Happy Halloween To One & All! It is almost here. And the Goblins are afoot, along with the Ghouls.....And though they are kind of scary....We Really Love Them! OOOOOOOOOoooooooooo! Skulls and Skeletons. Flying Witches. And frightening sounds that go "bump" in the night.....We Love It! And We Look Forward To It Each Year......Ghosts and Spirits are all around us and especially on Halloween! They come out to play instead of hiding.....Because this is their time. So, I say to you.....Get dressed up in a fun Costume and go on out and say "Boo" to whomever you meet....Eat lots of Halloween Candy....yes, yes, yes......like Candy Corn! There is nothing that says Halloween better than Candy Corn......Unless, it's a little bit of Halloween Chocolates.....You know the kind I mean, don't you? Oh, Yes Indeeeeedy! And some of these, too.....Halloween isn't Halloween without some Chocolate Kisses......Yummmmmmm! But, whatever you do on Halloween, do it with your whole heart and soul.....Give yourself over to it...... Do it with your entire being......And remember........




More To Come........


Note: And anyone still not quite sure about how to vote in this election, please read this Rolling Stone article. It is quite revealing and tells us a lot about McCain that many people may not have known......

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

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Diahann Carroll's book is very interesting. One feels that she is very honest in all that she reveals. I was interested in reading her book because our lives crossed way back in the early singing days. She was another person who took advantage of VAMP Studios back in the early 1950's around the time of her "Chance Of A Lifetime" win...(The American Idol of it's day....) And later, Nat Jones, who had been my accompanist began traveling with her as her accompanist---this was back in the early days of her very successful singing career.....Diahann Carroll has had great success with Recordings, Nightclubs, Broadway---She won a Tony Award----Films, too----she was nominated for an Academy Award for "Claudine", as well as a long career in Television---being Nominated for 4 Emmy's over her long and varied career.....Most recently she had an Emmy Nomination for playing Isaiah Washington's mother on "Greys Anatomy". Diahann Carroll, is still actively working in 2008! And may I say, I admire her talent, enormously! I probably have 7 or 8 'Albums' of hers....LP's....And back in the day' I saw her "Live" in The Persian Room of The Plaza Hotel....She is a true "STAR", and all that that word means, believe me.Part of what I found so very interesting about her book was her rather candid revelations about her long-time affair with Sidney Poitier.....I had heard those rumors, back in the day, but until you hear about something like this from 'the horses mouth' so to speak, stories like this cannot be taken seriously. The picture above is from the film "Paris Blues...a film that also starred two other amazingly talented people, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman.Their were many firsts in Ms. Carroll's Show Business career. She was the first black actress to have her own television show, "Julia", where she played a nurse who worked for a doctor played by the very wonderful Lloyd Nolan, and she had a darling little son named 'Corey', played by Marc Copage......And she was the very first black actress to star in a Broadway Musical as part of an interracial couple who were involved romantically in a true and real love affair...."No Strings". This landmark show is the Richard Rogers musical that also starred the incredibly talented Richard Kiley, who was the other half of this couple and this was the Broadway show for which Diahann Carroll won her Tony. And there were many more "firsts", as well. She played the first 'black rich bitch' ever cast on television in that wonderfully decadent and fun night-time soap opera, "Dynasty"....!More recently, Diahann Carroll was the first actress of color to star as Norma Desmond in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Sunset Blvd.". She played this show in Toronto, as well as a number of other cities in Canada. And there is a very interesting story included in her book about her initial encounter with the composer, Mr. Webber. Not a very nice story, I might add. And it just illustrated to me, one more time, that Andrew Lloyd Webber may be a very talented composer but he is not a very nice human being. And even though I knew somewhat first hand about this and then, second hand, too, that Mr. Webber was quite, shall we say, "full of himself", I was shocked to read about the way he treated Diahann Carroll. That he is a rude self-involved man is kind of legend in our business, and, as is quite well known, too, his treatment of Patti Lupone back in 1994-95, regarding this same show, was utterly horrific. And, even knowing all that history, the story that Diahann Carroll shares with us about her audition with Webber kind of takes your breath away. She is not exactly chopped liver, you know? And for him to treat her with such disdain...well....you just want to slap him silly, and say, "How dare you?". And despite Mr. Webber's terrible treatment of Diahann Carroll,
she not only got the part, but she blew everyone away with her performance in this production. Diahann Carroll's reviews were stellar! The thing about her is that she not only has the acting-chops for this part, but she also has the singing chops, as well. I sure wish I could have seen her in this role. I had seen Patti Lupone in London, and she was supremely superb! Again, she has it all: The Acting and The Singing! I saw Glenn Close do this part, as well, and though she certainly is a very good actress, she cannot hold a candle to either Patti or Diahann, in the singing department. I wish there was some kind of archival tape or DVD of this particular production....Now, that would be a real treat!

