coopsgirl

*Sweet? No! Innocent? HA! Beautiful? Okay, score one for you.* At least there?s something we can agree on . *And seriously back, that's one of the best photos I have seen of Coop. I like his serious, unshaven look.* I usually like the serious pics of him the best and he looks great with a little five o?clock shadow but this one is bordering on kinda creepy so I?ll have to just continue to ignore this one. *Oh, crap! That story just proved you are sweet. That was lovely.* Yesterday would have been his oldest kid?s birthday in ?92. I remember b/c it was my freshman year and the due date was Mr. Smith?s birthday and he kept joking that he didn?t want to share his birthday, not even with his own kid. We all pitched in and bought him (it turned out to be a boy) a high chair. See how sweet Texans can be . Man, that means his little boy is now old enough to be driving! Where does the time go? *You have zero shot at "innocent," though.* I?m a good girl I am!! Sort of .

I?ve been thinking all day that Nov 17th seemed like it should be something and it finally came to me. Today is my old band director?s birthday. His name was Mr. Smith and he was one of my favorite teachers. I started band (played the flute) in 5th grade and when I got to junior high (it was 7th and 8th grade in my school) we had a terrible director and we learned nothing from him. He got fired and they hired Mr. Smith and he was our director in 8th grade. He was shocked at how far behind we were and he was also a young teacher (mid 20s) and this was only his second teaching position and he had a lot of work to do but he did eventually whip us into shape. The next year he got promoted to the high school so he moved up with us. He could be pretty tough on us but he also encouraged us when we did well so pretty much everybody really liked him. We did very well at the concert contests we participated in every year when I was in high school and we greatly improved at the marching part too. For a small band (about 40 people) we did pretty good with what we had. We won more of our contests than our football team won games . One of the most fun things we got to do one year was throw pies at him. I think the deal was something like whoever sold the most band candy got to throw pies and I was always one of the top sellers and I gotta tell you, it?s just as much fun as it looks in the movies. He stayed on there for a couple more years after I graduated then in kind of an ironic twist, he went to work for the company who made the candy we sold every year. It paid better and by that point he and his wife had two kids so it was a better option. It?s hard not to imagine him as a band director but wherever you are and whatever you?re doing Mr. Smith, I hope you?re having a happy birthday!

I found that one a good while back but I guess I didn?t post it, probably b/c he does look scary and not in a kinda crazy, sexy way, but just flat out scary. He does actually use that thing on somebody in the movie and it?s pretty gross.

*Hey! I wasn't going to touch you. I just wanted some more BBQ!* Now that Gary knows it was you who tried to attack his sweet and innocent (not to mention beautiful ) girlfriend, he?s gunning for ya! *Coop was the greatest talentless hack* Now you?ve really made him mad and you know what that means? That?s right, it?s the meat hook for you. Seriously, this is one of the only pics of him I don?t like b/c he actually kinda looks like a homicidal maniac and that just ain?t right. (I can?t see youtube at work so I?ll have to watch the video when I get home. I can imagine it?s something crazy.) Message was edited by: coopsgirl

*It's actually going to be interesting to see what happens in the Obama administration.* Interesting is one word for it . No matter who won, I wouldn?t want to be that guy for the next four years. What a mess they have to deal with. Thankfully here in Texas we?re not really feeling the effects of it too much yet. Our state is run very well and we are in no danger of needing a bailout like several others. I?m sure it will eventually hit us too though but probably not as severe as places like California. Of course there are some silver linings to all this. Gas prices continue to drop dramatically which is great and also b/c of that, Iran probably won?t have the money to pursue their nuke program which is also good news. On a more lighthearted note, I finally had a dream where Gary saved me from something. Usually Theresa has the damsel in distress dreams and I?m so jealous . I was at my grandma?s and everybody was there and we were having a bbq. They were all in the backyard and I walked over to the driveway in the front of the house for something and this vagrant guy came by and he grabbed me and took me the bed of one of the pickups parked there and was trying to rape me. He had his hand over my mouth but finally he moved it for a second and I got a chance to scream. Gary, who was my boyfriend, was there and when he heard me screaming he came running. The guy saw him and he ran off. Gary helped me out of the truck and took me to the backyard and sat down beside me and I was crying and shaking and he was holding me and telling me it would be alright. He looked like he did in *Garden of Evil*. I didn?t like the whole being molested bit, but it was worth it to be saved by my hero :x.

