TCM FEST RED CARPET
The 5th annual TCM Classic Film Festival technically began on Thursday afternoon,
April 10th, with a presentation called SONS OF GODS AND MONSTERS, at
The Hollywood Museum, aka the DeMille Barn, hosted by director Joe
Dante (THE HOWLING) and FX make-up master Rick Baker (AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN
LONDON). But the ‘official’ start came
at 6:30 p.m., when stars walked down the red carpet outside Sid Grauman’s Chinese IMAX Theatre to see the restored
presentation of the Western musical OKLAHOMA!, with female lead Shirley Jones
in attendance.
Kim Novack
The TCM Fest is like no other event I’ve ever
attended. With as many as seven venues
screening movies or having live events at any given moment, it’s the cinematic
equivalent of the three-ring circus – there’s so much great stuff happening
that you can’t do it all, but you can do more than enough. In addition to the Chinese Theatre, films screen at the immense Grauman’s Egyptian, and Disney’s El Capitan Theatre, with most screenings
taking place in the Chinese Multiplex
next door to the Chinese. A few films were even screened poolside at
the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Attendees
make a major commitment of money as well as time: the most expensive package
costs $1599, which includes the red carpet screening, plus the VANITY FAIR
after-party, and screenings and events.
The least expensive package is $249 – and I understand that all of the
packages quickly sell out. And starting
last year, non-packagers could buy tickets for unfilled screenings on a
stand-by basis for $20.
Margaret O'Brien, carrying
Mickey Rooney's top-hat
As I write this, it’s Monday, April 14th, the day which
marks the 20th anniversary of the Turner Classic Movies channel, and I can think of no other
organization or outlet which has done half as much as TCM to preserve film and
bring it before the public.
Tippi Hedron
At about 4:30 we media-types were assigned our spots
along the red carpet that began in front of the Hollywood & Highland Center
and ran along Hollywood Boulevard to the entrance of Grauman’s Chinese. The guests began arriving at five. Shirley Jones was with her irrepressible husband,
comedian Marty Ingalls, who held a sign announcing ‘37 YEARS’. After waking part of the length of the red
carpet with her, Ingalls left her to do interviews while he entertained the
rest of us. When someone asked him if he
was proud of his wife, he responded, “Is she here?” in mock concern, then
added, “Don’t tell her you’ve seen me.
I’m with a date.” He walked down
to the end of the carpet, to a bleacher full of fans. “Isn’t she amazing? And she’s a hundred years old!” Shirley Jones turned 80 last month.
Marty Ingalls
Merrie Spaeth and Shirley Jones
Merrie Spaeth was next down the crimson walk. In 1964 she played one of the two teenagers
obsessed with Peter Sellers’ pianist character in THE WORLD OF HENRY
ORIENT. I asked her what Sellers was
like off-camera. “Peter Sellers was a
lovely man who wanted attention. And
Tippi (Walker) and I would sit at his feet, and he would perform. The funniest thing he would do is take
Inspector Clouseau to places where he actually never went. We thought he was wonderful, and he
responded.”
Worst picture ever taken of Greg Proops
Comedian Greg Proops, probably best known for WHOSE
LINE IS IT ANYWAY?, is a very busy voice-actor in addition to his on-camera
work -- and my awful picture of him may get him even more voice work! Very knowledgeable about film, he introduced
the excellent Ginger Rogers comedy BACHELOR MOTHER later that night. “My favorite westerns? By a long mile, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE
SUNDANCE KID. I also liked DESTRY RIDES
AGAIN. And there’s a really odd Henry
Fonda film called WELCOME TO HARD TIMES that I think is superb. I also love THE CULPEPPER CATTLE
COMPANY. I like lots of westerns. WILD BUNCH.”
Susan Lloyd
Susan Lloyd, granddaughter of silent screen great
Harold Lloyd, was attending, and would present his WHY WORRY? on Friday. She was very excited about the imminent
release from Criterion of Lloyd’s THE
FRESHMAN. She’d spoken about how her
father dressed in a much more ‘regular’ manner than Chaplin or Keaton, even
wearing glasses. I reminded her that he
looked quite different in his earlier films, as Lonesome Luke. “Yes he did.
