Dothery

Oh, gosh. Movies. Let's see: I used to go to the drive-ins when I lived in San Diego. Lots of fun, no worry about being bothered by ill-mannered people, lots to eat, bring your own if you wanted. Put the kids in their PJs and off you went. Loved it. Kids grew up, I moved away to Hawaii; went to the movies in Kona; no problems with talkers or stiffish ushers or anything like it. Just comfortable watching, pleasant people. Went to Maine with my new husband to run our B&B. No movies near us, so we didn't go to them. Came back to Hawaii after he died, no movies near me here. I know there are such things, and I get them from Netflix or watch them on TCM. That's about it. I understand The Great Gatsby is somewhere around and I want to see it because Amitabh Bachchan is in it. Maybe when I go over to Hilo tomorrow I'll find it somewhere. Who knows? If not, sooner or later Netflix will have it.

It's the Tra La La Song, sung by Shirley Temple and Jack Oakie. The movie is "Young People," probably the early 40's one you're referring to, but I don't know the other movie. I remember seeing this when it first came out and thinking how great Jack Oakie was as a dancer. I had no idea he was that good.

It's on now, working up to the seven-minute record sword fight in the theater. I love this picture. Nobody was ever so pretty as Stewart Granger in that gold-and-white costume. Lithe, athletic and handsome. Even Ty Power didn't have quite that strength of voice. Wonderful! Years before Ramon Novarro played the part. I would like to have seen it.

Guy Kibbee was the most amazing actor. A while ago I recorded "Design for Scandal" on the DVR and have been watching it now and then, especially the courtroom scene where the most ridiculous stuff is going on with Walter Pidgeon and Roz Russell and Lee Bowman. His dialogue is wryly funny but he delivers it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Pidgeon says he's not a lawyer but wants to represent himself. "We'll help you; we'll help you," says Kibbee. Then later when the uproar is at its highest, he asks the court reporter, "Are you getting this down?" The reporter says no, and Kibbee (as the judge), says, "Well, take it down; you're not doing anything else, are you?" Great scene. I don't know another actor who could have done it as well. I miss him.

O-KAY! It's "I've got my Captain Working For Me Now!" And here's Bing singing it with Billy de Wolfe: Open thread ...

,,, in 1920 ... after the first World War ... okay, no tries? Next post I'll tell what it is.

Another hint: It was written by Irving and sung by Bing ...

... and a little more .. "Who was it said revenge is sweet ..."

Here's a lyric or two, although I must warn you the words were changed a little for the movie: "When I come in to see him he beats a retreat, Stands at attention now and gives me his seat ..."

Oh, my. My movie. It's all about James Michael Curley, Mayor/Governor/All-around Irish politician. He loved this picture. He wrote his autobiography and called it "I'd Do It Again," referring to the death scene in the movie. My dad worked for a newspaper, and at one point the publisher went to jail for printing a cartoon about Curley showing him in prison in a striped suit and a ball and chain. Libel! said Curley. He never wore a striped suit or a ball and chain! Enright (the publisher) got a short term in jail and when he came out he had a bunch of friends he'd made inside. He made hay from his jail time, not becoming a crook but by telling their stories. I love the picture because it captures the Irish wake and the Curley lineup of petitioners very accurately. I wish I had a nickel for every wake I've been to in and around Boston, and I didn't go to many, because I left home at 18 and didn't go back there to live. But they were such great places to get together. It's no wonder there are so many songs and poems about them. "Steve O'Donnell's Wake," for instance. There were fighters, and biters And Irish dynamiters There was lots of whiskey, beer and wine and cake; There were waiters and musicians And Irish politicians And they all got stewed at Steve O'Donnell's wake. Of course christenings are a great place to meet and greet, as well. "The Tipperary Christening ..." There was cold ice cream and cream that was hot Bandy-legged frogs and Peruvian ostriches Paddy foy grah, whatever that means Made out of goose liver and grease. Anyway. Watch The Last Hurrah. Such a great movie. And while you're at it, get Edwin O'Connor's book. It was terrific. Some paragraphs still stand out in my memory after all these years, like the one about the universally hated fellow who would escape his family and go for walks, and fall into the canal; people would always be rescuing him and bringing him home. But they realized luck like that couldn't last, and someone would recognize him and let him drown.

My mother's boss Billy the congressman was in vaudeville for a long time. He sang us his songs all the time, some of which were well known, some not. This is a well-known one I can remember his playing and singing for us. it concerns a fellow who left military service and found himself in a position he had longed for. Can you figure it out? It was done in movie at least once ... only once that I know of. It could have been done more than that.

