Hollywood Then and Now - January 2021

We like to talk about things that are not around anymore.  Particularly when it comes to movies, so many old palaces are gone.   And when you look at past locations used around Hollywood, invariably you see a strip mall standing in the post today where film history was once made.

But, not always.   

Maybe you remember the great film "The Best Years of Our Lives."  It won Best Picture in...I believe...1946.   It is about military folks coming home after serving in World War II.   

At the beginning, three such men from the same hometown arrive back together and take a cab to each of their destinations.   One is a banker played by Frederic March.   He comes home to his family and his wife, Myrna Loy.   They live in a seemingly prestigious apartment building.  Here's how that looked in the film.

Almost magically, here's the same shot today.

The apartment building sits one block east of La Brea on Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood.  People pass it every single day.   Most don't know its prominence in film history.  Hey, I bet the tenants don't even know.

But I do.   And now so do you.

You see, not everything has been torn down.

Dinner last night:  Chicken tortellini.

 

This Date in History - January 27

 

Happy birthday to Mikhail Baryshnikov.   What's the over/under on arthritic knees for this guy??

98;  TRAJAN SUCCEEDED HIS ADOPTIVE FATHER NERVA AS ROMAN EMPEROR.  UNDER HIS RULE, THE ROMAN EMPIRE WOULD REACH ITS MAXIMUM EXTENT.

The nerva.

1142:  SONG DYNASTY GENERAL YUE FEI IS EXECUTED.

Fei?  Feh.

1186:  HENRY VI, THE SON AND HEIR OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR FREDERICK I, MARRIES CONSTANCE OF SICILY.

And we thought all the Henrys were in England.

1343:  POPE CLEMENT VI ISSUES THE PAPAL BULL UNIGENITUS TO JUSTIFY THE POWER OF THE POPE AND THE USE OF INDULGENCES.  NEARLY 200 YEARS LATER, MARTIN LUTHER WOULD PROTEST THIS.

Attaboy, Marty.

1593:  THE VATICAN OPENS THE SEVEN-YEAR TRIAL OF SCHOLAR GIORDANO BRUNO.

Is it me or did the Vatican have a lot of corruption back when?

1606:  GUNPOWDER PLOT - THE TRIAL OF GUY FAWKES AND OTHER CONSPIRATORS BEGINS, ENDING WITH THEIR EXECUTION ON JANUARY 31.

Well, they didn't hang around long.  Unless, of course, they were executed by bullets.

1785:  THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA IS FOUNDED, THE FIRST PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN THE US.

Cheerleader auditions scheduled for the following week.

1825:  THE US CONGRESS APPROVES INDIAN TERRITORY (IN WHAT IS NOW OKLAHOMA) CLEARING THE WAY FOR FORCED RELOCATION OF THE EASTERN INDIANS.

Yeah, that's going to work out well.

1880:  THOMAS EDISON RECEIVES THE PATENT ON THE INCANDESCENT LAMP.

Now you can read in bed.

1888:  THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY IS FOUNDED IN WASHINGTON, DC.

And gives us magazines to look at while waiting to see the eye doctor.

1905:  ACTOR HOWARD MCNEAR IS BORN.

Oooh, Andy.

1908:  PUBLISHER WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST JR. IS BORN.

Rosebud.

1909:  THE YOUNG LEFT IS FOUNDED IN NORWAY.

Not to be confused with the Young Right.   Or the Young Independents.

1918:  BANDLEADER SKITCH HENDERSON IS BORN.

He was on the Tonight Show before there was a Doc Severinsen.

1936:  ACTOR TROY DONAHUE IS BORN.

"Have you been bad with girls, Johnny?"

1943:  WORLD WAR II - THE VIII BOMBER COMMAND DISPATCHED NINETY-ONE B-24S TO ATTACH NAZI U-BOAT CONSTRUCTION SITES IN GERMANY.

Boom.

1945:  WORLD WAR II - THE RED ARMY LIBERATES THE REMAINED INMATES OF THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU CONCENTRATION CAMP IN POLAND.

Double boom.  

1948:  DANCER MIKHAIL BARYSHNIKOV IS BORN.

Yeah, I think he dances like...never...these days.

1961:  SOVIET SUBMARINE S-80 SINKS WITH ALL HANDS LOST.

Legs, however, were found.

