Friday, January 16, 2009
alphabet meme
For this 'Alphabet MEME' the letter "B" was assigned to me by Judy of Imagine.....She did this MEME over at her place and invited anyone who wanted to try it to let her know in the comments. I did! She had been assigned the letter "M" when sh e did this, now, she has assigned me, the letter "B"......The idea is you choose ten (10) words that have some meaning for you and write 'why' each one does, in some detail.....It sounded like fun to me and I thought I'd like to try it....So, here goes.....
BERRY
As with so very many English words, Berry has more than one meaning. There is 'the berry' that is edible, like Blueberry's, Strawberry's, Huckleberry's, etc....And in my case, the other meaning is actually the name of a very old friend, now gone.....named Warren Berry.
I have written quite extensively about The Farm in Pennsylvania----Huckleberry Hill Farm, where the whole hill was covered in Huckleberry's which we picked all summer long and sold to some neighboring summer resorts, then donating the money to charity........
That is me, way over on the left, and my dear sister Robin, who was five years older than me, way over on the right...I don't know who that was in the middle, but there we are, picking Huckleberry's right by the side of the house....This was around 1939-40.....
Above, my mother over on the left and a family friend, Hattie Grauer, picking Berry's, too. This was in the back, behind the house, but quite near, as you can see.....Whenever I hear the word Berry or think of it myself, it makes me think of The Farm and the good times we had there.And then it makes me think of Warren......
I don't believe I've written about Warren Berry, or if I have, you will have to forgive me for not remembering.......I met Warren in 1954 when he was longer dancing. The Berry Brothers were a fantastic Tap/Acrobatic Act all through the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's.....right up there with The Nicholas Brothers who were great great friends as well as rivals, sort of. Warren hurt his hip very badly in the late 40's early 50's....when the brothers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.....Watching that performance you would never suspect that Warren had hurt himself....
In the picture above, he was just a kid, as you can see...He is in the center......Here below is a WONDERFUL picture of him taken in Paris......
The Berry Brothers played all over the world and all over The United States, too....They made a few films back in the 1940's, which still play here and there from time to time---"YOU'RE MY EVERYTHING"(1949) with Dan Dailey....and in that picture, it was just Warren and James.....
I don't believe I've written about Warren Berry, or if I have, you will have to forgive me for not remembering.......I met Warren in 1954 when he was longer dancing. The Berry Brothers were a fantastic Tap/Acrobatic Act all through the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's.....right up there with The Nicholas Brothers who were great great friends as well as rivals, sort of. Warren hurt his hip very badly in the late 40's early 50's....when the brothers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.....Watching that performance you would never suspect that Warren had hurt himself....
In the picture above, he was just a kid, as you can see...He is in the center......Here below is a WONDERFUL picture of him taken in Paris......
The Berry Brothers played all over the world and all over The United States, too....They made a few films back in the 1940's, which still play here and there from time to time---"YOU'RE MY EVERYTHING"(1949) with Dan Dailey....and in that picture, it was just Warren and James.....I met Warren at VAMP Studio's, which I have written about a few times....He sang like a dream...And when I met him he was trying to get his singing career off the ground. It never happened and I will never know why.....He went on the be a Film Editor at Screen Gems in New York for fifteen years....He was one of the most interesting men I've ever known....
The picture above is of Warren, and my first 'important' grown-up boyfriend, Bob Markham, who I had met in 1953. (We were no longer dating here...Just good friends...) The picture was taken in the garden of my mother's house on my Birthday in 1966, not quite three months after she died....Warren called my mother 'The General'....lol....
The picture above is at that same Birthday gathering in 1966......
All through the mid-to late 1950's Warren spent a lot of time visiting with me in Great Neck.....Later, after I moved to California, Warren would drive out from New York every two years or so and we spent a lot of time together then, too....Warren would never fly because one year when The Berry Brothers had been booked into a big theatre/club in Brazil, they were late for the plane, and they missed it. That plane crashed and everyone perished....He never flew again.
