Author: Steve Crum

Worth 1,000 Words for VETERANS DAY: KATE SMITH

November 11, 2009

KATE SMITH [May 1, 1907-June 17, 1986] will be forever remembered for singing one song, a super patriotic one, Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. Not that she never sang any other song, not by a long shot. But of the 600+ songs she introduced on stage, radio, records and television, it is God Bless America that endures. Twenty of her records sold over a million, including GBA, There Goes That Song Again, The White Cliffs of Dover, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, and When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain (her theme song). Her popular radio program, The Kate Smith Hour, launched the career of Abbott & Costello. In 1982, The First Lady of Popular Song received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan. It was for a lifetime of service to the United States of America, particularly during World War II, when the great Kate used her singing, talking and spirit to sell $600 million in Defense Bonds. That is a huge amount now, but thinking of it in 1940’s reference is overwhelmingly awesome. Thanks to the impact of Kate Smith, there have been serious proposals to replace The Star Spangled Banner with God Bless America as our National Anthem.
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IN THIS RARELY SEEN press photo, Kate signs autographs for admiring soldiers on leave during WWII. No doubt each of them knew the lyrics to God Bless America by heart. [from Steve Crum’s showbiz memorabilia collection]
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Worth 1,000 Words for VETERANS DAY: DANNY KAYE

November 10, 2009


WHEN UP IN ARMS was released in 1944, WWII was still a grim reality. UP IN ARMS provided musical-comedy entertainment laced with wartime patriotism, and featured Danny Kaye in his first starring role as a hypochondriac drafted into the Army. He sang (or is the better word performed?) The Lobby Number and Melody in 4F. This vintage still features most of the film’s stars: (From left) CONSTANCE DOWLING, DINAH SHORE, DANA ANDREWS, DANNY KAYE, and LYLE TALBOT. [from Steve Crum’s showbiz memorabilia collection]

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In Honor of VETERANS DAY 2009…

November 9, 2009


PLEASE LET WWII & KOREAN WAR VETERANS KNOW ABOUT THIS WORTHY PROJECT.

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Just weeks before he died, Al Jolson gave his all for our Korean War servicemen and women.
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STARSTRUCK/Duke Ellington plays Ft. Polk

November 8, 2009

 

By Steve Crum
 
On October 20 of 1970, my decision was immediate. No deciding, really, it was a given. Duke Ellington and his orchestra were presenting a free concert at our Fort Polk (as in Louisiana) post theater, and I was going. No way would I miss this opportunity to see a music legend. At that point in my two-year military stint, I was by then Specialist 4th Class Crum, having been drafted into the U.S. Army in January.
 
I went to the theater alone, since no one I knew in the barracks was into Ellington, big band, or any kind of music outside The Beatles and Woodstock. Evidently a majority of the entire base had a disinterest in or total lack of knowledge about Duke Ellington, since there were few in the audience–embarrassingly few. Out of the approx. 500 seats, maybe 50 were occupied. I squirmed out of uneasiness. When the curtains parted, and the band began playing, I sank in my seat. Maybe late comers by the hundred would finally arrive and fill the emptiness. But it never happened. On stage, Duke Ellington seemed to care less. He and his band played a 90-minute concert like it was to a standing room only audience.
 
There were his solid hits Take the “A” Train, Mood Indigo, Sophisticated Lady, Caravan, and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got the Swing). His recently published New Orleans Suite was included. Maybe he considered this Ft. Polk gig a rehearsal or warm-up to his European tour, which would begin a couple of weeks later. No doubt The Duke felt a patriotic affinity to entertain us troops, many of whom had returned from or were heading out to Vietnam. The year before, in 1969, he had received The Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Nixon.
 
DUKE ELLINGTON, born Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington [April 29, 1899-May 24, 1974] was a composer, pianist, and big band leader whose influential “American music” (the reference to his music he preferred over “jazz”), continues to be loved and performed throughout the world today. He was accompanied at the Ft. Polk concert by his son, Mercer. Mercer also fronted the band during most of the numbers as his father played piano. Mercer would take over full conducting duties after his father’s death four years later, which he continued doing until his own passing in 1996.
 