1967:  ASTRONAUTS GUS GRISSOM, EDWARD WHITE, AND ROGER CHAFFEE ARE KILLED IN A FIRE DURING A TEST OF THEIR APOLLO 1 SPACECRAFT.

Huge setback at the time for the moon expedition.

1972:  SINGER MAHALIA JACKSON DIES.

Praise the Lord.

1973:  THE PARIS PEACE ACCORDS OFFICIALLY END THE VIETNAM WAR. COLONEL WILLIAM NOLDE IS KILLED IN ACTION, BECOMING THE LAST RECORDED CASUALTY OF THE WAR.

Not a distinction you want.

1984:  SINGER MICHAEL JACKSON SUFFERS SECOND DEGREE BURNS TO HIS SCALP DURING THE FILMING OF A PEPSI COMMERCIAL.

Quick, somebody get him a painkiller.

1993:  WRESTLER ANDRE THE GIANT DIES.

Timber!

1996:  GERMANY FIRST OBSERVES INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY.

It's about time.

2004:  TV HOST JACK PAAR DIES.

I kid you not.

2006:  WESTERN UNION DISCONTINUES ITS TELEGRAM SERVICE.

Does anybody ever remember receiving a telegram???

2007:  "I LOVE LUCY" WRITER BOB CARROLL JR. DIES.

One of those rare Wednesdays when I actually know somebody that I am writing about.   A really nice man.  He used to eat my writing partner's French fries.

2010:  ACTRESS ZELDA RUBINSTEIN DIES.

"This house is clean."

2010:  AUTHOR J.D. SALINGER DIES.

Everybody's favorite book report.

2011:  ARAB SPRING - THE YEMENI REVOLUTION BEGINS AS OVER 16,000 PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATE.

There are idiots in this country who actually thought this was a good thing.

2011:  COMIC CHARLIE CALLAS DIES.

Zoom.  Zoom.  A-zoom, zoom, zoom.

2018:  CARTOONIST MORT WALKER DIES.

I read "Beetle Bailey" all the time when I was a kid.

Dinner last night:  Leftover sausage, peppers, and onions.  

And The Pandemic Film Parade Continues

 

This year's Oscar buzz is like no other year.   The only way to see the films is through streaming services.  It removes the communal enjoyment of good cinematic work and ultimately neuters the success of the movies.   In most cases, the only way to truly enjoy see them is on a big screen.   When you're at home and the sofa is comfy.....ZZZZZZZzzzzz.

Oddly enough, as I watch a movie a night, I have found a remarkable trend at work.   When I am viewing a classic from my DVD collection or via TCM, I am wide awake and alert.   When it's a new film that is being streamed...well, see above.

ZZZZZZZzzzzz.

Go figure.

I have struggled with most of the Oscar buzz flicks and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" was no different.   Would I have liked it more at the Arclight than in my own living room?   I have no clue.   What hampers this movie even further is that it's based on a Broadway play and is incredibly cornered onto that small screen...hopelessly stage bound.  It feels terribly claustrophobic and not in a way that is intended.

You know what that means.   Hit the rewind button because you miss multiple scenes.

This is based on a true story or so it tells us.  Ma Rainey was the front of a jazz band circa Chicago 1927.   This is a recording studio and she is feuding with her White managers so she is late.   That leaves the musicians to kill time by talking.  And talking.  And talking.   The horn player particularly is a powder keg and he is played by the late Chadwick Boseman.   He'll probably get a sympathy Oscar here but that's really unfair as the work is good.   He also looks ill with a gaunt face and a raspy voice.   One wonders if he knew this would be his final screen legacy.

Anyway, Ma finally shows up in the frightening ghoulish appearance of Viola Davis who is also a favorite for an Oscar.  The look was probably not her choice as photos illustrate that the real Ma Rainey was equally as scary looking.  Her main thrust in the movie is to fight with the stereotypical White villains.  Indeed, for a film about a jazz band, there is an amazing lack of jazz music heard.   

For me, the film was okay but I still think about how I would have reacted if I had seen it the way a movie should be seen.   While eating some caramel popcorn at the Arclight and telling the idiot behind me to stop talking.

Ah, the good old days.

LEN'S RATING:  Three stars.

Dinner last night:  Leftover Chinese food.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - January 25, 2021

 Life is depressing enough.  Let's watch some dogs in the snow.

