dirac

A very nice piece by Robert Gottlieb on Bankhead’s life and career, in The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/a...516crat_atlarge Gottlieb observes that “Not one of Tallulah’s most important rivals crashed and burned the way she did.” I’d suggest that the crackup of Jeanne Eagels – dead before forty – qualifies. (Yes, she was a decade older than Tallulah and so not really a "rival," but Ethel Barrymore, included the list of Tallulah’s rivals, was 22 years older.)

A quote from the blog Leigh linked to:

Thanks for that link, carbro. It also contains a helpful link to Steven Johnson’s blog, where he responds to good reviews and bad ones. Here’s a quote (from him):

A writer named Steven Johnson is getting lots of notice for a new book called “Everything Bad is Good for You,” which posits the thesis that popular culture is becoming more sophisticated and making people smarter. Malcolm Gladwell reviews it for The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/art...50516crbo_books Gladwell actually seems to be taking this stuff seriously (wouldn’t have happened in the old New Yorker, with Dwight Macdonald on the case). However, since I don’t watch “The Sopranos” (became disillusioned after the first season), “24,” or any of the other shows that are presumably making its viewers brilliant, it may be that my own mental processes, nurtured for the most part on “Star Trek” reruns and “Dynasty,” are just not rapid enough. Thoughts?

In the same issue, Acocella has a brief profile in "Talk of the Town" of Ailey dancer Dudley Williams: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/arti...a_talk_acocella

The extras are listed under each individual title. They include a few featurettes. There's commentary from writers, etc. and vintage cartoons and shorts, apparently unrelated to F&G. The movies will be released individually as well, so it will be possible to pick and choose, fortunately.

Thank you -- I have the magazine at home but hadn't gotten around to this piece yet. I like the comparison between live and taped music -- "ham and Spam."

Details available from DVD Times: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=57013 How thoughtful of Warner, albeit a trifle puzzling from a marketing standpoint, to include the two best films of the series, Top Hat and Swing Time, in the first set.

I haven't seen a release date yet, but I understand that Warner Home Video is bringing out all the Astaire-Rogers movies in two separate DVD collections. (I am fortunate enough to live near a repertory film theatre that revives them at regular intervals. Nothing like seeing them on the big screen.)

I’m inclined to agree, chris217. But I suspect it’s too famous to do away with. I’ll never forget Steve Martin wearing it for a Saturday Night Live sketch, with Gilda Radner. He didn’t look bad, either.

Alcohol does dreadful things. Also, then as now there were very few good roles for older actresses. A few women stars went on and on, but many worked on snagging a Good Provider with the idea of leaving the spotlight while they were looking good. Lobenthal records Bankhead’s unsuccessful efforts with Jock Whitney in this direction. Thanks for that “Tonight Show” anecdote, Mme. Hermine. I read in a Carson obituary that he was livid about NBC’s copying over those old tapes.

scoop, I started a separate thread for "Saturday," but feel free to post on this one if you like. Carbro, thank you for pulling this thread up. I ought to have done it myself when I referred back to it.

I’m reading Joel Lobenthal’s recent biography of Tallulah Bankhead ( “Tallulah!” )and though as a rule I avoid works in any field with exclamation points in their titles, I’m glad I made an exception. This is a wonderful if ultimately sad book. Readers who don’t have a pre-existing interest in departed divas of the stage or the theatre of the era may find some of the details slow going, but persistence pays off. Bankhead, one of the great stage stars of her time, was born in Alabama in 1902, the daughter of a Speaker of the House and the niece of a Senator. After a brief period as a pudgy girl with bad skin, she blossomed into a beauty and turned her thoughts to the stage. She made her first hit in London and was a star at 21, but her offstage peccadilloes (affairs with men and women, alcohol, drugs) soon overshadowed her onstage accomplishments, with deleterious long term consequences for her career and reputation. This book is a gallant attempt to retrieve the situation. It’s not entirely successful in that respect – not through any fault of the author’s, however. Bankhead became a star perhaps too soon for her own good; she got used to the high life and apparently she never met a script she didn’t like. She was not alone in this -- one thinks of the Lunts frittering their unparallelled technique away in one piffling drawing room comedy after another -- but there is a lingering sense that she didn’t accomplish all she might have. She did give two performances for the record books, originating the role of Regina Giddens in Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” and Sabina in Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth.” In addition, she starred in the original production of Michael Arlen’s “The Green Hat,” uttering the immortal line, “Boy died for purity.” (Don’t ask.) I hesitate to use the term "meticulously researched" after reading Safire's Sunday piece, but it applies here, in a good way. Lobenthal looked up everything and talked to everyone, and there are riches here in theatre lore and good dish. Bankhead might be better known today if she had become a big film star, but she did not make it for several reasons. Bad timing – she arrived at Paramount when Marlene Dietrich was already in place and at the top of her box office; Norma Shearer over at MGM had a patent on the naughty modern woman roles that would have been naturals for Bankhead. Also, like many oversize stage personalities, she lost something in front of the camera. She returned to the stage and made infrequent film appearances from then on. (She can be seen to best advantage in Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat” IMO although many people, including Lobenthal, like “A Royal Scandal” better than I do. I’m also partial to “The Devil and the Deep" in which Tallu drives ship captain Charles Laughton bananas with her yen for Gary Cooper; a callow Cary Grant shows up in the backwash. ) Bette Davis became her movie star doppelganger, improving on the stage productions of “Dark Victory” and “Jezebel” (but Tallulah retained the acting honors for Foxes; Bette just wasn't at her best and reportedly followed the Tallulah template for the role too closely. I should imagine, also, that Bankhead had a lushness and vibrancy that Davis missed). Lobenthal gives us a thorough accounting of the mostly unmemorable Bankhead vehicles. Much of it is fascinating, but I have to admit it’s not exactly like reading about Scofield’s Hamlet or Ralph Richardson in Peer Gynt. All in all, great book. Buy at once. I recommend Bankhead's autobiography, too, although it should be read in tandem with this one.