Diahann Carroll's book covers her four fairly tumultuous marriages and touches quite a bit on her relationship with her daughter, who certainly was the victim of Ms. Carroll's ambition and her very successful career. They are close now, according to the book, and Diahann Carroll adores her grandchildren and has great admiration for her very bright daughter, who's first responsibility and devotion was and is to her children. One has the strong feeling that Diahann Carroll truly admires her daughter for this accomplishment probably more than anything else, given her own failings as a mother too involved with 'career', which she speaks of very candidly. One has to admire her for that.The other thing I found interesting about her book is her honesty about her own vanity. How she looked and still looks has always been important to her, and though it may sound rather shallow, one cannot help but respect Ms. Carroll for her honest and open finger-pointing-at-herself, in this regard. And let's face it, she was and still is, one very very beautiful women as well as an incredibly talented one, too.And lastly, for me personally, I loved her dedication page:
"To my friend Josephine Premice-Fales. She was my mentor from the beginning. She was there for the entire experience, supporting and loving through it all. Thank you my friend."

Most of you have probably never heard of Josephine Premice, (That's her, above....) but I had the great pleasure of getting to know her a little bit and of watching her perform for a week of intense rehearsals and then for a week of playing, when she appeared in "Cabin In The Sky" in 1953 at The Sea Cliff Summer Theatre where I was working. She was, in two words: An Original. An amazing talent and a unique human being in almost every way. Diahann C. and Josephine P. were the dearest of friends until Ms. Premice's untimely death in 2001.....And at the end of Diahann Carroll's book she thanks Josephine Premice's daughter, Susan Files-Hill, an amazing young woman in her own right....for her great help with this book, and in that 'thanks' I discovered that Susan Fales-Hill wrote a book about her mother, Josephine, called "Always Wear Joy".And, P.S., I am now reading that book. Hopefully I will write more about that when I am done with it. But as a little tease...Here is a quote from Josephine Premice to give you just a tiny glimpse into who she was: This is a conversation between the then 41 year old Josephine and her then 8 year old son, Enrico.

Enrico says, "Mom, what do I put down on the school form where it says 'Mother's Occupation' when you're not acting in a show?", Josephine answered...."Tell your teacher, 'My mother's an unemployed legend'......."

Perfect!

Diahann Carroll's book is very much worth reading, especially if one is interested in the facts of the historical context of her rise in Show Business as a young woman of color coming up in the 1950's....Part of those facts are that her career has covered every area of the business and she has been successful in all of them, and also, on top of everything else, she is a Cancer Survivor! She is a pretty amazing woman and someone I admire a great deal....! UPDATE: 10-29-08 I just found this great video on YouTube.....It is a three song medley and is fabulous......!

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These two little snapshots are from Easter of 1963-64, (I am not sure which, at this point...) Carl and Ava had an Easter party at Daddy Astaire's home, where Ava was still living, on and off, until Carl and Ava were married....Carl, as was so typical of him, had planted an abundance of blooming flowers everywhere around the pool in the back garden where the party took place, just for that particular Easter Day.....That is me on the left, and Ava on the right. Ava had on an "Easter Hat" and I didn't even own a hat at the time, so I arrived bear-headed.....But, Carl and Ava had a lot of hats available for those of us who had arrived "hat less"......Here below: The Results! I love my hat.....lol! That is Carl over on the left holding his hat, and my dear dear soul mate, Sammy Reese, next to me, wearing the cowboy hat that Carl had supplied....I cannot get over how "dressed up" we were...and this was our 'dress: casual' look, for that afternoon. Well, that's how it was back then. Today, I guess we would all be in the grunge-goth look....lol! And below, here is a very special invitation...... Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this very special evening because I had to be out of town, but my dear Sammy went and he reported to me that it was lovely.....I'm sure it was, because anything that Carl was involved in bore his rare touch, and their Wedding Reception would certainly have been one of those very special evenings that he would have wanted to make as truly memorable as possible. He was so deeply 'in love' with Ava.