I read another article too that talked about how when he was 16 he led the cattle drive from their ranch to where they would be sold. Usually his older brother did it but this was in 1917 and he was fighting in WWI along with most of their other ranch hands so Gary and his mom did most of the work around there during those couple of years as his Dad was in the state?s supreme court at the time and he was usually busy in Helena. They said the people he sold the cattle to were surprised to see him b/c they were expecting Arthur but that Gary did a great job, like he had done it a million times before. There was another one too where this guy was writing an article for a mag on several different actors and Gary was one of them. He knew his reputation for being pretty tight lipped and he wanted a good story out of Gary so he made up something and told him he was gonna publish it and he just needed Gary to okay it. Well he wouldn?t b/c it was made up and then they got to talking and Gary told him the kind of story from his days in Montana that the guy wanted. But after he told it, he asked him not to publish it b/c he didn?t want people to think badly of one of the guys in the story. So the interviewer asked him if he was still alive and Gary said no and then the guy asked him if he had any kids and he said no so the interviewer said there was nothing to worry about b/c there wouldn?t be a libel suit or anything like that. Gary still said he didn?t want him to publish it b/c the guy did have some good qualities and he didn?t want people to think badly of him. So he didn?t publish it. How cool is that?! Just when I think I can?t love the man anymore, I do :x. There was another cute one from ?31 where the woman doing the interview met him at the studio and they had lunch in the commissary and he was wearing his cute buckskin outfit from Fighting Caravans. She said she could only imagine the reaction that would have gotten at the Ritz, but at the commissary he blended in with all the other people wearing their movie outfits. She did make mention though of his beautiful bronze chest that you could see quite well in that shirt ? ha! It was so funny b/c she said he looked very longingly at a steak one of the waiters brought by their table, then he ordered poached eggs on toast. She picked on him and said that didn?t sound like hearty cowboy chow and joked with him and asked if he was watching his figure. He said he knew he could stand some extra calories but said if he ate a heavy lunch he?d just fall asleep. That?s around the time he lost all that weight and got jaundice so I can imagine how much he wanted that steak. She said it was kinda hard to interview him b/c she?d ask a question and then he?d take a long time to answer. She said she didn?t know if he hadn?t heard her or if he just didn?t want to answer until she realized he was just carefully thinking over his answers. Here?s what floored me though. At one point he said ?I know I?m not handsome, not as the standard of typical masculine beauty goes?. I?m surprised she didn?t get up and slap him! I don?t what was considered good looking before he came along but it couldn?t have been much good (not too many lookers in the early movie days) and it definitely changed afterwards, that?s for sure. There was another one too where they were talking about how nice he was to everybody. One young woman, Martha Scott was her name I think, had just come from Broadway in ?42 to make a movie and she was at the same studio as Gary and he had been her fave for years. So she?s walking along at the studio one day and she hears somebody behind her say ?Aren?t you Martha Scott?? she said she was surprised anybody had recognized her and she said yes. Then she turns around and it?s Gary and he said he had seen her in Our Town in New York (she got her movie contract based on how well she did in that one) and she was great and that he hoped she would enjoy her time at the studio. She said she couldn?t believe her movie idol had said that to her and that she didn?t faint right away but did a few minutes later in the commissary. I can just imagine she?s at her table in the commissary and she passes out and somebody says ?dang it, Gary must have talked to this one too? ? ha! I sure wish I could remember stuff like how to do laundry as well as I could remember stuff I?ve read one time about Gary .

