LORENZ HART: WHAT DID HE LIVE FOR

Here is an interesting article on the self destructive life of one of the greatest lyricists, Lorenz Hart. Hart is one of my all-time favorite song writers...

Coming from an upper middle-class Jewish American background, lyricist Lorenz Hart known to friends and colleagues as "Larry") was tortured by his diminutive stature and a homosexual orientation he could neither deny nor accept. His brilliant collaboration with heterosexual composer Richard Rodgers brought Hart to the top of his profession. Once there, Hart was too guilt ridden and too frightened to handle the combination of private daring and public tact mastered by Noel Coward and  Cole Porter. Hart opted for a self-destructive path, and the more he tried to suppress his desires, the more they consumed him.

Too insecure to pursue social equals, Hart limited his sexual attentions to chorus boys and male prostitutes – many procured for him by Milton "Doc" Bender, a stage-struck dentist who had been his friend since their college days. Apparently, the opportunistic Bender set aside whatever career he himself had to serve as Hart's hanger-on and procurer. Hart's friends and biographers often suggest that the disreputable Bender was responsible for leading Hart to ruin, but that doesn't make sense. As an intelligent adult who had money, connections and tremendous professional influence, Hart could live life as he chose to. If he slept with men throughout his adult life, common sense suggests that he did so because he was gay, not because a nefarious companion talked him into it. So future historians interested in reality would do well to stop using Bender as an excuse for Hart's homosexual activities. Sexuality does not require an external motivator, and to suggest otherwise is to buy into bigotry masquerading as painfully outdated pop-psychology.

Some of Hart's contemporaries have also suggested that he turned to homosexuality because women rejected him -- which is patent nonsense! Throughout history ambitious women have been all too willing to succumb to homely men who happen to have money and power, and few of those men had Hart's generous spirit or brilliant sense of humor. Plenty of Broadway and Hollywood chorines would have leapt into Hart's bed in hopes of getting a break, and as far as we can tell none of them ever got the chance. Hart peopled his bed with men. Beyond this, it is idiotic to infer Hart somehow chose to be gay. Sexuality is not a matter of choice -- unless of course the people who suggest it is can testify from their own experience that the opposite is true. Who would possibly have chosen to be a homosexual in the repressive atmosphere of the early 20th Century?

Evidence suggests that Hart found little enjoyment in his homosexual liasons. Terrified of intimacy, he would wait for sex partners to fall asleep, then creep out of bed and curl up on the floor of his bedroom closet to get some sleep. In Rodgers & Hart: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. G.P. Putnam's Sons: New York, 1976), several of Hart's acquaintances confirm that he went to private all-male orgies, but strictly as a voyeur. He found watching from the sidelines less stressful than participating.

Hart’s lyrics avoided references to homosexuality. Instead, they abound with expressions of frustrated romance ("Take Him"), isolated courtship ("Quiet Night") and unconventional affection ("My Funny Valentine"). No one expressed the painful side of love like Hart did – for obvious reasons. Beginning in his teens, Hart tried to drown his inner demons in alcohol. By the late 1930s, he was disappearing on drinking binges for days at a time. Composing with him became impossible. When an exasperated Rodgers threatened to begin collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein II, Hart endorsed the idea before heading off to Mexico on yet another spree. (Rodgers had his own serious drinking problems, but they did not effect his work habits until his later years.)

On hand for the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma, Hart was sober and stunned by its unprecedented triumph. He agreed to help Rodgers prepare a revival of A Connecticut Yankee (1943 - 135), giving longtime friend Vivienne Segal the new comic showstopper "To Keep My Love Alive." But by the time the show was in rehearsal, Hart was drinking heavily. He showed up falling-down drunk for the Broadway opening. There are several published versions of what happened next, but at some point Hart started singing along from the rear of the theatre until he was dragged out by bodyguards. After spending the night on his brother's sofa, he disappeared. Days later, he was found sitting on a street curb – drunk, coatless, and soaked to the skin by an icy November downpour. Pneumonia led to his death a few days later. According to a nurse, Hart's last words were, "What have I lived for?" Would it have comforted him to know people would still be singing and celebrating his songs for generations to come...