Fade Out: Eventually, a number of years later---maybe six or seven---Carl and Ava separated and then divorced and then, Ava remarried.....After the initial 'bad times' that often come with a lot of divorces, Carl and Ava were able to be good close friends once again, as they had been at the beginning, and they remained good close friends for the rest of Carl's life.....Fade Out, Once Again: Many years later, sometime in the mid to late 70's, Carl and his partner had a lovely Easter Brunch in the garden of their house on Almont Drive and Ava and her talented Artist husband Richard Mackenzie were there, along with some other people, including me.....It was a lovely gathering and this time many of the ladies wore very very pretty hats..... That is Ava at that particular table, wearing a very fetching hat......Carl knew how to entertain and it was always gracious and abundant and yet comfortable, in every way......The gentleman in the center of the picture below with the prematurely white hair is Ava's husband Richard.And that is Carl over on the left and that very pretty lady facing us in the very pretty hat right there in the center of the picture, was the lovely Mary Frann. Sad to say, both Mary and Carl are gone now.....And below, here is a closer look at dear Mary.... And Carl right behind her....I believe Mary was still on the Soap Opera "Days Of Our Lives" at that point...And this was quite a few years before she played Bob Newhart's wife "Joanna", for eight years on his second series.....And here below, a closer look at Ava..... Ava looks very beautiful in these little snapshot-pictures that I took that afternoon, and she still was absolutely lovely the last time I saw here in Los Angeles the evening she gave me those two little snapshots up above of that long ago 1963-64 Easter Party......She is a very happy women and has a lovely life with her Artist husband Richard..... Behind Ava in the picture above was Carl's partner Robert....He too, is gone now......! And the gentleman in the foreground who's name I just cannot think of...(Oh, dear)...he too, has passed on. This is what happens, I'm sorry to say.....The losses are painful and they certainly do pile up as each year passes. And as I get older, I am more and more aware of that, I'm afraid....But, that is the cycle of life.....Below, a recent picture of Ava and Richard taken this past summer at The Fred Astaire Conference in Oxford, England. Ava, here in 2008, is still a very beautiful presence...... And I actually only met Fred Astaire twice during those years. Both times at his home on San Ysidro Drive. The first time was the Easter Party and the second time was at another gathering of Carl and Ava's at Daddy Astaire's home. And I must tell you, to meet Fred Astaire was a great great thrill, both times!

More To Come.......

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The New Yorker has endorsed Barack Obama. Hooray, Hooray. Another endorsement that has a lot of weight to it---along with all the other recent endorsements--i.e. Colin Powell, etc.---- I think that this is just so, so great! And, in this weeks magazine, under "THE MAIL" there are some letters to The New Yorker commenting on their endorsement.
I thought that this one below was really important and moving, too, so I wanted to share it with those that might not have seen it, or even more important, for those who were either too young or to unaware to remember what it was like, 'back in the day'.....And how far we have come.This was written by a gentleman named GILBERT H. CALDWELL, from Asbury Park, New Jersey:

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You all know how much I like "close-ups"...and also, how much I love color, too. So, getting in close on these Cereus Flowers shows an incredible amount of variation of color.... These flowers open wide at night and stay open somewhat in the early part of the day....These flowers are a bit slower to close up than some other Night Blooming Cereus...... The delicacy and transparency of these petals is quite astounding....And yet, they have a solid feel to the touch.....I love the very white white of these petals but then when you take a closer look, there is a great variation....this kind of slight pinkness and tanness, and even a pale lavenderness..... And then, as you can see from the picture above, the outside protective leaves can be a dark red to magenta to reddish brown...to----in some cases, a shocking pink! And then...out of seemingly nowhere--there will be this yellow to green in the petals.....And of course, at the bottom of the flower is the green of the stem of the flower.... I love seeing those little stamens and pistols(?) there, right in the middle of the flower...... You can even see a little bit of purple that has crept in on the edges of those petals, as this bloom is closing up and dying, before our eyes......The cycle of life......But, what is left, after the flower completely dries up and gets ready to drop to the ground, is the beginning of the fruit that comes after..... And there above, you can see the flowers that have dried up and a couple of flowers that are still somewhat open, and two flowers that are still in the growing stage----not yet even quite recognizable as the flowers they will become....You might want to click on all of these to be able to see them bigger..... And above, those many green bulbous things are the not quite ripe fruits that develop and ripen within a few weeks after the flower dies and falls to the ground....These are the fruits that the Finches just love to chomp on.... The abundance of Flowers and Fruit each year is remarkable! I've tasted this fruit and it is absolutely delicious....! You can see the interior of the fruit in the picture above....It is a Beautiful Deep Shocking Pink.....! And so you can see what a beautiful flower starts all this---here below is one of these Cereus Flowers, one night when it was wide open! And below....a closer look at a really lush flower taken one night, this past summer.....So very delicate, and so very beautiful.....for one night, once a year....


