pack up the babies and grab the old ladies

 

        ...And, speaking of Cardinal Cushing - let's - have some Neil Diamond music! -

on You Tube, video title:

Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show | Neil Diamond | Lyrics

uploader / channel:  Megan Smith

(good sound on this video)

Hot August night, and the leaves hangin' down and the grass on the ground smellin' - sweet -

Move - up the road, to the outside of town and the sound of that good gospel beat

Sits a ragged tent

Where there ain't no trees,

And that gospel group - telling you and me it's - 

Love, brother love, say brother love's Traveling Salvation Show...! - ...

In this, and many of his songs, there's this build-up of tension and drama and intensity until you just want to cheer, and dance!  These songs are kind of like hymns.

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bad things happen

 A person might wonder, "Why would Jackie Kennedy's wedding to Aristotle Onassis be one of the main things that people might remember about the year 1968?"

        Her getting remarried was a big problem for a lot of people.  She was the widow of our slain president.  What we were left with was Jackie, and the two children, and many people kind of projected onto them intense emotions and feelings of loyalty and grief.

One headline said, Jackie, How Could You?

Some commentators got downright bitchy about it.

Cardinal Cushing finally came out in support of Jackie:  "Why can't she marry whomever she wants to marry?  Why should she be condemned?"

        Then that caused controversy:  Catholic church officials and some of the public were mad at him.

(Aristotle Onassis was divorced - that was the church's problem with the marriage.  People in general who disapproved just - saw it as some kind of insult to President Kennedy, I guess.

        Jackie wed Onassis in 1968.  Pres. Kennedy was killed in 1963, so it had been five years.)

In the decades that followed, each time there was an accident, a scandal, or a tragedy involving a member of the Kennedy family, some people and media headlines would refer to "the Kennedy curse."

        Many of us don't believe in curses - bad things happen sometimes, and we just hope they don't, or deal with them if they do.  It's part of life.

I thought about this when I watched a 2025 film called Song Sung Blue on Netflix.  A string of bad things happen to these people in the movie - and it's based on a true story.

The main characters are a Neil Diamond tribute band.  The Neil Diamond songs are my favorite part of the movie.

He's a powerful songwriter.

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Mayor Daley

 Typing in yesterday's blog post, it came to mind at the end, that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy had other connections with people involved in the conventions of 1968.

Gore Vidal, as a commentator - happened to be related to Jackie by marriage.  His mother was married at some point to Hugh D. Auchincloss.  Later, Auchincloss was married to Jackie and Lee Bouvier's mother, Janet.

        What does that make Jackie and Gore Vidal? - step-cousins...?

Then - let's focus on Mayor Daley - during the Democratic National Convention of 1976, held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by then an editor at a publishing house, tracked down Mayor Daley and spoke to him about possibly doing a book detailing his life and career.

        He was happy to see her, and wanted to be very cordial, but all he said in reply was, "I'll look into it."

Was any other word or effort ever spoken or made, by Mayor Daley, toward a book about his life, published by Jackie, or by anyone else...?

Oh - nooooooooooo.

lol.

He wasn't gonna take the lid off of that can of worms....

"I'll look into it." ...   ...

JFK; Gore Vidal; Jackie

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"we've got some difficult days ahead"

 

1968

I was trying to think what I could remember from the year 1968, as far as Things That Happened.

I came up with six:

-  in the month of March - President Johnson announces that he will not run for a second term

-  April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated

-  April 23 - student protesters "took over" Columbia University in New York City 

- June 5 - Bobby Kennedy assassinated

- in August, huge anti-war protests rocked the city of Chicago, during the Democrats' National Convention to nominate a candidate for President

- in October, on the Greek island of Skorpios, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy married shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis

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        Internet synopsis of the Chicago protests in August 1968:

----------------------------- The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held from August 26 to August 29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois.  It remains one of the most volatile and defining moments in modern American political history, exposing fierce internal party splits over the Vietnam War, and marked by massive civil unrest in the streets.

The Political Backdrop

The convention took place during a year of unprecedented national trauma and political upheaval:

)  LBJ Steps Down:  Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson announced in March that he would not seek re-election, largely due to growing unpopularity over his Vietnam War policies.

)  Assassinations:  The country was reeling from the assassinations of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in April and anti-war presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy in June.

)  The Insiders vs. The Primaries:  Anti-war candidates like Senator Eugene McCarthy had won significant support in state primaries.  However, the party establishment backed Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who had not competed in a single primary.

Chaos Inside the Convention Hall

The deep ideological fractures within the Democratic Party triggered open hostility on the convention floor:

)  The Vietnam Plank Battle:  Delegates engaged in furious debates over the party's stance on the war.  The pro-war establishment faction defeats a proposed peace plank, outraging anti-war delegates.

)  Floor Violence:  Tensions escalated into physical altercations.  Security guards aggressively handled delegates and members of the media; CBS News correspondent Dan Rather was famously knocked to the floor on live television.

)  The Nomination:  Despite the party's deep fractures, the establishment successfully steered the nomination to Hubert Humphrey.

