Thanksgiving seemed to be a good day for this.
And for those of you who normally skip past articles that have anything to do with sports, avoid the temptation here. This is not about sports, that's just the the environment. This is about personal sacrifice on behalf of others. In fact, if you want to just skip everything here and jump down to the third-to-last paragraph to click on the link, go ahead. Personally, I think reading the background helps set it all up properly, But to each their own. As most readers of these pages have probably figured out by this time, I quite like the beloved Chicago Cubs. And it was pretty joyous for them to have won their first World Series in 108 years. But winning the World Series is one thing (albeit an extremely big thing...), but winning it with people you really like is another. And by "people you really like," I mean people who even fans of rival teams -- and even non sports-fans -- can't but help like. And I don't even just mean really good guys like Kris Bryant, David Ross, Javier Baez, manager Joe Maddon with his Respect 90 foundation charity, and more. But also people like Anthony Rizzo, who I've written about here, who overcame Hodgkins lymphoma and runs the Rizzo Family Foundation charity for cancer research and family support; and Jon Lester, who overcame cancer and runs the NVRQT charity for children with cancer -- and Matt Szczur. You probably don't know Matt Szczur -- let alone how to pronounce his last name. (It's "see-zer," as in "Julius." I guess the family loved playing Scrabble and had the hard letters left over.) In fact, for most people who know him outside of Chicago, it's because he lent his bat to teammate Anthony Rizzo during the playoffs that got Rizzo out of his slump. But far more than lending a bat, he definitely falls into the "Boy, is he a great guy" category. I've liked Matt Szczur when he was still in the minor leagues for the Cubs, and I followed his progress. It wasn't until he made the major leagues, though, that I learned his story. I won't go into why he's a great guy at length, because this 14-minute featurette from ESPN's E:60 series does a far better job. But the short version is that when in college, Szczur signed up to be a potential bone marrow donor. There was only a 1-in-80,000 chance he'd be a match -- but when it turned out that someone in need was a perfect match (a 15-month old girl from the Ukraine, but identities on both sides were kept anonymous for a year), Matt Szczur went into the hospital at the risk of his baseball career. That's because it was only a short while before the major league draft, a time when pro scouts are finalizing their reports on what players teams should draft, and the procedure would take Szczur out of commission for a long period. But Szczur went ahead with it. And the story continues from there. There's more to the background, too. There's a YouTube video of ESPN's piece I could embed, but they did a follow-up featurette which expands the story and is far better (which is saying a lot, because the original was wonderful). I'm not sure if the updated video has even run on the network yet, but Szczur has it posted on a private site, which you can access with a password that he provides. You can watch it here -- and enter the password, "Szczur." It's about 14 minutes, terrific, and you will now know Matt Szczur, remember how to pronounce his name, and likely become a big fan. Even if you support other teams or can't even stand sports. And now I'll play unfair, and embed photos below. I dare you not to watch the featurette now...
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The "production" of Fiorello! is over, but like every great show there's a curtain call. And so the Second Elisberg Industries Film Festival continues -- for at least one more day, and...perhaps one more. This is a montage of three numbers from what looks to be (from all the videos of it I've seen) a superb concert version that the Encores! group put on of Fiorello! in 2013 at the New York City Center. It was the start of the 20th year of the Encores! series, which had begun two decades earlier by putting on, as its inaugural show...Fiorello! This was the first time they'd ever repeated a musical. In this montage, we see extended version of three songs during rehearsals. Shuler Hensley plays 'Ben Marino,' Kate Baldwin is 'Thea' (and we see a bit of Danny Rutigliano as 'Fiorello'), and then Erin Dilly plays 'Marie.' If Erin Dilly looks familiar, that may be because of his role in the film, Julie and Julia. She played to book editor tasked with testing the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook and then sitting down with the co-author and coming up with a title. Kate Baldwin recently starred on Broadway in a revival of Finian's Rainbow, and Shuler Hensley played Jud Fry in a 2002 Broadway revival of Oklahoma! -- fascinatingly the role created by Howard DaSilva, who also created the role of 'Ben Marino' that Hensley played in Fiorello! He also was in the recent musical version of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein as the Creature. I don't know all that much about Danny Rutigliano, alas, but he's wonderful in the videos of the show, and was in the original Broadway cast of The Lion King, as Timon, the role voiced in the animated film by Nathan Lane. But now, on to the montage. A robust "Politics and Poker," a gorgeous "'Til Tomorrow" and an energetic "The Very Next Man" with the new "When he proposes..." lyric. I received an email from a friend about calling the United States Justice Department about adding your name to a request for investigating any irregularities in the national vote.
