Crum on Showbiz

By Steve Crum

Film scores have been a passion of mine since my youth. In those early days before DVD, CD, cassette, iTunes, Netflix, Laser Disc, VHS, Beta, and even 8-track, the only way to ‘bring home’ a favorite movie was via its movie soundtrack music on LP aka 33-1/3 rpm. This was also known as a long playing record, young ones. [Perhaps this piece should begin with ‘Once upon a time…’] My record album collection of movie scores and soundtracks once numbered at nearly 400. I loved movies big time. Still do. A few of my friends in those bygone days spent a lot more than I did by collecting their favorite movies on 16mm film. But that is another story. Here’s your Crummy Trivia regarding classic movie composers:

Answer: ALFRED NEWMAN [1901-70]. His name invariably gets a titter from those who think of the moronic mascot of Mad Magazine, Alfred E. Neuman. Composer Newman was a prolific and brilliant musician who is most associated with 20th Century Fox where he wrote hundreds of film scores over several decades. His last score was 1970’s Airport. Newman is the uncle of pop composer-performer Randy Newman, and brother of Lionel Newman, a composer and conducter in his own right. It doesn’t end there. His other brother Emil, as well as children Thomas, Marie, David, and Grand Nephew Joey [all Newmans] are composers!

Following Michael Jackson’s recent death, many tributes noted his dance expertise. Among a handful of all-time great dancers who preceded Michael is Donald O’Connor. When O’Connor died six years ago, I wrote a loving tribute to him in The Kansas City Kansan newspaper, reprinted below. O’Connor could act, sing and tell jokes for sure, but it was dancing that made him special.

Think about the most famous dance number in movie history, and Gene Kelly’s splashy Singin’ in the Rain from the musical of like title is immediately visualized. The next most known movie dance number? Certainly Fred Astaire, arguably film’s greatest dancer, had dozens of brilliant set pieces.

Film critic Roger Ebert recently wrote of O’Connor’s appearance earlier this year at a University of Illinois showing of Singin’ in the Rain. No surprise that Make ‘Em Laugh still astounded and entertained. A young girl asked O’Connor how he ran up that wall. His deadpan reply: “Experience.” O’Connor spent three days in bed recuperating after the sequence was filmed. Fellow cast member Debbie Reynolds said he was undoubtedly covered in bruises.

Like his vaudevillian parents, Donald O’Connor was always the show-must-go-on trouper. He considered himself a song and dance man throughout his career despite numerous awards and star status. Among those awards was an Emmy back in TV’s truly goldie-oldie days for his star stint on 1954’s Colgate Comedy Hour. That is primarily the reason for his two Hollywood Walk of Fame stars: TV and motion pictures. Although O’Connor danced, sang, and acted on TV through 1983 in guest spots on Frasier, Murder She Wrote and others, he is best showcased in movies. Singin’ in the Rain brought him the Golden Globe as Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical-Comedy, beating out Gene Kelly. Other career highlights include an 11 year-old Donald singing Small Fry with Bing Crosby in 1937’s Sing You Sinners, and the next year portraying Gary Cooper’s title character as a child in Beau Geste.

By Steve Crum

At this writing, it is unknown exactly where Michael Jackson will be buried. Or entombed. If he is taken, at least temporarily, to one of the Forest Lawn Cemeteries (there are several in the funeral franchise), it will likely be (rumor alert) either the Forest Lawn Glendale or Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. (Could be that Michael will eventually be entombed at Neverland, which would become a West Coast Graceland. Again, speculation.)

 

Both FL Glendale and Hollywood Hills are known for the stars buried there. Like the dozen or so other Forest Lawns, the cemetery plays to the public, aka tourists. Hey, it’s a business. Group celebrations, meetings and picnics are encouraged (see their websites), and art exhibits and tours occur throughout the year. Yet there is a definite decorum and respect inherent. Photographing celebrity graves and tombs is prohibited, and some stars’ resting places are hidden from public view.

When my family toured Forest Lawn Glendale some 40 years ago, I was impressed with the grandiose statues and fountains. There was an exhibit of a football field-sized The Last Supper painting (reproduction), stretching across the wall of a huge exhibition hall. It might have depicted Christ’s crucifixion. I cannot recall.

 

At that time, I did not know most of the classic movie stars resting there. But my mother noted W.C. Fields’ impressive crypt.

 

What I do remember very well is the Forest Lawn coloring book I bought in the gift shop. In it, one could lay crayons to the sculpture and buildings peppering the deep green landscape. (Green was a dominant color in this book.) The cover foretold the fun inside: two children, hand in hand, walk through Forest Lawn’s open gate. Ah, family values. Four decades later, who knows if any of the Forest Lawns even has a gift shop.

 

The Glenwood Forest Lawn is occupied by grave sites of the following celebs: George Burns & Gracie Allen, Theda Bara, Humphrey Bogart, Nat King Cole, Sam Cooke, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Walt Disney, Buddy Ebsen, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, James Stewart, David O. Selznick, Mary Pickford, Red Skelton, Carole Lombard, Chico Marx, Clayton Moore, and Spencer Tracy. And many others.

 

Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, however, has its own marquee: Gene Autry, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Gabby Hayes, Telly Savalas, John Ritter, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, Liberace, Ricky Nelson, and more.

 

Interesting that the great showman/pianist Liberace was featured as a funeral director in 1965’s dark comedy, The Loved One, which lampooned elaborate funerals and Forest Lawn in particular.

 

Seriously, may Michael Jackson rest in true peace on his body’s journey.

By Steve Crum

CECIL B. DEMILLE [1881-1959], the great director, producer, host of radio’s Lux Radio Theater and screenwriter, is generally considered the man who made Hollywood the film capital of the world. Although he is identified with movie spectacles like The Greatest Show on Earth, The Ten Commandments and Union Pacific, DeMille began as a Broadway actor in 1900.