Cloris & Co.
RIP Hollywood legend Cloris Leachman, 94. Her incredible career spanned 1947–2021. Her last two works will be posthumous. She was Miss Chicago of 1946. She honed her craft at Ripon College and, briefly, at Northwestern. There are 287 titles under her name at IMDb, a number that merely scratches the surface of her remarkable canon. She was in 57 episodes of Charlie Wild, Private Detective, 83 of Raising Hope, 48 of The Facts of Life, 35 of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, 48 of its spinoff, Phyllis, 28 of Lassie, 18 of The Ellen Show, and she made multiple appearances, as well as one-shots, on many other popular series. She won nine Emmys combined Daytime/Prime Time, and she was awarded a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in The Last Picture Show (1972). And in the midst of it all she managed to bang out five kids. Here’s a quote attributed to her: “I live a very leisurely life. When I do work, it’s not work, it’s great fun, and exciting and fresh. New, wonderful talented people. It’s great pleasure and great fun.” Awesome, madam. Thank you.
Last night Movies!, channel 5–2 on ota’s in NYC, ran Day the Earth Ended (1955), produced and directed by schlockmeister Roger Corman. Although it is serious speculation on nuclear fallout, it falters along the way. Still, there are several interesting points of interest for trivia fans. Richard Denning stars as the good guy. His career spanned 1937–1980. On the big screen he was a B picture mainstay, on TV he was a star, most notably as the governor in 73 episodes of Hawaii Five-0. His co-star, the beautiful Lori Nelson, also did mostly B movies and TV series, most notably 39 episodes of How to Marry a Millionaire. The bad guy, played by Touch Connors, changed his first name to Mike and went on to fame in 194 episodes of Mannix. The “bad” girl, played by Brooklyn-born Adele Jergens, also had a long run in B pics. The scientist, played by Paul Birch, had a prolific career going when he was taken by cancer at 57 in 1969. Paul Dubov’s character is contaminated by radiation. He too was cut down, at 60 in 1979, in the midst of an impressive run as both an actor and writer. If my math is right, he contributed 49 scripts to TV, and received an EMMY nomination for Backstairs at the White House (1979), shared with his wife Gwen Bagni. Raymond Hatton, a Hollywood stalwart who has 422 titles under his name at IMDb, played a prospector. Jonathan Haze has only 41 credits as an actor, three as a writer. His character is severely damaged by radiation. Born in 1929, he is still living. Recognize any of these faces? First Connors and Denning:
Now Birch and Nelson:
Now Jergens in a still of her demonstrating her striptease act:
Now Dubov:
And Hatton in character:
And Haze:
Here’s a WTF? headline from nypost.com: “Pakistani court orders man accused of killing journalist Daniel Pearl freed.” I wonder if Israeli agents will track and execute him.
So what does the astronomical rise in the stock of GameStop actually mean? I haven’t the foggiest. It’s gone from four bucks to more than $300 recently. Many see it as a proof of an overall bubble that will soon burst. The only argument to counter that is that so many people are trading stocks these days that money continues to pour into the market to bolster it. Word has it that a band of rebels using the Reddit website is responsible for the mischief. Is that a good thing? You tell me. With bank interest miniscule, capital will go elsewhere. More and more people are trading stocks each year. It is no longer the sole province of elites. Still, caveat emptor — buyer beware.
Here’s an interesting headline from foxnews.com: “Schizophrenia is 2nd highest risk factor for dying of COVID-19, after age.”
My thanks to the kind folks who bought books in Russian and English on this beautiful winter day. I’d expected it to be a tough session, but the full sunshine provided enough warmth so that I didn’t have to retreat to the car a single time. I didn’t even have to keep my hood up.
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