Haines Logo Text
Column Archive
June 8, 2002:

THE SOUND SLEEPER

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I am getting a late start on these here notes because I slept like a log. In fact, the minute my head hit the pillow last night I was out like a light. I?ve told my head not to keep hitting the pillow because one of these fine days the pillow is going to hit my head back and won?t that be a fine kettle of cheese slices and ham chunks. I didn?t wake up once during the night, that?s how soundly I slept.

Yesterday I received a DVD I?d purchased on eBay of Mr. Otto Preminger?s film of Exodus, which I?m rather fond of. No, Virginia, you won?t be finding said DVD at amazon because said DVD is one of these Hong Kong imports. What these people in Hong Kong do is just make DVDs off laserdiscs and then sell them very cheaply. They?re not very good quality (on a par with the laserdisc) but the film is letterboxed and close to four hours long, and since I can now only play laserdiscs in my bedroom I thought I?d purchase this cheap Hong Kong DVD in case I wanted to watch Exodus in my den. I like options, dear readers, and now I have one, Exodus-wise. One curious thing these clever Hong Kong DVD people have done ? they?ve turned the sound into 5.1 and mastered it very very loudly. However, they?ve placed eighty percent of the 5.1 sound in the rear speakers, so while you?re watching Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint in front of you, they are speaking in back of you. That is very surrealistic, let me tell you. I don?t like it when people are in front of me and their voices come from in back of me. That just gives me the willies. Well, hopefully MGM/UA will get around to Exodus one of these fine days ? it would make a great enhanced for widescreen TVs DVD ? it was beautifully shot in 70mm, all on location. Exodus also features the screen debut of Jill Haworth, who would go on to play Miss Sally Bowles in the original Broadway production of Cabaret.

I?ve been reading a book all about the making of Sunset Boulevard. from film to Andrew Lloyd Webber. It?s by Sam Staggis, who wrote a similar tome on All About Eve. It?s fun, in a bitchy sort of way, but like all these guys who do these books, it?s filled with rumor, misinformation and occasional silliness. One does find out an awful lot about Sunset Boulevard, however, and some of the anecdotes are fun, plus Staggis did get to interview some people, and that?s fun, too. An example of the kind of silly mistake Staggis makes is this: He talks about Sondheim and Harold Prince?s involvement in trying to musicalize Sunset Boulevard (originally with Burt Shevelove doing the book, and then, for a brief moment, with Hugh Wheeler talked about for the book) ? as far as I know Sondheim never actually wrote a note of music, because he ran into Billy Wilder at a party and Billy told him he thought it would only work as an opera and Sondheim agreed with him and decided not to work on it. In any case, Staggis goes on to talk about Harold Prince and how he kept coming back to it occasionally. And then he says that the famous Follies poster was directly inspired by Gloria Swanson standing in the rubble of the torn-down Roxy Theater. Well, if he?d actually bothered to look at the Follies poster by David Byrd (which also graces the Original Cast album) he would know how ridiculous that statement is. What he means is that the whole feel of Follies was inspired by the famous photo of Gloria Swanson standing in the rubble of the Roxy. In any case, if you like Sunset Boulevard, some of this book makes for diverting reading.

What am I, a book critic all of a sudden? Did you know that I am an eBay addict? I will basically purchase anything on eBay. I have bought everything from menus to a Godzilla soap bubble toy. I love to use Buy It Now so I don?t Regret It Later. I love to buy things with my last name on them ? for example, I have a perfume bottle made by Kimmel, I have a set of Kimmel dessert plates, I have an Edison Recorded disc of Kimmel accordion songs, I have a tray from the 30s from Kimmel?s Valley View Ice Cream, I have two paintings by terrifically untalented artists named Kimmel, I have a pencil from Kimmel?s Spring Service in Sabetha, Kansas, and I have a copy of Pearl Harbor?s infamous Admiral Husband E. Kimmel?s autobiography. I also have a Kimmel stein, which I keep next to my Jule Styne. I feel all of you dear readers should go onto eBay and search your last names and purchase everything that has your last name on it. I have also found tapes of all my Donny and Marie appearances and I even watched them and they made me want to vomit.

Well, on that note (Ab) let us all click on the Unseemly Button below because it is late and I simply must get these here notes up and be on my merry way.

Well, as you all know, today is our Unseemly Trivia Contest day, the day in which we play our Unseemly Trivia Contest. Because I haven?t had a moment to even think about a trivia question, today we are having a guest quiz by one of our very own dear readers. Isn?t that exciting? Isn?t that just too too? Even I don?t know the answer to the question yet. Well, shall we get right to it? I believe we shall, because we do not shilly-shally or even shally-shilly here at haineshisway.com. So, let?s get to that question willy-nilly or even nilly-willy and not shally-shilly because that is silly.

Today?s guest quiz is courtesy of dear reader, William F. Orr. Here it is:

A 60’s musical had among its principle players a Howdy Doody host and a friend of a horse. Name the musical, the host, and the horse.

Well, that is a stumper, isn?t it? We shall all have to put on our thinking caps and do our best to come up with our collective answers. You have until midnight Monday to submit your guesses to me via e-mail at bruce@haineshisway.com or by using the unseemly Ask Bruce button. DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS TO THE SITE. All recent contest winners will be happy to know that all sparkling prizes are now on their merry way.

Don?t forget, Donald will have a brand spanking new The Broadway Radio Show up and running for you tomorrow. Tonight I am going to see a one-woman show at a theater on Santa Monica Blvd. I know nothing about the show (I was invited to it), and I will have a full report for you tomorrow.

Well, dear readers, I?m afraid I must be off, I must be on my merry way ? I have things to do, places to go people to see. But I shall return tomorrow with many pithy things to say. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, tomorrow I will have various and sundried pithy things to say. And I will say those pithy things with pith, come hell or high or low water. I may even say some things with vinegar so we can have pith and vinegar. We do not allow groaning here at haineshisway.com. By the way (BTW, in Internet lingo) one of our dear readers wrote me privately to say they were baffled by yesterday?s theme notes, they just didn?t get it at all. Of course, there was nothing I could do to help this person, since I never ?get? these here notes. And isn?t that the point? Isn?t that just the whole deal with these notes? Obscurity for obscurity?s sake? One simply cannot try to make sense of these here notes, for that way madness lies. Have you noticed that madness always lies? I think it?s high time for madness to start telling the truth, don?t you? I, for one, am tired of madness always fabricating. Why just yesterday, madness not only lied but also fabricated, in a lovely twill tweed. Is there such a thing as a lovely twill tweed? Oh, I know there?s twill and I know there?s tweed but do the twill and tweed twain ever meet? And if there is no twill then the twill is gone. We don?t allow groaning here at haineshisway.com. Now I have lost my twain of thought, and all because of the twill tweed fabrication by madness. Well, if our dear reader was baffled by yesterday?s notes, wait until they get a load of this paragraph. Today?s topic of discussion: We?ve talked about many aspects of the musical theater, but there are a few things we haven?t touched upon. So, for today, what do you think are the best sets you?ve ever seen for a Broadway show? I?ll start: Certainly at the head of my list would be the following ? Tony Walton?s marvelous, mad and brilliant sets for Pippin, Boris Aronson?s amazing sets for both Company and Follies, Robin Wagner?s Promises, Promises and A Chorus Line, and Mr. Walton?s design for the original A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Your turn.

Search BK's Notes Archive:
 
© 2001 - 2024 by Bruce Kimmel. All Rights Reserved