MOVIE SHOWCASE: HELLFIGHTERS

John Wayne made a lot of movies in his career - well over 100 - and I think HELLFIGHTERS(1968) is my all-time favorite John Wayne movie. I feel it was different than his usual cowboy or soldier role. Chance Buckman (John Wayne) is the head of a Houston, Texas–based oil-fire fighting outfit. With a team that includes Joe Horn (Bruce Cabot), Greg Parker (Jim Hutton), and George Harris (Edward Faulkner), Chance travels around the world putting out blazes at well heads from industrial accident, explosion or terrorist attack. Chance enjoys the thrills, but longs for ex-wife Madelyn (Vera Miles), who left him 20 years earlier, taking their daughter Tish (Katharine Ross) with her, because Madelyn could not bear to see her husband risk his life.

While extinguishing a burning wellhead, Chance suffers a near-fatal accident when he is nearly crushed by a bulldozer blade. Against his wishes, his daughter visits. He discovers that his assistant Greg has married his daughter five days after meeting her. Greg has a notorious reputation for using fires to pick up women. Generally, any woman he takes to a fire ends up in bed with him; in the case of Buckman's daughter, he apparently fell in love and they married instead. In spite of Greg's reputation, Buckman comes to trust his daughter's choice. He accepts Greg into the family.

Greg suspects that his new father-in-law is growing increasingly protective after the marriage, in an effort to protect his daughter from heartbreak should her new husband be harmed or killed. Tish wishes to see the fires that her husband and father fight, something that neither man has encouraged. Her father relents and allows her to accompany Greg into the field.

Chance, trying to re-unite with his ex-wife, resigns to take a safer job at Lomax's oil company as a way to win her back. Chance gives his company to his son-in-law as a "wedding present", although Greg's pride forces him to tell Buckman he "doesn't want any gifts" and that he will "pay double for it." Greg and Tish begin traveling the world to put out oil-well fires. Soon the older couple announce that they will re-marry, to the delight of Tish. Chance accepts an executive position from his old friend Jack Lomax (Jay C. Flippen) to serve on the board of directors for Lomax Oil. Madelyn is happy to see her husband in a safe job; but in time Chance begins to grow bored with the corporate environment and longs to be back in the field.

Greg encounters problems with an oil well fire in Venezuela, further compounded by guerrillas who are trying to undermine the operation. He asks Chance to return and help fight the fire. He does so without hesitation. Chance goes to Venezuela, unaware that Madelyn and Tish are going as well. Madelyn declares "This is it for me," in the sense that it will either make or break her ability to deal with the fires once and for all. The team puts out the fires with the help of the Venezuelan army while under attack by rebel aircraft that strafe the oilfield. Madelyn explodes in anger at what she perceives as the Venezuelans' inability to protect the team from unexpected airplane attacks, at which point Chance pulls her away during her tirade. She snaps, "I'll be damned if I understand your attitude!", to which he replies, "It's very simple -- you'll do!"

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: MAUREEN O'HARA

In my opinion, I think Maureen O'Hara was one of the most beautiful actresses to ever come out of Hollywood. Maureen was born Maureen Fitzsimons in 1920 in Ireland. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne. Her autobiography, 'Tis Herself , was published in 2004.

Her first major film was Jamaica Inn (1938) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Charles Laughton was so pleased with O'Hara's performance that he cast her in the role of Esmeralda opposite him in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), which was to be filmed at RKO Studios in Hollywood that same year. After the successful completion of Hunchback, World War II began, and Laughton, realizing their studio could no longer film in London, sold O'Hara's contract to RKO. That studio cast her in low-budget films until she was rescued by director John Ford, who cast her as Angharad in How Green Was My Valley, which won the 1941 Academy Award for Best Picture.

Six years later, in 1947, she made what is perhaps her best-remembered film, starring as Doris Walker and the mother of a young Natalie Wood in 20th Century Fox's Miracle on 34th Street, which, despite being released in May, has become a perennial Christmas classic, with a traditional network television airing every Thanksgiving Day on NBC. The film also helped to further establish O'Hara's career after the film garnered several awards, including an Academy Award Nomination for Best Picture.

