Update 8-26-03


Hi,

I'm away from home and writing from my cousin's computer.  It has the weirdest kind of drop shadows on the lettering, kind of like watching 3-D without the glasses.  Sure hope it doesn't send like this.  Before I go blind:

From Irene Augustine Wehn:  I'm sure you'll hear a lot of these, but I thought I'd add mine to the list.  My husband and I meet another couple in the city every summer for our anniversary.  This year was 33.  Months ago, we picked August 14th to be there.  We met our friends at 3 PM, checked into the hotel, and left to go see the wax museum.  As we were paying for our tickets, the lights went out.  We were stuck in the city for two days, but I have never seen so many acts of kindness and generosity.  While I was on a bathroom line, a New York City fireman who had helped out on 9/11 gave me his flashlight.  I never got his name, but that flashlight helped all of us so much -- like when we needed to climb 8 flights of very dark stairs to get to our rooms.  While I certainly was frightened, talking to so many wonderful people helped tremendously.

From Andy Dolich, in Memphis where ”it’s hot enough to melt the balls off an iron dog.”  To Greg Weiss: Are rumors of your death overstated?  E-mail me only if you’re alive.

From Marc Jonas:  Barnet Kellman wants to know who went to "Meet the Beatles" (one of their first LP's, I think).  But, frankly, at my age, I'm lucky to remember the Beatles at all.
      Professionally, I'm switching firms.  So please use my personal e-mail address for future updates. It's:  mjonas8@comcast.net   Hope the summer's been a good one for you, or as they say in Philly, for youse.  At least, the country now knows that you don't order Swiss cheese with a cheese steak, thanks to Sen. Kerry.  Strictly verboten.

Clarification from Barnet Kellman:  my friend is actually looking for people who witnessed/attended the following "happenings"/events in February, 1964:
       - Beatles arrival/departure at Kennedy Airport, Feb. 7/21
       - Beatles arrival/stay at The Plaza Hotel, Feb. 7 - 13
       - Studio audience at Ed Sullivan Show (NY), Feb. 9
       - Press conferences, presentations, Feb. 10
       - Concert audience, Washington, DC, Coliseum, Feb. 11
       - Concert audience, Carnegie Hall, Feb. 12
       - Studio audience at Sullivan Show (Miami), Feb. 16
       We're also looking for ANY memorabilia from that time:  programs, ticket stubs, memorabilia, e.g., Beatle wigs, sweatshirts, buttons, magazines, newspaper clippings; radio promotions, giveaways, or Top 40 Chart lists.  General memories such as Murray the K's commentary are also welcome!  Thanks

From Donald Faber:  Read your weekly this AM, and please, for what it's worth, feel free to include my name on the subject line and send e-mails to Gary Gray and Dick Magee.  I was friendly with both for many years. Of course, as we both now know, the past is a territory eagerly avoided by many people.  Thanks -- and if you have any success please let me know!

From Jerry Bittman:  Major flaw in the Abbot & Costello routine.  Twice in the beginning, Costello said "My name is Bud."  Well we all know it was Lou.
       Speaking of Abbott and Costello, my cousin starred in 1978 in a made for TV movie titled Bud and Lou.  It was Hackett's greatest performance.  I have tried for years to get a copy, albeit unsuccessfully.  However, yesterday I was talking To Ivy Hackett, Buddy's oldest daughter.  She, too, has been trying to get a copy to show her children.  Well, at Buddy's funeral, she ran into Harvey Korman who co-starred with Buddy.  He said he would try and get Ivy a copy.  She will make one for me.  So if anybody would like a copy, let me know.  Ivy once sent $39 to E-BAY for a copy, but they never mailed it.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  hi to all... thought i'd share the following conversation...  it does explain why i come home and can't wait to just veg out, as the intelligent conversations on the boob tube are an upscale delight compared to the daily chats i have all in the name of earning a living...
       as you know, i am "in marketing"...a fancy term for "i make the calls that promotes the sale of the stuff..."  this week the stuff is junior surf and swim wear...  technically, my position requires career background and additionally extensive professional requirements...  but then again, from this recent conversation, i'm not entirely sure why...
       i called the account, an unfamiliar california surf shop listing obtained from a recent trade show attendance list...  "heather-tiffany-bambi" answered the phone, and i greeted her, then proceeded to ask "if the shop carried swimwear" [not just surf boards]...  she responded with "yes" and i continued to ask "who the swimwear buyer was?"  she stated that "she didn't know "what a swimwear buyer was"...  i guided her with "who buys the swim suits in the store"...  she responded by assuring me... "the customers"!
       needless to add, my coffee break was just a tad LONGER yesterday...  bring on the cafe con leche [decaf of course]  hope you too have a good coffee break!