In 1975, Warren came on out to Los Angeles once again, driving "The Princess"...that's what he called his car...(The picture above was not his actual car, but his looked pretty much like this one only his was no longer new....)....And in 1975 he actually stayed with me for five months. He was writing at that time and if I recall correctly, by the time he died in 1996, he had written 4 or 5 full screenplays....He also took fabulous photographs....
When I was getting ready to go back to work as an actress in TV, he took some really stunning pictures of me, outdoors, right across the street from my house, known as 'Head Shots'! Over the years, Warren would criss-cross back and forth between New York and Los Angeles.....Often he stayed with friends, like Fayard and Barbara Nichols. And always, we spent some wonderful times together...He was fun and bright and very very smart! Eventually he settled down here in Los Angeles, and he was at my 60th Birthday sitting right next to me, as you can see below...(On the left, my neice Debbie, my sister Robin's daughter....My sister Gene next to her, then, a High School friend, Jane Ann Smith, and then Warren....my brother took this picture and he was sitting on the other side of me, though standing up at the time to get this picture......there were a good 80 people at that wonderful party......)
A few weeks after that Birthday Celebration, Warren had a stroke....His health was never ever really the same after that, and, as happens, more physical problems descended on him as time went on....But he was game. 
And though he couldn't drive any more or use his beloved "Green Machine", (the Princess having bit the dust some years before.....one too many trips across the country.....), He had an electric scooter type thingy and he would get everywhere he needed to go on that---His Doctors, The Movies, The Market etc.
The picture above is of Warren, and my first 'important' grown-up boyfriend, Bob Markham, who I had met in 1953. (We were no longer dating here...Just good friends...) The picture was taken in the garden of my mother's house on my Birthday in 1966, not quite three months after she died....Warren called my mother 'The General'....lol....
The picture above is at that same Birthday gathering in 1966......All through the mid-to late 1950's Warren spent a lot of time visiting with me in Great Neck.....Later, after I moved to California, Warren would drive out from New York every two years or so and we spent a lot of time together then, too....Warren would never fly because one year when The Berry Brothers had been booked into a big theatre/club in Brazil, they were late for the plane, and they missed it. That plane crashed and everyone perished....He never flew again.
In 1975, Warren came on out to Los Angeles once again, driving "The Princess"...that's what he called his car...(The picture above was not his actual car, but his looked pretty much like this one only his was no longer new....)....And in 1975 he actually stayed with me for five months. He was writing at that time and if I recall correctly, by the time he died in 1996, he had written 4 or 5 full screenplays....He also took fabulous photographs....
When I was getting ready to go back to work as an actress in TV, he took some really stunning pictures of me, outdoors, right across the street from my house, known as 'Head Shots'! Over the years, Warren would criss-cross back and forth between New York and Los Angeles.....Often he stayed with friends, like Fayard and Barbara Nichols. And always, we spent some wonderful times together...He was fun and bright and very very smart! Eventually he settled down here in Los Angeles, and he was at my 60th Birthday sitting right next to me, as you can see below...(On the left, my neice Debbie, my sister Robin's daughter....My sister Gene next to her, then, a High School friend, Jane Ann Smith, and then Warren....my brother took this picture and he was sitting on the other side of me, though standing up at the time to get this picture......there were a good 80 people at that wonderful party......)
A few weeks after that Birthday Celebration, Warren had a stroke....His health was never ever really the same after that, and, as happens, more physical problems descended on him as time went on....But he was game. 
And though he couldn't drive any more or use his beloved "Green Machine", (the Princess having bit the dust some years before.....one too many trips across the country.....), He had an electric scooter type thingy and he would get everywhere he needed to go on that---His Doctors, The Movies, The Market etc.Warren died in August of 1996, and up until that time I never really knew how old he was....(He was born in 1922).We used to joke about it and he always pretended he was quite a bit younger than me...wink, wink....He was so very talented and so much fun! 
I still miss spending time with Warren and listening to his fantastic singing and listening to his fine mind working through all sorts of things...."Empirical Evidence"...that was one of his favorite expressions when defending a position of his......What you are about to see is not empirical. It is fact-on-film...and here is the video to prove it......It's a little video of the brothers doing their "act" in the film "PANAMA HATTIE"..or maybe it was "LADY BE GOOD".....They were really something.....
