Topic: EXCELSIOR! (Read 18777 times)

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #60 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:15:00 AM »

I'm doing the Frenzy right now! Afterwhich I will attempt the Black Bottom.

bk · « **Reply #61 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:15:22 AM »

The throwing away of books by libraries continues to this day.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #62 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:16:03 AM »

Speaking of Frenzy, whatever happened to Jon Finch?

bk · « **Reply #63 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:16:18 AM »

You're doing the Black Bottom? I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole or a five foot czech.

bk · « **Reply #64 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:19:13 AM »

My favorite Frenzy actors are Barry Foster, Alec McGowen, Vivian Merchant, the great Michael Bates, and Anna Massey.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #65 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:20:53 AM »

I'll be dancing the five-foot Czech (notice I said, "dancing"...not "doing") right after the Black Bottom, then I will be essaying the Turkey Trot.

Well, it seems Jon Finch had a role in the recent Kingdom of Heaven. He's way down on the cast list.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #66 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:22:35 AM »

Who's the blonde that gets strangled. I know it's none of the above. It is a rather remarkable cast. I remember McCowen particularly. But I don't think I've seen the movie straight through since I first saw it in the theatre eons ago.

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #67 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:24:52 AM »

Does anyone do the Castle Walk anymore?

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #68 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:29:59 AM »

I'm doing a monologue here, folks. Good evening, ladies and germs, I just flew in from Chicago and, boy, are my arms tired. A man came up to me and said he hadn't a had bite in weeks so I bit him. Come on, folks, yuck it up out there! You're about as warm as a cry for help!

George · « **Reply #69 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:31:23 AM »

Quote from: Charles Pogue on June 12, 2005, 01:14:08 AM

George, Throw away books! And a library doing it at that! Ouch!

Well, they didn't just throw them away, willy-nilly! First, the selectors did throw away the books that were defective or damaged and replacements couldn't be gotten, but then all the resellable books were deprocessed and saved for booksales at any of the then 24 branches (we now have 27 branches). If the books went out to several booksales without being sold (

), only then were non-damaged books thrown away.

bk · « **Reply #70 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:33:00 AM »

Barbara Leigh-Hunt is the blonde's name.

bk · « **Reply #71 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:34:57 AM »

I'm now doing Steam Heat - all three parts.

bk · « **Reply #72 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:37:29 AM »

Well, Adelphia is being completely retarded, so I think I'll toddle off to the bedroom environment, before I put my fist through their stupid cable modem box.

George · « **Reply #73 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:40:15 AM »

Meanwhile, back at my job story: First, let me mention that Timberland Regional Library is the name of the library. Anyway, that next summer, the acquisitions supervisor (Norma) asked if I wanted to work half-time in the acq. department unpacking the boxes of new books. I said okay. When the next school year started, I had to quit one of the half-time jobs, so I quit doing the storage page stuff. So, I worked from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m., drove down to Centralia (about 20 minutes south of Olympia), went to school from 10:00 to 3:00, then drove back to Olympia and worked from 3:30 to 5:30. I did that the whole school year. During the next summer (before I went to Western Washington University), I worked full time.

When I was at Western, I worked at the music library and was able to work at Timberland full time during the summers. After I graduated from Western, I came back to Timberland and have worked there ever since. I eventually got back into the acquisitions department and am still working there. The Western Washington Music Library is the only other place that I've ever worked besides Timberland.

George · « **Reply #74 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:45:37 AM »

Well, I think we've all frenzied. I'm ushering for a ballet school dance recital and I don't know which of their shows I'm supposed to be at! They start at noon and go every two hours until the last one starts at 6:00! I'd better either find out or get there early. Goodnight, all!

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #75 on:** June 12, 2005, 01:47:11 AM »

Say, did ya hear the one about the cow that got a divorce? Someone gave her a bum steer. I wanted to be a sculptor. I come from a long line of chiselers. Take my wife...Please! My wife knows how to make a dollar go far. She makes it go so far I never see it again! It's great to be here in Hollywood. No matter much money directors make, they're always trying to make a little extra. Who brought you folks in? Couldn't be Frank Buck...he brings 'em back alive!