In 1939, at the age of 19, O'Hara secretly married Englishman George H. Brown, a film producer, production assistant and occasional scriptwriter whose best known work is the first of Margaret Rutherford's 1960s Miss Marple mysteries, Murder She Said. The marriage was annulled in 1941. Later that year, O'Hara married American film director William Houston Price (dialog director in The Hunchback of Notre Dame), but the union ended in 1953, reportedly as a result of his alcohol abuse. They had one child in 1944, a daughter named Bronwyn FitzSimons Price. Bronwyn has one son, Conor Beau FitzSimons, who was born on September 8, 1970. From 1953 until 1967 O'Hara had a relationship with Enrique Parra, a Mexican politician and banker. She wrote in her autobiography ; "Enrique saved me from the darkness of an abusive marriage and brought me back into the warm light of life again. Leaving him was one of the most painful things I have ever had to do."

She married her third husband, Charles F. Blair, Jr., on March 12,1968. Blair was a pioneer of transatlantic aviation, a former Brigadier General of the U.S. Air Force, and a former Chief Pilot at Pan Am. A few years after her marriage to Blair, O'Hara for the most part retired from acting. Blair died in 1978 when an engine of a Grumman Goose he was flying from St. Croix to St. Thomas exploded. She was elected CEO and President of Antilles Airboats with the added distinction of being the first woman president of a scheduled airline in the U.S. Later she sold the airline with the permission of the shareholders.

O'Hara remained retired from acting until 1991, when she starred in the film Only the Lonely, playing Rose Muldoon, the domineering mother of a Chicago cop played by John Candy. In the following years, she continued to work, starring in several made-for-TV movies, including The Christmas Box, Cab for Canada and The Last Dance, the latter her last film to date, released in 2000.

Now officially retired, she has homes in Arizona and the Virgin Islands but lives mainly in Glengarriff, County Cork.

UPDATE AUGUST 2012...Maureen O' Hara has made news again. She is enbroiled in a battle with her assistant, whom she fired. Allegations of elder abuse and mismanagement has come out. You can read more of the story HERE. The article also includes an updated picture of Ms. O'Hara from this year...

UPDATED JANUARY 2013...Maureen is now living in Idaho. You can read more of the update HERE. There is also a picture with her grandson and her two great grandchildren...

UPDATE JUNE 2013...Maureen is leaving the spotlight. Poor woman has had a hard couple of years. You can read the update HERE.

UPDATE OCTOBER 2015...Legendary actress Maureen O'Hara has passed away at the age of 95. You can read about it HERE.

JILL CLAYBURGH DIES AT 66

Jill Clayburgh, an Oscar-nominated actress known for portraying strong, independent women, died on Friday at her home in Lakeville, Conn. She was 66. The cause was chronic leukemia, with which she had lived for 21 years, her husband, the playwright David Rabe, said.

Ms. Clayburgh, who began her career in films and on Broadway in the late 1960s, was among the first generation of young actresses — including Ellen Burstyn, Carrie Snodgress and Marsha Mason — who regularly portrayed characters sprung from the new feminist ethos: smart, capable and gritty, sometimes neurotic, but no less glamorous for all that. “I guess people look at me and they think I’m a ladylike character,” Ms. Clayburgh told The New York Times in 1982. “But it’s not what I do best. I do best with characters who are coming apart at the seams.”

She was known in particular for her starring role in “An Unmarried Woman” (1978), directed by Paul Mazursky. For her performance as Erica, a New Yorker who must right herself after her husband leaves her for another woman, Ms. Clayburgh was nominated for an Academy Award. (The best-actress Oscar that year went to Jane Fonda in “Coming Home.”) Ms. Clayburgh also received an Oscar nomination for “Starting Over” (1979), directed by Alan J. Pakula. She played Marilyn Holmberg, a teacher who embarks on a relationship with Phil, a newly divorced man played by Burt Reynolds.

