Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to a new Ravel CD with some very interesting rarities – seems to be a three-CD set. Of course, I’m hearing most of it out of my left ear due to my right ear being clogged up with clogs. Not much to say about yesterday – just the usual stuff – got eight hours of sleep, got up at noon just as food arrived – a pastrami with coleslaw and Russian dressing from Daughter’s Deli, along with a little side of chicken salad for my evening snack. The sandwich was excellent and very filling. I dozed off, wrote the blurb for our upcoming CD release, had a long telephonic conversation, had the chicken salad, put out more asks for the recording, and that was really about it. See what I mean. So, in lieu of vamping, I thought it would be fun to do something new, and this new thing will run its course over this week. The idea is to write about a year that was hugely important in my life, and which also happened to be my favorite year in film – 1962. And so, we begin.
On Friday December 8, 1961, I turned 14, which would turn out to be a life-changing year in my young life. Oh, there were life-changing things prior to that, but 14 was a year to remember, the year being 1962 – the year I graduated junior high school and began high school, and also the year that would become, for me, the greatest year in film history. So, let’s get in our haineshisway.com Time Machine and travel back to my birthday leading into the New Year of 1962 and then go through that year and mostly the movies I saw and the events that would shape certain aspects of my life forever. Ready? Buckle up now. And here we go.
On my actual birthday, I’m not sure what I did, but I’m fairly certain that a movie was involved that weekend. I’d already seen King of Kings several times at the Egyptian. I still had my only friend at that point, but that friendship was waning and about to end – and that’s all detailed in Kritzerland. The movie I would have wanted to see that opened that day was The Colossus of Rhodes with Steve Reeves and directed by some newbie named Sergio Leone. But it wasn’t playing at a theater I could actually get to. My neighborhood theaters were minus one, since my favorite of them, the Stadium, had closed four months prior. I do vividly remember having started to look at the legit theater ads and wanting to see Little Mary Sunshine at the LeGrand Theater, and The Fantasticks at the Ivar. Those intrigued me for some reason, but it was too scary to even contemplate how one bought a ticket or where those theaters even were, although that was the year I’d begun going to Hollywood regularly, almost every weekend.
Many movies were about to open – big roadshow things as well as other things that interested me and that I knew I could go see once Christmas vacation began. So, I suspect my birthday weekend movie was The Devil at 4 O’Clock over at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills, where it was playing exclusively. All these years I was positive I saw it at the Stadium but nope. Anyway, to cut to the chase, I would see only two of the big movies that opened a couple of weeks later – all of the rest I’d see in the New Year, mostly in their general runs for the normal movies. The two biggies were both film musicals. Flower Drum Song opened at the New-Warner Hollywood, formerly the Warner Cinerama, which had had its Cinerama equipment and screen removed, although that ended up being very short term and they had to reinstall everything later in 1962 and go back to the Warner Cinerama name. But we’ll get there. I saw Flower Drum Song at the first showing on its opening day, December 22, the noon show. I loved it, though even as a newly turned fourteen I knew it looked a little cheesier than it should have, but boy did I love the songs and the cast, and I would go back to see it five or six times before the end of the year.
But the biggie had opened the week before on December 14, a movie called West Side Story. I’d see it two days later at its first matinee showing (the only weekday matinee was on Wednesday). That was also the start of Christmas vacation. Well, it was the greatest film musical I’d ever seen, and I was back the following Wednesday matinee, and the Saturday matinee after that and then every Saturday matinee for the next fourteen weeks – but also the occasional evening show – my mother took me to one of those. I could not get enough of West Side Story, and all other movies would have to wait until 1962. For meals, if I was at the Warner Hollywood for Flower Drum Song I’d go down the street to Coffee Dan’s and have my Dodger Burger and wedge salad. If West Side Story, always nearby Diamond Jim’s for their Shrimp Louis or spaghetti. And always visits the Bert Wheeler’s Magic Shop, Pickwick Books, and Phil Harris Records. And then it was a New Year. We’ll start 1962 in tomorrow’s notes and continue the journey throughout the week.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I must find and book an appointment with an ENT, hope to hear from my neurologist about weaning off Prednisone, I’ll hopefully get a galley and covers to approve, I’ll get Doug the sample tracks for the new release, I’ll eat, I’ll hopefully get the Applause orchestra books, I’ll continue to try and finish casting, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, getting the book to the printers, getting the print for My Fair Lady to the pressing plant along with that master, and then seeing the play I was supposed to see last Friday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, find and book an appointment with an ENT, hope to hear from the neurologist, hopefully get a galley and covers to approve, get Doug sample tracks, eat, hopefully get the Applause orchestra books, continue casting, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What is your personal favorite year for film? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have climbed aboard the haineshisway.com Time Machine.