ValeskaSuratt
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Posts posted by ValeskaSuratt
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Thank you, Herr Professor.
In the tradition of the Navajo's meticulous rug-weavers, I too always make sure to include one mistake to symbolize the fact that life is imperfect ...
Or, as PeeWee Herman so eloquently equivocated: "I MEANT to do that !"
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RPMay,
Would you by any chance know if there's enough footage available that a full hour-long TCM documentary about Lee Tracy might one day be possible -- especially any interviews he may have done ? (Unlikely, I realize, since he died in 1968 and so probably did not chat with the likes of Mike Douglas or Dick Cavett ...)
It just seems -- based on only a few minutes of Googling -- like Tracy was not only a witty, energetic performer, he was also a very ... shall we say "colorful" character ? ... whose career might be ripe for re-discovery and whose personal life would likely appeal to modern audiences who revel in the drunken exploits and raucous misbehavior of their idols.
It's just a thought ... (or, more accurately, a half-baked pipe dream ... )
Thanks for your efforts to preserve Tracy's legacy.
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Oh, Fred, Fred, Fred ...
> "How could Elvis have done any better than he actually did?"
Maybe by not dying at only 42 as a result of his drug addiction ??? That's hardly the mark of a happy, successful person.
> "He made as many as 3 films a year, and recorded hundreds and hundreds of songs, and he became very very rich."
Elvis worked constantly and earned a LOT of money, but for a number of reasons (including his profligate spending, his natural generosity AND Colonel Parker's sticky fingers) he was never "very very rich."According to Alanna Nash, author of TWO Elvis biographies (both exhaustively-researched AND backed up by interviews with people who were around Elvis virtually 24/7 for many years):
"When Elvis left the building on August 16, 1977, he was mired in financial quagmires, and sometimes resorted to mortgaging Graceland to make his payroll. Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager, advanced the estate $1 million to make it look as if Elvis had some cash in his depleted checking account. In truth, the singer's years of gargantuan spending sprees (Cadillacs for strangers, houses for girlfriends, and an arsenal of guns for his cohorts) had left him strapped, as had his 1973 divorce from his wife, Priscilla ...
*"'It was a shock to all of us' that Elvis had left so little money* Priscilla said years later."
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20040108a1.asp
Elvis' entire estate, including Graceland and all rights and publishing, was valued at only around $3 million. Ironically, it was thanks largely to Priscilla that Elvis spent so many years atop Forbes' list of top-earning dead celebrities -- in 2011 alone, his estate raked in $55 million.
However, becoming "very very rich" only when you're not around to enjoy it anymore is an awfully tragic definition of success.
> "I think Parker made a great success out of Elvis. I think Elvis and Parker were lucky to find each other, and I think both of them knew it."
Absolutely true ... at first.Unfortunately, Parker was as unscrupulous as Elvis was naive and easily swayed and within a few years of forming their partnership, Parker had begun lying and double-dealing.
Again, according to Alanna Nash:
"Presley's biggest financial liability was Parker himself, who systematically siphoned off far more than the usual 15 to 25 percent of his client's earnings. By the late '60s, Parker had forced Presley into a contracted 50/50 split. But through double dipping, the Colonel got his 50 percent and all but about 22 percent of Elvis' half, too.
"Parker had always figured out a way to make more money than his client, whether through song publishing, souvenirs, or side deals with Presley's record company and movie studios. Then, when he formed Boxcar, a merchandising company, with Presley in the early '70s, he took 56 percent control, apart from his 50 percent commission. *Some estimates have concluded that the Colonel wound up with nearly 78 percent of Elvis' name and likeness* ..."
78 PERCENT ??? And the remaining 22% that went to Elvis was before taxes ??? It's entirely possible that in his later career Elvis was only netting around 15% of all the money he was earning !
> "Elvis made 27 movies in 10 years, plus the 3 he made before he went in the Army ... "
The *quantity* of any artist's work is not nearly so valid a measure of his/her success as its *quality* -- and please note that with actors "quality" is NOT synonymous with "appeal" but is instead based on such factors as awards and reviews.
The list of Elvis' acting awards could be written on the head of a pin with a chisel.
As for his reviews, it's entirely possible to dismiss them as merely the condescension of biased, snobbish highbrows -- provided, of course, that one can 1) ignore the fact that the vast majority -- regardless of source -- were negative, 2) overlook their various authors' credentials and reputations as serious, honest critics, and 3) disregard how often they reached identical conclusions regarding Presley's talent, potential, career choices, etc.
