route66
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Posts posted by route66
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*North to Alaska*
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> Does anyone else find it uncomfortably ironic that Landis enjoys a movie about decapitation?
Well, yes, actually. But I'm not going to lose my head over it!
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Green Mansions
And Happy St. Patrick's Day to you too! B-)
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(Also posted in In Memoriam thread)
Coy Watson Jr. dies at 96; one of nine silent-era sibling actors
By Valerie J. Nelson
5:29 PM PDT, March 16, 2009
Coy Watson Jr., who was the eldest in a family of nine child actors and whose book, "The Keystone Kid," recounted a silent-film career that began in 1913, has died. He was 96.
Watson, who became a news photographer and television cameraman, died Saturday of complications from stomach cancer in Alpine, Calif., where he lived, his nephew Daniel Watson said.
By the late 1930s, Watson and his eight siblings had appeared in more than 1,000 movies. Their careers were almost an accident of geography because their family home was in Edendale, an early movie-studio enclave north of the Echo Park lake.
Mack Sennett Studios was nearby and three other studios filled out the movie colony. When Selig studios came calling, Watson -- who was born Nov. 16, 1912 -- was 9 months old.
The studio needed a baby for a short film, "The Price of Silence," and promised to pay the infant $5 for a day's work. Because the Edendale neighborhood was not yet wired for electricity, his scene was shot on a bedroom set built to take advantage of the sun.
James Caughey "Coy" Watson Jr. would go on to appear in so many of Sennett's Keystone Cops comedies that he earned a nickname: "the Keystone Kid."
By the time he was 18, Watson had made about 60 motion pictures, including "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) with Lon Chaney, "Buttons" (1927) with Jackie Coogan and "Show People" (1928) with Marion Davies.
His father, Coy Watson Sr., broke horses for cowboy stars and created special effects, notably the flying carpet Douglas Fairbanks used in the 1924 film "The Thief of Bagdad." Eventually, Watson's father gave up his career to manage those of his six sons and three daughters.
When a director would say, "I need a child for a movie. Do you have one?" the senior Watson was said to respond: "What size and what sex?"
In "The Keystone Kid," the junior Watson wrote of a childhood spent watching cowboys congregate on a street corner, hoping to get work. He recalled actress Gloria Swanson stopping in at the family home to iron her skirt between scenes and building a treehouse with his best friend on the Sennett lot.
"Acting to our family was not a business," Watson told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2002. "It was our life. We never knew anything but the movies."
Watson's mother, Golda, washed and ironed actors' costumes. His brother Delmar was Shirley Temple's goat-herding friend in "Heidi" (1937). Delmar and three other Watsons played sons of Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939). His brother Bobs, who had an MGM contract, was the endearing Pee Wee in "Boys Town" (1938) with Spencer Tracy.
After talkies came into vogue, Watson had parts in several more films. But the boy who made 13 movies in 1927 no longer enjoyed the process.
The advent of sound in films "scared the dickens out of everybody," Watson said in the 2002 Union-Tribune interview. "We used to have fun making pictures. But when sound came in you couldn't drop a pin."
He turned to another family business -- photography -- that he first discovered in a class held by the Boy Scouts.
His grandfather, James Watson, shot pictures of Buffalo Bill riding up Broadway in 1904. His uncle, George Watson, was hired as The Times' first full-time news photographer in 1917 and later founded Acme News Pictures, a forerunner of United Press Photos and training ground for the Watson boys.
In junior high, Coy built a darkroom at home and "made a few nickels and dimes" taking photographs of his classmates, he later said. After graduating from high school, he joined the Pacific and Atlantic photo news service.
In 1932, he covered the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for Acme and photographed future president Franklin D. Roosevelt's visit to the city the same year.
In the ensuing years, Watson took pictures for a number of newspapers that have long since vanished. His photographs also appeared in The Times.
During World War II, he was one of four Watson brothers to serve as a Coast Guard cameraman, running a Coast Guard photography unit in San Diego.
