books. That’s me asking the first question, sounding overly hyperbolic and just plain hyper.
And in this segment, Joe talks about being a lifelong fan of Bing Crosby, who had died the day before this recording was made! That’s Dennis asking Joe about his hobby.
In retrospect, Dennis and I have always kicked ourselves for not spending the entire time talking with Joe about Bing, because we were plenty interested in the subject, and it was what he wanted to talk about. In recognition of Joe Sinnott, Der Bingle fan, here is Bing from one of Joe’s favorite periods, the early 30’s, singing “Pennies From Heaven.”
Additional Note: This recording of “Pennies From Heaven” came from a 1973 German LP that I own. D.F. Rogers, an amateur but highly proficient musicologist, believes this performance is most likely the original version, recorded for the Decca label on August 17, 1936.
AMERICAN MASTERS “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz”
Monday, October 29, 2007
9:00-10:30 p.m. ET
David Van Taylor, the director of the upcoming, highly-anticipated American Masters documentary Good Ol’ Charles Schulz has written with a couple of corrections for an earlier post.
I’m the director of the documentary. Just wanted to say that “Johnson” is Donna’s maiden name; “Wold” is her married name. Al Wold is alive and well. Our interview with her is a critical part of the film. Hope you all can watch.
Saying that “Johnson” is Donna Wold’s “married” name instead of “maiden” was a typo. My bad. But I had read some time back that her husband, Al, had passed away. Bad information, obviously. I should have double-checked that before repeating the erroneous information, especially if I couldn’t find confirmation. My apologies.
I may be just a guy who blogs, but a long time ago I was a news reporter, so I know better. My thanks to Mr. Van Taylor for the corrections, and thank you for the tip-off about the interview with Donna. I’m glad that Al is so understanding about her critical role in the genesis of Peanuts.
