R.I.P.

[jdb1]

Well, Moira, in the early 60s it was a battle of the kitchen media divas between Bracken and Julia Child. I think Julia won that one. I remember Bracken from many TV appearances - she had a very dry, rather sarcastic way of speaking. How could she compete with the gracious, fluty-toned, but equally sharp-witted Julia?

Besides, the recipes in Braken's book were mostly of the motel hot-plate variety, and the novelty wore off very quickly. I had my share of mayonnaise sandwiches in my youth because my mother worked and didn't have time to make meals. The novelty wears off very quickly, and remember in those days there weren't many salad bars, gourmet restaurants, or fancy take-out places, as there are now. I'm not enthused at the idea of eating a "Skid Row" dinner.

[And for historical purposes, I'd like to point out that my father, who had a deli/grocery on First Avenue and East 53rd Street (it's now a D'Agostinos-or is it a Gristdedes-I always mix those up), was one of the very first delis in NYC to have a what would eventually come to be known as a salad bar. His was also the first store on the East Side to sell Haagen-Dasz ice cream. Good ol' American enterprise.]

[mongoII]

Moira, it's ironic that you bring up the name Peg Bracken. I distinctively remember a TV commercial years ago where a woman would say, "Hi, I'm Peg Bracken and I wrote the I Hate to Cookbook". Yet I don't recall just what she was advertising at the time.

[moira finnie]

Hi Judith,
I agree about the serious limitations of Peg Bracken's cuisine. I don't think the lady saw herself as a competitor for a highly trained cook such as Julia Child, though. I'm pretty sure that Bracken was just in the anti-domestic goddess biz for the greenbacks and the yuks. Bracken's type of cooking, which did show up on our table as kids, is probably one of the reasons that one of my sisters and I became serious cooks in later life--out of self-defense and a desire to have something a bit more tasty!

Mongo,
The food that Peg Bracken was flogging in those commercials were Bird's Eye frozen vittles. A natural fit for author and vendor, eh?

[Moraldo Rubini]

And for historical purposes, I'd like to point out that my father, who had a deli/grocery on First Avenue and East 53rd Street (it's now a D'Agostinos-or is it a Gristdedes-I always mix those up), was one of the very first delis in NYC to have a what would eventually come to be known as a salad bar. His was also the first store on the East Side to sell Haagen-Dasz ice cream. Good ol' American enterprise.

It's a D'Agostino, Judith. That corner market is very near the office where I work when I'm in New York City. In fact, I spent many panicked minutes in that market last May, as I tried to forage some sustenance between meetings and deadlines. What a kick to know that you had a connection with this space!

[inglis]

Wow! I've been pretty much out of the loop this week because of work...but very sad to hear about Deborah Kerr. I absolutely *loved* her.

What a bummer.

HEAVEN KNOWS MR ALLISON, BLACK NARCISSUS, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, and TEA AND SYMPATHY are a few of my favorites.

That pretty much sums it up for me too. I also like her in The Chalk Garden .

[jdb1]

And for historical purposes, I'd like to point out that my father, who had a deli/grocery on First Avenue and East 53rd Street (it's now a D'Agostinos-or is it a Gristdedes-I always mix those up), was one of the very first delis in NYC to have a what would eventually come to be known as a salad bar. His was also the first store on the East Side to sell Haagen-Dasz ice cream. Good ol' American enterprise.

It's a D'Agostino, Judith. That corner market is very near the office where I work when I'm in New York City. In fact, I spent many panicked minutes in that market last May, as I tried to forage some sustenance between meetings and deadlines. What a kick to know that you had a connection with this space!

And I'm working right down First Ave., on E. 48th!

My father's store, called Southgate Delicatessen, was what is now the center part of the store, with the entrance. Big enough, but not as large as the current supermarket. I can't remember what the other stores on either side were - it was so long ago. But as large as the current store is, it didn't have anything like the eclectic mix my father used to stock for his rather eclectic mix of customers in that small space.

This is not the store, by the way, wherein I had the thrill of selling an apple to Edward G. Robinson. That one was on Sixth Ave. and E. 43rd, and that small building was torn down long ago to make way for the big glass boxes that now line Sixth (a/k/a Avenue of the Americas). Before that store, he had one on Ninth Ave. and - hmm, maybe W. 44th or so - long before that area became fashionable. One of his steady customers there was the English actress Hermione Baddely, who lived nearby at the time. He always called her "HER-mee-owney," which made her laugh. The Irish writer Brendan Behan was also a customer, and I had an autograph from him that said "Maazel Tov to Judy," which I lost. Darn!

As I recall, there were a lot of movie and theater folk living in the large building above his First Ave. store, but I forget which - there are so very many celebrities in New York, after all. I do rememer that Mary Travers, of Peter, Paul and, lived there when the store was open. Also actress and personality Hildy Parks and her husband, Alex somebody (Cohen?). He was a Broadway producer. There were lots, but I remember best those with whom my father was friendly, he being a rather cultured and erudite fellow for an immigrant storekeeper.

