LifeSoFarLaRue

So I'm a movie nut, a cinephile, an escapist?  Call it what you will.  But I'm going to relate my feelings about certain pictures (mainly for my friend Kim, who hasn't seen anything since "Titanic" until she saw "The Avengers: Infinity War " recently.) So here is a bit of my thoughts (cinema-wise). The GOOD:  "TO KILL  MOCKINGBIRD."  Academy Award winner Gregory Peck stars as Atticus Finch in this tale of fatherhood and racial strife in the deep South.  A brilliant book by Harper Lee is the basis for this film and features outstanding acting by Mary Badham and Philip Alford as the Finch  children with Brock Peters and Robert Duvall (in his screen debut) giving equally thrilling performances.  Elmer Bernstein's score was nominated for an Oscar as was Ms. Badham for supporting Actress.   The Horton Foote screenplay adaption won the Oscar as did Best Art Direction. It's about a trial, a Halloween and a mysterious man named Boo.  Perhap...

One thing (call it a joy) that I remember from my boyhood in Corbin, Kansas was the ditch! Where I lived in that tiny town in Sumner County, there were only dirt roads.  Oh, they were covered with gravel to stem erosion, I suppose, but they were still the victims of Summer downpours.  And that was always a happy time for me and my friends. The closest swimming pool was miles away in Wellington and the one in Caldwell had yet to open (1956 I'm told by my friend Suzie).  And if you wanted to swim in the local river (The Chikaskia), well, you needed someone to take you there...…….So, we just waited for rain.  Rain that would fill the ditches and create our swimming hole.  Now the ditches were not deep, ("no diving" was not even a thought) but they held enough water to cool you off and let you splash about...…..Granted, it was a tad muddy, but that came with the territory. There were several boards that spanned the ditch to enable one to cross without having t...

In college, my toughest acting role came along one Summer.  I did three seasons of Summer school because of the Summer Stock acting program.   In the Summer of 1961,  I played the part of Gorky in William Saroyan's "The Cave Dwellers."   What made it so tough you may well ask?   Well for starters, Gorky is a grizzly bear, albeit trained, but a bear nonetheless.  The photo below is a scene from the play (not ours, but an equivalent.) When I was first cast in the role, my professor, Dr. Bruder, took me on a Saturday day-trip to the Kansas City zoo so that I could study the bears and how they moved.  It was fascinating to watch those big creatures as they wondered around their open area (behind bars of course). And I came away with quite a bit of knowledge about their habits which I incorporated into the performance.  (Scratching itches was a big hit with the audiences.) Then, there was the "suit."   It was very impressive but a grizzly be...

This posting may be a little hard to write, because I genuinely liked this lady and I think she liked me.  The inscription reads. "To my darling Larue, Thanks for the fun.  Love Monique." Long before the Kardashians became famous for being famous, there was a lady named Monique Von Vooren.  Of Belgian descent, she was first noticed in America as a co-star to Lex Barker in 1953's "Tarzan and The She-Devil."  She went on to become a "guest star" on numerous TV shows ("The Dupont Show of the Week", "The United States Steel Hour" as well as "Batman" not to mention various game shows)  She also appeared on Broadway in "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" and "Man in the Moon." She even authored several books and had a cameo appearance in the film, "Wall Street" as the "Woman at 21."  So, as you might surmise she was no dumb blonde but a savvy lady with ambition.  And also v...

On the last day of school when I was in the 7th grade, all classes were released early in order to find weenie roasting sticks for a previously announced roast to celebrate the end of the school year.(Remember this was a small school with perhaps only 3 dozen students)  Since the school was situated on the top of a hill, sloping down to a few cottonwood trees in the back, most of the students headed for the trees.   We were all savvy enough to know that "sticks" must be green to  prevent catching on fire while roasting. I remember climbing up the largest  tree, looking for the perfect limb that I could harvest and turn into the perfect "weenie roasting" stick.  That one?  No.  Oh, that one over there.   Reaching out and tugging on the limb to try and dislodge it,  I guess I pulled a little too hard and the limb resisted.  I lost my balance and fell out of the tree.  It wasn't a long fall, maybe 6 to 8 feet.  But it was a ...

When I was very young (maybe 8 or so) my mother decided I should take piano lessons (very popular at the time and most likely still going strong in some families today.)  Well, that lasted for a few years and I can still play a bit, but mostly by ear since I never really "mastered" the art. Some years later, when I enrolled in High School and signed up for "Shop" class, my mother was not thrilled.  And although an older brother had gifted her with many hand make items from his days in "Shop," she promptly took me to the "powers that be" and re-enrolled me in "Band," arbitrarily picking the tenor saxophone as my instrument of choice  (Never mastered that either, despite tutoring on Saturdays).  But I faked it pretty well and knew enough to get by.  And I did enjoy marching at half-time for the Friday night football games. Still later, in college, when I was persuaded to become a part of  "The Chessmen" (see earl...

I don't remember who first told me about the king.  It was undoubtedly a high school friend in my Freshman class.  After hearing a song or two on the radio, I quickly bought his first album in March of 1956 and became mesmerized by this thing called rock and roll. Up until then everything in my world was Patti Page and Teresa Brewer with an occasional Eddie Fisher or Johnny Mathis throw in. That fall, when it was announced that Elvis would be on "The Ed Sullivan Show" the anticipation was palpable.  At last, we would get to see this talent that had everyone at school talking, much to the dismay of their parents. And on September 9th of that year, he appeared and the rest is history. While you may not remember it clearly, Sullivan was not on the show.  He was recuperating from an automobile accident and Charles Laughton filled in for him.  Yes, that Charles Laughton.  Furthermore, Elvis was in Hollywood doing his first movie "Love Me Tender" and no...