Ms. Clayburgh’s other films include “Semi-Tough” (1977), opposite Mr. Reynolds; “It’s My Turn” (1980), opposite Michael Douglas; “First Monday in October” (1981), opposite Walter Matthau, in which she played the first woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court; and “I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can” (1982), based on the memoir by Barbara Gordon about a driven career woman’s addiction to valium.

Jill Clayburgh was born in Manhattan on April 30, 1944, the daughter of Albert, an industrial textile salesman, and Julie Clayburgh. She earned a bachelor’s degree in theater from Sarah Lawrence College in 1966. Ms. Clayburgh made her Broadway debut in 1968 in “The Sudden & Accidental Re-Education of Horse Johnson,” a play starring Jack Klugman that ran for five performances. Her other Broadway credits included far more successful shows, among them the Jerry Bock-Sheldon Harnick musical “The Rothschilds” (1970), opposite Hal Linden; the Stephen Schwartz musical “Pippin” (1972), opposite John Rubinstein; and a 1984 revival of Noël Coward’s “Design for Living” that also starred Frank Langella and Raul Julia.

Her last Broadway appearance, in 2006, was in a revival of “Barefoot in the Park” at the Cort Theater, with Tony Roberts and Amanda Peet.

Besides Mr. Rabe, whom she married in 1978, Ms. Clayburgh is survived by a daughter, the actress Lily Rabe, who is starring in the Broadway production of “The Merchant of Venice,” now in previews at the Broadhurst Theater; a son, Michael; a stepson, Jason; and a brother, James.

Her many television credits include guest appearances on “Law & Order,” “The Practice” and “Nip/Tuck,” and a recurring role on “Ally McBeal” as Ally’s mother, Jeannie. Most recently Ms. Clayburgh was a member of the regular cast of “Dirty Sexy Money,” broadcast from 2007 to 2009 on ABC.

Despite her acclaim, Ms. Clayburgh, by all appearances, had a healthy sense of herself. “People think about me, ‘This wonderful lucky woman, she’s got it all,’ ” she told The Times in 1982. “But gee, that’s how I feel about Meryl Streep.”

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF COMPOSER DIES

NEW YORK – Jerry Bock, who composed some of the most memorable shows in Broadway history, including "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Fiorello!" has died. He was 81.

Richard M. Ticktin, Bock's attorney and family friend, said the composer died Wednesday morning at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., of heart failure.

Together with lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Bock wrote the powerful score to "Fiddler on the Roof," one of the most successful productions in the history of the American musical theater, having an initial run of eight years. It earned the two men Tony Awards in 1965.

Bock had recently spoken at a memorial service for "Fiddler" playwright Joseph Stein, who died Oct. 24. "So now two of the three creators of 'Fiddler on the Roof' have passed away within three weeks of each other," said Ticktin.

Bock and Harnick also took home Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize for the music and lyrics to "Fiorello!" in 1960. In addition, Bock was nominated for Tonys in 1967 for "The Apple Tree" and in 1971 for "The Rothschilds."

"The world will remember him as a gentle human being with great talent who was a collaborator in musical theater. Jerry believed that the essence of musical theater was the collaboration — working with your colleagues, trying to make a unified whole out of disparate parts," Ticktin said.

Bock's other works include "The Body Beautiful," "Mr. Wonderful" and "She Loves Me."

In 2004, Bock said his favorite moment in the creation of a song was playing it with his collaborator. "If it works, we say, 'Wow!'" Bock said. "There's no reward like it — to finish a song and celebrate it with your partner."

Survivors include his wife, Patti, daughter Portia Bock, son George Bock and granddaughter Edie Mae Shipler. Funeral services will be private, his lawyer said.

UNUSUAL DUETS: DANNY KAYE AND DINAH SHORE

Here is an unusual pairing for Danny Kaye's movie debut. He is paired with the great songbird Dinah Shore in UP IN ARMS from 1944. Dinah never really made it as a movie star, although she had a very likable personality. The number, called "Tess' Torch Song" is very unique. Shore recorded a more subtle version that was a fairly big hit. Personally, I think the duet on film was better...