All six brothers worked as press, newsreel or television photographers after the war. Watson became a cameraman for KTLA Channel 5 and for CBS on the West Coast. He also spent time at ABC and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, according to a family biography.
With Erskine Johnson, an actor who wrote a Hollywood column for the Daily News, Watson made ?Hollywood Reel.? The television program, filmed in 1949 and 1950, featured dozens of interviews with celebrities.
Of a life spent on both sides of the camera, Watson once said, "The motion picture business was something that if you liked it, it was your life. And that's the way it was with me."
His brother Delmar, who founded the Watson Family Photographic Archive that oversees the family's trove of photos, died in October at 82.
Three of the Watson siblings survive: Louise Roberts, 89, Billy Watson, 85, and Garry Watson, 80.
Coy Watson Jr. is also survived by his wife, Willie; a daughter, Pattie Watson Price of Alpine; a son, James Caughey "Jim" Watson III of Perth, Australia; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be private.
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Coy Watson Jr. dies at 96; one of nine silent-era sibling actors
By Valerie J. Nelson
5:29 PM PDT, March 16, 2009
Coy Watson Jr., who was the eldest in a family of nine child actors and whose book, "The Keystone Kid," recounted a silent-film career that began in 1913, has died. He was 96.
Watson, who became a news photographer and television cameraman, died Saturday of complications from stomach cancer in Alpine, Calif., where he lived, his nephew Daniel Watson said.
By the late 1930s, Watson and his eight siblings had appeared in more than 1,000 movies. Their careers were almost an accident of geography because their family home was in Edendale, an early movie-studio enclave north of the Echo Park lake.
Mack Sennett Studios was nearby and three other studios filled out the movie colony. When Selig studios came calling, Watson -- who was born Nov. 16, 1912 -- was 9 months old.
The studio needed a baby for a short film, "The Price of Silence," and promised to pay the infant $5 for a day's work. Because the Edendale neighborhood was not yet wired for electricity, his scene was shot on a bedroom set built to take advantage of the sun.
James Caughey "Coy" Watson Jr. would go on to appear in so many of Sennett's Keystone Cops comedies that he earned a nickname: "the Keystone Kid."
By the time he was 18, Watson had made about 60 motion pictures, including "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1923) with Lon Chaney, "Buttons" (1927) with Jackie Coogan and "Show People" (1928) with Marion Davies.
His father, Coy Watson Sr., broke horses for cowboy stars and created special effects, notably the flying carpet Douglas Fairbanks used in the 1924 film "The Thief of Bagdad." Eventually, Watson's father gave up his career to manage those of his six sons and three daughters.
When a director would say, "I need a child for a movie. Do you have one?" the senior Watson was said to respond: "What size and what sex?"
In "The Keystone Kid," the junior Watson wrote of a childhood spent watching cowboys congregate on a street corner, hoping to get work. He recalled actress Gloria Swanson stopping in at the family home to iron her skirt between scenes and building a treehouse with his best friend on the Sennett lot.
"Acting to our family was not a business," Watson told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2002. "It was our life. We never knew anything but the movies."
Watson's mother, Golda, washed and ironed actors' costumes. His brother Delmar was Shirley Temple's goat-herding friend in "Heidi" (1937). Delmar and three other Watsons played sons of Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939). His brother Bobs, who had an MGM contract, was the endearing Pee Wee in "Boys Town" (1938) with Spencer Tracy.
After talkies came into vogue, Watson had parts in several more films. But the boy who made 13 movies in 1927 no longer enjoyed the process.
The advent of sound in films "scared the dickens out of everybody," Watson said in the 2002 Union-Tribune interview. "We used to have fun making pictures. But when sound came in you couldn't drop a pin."
He turned to another family business -- photography -- that he first discovered in a class held by the Boy Scouts.
His grandfather, James Watson, shot pictures of Buffalo Bill riding up Broadway in 1904. His uncle, George Watson, was hired as The Times' first full-time news photographer in 1917 and later founded Acme News Pictures, a forerunner of United Press Photos and training ground for the Watson boys.
