Grace's take on Wozzeck or Pandora's Box.........what a performance artist.......
I don't think many have given much thought to what this song is really about....
Thursday, August 28, 2008
EARLIEST ESCAPIST FANTASIES
musicals on afternoon t.v. absolutely none of my friends liked these....but i was obsessed with watching them......beautiful, optimistic and relatively non-violent.....lots of dancing, singing, kissing and hugging.....i thought this was what Life was supposed to be about, after all. Isn't it?
BOCCACIO 70
I ONLY SAW TWO FILMS WITH JUST MY STEP-FATHER, TOM, IN TOW.....ONE WAS 'CLEOPATRA' AND THE OTHER WAS 'BOCCACIO 70'.....
THE REASON......HE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE IN VERY POOR TASTE TO TAKE MY MOTHER TO SUCH RUBBISH, BUT HE SECRETLY WANTED
TO ADMIRE ANITA, SOPHIA, AND ELIZABETH'S PROJECTILE BOSOMS.......THEN 17, I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED ROMY SCHNEIDER TO THOSE RUBENESQUE TYPES.......
HAIRDOS
all the characters in the old movies (1920's-early 1960's) had such coiffed hair....in the 20's and 30's,
at least half of the actresses in Hollywood were platinum blondes with marcelled hair, permanented hair....some kind of "processed hair", anyway.......which was then lacquered and lit.......beautiful helmets over faces with perfect skin, huge, long-lashed eyes and unusually thin, arching brows.........I would watch the old movies, as a kid, and wonder why
no one in my town looked like that.......maybe the local women just didn't have all that paraphernalia.....all the women in my family went to Rose's Beauty Shoppe and were made up to look like Susan Hayward Talullah Bankhead (who, with the relatively unknown Harry Townes, were from my neck of the woods)
or Ava Gardner......the then current Southern fashion icons......
SAL
from REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE to FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES.....
I always related to Sal Mineo......sensitive, vigilent
and wide-eyed.......and HE got to be best buddies
with Jimmy Stark.....whew! Sal just didn't quite fit into
any of the available niches of the 50's and early 60's....
his time would come too late.....now it is fashionable to be
sensitive and teary-eyed......
LIBERACE
My step-father had collaborated with Smith, Northington and Kranert [LeRoy Kranert was not only an architect, but an accomplished pianist and cellist/bassist and his wife, Veda was my piano instructor for many years] to built a "new" country club in Huntsville......the "Parkway".......for the grand opening, the campy and popular pianist, Liberace, performed like a Folies Showgirl at a piano.......the candleopera was so over the top and was wired, through the piano leg, to flash into action as Mr. FlashyAction himself bolted, sorta, onto the round stage........I don't remember whether the small town society folk were thrilled or not....they probably were! lots of arpeggios....! actually, Liberace could actually play in a more conservative manner. (the sound file is not his performance, however)
After this 'success' my step-father met Louis Leoni and was off to re-do the Sand's Hotel Kitchens.......I went to visit him there......and saw the Folies Bergere....Liberace was playing there, too, but i preferred Victor Borge......so we went to see him, after I was tossed from the Folies for being "under age" for tittie viewing.....
CRY ME A RIVER
it seems so odd, even now, to me that i played a 45 of Julie London singing "Cry me a River"......over and over....... i still have the album.......her stagy presence in "A girl can't help it" was really hot......for a teenager, anyway......another piece of fluff.......i was in Mexico, with my parents....who were there to hear/see Jayne Mansfield....playing the violin, i think......that does seem strange....but....that's what they told me, anyway........so i wandered the streets, buying painted clay pottery, an "aztec" mask and a monstrous carved chess set........so, i missed the "violin concert". Julie was performing in Vegas.....but we had to go to a Judy Garland concert that hurt my ears! " 'Clang, clang, clang' went the trolley". In retrospect, I should have been much more excited to hear "Julie"......