Why was his potential as an actor so unrealized ? Because Parker was far more interested in profiting from Elvis' films than in helping him improve. Did you know, for example, that despite the obvious need for it, Elvis never had any formal acting training of any kind and was instead left to "fend for himself" by picking up whatever he could on the set each day ? That may have worked for some movie stars but not for Presley.
For Elvis, whose childhood dream was to become an actor, the relentless and obviously valid criticism he received film after film and year after year simply could not have gone unnoticed -- or unfelt. *“Someday we’ll do it right,”* he inscribed on a photo he gave co-star Gene Nelson.
> "I just don't see how Parker abused Elvis in any way."
Then you've either not read what I've posted nor clicked on the links I provided to see the sources which support it, or else you simply choose to ignore any facts which negate your opinions. And while any or all of those reactions are your perogative, I'll still add one final fact to the avalanche of information I've provided in the hope that it will, finally, help you to see precisely how Parker DID abuse Elvis in a BIG way:He either ignored or never cared enough to do anything about Elvis' addiction to drugs and the obvious toll it was taking on his health.
According to numerous statements made by members of the "Memphis Mafia" (the cadre of friends who were with Elvis virtually all-day, everyday, some for well over a decade), when it came to anything that could impact Elvis' earning power there was NOTHING the Colonel did not know.
Yet even in the later years when Elvis was a bloated, slurring mess, Parker did NOTHING ... zilch ... nada ... nothing, that is, except continue arranging exhausting concert tours which, Elvis' doctor personally informed Parker, were severely impacting Elvis' health.
From about.com:
"Elvis' fondness for prescription drugs had begun back in the early Sixties (although at least one confidant claims Elvis began by stealing diet pills from Gladys, his mother). Facing a punishing work schedule set up by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, Presley began to use 'uppers' to get him going in the morning and 'downers' to help him relax and sleep at night. By the early Seventies, Elvis had come to rely on these pills as necessary equipment for his hectic career, especially since Parker's schedule now had him working like a dog: an average of one show every other day from 1969 until June 1977 and a three-album-a-year schedule for RCA."
http://oldies.about.com/od/elvisdeathfaq/f/elvisdrugs.htm
That Presley was and still is a beloved entertainment industry icon is an undeniable fact, but your notion that "nobody could have been any more successful than Elvis actually was" simply makes no sense.
Elvis could have been FAR more successful than he actually was -- more fulfilled creatively, more enriched financially, more recognized for his acting, more respected by the film industry -- had it not been for the underhanded, greedy and callous way he was manipulated by The Colonel.
End of avalanche and I hope no one's been buried in snow.
(A very very large h/t to Alan Hanson who's created one of the most comprehensive and, best of all, most fair and objective of all fan sites at http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/ )
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> {quote:title=RMeingast wrote:}{quote}
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> Think Elvis would've had to do some serious training for this flick... Unless he would've used a body double for all his scenes...
I think the flick would more likely have done Elvis some serious *damage* ...
Playing the role of a self-destructive, drug-addicted rock-n-roll has-been seems so close to the truth of his real life that it might very well have precipitated an emotional breakdown ... or worse ?... (like an "accidental overdose" ?) ...
Either that or he'd have won an Oscar ... (and followed it up with such triumphs as Brando's role in Apocalypse Now ?)
Sadly -- or maybe it's for the best -- we'll never know.
Y'know ... ah thank I need go make me a big, fat deep-fried peanut butter-and-banana samich in honor of "the King."
(Although, I read somewhere that when, during one of his Vegas concerts, a whole row of fans stood up and declared their love for "the King," Elvis responded, "Jesus Christ is the King !" and the fans all sat back down REAL quick.)
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TomJH,
Thanks to your starting this thread and the magic of Google, I found out a bunch of fun trivia about Lee Tracy. (Talk about "What a Character !" ...)
As tough and abrasive as his characters were, he fought his battles with words rather than violence.
Though essentially a character actor, he got leading man roles and usually wound up getting the girl.