In junior high, Coy built a darkroom at home and "made a few nickels and dimes" taking photographs of his classmates, he later said. After graduating from high school, he joined the Pacific and Atlantic photo news service.
In 1932, he covered the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for Acme and photographed future president Franklin D. Roosevelt's visit to the city the same year.
In the ensuing years, Watson took pictures for a number of newspapers that have long since vanished. His photographs also appeared in The Times.
During World War II, he was one of four Watson brothers to serve as a Coast Guard cameraman, running a Coast Guard photography unit in San Diego.
All six brothers worked as press, newsreel or television photographers after the war. Watson became a cameraman for KTLA Channel 5 and for CBS on the West Coast. He also spent time at ABC and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, according to a family biography.
With Erskine Johnson, an actor who wrote a Hollywood column for the Daily News, Watson made ?Hollywood Reel.? The television program, filmed in 1949 and 1950, featured dozens of interviews with celebrities.
Of a life spent on both sides of the camera, Watson once said, "The motion picture business was something that if you liked it, it was your life. And that's the way it was with me."
His brother Delmar, who founded the Watson Family Photographic Archive that oversees the family's trove of photos, died in October at 82.
Three of the Watson siblings survive: Louise Roberts, 89, Billy Watson, 85, and Garry Watson, 80.
Coy Watson Jr. is also survived by his wife, Willie; a daughter, Pattie Watson Price of Alpine; a son, James Caughey "Jim" Watson III of Perth, Australia; three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be private.
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"My heart belong to CineMaven!"
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For a second there, I almost thought Tuesday was the Duke's birthday. I believe it isn't - but thanks all the same to TCM for showing us 7 - count 'em, 7! - of the Duke's movies, from Sagebrush Trail to The Quiet Man.
Good way to spend St. Patrick's. B-)
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The Quiet Man - Tuesday, March 17 at 8pm ET.
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He was very good in "Enemies, a Love Story" (one of Paul Mazursky's best, by the way).
He'll be missed very much.
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Great poster, Kyle. Love how he's still wearing the hat while going underwater.
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I enjoyed reading that, coopsgirl! It's interesting to think of Hart as a sort of predecessor to Gary Cooper. And the whole "Treasures from The American Film Archives" boxset sounds incredibly exciting, as well!
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Tsk tsk tsk. I always did tell him, "beware the Ides of March". But he just wouldn't listen.
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Awww that looks like it's going to be a real HOT date.
Just hope she packs along an extra clip, just in case.
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RON SILVER DIES
By DAVID K. LI
March 15, 2009 --
Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post.
"Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning," said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create.
"He had been fighting esophageal cancer for two years and his family is making arrangements for a private service."
Friends of Silver first told Post columnist Cindy Adams of the native New Yorker's death.
The steely-eyed, blunt-talking Silver, 62, enjoyed a long career on the stage, TV and in movies, and most recently hosted a public affairs talk show on Sirius satellite radio.
Silver might be best known for playing legal scholar Alan Dershowitz in "Reversal of Fortune," about the successful appeal of Claus von Bulow's conviction for putting his socialite wife into a permanent coma.
Once a self-identified lifelong Democrat, Silver was a founding member of the liberal-leaning Creative Coalition in 1989. But he made a breathtaking political transformation, going from far left to radical right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, enthusiastically backing a second term for President Bush.
"Twelve years ago I was here for the Democratic convention. I was on the platform committee. Zell Miller was the keynote speaker. A lot's changed since then, I can tell you," a chuckling Silver told The Washington Post.
"If you asked me on September 10, 2001, would I consider going to the Republican National Convention and speaking, I would have thought you were from another planet and didn't know who I was."
Silver's last public appearance came on "Larry King Live" in late October just before last year's presidential election.
The actor seemed to be swinging slightly back to the left, and took a moderate, down-the-line stance on then-Sen. Barack Obama's race with GOP rival John McCain.
Silver acknowledged the GOP's failings under President Bush and seemed resigned to an oncoming landslide.
