Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to George Duning’s wonderful score to The Devil at 4 O’Clock, a motion picture starring Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy. This is one of many motion pictures that I remembered seeing at my beloved Stadium Theater, but like another that I remember, The Manchurian Candidate and another, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Stadium had already closed. So, I saw each of those elsewhere. Funny thing, memory. The Stadium closed with no warning on September 5, 1961. Their final double bill was, surprisingly, two films I loved but had already seen several times – of course, had I known it was closing I would have gone, but I went to other movies that weekend. And that final double bill? Pepe and Hand in Hand. I do remember opening the paper on September 6, as I always did, to check the new movies, and was shocked to see no Stadium where there was always a Stadium in Fox West Coast Theaters. I walked over there immediately and saw the closed sign. I was devastated. It’s all there in the third Kritzer book, Kritzer Time, chapter four to be exact. And while I guessed at the time frame (I didn’t put the exact date), I say I’d just started ninth grade, which is the exact time it closed. Funny thing, memory. In any case, the last film I saw at the Stadium was one month prior to its closing, and that was The Naked Edge. They played two thing after that and prior to their final double bill – By Love Possessed and a second feature, and a revival of Gone With the Wind, neither of which interested me, mostly because I’d had to go to summer camp and when I returned I was busy catching up on motion pictures, but repeatedly so with The Parent Trap and then the general release of Exodus. Here are the September 5 and September 6 newspaper listings – gone with the wind indeed, from one day to the next.
What the HELL am I talking about? Oh yes, George Duning’s wonderful score to The Devil at 4 O’Clock, which I didn’t see at the Stadium due to its having closed. And now, it’s one of Duning’s Star Trek scores, the gorgeous Is There No Truth in Beauty. I do love Mr. Duning’s film scores – he wrote some of my all-time favorites. And, of course, he scored some of my scenes on The Partridge Family. I do wish I’d gotten to meet him. Otherwise, I did watch a motion picture earlier, Man in the Dark, a rather silly Columbia film starring Edmund O’Brien and Audrey Totter. Filmed in three dimensions, it’s an essential film due to the fact that most of the ending was filmed at Ocean Park pier, right near my grandfather’s Wheel-O stand and the Dome Theater. The Twilight Time Blu-ray is excellent, and it contains both two and three dimension transfers. I’ve never seen the three-dimension version but suspect it’s fun since all manner of things come hurling at the camera.
Yesterday was fairly uneventful. I got a bit over eight hours of sleep, which really wasn’t enough to get me out of my tired malaise. Once up, I answered e-mails, dealt with rehearsal scheduling things, locked down the final two songs for the Group Rep cabaret, and a few other inconsequential things. I wasn’t really in the mood to sit in a restaurant, so after much procrastinating, I went to Gelson’s and got a chicken Caesar salad, the large version, which was the smallest it’s ever been. I came home and ate it and it was very good, but not nearly enough food for the likes of me.
Then I played on the computer – mostly newspapers.com – finding all manner of interesting things, including a local article about my brother, where they actually called him by his high school nickname, “Jumbo” Joel Kimmel – he was a shot putter – that’s also in the Kritzer books. Then I watched the movie.
After the movie, I moseyed on over to In-N-Out and got a cheeseburger and some animal fries. I came home and for once the burger was still hot. It was very good, as it always is, and I hadn’t had their fries in a very long time, and those were excellent.
Then I did some YouTube viewing, then began listening to Mr. Duning. That’s what I’ve kind of been doing in the late evenings – choosing a composer and listening straight through whatever I have in iTunes. So, yesterday that was Herrmann, today it’s Duning. I have no new CDs to listen to at the moment. Oh, and I also went to a used record store in Burbank that I hadn’t been to in quite some time – Atomic Records. I went because they have cheap Blu-rays. Well, they had them, but I don’t believe there was a single film in there made prior to the year 2000. Unbelievable. And what they had was the worst bunch of terrible movies. Needless to say, no purchases were made.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I’ll eat something light, I’ll watch a motion picture, and then in the evening there’s a closing night partay for the playlets, so I’ll stop by and say hi. Then I’ll come home and listen and relax.
This week is all gearing up for the Group Rep cabaret, with the main rehearsal taking place on Wednesday for four hours. Otherwise, it’s meetings and meals, and going and doing, finishing the commentary, choosing songs for the big Kritzerland anniversary show in September, and doing whatever else needs doing. Then we have a stumble-through/tech on Sunday evening, and then do the show on Monday and Tuesday evening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, eat something light, watch a motion picture, attend a closing night partay, and then listen and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall think on the funny thing that is memory.