*CANDIDS*

[mongoII]

APRIL 15th. BIRTHDAYS


ROBERT WALKER JR. is 70 today


CLAUDIA CARDINALE is 72 today


MICHAEL ANSARA is 88 today


ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY (1933 - 1995)


HARVEY LEMBECK (1923 - 1982)


HANS CONRIED (1917 - 1982)


WALLACE REID (1891 - 1923)


FLORENCE BATES (1888 - 1954)

[jdb1]

It's my pleasure, Judith. However I can't imagine that Danny Kaye had failures as a human being since I always held him high as a human being. What could it be that I don't know about him?
I recall a wonderful show called "Brooklyn Bridge", and in one episode the family was going to the movies to see a Danny Kaye film and they were tickled pink.

Gee, Joe, I'm afraid that if you read any bios of Kaye, you'll be quite disturbed at descriptions of his behavior. He wanted the spotlight all the time, and was not very generous to his co-stars, especially as he got older.

Of course, this could describe any number of celebs, couldn't it. But his private behavior seemed to have been, at times, the polar opposite of his public persona. I'll never get the image out of my head of the telecast of whatever award it was he was given at some point late in life -- a national recognition of some kind. His wife, Sylvia Fine, was seated to the side and behind him, not beside him, as though he couldn't bear to have her in the same shot with her when the cameras were on them. Even if they were living apart for years and years (and they were), he could have at least, for the sake of appearance, shared this experience properly with his wife who, not incidentally, was responsible in large part for his success. Having to sit through the entire thing with her husband's back to her must have been galling.

I wonder if there is a posting on YouTube of an interview with Madeleine Kahn about Kaye's behavior during the Broadway show they were in. He treated her, and everyone else, pretty badly, while he was basking in the adulation of the audience. I recommend you read the Kaye bio "Nobody's Fool," by Martin Gottfried. It's hardly laudatory, but I think it's reasonably fair.

[mongoII]

Thanks for the info, Judith. I had no idea that this well mannered man was a spotlight freak. I feel for Ms. Fine. What about poor Virginia Mayo?
Yet, I will always admire the guy whose talents are a joy to behold.

[mongoII]

This image with Robert Walker, Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli at a night club shrieks 'What's going on here'!

[klondike]

My intuition tells me that Judy might well have been thinking: "Poor Bobby Walker! He's more neurotic than I've ever been! I hope Vince can keep chatting him up, so I can get a breather . . {and maybe something to eat!} . . "

[mongoII]

Will the real Tarzan please swing out on the vine

[knitwit45]

Judith, I just read a source (googled it after your post) that said Danny Kaye suffered from manic-depressive syndrome all his life. It certainly would explain his personality tweaks, wouldn't it?

[Moraldo Rubini]

Will the real Tarzan please swing out on the vine

Who can name these loinclothed fellows? I can't tell who the first one is as he gabs with Cheeta (Bruce Bennet?); then there's Johnny (MGM's Tarzan); Ron Ely (TV's Tarzan); and then who? Elmo Lincoln?

[mrsl]

.
Depending on when the photo was taken, could that possibly be Christopher Lambert of Greystoke? Or, did Buster Crabbe play Tarzan at one time also, besides Flash Gordon? That's all for me, I got nothin.
.

[klondike]

Bennett's a possible for Tarzan #1, but given the decade, I'd sooner wager it's Jock Mahoney, the feature film vine-swinger from my youth . . course, I also considered Mike Henry & Lex Barker, but they're anatomically too big, & too slight, respectively, for the jungle yodeller pictured on the left.

[mongoII]

From left to right the Tarzan's are: Jock Mahoney, Johnny Weissmuller, Ron Ely, and James Pierce who played Tarzan in 1927.
The actors gathered in 1966 to promote the new Tarzan series on NBC with Ely.

[mongoII]

APRIL 16th. BIRTHDAYS


EDIE ADAMS (1927 - 2008)


HENRY MANCINI (1924 - 1994)


PETER USTINOV (1921 - 2004)


WILLIAM 'BILLY' BENEDICT (1917 - 1999)


BARRY NELSON (1917 - 2007)


JOHN HODIAK (1914 - 1955)


ALFONSO BEDOYA (1904 - 1957)


FIFI D'ORSAY (1904 1983)


CHARLES CHAPLIN (1889 - 1977)


HENRY STEPHENSON (1871 - 1956)

[jdb1]

Good gravy, Joe, that is the most gorgeous photo of Chaplin I've ever seen!! Be still my heart!!!

Knitty, at which source did you find this info about Kaye? It certainly would explain a lot and, if true, was surely supressed in his lifetime, a time in which one didn't admit to such things. Come to think of it, I have heard tell of his being totally hyper at times and at other times hiding away on his own for long periods. Some highly talented people are truly overwhelmed by their own genius.

Like I said before --- Ah, my lost saints.

[klondike]

Barry, Barry, Barry - good thing that you tamed that hair down a bit before auditioning for the role of 007 on "The Alcoa Hour", or Trivial Pursuit could never have made you a celebrity, and I would have gone without a dozen free beers or so, by now!

[jdb1]

Klonny, I'm sure I've seen Nelson with hair much bigger than that. In fact, that's really how I think of him: just a head of bouffant hair, with a small and generically boyish face underneath, like a kid from a comic strip. I was always surprised, when seeing him on screen, at how tall he was compared to the other actors -- I always thought of him as a big-haired juvenile.

I never really paid all that much attention to him, actually, even though he was a all over TV in the 50s and 60s. I always found him something of an interchangeable part, along with Leslie Nielsen and Patrick O'Neal. It was when I read Janet Leigh's memoirs, where she wrote about her affair with Nelson when they were both new to Hollywood, that I began to think of him as as something other than a tall hirsute kid. (Yes, yes -- Leslie Nielsen surprised us all. Who knew back then that he was so funny?)