And unfortunately some of the ‘Lonesome Lukes’ got destroyed in a fire
at his estate. So there aren’t a lot of
Lonesome Lukes. But Lonesome Luke – the
first one was Willy Work, where he wore tight clothes and a split mustache,
like Chaplin. Lonesome Luke was a little
boy, and he started putting glasses on with Lonesome Luke. And he had to fight with (producer Hal) Roach
to let him wear glasses; that’s what happened, and then the glasses stuck. And then he put on a suit, and a regular tie,
and that was it.”
“And he looked like no one else, because he looked
like everyone else?”
“He looked like everyone else, and he was
happy. He could walk down the street in
make-up and still look like everybody else.”
Andy Dick trying to come up with an answer
Comedian Andy Dick has never been in the running for
King of the Cowboys, and seemed genuinely baffled by my question. “Western?
That’s a stumper. I can’t
really… Have I seen a western? Oh: CHINATOWN!” A friend in his entourage coached, “You might
want to go with TOMBSTONE or something.”
Tiffany Vazquez
New to the red carpet was New Yorker Tiffany
Vazquez, one of the twenty ‘Super Fans’ TCM selected to be guest
programmers. “Western? I don’t know too much about westerns, so I’m
going to have to go with either THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY or maybe THE
SEARCHERS.”
Joe Dante
When director Joe Dante walked by, I asked, “When
are you going to make a Western?”
“When they let me!
Actually I did one for Showtime, with Brian Keith (note: it’s an episode
of PICTURE WINDOWS called LIGHTNING, written by GUNSMOKE’s Jim Byrnes, featuring
Keith, Henry Jones, Ron Perlman and Kathleen Quinlan). They don’t do westerns anymore.”
Bo Hopkins
Then along came Bo Hopkins, who made his screen
premiere in THE WILD BUNCH. “Mr.
Hopkins, what are your favorite westerns?”
“Well, THE WILD BUNCH. CULPEPPER CATTLE COMPANY. Oh God, all the John Ford movies, Gary Cooper
movies.”
“I liked your work in a small but very good picture
called CHEYENNE WARRIOR.”
“That’s right; that was a good one.”
Lynn Stalmaster
One of the unexpected pleasures of the red carpet was
to speak with legendary casting director Lynn Stalmaster, who famously cast
GUNSMOKE for its first decade, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and other Western series,
and features like TOOTSIE, DELIVERENCE, MONTE WALSH, VALDEZ IS COMING, JEREMIAH
JOHNSON, and all of the MAGNIFICENT 7 sequels.
Of Mickey Rooney stature, nearing 90, and bubbling with energy and
enthusiasm, when I told him that I wrote the Round-up, he responded, “Oh, I’m
happy to meet you, because I’ve cast so many westerns that you have seen. The last one I did was THE COWBOYS, with
John Wayne.”
“You cast all of those boys?”
“Yes, and most of them were new to film. And Roscoe Lee Brown; there was a brilliant
chemistry between him and Wayne. And
Bruce Dern. And he created a villain
that had dimension, because he was that kind of an actor. And I cast HALLELUJAH TRAIL for (director)
John Sturges. HOUR OF THE GUN, also for Sturges. And Jon Voight (playing Curly Bill Brocius)
appeared in that, and had a couple of wonderful moments; an actor of that
caliber can make so much of even a brief role.”
“What do you look for when you’re casting a period
picture? Is it a different quality?”
“I like to introduce something fresh. Much as I love the old character actors that
appeared in every John Ford film, I like to try to find a unique way, that
hopefully the director will accept. So I
try all kinds of things.”
“Which directors were the best to work with?”
“Sunday we’re showing FIDDLER ON THE ROOF; Norman
Jewison. Robert Wise; we did WEST SIDE
STORY.”
Robert Osbourne
I’ll have more on the TCM Festival in next week’s
Round-up!
