Well, dear readers, I am sitting here listening to some classical music by Henryk Wars, a wonderful composer that no one seems to know or remember. He was also a film composer under his Americanized name, Henry Vars. He was quite famous in his youth in Poland, writing many musical comedies and revues, where he was compared to Irving Berlin. He also composed his first film scores in Poland. He also popularized swing music in Poland. He moved to the United States of America in the year of my birth, 1947. He composed songs sung by the likes of Margaret Whiting, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Dinah Shore, and others. His first film in America was the sleazy Chained for Life, with the Hilton Sisters. But his big screen breakthrough score came in 1953 with the classic Fritz Lang film, The Big Heat. And yet, it didn’t lead to a ton of other scoring assignments. Two years later he did the score from my favorite Randolph Scott/Budd Boettcher western, Seven Men from Now. But his two most well-known things came in the 1960s with Flipper and Flipper’s New Adventure and the TV series Daktari. His classical stuff is on the Tube of You and so are some of his very catchy songs. I mention this all, because earlier last evening I watched a motion picture from 1957 entitled The Midnight Story, starring Tony Curtis, Marisa Pavan, and Gilbert Roland, three actors I’m very fond of. A Universal film in Cinemascope and black-and-white. I found the eighty-nine-minute movie very enjoyable and engrossing. The actors are all very good and there are lots of terrific character actors coming and going, including Jay C. Flippen, Ted de Corsia, Herb Vigran, Kathleen Freeman, and in a one-line walk-on, Jack Albertson. All the exteriors were shot in San Francisco. The Universal’s shameless and shameful practice of have the only music credit in the main titles be Music Supervised by Joseph Gershenson is on full display. But in checking, one finds the composers or re-used music (a practice Universal did regularly) was Hans Salter and – one Henry Vars. The film’s original title was The Eyes of Father Tomasino, which is much better. The movie was based on a Lux Theater sixty-minute TV drama with that title.
So, I wanted to see where it played and imagine my surprise to find it was the lower half of a double bill with the top feature being Tammy and the Bachelor. Interestingly, both films were directed by Joseph Pevney. And, of course, that got me to thinking about seeing Tammy and the Bachelor opening day at the Wiltern Theater with Debbie Reynolds in person. That story was written for Benjamin Kritzer’s second half, but every time I tried to place it it just took me away from the Susan Pomeroy story, which was motoring that half of the book. I did put it in the notes back in 2019 – the first time anyone had ever seen it. But I read it again just before starting these here notes and I smoothed some stuff out and because it’s such a funny story (and totally true), I thought I’d included it again, so here it is.
TAMMY AND THE BACHELOR
Towards the end of May, the movie Tammy and the Bachelor was about to open in Los Angeles. Benjamin had seen the coming attractions and wanted to see it – he liked the film’s star, Debbie Reynolds, and he especially liked the song “Tammy,” which was being played a lot on the radio. Best of all, Debbie Reynolds herself was going make an appearance at the opening day afternoon show at Benjamin’s beloved Wiltern Theater. Since Minnie also liked Debbie Reynolds very much, she agreed to pick Benjamin up after school and take him to see Tammy and Debbie.
On Wednesday afternoon, Minnie and Benjamin drove down Wilshire until they reached Western. They found a place to park in front of Yaekel Bros. Oldsmobile. There was a line of people at the box office and a good many people already in the lobby. Minnie got in line, while Benjamin perused the posters for the upcoming movies. Minnie bought their tickets, and they went inside and joined the milling throng of people.
Suddenly, there was a commotion near the entrance doors, and then people were crowding in as Debbie Reynolds shouted, “Hi, everybody!” She was escorted to the middle of the lobby where everyone crowded around her. Unfortunately, Benjamin was too small to see over the many people who were blocking his view. Minnie suddenly lifted him up and he saw Debbie, who was laughing and joking with the crowd. Minnie, who was not used to lifting anything heavier than a fly swatter, put Benjamin down.
He could hear Debbie saying, “It’s so great to be here, and I hope you all like the movie. I brought some records for you—I signed them, too. It’s the song from the movie that you’ve been hearing on the radio.”
With that, she began tossing copies of the 45 of “Tammy.” She, in fact, seemed to toss them everywhere except where Benjamin and Minnie were standing. Oh, how Benjamin wanted one of those 45s, but Debbie kept tossing them everywhere but in their direction.
Minnie watched the tossing for a minute, saw that she had to take some kind of action if she were going to get Benjamin a “Tammy” 45, and then, quite suddenly, out of nowhere, she yelled at the top of her lungs, “Hey, Debbie! Toss one over here for God’s sake!”
It was so loud, that everyone turned around to see where that incredible high-pitched yell had emanated from. Even Benjamin, who knew where it had emanated from, looked to see where it had emanated from. Debbie looked, too, and saw Minnie, who was now frantically waving her arms like some bird trying to fly. Debbie laughed and tossed a 45 directly into Minnie’s hands. Much to Benjamin’s utter amazement, Minnie caught it like a first baseman for the Hollywood Stars. Everyone cheered the catch, and then Debbie threw the rest of the records. She then waved goodbye to her fans and she was gone as swiftly as she had arrived.
Minnie handed Benjamin the record and went off to buy them a soft drink and popcorn. Benjamin saw that it was indeed signed by Debbie, but even better was that it was something called a “promotional copy” and the usual orange Coral label wasn’t orange at all, it was blue. Minnie came back with the popcorn and drink and they went into the auditorium and sat down (tenth row, on the aisle, of course) and watched Tammy and the Bachelor, which they both enjoyed very much.
Later that night, Benjamin played his “promotional copy” of “Tammy” about two dozen times in a row and the next day he took it to school with him to show Susan, who was properly impressed.
I distinctly remember that I wanted to stay and see the second feature, but my mother said we had to go home so she could cook dinner. And now, finally, I have seen the second feature. Otherwise, yesterday was fine. I got ten hours of excellent sleep, got up, answered e-mails, went out and put some gas in the motor car, came home and ordered Panda Express for food – the usual orange chicken, white rice, and chow mein – and it was very good. After that, I did a few things on the computer, watched a few irritating videos on the Tube of You, then sat on my couch like so much fish and watched the movie. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll shave and shower, then I’ll be on my way to the Monica of Santa to see a musical comedy at a two o’clock matinee. I was thinking of perhaps dining down that way, but I think I’ll just come home and get something to go. After I eat, then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow and this week are very busy. A bit of writing, a work session on Wednesday, some meetings and meals, and hoping for a few more modern major miracles.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, shave and shower, see a musical comedy, come home, eat, and then watch, 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, happy to have relived the Tammy and the Bachelor story and to have seen the bottom half of that double bill.