Forgotten Hollywood

Manny P. here…

“`NASA is to name its headquarters in Washington D. C. after its first black female engineer, Mary Jackson. Her story was shared in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. The move comes at a time of introspection across our nation over historical injustice suffered by African Americans.

“`NASA began recruiting college-educated African American women in the 1940s as human computers, but they experienced both racial and gender discrimination at work. Jackson was picked in 1951 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. She worked under Dorothy Vaughan – whose story was also told in Hidden Figures – in the segregated West Area Computing Unit at Langley, Virginia. Jackson helped to break down barriers for African Americans and women in engineering and technology.

“`Just last year, the 300 block of E Street SW, in front of NASA’s Headquarters building, was designated as Hidden Figures Way to honor Katherine Johnson, Vaughan, Jackson, and every woman who dedicated their lives to honorably serving their country, advancing equality, and contributing to the space program of the United States.

“`Jackson died in 2005. In 2019, she was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. Now, her name will be etched above NASA, an enduring symbol of her lifelong intent to reach for the stars.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Gone With the Wind has returned to HBO Max, having been restored to the streaming service’s library with a new prologue about the movies problematic themes and depiction of the antebellum South. Here to offer perspective is Jacqueline Stewart, host of TCM’s Silent Sunday Nights and professor in Department of Cinema and Media Studies at University of Chicago. In addition to Stewart’s opening, an hour-long panel discussion, The Complicated Legacy of Gone with the Wind, appears as a special feature with the movie on HBO Max.

                              JACQUELINE STEWART

“`After offering the obligatory achievements by the epic, Stewart acknowledges that it paints the picture of the antebellum South as a romantic, idyllic setting that is tragically been lost to the past. Producer David O. Selznick assured the NAACP at the time that he was  sensitive to the feelings of minority peoples, yet proceeded to depict a world of grace and beauty without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of slavery as well its legacies of racial inequality.

“`Understanding that this was literary fiction should not allow us to ignore realities of a time when a race of people were routinely sold as property, and left to fend for themselves while under the harsh scrutiny of their so-called owners. HBO’s prologue at the very least offers a measured explanation that resembles historical context.

“`An honest question… Is it enough? 

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Vera Lynn was a British crooner, songwriter, and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were largely popular during the Second World War. The songs most associated with her: We’ll Meet Again, The White Cliffs of Dover, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, and There’ll Always Be an England.

“`Lynn’s wartime contribution began when she sang to people who were using London’s tube station platforms as air raid shelters. During the darkest days of World War II, she began her own radio program, Sincerely Yours, sending messages to British troops serving abroad. She was known as The Forces’ Sweetheart, and gave outdoor concerts for troops in Egypt, India, and Burma during the war.

“After the war, Lynn had a prolific recording career. Plus, she appeared on Tallulah Bankhead’s radio program, The Big Show. Lynn hosted her own variety series on BBC1 in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Her visit to the Burma front during the Second World War was featured in a British television documentary series The World at War in 1974

“`She was appointed as a Dame for her charity work during the 1975 Birthday Honours. Lynn sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony that marked the golden jubilee of VE Day. A street named in her honor, Vera Lynn Close, is situated in Forest Gate, London.

“`In January 2020, a portrait of Lynn was unveiled at Royal Albert Hall in conjunction with the seventy-fifth anniversary commemoration of the Allied victory in Europe. On April 5, 2020, We’ll Meet Again was echoed by Queen Elizabeth II in a television address she delivered addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

“`Her life bookmarked by global battles, Dame Vera Lynn (right) was 103.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Celebrating Act 2 is back with a look at Hollywood scripts when the subject is Hollywood. Join John Coleman and Art Kirsch as we examine the love affair.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Mae West was the bawdy, witty, sex symbol of the 1930s who pioneered a path for modern women with guts by simply employing a nod and a wink. The first major documentary film on this cultural figure, makes its world premiere Tuesday on PBS, and looks beyond her famous gowns, curves, and jewels.

“`The film’s executive producer is Bette Midler, and it follows West’s origins in vaudeville, her journey to Broadway as a performer and a playwright, her Hollywood debut as a sex symbol at age forty, a Las Vegas nightclub star in her sixties, and a campy icon in her eighties. West wrote her own plays and screenplays. She launched the career of Cary Grant,  was sentenced to prison for indecency, and became the second highest paid individual in the entire country, behind only William Randolph Hearst.                                       MAE WEST –>

When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better!

