Notable Passing, 2013, H-L

This group of obits runs the gamut from a former stripper to the greatest actress of her generation (Julie Harris) to one of my favorite comic book artists to Trixie Norton (who was also a former stripper). Jane Kean played Trixie of "The Honeymooners" when Jackie Gleason recast the wives of Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton with musical actresses so he could incorporate elaborate production numbers and comedy songs; Sheila MacRae was the new Alice. We would watch the Gleason show every Saturday night. It used to come on right after "Sea Hunt" with Lloyd Bridges ("By now my lungs were aching for air.") I saw Kean play Sally in a summer stock production of "Follies" at the Valley Forge Music Fair with Robert Alda, Vivian Blaine, and Selma Diamond. I was about 12 years old and had saved up my allowance to pay for the ticket (It had to be $10 or so.)

Gleason's variety show ran until the early 1970s and CBS  then replaced the middlebrow humor exemplified by Gleason, Lucille Ball, and shows like "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Petticoat Junction," and "Green Acres" to be replaced by more sophisticated sitcoms like "All in the Family," "MASH," and the Bob Newhart and Mary Tyler Moore shows. These shows were much more adult, but I did miss the innocent silliness of Ralph and Ed, Alice and Trixie arguing in that tiny Brooklyn apartment. (There were many jokes about Trixie's past as an exotic dancer.)

Harris was also a sitcom actor, appearing in an awful piece of tripe about a family that made pickles. It was ridiculous, but she was brilliant of course and I suppose she had to pay the rent. I only met her once, when she was appearing Off-Broadway in a play called "The Fiery Furnace" and I got her autograph. She was charming and gracious. 

Haji, 67, Canadian actress and former exotic dancer who starred in several Russ Myers sexploitation films including “Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” and “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” as well as John Cassavettes’ “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie,” her last film was the memorably titled “Killer Drag Queens on Dope.”

Helen Hanft, 79, leading actress of the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, best known for Tom Eyen’s “Why Hanna’s Skirt Won’t Stay Down,” also appeared in such plays as “Women Benhind Bars,” “In the Boom Boom Room,” and “Gus and Al,” and the films “Next Stop, Greenwich Village” and “Manhattan.”

Julie Harris and James Dean in "East of Eden"

Julie Harris, 87, winner of five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play (“I Am a Camera,” “The Lark,” “Forty Carats,” “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln,” “The Belle of Amherst”), one of the American theater’s treasures, she also starred in “Member of the Wedding,” “Marathon 33,” “Skyscraper,” “The Au Pair Man,” “Lucifer’s Child,” “The Fiery Furnace,” “The Glass Menagerie,” “The Gin Game,” and the film version of “Member of the Wedding” (Oscar nomination), other films include “East of Eden,” “The Haunting,” “Harper,” “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” Emmy Awards for “Little Moon of Alban” and “Victoria Regina,” played Lilimae Clements on “Knots Landing” and made several guest shots including “Columbo,” “Medical Center,” “The Big Valley,” and “The Virginian.”

Welcome to David Desk 2

Stupid scumsucking Google screwed up my account and I had to start another blog. It said my account had not been activated and it would to send a verification email to me. "Whadda mean it wasn't activated?" I screamed at my laptop. "I had been using it constantly." Well, the email I had used to set it up doesn't really work well. So I entered my work email and it said I couldn't use that to access the account. So I had to create a whole new blog using my work email. I don't understand it either, but I'll figure it out.

Fortunately I can still access the earlier blog, I just can't update it because it won't let me. The last blog was on Doctor Who and Buck Rogers. I haven't written anything for weeks--since the end of April--because I've been so busy going to shows at the end of the theatre season. I didn't even finish setting down my reactions to the last four episodes of The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business. I was pissed Zev and Justin were eliminated just before the final three were set. It was all due to Zev's lack of rhythm in the samba challenge which set them back. They thought they could make up the time by selling bikinis when everyone else was making those cocktails. I felt badly for them, especially since they had to have their hairy chests waxed and all that crying.

In other news, two weekends ago, my friend Diane visited upstate and we went to a book sale at the local library. I found a BBC Radio recording of King Lear with an all-star cast including John Gielgud as King Lear, Judi Dench as Goneril, Eileen Atkins as Regan, Emma Thompson as Cordelia, Kenneth Branagh as Edmund, Keith Michell as Kent, Richard Briers as Gloucester, Michael Williams (Dame Judi's husband) as the fool and  Derek Jacobi--whom I'd just seen as Lear at BAM in a magnificent performance--Bernard Cribbins, Nicholas Grace, Bob Hoskins, all played tiny parts. we listened to it on the drive back. It was only $2. I also found a recording of Emma Thompson reading Howards End and Julie Harris reading the Diary of Anne Frank.

I will try to get back to the first blog, but this will suffice for the moment. Remember the blog on Technology and Me: A Horror Story? This is another example of that strained relationship.