Honestly, I doubt that there were any irregularities. Though there certainly were oddities -- and I don't mean like Donald Trump being elected President of the United States, or even just getting the Republican nomination, or simply deciding to run. But more like almost all the swing states going to Donald Trump, despite ALL the polls showing that Hillary Clinton was ahead in them and her winning the popular vote by almost 2 million. Hey, besides that, Donald Trump insisted the voting was rigged, and he's the President-Elect so he should know, and he never lies he and his supporters adamantly told us. Besides, the pattern during the whole election is that Trump was projecting -- we saw it time and time again, saying things about others that so regularly were really about himself. So, I'm all for following a pattern, no matter how highly unlikely in this case. It's just one more reason to listen to what Trump says. Patterns and such things aside, we do know that it was only recently that the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court, something originally intended to protect against those historically discriminated against being disenfranchised The major of the court, against a strong dissent, said it didn't feel such racially biased protections were needed anymore in today's society. Seeing how viscerally and vehemently -- and openly racially -- divided the public was during this election, it seems that rather than such protection no longer need, they may well be more needed now than ever. Mostly, given the importance of the results, it was worth following up on the email request and being so easy to do. And it beats just complaining to the wind. The whole process to call took just about a minute. And only that long because when I called the number, I got a busy signal and had to call back. But I did so immediately, and got through. The DOJ Public Comment Line is (202) 353-1555, and you're asking them to "audit the vote." A sample script was included. I edited it a bit to fit my own interests, and besides, I think such things hold more meaningful weight (not that this does...) when one isn't just repeating what others are saying. But if you want to because it's easier, that's fine -- or just use this below as a starting point: Starting script: “My name is ___, and I’m a registered voter. I’m urging you to support the call to audit the vote and to investigate voter suppression, and also even eliminate any concerns of further Russian tampering that we do know existed in the US election. The results are unprecedentedly similar in the swing states, most especially coming after the repeal of the Voting Rights Act that was supposed to protect against the suppression of the disenfranchised.” Yes, yes, I know that today was when Newton Minow received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And that his other fellow-recipients included Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Jordan, and many more. But for me, this is what was what made the day special -- That's my longtime friend, the oft-mentioned here Nell Minow. You can tell which one -- the beaming smile gives it away. And that's her mother Jo to her right. (I keep having family overlaps with the Minows. My Aunt Joan was in the same sorority as Jo Baskin -- yes, from the Baskin-Robbins family -- at Northwestern. And my dad was Newton Minow's physician and poker playing buddy. And Nell's husband David Apatoff, a highly-regarded attorney, as well as artist, grew up down the block from me in Glencoe, Illinois -- we were on the north side of town, Nell on the south.) All of which is why I prefer to consider this Nell's day. Awards come and go, but it's not often one's father gets the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Okay, not all awards are created equal, and Newton Minow getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom is pretty swell on its own merits. But I'm still defaulting to Nell. There's another sister in that picture, but as befitting being the oldest of three sisters, Nell is using her right to block her out. You can sort make out her glasses at Nell's right ear -- and she did pop out momentarily on camera sitting between Nell and their mother -- but oldest sisters apparently really do rule. Anyway, while the rest of the public honors Newton Minow and all the other recipients, I get to be thrilled for my friend and honor her, because it's my website. So there. And this brings us to the final part of Fiorello!, concluding our Second Elisberg International Film Festival --- though I suspect there will be an encore curtain call or two... The show has a score by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, with a book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott. It opened in 1959, and ran for 795 performances, tying for the Best Musical Tony Award with The Sound of Music, and becoming only the third musical ever (at that time) to receive the Pulitzer Prize. As the show nears its conclusion, Fiorello LaGuardia's long-suffering secretary Marie has finally given up her hope of getting together with her boss, who she's secretly loved for almost since she began working for him 15 years earlier. But it was a work relationship at first, then he fell in love and married the beautiful Thea, and now he's grieving over her death, and still recouping from having lost the race for mayor. And so, enough waiting -- Marie finally gets to sing her declaration of independence and re-enter the world, in "The Very Next