Friday, November 18, 2011

NATALIE WOOD AND MARILYN MONROE--SO MANY PARALLELS

     While I readily admit that I don't give a hoot about the manic comings and goings of today's purported "celebs" many of them in the news one day then forgotten the next, I must admit that some of the really "big" and lasting Hollywood celebrities of the past still fascinate me.
     When I awoke this morning, I was suddenly immersed in a flurry of media activity concerning the fact that the police are planning to reopen the closed investigation of the drowning death of superstar Natalie Wood.  I immediately found myself having total recall of the details of that event.  At the time, an aura of "suspicion" seemed to loom over what was ultimately termed to be "an accidental drowning."  There was a great deal of "buzz" concerning whether she actually fell overboard on her own yacht or, in the alternative, did she meet with foul play on that fateful night.  On the yacht with her were her husband, Robert Wagner, and the up-and-coming future star, Christopher Walken.  In a nutshell, the story, as told at the time, never seemed satisfactory to most of the people that I spoke with way back then.
     Few would dispute that Natalie Wood was both beautiful and talented.  Even before her famous adult roles in Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, and other unforgettable films, she played the adorable little girl who so desperately wanted to believe in Santa in the vintage film, Miracle on 34th Street.
      I can't help but see the parallel that seems to exist with Natalie's death, and that of film legend Marilyn Monroe.  Although she died back in the '60's, mystery still surrounds the circumstances of her death--accidental overdose of booze and pills?  Suicide?  Or murder committed to save careers, or to hide secrets known to Marilyn.
      These two deaths seldom make the rolls of "famous Hollywood murders."  But should they perhaps head the list of such crimes--right up there with the Black Dahlia?  While the death of the infamous Black Dahlia was so obviously a brutal murder, perhaps Natalia Wood, and Marilyn before her, also fell victim to murder.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

MY UNFORGETABLE FATHER-IN-LAW: MILT WIDDER

     For about 46 years, my father-in-law, Milt Widder, wrote a popular gossip column for The Cleveland Press.  His column, called "Sights and Sounds" became one of the newspaper's most popular features.  But Milt's story began far from Ohio, in early 20th Century Europe.  Milt was an Hungarian child, born in Berlin in 1907.  He was to be the only child of his parents--a doctor father and a pianist mother.  When Milt was only 13, in 1920, he and his parents came to America and settled in Cleveland.  Times were tough for the immigrant family.  Although his father was a professional man--a doctor--his inability to read, write or speak in English became a great challenge when he was faced with taking the medical exam that would allow him to continue his medical practice in America.  A bright idea occurred to him--he could take his exam in Latin (the traditional language of both medicine and law).  It worked, and he passed on his first try!
     Young Milt had no interest in following in his father's footsteps.  He instead decided that he would like to become an attorney.  Although he began law school, the Great Depression got in his way and he dropped out.  Lucky for all of his thousands of readers that he did, because he then went to work as a young copy boy for the newspaper.  Interestingly, although Milt, like his father, could not speak much English when he arrived in Cleveland, he soon became so proficient in the language that he worked his way up to becoming a columnist for the paper.  He did a brief stint as the music critic for The Cleveland Press before getting the assignment of gossip columnist.  His outgoing personality and his writing style made him a "natural" for the job.  Soon, all of Cleveland was reading his column.  One reason for its popularity was the fact that his stories concerned not just Cleveland's elite high society, but the average person as well.  While today's gossip columnists concentrate mainly on the rich and famous, Milt also included "the little guy" in his columns.  Although his newspaper job didn't pay very well--most newspaper jobs don't--he was thankful to be employed at all in the Great Depression, especially since, by that time, he had a young wife to support--and would, in the coming years, have four children as well.
     Being the city's favorite gossip columnist made Milt something of a celebrity in his own right.  During Cleveland's Annual Christmas Parade, Milt frequently dressed up in the traditional red suit, and took on the role of Santa.  He attended all of the popular events--in order to get stories for the column.  Consequently, he met the famous people of the day--from opera singers, to movie stars, to sports greats.  In fact, one famous opera singer became the godmother for his third son, and he came to know Indians great, Bob Feller, so well that, when he asked my late husband (a child of ten at the time) what he would like to name his little brother, my husband replied: "Robert Andrew Feller Widder."  Milt and his wife, Dorothy, convinced my husband to settle on just "Robert Andrew Widder", still the namesake for the famous Hall of Famer!
     In the "old" Press building--in the days before cellular phones and the Internet--Milt could frequently be found at his desk with a telephone to each ear, sitting before a manual typewriter on which he would "hunt and peck" his stories.  Occasionally, he would come upon a really HUGE story.  He was the first gossip columnist in the U.S. to learn that Howard Hughes and actress Jean Peters were divorcing.  He hesitated to run the piece, feeling that it might be unkind to do so.  (How different from today's gossip columnists!)  It was a good thing that he hesitated, however, because the paper's editor, Louis B. Seltzer, soon came to him to tell him not to run the story in the gossip column--instead, Seltzer wanted it for the front page!
     If his gossip column was the heart of his public life, his wife, Dorothy (or "Dort" as he lovingly called her) was the heart of his private life.  It had been love at first sight for the young Milt and the lovely, blond Dorothy, who married in 1932, when he was 23 and she was just 21.  Their marriage remained not just a marriage, but a great romance, as well, until Dorothy's death separated them in 1980.  Milt lived on for another five years, until he went to join Dorothy once again in 1985.
     In retrospect, Milt Widder was an excellent newspaperman.  Despite his great popularity, however, he continually worried whether or not he might be fired from his job at any time.  Ridiculous!  Most readers of the paper claimed that his column was the first one they read each day.  Perhaps it was just the shadow of the Great Depression, casting its shadow of doubt upon him--as it did upon so many that lived through those years.

