Sorry to hear about the passing of Hal Holbrook yesterday at the good old age of 95. He long-since passed the age of Mark Twain who he portrayed in his one-man show for 62 years and 2,100 performances. In fact, Holbrook didn't retire from doing the show until the age of 91. Twain himself died at age 75. I actually met Holbrook once, in a manner of speaking. He was doing his Mark Twain Tonight! show in Chicago, and I went to it -- and then afterwards went backstage, spoke briefly and got his autograph on the program. The program itself was funny but, even better, explained his legendary skill playing Twain. It listed about 30 pieces that "Mr. Twain: might be performing from, but that he didn't want to be pinned down to. And so he might decide to do any of them, or something else. The point being that Holbrook knew the role so well that he could just pick-and-choose what he wanted to do at any given show. I've seen a bunch of highly well-regarded one-man shows like this -- Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens, James Whitmore as Will Rogers -- but Holbrook as Mark Twain was the best, by a lot. With the others, you thoroughly enjoyed the show. With Holbrook, after a while you came close to forgetting you were watching a show, and instead felt you were watching Mark Twain give one of his lectures. Really. It was that great. Holbrook began performing Mark Twain Tonight in 1955. He wrote a wonderful book in the mid-1960s -- aptly titled Mark Twain Tonight!: An Actor's Portrait. It was part-memoir, telling how he developed the show, and part a collection of Twain's works that he used in the show. One story that I remember is that he had performed on television, and afterwards got a call for an acting job from the appearance. When he showed up -- as himself, of course, a young actor in his late-30s -- the producer was aghast. He'd thought he had hired an old man. Holbrook won a Tony Award in 1966 when he brought his Mark Twain Tonight! to Broadway -- and during the run the performance was recorded for a CBS TV special. (Holbrook brought the show to Broadway three times, the last time in 2005 at age 80.) For such an iconic role, he was able to transcend it and had a long career in TV and film, winning five Emmys and getting one Academy Award nomination for his role in Sean Penn's movie Into the Wild. He also famously played 'Deep Throat' in the Oscar-winning Best Picture, All the President's Men. One of my favorite of his shows was a little-remembered one. It was one of the "wheels" on the series The Bold Ones which alternated shows each week, Holbrook's being called The Senator about an idealistic, somewhat controversial U.S. Senator. Only eight episodes were made over two years, but they were wonderful. One of my good friends, David Rintels (who won several Emmys of his own and the Broadway play Clarence Darrow with Henry Fonda) wrote on The Senator, and he and Holbrook stayed friends. Here's part of a very interesting reminiscence that Hal Holbrook gave for the Television Academy three years ago when he was 92. He talks about how he unexpectedly developed the Twain show (oddly with somewhat of a roundabout personal connection with Twain himself). It's only about 10 minutes and ends with the creation, before getting into the later development of the show, but it's fascinating -- in large part because he not only tells the story, but in a way acts it out, as he remembers the details. The "Ruby" he mentions at the beginning is his first wife, Ruby Johnston, with whom he was performing at the time, I believe in a two-person show. And here is seven minutes of Hal Holbrook in easily his most famous role, that 1967 TV special recorded live during a performance of Mark Twain Tonight! on Broadway. Keep in mind as he slowly creaks around on stage that he was 42 at the time.