At the time of the Viva Villa! fiasco, both MGM and news reports claimed Tracy had gone out on the balcony naked and shouted lewd epithets at the cadets. Tracy said he'd only waved at them and that he'd been wearing pajama bottoms. It wasn't until years later that Desi Arnaz claimed in his autobiography that he witnessed Tracy **** off the balcony -- a story denied by others who'd worked on the film.
Whatever happened, it was serious enough that MGM apologized to the nation of Mexico and Tracy bailed himself out of jail, hiring a private plane to get out of the country. Arriving back in the States, he greeted his then-girlfriend Isabel Jewell with "Holy cats, honey, but it's been a dizzy week !"
The Viva Villa! incident aside, Tracy was as unapologetic a bad boy off-screen as he was on -- possibly because real estate investments made him a millionaire ?
In fact, he was so notorious for drinking, missing work, and being flippant to interviewers that he never stayed at one studio for long. For example:
* Unlike the stars who foisted their "happy families" into the public eye, Tracy once announced that he didn't want a home or children but preferred to live transiently in hotel rooms, claiming that it actually cheered him up to watch Long Island commuters with "that strained and anxious husband look in their eyes." (He must have changed his mind -- his 1938 marriage to a woman who'd come to sell him insurance ended 30 years later with his death.)
* He tried to get out of paying taxes by claiming his residence was "Trucksville, Pennsylvania" and by writing off money spent in Hollywood as business expenses -- including what he paid to studios to let him sleep late in the morning.
* And (my favorite) after being arrested in 1935 for firing a gun through his neighbor's window while drunk, *he explained that his real target was an ashtray he'd never liked !*
He created such problems for producer David O. Selznick during the filming of The Half Naked Truth by arriving late and disappearing from the set that in a “strictly confidential” inter-office memo dated October 8, 1932, Selznick stated that, “for the good of the company and the industry,” a legal suit should be brought against Tracy for the total amount of monies he had cost the studio.Selznick was so bugged by Tracy's behavior that he not only suggested serving Tracy with the lawsuit “on the set as soon as the last scene has been finished, and in front of the entire company,” he also flatly stated that Tracy should be "run out of the industry" !
RKO ultimately withheld $3,500 from Tracy’s final paycheck and then filed a $10,000 “conciliation” suit against him through the Conciliation Committee of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. In Tracy's defense, a doctor stated he'd been suffering from a nervous breakdown and that his set absences were the result of stomach disorders.
Around the time he originated the role of Hildy in the Broadway production of The Front Page, Tracy went for an entire year without ever leaving the block of W. 45th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. Apparently, it contained his hotel, the theater where he was performing, and whatever else he required in the way of restaurants, laundries, drugstores, etc. As he told a friend at the time, "The block has everything. I may never leave it."
(h/t to http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/64/64leetracy.php and http://moviemorlocks.com/2010/07/10/lee-tracy-a-motormouth-ambulance-chasing-four-flusher/ )
P.S. Your suggested pairing of Tracy with Blondell is nothing less than a stroke of Hypothetical Hollywood Casting genius.
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}Back in the 1970s, there was a theater in Berkeley that had a big Mae West film festival, and they showed 35mm prints of nearly all of her films. Many of those films, Ive never seen since then. But I assume they are still available, since the theater had good 35mm prints of them.
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Might that have been the legendary revival house known as the U.C. Theater on University Ave. ???
I've HEARD that some local high school kids used to love going there because you could get high in the back rows while enjoying Busby Berkeley musicals or I Am Curious Yellow ...
(They are, of course, all dead or institutionalized ...)
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
> What I dislike about his 1960s films is that they are basically all alike, and nearly the same story. They are designed to attract a lot of young girls and middle-aged women, and they have a lot of girls in shorts in them to attract male members of the audience.
What I dislike about the 1960s Elvis movies is that his resignation to their stunning mediocrity sometimes seems palpable.
Oh, he's a pro and always seems to be giving it his all, but there are times when it seems like his heart just wasn't in it ... like he knows he's capable of better things but -- whether because of The Colonel, the drugs, his own lifelong need to people-please, or all of the above -- he knew he'd SOLD OUT.
Admittedly, I could be imagining all this based on what I've read about Elvis' career ...
For example, a lot of movie/Elvis fans have heard about Streisand approaching ol' Swivel Hips to star opposite her in her version of "A Star Is Born" (which has to rank as one of THE most intriguing missed opportunities in all Hollywood casting history).
