jdb1

> The childhood incident in question affected his > eyes. As his popularity slowly grew, he went from > being reprehensible baddie to lovable baddie. > > > Jack Elam! > http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001181/bio Jack Elam it is. He was jabbed in the eye with a pencil at a Boy Scout meeting, which cost him his vision, and gave him that louche look, so desirable in a villain. His oft-quoted quip, summarizing his career, is "Who's Jack Elam. Get me Jack Elam. I want a Jack Elam type. I want a young Jack Elam. Who's Jack Elam?"

Florence Bates is right! I don't know what to do with you people -- if it's too arcane you complain, and if it's too easy you complain. I guess we should issue disclaimers at the start about the level of difficulty, like they do in crossword puzzle books. Anyway, Bates was quite a woman, and was among the first (some sources say the first) female attorneys in the State of Texas, among many other accomplishments. You go, Bill. I'll take a level 7-8 or above, please.

I've got one for you: You've seen me in dozens of films, but probably never knew my name. I was always the rich dowager, or the battleaxe, or sometimes the landlady. My film career started when I was middle aged, and I had quite a life before that time. I was something of a child prodigy, majored in mathematics in college, was multi-lingual and had a bi-lingual local radio program, ran an antiques business, and I hold the distinction of being one of the very first, if not the first, female practitioners of a profession in my home state. I did that for a few years, but when the stock market crashed, my husband and I headed for California. I loved the theater, and I appeared in many productions at the Pasadena Playhouse, just for fun. One night I was seen by Alfred Hitchcock, who cast me in his first American film. I never stopped working after that, and even appeared in a few popular TV shows in the early 1950s. Who am I?

Sorry, Dan, it's neither one of those you mentioned. This actor played in more westerns, I think, than in any other kind of films. The childhood incident in question affected his eyes. As his popularity slowly grew, he went from being reprehensible baddie to lovable baddie. He's also known for a quip he made describing the arc of his career, a quip which just about any actor can use accurately.

Mongo, you have reminded me of a sort of infomercial I saw as a kid on TV. It featured Marge and Gower Champion, dancing and singing and urging us all to vote for Miss Rheingold. I remember part of their song: Vote, vote for Miss Rheingold, Miss Rheingold 1958. Vote, vote for Miss Rheingold, Pick out your favorite candidate. The thing went on much longer than a regular commercial, as I recall. I took such things very seriously when I was a girl. We all wanted to be Miss Rheingold, or Miss Subways (or Annette Funicello; she was born in The Bronx, so she was One Of Us).

January 10. Today's birthday: Amzie Strickland

No, that's not the one. I'm thinking of a character, not a lead, actor. He generally played heavies, but later in his career he played a more comic type of heavy. Also, the incident that happened to him was during a group activity involving other boys. I don't know if any horses were present.

Hello, fellow Trivians. A really nasty virus has been going around NYC and my household, and I've been out of commission for almost a week, first as a caregiver, and then as a victim. Nice to be back among the living. Here's a question: A popular character actor whose career spanned 50 years in film and television attributed his menacing looks, in part, to an incident which occurred during a group activity in childhood. Who is the actor, and what was the incident?

OK, Bill. Note that I said "I'm there," not "I can solve them." A little nudge, please?

Old enough to have seen Jeff Chandler movies at first run in theaters (children's ticket: 35 cents), but not yet old enough to be immune to his charms. I hope that day never comes.

Way to send an old woman to the Emergency Room, mongojoe. Now, what was that school of thought in the old days about nice Jewish boys not going in for athletics? Ira rules!!!