SOURCE

GREAT MOMENTS IN BAD FILMS

Is there any such thing as a truly bad movie? I guess there is, but even with the worst movies Hollywood has produced, there are often moments in the films worth remembering. I wanted to take a look at some of the great moments from movies that I think are bad overall...

STREISAND MEETS SATCMO
Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly (1969) was one of the worst casting jobs Hollywood ever did. In 1969, Streisand was one of the biggest rising stars in the business. However, despite her being a hot property - she should not have been cast as the older widow Levi. Walter Matthau, who I love as an actor, spent the whole movie with a puss on his face. It was his character in the movie, but he also had a strong dislike for Streisand. The one moment in the movie was the main musical number "Hello Dolly". Barbra Streisand took control of the song and made it her own, and her version of that song almost makes you forget that Carol Channing should have been cast as Dolly Levi. The best part of the number was Streisand's pairing with Louis Armstrong. It was Armstrong's last movie role, and Streisand showed a jazzy side by joining Satchmo in some scat singing. The movie is horrible to sit through, but the seven minute musical number makes the movie almost watchable.

DER BINGLE SLAPS CAROLE LOMBARD
Bing Crosby helped to keep Paramount Studios out of bankruptcy in the early 30s, and he was one of the studios most populars stars from 1932 to 1956. Many of Bing's first movies for the studio showcased his singing and not his acting ability. As a result many of those early movies had pretty corny plots. One of those movies was We're Not Dressing (1934). The film cast Bing as a sailor and the great Carole Lombard as a millionaire stranded with Crosby on an island. The film is worth seeing for Bing's singing alone, and he sang some great songs like "May I", "Love Thy Neighbor", and "Once In A Blue Moon". In those terms the movie was good, but at one point Bing even had so sing with a bear (a man in a suit). Do not ask - it was 1934! The best part of the movie was not the singing, but the one scene when Bing slaps Carole Lombard. Remember, it was 1934. Singing Bing strike a woman was the most shocking part of the movie, and it has always stuck with me. In reality Bing and Carole were good friends, and Bing was a pallbearer later in 1934 when Lombard's boyfriend Russ Columbo died tragically.

DIETRICH'S BOOZY LAST MOVIE APPEARANCE
Marlene Dietrich was one of Hollywood's most stunningly beautiful women. From her breakthrough film "The Blue Angel" (1930) through her occasional film roles in the 1950s, she was not only a great beauty but a pretty good actress. Dietrich made one more screen appearance before she disappeared from the screen forever. It was a little role and a pretty awful film called "Just A Gigalo"(1978). Also appearing in the film was David Bowie, Kim Novak, and Curd Jurgens. It was a bizarre cast to say the least. Marlene Dietrich was filmed in Paris but editing makes her seem to be in Berlin with David Bowie. German press reports claimed she was paid $250,000 for two days' work. It was also widely reported that Dietrich was drunk the whole time her scenes were being filmed. Dietrich's show business career largely ended in late 1975, when she fell off the stage and broke her thigh during a performance in Sydney, Australia. The following year, her husband, Rudolf Sieber, died of cancer. By the time she signed on to film "Just A Gigalo", she was dependent on alcohol and painkillers. However, the saving grace in this awful film was Dietrich singing the title song. She looked sick and depressed in the film, and when she sings "there will come a day, when youth will pass away..." it never fails to give me chills. It's another great moment in a bad film.

Do you have any favorite moments in bad movies? Email me at dlobo74@gmail.com with your picks and I will incorporate it into a future blog article...

FORGOTTEN ONES: BOB BURNS

According to my wife, I like anything that was made before 1950. I guess to a degree, that is true. I do gravitate to anything nostalgic or sentimental, but there are some older stars that I just never really get. It's not that I do not like them, I just do not understand their appeal. One of those forgotten so-called nostalgic stars was radio comedian Bob Burns. Burns played a novelty musical instrument of his own invention, which he called a "bazooka". During World War II, the US Army's handheld anti-tank rocket launcher was nickamed the "bazooka".