More To Come......

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I kind of love this picture....Because Hummingbirds move so quickly, you cannot always get them in pure focus....and here, in this picture above, you can see the city (in pretty pure focus) right behind this sweet little guy.....And I love that you can see how close the city is to where these flowers were.... Here is another shot of this little guy....Better focus, I think....again, behind him now, is The Famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.....Isn't that just amazing? These beautiful sweet creatures are thriving so close to the center of Hollywood....! I love that we can just see a little bit of the iridescent green on his throat....And the light streaming through his little wings...... And look at that little bit of red there on his neck....And look at his eyes....I've never seen a Hummingbirds eyes quite like this before.....Oh, do click on these pictures to make them bigger....It is kind of thrilling to me to see this dear little bird close-up and in such detail......! He zipped around quite a bit...or should I say, he flitted about quite a bit....And just when I thought he was done......He would be back! And above, my favorite picture of this group....You can really see him drinking from that little tiny flower....Gee, he is such a pretty little sweetheart. These birds are so very endearing.....Sometimes I wish that one of them would just land on my shoulder and whisper sweet nothings in my ear as he takes a little rest-respite from all that zipping about. Now that, would really be something, wouldn't it? And then.....he finally went on his way.....Off to find some further sustenance on some other pretty little flowers wherever he finds them. And be assured, he does find them....Think about how he found these rather obscure flowers Waaaaay up here on my deck in a kind of isolated position....Hummingbirds sure know where all the good yummy stuff lives, don't they.....!




More To Come.........