> jdb1: > > You hit on a good point when you mentioned the > clothes. Todays' fabrics are so light and airy, even > thos they may be cut in the old style, certain things > are dead giveaways. e.g. a mans' trousers had very > little, if any, 'give' in them which made it > absolutely necessary to tug them up at the > thighs before sitting. Walking in the sunshine (sing > a little sunshine song, ahem, sorry), was nearly > impossible in June with a woolen suit jacket on, you > would be wringing wet within minutes. Girls swished > in their petticoats, so it was a long time before > they lost that swish when straight skirts came back > into fashion, and only 'bad' girls left their top > button undone on a blouse. > > Most important is language, again I have to use > Brokeback Mountain as an example - it was 100% wrong. > They used 90's phrases and words supposedly in the > 60's, and as movies are audio as well as visual, the > mood is broken when you hear 'No way' or that one > phrase "I can't stop . . . you" (can't remember > exactly what the words are, but it is a 90's > phrasing, not a 60's. > > Anne You know, Anne, I remember as a little girl asking my mother, as we were watching an old film (with Stanwyck, I think) why the women walked so funny, and she denied that they were. I understand now it was because of the shoes, which were constructed a bit differently from the way they are done now. As for language - part of the problem is that 18-year-olds are writing the scripts these days. I've said it before: people did not say "YESSSSS!!!" in triumph before the 1970s. Nor did they generally say "All Right!" in the 1930s and/or 40s, the way we use it now. I personally never heard the phrase "no way" until I heard it on the TV show "Dallas." I didn't understand what was meant by it. Maybe it was used in places outside NYC before that? Another thing usually wrong is the depiction of men's facial hair, and the absence of hats for both men and women in modern films trying to be "period." I recently re-read "The Lost Weekend," and in it, when Don is on a bus coming home from his vain attempt to sell his typewriter, he feels self-conscious, because he forgot to put his hat on before he left the house (and this, after decribing the oppressive heat of the Fall day, and how much he was sweating on his trek up Third Avenue).

Oh, please stop it, you're killing me! If anyone posts a photo of Chandler with his shirt off, I won't be held responsible!! I'm much too old to be exposed to such things any more.

Yes, looks quite the "Jack the Lad" as they say in England. And so he was, too.

You fooled me with this one - I didn't even look at it til now. Let's see: They all have public places named after them? They are all on postage stamps? They all worked with Hitchcock? 2/3 of the group were Canadian? They all had a glass eye? (Well, at least Cronyn did - that's the only thing I know for sure about these three gentlemen.)

A January 3 birthday: Ray Milland

January 3. Today's birthday: Anna May Wong

Correct! Ahn was of Korean heritage, but for most of his career played either Chinese or Japanese characters. This was due in part to the fact that there was not a large Korean presence in the U.S., aside from the West Coast, so that there were not many Korean characters written into movie and TV stories. Even in Korean War movies, the bad guys were generally the Red Chinese. This changed with "MASH," of course, and Ahn was in several episodes of that program, as well as being on Hawaii Five-O. He was also one of the monks on "Kung Fu." Ahn has the distinction of reputedly being the first American citizen born to a Korean couple in America. He was born in 1905, and his mother had been one of the first Korean women legally permitted into the country. His father was a well-regarded Korean artist. This was during the time of immigration laws that largely excluded Asian families from entering the country. A most interesting and erudite man, was Mr. Phillip Ahn. Got one, Bill?

I was home sick one day just a few months ago, and I saw that very film on TCM, which I really enjoyed. Barbara Stanwyck was the mail-order bride, and George Brent was her husband. It's called "The Purchase Price" (1932). Stanwyck looked beautiful, and she was very good in this. Being pre-code, it was a bit raunchier than the later films, especially one scene where Stanwyck is on the train to her new husband (Idaho? Montana? North Dakota?) and listens to some other mail-order wives discussing men. The discussion leader is Mae Busch. It was really funny, and nothing like any conversation you'd hear in films a few years later (it ws of the Mae West variety, actually). My only quibble with the movie is that it ended rather abruptly. The fire in question was actually in the wheat field Stanwyck and Brent worked so hard to cultivate. It was started by the big man in town, who had designs on Stanwyck, but she wouldn't go for it. They managed to put the fire out, and then - "The End." Not much in the way of the closure we expect these days. Anyway, it's worth a look.

Both good guesses, but both wrong. This gentleman was on a very popular TV show of the 70s which featured many Asian-America actors, but he was never anyone's Number One (or Two) Son. Remember that I've said although this gentleman was of Asian background, for most of his career he rarely got to play a character who was of the same "national origin" as himself. There was a reason for this, but it had more to do with politics than with casting. The distinction he holds has to do with this as well.

Hours have gone by, and no takers. Here's another clue: This actor was in countless war films, especially in the 1940s. He frequently had the same kind of scenes with American GIs, where he remarked on their surprise at his command of English, and told them that he was a graduate of one or another prestigious American university. He was all too often cast in roles which must have cost no small crisis of conscience for him to play, but which were considered part of the "war effort." Remember, he was Asian-American.

Mona the Monkey (far left) with Robinson Crusoe, and Friday, on Mars.

Mona Freeman (she was NYC's "Miss Subways" in 1941).

Mona Washbourne

A January 2 birthday: Florence Lawrence. She was the "Biograph Girl" in that studio's earliest days, and was the first silent film actor to be credited by name.