I still miss spending time with Warren and listening to his fantastic singing and listening to his fine mind working through all sorts of things...."Empirical Evidence"...that was one of his favorite expressions when defending a position of his......What you are about to see is not empirical. It is fact-on-film...and here is the video to prove it......It's a little video of the brothers doing their "act" in the film "PANAMA HATTIE"..or maybe it was "LADY BE GOOD".....They were really something.....
Warren's ashes are buried in my garden, down below.....It is nice to know he is here still with me in this way.......
More To Come.......
Note: I had no idea when I started this post that I would write so much about Warren...So, the other 9 'words' will have to be covered in my next post...or, my next 9 posts....lol.....depending.......
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:35:00 AM
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
plumbing problems
I have a major plumbing problem.....The Pipe, going from my house to the City Sewer Pipes down the hill....is a crapped up mess and has to be replaced.....OY!
This means that 65 feet of pipe needs to be replaced...Yes....you read that right....6-5 feet......It is going to take five guys and two days to do this....starting this morning at 8AM......Ugh!
I am not looking forward to this, but...It has to be done. The old Pipe is so broken apart that sewage is leaking and seeping into the soil.....Ugh, Ugh....This is not good at all.....
And that is putting it mildly.....! So, though I will need some bail-out money from the government to pay for this enormous project....it has to be done and I know I will rest a lot easier once it is completed, Hopefully, As promised, at the end of the day on Thursday.....
Actually, I happen to like my Plumber very much....He is a good man....He is thorough and does very very neat work....And he cleans up after he is finished so that you don't even know he has been there, and yet, the problem---whatever it may be---is fixed!.....I just hope they do not have to disturb any of my beautiful plants in my garden, going down my hill....
Ahhhhh, the beauty of home-ownership......But, it comes with the territory, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world......Stay Tuned........!
More To Come.......
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 2:00:00 AM
Monday, January 12, 2009
birthdays
Today is Madison Clair Parks' Birthday. She turns 13 years old, today....Quite a milestone, isn't it, that day we go into our teens.....? In the picture above Maddy is with her dear Grandma, Betty Garrett Parks.....I took this picture on New Years Eve, as we began 2007.....so it is two years old, but....it shows you everything that Maddy is in a glorious way......And here below is Maddy, as she looked almost 13 years ago.......
As you can see, this picture has food spots on it---it is because it is a picture if a picture that has been up on one of my kitchen cabinets for many years....I never wanted to even try to wash off the spots because I was afraid it would destroy the picture.....This sweet little baby has become such a very very sweet 13 year old....Bright, funny, imaginative, creative and interested in everything......Here below is another picture of Maddy with me, taken not quite 18 months after her birth....
I love this picture! It too, is up on one of the cabinets in my kitchen....Not quite as much food is visible on this picture of the picture. It was a 'print out' on regular paper given to me by Maddy's parents.....The night this was taken, the four of us had been to dinner up at a restaurant we all liked very much, Mulholland Grill.....in The Beverly Glen Shopping Center at the top of Beverly Glen Blvd. Maddy was only 6 weeks old when she had her first Restaurant experience....So, she was fine with Mulholland Grill.....This picture was taken outside while walking around this pretty little shopping area.....
It just so happens that January 12th is my mothers Birthday, too.....I think it is one of the reasons I never forget Maddy's Birth date.....What a sad sad little face in that picture above.....Heartbreaking, really.....She was around two or three years old in that picture......
A little happier times in the picture above....this was taken around 1920-1921......I think it was the year my parents were married....or just before....
Backstage after a performance of "Spoon River Anthology"....We had moved to The Belasco Theatre on 44th street by this time, and my mother had just been through a Mastectomy and was getting radiation treatments---but she came to see the show, anyway. I am still in my stage-make-up because it was between the matinee and evening performance......this was around Christmas of 1963....
