Pursuits : Elizabeth Thomsen » RIP

RIP Jimmy Dean, 1928-2010

Elizabeth Thomsen — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:58:28 +0000

The Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is a self-guided walking tour of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Washington, DC. I really like these historical markers, which combine a map and text with photographs and other images from various time periods. This one shows Jimmy Dean on the accordion: “After World War II, Mount Pleasant enjoyed a brief heyday as a ‘hillbilly’ (country) music destination. Singer (and later sausage salesman) Jimmy Dean found fame hosting a local TV show, Town and Country Time, but Mount Pleasant knew him first as Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats, the house band at the Starlite Restaurant….”

I’m sure a lot of younger people don’t know who Jimmy Dean was, confuse him with James Dean or only know the name as a sausage brand. But to me, Jimmy Dean means just one thing: “Big Bad John.”

RIP Lena Horne, 1917-2010

Elizabeth Thomsen — Tue, 11 May 2010 00:08:25 +0000

I hope she’s up there with Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland and my mother, and they’re having a great time together belting out the Great American Songbook!

Lena Horne: A Life in YouTube — Kate Dailey put together an eclectic collection of Lena Horne videos from “Stormy Weather” to “It’s Not Easy Being Green” (a Sesame Street duet with Kermit the Frog) for Newsweek’s Human Condition blog

RIP Michael Mazur, 1935 – 2009

Elizabeth Thomsen — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:00:46 +0000

In 1976, I went to the Brockton Art Center. I don’t remember what the specific occasion was, but my then-husband, a musician, was playing there that evening, and I remember being excited to go with him. We had a baby and I didn’t get out much at the time.

I wandered around alone looking at the exhibit, Michael Mazur, Visions of a Draughtsman and remember being struck by the dark, powerful prints and studies from his Closed Ward series. And when I say struck, I don’t mean I thought “oh, how interesting.” I mean I was dumbfounded, shocked, dismayed, fascinated. These prints and drawings were based on Mazur’s observations of patients when he volunteered at a state mental institution, as I had done at Worcester State Hospital when I was in high school. His works brought back the emotions I had felt there: fear, sorrow, helplessness and just a little pride for forcing myself to come back week after week and act like it didn’t bother me. Looking at the patients in Mazur’s prints, I experienced the same surprising sense of tenderness toward these fragile, vulnerable men and women, and felt myself torn between not wanting to look at them, but being unable to look away. I bought the exhibition catalogue that night, and and have looked through it many times through the years. I still see the sorrow but also the humanity in the patients whose images he captured.

Since that night, I have followed Michael Mazur’s career through books, articles and exhibits, feeling connected to him by what I rather illogically think of as our shared experience. Michael Mazur died on August 18, and though I never met him, he touched my life, and I’ll miss him.

Michael Mazur; artist reinvigorated monotype; 73 — Obituary by Bryan Marquard from the Boston Globe
The Art of Michael Mazur — Sideshow from the Boston Globe
Michael Mazur, 1935-2009 — Obituary by Lloyd Schwartz from the Boston Phoenix
Artwork from the Late Michael Mazur — Slideshow from the Boston Phoenix
Michael Mazur — Official website

RIP Gale Storm

Elizabeth Thomsen — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:24:49 +0000

Gale Storm, best-remembered from her 1950′s program “My Little Margie,” died on June 27 at the age of 87.

Born Josephine Cottle, her career began in 1940 when she won a national talent contest called Gateway to Hollywood. The official prize was a movie contract RKO contract under the name Gale Storm. She fell in love with contest’s male winner, Lee Bonnell, who she married in 1941.

In the 1940s, Gale Storm appeared in many B movies but her big break came in 1952, when “My Little Margie” premiered as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy.” Both shows were set in Manhattan and revolved around madcap women and their crazy schemes which often involved dress-up and deception, always backfired and both amused and exasperated the men in their lives.