That's Alan Ladd. It must have been a Paramount picture, because all the Paramount stars were in it. I think Dorothy Lamour sang it with him ... I seem to recall him as an airline pilot with her as a flight attendant ("stewardess," in those days). Anyway the song was "Tallahassee" (which incidentally had the same rhythm as "Cuba," and I always confused the two). The movie I think was "Variety Girl" and had a million stars in it ... one of those put-everybody-to-work-that's-under-contract pictures.

I loved seeing Jack Benny in drag. It made me collapse laughing. His routine with George Burns was just a killer. He's talking about why he was late, having been held up by an encunter with a sailor. "Those sailors," he says. "One drink and they think they own you."

One of the primary thigs that would "trouble" a cross-dresser is finding closet space for all those mens and womens clothes. As I recall, Esther made quite a point of mentioning his closet with all the expensive stuff from the best stores. Of course he had the money, and apparently the closet space, to indulge his whims, if indeed it was true. I think myself that people read things like this because they're surprised. When I read it, it just seemed bizarre but not shocking. There's a pretty general opinion among shrinks that cross-dressing does not equal gay, and there are many very masculine men who simply like women's clothes and like to wear them.

...and so was ANATOMY OF A MURDER, wasn't it? I don't remember the Grand Hotel in "Anatomy of a Murder." What scenes were done there?

You're so welcome! And here's the version I first heard, back in 1941. Bing Crosby and Mary Martin, doing the American version of the song, without the racial background, now converted to ships and docks and lollipops and trolley stops. We loved this song when I was a teen. It was big stuff then. We had no notion of its history, which I'm so happy to learn about now. Your thread ...

Here's a giveaway clue: When we lived in San Diego, my little girl used to make me sing this song when we were on our way to Disneyland and passed through the town in the title. As soon as we got there she'd say "Hit it, Mom," and I'd sing it to her and her brother.

I'm thinking of George Formby and the Mr. Wu songs, like "Mr. Wu's an Air Raid Warden," but I don't think that would fit. How about Limehouse Blues? There's a Limehouse district in LA, I think. Not that I know anything about LA! Not those. You're getting warmer, though ... it was a London pub song before it was a hit here. The two who recorded it here were big singing stars.

Not Errol and "Matilda." I saw Errol doing "That's What You Jolly Well Get," and he was really quite good.

The lyrics would give you the song. I can tell you, though, that it's got a west oast town in the title. It was originally what was called a "****" song (Sophie Tucker was called a "**** shouter," because of the songs in this genre that she sang.) The lyrics in the original weren't overtly racist in the sense we know it, but were definitely slanted toward ethnicity. The song itself in its current incarnation would never tip you off to its origins, though.

Well, ya know Dothery, IF that suit was made out of flannel, that COULD have been Greg Peck you were talkin' to instead! If that had been Gregory Peck, I would still be there! No one could have made me leave that spot!

I was introduced to Dan Dailey in the early 50's one Sunday, outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, where we had all just been attending Mass. He was with an Irish actress named Constance Smith, with whom he had been making a movie ... something about a taxi. I thought he was a very pleasant person, and had a lovely smile. If he was a cross-dresser, he dressed down publicly. He had a gray suit on.

Here's a song that began life as an ethnic ditty in the late 1800's. It was popular for several decades, and was eventually recorded by two legends, minus its racial overtones. A British movie used it as its title. Errol Flynn sang a chorus of it in a movie once.

I think one of the best Dan Dailey stories I heard was from James Bacon, who said in an interview that he was sitting at a table in a night club when Dan (in full drag) came over and asked him to dance. Bacon said, "I didn't know how to get out of it at first, but then I said, 'I can't dance with you, Dan; you're so much better than I am that you'd show me up.'"

In my opinion, celebrity tell-all books should focus more on what made them celebrities in the first place and give fans more behind-the-scenes trivia regarding how certain films were made. The fans do not necessarily need to know about the other stuff. That is probably better left for the analyst's couch. I confess to reading just about every celeb autobiography that comes my way, if I know the person. If it's a biography, I'm not as eager to read it, because people lie about celebrities just for the sake of the money, like that horrible man Higham who lied about everybody. William Powell hated that man for what he wrote about Jean Harlow ... completely false junk made up for money. What people say about themselves is what I'm interested in. They do dish some dirt about themselves, as EW did and Rosemary Clooney, and though EW's was biting and Rosemary's was more gentle and sad, I enjoyed both of them. So far the best autobio I've read is Frank Capra's. It's long, and it's intricate, but it's fascinating. It's very much what you consider the right way to do it. You might enjoy it.