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I may have posted this picture before----a long time ago...But, I think it is such a "period" setter because of the clothes....That is my brother Gordon, my sister Robin, my sister Gene, and then me, and that little puppy is "Snowball", our dog. He was a Samoyed, (Actually pronounced kind of like 'Samoyette', at least that is what we were told)....He was a very important member of our family who lived with us in Florida and Great Neck and on The Farm in Pennsylvania....Below is a little closer look at all of us in this picture...... This was about 1937.....which would make me 5 years old, going on 6 in June.....Gordon would be 7, going on 8, in September.....Robin, 14 going on 15---Also September, and Gene would have been 11 going on 12, in October---In fact, her Birthday is on Thursday......I love that both Robin and I have on these Neckerchiefs, though worn slightly differently....And Gene's dress is so very pretty.....Gordon was such a BEAUTIFUL little boy....sensitive and yet tough, too....And still is...lol! On second look, I don't think I do have a scarf around my neck..I think it is the collar of the sweater with some little tassels or something....! This picture above, was taken on the same day as that first photo...And I think this is a fascinating photograph......My mother and father are standing behind the two Grandmothers---Rose Bermen, who we called Maamaw, and Amelia Hirshhorn, Daddy's mother....This was taken just to the right side of the front door of the North Bay Road house.....I am looking off into 'dreamland'....wishing I were someplace else, maybe? Robin is looking somewhere else, too...But not the same place that I am....Oh, and see? Those little tassels hanging down? The little sweater did tie in the front......Then, this next picture giving us a closer look is interesting too..... "Jen The Hen", (Ma), is sort of looking down at the top of Gene's head...OR, maybe taking a quick glance at her mother and her MIL, who was a rather fierce looking woman...."Daddy Joe" (Daddy) is kind of just looking straight out, but he certainly doesn't seem comfortable to me....Gene looks rather pensive but relaxed, and the two Grandma's and Gordon...... Well....Maamaw's eyes have been diverted by something...And Gordon is looking straight into the camera...his mouth kind of set in this line...And Grandma Hirshhorn looks kind of scary and remote....which was how she always appeared to me. We actually hardly knew her, in a way. We spent very little time with her and she had never learned English, coming to this country when my father was quite young....like maybe two years old. She did speak Yiddish so my parents and Maamaw could talk to her quite fluently, but to the four of us, she just seemed a rather strange remote person who was not like a Grandma, the way Maamaw was....It is sad, too...Because my cousins who lived near her or with her in Jamaica, had a completely different relationship with her. They absolutely adored her and found her very warm....It is too bad we never really knew her or felt close to her. And in a way, it was partly my fathers fault.....We just never saw that much of her, except at Passover when we would spend the 2nd night at her house...Everything was in Hebrew--The Whole Ceremony--and frankly, it was very long and very very boring. Our Passovers in our house were wonderful! They were fun and serious too, and almost everything was in English so all of us participated and read from the Hagadoh.....Sometimes, it felt as if maybe we really weren't from the same family as Grandma Hirshhorn, at all. Yet, I know my father always took very good care of his mother, at least, financially. The picture above is of Maamaw and a gentleman friend who I do not recognize. They are posing outside the North Bay Road house....I love her outfit! The Hat, particularly....As Stephen Sondheim said in his song "Here's To The Ladies Who Lunch"...Does Anybody Still Wear A Hat?.....And dress up of an afternoon, unless it was a special occasion, which this certainly may have been.....And you can see the Wall behind with the door obscured by Maamaw and her gentleman friend. This was the wall that surrounded the front of the house, and gave us a lovely interior front lawn with lots of privacy, and the "real" front door to the house was deep behind that wall.....And, you can see that actual front door in this picture above. I love these little outfits that Gene and I are wearing---I remember mine as feeling very soft....I think we must have been dressed up for something special on this particular day, though what the occasion might have been I have no idea. I love Gordon's little short pants suit, too.....I think we all were pretty cute in this picture. Oh, and check out the shoes on each of us....It amazes me how blond I was the first 7 or so years of my life. Well, at least my hair looks blond in many of the pictures of that time. Blond and Straight..... Just a few doors down from our house on North Bay Road was this very posh Hotel....it was called The Nautilus Hotel. It was a very very big Hotel that had a huge following of people who would come down on their Yachts and dock them right there in Biscayne Bay and then stay in the Hotel. There was a wonderful Arcade on the ground floor with many beautiful shops....And one in particular, which we frequented often. Why, you ask? Well, to buy Chewing Gum and Candy and Magazines, which we did, all the time on a regular basis. I think my father would buy his daily New York Times and Herald Tribune there, too....It was wonderful to have a little shop like this so close that we could walk to it and get our Juicy Fruit fix, any time we wanted or needed....Oh, Bliss.......(lol) Our house was to the left there, where the postcard ends.....That little Island had the Pool and some Bungalow's on it, too.....And you can see just a few Yachts tied up in this Picture Postcard.....During the years we were there almost all of the slips would be filled with these enormous fancy Yacht's.....I had never seen anything quite like this place before or since, I might add....This was a Hotel that catered to the very rich Newport, R.I. set.....the Very White Anglo-Saxon set, and of course, it was Very Very "Restricted" at that time. After the War started....WW2, that is, The Nautilus Hotel became a much needed Hospital for wounded Veteran's coming back from the European Theatre of War. It never returned to it's former splendor as a Hotel. In fact, it never returned to being a Hotel at all. And as far as I know, it is still a Hospital, though not just for returning Veteran's.......A lot of water under the bridge since those years......





More To Come.......

