Noir Dame Blog

Retro-inspired culture and media – audio drama, classic TV and film

Lots of news about Marilyn Monroe this year – and even in the fictional world, we’ll be sure to hear more about her 1962 death, after this past week’s episode of Mad Men, “Maidenform”, in which Marilyn Monroe is described by characters as “half” the ideal American woman, and references are made to her “birthday song” for President Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. (Since the show is now taking place in 1962, it’ll also be interesting to see how the show deals with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and how it compares to Thirteen Days, which along with Good Night and Good Luck, hit a recent high mark for historical film.)

Earlier this year, not long after some rather dopey pictures of Lindsay Lohan dressing up as la Marilyn (New York magazine seriously called these snaps “historic”? are you kidding me?), there was a hullabaloo about an apparent 15 second “blue” home movie that Marilyn was said to have starred in, along with an unknown male partner. If you weren’t aware of the story, and are curious, it’s rather sordid and sad (wait: when is our interest in this kind of stuff not sordid and sad?) and involves J. Edgar Hoover attempting to blackmail JFK. Hum. I’d rather rewatch Thirteen Days, wouldn’t you?

Now there’s more talk about brand new Marilyn material – an amateur film shot by a Naval officer during Some Like it Hot appears on the auction block, and Vanity Fair has put her back on the cover, claiming they have lots of “secret archives”, which includes lots of pictures of things she or Joe DiMaggio owned (like a Japan Air Lines bag? Yeah, it says so much about their divorce, suuuure, he gave her the bag to say sayonara, right?). (What it really implies is “pack rat”, or “I’m a celebrity and people give me crap.”)

Their exclusive photos don’t seem loving, or reverent, or organized to tell a story. The only story it implies is of a stalker with deep pockets and no respect for the person he claims to love. Vanity Fair’s coverage helped me understand one thing, though – why Jane Austen had her sister burn all her letters. Yep.

There’s also been a recent court judgment over rights to her image – pitting the heirs of Sam Shaw (who took her inimitable, though gals try, white-dress-over-subway-grate picture in The Seven Year Itch) against CMG Worldwide and Marilyn Monroe LLC. So far, Shaw’s heirs are winning.

Kinda sad, though, that so much of this interest is about her image and less and less about her intangible qualities. She was an original, like Jean Harlow and Clara Bow before her – and looked just as silly aping their image during a Richard Avedon photo shoot as starlets (even talented ones like Lohan) appear when doing the Norma Jean act.

To really enjoy and appreciate Marilyn’s presence, you need to sit down and watch one of her films. Are we all so postmodern and jaded that we prefer rifling through a dead woman’s filing cabinet, to enjoying the lively work she poured her heart into? Even a bitty bitty part in All About Eve tells you more than you can ever see in some grainy amateur film.

A picture of her ex-husband’s Japan Air Lines bag is not going to tell you much about her talent or her inner soul, no matter what Vanity Fair tries to tell ya.

Reporter Ike Pappas has passed away. Pappas isn’t well known today, but did the bulk of his work in better times, after Edward R. Murrow’s passing, but when CBS was still considered a top-flight news organization. In 1987, along with hundreds of others, Pappas was fired by new CBS head Laurence Tisch after more than twenty years of service.

His most famous moment was after the assassination of John F. Kennedy; as one of many reporters waiting in a Dallas Police department basement, he asked suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, “You have anything to say in your defense?” and then watched as Oswald was gunned down by Jack Ruby. The startling report can still be heard on the below video:

As a “witness to history,” this report would remain Pappas’ main legacy, but he continued to pass along important news stories to the public. Fortunately, you can hear another major piece from his career, his 1967 documentary “The Songs of Vietnam War,” online. (The website is owned by former ARVN – American Forces Vietnam Network – reporter Bob Morecock, now a psychologist teaching at Houston Community College.)

Meanwhile, two other prominent voices were silenced – “Smokey and the Bandit” actor-singer Jerry Reed and Don LaFontaine, the king of movie trailers. It’s hard to imagine a movie trailer not using LaFontaine’s characteristic starter, “In a world…”

Kathie Bleeker would be proud. You know Kathie Bleeker, right? She dreamed of open roads and wild, twisting rides by motorcycle – but unfortunately, even though Kathie is in one of the most influential films of the 1950s, most viewers overlook her.

They remember Johnny though – played by Marlon Brando in The Wild One – one of the bad boys who excited an entire generation, female and male, along with James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. (And, let’s not forget, Elvis – but we’ll come back to him in a second.)

Johnny got thousands of movie viewers hankering for motorcycles and road trips. And Kathie’s desire for Johnny – well, plenty of girls in the audience shared that. Only, we tend to forget that Kathie wanted Johnny’s freedom and adventurous life, just as badly as she wanted Johnny.

In fact, when we think of motorcyclists on the open road, chances are, we’re still thinking of Brando… or Peter Fonda… or maybe those creepy guys from the first Billy Jack film. Maybe – just maybe – we think of Diane McBain as the psychopathic, well-coiffed stalker in the she-does-everything-but-boil-a-bunny exploiflick The Mini Skirt Mob.