I don't mean to keep making Colonel Tom Parker the villain or the sole cause here, but ...
Jerry Lieber was a lyricist who, with his partner, composer Mike Stoller, wrote the songs Jailhouse Rock and Kid Creole and was therefore very instrumental in launching Elvis' movie career.
According to Lieber:
"One evening in New York I was invited to a very elegant New York cocktail party at the home of Charles Feldman, the well-known agent and producer.
"He said, 'I'm so pleased to meet you. I think the world of the work that you and your partner have done. I have just optioned a novel by Nelson Algren, Walk On The Wild Side*,* and here's what I want to do: Elia Kazan has agreed to direct it and I've got Budd Schulberg to write the screenplay and James Wong Howe to do the cinematography. I want you and your partner to write the songs and Elvis Presley to play the lead.'
"I was ecstatic. I called Mike and he was thrilled. We thought the news was going to blow the minds of Elvis and The Colonel and Jean and Julian Aberbach***. We went up to the Aberbachs' office at Hill and Range and I told them the whole story ...
"When I was finished, Jean said, 'We'll have to speak to Colonel Parker. Can you boys wait outside ?'
"As we sat outside Jean's office, we imagined how excited Parker would be. After ten minutes or so we were summoned back into Jean's office and he reported to us that The Colonel said:
*"'If you ever dare try and interfere in the career of Elvis Presley again you will never work in New York, Hollywood, London or anywhere else in the world.'"*
The upshot is that within a few years after becoming a major movie star, instead of jumping at Walk on the Wild Side and the opportunity to pursue his lifelong attraction to serious acting -- some of his Humes High School classmates later recalled that he was often cast as the lead in the Shakespeare plays they studied in English class -- Elvis only made fluffy, kitschy movies like Blue Hawaii, Follow That Dream, Kid Galahad, and the rather emphatically titled Girls ! Girls ! Girls !
What I am, as usual, taking taking too long to say is: there have been a number of "reluctant movie stars" i.e. people who were not only unlikely to have become movie stars had it not been for their parents and/or other heartless profiteers, but who also suffered terribly from their "success" ... stars like Jackie Coogan, Jean Harlow, Sandra Dee, Patty Duke ... and Elvis.
But IIMO Elvis was both reluctant AND not always able to hide his disappointment -- and even, at times, his humiliation -- in front of the cameras.
*Hello, Success ... Aloha, Elvis ?*
* Julian Aberbach and his brother Jean founded a music publishing empire called Hill and Range. In 1955, Julian helped his friend, Colonel Tom Parker, become Elvis' manager and then set up a truly unprecedented arrangement: the publishing rights to songs Presley recorded were split 50:50 between Hill and Range and Presley. Aberbach then made his cousin, Freddy Bienstock, the head of Elvis Presley Music, and organised writers to provide songs for Presley's films and albums. This didn't just make the Aberbachs rich -- it also effectively precluded Presley from ever recording material that was not licensed to Hill and Range.
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}It may be bizarre and childish, but it's fun.
Perhaps ... for devotees of whoopie cushions and "pull my finger" jokes ... but it might be more "fun" for all concerned if it was confined to the George Brent thread rather than inserted into other threads.
But, hey ... it's a free country ... so insert it anywhere you like.
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> {quote:title=UniversalHorror wrote:}{quote}"Spam" in slang terms (not the canned food product) referes to unsolicited commercial purposes. This has nothing to do with that. "Hijacking" means to stop a thread and take it over with a completely unrelated subject...which is what happened here. "Trolls" is indeed the word used for what you described.
Considering the rather bizarre and childish obsession with the human posterior, I think "bottom feeders" might also be an applicable term.
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Mae was only about 5 feet tall and so, for over 60 years, she wore shoes like these hidden by her long dresses most every time she made any kind of public appearance.
Between the heel and the platform, these shoes added 9 1/2 inches to her height !
(h/t to FIDM - http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2009/08/mae-west.html)
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Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was a compulsive gambler, a con artist and a crook.
Where managers normally get 10% of a client's income, by the early 60s The Colonel was taking 50% (!!) plus he negotiated fat fees for himself on Elvis' movies.
When asked in 1968 if it was true he really was taking 50% of everything Elvis earned, Parker replied, *"No ! That’s not true at all. Elvis takes fifty percent of everything I earn."*
It's widely believed that Parker was a smooth talker who could cajole and intimidate Elvis into doing whatever he (Parker) wanted -- like the truly dreadful movies which Elvis HATED doing.