But Margie was younger than Lucy and single, living alone in a Fifth Avenue penthouse with her handsome, widowed father, businessman Vern Albright. Many of the plots revolved around Margie’s attempts to advance her father’s career or protect him from romantic entanglements. When things fell apart, as they always did, Margie would do her classic “Margie gurgle” and Vern would say, “Well…that’s my little Margie!”

This program was never a critical favorite, but it was lively and popular, and I remember it well. I loved Margie’s glamorous lifestyle with her handsome, indulgent father. I thought her behavior was appalling, but loved her high spirits and was fascinated by the way she got away with the most outrageous antics just because she was so adorable.

“My Little Margie” was an unusual show because it began on television but crossed over into radio. The program ran from 1952-1955, and Gale Storm went on to new comedy, “The Gale Storm Show,” (known in syndication as “Oh, Susanna”) in which she played cruise director Susanna Pomeroy. Storm, who recorded several songs during the 1950s, sang on her new program, and three of her records from this period were commercial successes : “I Hear You Knocking,” “Teenage Prayer” and “Dark Moon.”

In later years, she continued to perform on the stage and in guest spots on television programs. Her 1980 autobiography, “I Ain’t Down Yet,” revealed her struggle and eventual success overcoming alcoholism.

Storm’s first husband died in 1987, and in 1987 she married former TV executive Paul Masterson, who died in 1996. Gale Storm and Lee Bonnell had three sons, Phillip, Peter and Paul, and a daughter, Susanna. Storm is survived by her children, eight grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, plus a lot of fans for whom she will always be Our Little Margie.

My Little Margie Episode from the Internet Archive

RIP Michael Jackson

Elizabeth Thomsen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:24:54 +0000

Hard to know what to say, what to remember, what’s better forgotten. But I do like this performance of the song “Ben” from the Sonny and Cher show. Here Jackson has outgrown the his role as the talented little kid with the Jackson 5, and not yet become the King of Pop…and all that came later.

You Made Me Love You

Elizabeth Thomsen — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:04:03 +0000

Just remembering my mother with this movie clip of Judy Garland singing “You Made Me Love You” to a photograph of Clark Gable. My mother loved this song and sang it often, and described this scene to me many times. She was around 13 when she saw this, and thought it was wonderfully romantic. I never saw the movie, Broadway Melody of 1938, so I was happy to find this clip on YouTube.

RIP Mark Fidrych, Ballplayer and Diner Guy

Elizabeth Thomsen — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:41:18 +0000

I was saddened to hear the news of the accidental death of former baseball player Mark “The Bird” Fidrych yesterday. In 1976, Fidrych joined the Detroit Tigers. He was named the American League Rookie of the Year and was selected as the American League’s starting pitcher for the All Star game. For a short time, he was a celebrity. A 1977 New York Times article referred to him as “the legendary ‘Bird’ of the Detroit Tigers pitching staff and the biggest box-office draw in baseball in years.”

But then he lost it all. His baseball career was cut short due to an injuries. He struggled to recover his pitching ability, and spent served some time in the minor leagues attempting a comeback. He ended his baseball career in 1983 at the age of 29.

He went back to his hometown of Northborough, Massachusetts, where he married Ann Pantazis, whose parents owned Chet’s Diner. On weekends, he helped out at the diner, serving breakfast, washing dishes, doing whatever needed to be done.

His mother-in-law, Nancy Pantazis, is quoted in the Boston Globe : “He loved it. Every Saturday he was there…He was a wonderful guy. I couldn’t ask for a better son-in-law, and he’ll be missed.”

I never met him, but by all accounts he had a good life in Northborough, and didn’t allow his life to be ruined by regret over the way his baseball career had been cut short.

In a 1999 interview, he told the Boston Globe : “I got a great life now…I got a family, I got a house, I got a dog. I would like my career to have been longer, but you can’t look back. You have to look to the future.”

I’m sure he’ll be missed.

Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych, 54; Pitcher Enthralled Fans — By Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe, April 14, 2009