Passages

[Lemmy Caution]

Any thoughts on Jim Brown's acting career, skills, films?
I recall as a kid, always being intrigued with his presence. But I'm not sure if that was because he seemed a genuine badass or because he was a legendary athlete. And I can't recall seeing Jim Brown in a film in ages.
But for me, it was like seeing singer/musician James Brown in a film. Even a cameo would make me smile.

In sports terms, Jim Brown was, like his contemporary Wilt Chamberlain or today's LeBron James, a dominant durable athlete with skills. Jim Brown never missed a game in his career, averaging over 5 yards per carry and 100 yards per game. Just hand the ball to Jim Brown twice and you had a 1st down! His career totals limited some by playing 4 years under a 12 game season regime, then expanded to 14 games, and his shocking decision to retire at age 30, following another MVP year. If memory serves, he thought it necessary to put his full effort into his movie career, and thought it would be limiting to just flit in and out of a potential film career during offseasons. Probably the ladies and the less taxing physical demands as well. Certainly was a prescient decision given what we know about CTE and other brain injuries prevalent in violent contact sports. At 6'2" 230, Jim Brown's philosophy was to try to put a hurt on any would-be tacklers.
Here's his career stats for anyone interested.
3x MVP, 8x All Pro, 87x Badass.

[Lemmy Caution]

[dadaistnun]

Haven't seen an official obituary yet, but word on Twitter is that Marlene Clark has died.

[Lemmy Caution]

I remember as a pre teen watching the WWF championship wrestling on a portable b&w Tv circa 1974 & 75, late at night after my brother and I were supposed to be asleep, on Channel 11, back when NY Tv had all of 7 stations.

Superstar Billy Graham was one of the more colorful characters, along with Andre the Giant, George "The Animal" Steele, Mil Mascares, Gorilla Monsoon. And while some of the wrestlers were average sized, like a Chief Jay Strongbow, or large flabby types such as Haystack Calhoun, Billy Graham was unusual for being bodybuilder muscular. The Big Cat Ernie Ladd, an ex-football player, also looked strong and athletic. Others: Ivan Putski and his Polish Hammer, Bobo Brazil and his Coconut Headbutt, a guy named Igor who wrote white nurse shoes, midget wrestling, Battle Royals. Wrestling managers: Capt Lou Albano, Classie Freddie Blassie, the Grand Wizard. Despite the spectacle and eccentricity, it was still a transitional time with boring wrestler types such as Bruno Sammartino and slightly later Bob Backlund, in the mix and often the champion, apparently in order to keep the ruse that it all might somehow vaguely be legit. The flair and wild antics of Superstar Billy Graham eventually won out, after Vince McMahon took over from his father in 1983.

[FrauBlucher]

I remember as a pre teen watching the WWF championship wrestling on a portable b&w Tv circa 1974 & 75, late at night after my brother and I were supposed to be asleep, on Channel 11, back when NY Tv had all of 7 stations.

My memories are very similar.

Lemmy, the WWF was actually called the WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) back then. It probably changed to WWF when VM Junior took over the business from VM Senior. I remember all those wrestlers. Chief Jay Strongbow was my favorite. Billy Graham was an early wrestling adapter to using steroids to get his look, which really became common in the 80s. I actually preferred the NWA which started broadcasting (Gordon Solie) in NY in the mid 70s. It always seemed more edgy and less predictable.

A personal story. My cousin lived in Atlantic Beach, Long Island. Billy Graham lived on the next block. Whenever I would go to my cousin's I would stake myself out near Graham's house to see if I could see him. One day I did. He had his garage opened and he was outside. I was afraid to approach him so I just stared at him from a distance.

[GaryC]

English-born Australian actress and television presenter Mary Parker, aged 92. She began her career in the UK in the 1950s, with amongst others second lead in the Tommy Trinder vehicle You Lucky People! (1955). After emigrating to Australia, she moved into television presenting and was the first woman to appear on TV on the service's opening night in Melbourne, reading the news.

Her IMDB listing appears to be incomplete, as after leaving the profession following marriage and seven children, she returned to acting in later life, with appearances in the TV show Blue Heelers and others.

[colinr0380]

Any thoughts on Jim Brown's acting career, skills, films?

As someone with no particular interest in sports it just has to be films for me. The first thing which sprang to mind were his scenes in Mars Attacks! (including getting the final triumphant 'back from the dead' scene before the inevitable Tom Jones song to go into the end credits). Though I had not particularly noted before this that he played one of the hunters in The Running Man too, although he is rather underutilised there!

There is an amazing run of films in the 1970s post-The Dirty Dozen - a couple of interesting westerns such as one of the few Israeli westerns in Vengeance with Lee Van Cleef, an Italian spaghetti western directed by Antonio Marghereti Take A Hard Ride (with Lee Van Cleef and Fred Williamson) and in John Guillermin's film El Condor, with Lee Van Cleef again!

The trailer for Three The Hard Way in which he is part of a trio with Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly makes the film look worth tracking down (I love the break in the trailer to show the theme tune being recorded, and the despairing non sequitur "What's happening?... Why!!" cry from the baddie!). That trailer often turns up in those 42nd Street Forever/Grindhouse/Trailer Trauma compilation sets, as does the astonishing looking ...tick ...tick... tick... (NSFW) and James Toback's Fingers in which he appears in a supporting role.

[beamish14]

James Toback’s book on Brown is a must-read. It’s certainly an interesting view of both their psyches

[MichaelB]

Saturn 3 screenwriter Martin Amis.

[beamish14]

Saturn 3 screenwriter Martin Amis.