He was born Robin Burn on August 2, 1890 in Greenwood, Arkansas. When he was three years old, his family moved to Van Buren, Arkansas. As a boy, Burns played trombone and cornet in the town's "Queen City Silver Cornet Band". At 13, he formed his own string band.  Practicing in the back of Hayman's Plumbing Shop one night, he picked up a length of gas pipe and blew into it, creating an unusual sound. With modifications, this became a musical instrument he named a "bazooka" (after "bazoo", meaning a windy fellow, from the Dutch bazuin for "trumpet"). A photograph shows him playing his invention in the Silver Cornet Band. Functioning like a crude trombone, the musical bazooka had a narrow range, but this was intentional. Burns also studied civil engineering and worked as a peanut farmer, but by 1911 was primarily an entertainer.

During World War I Burns enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He sailed to France with the Marine 11th Regiment. As a sergeant, he became the leader of the Marine Corps's jazz band in Europe. Burns made another "bazooka" from stove pipes and a whiskey funnel, which he sometimes played with the Corps band. After the war, Burns returned to the stage, often playing the bazooka as part of his act. He used it as a prop when telling hillbilly stories and jokes. Burns became known as The Arkansas Traveler and The Arkansas Philosopher. His stage persona was a self-effacing, rustic bumpkin with amusing stories about "the kinfolks" back home in Van Buren.

In 1930, Burns auditioned for a major Los Angeles radio station. He had prepared a 10 minute performance, but was asked to do 30 minutes, which he filled out with improvised stories and bazooka tunes. The managers did not care for his prepared material, but were impressed by his improvised material. Burns was hired. He appeared on an afternoon show, "The Fun Factory", as a character called "Soda Pop".

In 1935, on a visit to New York, Burns asked bandleader and radio star Paul Whiteman for an audition. Whiteman put Burns on his nightly show, the Kraft Music Hall, which was broadcast nationally; Burns was a big hit. Burns also became a regular on Rudy Vallee's show The Fleischmann Hour. Burns returned to Los Angeles in 1936, where Kraft Music Hall was now hosted by Bing Crosby. Burns was a regular, playing the bazooka and telling tall tales about his fictional hillbilly relatives, Uncle Fud and Aunt Doody.

Bob Burns was the host of The 10th Academy Awards held on March 10, 1938 at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Originally scheduled to be held on March 3, 1938, the ceremony was postponed due to heavy flooding in Los Angeles. In 1941, Burns was given his own radio show, called The Arkansas Traveler (1941-43) and he followed that up with The Bob Burns Show (1943-47).

His last performance was on January 30, 1955, on The Ed Sullivan Show (then called Toast of the Town). Bob left show business in the earlt 1950s though. A wealthy man from his land investments, Burns spent his final years on his 200-acre model farm in Canoga Park, California. Married three times, Bob Burns also had three children. (At one time he was married to entertainer Judy Canova). Burns sadly died of kidney cancer in Encino, California on February 2, 1956, at the age of 65. He is not very well remembered today, but his homespun humor was part Will Rogers and part Jed Clampett. Even though I never thought he was overly funny, he was a popular fixture, especially in radio in the late 1930s and early 1940s...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: STARS AND THEIR MOTHERS

Behind every great Hollywood star was probably a show business parent or two. To commemorate Mother's Day, I wanted to put together some interesting pictures of classic Hollywood stars and their dear old mothers...



JUDY GARLAND AND HER MOTHER



JIMMY STEWART AND HIS MOTHER

LINDA DARNELL AND HER MOTHER

FRED ASTAIRE AND HIS MOTHER

FRANK SINATRA AND HIS MOTHER

ANN MILLER AND HER MOTHER

THE SON OF LOUIS ARMSTRONG

In Louis Armstrong's account in "Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans", he speaks of his only venture into paternity. Clarence (Hatfield) Armstrong was born in 1915 to Louis's teenage cousin, Flora, apparently after she was molested by an old white man, who her father felt powerless to challenge. Louis's first sight of the baby washed "all the gloom out of me." He took it upon himself, at 14, to get a job hauling coal (immortalized in the 1925 "Coal Cart Blues") to support the baby and the ailing mother, and assumed full responsibility after Flora's death. After Louis's teen marriage in 1918 to his first wife Daisy Parker, he adopting three-year-old Clarence Hatfield, when Louis was only 17 years of age.