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #76 on:** June 12, 2005, 02:12:02 AM »

Is this an audience or an oil painting? I once knew a guy who was so cheap, every time he took a nickel out of his pocket, Jefferson blinked. He was so cheap, he bawled his kid out for buying an all-day sucker at three in the afternoon. Come on, folks, we're not going to get to page four this way! I keep pitching 'em, you keep missing 'em. You're built too low to the ground, the fast ones keep going over your head! I knew a guy who was so low, he could read by the light of a hot-foot. Knew a girl so ugly, they said she wasn't fit to sleep with pigs. But I stuck up for her...I said she was! Come on, folks, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at Edison, they laughed at Ford! Wonder who's writing their material? Geeze, I've seen better heads on a mug of beer! You folks are so dumb you think the Mexican Border pays rent. You're so dumb, you think Rudy Vallee lies between two hills! l Okay! Okay! Leave! I don't worry when my audience walks out on me, It's when they walk towards me that's frightening!

Charles Pogue · « **Reply #77 on:** June 12, 2005, 02:15:53 AM »

Well, let me say you've been a lovely audience. Tell me where you're playing next week and I'll come see you!

Well, I tried my best to get us to page four...but I ain't going to make it.

Tomovoz · « **Reply #78 on:** June 12, 2005, 03:58:37 AM »

Goodnight DR Elmore.

elmore3003 · « **Reply #79 on:** June 12, 2005, 04:03:15 AM »

Quote from: bk on June 12, 2005, 12:58:18 AM

And I cannot praise Norma Varden enough as the hat-buying murder victim. I've loved her ever since poor Bruno Antony tried to strangle her in Strangers on a Train. The scenes between Ty and her are great. Oh, and how could I forget to mention the incredible and hilarious Una Merkel as Miss Varden's maid.

DRRodzinski, yes, the margaritas were very tasty, and I'm sorry you were not with us. DRBen and I are revving things up for the October gathering of the acolytes.

Dear Friend BK, it's not Una Merkel but Una O'Connor of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. It may be one of her last roles.

My first job was ushering at the Paramount Theatre. It all seems so vague now that I have no memory of why I ever landed the job, and I believe that wonderful theatre in my hometown was felled for a parking lot while I was still ushering there. My other memories of the job were how empty the theatre was every evening and my mother picking me up after work, It's all quite vague now.

My first job after high school graduation, courtesy of my father and his employers, was a construction job, hauling around huge pieces of pipe and falling into ditches. I was quite inept and hated it immensely.

The next year I went to work as a student assistant for Miami University library, which got me through college, grad school, and a year as a staff member before I shook the dust of Oxford, Ohio from my shoes and took my life elsewhere.

elmore3003 · « **Reply #80 on:** June 12, 2005, 04:07:50 AM »

Quote from: Tomovoz on June 12, 2005, 03:58:37 AM

Goodnight DR Elmore.

DRTomovoz, good night and sweet dreams.

I have a morning with Toyland and an afternoon with my goddaughter's dance recital, a day crammed with incident. All I have to do is get myself motivated.

Ben · « **Reply #81 on:** June 12, 2005, 04:55:08 AM »

My first job was a bag boy at Holiday Village Super Market. I worked there over the summer after my sophmore year of high school. I learned how to pack bags, back when your only choice was paper or...paper. You put the heavy things on the bottom. You didn't put every can into one bag. You left the bread and other breakables till last and placed them gently on top of a less full bag so the bread would not be crushed and the eggs would not crack and you never, never put soap or any other aroma-laden product in with meat or produce. You put it in with the cans.