"The Republican Party, if they are out of power for a while, needs to regroup and rethink who they are as a party," he said. "This deregulation, this whole Reagan Revolution did not seem to work in this crisis."
Silver's art followed his life.
In 19 episodes of the monster political drama "The West Wing," between 2001 and 2006, Silver played hard-driving political consultant Bruno Gianelli, who brought his brash advice to mythical Democratic president Josiah "Jed" Bartlet.
The Gianelli character resurfaced in the "West Wing's" last two seasons when he - like Silver in real life - switched teams and represented a GOP presidential candidate played by Alan Alda.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03152009/news/regionalnews/ron_silver_dies_159710.htm
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> Surely not so well as the care and incessant attention lavished upon you here?
An ongoing torture thread might be considered a little too much attention...
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> Well, you have a chance to record Andy Rooney tonight on tonight's 60 Minutes.
No relation to Annie, I take it?
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>
Hope it's not too late to bring some flowers...
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Hi ruthelizabeth, welcome to the boards.
Just a little suggestion: if you could post a youtube link directly in your post, it might make it a lot easier for others to go directly to the videos you mentioned.
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John Ford didn't make a whole bunch of comedies, but one of the best ones, "The Whole Town's Talking", airs on TCM tonight at 8pm ET. It's got a great couple of leads - Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur.
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> It may be because of the rationing that took place during WWII. We all remember that sugar, meat and coffee were rationed but much more was rationed including ink, paper and a number of items used in everyday life that we pretty much take for granted.
I could be wrong about this, but I thought TikiSoo was referring to the alternated spelling ("cand" instead of "canned") rather to the fact that some stuff was being rationed at the time.
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Altovise Davis dies at 65; widow of Sammy Davis Jr.
By Claire Noland
March 15, 2009
Altovise Davis, the widow of Rat Pack singer and dancer Sammy Davis Jr., died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from a stroke, her business partner, Barrett LaRoda, said. She was 65.
Davis was surrounded at the Los Angeles hospital by friends and family, including her son, Manny Davis.
Trained as an actor and dancer, Altovise Davis met the legendary showman in the mid-1960s, when they were both appearing in Broadway musicals, he in the lead of "Golden Boy" and she in the chorus line of "High Spirits."
She successfully auditioned for a London stage production of "Golden Boy," and after its run she joined his nightclub act as a dancer.
They married at a Philadelphia courthouse in May 1970 and were together 20 years, adopting their son in 1989. Her husband died of throat cancer at age 64 on May 16, 1990, five days after their 20th wedding anniversary.
Altovise Davis had a difficult time after her husband's death. He owed a reported $7 million in income tax, and to satisfy the Internal Revenue Service, his mansion on Summit Drive in Beverly Hills was sold. Jewelry, memorabilia and other personal items were auctioned.
She struggled with alcoholism, moved to Pennsylvania and went through an alcohol treatment program, she told Essence magazine in 2004.
Once the tax liability was settled in 1997, Davis set about restoring her husband's legacy. She helped organize a musical touring show called "Mr. Bojangles: The Ultimate Entertainer" in 2006.
She was born Altovise Gore on Aug. 30, 1943, grew up in Brooklyn and attended New York's High School of Performing Arts.
When she met Sammy Davis, his career had reached its peak. A vaudeville performer as a child, he had become a consummate entertainer, singing, dancing and acting on stage, in film and on TV. With Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, he was part of the Rat Pack, the raucous group of nightclub entertainers that electrified Las Vegas during the filming of 1960's "Ocean's Eleven."
His first two marriages, to dancer Loray White and Swedish actress May Britt, ended in divorce.
After Sammy and Altovise married, she became active with several philanthropic organizations in Los Angeles. She performed at many benefit programs, particularly for SHARE Inc., a nonprofit group that raises money for developmentally disabled, abused and neglected children.
She had occasional guest appearances on such TV shows as "CHiPs" and "Charlie's Angels" and had minor roles in films, including "Can't Stop the Music" (1980).
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They both look adorable! :x
Off Topic: Favorite Music?
in Your Favorites
Posted