And the above picture was taken in January, just about three months before my mother died on April 2, 1966.....You don't forget those dates either.....But my very favorite picture of my mother is this one below.....She looks so very beautiful, I think......
Amazing to think that my mother would have turned 110 years old today....Of course the chances of that happening, even if she had been in perfect health for her entire life, were slim, slim, slim to none......But, it is her Birthday today, and it always will be.
And above....a picture of 'Maamaw'....my Grandmother....And in fact, my mother's mother. This was taken in Florida sometime in the 1940's.....She was an amazing woman who lived to be 99 1/3.....!It was her Birthday, yesterday, January 11th.....her 138th Birthday....! She died in 1970. So, you do the math---She was born in 1871.....Maamaw came to this country, alone, from Lithuania when she was 13 years old, traveling in Steerage, and that trip took a whole month! Somewhere in that time she lost this letter of introduction that she had to some people in Detroit. So, she did not go to Detroit but remained in New York City. How brave was that? She didn't know a soul, but, somehow she managed to survive.....And one would have to say, I guess, that she more than survived....Thrived, would give the wrong impression. She was never a woman of means, but she worked very very hard and after her husband died when he was 45 years old, she managed to earn a living and feed two children---a pretty great accomplishment in those days for a woman alone.......
So, I wish my 'Maamaw' a Happy Birthday and my 'Ma' a Happy Birthday, too......and dear Madison Clair Parks, the Happiest of Birthdays possible, as she begins those amazing years known as the "teens".....!
More To Come.........
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:38:00 AM
Thursday, January 08, 2009
cabbage beauty
I got some flowers for New Years Eve, and as always, Van, of "The Conservatory", outdid himself.....He used all sorts of beautiful flowers including the above 'cabbage' flower....I absolutely love the colors in this, more than I can say......
The combination of colors, just knocks me out....the Lavender/Purple/Shocking Pink.....The Green edges.....The pale almost white...And those beautiful veins.....Oh My..........!
A closer look at those veins in the above picture.....and then that little touch of green on the edges of the leaves.....I mean.....nature, nature, nature.....the color palette variety is endlessly surprising and so very stunning.......
Above, another slightly different view of those lovely green edges and the lavender petals.....I find this particular Cabbage Flower utterly fascinating....! And it's because of the shape as well as the colors....
And above.....another view, yet again.....I can never ever get tired of this flower.......it is never ever boring to look at, and in fact, I could just stare it it and study it, for hours and hours and hours......
And no matter where you look---from whatever angle---you see something different and you see something 'more'.....This is such a lush flower---so sensual in every way.....
Droolingly beautiful---Mouth-Wateringly Beautiful.....I mean, it just looks so damn b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l....It looks good enough to eat, but....this 'art' is not for eating. But it is for savoring with all your other senses, though......Oh, My!
And above, more of that fabulous contrast of the greens and the lavenders....And there is something about those veins that I find extremely fascinating....Also the abstractness of the green just kind of looking like it has spilled every which way over those edges in this seemingly haphazardly poured manner, as if poured from a paint can or as if the petals were slowly dipped into a container of paint and gently swished around. It is completely 'perfect' in it's abstractness.....
This was just one flower in the arrangement---there were two Cabbage-types, this one and the other being more towards a cream color with green edges.....And, of course, there were many other flowers that were stunning in their simple natural beauty, too, (which I will be showing as we go along....)....But this was the one that I personally resonated to in a big big way.....And here below, a somewhat closer look at the perfection of it all.........
In truth, there really are no words...........More To Come.........
| posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 11:17:00 AM
Monday, January 05, 2009
lana
This is a fantastic book! If you are a "fan" of Lana Turner, this is the book for you. Written by her daughter Cheryl Crane and a young woman named Cindy De La Hoz, and with Photographs from the Lou Valentino Collection, this is a 400 page Table-Top-Type book that is the most definitive compilation of images and text I've ever seen of this True MGM Glamour Queen. Lana Turner was to me, the epitome of MGM.....She was among the top Stars during the 1940's and early 50's.....A very stunning woman who's career and private life were chronicled in detail, by all the then Movie Magazines of the day, and every other magazine, too.....Life, Look, Etc., Etc......