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Judy, from IMAGINE, has inspired me, along with Dianne from FORKS OFF THE MOMENT to post some old "vintage" pictures, once again.....This is the summer of either 1941 or 1942....Camp Swatona in Pennsylvania.....I don't remember our bunk having that many girls but we did, because in actuality, it was divided into two sections....Those of us standing were the section to the left in the bunk! And, that is me, standing right next to our Counselor, Buddy.....way over there on the right.....The expression "Not A Happy Camper" is kind of perfect if you take a closer look at me....OY!I wonder whatever became of all those other 10 and 11 year olds? I actually used to know all their names 'back in the day'....but, I don't remember any of them now......I really hated Camp and I really was incredibly unhappy there. That was the year my parents had separated and we all were sent to camp that summer. It was only the second time I was ever in Summer Camp. The first time, I was Four Years Old! How stupid was that? Sleep away Camp for the entire Summer, at Four Years Old?? Talk about unhappy! I wet the bed! I don't know what my parents were thinking....All I know is, that that first summer camp experience pretty much traumatized me in certain ways that affected my whole life.....And it affected how I felt the second time I went to camp at Camp Swatona..... Here, above, is a picture from that first camp experience. This young man was a counselor, but I honestly couldn't tell you his name if my life depended on it....! And below, another picture from that first camp, Camp Merriwood. That is my dear brother Gordon next to me and another unknown counselor....I don't have a lot of memories of this camp, except that I had trouble sleeping and sometimes had bad dreams....I was scared of something and unhappy about being there. No wonder I wet the bed. And here above, Gordon and me and that same nice looking young man counselor from that first picture.....I never realized Gordon had such skinny legs....! I mean, look at the difference in our legs....Mine are kind of fleshy and chunky and his are as thin has sticks! (lol)...... This picture above was probably a year later, like 1936....And this was the backyard of the North Bay Road House in Miami Beach. I love seeing the wash hanging out on the line. Yup. That's the way we used to do it in the old days.....! Back then, my sister Gene and my brother Gordon and I, shared a bedroom in that Florida house. My oldest sister Robin, shared a room with MaaMaw, our dear Grandmother....... That is the back of the house on North Bay Road.....again, it's 1936, I believe. Here is a closer look at Maamaw and Robin....... One of the most wonderful things about Robin and Maamaw is that they both loved people unconditionally.....At least, that was my experience of each of them.....Maamaw died in 1970 when she was 99 and 1/3---outliving, her daughter---my mother---'Jen The Hen', by four years....(she was only 67 years old when she died.....) Maamaw's life was an amazingly long one. My dear sister Robin died in February of 2005. She would have turned 82 in September of that year. I miss them both, still, very very much. It's not that I think of them all the time...it's just that when I do, I so wish I could hug each of them, just one more time..... I have no idea what that funny face was all about, but there is dear dear Robin, accepting me no matter what I did....! Now that is the unconditional love showing from an older sister who hasn't forgotten what it is to be silly when you are eight years younger than her.......!

More To Come.......

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All good things come to those who wait, and wait, and wait......v-e-r-y patiently. But, Oh, seeing this Hummer close up was worth every minute of 'the waiting'....... The light was going the wrong way, so I had to do some 'lightening' up so this dear little sweetheart could be seen as I actually saw him..... He was really busy.....And I loved watching him do his thing. This is one of the Succulent Flowers Stalks that are now pretty much over..... And I just kept snapping away, as fast as I could.....You have to really stay alert cause as you know these beauty's move very very quickly.... I love this picture above because of where he is and what you can see of his body from this angle..... And I love seeing the light coming through his wings, in this picture above.....Hummingbirds are such amazing little birds and I never tire of seeing them and watching them.....In fact, it always feels like I have been given a great gift when I see one.....And capturing it with my camera....Well, that is the icing on the cake....!I have some more pictures of another dear Hummingbird from another day, supping from some of the same flowers.
Next time, my dears........

More To Come.......

Note: Do go over to Dianne, at Forks Off The Moment...She has a wonderfully important post about Women and The Vote, and her Nana...Click anywhere on this note and it should take you there.....