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I was extremely sorry to read about the passing of Rebecca Luker at the age of 59 from ALS. She was one of my very favorite Broadway performers. How wonderful was she? She starred in the revivals of The Sound of Music, The Music Man and Show Boat. And starred as 'Winnifred Banks' in Mary Poppins. She had the most glorious, pure, soaring voice, and I was lucky enough to see her once near the start of her career when I drove down to San Diego to see the pre-Broadway tryout of the musical Harmony, a show I've written about here often (such as here), with music by Barry Manilow -- even though I didn't have a clue who she was at the time. Also in that production was Danny Burnstein, who later went on to star in the recent revival of Fiddler on the Roof...and all the more important, later married Luker. The best I can offer here is a piece I wrote back on October 27, 2015 when I was posted videos from that production of The Music Man. Here's the next video from our festival of the 2000 Broadway revival of The Music Man, which I wrote about yesterday. It also comes from that same Boston Pops concert, which I'm guessing did a tribute to the show. This is Rebecca Luker, who starred as Marian Paroo, singing "Goodnight, My Someone.". Yesterday, I told the story about how a good friend of mine who grew up in New York and saw the original production of The Music Man repeated times and swore by Baraba Cook's original performance, said that it wasn't until seeing Ms. Luker that anyone came close. (Readers of these pages will also recall the many articles I wrote about seeing the World Premiere 1997 production of Barry Mannlow's musical Harmony in San Diego, and Luker was in that show. And not shockingly, was a gem.) When they did a TV version of The Music Man in 2003 with Matthew Broderick, they cast Kristen Chenoweth to play Marian. It always bothered me that they didn't have Rebecca Luker re-create her part. It's not that Chenoweth was better known -- again this was back 12 years ago, and she wasn't. She'd done a few things on TV, but all in small supporting roles. She was largely a Broadway star -- but then, so too was Luker, who had three Tony nominations at that point. (More since.) And great as Kristen Chenoweth's singing is, Luker's voice is, I think, the more proper range for Marian. One odd possibility that I've wondered is that Matthew Broderick is pretty short, and Ms. Chenoweth is extremely short. Rebecca Luker might be taller, and therefore not as good a "fit." Or...maybe they just wanted Kristen Chenoweth. I like her. She was absolutely fine. But I think Rebecca Luker is better for the role. And deserved the chance to re-create it on film. In my article yesterday, I also more accurately described her has "the ethereal Rebecca Luker." If you don't know her work, here's why. For that article, I added a Bonus Note, writing -- "After posting this, I came across Rebecca Luker singing this song onstage during a live performance. I thought about swapping out videos, but I figured that since Craig Bierko got his Boston Pops performance with good sound quality, Rebecca Luker deserved her, as well. But if you want to see that onstage video, as well, just click here. But rather than make you bother going to the effort of clicking today, I'll just post it instead -- And it's only proper that we add one more video from that 2000 revival. Here is the scene leading into the song and then Rebecca Luker singing to Craig Bierko, "Til There Was You." Leading into the following dialogue into their reprise of "76 Trombones" and "Goodnight, My Someone." And we'll end with a finale encore. Here is Rebecca Luker and the Von Trapp children from the 1998 Broadway revival of The Sound of Music" singing "Do-Re-Mi." Happily, videos and albums exist. There are people who we honor when they pass for who they are as people, and those who honor for what they achieve. I suspect that Sean Connery is more the latter. His reputation towards women was not especially good, so we'll leave that as it is. But what a film career he had. I never met Sean Connery, died yesterday at the age of 90, but did cross paths with him. I told this story hear a long while ago, but it's a proper time to bring it up again. Years back, during my very early start in the film industry, what I refer to as my Dark Days, I used to work in public relations, and began in the PR Department at Universal Studios. One evening in 1980 we had our big, All Industry screening of Coal Miner's Daughter. It wasn't a premiere officially, but a lot of celebrities were invited, in large part because the studio had high hopes for the movie (which were well-warranted and came to fruition). It was held at the Motion Picture Academy, and I was there working, and when the screening finally started, I was able to find a seat in the center section, but near the back, on the left center-aisle. At one point, as film was rolling some people near me on the farther left were talking -- and talking -- and it was quite pronounced and annoying. I wasn't quite sure what to do, not knowing protocol as a new and low-level staffer, but then the decision was taken out of my hands. About 10 rows ahead of me, a man turned around towards the noise -- and it was Sean Connery. And with as piercing a look as you could imagine, and in a hiss as blunt as you wouldn't ever want directed at you, everyone in the vicinity heard him snarl at the rude perpetrators -- "SHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" It will not shock you to discover that they shhhhhhhhhhhh'd. Immediately. I posted this before, as well, but it's as good and different a tribute as I suspect there will be. Back in the days when he'd agree to appear on a game show, we have a very young Sean Connery as the Mystery Guest on What's My Line? in 1965. What I always find a treat in these is watching (and listening) to the celebrity put on a fake voice to disguise himself from the panel. A moment of personal privilege today. I found out yesterday that my friend Jeff Wright passed away on Monday. It wasn't from the coronavirus -- Jeff had gotten pounded by cancer 2-1/2 years ago and battled strongly against it, going through lots of procedures, having it come back, and fighting it again, but ultimately it was just too much. I knew Jeff for 30 years. We weren't in close, regular contact -- we spoke or sent emails a couple times a year, and every once in a while we would have lunch...though it was a treasured friendship that lasted for 30 years, well-worth keeping up for three decades specifically because he was an absolutely wonderful guy. Truly nice, just gentle and selfless, decent almost to a fault. Really. No, really -- so decent that it genuinely was almost to a fault. Sometimes you'd almost have to shake him silly to stop being so freaking decent. Really. Jeff was a very talented writer. Years back, in the very early days of his career, he co-wrote the first draft of a screenplay with another guy I know (who we'll call Ralph). Ralph had a touch more experience and credits, and told Jeff that it would be far beneficial to both their careers if he, Ralph, took sole credit on their draft so that when he and another highly-established writer did the second draft, Ralph's stock would rise more separately than as a team and allow him to bring Jeff along when they did their next script together. Jeff knew it would be important for him to get credit, but with his ethereally good, selfless nature didn't want to stand in the way of the insistence of his slightly-more experienced partner, didn't want to block the project which was moving forward when the new writer got involved, and agreed on the future benefit. (I found all this out after the fact.) The movie got made, was moderately successful, and Jeff was paid, but deeply warm-hearted Jeff never got that boost on their next "we're partners" script together, since it never occurred, But whenever I see the movie every time it shows up on TV -- and it periodically does -- I think of it as Jeff's script, as much as anyone's. Okay, another screenwriting story on his decency almost to a fault, though fortunately with a better ending. Jeff had written a lovely children's adventure screenplay and gave co-story credit to the person who typed the script. I couldn't understand -- Jeff explained that he didn't have enough money to pay her in full what she deserved but she'd given him some feedback on the script, so he said he'd give her co-story credit. He knew full-well that giving feedback was not even remotely writing, but...he'd given his word. However, when I made clear that he'd never be able to use the script as a sample of his work with someone else's name also on it and kept pounding that in relentlessly against his insistence that he'd promised, he'd promised, "but I promised," he finally agreed to change the title page, worked things out with the typist and thank goodness took his proper full credit. Happily, Jeff did get a co-writing credit on a fairly-high profile movie that made it to the theaters, though it didn't do well (long story about that...), the comedy BASEketball from David Zucker that starred Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park. That was back in my dark days of PR and I did the publicity on the film -- the screenplay was a lot of fun, unfortunately the filmmakers just mucked it up trying to make a sweet PG movie into something R-rated, which they acknowledged later. Aside from being so nice and decent, Jeff also loved baseball. So, he gets a double-bonus on being an absolutely wonderful guy. As I said, we didn't get together often or talk often, but it added up to a lot over 30 years, and every time we did I just felt better afterwards. I'm just better for knowing Jeff. The last time I saw Jeff was last year when we met for dinner at a restaurant in the Silverlake district that made Chicago-style deep dish pizza. It also gave me the chance to finally meet his wife Laurie. They'd married a few years back, but schedules never worked out. Boy, did he marry well. Just an absolutely lovely woman who Jeff adored, and who was a total, impressive, loving Rock of Gibraltar during his last very difficult couple of years. It wasn't the proper ending, but -- sorry, I've got to use the pun because it fits too well -- it was the Wright life. I'd met Jeff when I was hired to be the publicist on the Naked Gun films, and Jeff was working with the Zucker Bros. company. And since they tended to put people around them in small roles of their films, Jeff was in a bunch of them. In fact, because he'd started out as an aspiring actor before becoming a writer, he actually got lines! And so, here he is in Naked Gun 2-1/2: The Smell of Fear. Jeff plays a stock boy who comes in around the 30-second mark. However, the walk-on role that Jeff got the most attention for came in the original The Naked Gun film -- because it involved the famous, hugely-popular sequence when Leslie Nielsen