DORIS DAY AT 86

Hollywood legend Doris Day, born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, turned 86 years old this past April. She's one of the few top-ranking female box office stars who is still alive to talk about what it was like to break into Hollywood in the 1940s, and she recently spent time talking about her life and career with WNYC Music Host Jonathan Schwartz. Day shares with Schwartz, among other anecdotes, how a car accident curtailed her stint as a dancer, why she turned down the lead in the movie "South Pacific" and the time Frank Sinatra came to her defense at a birthday party...

AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB COLONNA

Bob Colonna is the son of comedian and entertainer Jerry Colonna. Jerry is best known as being a foil for Bob Hope on radio, television, and movies. However, Jerry Colonna was a gifted musician and family man as well. Bob Colonna, a gifted director and actor as well, has written a book about his father called: "Greetings, Gate!: The Story of Professor Jerry Colonna". I highly recommend the book, and you can buy it here.

Bob was gracious enough to take time out of his active and busy schedule to sit down with me and answer a few questions about his life and his famous father:

LOBOSCO: Growing up in a famous household, what do you remember most?

BOB COLONNA: Being treated differently at school -- not pleasantly, either. Also, showing up at interesting places, being photographed with Dad and Mom, etc.

LOBOSCO: Your father is best remembered as a comedian, but he was a well rounded talented entertainer as well, what facet of his career do he think he was most proud of?

BOB COLONNA: He was always first and foremost a jazz trombonist, and at one time was named one of the top five in the US. He was always happiest when he could play the horn.

LOBOSCO: Your father worked with Bob Hope for a good portion of his career. Since Bob's death, some true and untrue stories came out about him, what was your impression (and your father's impression) of Bob Hope?

BOB COLONNA: In some ways a distant man, and very self protective. Very witty, which will put paid to those who think he couldn't be funny without idiot cards. And very, very loyal to his friends, especially Jerry; even after Jerry passed, Hope made sure my Mom was looked after, but without it ever seeming like charity. I think Hope, in his way, was a great man, and like great men, had a few failings. He had only one drug, however, and that was the applause and laughter of servicemen and women, and he went, compulsively, to wherever he could find it.

LOBOSCO: After your father became ill in the 1960s, he withdrew from the limelight. During this time, did he keep up on the change in entertainment (the music, the "new" comedians) and what did he think of them?

BOB COLONNA: Actually, Jerry continued to perform after the stroke, but only on some Hope TV specials. Hope made sure he was sitting down, and edited the tape to account for any slowness in picking up cues. Otherwise, Jerry performed very well. It wasn't until his heart attack in the 70s that he was confined to the Motion Picture and TV Hospital for the rest of his life. As for the new comics, I don't know -- I moved to Providence in 1966, and wasn't there to get his reactions. I think he would have liked Robin Williams. His favorite had always been Sid Caesar, who set a very high bar for anybody following him. Of course, Jerry hated coarse language, and never used it himself, even privately, so most of the newbies would have turned him off.

LOBOSCO: How was life for you growing up the son of Jerry Colonna?

BOB COLONNA: I now realize what a break I got. I met most of the people I would like to have met, from Harpo to Robert Preston. I had access to some fabulous parties, and I got to perform with Dad in British Variety at fifteen and in clubs in my twenties. I decided from a very early age that the stage was my place. I never had stage fright -- it was always home to me. Dad taught me the basics of comedy, even though we always worked very differently. His best piece of advice: Know when to get off.



LOBOSCO: What would you like a young fan who knows little about your father come away from when he/she reads your book?

BOB COLONNA: I hope he/she wants to hear Dad's voice (which that person might have already if they watched the old Disney "Alice in Wonderland," in which Jerry does the voice of the March Hare. That fact gets me a lot of cred with my college students!) in his very funny recordings. You can hear a lot of them on Youtube, and there are compilations out there on the Web, for sale. And in the book the reader will pick up a lot about the USO in WWII, which was Hope and Colonna's finest hour.

LOBOSCO: What is something even a fan of Jerry Colonna's would be surprised to know about him?

BOB COLONNA: Unlike most comedians, Jerry was quiet and conservative, only occasionally kidding around in private. When he did, though, it was VERY funny, but for the most part he was soft spoken, and very sweet, especially to my mother, Flo, whom he adored.