The "Police Riot" in the Streets

Outside the convention, an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 anti-war demonstrators, including groups like the Yippies, and Students for a Democratic Society, converged on Chicago parks.

)  The Crackdown:  Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley took a hardline stance, mobilizing nearly 12,000 police officers, the Illinois National Guard, and federal troops.

)  The Confrontation:  On August 28, the situation boiled over in front of the Conrad Hilton Hotel.  Police advanced on crowds with billy clubs and tear gas, indiscriminately beating protesters, bystanders, and journalists.

)  "The Whole World is Watching":  Network television cameras broadcast the bloodied streets live into millions of American living rooms while protesters chanted the iconic slogan.

)  Official Finding:  A subsequent federal investigation famously characterized the violent police response as a "police riot".

Aftermath and Legacy

The convention dealt a severe blow to the Democratic Party and fundamentally reshaped the U.S. political landscape:

)  Nixon's Victory:  The televised chaos convinced many voters that the Democrats could not maintain order.  Republican nominee Richard Nixon seized on this sentiment, running on a platform of "law and order" to win the 1968 presidential election.

)  McGovern-Fraser Reforms:  To heal the internal rift, the Democratic Party overhauled its nominating process.  The resulting McGovern-Fraser Commission shifted power away from backroom party bosses and elites toward the state primary system, a model that defines modern presidential campaigns today. --------------------------------- [end, Internet excerpt]

---------------------------------------------------

        [Side note:  McGovern of the McGovern-Fraser Commission was George McGovern, U.S. Senator from South Dakota.  The Democrats' candidate for President in 1968, Hubert Humphrey, was also originally from South Dakota, (although he built his political career in the neighboring state of Minnesota.)]

Mayor Daley; Walter Cronkite

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take a sad song, and make it better

 1968

Talking here about the "Best of Enemies" documentary on Netflix, I said it had Gore Vidal - William F. Buckley debates during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago ... they were also at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida. 

The ABC television network was attempting to provide an alternative type of coverage and commentary, different from the other two networks.

        It was different, all right.

        At one point, part of the ceiling fell in.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 That same year, this song was a major hit:

(on You Tube) - video titled:

Hey Jude (Remastered 2015)

uploader / channel:  The Beatles

        Play it, and partake of one of the good parts of the year 1968 in America.

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Best of Enemies

 On Netflix right now, there is a film called Best of Enemies.  It is a documentary made in 2015, about the debate between William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal at the 1968 Democratic Party Convention in Chicago.

(Was it one debate?  Or was it a series of debates? - I'm not sure, still playing it, listening to it.)

        (If you go to look for this on Netflix, be aware there's another movie on there titled The Best Of Enemies.  Same title, except with the word "the" in front of it.

        These are two entirely different films, so - here, we're talking about "Best of Enemies" without the "The.")

----------------------------------------------

William Buckley introduces the word "hobgoblinization" while trying to make a point.

There's a scene from the "Playboy After Dark" TV show hosted by Hugh Hefner, with Gore Vidal as a guest.

        The first time I listened to some of this, I thought, "Are both of these guys trying to speak with an English accent?"

                One narrator says, "They spoke with these patrician, languid accents, they'd both been to boarding schools...."

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines the word "languid" - moving or speaking slowly with little energy, often in an attractive way.

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I know the ending and I still watch

 

Otto Preminger, the director of the 1944 film, Laura

viewer comments on Laura --

*  Absolute gem!! A must see.  Clifton Webb is outstanding!

*  A perfect film from start to finish, from the settings to the actors.  It doesn't get better than this.

*  I love this film so much, the chemistry is so great.

*  I wish they still made movies like this.  What a movie and cast.

*  What a movie!  Loved it!  Had everything a movie should have!  Decors, good acting, beautiful actors, beautiful dresses, good plot twist, suspense!

*  Using a typewriter while having a bath is such a mood.

*  This is such a good movie with really good actors.

* ...Timeless, elegant, and brilliantly suspenseful.

*  I know the ending and I still watch!

*  The dialogue is amazing !

*  ..."no, dear, I didn't.  But I thought of it"  WOW!!!!!  punchy script and well delivered lines throughout!

*  It's been 50-plus years since I've seen it, looking forward to watching it again, thanks!

*  Always good every time I watch it.

*  Absolute banger.

*  Magnifica no se la pierdan!!!

------------------------------------------------------------

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the hottest Sunday in his recollection

 

Oh, man!  Now the good video of Laura, with all the sound consistent throughout, has got sound cutting out, just like the other one!!

If that wouldn't tick you off....

Just go on Amazon Prime and rent it or buy it.  That way, you get to see the opening credits and hear the music they have over them.  I guess it's a superior viewing experience anyway.

        But somehow I just get excited when I find one of these gems on You Tube.

[opening Voice-Over narration of Laura] --

I shall never forget the weekend Laura died.  

A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass.

It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection.

I felt as if I were the only human being left in New York.

For with Laura's horrible death, I was alone.

