...And Starring Vecchiolarry

[moira finnie]

As many of our regular members know, one of our charter members, Vecchiolarry (aka Larry Russell) grew up in Los Angeles as Classic Hollywood and the studio system wound down. Larry has entertained us mightily with his tales of the good, the glamorous and the just plain ghastly he met as a lad, and you can see several anecdotes on this site as well as in the invaluable thread on the TCM Message Board entitled Larry's Classic Star Reminiscences, found here. Recently, I remembered his mention that he had appeared in movies a few times as an extra after I stumbled across The Vagabond King (1956) on youtube. This obscure film was the musical version of Francois Villon's life that starred tenor Oreste Kirkop (who was simply billed as "Oreste" on screen) and Kathryn Grayson, (this production marked her final feature film appearance).

I contacted Larry and shared the link below with him to enable him to "enjoy" and comment on his moment on screen once again. Larry's reaction was

"Wow, this is pretty funny...
I watched the clip and my brother and I are in it about 7 minutes into the beginning.
My brother, Mark, is the first boy holding that long candle in front of Kathryn Grayson; he is 6 years old.
I am the fouth one in, often hidden by the lecturn and not too discernable. I am 14 years old...
The camera did move around to a front shot of all of us singing and at least one closeup of all of us, and we were all in the movie at the premier (the only time I've seen this film) but obviously we and much more of this movie were cut after the gloomy reviews for it...
Such was my starry movie career.

[youtube][/youtube]

Larry also revealed that he and his brother had been one of the multitudes participating in the massive exodus scene in The Ten Commandments (1956)! Larry said "You can see us better in The Ten Commandments in the exodus scene, pulling & pushing a donkey.... Also, another of my 1956 releases!!!"

I have looked all over the internet and the best clips showing this scene of the exodus from Egypt featuring some glimpses of the people trudging out into the desert is the clip below. I will apologize in advance to any music lovers for the Matt Monro song that accompanies these images.
[youtube][/youtube]

Larry went on to say that

"We filmed that scene twice as the donkey was not too co-operative; in either scene as I recall. But, they printed and edited whatever to make it worthy of De Mille.
He was somewhere around but we were directed by an assistant and John Derek, who was in front of us in the entourage!!!
After we were finished, I saw Nina Foch go by (the only time I've ever seen her)... And, then we went home.
And, so ended my movie career....

Incredibly, Moira, I was not even nominated for Best Supporting Actor!!!
Can you believe it???"

As I explained to Larry, who very kindly gave me permission to quote his words and to post these videos, he will always be the one of the Best here at the SSO! Thanks for sharing and see if the struggling lads below might be yourself, your brother, and another hardworking extra trying to get that donkey moving, could you please, Larry?

[Rita Hayworth]

Larry also revealed that he and his brother had been one of the multitudes participating in the massive exodus scene in The Ten Commandments (1956)! Larry said "You can see us better in The Ten Commandments in the exodus scene, pulling & pushing a donkey.... Also, another of my 1956 releases!!!"

Larry went on to say that

"We filmed that scene twice as the donkey was not too co-operative; in either scene as I recall. But, they printed and edited whatever to make it worthy of De Mille.
He was somewhere around but we were directed by an assistant and John Derek, who was in front of us in the entourage!!!
After we were finished, I saw Nina Foch go by (the only time I've ever seen her)... And, then we went home.
And, so ended my movie career....

Incredibly, Moira, I was not even nominated for Best Supporting Actor!!!
Can you believe it???"

This is very interesting - Our own Larry - Member Name - Vecchiolarry was an extra on The Ten Commandments - Wow!!
This is very interesting reading material here and - and I wanted to thank Moria for posting it and Larry to share his thoughts as well. This is so cooooooooooooooooooool to know that a member was an extra on the The Ten Commandments :!: :!: :!:

[JackFavell]

VecchioLarry - you guys are adorable! Are you the boy pulling the donkey? Or one of the others? Finally I will know what you look like..... well, at age 14.

Did you like working in pictures? Was Kathryn Grayson nice? How about John Derek?

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Glad you like my picture career - I had really forgotten about all this 55 years ago....
It was actually hot both in the church scene and later in the desert; but cooool, I guess now!!