In that period, Clarence fell off a porch and landed on his head; doctors judged him to be mentally impaired. When Louis later married Lil Hardin in 1924 in Chicago, Clarence joined them. Later Louis never forgave Lil for claiming that Clarence was never legally adopted —for her impatience with him. When he left Lil for Alpha (who he married in 1938), he brought Clarence along.

Years later, Clarence was set up in the Bronx, where he was married -in an arrangement of convenience to a 'Miss Lillian', financed by Louis. Clarence's surname is something of a mystery. According to Armstrong's friend, photographer Jack Bradley, he was listed in the phone book as Clarence Hatfield—but this may have been an expediency to keep nosy fans and biographers at a distance. Clarence often would accompany his father on gigs, and he even appeared with Papa Satch on the Eddie Condon Floor Show, one of Louis's finest television appearances on June 11, 1949. I tried to find out more info on Clarence, especially his later years, but all I could find out is he survived his wife Evelyn Allen Armstrong.

Before Clarence's mother Flora died, she evidently anticipated Louis's involvement and renamed her son Clarence Armstrong. Louis Armstrong died in his beloved Queens, NY neighborhood home, in July 1971, just a month shy of his 70th birthday. Clarence attended his adopted father's funeral, even recognized highly in the lead family lmousine procession. Clarence (Hatfield) Armstrong lived a full life, dying at age 83, on Oct. 15, 1998, and endures in Armstrong's memoir as the happy athletic boy everyone called, much to Louis's pleasure, "Little Louis Armstrong."

MUSIC REVIEW: PERRY COMO

Here is a review I did online way back in 2001 - seems like only yesterday...

I bought this excellent CD only weeks before Perry Como passed away in May of 2001. Whether you're a big fan of Perry Como, like msyelf, or just a casual listener. This CD collection is jam packed with gems of Perry's career. Firstly, you get to hear Como's standard's like "Prisoner Of Love","If","Because", and "Til The End Of Time". Secondly, you get some lesser known Como recordings like "Black Moonlight" (first recorded by Perry's idol Bing Crosby in 1933) and "Over The Rainbow" (Of course a Judy Garland standard. He makes every song he sings his very own, and not many performers could do that. That is why Perry Como was truly one of the best crooners, next to Bing Crosby.

Another moving and touching song on the set, especially since Mr. Como's death is "Last Night When We Were Young". It is moving and powerful. Now Perry never had the most powerful voice, but he could instill drama into a serious song that makes him sound like an opera singer. The CD's sound is faultless, and I can find no flaws in this issue. The only gripe I have is that Mr. Perry Como is no longer with us anymore...

MY RATING: 10 OUT OF 10

MY FIVE FAVORITE MOVIES OF BING CROSBY

It is hard to believe that today Bing Crosby turns 110 years old. Bing had so many facets to his career. He started out as a band singer with such bands as Paul Whiteman and Gus Arnheim. Then he moved on a recording contract first with Brunswick, and then a long term contract with Decca Records. In the early 1930s radio was the king, so Bing would conquer and dominate that genre for the next 30 years. Finally, Bing became full blown Hollywood movie star. He first starred in a string of Mack Sennett shorts, and then he moved to Paramount Studios where he would remain one of their biggest actors for the next twenty five years. To celebrate his remarkable life and what would be his 110th birthday, I wanted to spotlight my five favorite Bing Crosby films...

5. GOING MY WAY (1944)
The film Going My Way marked the high point of Bing's movie career. In the film Bing played Father Chuck O'Malley, and in the beginning he had some reservations playing a Catholic priest. However, the role won Bing an Academy Award, and it proved that Bing was not just a movie crooner. His take on Father O'Malley made priests seem more human and approachable. The chemistry that Bing had with his co-star Barry Fitzgerald also helped. The movie is full of everything from laughter to tears, and in the foreground is Bing's great role in the timeless film.