pretends to be opera singer Enrico Pallazzo and destroys singing the National Anthem. Jeff played the Dodger Stadium usher who has to go get Signor Pallazo and bring him to the field. That's Jeff coming down the hallway at the 2-minute mark. So, happily, Jeff Wright will live on in film. But of course SO far, far, far more he will live on for his profound decency, warmth and glowing kindness in all those people who so-dearly admired and appreciated him. I was very sorry to read that Carl Reiner passed away last night. And very glad that he lived to the age of 98. And a fairly active 98, as well, with a book published last year and regular tweets on social media. I won't recap his enire career, since that's much too long and has been well-documented in all the articles about him today. (I was going to post a nice photo of him, but when I came across this above, I didn't see how I could not use it, even if it only hints at him creating The Dick Van Dyke Show and doesn't even touch on his illustrious film career, writing Enter Laughing based on his semi-autobiographical novel and The Comic that reteamed with him Dick Van Dyke, directing Oh, God; The Jerk and All of Me, and acting, in among other things the Ocean's 11 films and starring in The Russians are Coming...The Russians are Coming -- something whose irony from his very public hatred of Trump must have struck him.) But I'm very glad that I had recently finished watching a boxed-DVD set of the best of Sid Caesar, whose series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour brought Carl Reiner to fame as a performer, as well as a a writer. I got to see Reiner live on stage from about 25 years ago when the Writers Guild held an event of "Caeser's Writers" -- which remains one of the funniest evenings I've had in the theater. Just a panel discussion, but what a panel. In addition to Carl Reiner, there was Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon Larry Gelbart and lesser-names but equal talents. Not present, but I believe he attended a similar New York event, was Woody Allen. That's quite a staff. And quite an event. While there was a moderator, Reiner's stature -- even among that group -- allowed him to act as a sort of train conductor to coral the other writers, though lion tamer might have been more apt. especially for Mel Brooks with whom Reiner had a long professional association with the "2,000 Year-Old Man" and an even longer friendship. (That's Reiner's daughter Annie in between him and Brooks. The photo was taken two days ago.) I was going to say that I didn't have any stories from crossing paths with Carl Reiner ...but then I remembered that I did, although we didn't talk. In late-2005, during "awards season," I went to a small Academy screening of Hustle & Flow, the film that won a Best Song Oscar for "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp."). It was held in a screening room that could seat about 70 people. Only a handful of us were there early, when I noticed by the door that Carl Reiner had showed up to check in. What stood out was that the young guard checking in guests had no idea who Carl Reiner was and had to ask his name and slowly go through the list of names. Through the slow process Reiner was incredibly polite, with no whiff at all of "How dare you!" petulance for not being recognized and having to wait. However, the few of us in the screening room saw all this and burst into laughter. When Reiner finally get OK'd for being on the list and walked in, those few of us gave him our "thumbs up" for getting approved, and he just graciously and sort of sheepishly shrugged. Mainly, I admired that Carl Reiner -- then 84 -- went to Hustle & Flow . I did get to meet with his son. I only mention that because the two were very close, and I sense that Rob Reiner got his core and compass very strongly from his parents. It was when Reiner and his partner were looking to hire a story editor. I eventually got called in to meet with him, and we spent an hour talking. He came across as extremely personable, a highly-focused and smart, fun guy who was a terrific storyteller. Which, again -- from all I know about them, and to bring the story back full circle -- I have always sensed he got from his mother and father. (Quickly, to finish the tale, in the end the partners felt their two-man operation was too small -- their Castle Rock company was still a few years away -- and so they didn't hire anybody.) There's so much video to choose from to show for Carl Reiner, but I don't think you can go with anything first other than him with Mel Brooks as the "2,000 Year-Old Man." So, here they are in 1966 on the Hollywood Palace, hosted by Phil Silvers. And as a bonus, because this is Carl Reiner, after all, so why limit ourselves to just one video, here he is as the host on the classic parody from Your Show of Shows of the TV program This is Your Life. Last week, I mentioned that the Jimmy Kimmel Live show had a full half-hour tribute to the late Fred Willard, who made a great many appearances on the show in sketches. Only one nine-minute segment was made available online, but now, after a week they make the full program available on their website.
I can't embed it, but you can watch the whole thing here, and it's wonderful. Very funny, very touching and full of great testimonials from people who worked with him with admiration over the years. |
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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