“`Filmmakers found a woman embodying female empowerment who was giving subtle nods to lift up African Americans and the gay community. What emerges is a portrait of a woman who was incredibly savvy about marketing herself. Stars like Candice Bergen, Margaret Cho, Ringo Starr, and Kathy Najimy add their insights, too

“`The documentary is part of a summer slate by PBS American Masters series to honor female trailblazers, which also includes a look at Toni Morrison, and a one-hour special on pioneering female politicians from America’s past.

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“`I am inviting you to take a moment to read my new article in Palos Verdes Pulse online magazine. The subject matter deals with the evolution of the modern cinematic screenplay. Here is a link to the story:

https://www.palosverdespulse.com/blog/2020/6/7/evolution-of-the-screenplay-a-forgotten-hollywood-essay-by-manny-pacheco

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Classic Film buffs love to highlight the great supporting players of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Heck!  I have written three Forgotten Hollywood paperbacks that share rousing stories about the character actors of the studio era.  Let me offer four modern thespians quite comfortable below the title of motion pictures.

~ J. K. Simmons – As Simmons puts it, he became an overnight sensation after winning an Oscar for Whiplash,  though he has been working in movies for three decades. Memorable performances in a re-make of The Ladykillers, Juno, La La Land and The Front Runner. Yet, he will be best remembered for his Farmer’s Insurance commercials.

~ STEVE BUSCEMI – This funny-looking guy has left a big footprint in film. Most familiar on television for his starring-turn in Boardwalk Empire, he is comfortable playing a tough guy. He appeared in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. But the Coen Brothers have perfected his on-screen image.  He was adroitly cast in The Big Lebowski, Fargo, Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, and The Hudsucker Proxy.

J. K SIMMONS    STEVE BUSCEMI    JOHN C. REILLY         PAUL GIAMATTI

~ JOHN C. REILLY – The most diverse of any modern character actor, he is comfortable in broad comedy and heartwarming drama. His notable performances include Boogie Nights, Chicago, The Aviator,  Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Step Brothers, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, and Stan and Ollie. Reilly is a noted scene-stealer.

~ PAUL GIAMATTI – Comfortable in movies and on television, he is best remembered as the title character in HBO’s John Adams. Paul’s varied roles include Cinderella Man, Sideways, Saving Private Ryan, The Ides of March, Twelve Years a Slave, Saving Mr. Banks, and Straight Outta Compton.  He even guest-starred on Downton Abbey. His latest work is on Showtime’s Billions.

“`William H. Macy (right) is an obvious honorable mention. These amazing co-stars could have worked in any decade of cinema. (Had he lived, Philip Seymour Hoffman would have certainly belonged in this talented group of active players.)

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Experience the drive-in movie with a twist. Free tickets are now available online for Friday night drive-in movies at Ontario International Airport beginning on June 19th. Their first screening, Ford vs. Ferrari, is already sold out. Upcoming screenings include The Sandlot (July 3rd), The Princess Bride (July 17th), and Napoleon Dynamite (July 31st).

“`A portion of the 2019 movie that starred Matt Damon and Christian Bale was filmed at the airport. Also used was the Auto Speedways at Fontana and Pomona.

“`The show will take place in ONT’s parking lot five, and feature two fifty-foot screens. Sound will be delivered on FM radio. Food trucks will be on site including Poutine Brothers, Grilled Cheese Truck, Afters Ice Cream, and My Delight Cupcakery.  Gates open at 7p, and the movies start at 8:30p. Reservations are by car, not the number of people inside. The series is a partnership between the airport, the City of Ontario, and Street Food Cinema.

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“`HBO Max has temporarily removed Gone With the Wind from its streaming library to add historical context to the 1939 movie long criticized for romanticizing slavery and the Civil War-era South. Recent demonstrations have motivated the company to re-think the presentation of the 1939 epic on its platform.

“`HBO explains it this way:

Historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.

“`Gone With the Wind remains available for digital rental and purchase. On Wednesday, it rose toward the top of movie charts on Amazon and Apple iTunes.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Celebrating Act 2 is back, and hosts John Coleman and Art Kirsch bring me in to discuss some notable sidekicks in cinema.

“`ENJOY!

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Love letters between the ill-fated French queen Marie-Antoinette and her lover have been deciphered by use of the latest techniques by the French National Archives. The Austrian-born queen was executed at just thirty-seven in October, 1793 after the overthrow of the monarchy.  At the time, the queen and King Louis XVI were living under surveillance in the Parisian Tuileries palace and had just failed to escape their house arrest.

“`The revealed passages are further confirmation of a steamy relationship between Marie-Antoinette and Count de Fersen,  who were writing to each other several years after the 1789 French Revolution. Much of the writings had previously been brought to light, but redacted lines remained illegible. Until now.