We don’t think about sensible girls like Kathie, with brains and a work ethic, taking to the road and burning rubber. That may change once a documentary is finished about the “Girlz of Graceland,” a group of women from the Sol Sisters motorcycle club, planning a ride cross country:

On June 21st, 10 women from San Diego will be firing up their motorcycles to make a 15-day trip through 12 states. Our main destination is Graceland and we plan to arrive on 6/25/08 for a 2-day stay. We will have a documentary filmmaker along for the ride, as this trip is about so much more than just getting to Graceland. It’s about our journey as women, a celebration of why we ride, and an homage to the rebels of yesteryear who saw the open road as an escape, a challenge, and a friend. The documentary will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in October 2008 for their 2009 season.

When we reach Memphis, we’ll be stopping at Presley Place, a homeless shelter which is supported by Lisa Marie Presley and the Elvis Presley Foundation. While the dozens of parents at the shelter attend a Life Skills class, we’ll be babysitting their children – taking photos on the motorcycles, providing them with biker toys and leading a cooking class on “How to Make a Biker Meal.”

Now that – is cool. Man… I want to know how to make a biker meal! Eat your heart out, Anthony Bourdain!

And read through the biographies here – from Jett, whose passions include her work supervising a school bus fleet, and oh yeah – Elvis – to Anita, an environmental scientist who also tools around as a “garage artist”, and Biby, the “chaser”, a medical translator who hopes to educate people about Huntington’s Disease. Forget the old “motorcycle mama” stuff, it’s tired – some of these ladies, including Lilia, an old friend who awes me with her riding prowess, are in fact, mothers.

I’m sure there are a lot of real-life Kathies out there, whether they grew up in the fifties, or a little more recently – who are going to want to follow this wild ride, and maybe start one of their own.

Wow, I was wondering why the theme song from Superman kept chunneling through my head today. I figured it was because of the Alamo Drafthouse’s plan to show the original 1978 movie outdoors, in one of those great free movies for the community events… I love it when cities and town provide this kind of chummy entertainment!

But speaking of chummy entertainment, if I were only closer to Boston, I’d be heading out to Arlington to see LokiArts’ staging of “Superman: The Musical”. That’s right!

“It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman!” first debuted in 1966 – during the same period that pop art TV show Batman was POW! THWACK! BIFF!-ing its competitors. Its composer, Charles Strouse, was riding high on the success of “Bye Bye Birdie”, so the musical arrived at Alvin Theater, on Broadway. And no, it didn’t close after one night, either!

“It’s a Bird…” was later made into a panned television movie in the mid-1970s. Paddy Chayefsky’s Network suddenly begins to seem a lot more believable, heh? You can find snippets of this version – nowhere near as classy-looking as the Broadway production – on Youtube, but it has limited appeal – kind of like the Star Wars Holiday Special or the famous “ashcan” Fantastic Four movie made by Roger Corman. Mostly, it’s intriguing to consider the possibilities of Lesley-Ann Warren as Lois Lane and Loretta Swit as Lan… uh, “Sidney Carleton”? Not Lana Lang? Huh. If you’re a M*A*S*H aficionado you know Swit can pull off red hair believably, as did everyone else in the sitcom cast.

The Superman Homepage has a run down of all the songs and the original cast, with pictures. So if you’re in New England – what are you waiting for?

If you’re still not convinced – well, Charles Strouse was no one-trick pony, and the songs are excellent, catchy and surprisingly lyrical. He’s also known for writing the musical “Applause”, based on the flick All About Eve, a Best Musical Tony-winner which also earned Lauren Bacall a Tony of her own. Strouse’s biggest flop, the underrated “Nick and Nora”, has lately gained some cult status. Strangely enough, he’s also known for cowriting the theme song to All in the Family. Maybe not so strange. I hear Alan Thicke wrote a song or two.

At the age of 28, Heath Ledger was too recent a vintage to fall in the “classic film” category. However, his sudden death yesterday was a tragic surprise. It is a cliche to say that great things were expected from Ledger, but then again – there it is. He was a great actor. His Oscar-nominated work in Brokeback Mountain will inspire future performers, and will be remembered as a classic performance worthy of James Dean or Marlon Brando. Hopefully, future discussions will not focus on the tabloid aspects of his passing, but on the difficulties experienced by sensitive and talented performers, regardless of decade.

Richard Corliss of Time has written a lovely piece about Suzanne Pleshette, who, despite her battle with disease, also appeared to have great work ahead of her. In just a few days, her star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood will be revealed. Corliss argues, though, that Pleshette would have been a wonderful screwball comedy heroine. He’s right. The New York Times also has a nice obituary for the Newhart actress, who passed on January 21st.

Allan Melvin, who passed away on January 17th, is another actor whose work has been taken for granted. Remembered best for Sam on The Brady Bunch or Corporal Henshaw on the Phil Silvers Show, (depending on your age), Melvin amassed an impressive number of credits in his 84 years, spanning a generation of TV shows: Gomer Pyle, the Andy Griffith Show, All in the Family, and even H.R. Pufnstuf. Melvin’s work was memorable, all right — any time your role becomes the punchline to a joke, as “Sam the Butcher” was, you’ve made it.