Author: edbaruch

“He’s here for one hour and look at all the problems he’s caused!”

 Quote from community leader of New Egypt, NJ upon Ed’s visit there. Ed explained that he was there for three hours not one hour giving him plenty of additional time for mischief.

“One of the best and most familiar character actors of the first four decades of sound films, although few who knew his face also knew his name, John Qualen was born in Canada to Norwegian parents. His father was a minister. The family moved to the United States and Qualen (whose real name was Kvalen) grew up in Elgin, Illinois. He won an oratory contest and was given a scholarship to Northwestern University. His interest in acting was piqued there, and he began appearing in tent shows on the Lyceum-Chautauqua circuit and in stock. He went to New York in 1929 and got his big break as the Swedish janitor in Elmer Rice‘s Street Scene. He repeated the role two years later in the film version. That same year he first worked for director John Ford in Arrowsmith (1931). He became a member of Ford’s famed stock company and had prominent roles for Ford for the next thirty-five years. He became a most familiar character player, specializing in Scandinavians of various nationalities, but frequently playing a wide variety of other ethnicities. Perhaps his greatest work among many memorable roles was as the pitiful Muley, who recounts the destruction of his farm by the bank in Ford’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Although plagued in his later years by failing eyesight, he continued to work steadily into his final years. He was treasurer of The Authors Club and historian of The Masquers, Hollywood’s famed social group for actors. He had three children, Elizabeth, Kathleen, and Meredith. Qualen died in 1987.”

I noted this guy in the film Casablanca. He played Victor Lazlo’s (Paul Henreid) resistance fighter contact in the film. He shows Victor a ring he is ostensibly trying to sell that has a Cross of Lorraine inside of it and it demonstrates that he is part of the French Resistance movement.

“The Cross of Lorraine (French: Croix de Lorraine) is a heraldic two-barred cross, consisting of a vertical line crossed by two shorter horizontal bars. In most renditions, the horizontal bars are “graded” with the upper bar being the shorter, though variations with the bars of equal length are also seen. The Lorraine name has come to signify several cross variations, including the patriarchal cross with its bars near the top.”

Disney used their employees as actors, nobody did just one thing their. Here composer Henry Reid was Paul Henreid.

So what attracted my attention so much that I am posting about John Qualen?

I have a strong suspicion John Qualen is the father of Dana Carvey or some other close relative (or clone).

Go see the film and study Dana for a bit and it becomes pretty clear. Same look same voice, same mannerisms. Same luscious thighs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll have to come back to this…sorry everyone…too late too tired

This was really just too wonderful. Enjoyed it so much I rewatched The Fisher King which may be my second favorite film of Robins…huge fan of Jumanji which is my favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyKGLSKXZkw

Fisher King has Jeff Bridges who I love and I don’t think I’ve seen him in a bad film. Big shout out for Jeff in “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” with Clint Eastwood and George Kennedy and in the remake of True Grit with Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld.

I complained to Ron once that the remake of True Grit showed it was written by the Coen Brothers but does not mention Charles Portis who wrote the novel considered one of the great Western novels of all time, taking nothing away from Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour. Ron picked up the phone and spoke with one of the Coen Bros. I listened in to the conversation and the Coen brother pled ignorance. He said he had no idea they were doing that. I don’t believe it said screenplay by the Coen Brothers it simply said True Grit written by the Coen Brothers. Still the film is one of my favorites and i’ve seen it over and over. The original version had John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and Glen Campbell as the Texas Ranger with Kim Darby as Mattie Ross.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Terry Gilliam who directed The Fisher King. I’ve loved pretty much everything I’ve seen of his: Time Bandits (1981),  The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). I’ve missed a few of his films and I’ll try and catch up.

I tried watching Brazil on a couple of occasions and had a hard time of it. Before I try again I went to read the reviews and I resonated with Roger Ebert’s review: Roger Ebert was less enthusiastic in the Chicago Sun-Times, giving the film two out of four stars and claiming that it was “hard to follow”. He felt the film lacked a confident grasp on its characters’ roles in a story “awash in elaborate special effects, sensational sets, apocalyptic scenes of destruction and a general lack of discipline”. Ebert wrote positively of certain scenes, especially one in which “Sam moves into half an office and finds himself engaged in a tug-of-war over his desk with the man through the wall. I was reminded of a Chaplin film, Modern Times, and reminded, too, that in Chaplin economy and simplicity were virtues, not the enemy.”^[51]

So I met Terry Gilliam at one of the live Ed Shows (The Ed Show Live), written, directed and produced by Ron Howard (I helped out but Ron oversaw all aspects of the show and made it work. As I recall Terry was kind of unsatisfied with the work he was doing. I told him I believed he was operating at somewhere between 80-90 % of his potential which for a genius like Terry would be really pretty good, but not good enough for a genius like Terry. He was hanging with a bunch of “Yes” people which is better than hanging with a bunch of “No” people but again not good enough. I brought up he was not pursuing his great love which is cartooning and he had a good deal of work he was doing locked in his safe. I don’t know where it went from there but it was a pleasure meeting him and again I’ve loved his films and of course Monty Python!

Next: The Ed Show Live

 

 

So I went to see British Invasion Years for about the sixth time:

If you haven’t seen them shame on you! You know you’re not getting any younger. They are too amazing for words and I sit there and grab my chest while they sing so my heart won’t break out of my chest. I went up to get a BIY Tee Shirt because frankly you can’t have too many of them. When I encountered this gorgeous creature asking her dad for something,

 

It happens I have always been a huge fan of Pippi Longstockings. I read all the Pippi books including Pippi In The South Seas. I even know her full name: According to Pippi herself, her full name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Ephraim’s Daughter Longstockings (in Swedish, it’s Pippilotta Viktualia Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraimsdotter LÃ¥ngstrump).  It would give me great pleasure to tell you I read the books in Swedish…but I didn’t but I saw both movies and the “Clint Howard Reboots Pippi Longstocking with Milla Jovovich and Fred Willard” Which was hysterically funny.

I pieced this together after remembering the skating scene in the 1988 remake, “The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocks” which was terrific!! Super talents!!!

FYI lots of great photos of Tami as an adult!