"The Ten Commandments":
Actually, I am 3 scenes in this and Mark in two - -
1) at .25, we are escorting the old man (my brother is on the left and I am on the right)
2) at .59, I am at the ass end (wouldn't you know it) and Mark is on the right side with his back to us
3) at 1.22, I am pushing a baggage cart

"The Vagabond King":
I should correct that my brother is actually the second boy in and not the first....

Didn't know John Derek at all, but he was quite nice to us and everyone.
Kathryn Grayson was a great friend of mine for years. I worked as an extra at her request on "Show Boat", "Lovely To Look At" and "Kiss Me, Kate"... Although I don't think I ended up in the film.
If they give out an Oscar for 'The Best Face on the Cutting Room Floor', I'm a shoo-in to win that!!!
Loved Agnes Moorehead, Howard Keel, Ann Miller and Zsa Zsa Gabor; didn't much care for Red Skelton.....


Larry

[mongoII]

WOW! Congratulations, Larry. It's nice to know that we have a former movie star at the Oasis. That is certainly good stuff.

[Lzcutter]

Larry,

That was very cool looking back at your cinematic past and you sharing your memories!

Can't wait to see in April in Hollywood!

[JackFavell]

Larry - I have so many questions.

Are you naturally dark haired? It looks like it from the clip in Vagabond King. In The Ten Commandments, did they have you wear makeup or a wig? How long did it take to film your scenes? It sounds like maybe one day's work? How much trouble did they take with you to get your scenes filmed? Any personal direction?

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Yes, I have brown hair - with some grey now!!
Yes, we wore wigs in TTC and were coloured with a nut brown makeup. We didn't take the makeup off when we departed, so as to show Nell and Laura. Nell thought we both looked like 'Aunt Jemima' and declared we were not to sit on anything or touch anything before we "got that s-h-i-t off"....
We did 2 takes of everything, as I remember and it all took 1 day...
An Assistant Director instructed us and also John Derek was there for the donkey scenes...
It was pretty simple really, but lots of waiting in the desert - HOT!!!

Larry

[Professional Tourist]

The Ten Commandments being one of my favorite films I am well familiar with those two kids from the exodus sequence. Who knew they were the Russell brothers. Here are a few shots:

Mark pointing out the Nubians to his grandfather:


Larry receiving the golden calf, in danger of becoming an idol worshipper:



The well-known donkey scene:




Larry watching the Red Sea part (Mark is afraid to look):



Thanks, kids, for some memorable scenes.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi PT,

The closeups of the donkey scene are me, but the others with the Golden Calf are not...
We only worked one day on this movie and I was not around for the Sinai Desert part. Just off the top of my head, that looks like Russ Tamblyn with the Golden Calf, but I don't know if he was in the picture???

Really, if I had been in all those scenes, I would have been pissed if I hadn't been nominated for an Oscar!!!

Thanks for the pictures - great....

Larry

[Professional Tourist]

The closeups of the donkey scene are me, but the others with the Golden Calf are not...
We only worked one day on this movie and I was not around for the Sinai Desert part. Just off the top of my head, that looks like Russ Tamblyn with the Golden Calf, but I don't know if he was in the picture???

I was working from your instructions to the video clip that Moira posted:

"The Ten Commandments":
Actually, I am 3 scenes in this and Mark in two - -
1) at .25, we are escorting the old man (my brother is on the left and I am on the right)
2) at .59, I am at the ass end (wouldn't you know it) and Mark is on the right side with his back to us
3) at 1.22, I am pushing a baggage cart

There are no kids at .25 in the clip, but the golden calf scene is at .22. It matched your description (old man, younger brother on left, older brother on right) so it appeared to be the moment to which you were referring. And those same two kids are seen again in the parting of the Red Sea scene so I included those shots.

Which scene escorting an old man did you mean? I can look for it on the DVD and make some new shots.

[Professional Tourist]

Reviewing Moira's clip again, perhaps you meant at .45 rather than .25? In that scene, which comes after the golden calf scene, there are two boys walking alongside a cart at the start of the exodus, the older one on the left and younger one on the right, and a man walks up between them after a few seconds. Here are some shots from that scene:






Would you be the older boy on the left wearing blue robe and red headband, and Mark the younger boy on the right wearing brown-striped robe and head-covering?

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi Again,

OK, after re-reviewing Moira's tape, we are at .22 - Mark on the left and me on the right and an old man with grey beard in the middle....
I was wrong on the .25 - - I must have looked down not soon enough....

Larry