“`The ninety-five-day project used a new scanning technique (the x-ray fluorescence system) to analyze the composition of ink used.  Similarities between the ink by the count and the ink of redaction suggest Fersen might have censored his own letters.  Out of the fifteen redacted correspondence written by Marie-Antoinette and Fersen, only eight were brought to light. For the others, ink used to write and to censor was the same, rendering the task of revealing the redacted content impossible.

“`The fascination surrounding Marie-Antoinette remains undimmed. Last month, a travel bag belonging to her sold for over five times its estimate in an auction of royal memorabilia.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Herbert Stempel was the fall guy and whistle-blower of early television, whose confession to deliberately losing on a 1950s quiz show helped drive a national scandal. His name in history is connected to winning contestant Charles Van Doren. This showdown was chronicled in the 1994 flick, Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford, and starring John Turturro as Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Van Doren (who died last year).  HERB STEMPEL ->

“`Stempel’s life was defined by a small screen face-off late in 1956, when he and Van Doren executed a fraudulent display of knowledge on Twenty-One, part of a wave of game shows that offered huge prizes for trivia experts. Confessions by Stempel and others helped lead to the congressional ban of rigged game shows, and to the cancellation of Twenty-One.

“`Stempel, born in New York City and the son of Jewish immigrants, was a natural for the quiz program. Audiences were turned off by Stempel’s smug attitude after a six-week run. Producer Dan Enright’s solution was to have Stempel lose to the more charismatic opponent Van Doren, scion of a prominent scholarly family and himself a rising star at Columbia University. Stempel claimed that Enright promised to make him a question consultant for Twenty-One and to get him an appearance on The Steve Allen Show.

“`Stempel’s televised downfall was especially painful for the Queens resident. His question: Which movie received the Oscar for best picture in 1955?  Herb would say he knew the winner was Marty. He had seen the film three times, relating to the tale of a lonely butcher in New York City. But was compelled to guess On the Waterfront, the Oscar winner of 1954.

“`Van Doren (right) would continue winning for months, and he was celebrated in a Time Magazine cover story. Herb’s subsequent declarations of rigging were initially dismissed,  but as contestants on other shows made similar statements, authorities began to take action. A grand jury convened in New York in 1958 and congressional hearings began the following year,  with Stempel and Van Doren both testifying and acknowledging their complicity.  Stempel eventually lost his game-show winnings in poor investments and business deals.

“`Stempel re-emerged as a public figure in the 1990s,  when Twenty-One was featured in a Julian Krainin documentary and in Redford’s movie, for which Stempel served as a consultant. He would later say Quiz Show distorted his life and personality.

“`Herbert Stempel was ninety-three.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`As a show contributor for the Celebrating Act 2 podcast, I will again join John Coleman and Art Kirsch as we ponder the fate and survival of movie theaters in the wake of Covid-19. Here is one man’s opinion…

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“`Richard Herd was a durable character actor who was comfortable in movies and television. He appeared in All the President’s Men, The China Syndrome and Private Benjamin. On television, Herd guest-starred in The Streets of San Francisco, M*A*S*H, The Rockford Files, Eight is Enough, Starsky and Hutch, Kojak, Dallas, The A-Team,  Hill Street Blues,  Murder She Wrote,  The Golden Girls, Matlock, Dynasty, Quantum Leap, Knotts Landing, and a number of episodes of Seinfeld. He was a series regular on T. J. Hooker.

“`Richard Herd (above right) was eighty seven.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`The year is 2022 and our globe suffers from dying oceans,  due to the greenhouse effect, resulting in pollution, overpopulation, poverty, smog, and depleted resources.  National governments and its citizens settle on saving the planet by sacrificing the old, sick, and dying. I am not talking about real-life dystopian chatter with regards to correcting the effects of any global catastrophe (including a pandemic). I am describing the 1973 sci fi thriller, Soylent Green.

“`Realism in motion pictures in the early 1970s were clearly the genre du jour with on screen productions such as Dog Day Afternoon, Mean Streets, and Taxi Driver. Offering science fiction as a backdrop to realism was the directed goal in Soylent Green, the most successful attempt at fact and fiction co-mingling since Them! and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“`The villains of this piece are normal folks fighting the threat of extinction, deciding a few must perish so the majority can survive. The Twilight Zone’s To Serve Man episode likely influences this cautionary tale. It is the ingredients that make up the Soylent Green protein that is particularly insidious. Euthanasia is clearly at the forefront of the screenplay’s moral dilemma.