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Yesterday would have been my dear friend Hanna Hertelendy's 89th Birthday. 89! That is a lot of years. She died on May 15th, 2008, when she was just a little over 88 1/2 years old. I still find it hard to believe that she is gone. She was such a bright spirit. Such a talented and alive person. Such a loving and supportive friend, and so very much fun. Yes, she was a child in many ways and I mean childlike as well as childish, but that was a very endearing part of her to all that knew her and loved her.I first met Hanna in 1962. I had joined Theatre West in early October...there were maybe 30 members at that time. The only person I knew personally when I joined, was a wonderful actor/writer named John McLiam. In fact he is the one who invited me to join. One night about 6 weeks after I joined, 4 actors did about 40 minutes of something called "Spoon River Anthology". It was a stunning 40 minutes. The next thing I knew, I was asked to sing a song at the beginning of the show, and to help with a 'mailing' because "Spoon River" was going to be done as a project in our little Theatre for an invited audience. I was thrilled to be a part of this fabulous incredibly theatrical and professional group, and especially thrilled to be a part of that stunning 40 minutes, which became two hours and went to Broadway, with me in it and having written some original music for it, too!That first mailing get-together was held at Maxine Stuart's apartment in Westwood....(A fabulous actress, and a true 'original', Maxine turned 90 years old on June 28th this year.....) Maxine and Hanna were already great friends back then....So, Hanna was there, and of course, Maxine. That was the first time I actually met both of them....and it was just us three! And we had a wonderful time! We laughed a lot and got the mailing done and strong friendships with both these women began that day that continue to this day.....

Hanna was a very active member of the group back then, doing scenes all the time. Later, Carroll O'Connor wrote a one act play, just for her....But in the beginning, she also kept the books. (Members paid $20 a month dues, just to keep the lights on and the rent going in our little theatre on Robertson Blvd.) Hanna had actually found that little Theatre on Robertson. Being such a small group we didn't need much space back then.....Hanna had just turned 46 years old when I first met her.....She had recently separated from her then husband, Stephen Bekassey....an actor and a fellow Hungarian. Hanna had moved from their home in North Hollywood to an apartment on Sierra Bonita in Hollywood. That was the apartment she lived in all the years I knew her and in fact, that is where she was still living when she died!Birthdays were very very important to Hanna. Every one's Birthday, but, particularly her own Birthday. Over the years I spent many a Birthday Celebration with her---mine, hers, and other people's, too....Part of the fun of giving Hanna a present was her pure delight in anything and everything other people would do for her....This was part of the little child in her that took such joy in getting gifts and being taken to dinner, or being a part of any Celebration---whatever it was for.She worked, all through the years I knew her---in theatre and films and TV----up until the last four or five years of her life....She had been a huge Theatre star in Hungary....and though she never achieved that kind of stardom here in America...she was not bitter in any way and always lived 'in the present', looking forward to tomorrow. It was only in her last years that some of that changed, and understandably so....But, she still was never bitter, even to the end. Mostly, she became very fearful as her health declined----this woman who had lived through the Nazi's and then The Communists and who never seemed afraid of anything, became terribly fearful of just about everything. It was painful to see. And yet, she still never completely lost her sense of hope. Not until almost the very end. I know she enriched my life in ways that I cannot even measure, and I think anyone who knew her and loved her would say the very same thing....She brought much 'light' everywhere she went...whether in her work or her personal relationships. She was never at a loss for male companionship----she really kind of held every man in the palm of her hand, but never took advantage of that position in any way. Another reason men adored her!So, though she is no longer here, I could not let this day go by without acknowledging my dear departed friend! How I wish we could go out for dinner to a lovely beautiful restaurant---have a scrumptious meal and eat some chocolate truffles and laugh until our sides hurt. Happy Birthday, my dear dear Hanna, I know you are lighting up Heaven right now, as I write this, and, sad to say, the 'light' here on earth is just a little bit dimmer now that you are no longer with us. You are deeply deeply missed, my dear friend.




More To Come........

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Here is a series of pictures of one Rose.....One very beautiful Rose, from many different angles...... This Rose was a part of another beautiful arrangement by that great 'Artist of Flowers', Van, who's shop, The Conservatory is right down the hill from me...... Here above you can see a larger portion of the flowers surrounding that particular Rose....Van always uses such interesting flowers in such beautiful combinations.......The flowers are always truly 'fresh', as if he had been to the Flower Mart that morning.....and the Roses, in particular...Always perfection! And then, my very favorite of these closer looks..... I love this picture....! The petals are so incredibly beautiful.....The color of this particular Rose was striking in every way....Yes, it was Orange, but it had so much subtlety of color in, too....I thought it was an incredibly stunning Rose...... The way the petals fell in such an artful way....I've said this before, many times....You Cannot Beat Nature's Artistry.......And I must stay with Nature...For Balance, For Beauty, and For My Sanity....!



There will definitely be....

More To Come........

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