It's been rumored, however, that Parker had something damaging on Elvis -- like compromising photos of E. with an underage girl ? -- but that's never been proven.
*"Gimme back them pitchers, man !"*
What WAS ultimately proven is that Colonel Tom robbed Elvis blind. According to a website called Elvis Information Network (!):
" Attorney Blanchard Tual was appointed by Judge Joseph Evans to fully investigate the case and he spent four months looking into Parker’s financial dealings.
"Tual speculated that Col Parker had sold Elvis cheaply to the Hilton to help pay off his gambling debts which were said to be in the millions. It was also noted that by the 1970s Elvis’ RCA royalty rate was far below any other performer at his sales level. Even Elvis' royalties were underpaid because Elvis' contract had no audit provision. This is industry standard ...
"Tual finally concluded that both Colonel Parker and RCA had acted in collusion against Presley's best interests. Colonel Parker was guilty of self-dealing and overreaching and had violated his duty to both Elvis and to the estate."
http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_thedarksideofcolonelparker.html
(The website backs up these claims with statements from many who worked with Elvis.)
Even worse is that for years The Colonel sapped Elvis' creativity and self-image, and even contributed to his death. The notorious Dr. Nick (the guy who supplied Elvis with drugs) told Colonel Tom in no uncertain terms that Elvis' health was being damaged by the lengthy tours and Vegas stints Parker kept arranging (like, he had Elvis doing two shows a day, seven days a week, for up to 30 days ??)... but Parker just ignored him.
IMHO, Elvis Presley was a gentle, unsophisticated country boy -- most everyone who ever met him remarked on how polite he was -- and Colonel Tom Parker was a greedy weasel who helped to destroy one of the great talents of the 20th Century.
Amen.
Tune in next Sunday when my sermon will be: "Judy Garland's Mother Made Medea Look Like Auntie Mame."
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Totally agree re: the score ...
TCM's Young Film Composers Competition is a lovely and noble idea, but the results so far should all be consigned to the SAP track.
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h3. No, it's not the Brown Derby ...
*It's a vintage Stetson covered with the autographs of nearly 400 movie notables, circa*
*1928 to 1936.*
*Some of the names are iconic, others (like Mona Maris, Tom Patricola and Sojin) are barely even footnotes in cinema history.*
*In just a few square inches of the brim, I can make out the signatures of (among others) Lew Cody, Joan Blondell, Billy Haines, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Reginal Owen, Bebe Daniels, Russ Columbo, Ricardo Cortez, Charles Bickford and Leo Carillo.*
*And whoever owned the hat respected movie directors as well as stars:*
*Looks like Woody van Dyke only needed one take to sign his name ...*
*So ... whose hat was this ???*
*I don't know ... I just wish it was mine.*
*The full story:*
http://autographmagazine.com/2012/05/the-hollywood-hat-vintage-autographs/
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Just stumbled on some great photos ...
*Fred Astaire, age 6:*
*Fred Astaire, age 60:*
More pix of Fred at 60:
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*Gunga Dinner at 8*
This epicurean epic about the Gastro-Indian Wars asks the burning question
“What if they threw a war and somebody dropped the aspic ?” The all-star cast
includes Billie Burke as flighty, flustered Lt. Colonel Whimsyfingers who can’t
quite muster the troops for her curry dinner party, Wallace Beery, Victor Mc-
Laglen and Jean Harlow as a trio of bawdy, bare-fisted platinum-blondes, and
the irrepressible Marie Dressler as Burke’s faithful cook, Gunga Dinah, who
saves the day by serving Sam Jaffe over saffron rice.
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According to Cineaste Magazine:
"Shot on location during an actual blizzard, this harrowing sequence features Gish’s character, having fainted on an ice floe, floating toward a waterfall with her right hand and her hair in the freezing river. With no computer-generated effects, and no stunt woman taking Gish’s place, the actress recalls, in her autobiography, actually going out into this dangerous situation in subfreezing temperatures, 'this kind of dedication probably seems foolish today, but it wasn’t unusual then. Those of us who worked with Mr. Griffith were completely committed to the picture we were making. No sacrifice was too great to get the film right ...'