“`Charlton Heston,  Leigh Taylor-Young,  Chuck Connors,  Joseph Cotten,  Brock Peters,  Paula Kelly and Edward G. Robinson head up a stellar cast. Robinson made over a hundred films and this would be his last, since he was suffering from terminal cancer. His final scene in the movie eerily resembled what was to occur just twelve days after the completion of production. By the way,  Robinson died before he could accept an honorary Oscar for career achievement, his first accolade by the film academy. His wife accepted his statuette in his place.

“`A fair thriller, New York Times critic A. H. Weiler wrote:

Soylent Green projects essentially simple, muscular melodrama a good deal more effectively than it does the potential of man’s seemingly witless destruction of the Earth’s resources.

“`Well said…

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Phyllis George was a former Miss America who became a female sportscasting pioneer on CBS’s The NFL Today, and served as the First Lady of Kentucky. She also penned several books and was a brand leader in business.

“`From Denton, Texas, George attended the University of North Texas for three years, and then went to Texas Christian University after earning a scholarship as Miss Texas in 1970. She became the fiftieth Miss America in 1971.

“`Sports media discovered George while she was co-hosting Candid Camera and the Miss America pageant. She received a thirteen-week option from CBS in 1974 without a defined role. She would earn a three-year deal and it paved the way for her breakthrough role the next year on The NFL Today.  George joined Brent Musburger and Irv Cross as a co-host. She conducted interviews with star athletes including NFL greats Joe Namath and Roger Staubach. She  went on to co-host the CBS Morning News in 1985,  but quit after less than eight months.

“`George remained a friend of minister Norman Vincent Peale and was a devout believer in his best-selling philosophy of positive thinking. She credits that approach for launching a defining career she did not expect; one that saw her range into an astonishing variety of ventures and roles, in media, the film industry, food and beauty products and as the glamorous first lady of Kentucky.

“`Phyllis George was seventy.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`Fred Willard was a comedic actor that remained relevant for over fifty years in films like This Is Spinal Tap, Silver Streak and Anchorman series of flicks. He specialized in scene-stealing appearances. Fred was also a four-time Emmy nominee for roles in What’s Hot What’s Not, Everybody Loves Raymond, Modern Family and The Bold and the Beautiful.

“`Willard’s stage career began when he moved to New York in the late 1950s, where he met future comedy partner Vic Grecco. The comedy team found some success touring, and made appearances on The Dean Martin Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Tonight Show.

“`Willard scored in 1977 and 1978 as Martin Mull’s sidekick and announcer Jerry Hubbard on Fernwood 2 Night, Forever Fernwood, and America 2-Night, which parodied late night talk shows. He also guest-starred on Get Smart, Laverne and Shirley, The Bob Newhart Show, Love American Style, The Love Boat, Mama’s Family, Friends, Roseanne, The Golden Girls, Mad About You, and The Simpsons.

“`On the big screen, he co-starred in Fun with Dick and Jane, Roxanne, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and The Wedding Planner.  He continued to frequently work until weeks before his passing.

“`Fred Willard (above) was eighty-six.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

Manny P. here…

“`It was the Summer of 1967. A local show on KHJ Channel 9 in Los Angeles was about to debut four nights a week, right after the Million Dollar Movie. Shrimpenstein was a Soupy Sales-like puppet program that featured slapstick comedy skits and horror movie clips.

“`The hosts were Gene Moss  (Dr. Von Schtick with a very bad Boris Karloff accent) and Jim Thurman. Shrimpenstein was a miniature Frankenstein’s monster  (a ventriloquist dummy). Wilfred the Weenie Wolf did the spots for Hormel Wieners, one of the program sponsors. He lived in a box like Thing from The Addams Family. Also featured, the Tijuana Bats that lip-synched popular songs.

“`The descriptions I just provided are from others who were fans of the program.  I personally never saw the show.  The weekend before its debut on Channel 9, our television went on the fritz. My dad promised us a new color television, but we did not get it for three months. June… July… August… Summer without a television was absolutely cruel. I was only ten years of age.

“`A transistor radio became my constant companion. KHJ and KRLA churned out Top 40 hits and The Real Don Steele and Humble Harv were my pals. Some of my personal favorite tunes were introduced to me during that fateful Summer… Windy, Light My Fire, Penny Lane, Ode to Billy Joe, Happy Together. My relationship with radio would never end.

“`I was thrilled when my dad finally delivered on that color television in September. However, Shrimpenstein had been cancelled the week before. And so it goes…

Until next time>                               “never forget”