4. HIGH SOCIETY (1956)
Bing's first major rival to his status as head crooner was the boy from Hoboken Frank Sinatra. Sinatra rose to super stardom when he left the Tommy Dorsey band in 1943, and he wanted to follow in Crosby's footsteps and become a movie star. In the 1940s there was a fake rivalry that was stirred up between Crosby and Sinatra, but they both admired each other greatly. It would not be until 1956 that they would join forces for a movie. The MGM musical High Society is often considered Bing's last great movie, and it definitely was his last great musical. Bing starred as a lazy songwriter CK Dexter Haven, and Sinatra was a magazine photographer. Thrown in the mix was the beautiful Grace Kelly and the jazz genius Louis Armstrong. Do I need to list any more examples why this is one of Bing's best movies?!

3. HOLIDAY INN (1942)
I hope whatever genius decided to pair up Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Irving Berlin songs got a bonus at Paramount, because it made a wonderful film. Of course, the film introduced the timeless Christmas classic "White Christmas" to the world, and it helped to secure Bing's place as Father Christmas, but also made audiences forget about the horror of a world war that we just entered. Bing sang wonderful songs like "White Christmas", "Easter Parade", "Be Careful, It's My Heart", and "Song Of Freedom" while Fred Astaire danced the quickest tapping ever put on film with his number "Say It With Firecrackers". The black face "Abraham" number may seem dated and some cable channels even delete the number now, but it is a wonderful number that shows that in 1942 the world was much more different than it is now 70 years later. A supporting cast of Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, and Walter Abel help to make this movie one of my all-time favorite holiday films - even though most of the film does not take place at Christmas!

2. BLUE SKIES (1946)
The movie Blue Skies was unique because it reunited Bing, Fred Astaire, and Irving Berlin on film. During the making of the film, Astaire also announced that it would be his last film he made. He wanted to retire from Hollywood. As we know that was not to happen. When Gene Kelly broke his ankle during rehearsals for another Irving Berlin film Easter Parade in 1948, Astaire was lured back to movie making and never stopped. Fred was not even supposed to be in Blue Skies as it was. Dancer Paul Draper was originally cast as Bing's co-star, but Bing had not chemistry with Draper, and he had him removed from the film. There is also a rumor that Paul Draper disliked the leading lady Joan Caulfield, but Bing was having a relationship with her at the time and was very protective of the novice actress Caulfield. Whatever the reason, I am glad that Fred Astaire signed on.

Again the movie featured a slew of great numbers, and this time they were all filmed in glorious technicolor. Bing had the opportunity to croon such great songs as "Blue Skies", "All By Myself", "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song" and "I've Got My Captain Working For Me Now", while Astaire had career toppers with terrific numbers like "Puttin On The Ritz" and "Heat Wave". The film like Holiday Inn is about two guys and a girl. Most of the film is spent with them fighting over the girl, but in the end happiness prevails. Many consider the plot of Blue Skies corny by today's standards, but years later the film can always bring a smile to my face or a tear to my eye.

1. THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954)
By the 1950s the music scene was changing, and Bing tried branching out to more dramatic roles. Like Going My Way a decade earlier, The Country Girl was Bing's role of a lifetime. He played a drunker washed up singer so convincingly that some bios of Bing in recent years erroneously say that he was an alcoholic. For some of the scenes that required Bing to look tired and completely hung over, he had his sons walk with him all night and keep him up so he would have a believable haggard look for the scene the next morning. At first the film was going to have no music, but Bing insisted that a few songs would be in the film so he would not alienate his regular movie fans. The one song that has always stuck with me is "The Search Is Through. Written by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin, the song is used throughout the film to not only show his downfall but also to show his rise from the bottom. It is one of Bing's most underrated recordings in my humble opinion.

The cast is not huge in The Country Girl, but rounding out the film was Grace Kelly and William Holden. Kelly played Bing's long suffering wife, and it would win her an Academy Award. William Holden played a director that was giving Bing his last chance resurrect his career and his life. I don't want to give away the plot, but I have not been able to watch the film since having children. However, it remains my favorite Bing Crosby film. It is a great movie to demonstrate Bing's fine voice as well as his underrated acting ability. It is a prime example of why Bing should remain to be remembered 110 years after his birth...