*Lilac Time* will be showing in Chicago on Nov 23rd for anyone who may happen to be near there. It?s the 80th anniversary of a theater there and the first movie they showed was *Lilac Time* so they are screening it for both the theater and the films 80th anniversaries. In the listing they said this was Gary?s first lead role but they?re off by about a year; it was *Arizona Bound* in ?27 . http://www.silentfilmchicago.com/SFSCevents.htm A couple of weeks ago I won an awesome Gary clipping packet on ebay with 250 something pieces including articles, pics, and movie pressbooks. I actually won two that same size from the same seller but they had recently moved and couldn?t find the second one. I got a refund for it but I would have rather had the item. Anyway, the one I got had tons of great stuff in it and little by little, I?ll scan and post it. I?ll probably post them at Kim?s board and then just put the links here to save some space. I gotta go ahead and tell y?all something that I read in one of the articles yesterday. It was from the 30s and the person writing the article was talking to a woman who was from Helena and she grew up with Gary and knew him and his family. She was talking about how during one of the summers when he was a tour guide at Yellowstone, a couple of women fell about 300 feet over a cliff and died. They asked for volunteers to go down and get the bodies and Gary said he would do it. So they lowered him over the side on a rope two times and he brought both of them back up. She said he didn?t really like to talk about it and would just say ?somebody had to do it?. He would have only been around 18-20 years old then. To me, that?s very impressive at such a young age to take on quite an awful task. I?m inclined to believe this story b/c the woman seemed pretty normal. She wasn?t trying to make a bigger deal out of herself like saying she was his girlfriend or best friend or anything like that. She also got a lot of basic facts about him right like where he went to college and stuff like that that many other articles often got wrong. It was cute b/c she also said all the girls liked him b/c he was so handsome and pleasant and the guys liked him b/c he was straight (this cracks me up b/c then they didn?t mean your sexual preference but your character) and never backed down from a difficult task; that?s what led into the Yellowstone story. I tell you, if there ever was a real life Will Kane, it was Gary :x.

I wish I could see *Lilac Time* on the big screen and I hope everyone who does get to see it enjoys it. Hopefully it will be a good print. It is possible that *Wings* will be out on dvd next year and it may even be in blu-ray as well although I?m not sure about that. A lot of the members from the Home Theater Forum group recently took a tour of all the major studios and had Q&A sessions with the home video departments and one of them who went to the Paramount session posted that it would be released so let?s hope they are right. Karin, I second the thanks for the beautiful *Lilac Time* still. :x

It's no trouble I got *Christmas in Connecticut* and *Nosferatu* copied but I couldn't get *Caligari* to copy. I don't have a very good print of that one anyway but the other two look good. I'll get them out to you sometime this week.

That's very sweet of you Kim. I have Christmas in Connecticut, Caligari and Nosferatu. The last two are real dvd's but I should be able to burn them.

*Coop needs his rest because Dream Girl tires him out every night.* It's his fault for being so dang irresistable!! We had another pleasant escapade last night when we met up at our 10 year high school reunion. He looked like he did in *Doomsday* - yummy . He probably won't get any rest tonight either b/c I got my hair trimmed again today and if the pattern holds, that means another dream about Roberto . Poor thing, he looks kinda worn out already .

I was gonna say too how much I like her hair in *Morocco* and also her eyebrows are in the right place. It may be silly, but I don?t watch *Desire*, her other film with Gary as much as some of his others b/c her eyebrows are just too distracting and frankly, a little scary in that one. I?m not crazy about her, but she was a good actress. Going along with the thing about her taking care of John Gilbert, she also did a lot to try and get Jews in the German film industry out of the country leading up to and during the war. She, along with other people in Hollywood who she worked with, would get them jobs here since they were in the same industry and it worked as a good excuse to get them out of there. I agree with everyone else who said Gary is the kind of trouble a girl doesn't mind getting into :x.