"Gish recalled in later interviews that she never quite got full feeling back in the hand she let soak in the icy waters ..."
http://www.cineaste.com/articles/emway-down-eastem-web-exclusive
And according to a biography of Gish:
"The camera was warmed by acetylene torch, but the star had to endure the icy blasts of the storm, occasionally fainting ... *When icicles formed on her eyelashes, Griffith exulted in the fine effect her frozen face would make on film.*"
That's g-g-g-g-g-g-great, Mr. G-g-g-g-g-griffith ...
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}Early Sunday morning, Aug. 19, TCM will be airing this film at 4:30 AM, Eastern Time:
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> *Sepia Cinderella (1947)*
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> A girl raised in a theatrical boarding house loses her man to success and a high-society temptress.
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> Dir: Arthur Leonard Cast: Sheila Guyse , Billy Daniels , Tondaleyo .
> 67 min, TV-PG
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> This has a black cast. I don't know why they are burying it at 4:30 AM. The only reason it is showing up at all is because Freddie Bartholomew is in it for a few minutes.
What does this have to do with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers ???
My favorite Fred solo is Slap That Bass ... supposedly inspired by an afternoon stroll across the RKO lot when he started dancing in time to a cement mixer.
As for "Best Fred & Ginger Pas de Deux," I think I'd go with Let's Face the Music and Dance -- both because of the painful whack in the snoot Fred receives from Ginger's heavily-beaded sleeve AND because the notion that anyone could ever dissuade Ginger Rogers from doing ANYthing is SO fantastic.
Edited by: ValeskaSuratt on Aug 13, 2012 11:35 PM
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Thanks for posting this, TomJH.
Pickford seems to have been one of the more "Technicolored" of silent movie stars.
In addition to The Black Pirate, she did a Technicolor test for Disney in 1933 to see if she could still play a girl as young as Alice in a live-action Alice In Wonderland ... (sadly, she couldn't) ...
... plus she was again immortalized in a 1934 short called Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove
Grove[/i]-+Pickford.jpg]
For those who enjoy seeing early motion picture stars in color, here's an amazing 1922 Eastman Kodak color test of Mae Murray:
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> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}I don't see how an actor who was the third lead in GONE WITH THE WIND could be "forgotten". By whom?
I dunno, finance ... these days, if you talk about GWTW and "Gable," most people will know who you're talking about.
Say "Howard" and I imagine the majority of under-40 Munchkins will ask "You mean Moe?"
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> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote}Sometimes looping is done to change a line of dialogue...the first one I think of is Adrienne Barbeau's character in Creepshow (1982), who has the line:
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> "...Emily Vanderbilt...or Amy VanBuren...whoever that etiquette crotch is!"
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> It obviously sounds post-looped. Watching the unaltered deleted version of the scene, what she actually said originally is:
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> "...Emily Vanderbilt...or Amy VanBuren...whoever that ****ing **** is!".
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> Maybe director George Romero thought the original was too strong for the character to say, as much of a foul-mouthed shrew the character is, but it was changed in post production.
Sorta like Eva Marie Saint in North By Northwest ... when she tells Cary Grant "I never DISCUSS love on an empty stomach" instead of the original line, "Hey stud muffin, let's (expletive deleted) until the cows come home !"
(Or whatever the original line was ... I'm just grateful Hitch didn't get Paul Frees to loop it.)
And that's a funny thought -- that George Romero would be worried about graphic language ... :^0
-
So, I was watching The War Lord (1965) this morning on another movie channel -- it's a Chuck Heston epic in which he plays an 11th century Norman knight named (ya ready?) Chrysagon de la Cruex who's charged with defending a Druid village ... ?
Anyway, out of the blue, whose voice do I hear both as the film's narrator AND looped for one of the minor characters ? Paul Frees.
It's starting to feel a little like a Twilight Zone episode ... like, if I go grocery shopping, the voice that'll come over the p.a. announcing "Clean up on aisle 6 !" will be Paul Frees'. ( He's everywhere ! He's everywhere ! )
If anyone ever takes on the Herculean task of compiling a full and accurate filmography on the guy, it might be easier to make a list of the films he's NOT IN since it'd apparently be a shorter list than those he IS in.
-
> {quote:title=Dargo2 wrote:}{quote}Ya know VS, I find it astounding to learn that Tony Curtis evidently couldn't affect a falsetto voice when playing "Josephine" and thus they had to have Frees do it for him. I mean, what guy CAN'T talk in falsetto?