Dinner last night:  Sausage, peppers, onions, and potatoes in marsala sauce.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - How I Once Spent Inauguration Day

 

With our political parties completely out of control, I equate Inauguration Days as simply revolving doors.   One asshole out, one asshole in.  If you read this blog regularly, you know my feelings.  They all suck.

This week I was regrettably on a text chain from some dumb bells at my church.  They were essentially singing "Ding Dong The Male Witch is Dead."  I was tempted to chime in and ask them if their water had turned to wine yet.

Now you know why I want to find a new house of worship.

But, then again, four years ago at a previous inauguration, I had a friend warn me beforehand.

"You better not be watching when that son of a bitch takes oath."

Hey, no worries.  Frankly, I haven't been watching when any of the past sons of bitches have taken oath either.   Given how the office has been degraded with each succeeding President, I can't think of a bigger waste of time for me than to plant myself in front of a TV to watch this boondoggle.

"What?!!  You weren't even watching eight years ago when the first African-American President was inaugurated??"

Well, even if I wanted to (and I didn't), I couldn't have.   You see, I was too busy firing people.

Back in 2009, the sleazoid corporation I was involved with at the time decided to use the date of January 20 as a shield to conduct a major, company-wide reduction in force as a means to save money.  They figured that, with the Obama inauguration taking Pages One through 30 in the press, there would be less attention given to this mass exodus of employees.

Years later, I am no longer shy about talking this up.

Indeed, this culminated the worst two weeks of my life.   We had all come back feeling good from Christmas break.   On the first day of our return, the company department leaders were each called in one-by-one to the office of the new organization's president, who had been essentially installed in the position to cut costs drastically and oversee this corporate genocide.

I had 12 people in my domain.  I was told by the head scalp hunter that I had to reduce this down to six.  He would even help and gave me a list of names that he had personally chosen, despite the fact that he didn't know a single one of them.

I surveyed the list and agreed on a few of them.   There were a couple of recent college grad hires that fell into the bucket of "last in, first out."  But there was one name on their of a more veteran employee that I just couldn't put out on the street.  He allowed me to put in my own list.

He gave me the list back.   Slightly altered with the veteran name back on.   I sent it back with the veteran name back in.  This idiotic dialogue went on for two days and every time my list came back, that one name was still on it.  It was like an Etch A Sketch where somebody kept erasing your picture.

Persistence paid off and I won this argument, but now had to continue the battle in other ways.   With the target date of dismissal still two weeks away, we we were all coached on how to terminate people.   You couldn't say they were being fired or let go.   The hot phraseology was "separating from their employment." As if that's any nicer.  Over that two week period, I barely slept. That happens when you realize you are altering the lives of some people drastically.

On the day of execution, this was all to start being engineered by all the managers in a two-hour period first thing in the morning.   I had folks to terminate...er, separate from their employment...in both LA and NY, the latter being over the phone with another manager as witness on that coast.   And then I had a horrible thought.

One of the people being terminated in NY was an African-American woman. God, on what I was sure would be a proud day for her with the Obama inauguration ultimately turning out to be a nightmare.   I decided to come in at 6AM LA time to do this.   I wanted to make sure that, at the very least, she would be home in time to watch the swearing-in.

None of this was easy, but I did it all by the book.  In the LA office, you didn't want to ride the elevator between floors because, if you saw somebody carrying the dreaded white envelope, you knew that person was toe-tagged.

There is one good story from that day which, eight years later, I feel I can now share.   At the time, if anybody knew, I could have been axed myself.   One of the youngsters in my domain had come into my office two days prior and handed in his resignation.   He wanted to go home and pursue a career as a chef in Massachusetts.   Okay, I knew he was on my list.   And I also knew that he would be getting almost nine months of severance pay.

I told the kid that I couldn't explain why but I was not accepting his resignation. I asked him to trust me for two days and he would soon know why.

On the day of execution, I did this kid last and, as I handed him the dreaded white envelope, we were both smiling from ear-to-ear.  I essentially was providing him with some seed money to follow his dream.

Oh, by the way, the veteran name that kept popping up on the kill list.   She was there for several years more until her retirement.   Meanwhile, I was not.   Happily.

No, I wasn't watching the inauguration last week.  But I also wasn't firing people either.

Dinner last night:  Mongolian beef and rice.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - January 2021

Hard to believe this premiered in January 1971....a half century ago.

 

Dinner last night:  Grilled gruyere cheese sandwich from Clementine's.

The Funniest Store in America...

Dinner last night:  Salad.