Well, dear readers, Halloween and October are a thing of the past and we are all about the present and the future except when we’re about the past. First of all, let us welcome in November with a big fat heart and say that it is our hope and fervent prayer that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. The final day of October was certainly never less than pleasant. For example, I had nine hours of sleep. That was pleasant. I then did some work on the computer, after which I toddled off to my lunch meeting at Nate ‘n’ Al’s, where I had both a meeting and lunch or, conversely, lunch and a meeting, depending on which way you’d like to look at it. I had my usual “New York” sandwich – extra lean pastrami, cole slaw, and Russian dressing. And we split an appetizer of kishka – all yummilicious. The meeting was fine and informative and then I headed back to the San Fernando Valley. I came home, did the four-mile jog, then went and picked up one package, a great one, and then came back home.
In the package was a bit of motion picture history, something I’ve wanted for quite some time and now I have – the original script in the original Paramount wrappers of Rosemary’s Baby. I’ve often said that I feel that Rosemary’s Baby is the single best book to film adaptation ever done – it literally IS the book on film. Ira Levin told me that that was because Roman Polanski, who wrote the screenplay, had not written a screenplay in Hollywood before and thought he was not allowed to change the dialogue from the book. And so he did not – which was very wise since there was no way he could ever improve upon it. The majority of the scenes in the book are in the film – a couple of things went missing, as you’d expect, but every major scene and character made the transition perfectly.
I read through the first fifty pages of the 160 something page script and was delighted to find that several of the scenes from the book that had gone missing were, in fact, included in the script – since this is the final shooting script, one can also assume they were shot. None of them are necessary and they would have slowed the film down, but it would be wonderful to see that footage someday. In all my years of collecting I have never seen an original Rosemary’s Baby script show up anywhere – when this did, I did a little trading and it was mine. It’s in beautiful condition, and while I don’t really collect scripts, I do have a handful of originals that are really interesting and fun – Marnie, Blonde Venus, Hatari, a VERY early draft of the musical Follies, The Gypsy Moths, Return To Oz and a few others. My only sadness is that Mr. Levin isn’t alive to sign it. I have wonderful copies of all his books signed to me, the best inscription of which is in my first edition of Rosemary’s Baby – which I made him sign with a long inscription before I would agree to record Drat! The Cat! One of the greatest moments of my life was when he agreed to read and blurb Benjamin Kritzer, and when he sent me his blurb, I was so moved by it I burst into tears.
Then Melody came over for her rehearsal (she couldn’t be at last Friday’s rehearsal) – that went very well. She’s just such a pleasure to work with and such a pro. She’s going through the very tricky transition from child actor to teen actor – it’s a big one and one I’m convinced she’ll make. She then left with her dad to go trick or treating in the neighborhood. But they returned six minutes later – she wasn’t having fun. She felt too old to be doing it, so she asked her dad if she could just hang out with me and give candy to the hundreds of kids who would be coming. He was fine with that and I told him I’d drive her home afterwards. And that’s what the evening was – three hours of opening and closing the door. Melody was dressed as Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly – the kids were delighted to have her passing out the candy and she was delightful with them. True to form, we had hundreds upon hundreds of kids and went through 500 pieces of candy. Melody took all that was left home with her. I drove her home and then came home.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I’m simply exhausted and need another good night’s beauty sleep.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after another good night’s beauty sleep. Then I have a lot of errands and whatnot to do, a four-mile jog to do, some CDs to listen to (new Kritzerland project), some banking, and hopefully a package or three to pick up. Then we have our stumble-through – I probably won’t eat before that, so I’ll have to go directly for food, as I’ll be starving.
Tomorrow is, of course, sound check and show. I have no idea how many people will be attending but hope it’s a nice crowd. I should think the promise of a dildo reunion would be enough to get everyone off their complacent butt cheeks, but this is LA and I still have a huge number of “friends” who, in fifteen of these shows, have never bothered to make the effort to attend. It’s rather nauseating, and, as I’ve said before, I do hope these people do not bother inviting me to any of their events because I shall not be attending.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the four-mile jog, I must do errands and whatnot, I must do banking, I must hopefully pick up a package or three and I must watch and participate in a stumble-through, after which I shall eat. Today’s topic of discussion: What was your most memorable Halloween costume? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst we hope and pray that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.