>
> (...and in SOME cases such as in the Brothers Gibb, even make a CAREER out o' SINGIN' in that manner, EH?!)
Ugh ... for some reason, male falsetto singing voices like the Gibbs (and especially Frankie Vallee) work on me like a chorus of ambulance sirens.
As for Curtis ... I knooooow, huh ?
It'd be interesting to learn if Tony just couldn't get it right and they HAD to call Frees in ... or if maybe Wilder was sitting in post-production, Frees came in to do the Mozzarella lines and he took a crack at being "the Josephone" and it was SO great he just went with it ... or what.
They sure kept it secret for 40 years -- Tony certainly never revealed it -- and when that article turned up online, it was a little like finding out Marni Nixon had dubbed Streisand's songs in Funny Girl ...
Heresy!
-
misswonderly and dpompper,
Thank you ! It's high praise indeed coming from a couple of Vole virtuosi as yourselves ...
-
> {quote:title=kriegerg69 wrote:}{quote}
> > {quote:title=ValeskaSuratt wrote:}{quote}Frees' voice recordings from as far back as 1956 are still heard on Disneyland rides and old Disney TV shows.
> Most memorably, he is the voice of the "ghost host" narrator who leads visitors through The Haunted Mansion attraction.
> He also did countless voiceovers for god-only-knows how many movie trailers...the one I know the best is The Abominable Dr. Phibes ("Probably the most terrifying motion picture you will ever see!"), and on that film's soundtrack album (which is more of a "music inspired by" thing), he sings several songs, a couple of which are actually heard in the background of the film itself. There's also a wonderful album he recorded of himself singing several songs and performing each in the voice of a different actor (Bogart, Karloff, etc.). He also worked with musican/comedian Spike Jones, most memorably on the song "My Old Flame", where he does a deliciously wicked impersonation of Peter Lorre.
OMG! My Old Flame !!!!! -- "Dat eye dat kept WEEENKING ... and BLEEEENKING ... toddlmph ... iggleschnitz ... !!"
If you're familiar with THAT, maybe you've also heard of an album called Paul Frees and the Poster People ?
It includes such tracks as:
Peter Lorre "singing" Hey Jude ...
... Humphrey Bogart snarling Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head ...
... and (my favorite) Sydney Greenstreet's "cover" of the the immortal Sugar, Sugar by the Archies ...
Some Googling turned up a fairly lengthy list of Frees' voices though it's incomplete -- for example, none of his work on SLIH is listed:
http://www.voicechasers.com/database/showactor.php?actorid=1248
What a task it'd be to put together a full list since so much of it was unbilled ...
Like ... I only noticed when Some Like It Hot ran this past Saturday that in addition to Josephine, Frees is ALSO the voice of the funeral home director, Mr. Mozzarella, who lets Pat O'Brien into the hidden speakeasy in the opening scenes.
As with all the great, A-list voice-over guys, he worked ALL the time, and there are very few professions that pay as well -- like, they get out of the limo, walk into the booth, read (sometimes just a line or two which takes about two minutes -- and SOME of these guys flatly refuse to do re-takes !) and then they walk out $10,000 richer.
There's another V/O guy -- less famous but who you hear all the time, especialy in movie trailers, but he also turns up occasionally on camera (as in The Unsuspected, which just aired on Claude Rains Day): Art Gilmore, who just died last year at the ripe old age of 98.
I got to work with him in the early 1980s and he told an hilarious anecdote:
While announcing the Rose Parade sometime in the late 40s-early 50s, he got very annoyed when some executives sitting near him kept talking while he was trying to announce. Finally, when they were too engrossed to realize the show had cut to a commercial break, he loudly announced, "And here's comes the Rose Queen ! And look at the t**s on her !!"
He said it was like the control room scene in Network when Howard Beale announces his impending suicide -- "Did you HEAR that ???"... "WHAT did he just say ???" -- but they DID shut up for the rest of the broadcast.
Finally, there's a something I don't understand: this thread is from back in March of this year ... why did it suddenly "spring back to life" ? (No biggee ... just curious ...)
Joan Blondell and Lee Tracy, the Couple that Shoulda Been
in General Discussions
Posted
> Thanks very much, Valeska ...
Same back atcha, TomJH.