“WE HAVE EVERYTHING THAT A CIRCUS MUST HAVE" -- Marvin Spindler

“WE HAVE EVERYTHING THAT A CIRCUS MUST HAVE" -- Marvin Spindler
Horses, Camels, Ponies, Donkeys and Dogs Coming to 18 American Cities ...

Friday, February 24, 2012

Showbiz Shimmers: Bette Davis Forever ... Not so Hot in Cleveland? ... Marilyn Monroe's Elephant Ride ... South Shore Band's Sure Spell ...

First Draft Feckless ...
Flashing Friday High, in no particular order: I'm watching so many movies because Netflix nearly gives them away, for those of us who turn them around fast. I see two a week. Bette Davis in Old Maid, loved her sympathetic portrayal, but also the tight escalating scripting. To think how she ranges from the horrific B---H in Of Human Bondage -- I mean, really, people, could anybody be as stupidly groveling to the sadistic tramp she essays as is pathetically smitten Leslie Howard? I'll admit in my days of going here and there late nights, I dipped pretty low in the department of Being Used, but never so low as goes poor Leslie ... Which makes the film more farcical than anything else ...

Gene Autry, yes that Gene! I never appreciated you until now. By mistake, thinking I'd ordered another Roy Rogers (no, I'm not a groupie, just checking him out to compare now to then -- when in my wee days I enjoyed him on the big screeen), instead came a Gene in the red envelope, and am I glad I watched despite at first not wanting to: Springtime in the Rockies, great little entertainment! In many ways, I found it superior to the three or four Rogers movies I've watched. Something about it hooked me and kept me engaged ...

Not so Hot in Cleveland? Just read the season will continue (I'm a fan, even when a guest so boring as the aging rocker who CAN'T ACT Huey Lewis gets too much air time), but I see they are loading the shows to come with celebrities like Regis who might add more bounce ... Susan Luccie sure does, this out of work-Erica Cane should become at least a semi-regular, she is so, true to her character, deviously amusing ...I read the second season pulled in not many more watchers than half of those who tuned in to the first season. Blame it on some very weak scripting, but lately the jokes and situations have come packed with zingers ...The obvious star, even topping (sorry, Betty) Betty White, is Wendie Matlick, who plays an over-the-hill out of work soap opera queen.

Where am I going with this? No where really, so let's go circus. Marilyn Monroe's elephant ride at Ringling-Barnum opening night, 1955 at The Garden, is now a terrific YouTube tease. I'd hoped for footage of the show itself, but none is there. cleavage galore. So, If you can't get enough of this sex goddess, here's your ticket to a good time in front of your PC. (I won't take that any further) ...

They egg me on: Thank you, M.A.D. and John Herriott for charming me into maybe trying to add more items to the post about lingo for New Circus. Gotta get back into that exact grove ...

Did I promise you an Evans Fanfare? So lets' tour the Lanes of Talburt, with his latest video on the windjammers up there in New England ... I'm going to now take a listen to the and be back in a jiff to post a reaction ... I'm back: Nice easy listen. Fanfaring on still is 88-year old Richard Whitmarsh, who leads the South Shore Concert Band in S.E. Mass, and has been for over four decades. The pulse of circus is ever at the forefront; Merle Evans stood in around 1972 and evidently cast a lasting spell over the group, to the tune of turning out, as of the latest count, a staggering 58 albums. My belated respect for Whitmarsh is derived from the group's Sounds of the Circus albums which feature original Ringling scroing during the last canvas days, recently sent my way by Sarasota friend Ken Dodd (to whom I dedicated my book, Inside the Changing Circus) ... There were some wonderful tunes composed back then, some of them by melodically gifted John Ringling North himself. In fact, I like his "On Honolulu Bay" (given a luscious lilt here by South Shore) much more than a ditty that has never quite won me over, "Lovely Luawana Lady." More Ringling originals, please, Maestro! Thanks to Lane Talburt for apprising us of the South Shore music man ..

OK, so I finally got carried away. Heck, I'm going to pop that CD in right now and play it again.

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