In last Sunday’s New York Times magazine, William Safire took a look at the most overused adjectives for book blurbs: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/magazine/01ONLANGUAGE.html

Yes it is -- sort of, maintains Helen Falconer in the Guardian: http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/genera...1473320,00.html

I have not started this yet, but some time ago we had a lively thread about "Atonement" and so if anyone has checked out this one, please post about it. The reviews are very favorable, with a couple of exceptions.

I'd like to see ALL of them, but I'll have to limit myself to two or maybe even one this time around. I like Zahorian and even if she isn't the world's greatest Juliet I'm curious to see her in it. Otherwise I'm shooting for LeBlanc and Boada.

A belated posting of an obituary for Sir John Mills, who died late last month at the age of 97. He was not quite in the top tier of British actors for his time (the Mills family were once called, unkindly, “the poor man’s Redgraves”) but he gave some memorable film performances that will be around for some time (and the competition – Gielgud, Olivier, et al. – was uncommonly stiff). I have two favorites: the bootmaker Willie Mossop in “Hobson’s Choice” -- trapped between tyrannical father-in-law Charles Laughton and strong-willed wife Brenda de Banzie -- and Major Barrow in “Tunes of Glory”-- facing off against Alec Guinness, the latter in an unaccustomed role as a crusty Scottish colonel. Both men are superb, and I learn from the obituaries that it was Mills’ own favorite film. The movie itself is no great shakes, with wooden direction from Ronald Neame, but press on till the end. You won’t be sorry. Because Mills won an Oscar for his stunningly misjudged performance as the village idiot in “Ryan’s Daughter” all the obits made special note of it. Do him a posthumous favor and avoid it – the movie is a miss, anyway. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/nyregion...html?oref=login

Depending upon the state of your pocketbook, I'd say it's worth purchasing. As Mel says, MacMillan and Britten are not a match made in heaven (although in MacMillan's defense, the plot doesn't really lend itself to ballet). Bussell is worth seeing, too, and in a role made for her. I have the ballet in a 2-VHS version, and that set includes an interesting documentary of MacMillan's career, with interviews and old footage of Seymour, et al. If the DVD includes it, that's definitely a plus.

Thank you, Farrell Fan. His tone does sound a trifle elegiac, but although I recall a where-do-they-go-next article about Penguin from some time ago, I haven't heard recently that the imprint is in trouble. I'm not too crazy about some of the redecorated new editions, myself.

The Independent discusses the history and impact of the Penguin paperback: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/f...sp?story=633940

The Onion acknowledges National Poetry Month, in News in Brief (scroll down): http://www.theonion.com/index.php?issue=4117

Thank you for posting, balletdad. I think you underrate yourself in the educated consumerism department, and it's nice to hear all views.

Totally off topic, but I feel I should note for the record that Robin Cousins had “the package” of athleticism and presentation to an extent not seen before his arrival on the scene, not even from Curry. I’d also suggest that, although there are elements, such as the delayed axel, that I see in the older programs and miss, in many ways the all around level of presentation has improved. As the school figures were gradually reduced in importance, skaters devoted more time to aspects of presentation, such as choreography, costuming, and well integrated music selections (the savage cutting of the music way back when was often dreadful to hear). These became more important as the level of technical skill increased across the board, the talent pool widened, and competition intensified. Curry and Cousins, who were paying attention to these matters before the majority of skaters did, selected and edited their own music and performed their own choreography. Now there are people whose job it is to search for appropriate skating music, and choreographers everywhere. That wasn’t always the case -- often as not, the coach chose the music and did the choreography, although there were exceptions. Returning to our moutons, you have this kind of change in ballet, too. As time passes, some things improve and some things are lost, or let us say the emphasis in training and performance changes. It is interesting that Fonteyn is mentioned in both Curry's and Cousins' post Olympics victory lap book. Curry, by his own admission a frustrated dancer, admired the Royal Ballet and specifically Fonteyn above all things. (I thought he was rather like Fonteyn -- a performer of unique refinement.) Cousins noted more prosaically that when he saw her she was clearly past her prime, but could still command the stage, and he made a note of that.

Can't post at length right now, but I did get to see Program 6. I took a different approach from BalletNut -- I deliberately avoided learning more than I already knew about the Dybbuk legend in order to assess the storytelling. (Globetrotter, I do see your point about abstraction and it's a good one, but my feeling was that Robbins was presenting us with a story and characters, however reduced.) The score was a characteristically blustery Bernstein offering and it seemed to overwhelm the dance, but as noted by others the audience loved it. I expect it will be back and of course I'll see it again. I tried not to be influenced by the knowledge that Robbins never stopped tinkering with it, but I fear it didn't show me much.