The thing about Lana Turner was not so much that she was a great great actress, though she certainly turned in some very fine performances over the years.....It was her charisma as a woman. Her great Beauty. Her "appeal" was connected to her looks, of course, but there was a kind of vulnerability about her that came through in spite of her great looks....And I think that quality endeared her to women, as well as men.
She seemed to live a life that any woman would envy....She was linked romantically to almost every major star during that period....The pictures of her with Tyrone Power that are in the book just make your mouth water with envy....! Two more BEAUTIFUL people have never been seen together before or since.....
According to her daughter Cheryl Crane, Power was the love of Lana's life and was also, the 'man that got away'.....Of course, there were plenty of other men as well. She married seven times! (Cheryl's father was Steve Crane, whom she actually married twice....pictured here to the left.....) There was Artie Shaw, and Bob Topping and the actor Lex Barker, who it turned out sexually abused young Cheryl and then there was Fred May, and Bob Eaton, and one more who's name I cannot remember and the last two were very short lived marriages......And, later in life, when referring to all these marriages, she said of the last two husbands something like this: That these marriages should be completely discounted though number seven could certainly charm the birds off the trees as well as any woman alive...and she then said..."But so could a snake!"
The most notorious period of her life came on Good Friday of 1958 when her then "boyfriend" Johnny Stompanato---a mob guy, so they say----was threatening her life for the umpteenth time...(He had beaten her up so badly a number of times, that she had to try to hide the bruises on her face with make-up.....)....This was happening in the home on Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills that she and her daughter Cheryl, who was 14 years old at the time, had just moved into a few days before......Cheryl could hear them fighting and got terribly frightened when she heard Stompanato threaten to kill her mother and to kill Lana's mother too, (Cheryl's "Gran",) and then when he said, "And I'll get your daughter, too.....", Cheryl ran downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a knife and then quickly came back upstairs to her mothers bedroom door....When her mother finally opened the door to her bedroom, Cheryl saw Stompanato with his arm raised as if he was going to hurt her mother....he came towards Cheryl and she stabbed him in the stomach with the knife she was holding, actually killing Johnny Stompanato......
Needless to say....this was a horrendous time in their lives and a veritable feast for the then rather, at-that-time, tame Tabloids and the regular papers, too....The most High Powered lawyer in Hollywood at that time was a man named Jerry Geisler...he was called, as were the police. Cheryl spent that night in The Beverly Hills Jail. On Easter Sunday, she was taken to Juvenile Hall, in downtown Los Angeles, where she was subjected to "intake", as was her mother, Lana Turner. (As a side note, my sister was, at that time, a Juvenile Probation Officer for the County Of Los Angeles, and just happened to be on duty that day. It was she, who conducted the "intake" interviews of Cheryl and her mother......)
The arraignment was held fairly quickly and it was determined that this had been Justifiable Homicide.....The papers had a field day, especially when Lana Turner testified in court......And, the outcome was that daughter Cheryl was released after the trial. 
Though the courts then decided in a special custody hearing that it was better for Cheryl to live with her grandmother, and that is what happened.....Eventually Cheryl was sent to a reform school for a period of time because she had some other run-ins with the police following this horrific period....But, that was the end of her problems with the "authorities", and as the years went on, she became very very close to her mother, once again......
Lana's career was at a stand still after this terrible life altering scandal. And then, the wonderful Producer Ross Hunter, a true 'gentleman' if ever there was one, came to Lana Turner's rescue with a film offer that was so fantastic Lana couldn't say "no". It was the remake of "Imitation Of Life", and among many of the perks that Ross offered Lana, there was the one big perk that clinched the deal....He offered her 50% of the profits---an unusual 'deal' back then! 
"Imitation Of Life" was a huge huge success, and then other films followed that, which were very successful too.....Of course, MGM was over and The Studio System was over....And though Lana Turner continued to work in films and theatre....that "golden" period of the 1940's was long gone. But, Lana Turner was never ever forgotten.....She still held this special place in the hearts of her fans.....And until the day she died she was "A STAR" in the truest sense of what that once meant 'back in the day'......