I, Waldo Lydecker, was the only one who really knew her, and I had just begun to write Laura's story when... another of those detectives came to see me.

I had him wait.

I could watch him through the half-open door.

I noted that his attention was fixed upon my clock.

There was only one other in existence, and that was in Laura's apartment, in the very room where she was murdered.

-----------------------------------------------------

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the only human being left in New York

 

When one of the really good movies shows up on You Tube, I always want to inform readers about it so that they can watch it if they so choose.

        Not that we can't all rent or buy the classic films on Amazon Prime and watch, but there's something wild and fun about finding one on You Tube for free.

        If you can't stand the ads that some You Tube uploaders pepper their videos with, you can run it through Free Ad Block and you will have no ads.  Aaahhh!  Relief! - And the pleasure of a fantastic film!

And - you want to catch the movies we recommend ASAP, because after they get put up on You Tube, they get taken down by - I don't know who - some "Wet Blanket"....

I think it was a couple of years ago, we featured the information that Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949) was on You Tube - two different ones, the same movie, but one in the original black-and-white, and one in color.  (How do they "colorize" movies?)  And pretty soon - a few days or weeks - I went back and checked, and both of them were gone.

        And then just recently, a few weeks ago, I think, I promoted All About Eve which was on You Tube - it's gone, now.

So the one I want to inform you of, now, is Laura, directed by Otto Preminger, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews.  The excellent stage actor Clifton Webb also has a central role.

The movie is permeated with personal style and atmosphere.

It has "dissolves" - where the scene you see on the screen sort of melts away and you see a different scene in its place.

        I love that - it makes the film flow more smoothly and dreamily, instead of the jerky, disjointed "cutting" from one scene to another.  

        You need cutting, sometimes, but in later movies, they use it all the time, with never any dissolves, someone decided that was better, & I don't think it is.

------------------------------------------------------------

There are two videos on You Tube with this movie, both from the same channel / uploader, named Kovboy Filmleri

The one to watch has the title "Laura I Mystery Movie" - and it says under the title "12 days ago" - meaning it was put on you tube 12 days ago, or by the time you get to it, it might say 14 or 15 days - recently.

        The other one from Kovboy Filmleri has a different title and was put up 7 months ago.  The sound cuts out on that one.

The good one starts without the opening credits or music or title of the film - I think the uploaders sometimes cut off the opening to try to have it go undetected on you Tube for a longer time before they take it down.

So it starts with the voice over:  "get the weekend..."

What he said was "I shall never forget the weekend..."

Vincent Price, Clifton Webb in Laura - 1944

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"the fundamental things apply..."

 And thinking about that short trip to Hollywood in the '90s, I remembered also, when I went looking for the restaurant at the hotel, one had to walk through a piano bar to get to the dining area, so I stopped in the piano part, and sat and listened for a few minutes, & when the song ended, I asked the man if he could play "As Time Goes By" from the movie Casablanca.

        He didn't say anything, he just started playing it.

        It sounded great.

        It was a sparkling moment.

                You can experience that scene from the film on You Tube - a video titled:

Play it, Sam

uploader / channel:  BlauweBarry

You must remember this

A kiss is still a kiss

A sigh is just a sigh

The fundamental things apply

As time goes by...

"Play it once, Sam.  For old time's sake."

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at the Hollywood Roosevelt

 

When I watch that Sopranos episode where "Christopher Moltisanti" goes to Hollywood to try to make a movie deal, sometimes I recall a trip I made to Hollywood in the early 1990s, for a couple of days.

        I signed up for a seminar in screenwriting taught by somebody who had done some TV and movie scripts.  I bought his book and was reading it, when I arrived at LAX.  I had reserved an affordable room at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, which was the location of the one-day seminar.

        In the evening I went downstairs to the hotel's restaurant - after ordering, I was reading the seminar guy's book.  Glancing around the room, I noticed a man who looked like the book's author.  (His picture was on the back cover.)

I thought, "Hey! I bet that's him!  I mean, I stayed at this hotel because the seminar is downstairs tomorrow morning, probably he did, too!"

        I was kind of thrilled at the idea of meeting a published author personally, so I was thinking, Yeah, I'll go over there and say Hi.

So I walk over - there's another guy at the table, with him.  I had the book in my hand - and I just asked him - "excuse me..." - asked him, "Is this you?  Did you write this book?"

And he says, "No."

(lol)

        He and the other guy just seemed kind of surprised, and - not - upset with me, or anything.  Just sort of like - "Hmmm, this woman thinks you're the author of - that book in her hand..."

        I said, "Oh - well, sorry to interrupt you. - I just thought you looked like the author's picture, here..."

The other guy said, "...But better-looking, right?"

me:  "That's what I meant."

They laughed.

I think maybe I laughed, too - sort of - a little bit - to go along with their laughing.  

I went back to my table.

        My dinner arrived; I was eating, and reading... the waiter brought over a glass of white wine that I hadn't ordered, and pointed at the two guys who were leaving; they waved to me on their way out.

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