This was after the era of pin boys but I also worked at a small bowling establishment. It was an 8 lane place in the Minneapolis Athletic Club and the manager was ADAMANT that it was not a bowling alley. These are not alleys, these are lanes. Anyone calling them alleys was reprimanded. He could be nice but he was a bit of a prig. That was in 1973 after a year and a half of unemployment after my high school graduation. I didn't start college right away because I couldn't afford it and I was very reluctant to take out loans (even then at the amazing rates of 1 and 2% interest). I looked very hard for work (there was a recession at the time) and finally found the job at the Athletic Club. I then moved on for a short time to one of the most hellish jobs I could think of (well, perhaps that's a bit of exaggeration but it certainly was a crappy job) doing. I was on the night shift cleaning crew at Totino's Frozen Pizza factory. Ugh. Again, there was a creepy guy in charge and while the job was unpleasant, he made it even more so and I only lasted about 3 months. The next fall, in 1974, I had enough money to begin at the University of Minnesota. I paid for my freshman year, living at home and taking the bus (1 hour each way) and then for my sophmore, junior and senior years I got a scholarship that included housing and tuition. I moved into a dorm on campus and spent the next three years in heaven at the theatre department at school.

Ben · « **Reply #82 on:** June 12, 2005, 04:55:59 AM »

Now, it's time to do the laundry.

Ben · « **Reply #83 on:** June 12, 2005, 04:56:31 AM »

I'm still full of Mexican food from last night so I'm not even hungry for breakfast.

Ben · « **Reply #84 on:** June 12, 2005, 04:56:54 AM »

And I'm all alone.

Michael · « **Reply #85 on:** June 12, 2005, 06:48:26 AM »

My first paying job was acting in what is an awful film. My role was supposed to be quite sizable, but after they fired the director one week into filming (The guy that directed Georgy Girl) I got a phone call to tell me that and to tell me I still had the role, but things are changing. It seemed that they were rewriting the script everyday. But I did get to work with Genevieve Bujold, Michael York (They were both nice) and Burgess Meredith (who wasn't). I am in the final cut of the film but for a few seconds. It was a nice paycheck for only a few seconds of screen time. The director like John Frankenheimer showed great promise with his earlier films. (Isabel, Journey, The Act of the Heart) Like Frankenheimer started in TV in the US and Canada. Moved to films and did Final Assignment and two films after that.

Michael · « **Reply #86 on:** June 12, 2005, 06:50:53 AM »

Quote from: bk on June 12, 2005, 12:20:32 AM

The great James Wong Howe did Seconds - a gorgeously and uniquely photographed film. I've often said that Frankenheimer's 60s films up through Seconds, are some of the best directed films ever. Then, something happened to him with The Extraordinary Seaman, a basically unreleased film for MGM.

Didn't this fim make the Medved Brothers one of the 50 worst films ever made. It clocked in so short that they had to add minutes of stock footage to pump up the running time?

and this is the tagline that appeared on the posters

We would like to thank Adolf Hitler, David Niven, Joseph Stalin, Faye Dunaway, Tojo, Mickey Rooney, Jack Carter, Alan Alda, John Frankenheimer, and the millions of Nazis, Japanese, and Americans who made this picture possible.

Michael · « **Reply #87 on:** June 12, 2005, 06:54:28 AM »

Quote from: bk on June 12, 2005, 12:22:23 AM

My first real paying job was ushering at the Del Mar movie theater, a real rat hole on Pico. It's still there - empty. They occasionally film things there. Almost concurrently, I worked at The Broadway in what was then brand new Century City. I only lasted a week there, but I did almost sell one of those bird cages with a wind up bird inside to Ernest Borgnine. His wife wouldn't let him buy it. Hated her, loved him.

Was that wife Ethel Merman or Kathy Juardo?

Michael · « **Reply #88 on:** June 12, 2005, 07:21:40 AM »

Quote from: Charles Pogue on June 12, 2005, 01:16:03 AM

Speaking of Frenzy, whatever happened to Jon Finch?

Most recently appeared in Kingdom Heaven directed by one of the Scott Brothers

Jrand73 · « **Reply #89 on:** June 12, 2005, 07:23:01 AM »

Well it MUST have been late last night. As DR ELMORE has already pointed out, the Una in WFTP is indeed O'Conner and not Merkel.

Interesting to know that the film version of is so different. I read the story after I saw the movie, and of course certain things don't happen, or happen differently. Thanks for the info MR BK and DR CP.

I hope soon after all of these depressing First Job stories, we can have a BEST JOBS day. Whew! Everybody has to start someplace, I suppose.

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Author Topic: EXCELSIOR! (Read 18777 times)

Ben

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Ben

Ben