ROB WORD’S ‘WILD BUNCH’ LUNCH WEDNESDAY AT THE AUTRY
On Wednesday, April 16th at 12:30 p.m.,
Rob Word will hold his 3rd-Wednesday-of-the-month Cowboy Lunch @ the Autry, and the topic will be Sam Peckinpah’s THE
WILD BUNCH. Admission is free, although naturally
you have to buy your own lunch. After
lunch, guests who will be discussing the film will include despicable bounty
hunter L.Q. Jones; Bo Hopkins, whose very first movie role was Crazy Lee, and
who will hopefully talk “…’til Hell freezes over or you say different!”;
stuntman, horse specialist and frequent Peckinpah collaborator Gary Combs; and Gordon
Dawson, who supervised costumes in WILD BUNCH, and eventually co-wrote BRING ME
THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA with Bloody Sam.
L.Q. Jones
To whet your appetite, here’s a clip from a recent
luncheon, with Bruce Boxleitner talking about making the series HOW THE WEST
WAS WON. (You can find many more clips
from these events by going to Youtube and searching ‘a Word on Westerns.’)
Bo Hopkins
SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST TICKET WINNER!
Longtime Henry’s Western Round-up reader Sally Gomez
of Baldwin Park, California has won a pair of tickets to the Santa Clarita
Cowboy Festival by correctly identifying Champion as Gene Autry’s horse. Those of you who wrote in ‘Topper’ or ‘Buttermilk’
may now hang your heads in shame. The Festival will be held Saturday and Sunday,
April 26 & 27 at Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita.
Gold panners
As there is a film currently in production at the
Ranch (that’s why they’re in business, after all), some of the Western street
will not be available for strolling, access to other areas has been expanded, and
some venues will be in new locales – I know for instance that the OutWest Buckaroo Book Store will be in a large
tent that will actually give them more room for author events than they’ve had
in the past. Good news for me, as I’ll
be moderating a couple of authors’ panels.
On Saturday from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST IMAGINED, and I’ll be
talking with Western novelists Edward M. Erdelac, author of COYOTE’S TRAIL; Jim
Christina, author of THE DARK ANGEL; and C. Courtney Joyner, author of SHOTGUN.
Author JR Sanders
And on Sunday, from 1:30 to 2, the topic is THE WEST
LIVED, and I’ll be talking to non-fiction writers Jerry Nickle, great-grandson
of the Sundance Kid; JR Sanders, author of SOME GAVE ALL; and Peter Sherayko,
author of TOMBSTONE – THE GUNS AND GEAR.
Also on Saturday at 12:30, and Sunday at 2:30, I’ll
be chatting with Miles Swarthout, who wrote the screenplay for THE SHOOTIST
from his father Glendon Swarthout’s novel.
Miles is also involved with the upcoming movie THE HOMESMAN, directed by
and starring Tommy Lee Jones, from a novel by Glendon Swarthout. You can learn all about the events at the
Buckaroo Book Shop by going HERE.
You can learn all about the Santa Clarita Cowboy
Festival HERE .
Joey Dillon prepares to shoot an apple
off a volunteer's head!
NEW VENUE, DATE, AND PRICE FOR TARANTINO’S ‘HATEFUL
8’ READING
As you know if you read the Round-up, Quentin
Tarantino had announced on The Tonight
Show that he was following up DJANGO UNCHAINED with a new Western entitled
THE HATEFUL 8. And you also know that
some a-holes put the script up on-line, which so angered Tarantino that he
shelved the project and sued the A-holes.
(A-hole court date is January 27, 2015.
A-holes involved are officially known as the GAWKER website.) And you know that, as a benefit for the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Tarantino decided to hold a staged reading of the
script at the Museum, with tickets costing $200 a pop, for LACMA Film Club
members only. But what you perhaps did
not know is that scheduling conflicts have caused a change of date and location
for the reading.