Just days after The Zone of Interest premiered. Many great books, some of which received truly abhorrent screen adaptations. His output declined in quality quite a bit by the 2000’s, but works like The Rachel Papers and The Information really hold up

[colinr0380]

The Rachel Papers was one of the first Amis adaptations to the screen in 1989, starring Dexter Fletcher who a couple of years later would replace Dominik Diamond as host for the unfortunate third series of GamesMaster, and later on would turn into a director with the Elton John biopic Rocketman. And co-starring James Spader the same year he was in Sex, Lies & Videotape!

And 2000's Dead Babies (retitled Mood Swingers in the US) received particularly bad reviews, I seem to recall. But whilst it is still aggravatingly arch and never particularly funny or insightful it works a bit better if seen as the blackly comic riposte to something like Peter's Friends.

[Matt]

David Cronenberg was planning an adaptation of London Fields, with a script by Amis, for a very long time. It would have followed Spider but eventually got made by Matthew Cullen starring Billy Bob Thornton and Amber Heard.

[beamish14]

The Rachel Papers was one of the first Amis adaptations to the screen in 1989, starring Dexter Fletcher who a couple of years later would replace Dominik Diamond as host for the unfortunate third series of GamesMaster, and later on would turn into a director with the Elton John biopic Rocketman. And co-starring James Spader the same year he was in Sex, Lies & Videotape!

And 2000's Dead Babies (retitled Mood Swingers in the US) received particularly bad reviews, I seem to recall. But whilst it is still aggravatingly arch and never particularly funny or insightful it works a bit better if seen as the blackly comic riposte to something like Peter's Friends.

Jonathan Pryce is excellent in The Rachel Papers, but I hate how it’s essentially a British Ferris Bueller, complete with multiple scenes of fourth wall breaking. I knew the filmmakers would never attempt the book’s heartbreaking ending, but it’s still a cowardly film.

Nic Roeg was planning to make Night Train with, I think, Sigourney Weaver

Amis also wrote a very early book on video games that features an introduction from Steven Spielberg

[Mr Sausage]

I was never a fan of Amis' fiction (with the exception of The Zone of Interest, which was pretty good, much better than his first stab at the subject, Time's Arrow), but I've always liked his occasional and critical writing, especially what he gathered in The War Against Cliche. His prose crackled with wit and energy there, where in his novels the prose, while cleverly phrased and finely worked, just seemed to lay across the page. He seemed to benefit from the looseness of his deadline writing.

[GaryC]

Amis also had two acting credits - as one of the children in A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) and as himself in the 2019 film Good Posture.

[okcmaxk]

Billy Saluga, better known as Raymond J. Johnson Jr.

I need a Dust Bowl-style oral history explaining the appeal of this for three hours. Bob Dylan gave him a nod in “Gotta Serve Somebody,” so surely he’d be first in line.

[MichaelB]

Irish actor Ray Stevenson, best known for the Thor films, Game of Thrones and RRR (in which he played one of the century's most splendidly hissable villains).

[Ovader]

Very late to post this as I found out today that founding Yardbirds guitarist Anthony “Top” Topham passed away back on January 23 of this year.

[flyonthewall2983]

I remember as a pre teen watching the WWF championship wrestling on a portable b&w Tv circa 1974 & 75, late at night after my brother and I were supposed to be asleep, on Channel 11, back when NY Tv had all of 7 stations.

My memories are very similar.

Lemmy, the WWF was actually called the WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) back then. It probably changed to WWF when VM Junior took over the business from VM Senior. I remember all those wrestlers. Chief Jay Strongbow was my favorite. Billy Graham was an early wrestling adapter to using steroids to get his look, which really became common in the 80s. I actually preferred the NWA which started broadcasting (Gordon Solie) in NY in the mid 70s. It always seemed more edgy and less predictable.

A personal story. My cousin lived in Atlantic Beach, Long Island. Billy Graham lived on the next block. Whenever I would go to my cousin's I would stake myself out near Graham's house to see if I could see him. One day I did. He had his garage opened and he was outside. I was afraid to approach him so I just stared at him from a distance.

Me and my brother were 90’s kids weaned more on that decade’s wrestling but had an eye on the history of the business which I have always maintained is a deeply fascinating narrative of American culture that only recently has gotten its due as entertainment on a physical and athletic level that now is so far and above even what I grew up on.

He got to meet Superstar more than a decade ago at a convention in California. He had some pictures taken and a video of Graham and a very reverent Mike Tyson, not unlike the time on Arsenio he shared the stage with Muhammad Ali who in turn greatly inspired Graham’s ability to sell himself.

[dwk]

No other confirmation, but according to his personal facebook page, Walter Olsen of Scorpion Releasing has passed away.

[Peacock]

Animal Hospital’s Rolf Harris.

[colinr0380]

And nothing else! I'm still amazed that someone who sung about "Jake The Peg With The Extra Leg" and did heavy breathing in front of children whilst enshrining his catchprase "Can you tell what it is yet?" into the public consciousness could have been exposed for some improper behaviours later in life.

Although it was quite a big thing at the time time because (as with another certain BBC name of the period) he was all over the place in his heyday. I was particularly reminded whilst doing the "Algo-rhythms" project this month that the initial release of Kate Bush's 2005 Aerial album had vocals from Harris in the An Architect's Dream and The Painter's Link tracks that she understandably replaced in the subsequent post-conviction reissue of the album.

[zedz]

A couple of years ago I was listening to some old indie vinyl from the 80s and was surprised that the final (sub one-minute) track on The Creepers' Brute 12" outed Rolf Harris way back in 1986. These guys had decades of victims before they were exposed.

[colinr0380]

He's also one of the celebrity cameos in that notorious flop 'comedy' film from 2012 starring Danny Dyer, Run For Your Wife, which, yes, I am going to keep bringing up every... single... time... a member of that bizarrely giant cameo cast passes away.

[yoloswegmaster]

Kenneth Anger