For those too young to remember her or even wonder who and what she was, I recommend a couple of her films. "Ziegfeld Girl"(1941)....what a wonderful magnificent MGM Extravaganza----This was truly a gem, and all the Musical Numbers were staged by that master, Busby Berkley....The cast: Lana, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Jimmy Stewart, Jackie Cooper, among others, and the great Tony Martin singing what would become Lana Turner's signature song..."You Stepped Out Of A Dream"...a Beautiful Beautiful song....and in the context of the film...an extremely "important" one for Lana Turner's character......
"The Postman Always Rings Twice"(1946)...the first time round...with the beautiful Lana Turner, wearing mostly 'white' throughout the entire film....and the very great GREAT and incredibly talented and utterly handsomely sexy John Garfield.....This was a hot hot film and quite daring for it's time. These two sizzled and made you believe they could not NOT touch each other and this was before sex scenes became so very graphic in the late 60's and early 70's.....
And Last..........
"The Bad And The Beautiful"(1953)....what a cast in this one. Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Barry Sullivan, Dick Powell, Walter Pidgeon and Gloria Grahame, who won the Academy Award that year for Best Supporting Actress....This is one of the Best films ever made about The Film Business, and it won 5 Academy Awards that year, including Best Screenplay....and it had this gorgeous lush musical score by David Raksin....And, for me, this was Lana Turners best performance of her entire career....!
There are a lot of other films....I mean, a lot! "Honky Tonk" with Clark Gable and later..."Homecoming" with Gable, again.....Too many films to mention....But if you buy this really fantastic Coffee-Table book, which, by the way, is incredibly reasonably priced on Amazon for a book of this type....it is less than $24. You will learn a great deal about Lana Turner that has not been written about in quite this way and from this unique point of view before.....And, there are more photographs in this book than any book I have ever seen.....It is a Treasure Trove. And every one of Lana's films are listed...the only thing missing are the 'years' those films were made......But I forgive them that, because everything else about this book is quite amazing.
I admire Cheryl Crane a lot! She did not have an easy row to hoe with a mother who was probably the biggest movie star ever...and who was so very much involved with her own career and herself, making Cheryl a kind of after-thought. Cheryl Crane has led an exemplary life and has been in a committed relationship for many many years----35 or more....That in itself is pretty amazing considering her mother was married eight times---twice to the same man---Cheryl's father, and then there were many many men, in between. Cheryl Crane wrote her autobiography, ("Detour") quite a few years ago....and Lana Turner wrote hers, too....
But this book....this beautiful and amazing book is a true love letter to the memory of a woman who was not only her mother, but who was also a movie star who touched so very many many people when 'the movies' were "THE MOVIES"....and when A Star...was "A STAR"...As I said, Lana Turner remained a 'star' until her death on June 29th, 1995, even appearing on Television as a regular on the night-time soap, "Falcon's Crest"......
Here below is a wonderul clip from "Ziegfeld Girl", with Tony Martin singing that fabulous signiture song, "You Stepped Out Of A Dream", to all the "Ziegfeld Girls", including Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner, of course, as they came floating down the staircase in time with the music and all looking stunning, to say the least....Lana Turner was truly gorgeous in this film.....Do Enjoy!More To Come..........
Note: A few days ago, I read that the very talented actor Bernie Hamilton died. He was 80 years old. Back in 1962, I produced The West Coast Premiere of a play by Michael Shurtleff, at the Coronet Theatre here in Los Angeles, called "CALL ME BY MY RIGHTFUL NAME"....This was a memorable period for me.....
The three leads in the play were played by George Brenlin, Mitzi Hoag and Bernie Hamilton.....Bernie's career had many true highlights, and here below, I will name just two: He starred in a very very special film in 1964 called "One Potato, Two Potato", with the wonderful actress, Barbara Barrie.....and second, the television series that he was Best known for, "Starsky & Hutch"......
R.I.P., dear Bernie........ | posted by OldLady Of The Hills at 12:08:00 AM
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