[moira finnie]

Edward G. Robinson, Mary Travers, Hermione Baddely, and most of all, Brendan Behan! Boy, Judith, why don't you start a thread called "Brushes with Greatness"??

That is so cool about your father, his store and you. I really hope that you will write more about it, even if, as you said, "there are so very many celebrities in New York"--who can possibly remember them all!?

Thanks for mentioning these few, in any case. It's fun to read about that.

[jdb1]

Yes, I suppose by virtue of living in NYC and being the child of two movie and theater-loving parents, in my own very small way, without actually working in the business, I've been around.

Thirty years ago, I worked at Gulf+Western Industries when they owned Paramount, so there was lots of celebrity action there, and I've worked at several very big law firms who had the great and near-great as clients. The firm I work for now represents many celebrities in intellectual property matters, but we rarely see them, dealing primarily with their personal attorneys instead. Then of course, all you have to do really is walk down the street here, and they're all over the place.

Only the other day, I was telling my daughter about how Reggie Jackson, in his white Rolls (or maybe it was a Bentley), tried to get me to get in the car with him one afternoon as I was waiting to cross Park Avenue. I was a lot younger, slimmer and more Ina-like in those days, but I didn't take him up on it.

[moira finnie]

Bobby Mauch, who starred in several movies with his spitting image, twin brother Billy Mauch, including The Prince and the Pauper with Errol Flynn, died on Oct. 15th, it was announced today. His brother Billy died last September.

Both twins served in WWII in the Pacific and appeared on Broadway in Moss Hart's patriotic Winged Victory. Bobby Mauch later became a film editor in Hollywood. His brother worked at Warner Brothers as a sound editor.

Here's a link to the obituary in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/movie ... ref=slogin

[moira finnie]

Word comes today from her cherished friend and distant cousin, Vecchiolarry, that Moira Lister, whose deliciously husky voice and superb comic timing brightened stages and film screens from her native Capetown to London and New York, has died at age 84.

Working at her craft from the age of 14, Ms. Lister was known in her private life as the Vicomtesse d'Orthez, after her marriage at 29 to the Vicomte Jacques Henry Guy d'Orthez, a French cavalry officer and champagne producer, which produced two daughters. This long union in no way interrupted her career. As an example of Moira Lister's trenchant wit, she once commented about her husband's attitude toward her career, that “Frenchmen are not afraid of intelligent women. Intelligent or brainy women usually find themselves being treated by Englishmen the same way they would treat a fellow. You know, like one of the boys.”

Some of the actress' memorable appearances that film aficionados might know were in The Cruel Sea (1953), The Deep Blue Sea (1955), The Yellow Rolls-Royce(1965), as well as numerous stage and tv appearances in everything from Shakespeare to Noel Coward to episodes of The Avengers.

Happily the actress may be seen on TCM this Friday, Nov. 2nd at 8pm ET in Trouble in Store(1953), which features the redoubtable Margaret Rutherford and adept broad comedian Norman Wisdom as well.

Her "way of turning glamorous women into witty commentators on life", as the Times of London described her gifts, stood her in good stead, as did her lithe beauty and intelligence. Whether in distinguished plays such as the 1996 production of Henry James' "The Aspern Papers" in London, her one woman show based on Noel Coward's writings, or a knockabout farce such as this Friday's movie on TCM, the lady had a joie de vivre that was infectious.

My sympathy to her friends and family, but especially to our friend and raconteur, Larry.

Shelley's words seem to fit this lady, somehow: "Hail to thee, blithe spirit…"Teach me half the gladness/ That thy brain must know..."

[mrsl]

Johnm:

Has Robert Goulet passed away? What a shame. Such a beautiful voice.

I assume that's why you have his photo here. You're so right, he was a terrific Lancelot. I wore that recording out.

Anne

[Moraldo Rubini]

Yes Anne, Robert Goulet passed away today at age 73. He suffered from a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis and was being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, while awaiting a lung transplant.

Camelot remained the peak of his career, though he also made stage appearances in revivals of Carousel, The Pajama Game, South Pacific and La Cage Aux Folles. He won the Best Actor Tony Award for The Happy Time in 1968.

Goulet won the Grammy for best new artist of 1962, but just wasn't born at the right time for his talents to be exhibited on film. His movie credits included Honeymoon Hotel, Atlantic City and Beetlejuice. In 1999 he voiced the role of Wheezy the Penguin in Toy Story 2; years after he voice Jaune-Tom alongside Judy Garland in Gay Purr-ee.

RIP Robert Goulet

[mrsl]

Thanks Moraldo:

Yes he was born just a little too late for his talent to be fully appreciated. He was younger than I thought however, I thought he was nearer to 80.

You mentioned JaunTom in Gay Purree - personally loved that movie. But over this weekend, I happened to watch An American Tail, and its' sequel, Fievel in the American West. I never saw the second one and had been making my dinner when the credits were on so all through the movie, I went nuts trying to figure if Jimmy Stewart did the voice for the old hound dog or if it was someone imitating Mr. Stewart. But it was him as I found out at the end. What fun that must have been for him, being the voice of the feisty but sage advisor. I love the fact that he attempted another version of his career choice after all those years.

Anne