FORGOTTEN ONES: BELLE BAKER - PART ONE

Time has been flying by and with each decade old stars are more and more forgotten. One such big star that is largely forgotten is Belle Baker. Born in Los Angeles) was a singer and actress. Popular throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Baker introduced a number of ragtime and torch songs including Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" and "My Yiddishe Mama". She performed in the Ziegfeld Follies and introduced a number of Irving Berlin's songs. An early adapter to radio, Baker hosted her own radio show during the 1930s. Eddie Cantor called her “Dinah Shore, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland all rolled into one.”

Baker was born Bella Becker in 1893 to a Russian Jewish family originally from Akmene, Lithuania on New York's Lower East Side. She was the third child of eight children born to Hyman (Chaim) Becker and Sarah Rabinowitz. Her mother was chronically ill. Born into extreme poverty, Baker was unable to attend school and was forced to work in a factory when she was 6 years old.

Baker started performing at the Lower East Side's Cannon Street Music Hall at age 11, where she was discovered by the Yiddish Theatre manager Jacob Adler. She was managed in vaudeville by Lew Leslie, who would become Baker's first husband. She made her vaudeville debut in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the age of 15. She performed in Oscar Hammerstein I's Victoria Theatre in 1911, although her performance was panned, mainly for her song choices. By age 17, she was a headliner. One of her earliest hits was "Cohen Owes Me $97". Belle Baker on the sheet music cover of Nick Clesi's 1916 hit "I'm Sorry I Made You Cry"

Baker first introduced the song "Eli, Eli" to the American public. The song was originally written by a Jewish songwriter only known by the name Schindler for Baker's role as a child in a play. In the play, the mother is crucified and Baker sings the first line in English ("G-d, oh G-d, why has thou forsaken me?"). Gentiles at the time believed that this was a sung version of a Jewish prayer. However, Baker later clarified this, and it became one of the most popular tunes of the time. The song was later covered by John McCormack, John Steel and Dorothy Jardon.

In 1926, Baker became the lead in a play called Betsy. In this play, Baker played the oldest daughter of a Jewish family named the Kitzels. The mother (portrayed by Pauline Hoffman) wouldn't let any of her children get married until Betsy (played by Baker) got married. Legend has it that the story desperately needed a Baker song, and so she called Irving Berlin for help. Baker introduced his hit song Blue Skies in Betsy. The song was such a hit that she played it for twenty-four encores on opening night. Blue Skies would later become immortalized by Al Jolson's performance of it in the first ever talkie movie, The Jazz Singer.

TO BE CONTINUED...

BING CROSBY - THE HOLLYWOOD YEARS: PART 5

A HONOR FOR JAMES EARL JONES

 The historic Cort Theatre has been renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre, honoring the legendary actor’s 64-year Broadway career. Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958 and remains celebrated in theater, film, and television. The $47 million renovation marks a significant tribute to his legendary talent as an actor...

MY FAVORITES: THREE BEST POLITCAL MOVIES

 I won't coment on who is running for president today or who I am going to support. If I wanted to be political, I would start another blog. Here is a look at what I think are the three best classic Hollywood poltical movies...

1. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Have you watched it lately? You should. (And by “you,” we mean every sentient being on Capitol Hill.) Frank Capra’s classic is still the granddaddy of America’s small-d democratic, participatory ideals. And James Stewart’s portrayal of a small-town nobody and his quixotic battle against self-dealing politicians still claims pride of place as Hollywood’s most stirring, convincing and timeless reminder that the Constitution is a sacred trust that all American citizens — and their representatives — have responsibility for bearing.

2. All the President’s Men (1976)

For many viewers — especially the untold number who became reporters after being inspired by it — this flawlessly crafted Watergate procedural is a journalism movie. But in the process of untangling the skein of lies, malfeasance and coverups that defined the scandal, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) wind up exposing the seamy underside of partisan realpolitik, and underline the crucial role of a free press in holding leaders accountable. Bonus points for featuring Jason Robards as history’s best big-screen Ben Bradlee.

3. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The 1960s and ’70s produced their share of great paranoid thrillers, but this one proved shockingly prescient, not only regarding the era of assassinations that immediately followed its release, but of today, when foreign influence on our elections poses a credible and escalating threat. Masterfully directed by John Frankenheimer and featuring Frank Sinatra’s finest acting performance, this hallucinatory masterpiece still manages to be darkly funny and queasily discomfiting in equal measure. (Which unfortunately can’t be said of Jonathan Demme’s forgettable 2004 remake.)

Whether your political leanings, you can not complain about our politicans if you don't vote. Go out there and VOTE!

MEMORIES OF SOME LIKE IT HOT

When Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon first put on the female makeup and costumes for "Some Like It Hot" (1959), , they walked around the Goldwyn Studios lot to see if they could "pass" as women. Then they tried using mirrors in public ladies rooms to fix their makeup, and when none of the women using it complained, they knew they could be convincing as women. There is a scene on the train recreating this moment.

Lemmon got along with Marilyn Monroe and forgave her eccentricities. He believed Marilyn simply couldn't go in front of the camera until she was absolutely ready. "She knew she was limited and goddamned well knew what was right for Marilyn," he said. "She wasn't about to do anything else." He also said that although she may not have been the greatest actor or singer or comedienne, she used more of her talent, brought more of her gifts to the screen than anyone he ever knew.

Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.

Many years after the film's release, a movie reviewer asked Curtis why his Josephine was so much more feminine than Lemmon's Daphne. A laughing Curtis explained that he was so scared to be playing a woman (or a man pretending to be one) that his tightly wound body language could be read as demure and shy, traditionally feminine traits, whereas Lemmon, who was completely unbothered, and "ran out of his dressing room screaming like the Queen of the May," kept much more of his masculine body language...