I think Anna Sten got a bad rap. Goldwyn hyped her up so much and for so long before she made her debut in an American film, that she just couldn?t live up to it. I?ve only seen her in *The Wedding Night* which I think was the last film she made for Goldwyn, and she wasn?t bad at all. I recorded *Come and Get It* too b/c of Edward Arnold and I can?t wait to watch it. I?m used to seeing him in more of a supporting role and he?s one of my fave character actors, so it will be nice to see him as the star along with Joel McCrea and Walter Brennan who were great too. I haven?t seen much of Frances Farmer so I?m excited to see her performance. She had such a tragic life though that it?s hard to watch her and not think about it. I also recorded *Nana* (with Sten) and *The Masquerador* with Ronald Colman so I?m in for some good movie watching .

*That was a very cute dream. But something tells me you wouldn't let a little fish stop you from getting close to Gary.* I?m pretty sure if he wanted to slap me across the face with that slimy octopus or any other type of fish, I would let him provided of course he lets me love up on him afterwards . *Maybe that?s why I dream about Gary so much; he?s just trying his best to heat me up .* *I believe he's succeeding.* I do get flushed and hot sometimes when watching his movies, or seeing pics of him, or just thinking about him . German expressionist silent films are also some of my fave silents and I tell you, if you want to get strange looks from people, just find a way to work that into a conversation. Other person: Hey have you seen the latest Vin Diesel/Ashton Kutcher/all other talentless hack?s new movie? Me: No, but I did see a great German expressionist silent horror film the other day. Other person: I?ll see ya later (as they back away slowly, then turn and run)

*I hope Will shows up because that means Little Lamby will be all alone.* Sorry, he looked more like Roberto last night. It was early morning and we were on the bank of a river fishing and I actually managed to catch a pretty good sized fish (in real life, I?m terrible at it). I got freaked out though when I reeled it in b/c I didn?t want it to touch me (that?s true in dreams and real life) and he was laughing at me as he ?rescued? me from it and got it off the hook. Then it took a weird turn, as my dreams usually do, when he caught a baby octopus. He was teasing me threatening to touch me with it and I ran off. I love you Gary, but if you put a nasty fish on me I will leave you . *Just so long as the gal ain't from Texas. Those gals are cold, and some are downright icy.* I know you joke about this but here?s some proof we can be pretty chilly. I went to get a flu shot a few days ago and they take your temperature before they give it to you b/c you can?t get it if you have a fever. No problem there as my temp was 96.4. The nurse said ?running a little cold huh?? My mom?s temp is usually below normal and so is mine but it?s still usually in the 97 or 98 range. I don?t remember it ever being that low. I?m am kinda cold natured though. Maybe that?s why I dream about Gary so much; he?s just trying his best to heat me up .

You are going to love Paris!!! I have had the good fortune to go there twice and it was just wonderful both times. Everyone was very friendly to me and it's just a beautiful place. Two of my favorite things are trinkets I bought in Paris (and the Loire Valley). One is a cute handmade wooden music box that plays Greensleeves and I found it in a cute little out of the way shop. I had read about it in my travel guide and I was trying to find it and it started raining pretty hard and I was just about to give up and go back to my hotel to dry off when I finally found it. The other is a beautiful little round Limoges trinket box thing I bought at Chateau Chennonceau that had a pic of the chateau painted on the top. I hope you find something special to always remember your trip by . Frank, will you please stop posting pics of that woman in her skivvies! I'm about to go to bed and I don't want to dream about her. Let's see, who will it be tonight; Will Kane or Robert Jordan? Roberto has been giving Will a run for his money lately showing up in more and more of my Gary dreams. Either way, I win .

Yay!!! I think you'll like them both. *Fighting Caravans* is a pretty fun movie. Lily Damita and Gary made a cute, fiesty couple. I love the two old guys who helped raise Gary's character in that one, they're cute .