The Theatre at the Ace Hotel - formerly
The United Artists Theatre
The new date is Saturday, April 19th –
that’s this Saturday – at 8 p.m. The new
location is downtown L.A., at The Theatre
at the Ace Hotel, 929 South Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015. The new prices, depending on seat location,
are $100, $125, $150 and $200. They went
on-sale on Friday to members of the LACMA Film Club, Film Independent, and New
York Times Film Club. Any unsold tickets
will go on-sale to everyone else tomorrow, Wednesday, at 5 p.m. Here’s the link to Ticketmaster: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/09004C8A982C9420
As you may have gathered, they’re kinda touchy about
things leaking out, so NO cell phones will be permitted at the event. The theatre, incidentally, was built as the United Artists Theatre in 1927, and is
one of Downtown’s treasures. Mary
Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith had just begun
UNITED ARTISTS to have control over their films, and commissioned the building
of the theatre.
The dramatic reading is significant, and open to
wildly different interpretations.
Friends who are attending have told me they think that, with the script
being shelved, this will be their only chance to witness this new Tarantino
work. Others, myself included, are
hoping that the enthusiasm and excitement generated by this event will
reinvigorate Tarantino’s enthusiasm, and convince him to make the movie. We’ll have to wait and see who’s right.
HAPPY 80TH BIRTHDAY JAMES DRURY! INSP CELEBRATES FRIDAY WITH HIS FAVORITE ‘VIRGINIAN’
EPISODES!
James Drury, star not only of THE VIRGINIAN series,
but of Sam Peckinpah’s RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, FORBIDDEN PLANET, POLLYANA, and
many TV westerns -- memorably THE REBEL, RAWHIDE and THE RIFLEMAN -- will turn
80 on Friday. To celebrate, INSP, which
exclusively shows the venerable series, will air Drury’s two favorite episodes
among the 249 he starred in. In THE MOUNTAIN
OF THE SUN, the Virginian tries to discourage a trio of female missionaries
from going to help Yaqui Indians in Mexico, and in the process falls for one of
them, played by lovely Dolores Hart. This
was Hart’s last performance before she gave up acting and became a nun. In FELICITY’S
SPRING, the Virginian and Felicity Andrews (Katherine Crawford) make wedding
plans, and I’ll not say more than that. In addition to the two 90 minute episodes,
INSP will also run some never-before-seen footage to celebrate James’
birthday. Don’t miss it!
James Drury with Clu Gulager
DEL MAR RACETRACK CAPS ‘WESTERN WEEK’ SAT. WITH ‘NIGHT
OF THE HORSE’!
Del Mar’s 69th Annual Horse Show is going
on, and on Saturday night, April 19th, Night of the Horse presents Hoofbeats Through History, which will
examine the moment man first encountered the horse, and how his world was forever
changed. Anthony DeLongis, actor,
stuntman, accomplished mounted shooter, knife-thower, and whip-cracker will
demonstrate his remarkable warfare skills.
Peter Sherayko as Buffalo Bill
Peter Sherayko, western movie actor, historical
accuracy authority, and action coordinator will don the goatee from his famous
Buffalo Bill Cody one-man-show, and reenact how the cowboy tamed the west,
opened territory, ranched, mined, blazed trails and brawled!
The show will also feature Clay Maier driving
dressage and jumping, cavalry style.
Nancy Nunke will present the world’s only trained Przewalksi’s horse –
these are the prehistoric horses seen in cave paintings! Present-day knights in shining armor will demonstrate
their jousting skills, plus there will be Charros, Roman Riders and Trick
Riders! To learn more, go HERE .
THAT’S A WRAP!
That’s it for this week! Have a great one, and let me know about
anything in your neck of the woods that the Round-up Rounders ought to know
about!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Content Copyright April 2014 by Henry
C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
An entertaining and informative read as usual! Looking forward to meeting Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival ticket winner, Sally Gomez at the Buckaroo Book Shop!
ReplyDeleteGreat day, today, Henry.!
ReplyDeleteFirst time here. Really enjoyed the read.....PW
ReplyDeleteThanks, PW! Glad to have you aboard!
Delete