AS AN AFTERTHOUGH....

    Oh! Oh!  While I remembered, in my previous post, to credit my friend's photograph, I forgot to credit the author of the poem that I paraphrased.  He was Joyce Kilmer, the young American poet who wrote "Trees" ("I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree", etc.)  He lived from 1886 to 1918, dying as a soldier on the battlefields of France during World War One, at about only 32 years of age.
     The poem that I quoted from memory--memorized it freshman year in high school--is entitled "The House With Nobody In It."

A HOUSE--LONELY AND FORGOTTEN

     This house was photographed by my old friend, Tom Hachtel.  (Back when we were "youngins" I never guessed that he would turn into the next Ansel Adams!)  But, in this picture of an old, dilapidated shack, he has managed to capture something very special and poignant.  Although this particular house stands near to the town of Othello, Washington in the Pacific Northwest, it has a universal quality to it.  One can imagine such a house existing here in Ohio--or anywhere, for that matter.  When I first saw the photo, I was immediately reminded of a poem that I learned while I was in high school.  It is a long poem, so I will just include some of the most relevant stanzas here:

     "Now a new house standing empty, with gaping window and door,
     Looks idle perhaps and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
     But there's nothing mournful about it, it cannot be sad or lone,
     For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

     "But a house that has done what a house should do,
     A house that has sheltered life,
     That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife.
     A house that has ecoed a baby's laugh, and held up its stumling feet,
     Is the saddest sight when it's left alone that ever your eyes could meet.
                           ********
     "So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track,
     I never go by that poor old house without stopping and looking back.
     Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
     For I can't help thinking that poor old house
     Is a house with a broken heart."

    Yes, I know that the poem may be overly-sentimental and perhaps even "hokey", but I also believe that it, combined with the image so artfully-presented in my friend's photo, are very relevant to our present economy, and should remind all of us to be mindful of the sadness felt--not ACTUALLY by all the empty, foreclosed houses in our country today--but by the families who once lived in them.  Sadly, 2011 seems to be much like the 1930's that our parents and grandparents suffered through, told us about, and were forever changed by--with the loss of their homes, businesses, and possessions.
     So I ask that you contemplate the photograph, read the lines of poetry, and see if, like me, they will evoke for you the images of a long-gone era and its suffering people.
     To my readers:  Be well, and prosper!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

HERE'S SOMETHING THAT ALL OF YOU MIGHT LIKE

     I have been told today that some of you might like to make comments on this blog, but are either having a difficult time figuring out how to do so; or that some of you might want to say something confidentially rather than on the blog.  Here is an answer for you:  My personal e-mail address.  Feel free to use it if you like.  It is MAGSTAT@AOL.COM.  Look forward to hearing from you.

AM I TOO OUTLANDISH TO BE REAL?!

     I haven't posted since late October--mostly because I was frustrated because I wasn't sure that anyone was reading my posts.  I messaged with my old friend Tom today, however, and he told me that he checks out this blog every week.  Wow, was I surprised and delighted to know I wasn't merely typing into cyberspace--how surrealistic that would be!  I guess that people actually are reading it.  I can only tell that when someone either makes a comment on the blog, or actually tells me that they are reading it.  Thanks so much to all of you that are reading this.  I was beginning to think that perhaps I was just too outlandish or outspoken to be in print!  Maybe not.  You can always count on me to "speak my mind", though.  Let me tell you what I have in mind next--actually it's something that I did a couple of times back in the summer.  I thought I might write posts on interesting people that I have known over the years--perhaps some of you may have known them, too.  It is "a small world after all!"  Seriously, though, if there are topics that any of you might like to discuss, just let me know.