Also from Barbara:  spoke with robin [feit-baker] today, and she told me that she heard from gayle unlich-ramish that her mom had just passed away [earlier, around noon]   i spoke with gayle and extended [our] condolences...
       on a happier note..robin [again, the ultimate hostess] called me just as her first guests were expected...  seems she snowballed a "come-over-for-the-aftenoon" drop-in to neighbors dennis and julie shapiro...  she also mentioned it to paul and pina demartimo, who are enjoying a visit from tom calise.  joan aries called robin mid-morning to invite her to the beach...  robin reversed the invite to joan, and rich viscecchia happened to drop in at robin's business address earlier in the week, so, of course, he too has been to join them...  nothing like an impromptu mini to keep a hot weekend cool!
       on the happiest of notes, Carol Ewig-Duran is on her way to new york to share in the weekend celebration of her parents' 60th wedding anniversary...  "mazel tov" esta and harry!...  hope all else is good...
       in my next spare moment, i will REMIND myself to post [too fragile to scan] a  blue and white eau du ink mimeograhed copy of an 8th grade [mr..heady-eddie schmidt] social studies test that i must have saved for "some reason"...  can't imagine that "back them" i knew that 40 or so years later i'd be sending it to the reunion "kids" via the internet...  or did i???

From Robert Fiveson:  This is amazing!!!!   http://web.locallink.net/~jalewis/handprint/

Finally, filler?  Who needs filler?  Well, okay, two short reports:  one on life at the edge of Hollywood; the other on high-end East coast summer theater.

From an actor friend, Chris Barnes:  Tens of thousands of people converged on the quiet Los Feliz neighborhood near Hollywood and Vermont this weekend when, after reading a glowing review of a play in The LA Times they decided to attend the show.  The normally sedate community was overrun by avid theatergoers desperately trying to find Theatre/Theater nearly 200 blocks from it's actual location near Hollywood and Cahuenga.  The Starbucks on Prospect and Vermont, normally patronized by 20-something hipster slackers trying desperately to be the next Kevin Williamson or front the next Wilco, was inundated by confused and shell-shocked cognoscenti searching vainly for the venue.  
      Said haggard barrista Summer Woodchip, "They, like, were asking us questions 'n' stuff, I guess?  But, like, we didn't know what they were, like, saying? And, then, like, they would buy, like, a frappuccino and all, but not, like, leave a tip? But, it was, like, because they were mad because they couldn't find the play place."
      In a shocking development, it was discovered that The LA Times (a division of Tribune Communications) in both its hard copy Weekend Calendar edition and its CalendarLive web page, printed the wrong address in a review of Sophocles' Oedipus, the King, inadvertently sparking the mass confusion and a momentary east side shortage of iced-blended decaf mochaccino.  This misinformation then became propagated by other media outlets who should have learned by now to check their own damn facts.  The Times regrets this episode of stupidity.

From a writer friend, Christine McCarthy:  Last summer, a writer for the New London paper The Day wrote her only story covering the O'Neill Summer Playwrights' Conference.  She called it "Looking for Mr. Big" because Chris Noth was there to act, and he'd played Mr. Big on Sex and the City.  In her article, the reporter recounted how she tailed Noth, attempting to land an interview.  On The Day's expense account, she lunched (probably more than once) at The Lighthouse Inn, where he was staying.  Eventually, he walked past her in a bathing suit on his way to the beach.  She chased after him.  She commented on how awful he looked in a bathing suit, how he had love handles that surely Sarah Jessica Parker's character would abhor.  She said he seemed confused, and blew her off, and that she no longer liked him.  She said the Conference was for obscure playwrights anyway.
      A few of the playwrights there:  Lee Blessing, Rommulus Linney, August Wilson, and Horton Foote.  I wrote a letter to The Day stating the reporter had unfairly represented Mr. Noth, and that she was a stalker.  Also, that it was shameful that the only coverage of the Conference was a tabloid trashploitation piece.  I got a call from the paper, apologizing, and saying they would run my letter.  The man also said he was sorry I didn't like their Senior Arts Editor's piece on Mr. Big, but that the paper thought the world of her.  Stalker's tactics replace journalism and are rewarded, even highly regarded.  Nice.  Why do I subscribe?

By the way, the answer to Steve Gootzeit's stuck clock time:  12:50.  [Oh, yeah, like, now I remember.]

The home page:   http://hometown.aol.com/falcons1965a


Rich