Duke performed in every medium of his day, including radio, records, TV, stage and motion pictures, sometimes solo at the piano, but usually with his orchestra. He composed two great film scores, Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Paris Blues (1961). Toward the end of his life, he wrote and conducted his somewhat controversial Sacred Concerts. As the title implies, they were religiously themed, and not widely heard–even to this day.

 
I recall Duke Ellington’s polite voice welcoming us as audience members from that Polk stage, his wide and warm smile, and the wonderful, genius-driven, Ellington music he and his orchestra played for us. What those hundreds of absent soldiers missed!
 
On his deathbed, it is reported that Duke Ellington’s last words were: “Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.”
 
How I remember you and your smooth, sophisticated sounds, Duke.
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No humbug about it, ‘Disney’s A Christmas Carol’ is fun Carrey-fest

November 6, 2009

By Steve Crum
 
How can you appreciate it when an entire movie is a spoiler unto itself? That is the dilemma of Disney’s A Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens’ holiday chestnut. Tis a chestnut that’s been roasted on the 17 versions I’ve seen via film, TV and stage. Spoilers? Nope, the whole movie is deja vu. Most of us know the beginning, middle, and uplifting end. However, the hook this time is a trifecta: 3-D, digital imagery, and Jim Carrey. That hook makes this Christmas Carol worth seeing.
 
If possible, see it in either IMAX 3-D or conventional 3-D. However, you won’t miss the movie’s charm and cleverness just seeing it in flat 2-D. Carol is at various theaters in all three formats. If you do not catch a 3-D version, you will miss the repeated effect of snowflakes falling over the audience. Another in-your-face 3-D’er is the ghost of Jacob Marley’s spittle. Try not reaching for a tissue to wipe your face as he spews. Also, there is a great tracking shot, opening sequence over the rooftops of old London which is enhanced by 3-D.
 

Soon we are introduced to the story’s central character, Ebeneezer Scrooge, perfectly realized by Jim Carrey. Director-Writer Robert Zemeckis again morphs his actors via “motion capture,” a process he successfully used in The Polar Express (2004). Actors are first filmed performing their lines, and then “skinned” as their bodies are digitally transformed into cartoon-like visuals. Skeptics of The Polar Express criticized its characters’ lifeless eyes; they appear more lifelike in A Christmas Carol.

 
Zemeckis reportedly looked forward to making Carol, essentially a time-travel movie, having scored big time with his time trilogy, Back to the Future.
 
Casting Carrey as Scrooge is anything but a humbug. Rather, Carrey brilliantly handles skinflint Scrooge (at five ages, no less) plus the three Christmas ghosts: Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come. That means Carrey literally dominates key scenes that involve Scrooge being visited by each ghost. He uses his body language and voice tricks to play off of himself to credible effect. Four separate actors could not have done better. It is a testament to Carrey’s talent as well as Zemeckis’ vision.
 

Before this review is whisked away by the movie history ghost, here is the plot synopsis for the three out of 50 million who have neither seen any stage, TV or film version nor read Dickens’ story: In 19th Century London, old Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the specter of his late partner, Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman), who warns Scrooge that due to his miserly ways and bad temperament, he will be visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. Earlier that day, Scrooge had again shown his hateful attitude toward his employee, Bob Cratchit (Oldman, in another role), his nephew Fred (Colin Firth), and two charity collectors. As Scrooge is physically taken to his past, present and dim future by each spirit, he secretly observes the Cratchit Family’s poverty along with the extreme needs of the young, crippled Tiny Tim (Oldman, voicing even again), and the disdain others have for him due to his heartlessness. This includes his one love, Belle (Robin Wright Penn). In the end, Scrooge is transformed, and at last shows–and feels–good tidings for his fellow man.

 
A Disney touch is to make the Ghost of Christmas Past as a lit candle, coincidentally (?) resembling the Lumiere candle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The ghost candle’s dunce-like cap is what Scrooge is riding on in the movie poster ads. To keep Disney’s A Christmas Carol looking Disneyish, there is also a horse from hell featured during the Christmas Yet-to-Come portion that resembles the nag from the key scene in Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
 
Thankfully, Mickey and Goofy are absent in A Christmas Carol, even though Jim Carrey could easily have channeled them.
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On an A to F Grade Scale: A-
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