Hey Wendy, Here's a little incentive to watch *Morocco* again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4KIHg__WmE Oh how I wish I could be that apple!!! :x

*that means sharing sis! just in case you were wondering.* Okay, well if you don't want to share him then I'll just keep him all to myself . I had another dream about Gary as Robert Jordan from *FWTBT* last night and it's the second time after getting a haircut that I?ve had dreamed about him that way. I guess it's b/c my hair is cut short kinda like Ingrid Bergman?s in the movie (but it does look slightly better - ha!). In this one I was back in high school and I was probably around Ingrid's characters age (about 19) and I was sitting around with some of my friends when all the sudden Gary comes in wearing his Roberto outfit. He walks past them and came right up to me and smiled and then picked me up and carried me away. Everybody else was jealous and I was so happy that he had picked me. Then the next thing I know we?re hanging out by some railroad tracks in the middle of the woods somewhere and he?s being real sweet to me and we start kissing and basically that was the rest of the dream. We?d talk a while then kiss a while, etc?. At one point we did have to hide underneath the railroad tressel from the bad guys or something and then we'd start kissing again.

"If you'd be a little nicer to me I wouldn't need these books." Dont' worry Gary, if she won't be nice to you I know several other girls who will . I like *The General Died at Dawn* but it is a weird movie. The best way to describe it is strangely hypnotic.

John Mulholland sent me a copy of the Cooper/Hemingway doc and I have to tell y?all; it is fantastic . He did an amazing job. He said it was alright for me to send y?all copies and I tried to copy it yesterday but it won?t work. It hung up a few times on my regular dvd player (it?s just a dvd-r copy) but it played fine on my blu-ray player. It has a few tiny scratches, nothing major but I guess it?s enough that my PC won?t read it. It won?t even recognize it when I put it in my computer. I debated whether I should even tell y?all or not b/c I know how bad everybody wants to see it, but I just couldn?t hold it in and I wanted to let y?all know how good it?s gonna be. The version he sent me is 2:30 but they want him to cut it down to two hours. He?s having a hard time doing it and I can see why, I can?t see anything that needs to be cut. The time went by very fast and it really doesn?t need to be changed at all. Hopefully whatever gets cut will end up as some bonus stuff on the real dvd release. They also want him to write a coffee table book to go along with it and he?s working on that right now but that part hasn?t been completely worked out yet so it could fall through. I hope not though as that would be nice to have too. Sam Waterston did the narration and he did a really good job. Maria?s husband, Byron Janis, wrote the music for it and it?s really great too. It?s almost spooky sometimes how many similarities there were between Gary and Hemingway?s lives. One thing I thought was freaky was how they both had major career resurgences at the same time with *High Noon* for Gary and *Old Man and the Sea* for Hemingway. They both won top honors for those (Oscar for Gary and a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize for Hemingway) which put them firmly back on top of their respective fields. One of the things I liked the best were all the home movies John used. Nearly all of them were in color too and that was really cool to see. Of course, seeing Gary in color is always great . I don?t wanna give too much away but I will say we get an even more complete picture of Gary and his life and it will just make you love him even more, if that?s even possible.

Here's a pic from *Unconquered* that I won on ebay. A color pic of the cast from *Ball of Fire*.

*Is it true there's a local bat-watch to see them fly out of their caves in Austin?* Yes, we have the largest urban bat colony in North America with about 1.5 million bats at it's peak in the summer when they have their babies. They live under the Congress Avenue bridge (this is the main street of the downtown area and it ends at the capital building which I work about about a block away from). Here they are flying near the Frost Bank tower, the beautiful art deco style building on the right.

*That's probably the best way to look at it. I still think about it in terms of the place where Seinfeld went to visit his parents.* You and me both sister! I love how before they moved to Del Boca Vista, they lived at the Pines of Clark Gables - too funny!! I saw a commercial yesterday for a Seinfeld version of one of the Scene It dvd trivia games. That would be awesome but with my freakishly super knowledge of that show, I doubt I could ever get anybody to play it with me .

Gary?s version seems to be the most popular and successful of the bunch so most people probably think of that one when they think of *Beau Geste*. I?d like to the see the spoof version. I love most spoof movies and I bet that one is pretty good. Unfortunately *Beau Sabreur* is a lost film but we can hope that maybe it will show up somewhere someday. Here?s a pic of Gary from that one in all his 27 year old glory .