Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

More What's My Line?

5/4/2014

0 Comments

 
The Mystery Guest on this episode is the wonderful actor and playwright Peter Ustinov.  It is not surprising that he's very witty, and one of the treats to is that he, of course, provides his answers with dialects

Ustinov was renowned for his dialects.  And seeing this video harkened me back to a favorite story.


One of Ustinov's acclaimed performances was on TV for the Hallmark Hall of Fame
production, "A Storm in Summer," written by, of all people, Rod Serling.  Though Serling was of course renowned for writing The Twilight Zone, it's less known that he wrote some deeply emotional dramatic pieces, including the acclaimed Requiem for a Heavyweight and Patterns -- and A Storm in Summer. 

This latter told the story during the Vietnam War of an old, embittered Jewish, New York deli owner who is put in a position against his wishes to take care of a young African-American kid with a heavy chip on his shoulder when his nephew backs out of being a Big Brother for the summer.  It's one of the few -- if only -- Hallmark Hall of Fame production that I know of that ever got repeated.  (I watched both airings.)  It won the Emmy in 1970 for Best Drama, and Ustinov won the Emmy for Best Actor, beating out such people as..oh, Laurence Olivier.  Yes, it was that good.  It remains one of the greatest things I've ever seen on television.

Jump forward a dozen years to 1982.  I was in my early days starting out in publicity, working at Universal Pictures, and we were having a press junket in New York for the film
, Evil Under the Sun, that starred Peter Ustinov as Agatha Christie's, Hercule Poirot.  It was the only junket I was taken on -- but was it ever memorable, for a lot of reasons.  And high among those reasons is that, as the lowest and youngest on the totem pole, I had to pick up Peter Ustinov at the airport.

He was a pleasant fellow
on the ride back, willing to chat, and a good storyteller.  And at one point, we drove in our limousine through an ethnic neighborhood much like the one that had been the core of A Storm in Summer.  I mentioned how much the streets were driving through reminding me of it, and how much I utterly loved the production, watching it twice,  And without any prompting, 12 years after having made the film, he immediately went into his old Jewish deli owner character, Abel Shaddick.  And he started ad libbing in character his throughts about New York and the neighborhood.

I'm here to
tell you it was one of the thrills of my life.  It was just great.

All that came flooding back as I watched this.  Not that I need much prompting for those memories to flood back, it happens often.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Busienss
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like