Man." There's a bit of a treat in this video, it should be noted. It comes from the 2012 NYU production, and sung by Joanne Shea. For those who know and likely love the original cast album, it's a gem but has one hiccup. There's a single passage in this song, "The Very Next Man," which was intended sarcastically, to show Marie joking about how much she anxious to move on and marry someone else than Fiorello, anyone else. And for its era, 1959, the exaggeration fit the time. But as society moved on, it stopped being funny. In fact, it made performing the song in productions awkward. Harnick himself has said he was deeply uncomfortable by the line -- and so he did something rare, almost unprecedented -- despite all the acclaim and awards of the show, he rewrote the passage. And in fact, it's now the only authorized version of the song that can be performed in the show. If you wanted to sing the original version in an official production -- you can't, it's gone. (The problematic line in question, again, intended as an exaggerated joke, began "And if he likes me, who cares how frequently he strikes me." Yes, I know. And it goes on. But it's excised, it has ceased to be. And the new version is performed in this video here. So, people who only know the cast album will be hearing the new, authorized version of "The Very Next Man" for the first time. So that you can keep an ear open for it at the 2:30 mark, the passage begins, "When he proposes, I'll have him send me tons of roses." There's also a wonderful inside joke in the lyric, where Marie continues the theme of blossoms and refers to not wanting just one little flower. The joke is that the translation of the Italian word "fiorello" is -- "little flower." That was LaGuardia's real-life nickname, referred to in the show, as well. Though that's the final video available for the show, I realized that I can't end it that way. So, to bring things to the proper conclusion, we'll go to the audio from the original Broadway cast album, and here is the finale to Fiorello! As the story develops, Fiorello has come out of his doldrums and regained his sense of purpose and goals. And he realizes another important thing as well -- and after all these years, he proposes to Marie. And as she comes to grips that the very next man is actually Fiorello LaGuardia, the love of her life, he begins to tell her his plans that he wants her to be a part of. And they include once again running for mayor of New York -- something history tells us that it turns out very well. And with that, his supporters growing again in strength, the curtain falls. Here are Tom Bosley, who won a Tony Award playing 'Fiorello' and Patricia Wilson as 'Marie'. And finally, here's a bonus tale, a story (as best as I can remember) that Sheldon Harnick has told about the writing of Fiorello! When the show's creators were in the process of developing it, they needed the approval of the real people still living -- and also wanted their stories as part of their research. The one holdout was the woman who in the show they ended up calling "Marie." When they showed up at her apartment, she was very reticent and protective of her late husband and of her life. And the one thing she would adamantly not talk about at all was Fiorello's first wife, Thea. She didn't know how they would deal with things, and she was very closed off to them. As time passed, though, she began to open up to their personalities and see what they were trying to do with the show. And at least understood that her beloved husband's life and hers were in very good hands. And the meeting lasted a long time and went wonderfully. And then, as it all ended, and they walked to the door, and about to say their goodbyes, "Marie" leaned towards them, and very quietly but emphatically said -- "Thea was gorgeous." And with that, we end Fiorello! Today, Tuesday, starting at 2:55 PM in the east (and 11:55 AM Los Angeles time), the White House is scheduled to be streaming live the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony. Yes, yes, I know there are others also who will be medal recipients, but I'm tuning in to watch Newton Minow, father of my longtime friend Nell -- and years-past poker buddy and patient of my dad. Oh, and former FCC Chairman under President Kennedy and one of the creators of the first TV presidential debate.
Among those 20 others getting honored at the ceremony are Michael Jordan, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Bill and Melinda Gates, architect Frank Gehry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Redford and several others...like Vin Scully, Robert DeNiro, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, educator Eduardo Paron and more. You can watch the live here. Or...C-SPAN also lists the ceremony on your schedule for those of you with television sets... By the way, yesterday, I was trying to find out what time the event starts, but was having difficult. Then I realized -- oh, I have an easy way to find that out. I wrote to Nell. "What time to you have be at the White House tomorrow?" I also asked how long she expected to be beaming. "Forever" was part of her answer. By the way, 2:55 PM is it says on the White House website, which humorously is a bit different from what Nell told me. My guess is that she was given the time for the families to be there, which is why what she told me is earlier than what I have listed above. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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