Literary Calendar, January 31

This date in 1905:  John O'Hara born in Pottsville, Pa.  (which in his writings became Gibbsville).  Note to self:  re-read "Hope of Heaven," "Andrea," "Farmers Hotel," etc.

This date in 1901:  Chekhov's "Three Sisters" opens at the Moscow Art Theatre, with his beautiful and famous actress wife Olga Knipper as Masha.  Note to self:  remember Robert Graham's excellent staging of Chekhov plays for Westcoast Actors.

This date in 1948:  J.D. Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" published in The New Yorker.  Note to self:  re-read all "Nine Stories."

This date in 1923:  Norman Mailer born in Long Branch, New Jersey.  On his fiftieth birthday, Mailer invites 5,000 people to a party, at $50 a couple, money to go towards "a democratic secret police."  Five hundred people turn up.  Did the secret police get founded?  If so, it's still a secret.  Note to self:  prepare invitations for 100th birthday party.  $100 a pop, for the whole family.  BYOB. 

More Salinger

The last story J.D. Salinger published was "Hapworth 16, 1924," which appeared in The New Yorker issue dated June 19, 1965.  I read this that week on the veranda of a house in Carberry Gardens, Victoria, and regret that I did not save the magazine.  Purchased then for twenty-five cents, a copy today, if found, will bring at least $3,000.

Salinger wrote a number of stories before developing his Holden Caulfield style, and while he did not want them republished, a bootleg collection was brought out several years ago.  Of those stories, one that continues to hover around the edges of my mind, rather dream-like, is "The Inverted Forest," originally printed in Cosmopolitan (the pre-Helen Gurley Brown Cosmopolitan).  The plot is too complex to summarize, and besides, a summary would be unfair to any reader fortunate enough to find a copy. 

Okay, gotta go.  Seymour is on the phone. 

Salinger, Auchincloss, Thigpen

     "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

     Most readers will recognize that as the justifiably famous opening of "The Catcher in the Rye," the landmark 1951 novel by J.D. Salinger.  Salinger died January 27.  He was 91 years old. This same week, Louis Auchincloss died, at 92.  (Writers have a gift for longevity:  Rex Stout was 89; Somerset Maugham was 91;  P.G. Wodehouse was 94.)

     Many will have read all four of Salinger's published books, but few, probably, have read all of Auchincloss's:  he wrote sixty.  Wrote them while conducting his practice as a Wall Street lawyer.  Best known among the novels are "The Rector of Justin" and "The Embezzler," but we remember with admiration "Motiveless Malignity," a collection of literary essays, and the memoir "A Writer's Capital." 

     Also this week comes news of the death of Ed Thigpen in Copenhagen.  A masterful jazz drummer, Thigpen is best remembered for his work with Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown  (the three played a wonderful rainy afternoon recital at Simon Fraser University years ago) but he also backed Ella Fitzgerald and played with other giants, among them Bud Powell, Lennie Tristano and Blossom Dearie.  

     (Looking over this list, it strikes one that all those mentioned have moved on to the afterlife. To quote a memorable Oscar Peterson-Milt Jackson album, "Ain't But a Few of Us Left.")  

     So, how are you spending the evening?  I think I'll play something  by the Peterson trio and re-read "Franny and Zooey."  And write something.  It may work better than exercise.  

     

Bronc bustin'

Clint Eastwood may have written finis to the Western with "Unforgiven" (although "finis" seems not the right word--maybe ka-pow!) and we miss the movies, not only the classics, like "Stagecoach" and "Escape from Fort Bravo" and "Shane" (Shane!  Come back, Shane!  Pa needs you!  And Ma likes you!  I know she does!  Shayyyyun!) but also those we used to watch on Saturday afternoons--Gene Autry, the Durango Kid, the Three Mesquiteers, Lash LaRue, Hoot Gibson and Ken Maynard. 

A film to remember with pleasure, and happily watch whenever it turns up on TCM, is "The Lusty Men," Nicholas Ray's rodeo yarn, made in 1952.  But it seems also that "The Lusty Men" could be re-shot, this half-century later.

The story is of a bone-weary rodeo veteran who becomes the mentor of a brash wannabe. In the centre is the young rider's wife, looking puzzled/concerned/conflicted.  In the 1952 film, Robert Mitchum played the old bronc-buster, Arthur Kennedy was the ambitious newcomer, and Susan Hayward played the wife.  Arthur Hunnicutt turned up as a rodeo clown, the guy who runs out and distracts a vexed mustang or Brahma bull before things get ugly.

Mitchum, leathery and laconic, was terrific; so were Hayward and Hunnicutt.  But Kennedy, while always an intelligent actor (his best role was Tom in "The Glass Menagerie") seemed not quite right for his part.  For a start, he was three years older than Mitchum.

So in our re-make, we have Brad Pitt as the rodeo veteran; Amy Adams as the wife; and, as the kid--Johnny Depp!  Tell me this wouldn't be a box office smash!  Oh, and the clown?  Bill Murray.  Or maybe Jay Leno.  Or Michael Richards, he may be looking for work.  

Coming out of the gate, we've got a movie that'll buck "Avatar" clear out of the saddle!  For, in Mitchum's memorable words from the '52 "Lusty Men":

"There was never a horse

  That couldn't be rode,

  And never a cowboy

  That couldn't be throwed."

Vote for Nude!

The Scott Brown phenomenon continues to swell, despite the carping of some Democrats who say the Massachusetts voters "made a bum decision."

Other politicians, however, see this as an opportunity, and have been quick to take advantage of it.  It has been reported that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, in a move interpreted as a step toward running for the Republican nomination in 2012, is applying to have his name legally changed to Nude Gingrich. 

Nothing has been heard on this matter from the Sarah Palin camp, but one observer said "I think it's unlikely we'll see Mrs. Palin peelin'."

Meanwhile, Mrs. Violet Brewster-Hinckley of Women for Dominance applauded the move toward a strong masculine presence in the political arena.  "We need men," she said, "who in the face of daunting challenges will remain erect."

Renude Hope for Republicans

The election to the US Senate of Scott Brown, onetime Cosmopolitan centrefold, has led to renude hope for right-wing Republicans, who declare they are now "stripped down for action" and prepared for "a full-frontal assault on Washington."

Marvin Fassbender, a spokesman for the GOP, outlined what he called "the Party's nude strategy. From henceforth," he said, "we will solicit candidates from the studly ranks of the Chippendales." The Party has begun testing its new campaign slogan:  "Economy Sunk?  Vote for a Hunk!"

Here at Pointless Digressions, never slow to leap aboard a fast-moving train, we have organized a contest.  We ask for your entries on these questions:

1.  Which Canadian politician would you most like to see naked?

2.  Which Canadian politician would you pay money not to see naked?

The entry judged most thoughtful and illuminating by the Pointless Panel will  be awarded tickets to one of the most eagerly anticipated artistic events of the 2010 Olympiad:  the performance by a cast of elite cabinet ministers of The Full Monty.

Frightening Prospect for Voters

Reports that the Massachusetts election to the US Senate of Scott Brown may have been stimulated by Brown's nude photograph in Cosmopolitan have brought new fears to the electorate. 

"If, in fact, this is the case," said Marley Rosenkrantz of Voters for Decency, "it raises the frightening prospect of other candidates stripping for the media.  We find this most disturbing.

We have learned to tolerate naked ambition and bare-faced lies, but unclothed politicians are unacceptable."

In Ottawa, meanwhile, officials rushed to destroy risque photographs of longtime Prime Minister Mackenzie King.