July of 1951

The link, below, is to a post on this blog from ten years ago.

The post (to which I made a few changes, before including the link, here) concerned, in part, two recordings from July, 1951 (one by Louis Armstrong, and one by the George Siravo Orchestra); it also concerned a weekly television show from 1951 starring bandleader Freddy Martin, The Freddy Martin Show (also known as The Hazel Bishop Show, after its lipstick sponsor). The program--on which my mother was a regular guest--aired on NBC from July to November of 1951.  I wrote about the program in my book about early TV.

There are a couple of references, in the original post, to "sixty years ago":  "sixty years ago this month," and "sixty years ago this week."

The passage of time most certainly startles;  those references, if written today, would read "seventy years ago."  My mother's first appearance on Freddy Martin's program--a show which in addition to Martin and his orchestra starred singer Merv Griffin, pianist Murray Arnold, and the vocal group The Martin Men--took place seventy years ago today.

https://andrewleefielding.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-1951.html

Happy July 4th

A version of the following post--which includes links to two renditions of "America the Beautiful"--originally appeared in this space two years ago, on July 4th:

The first performance of the song, below, is by Frank Sinatra, accompanied by a chorus, though I don't know the year of the recording.  I enjoy this version of the song a lot.  

It was not uncommon for Mr. Sinatra to change certain lyrics, and there is one alteration, near the start of the song. The phrase "above the fruited plain" becomes, in Sinatra's hands, "above thy fruited plain."  I don't recall ever hearing another singer make this particular change--yet coming from Sinatra, it sounds interesting, and pleasantly distinctive.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0xC9xFuBvo

The second version of the song is by Ray Charles, from a 1972 telecast of The Dick Cavett Show.  Mr. Charles's performance--vocally, and on the piano--is beautiful.  There are unseen supporting musicians--including a lovely organ accompaniment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg

Good wishes for Juneteenth

 

600,000 deaths

On Wednesday, the United States passed 600,000 deaths, due to COVID-19.  There have been 33 1/2 million cases of COVID, in the U.S., since the pandemic began.

There have been, worldwide, more than 3,800,000 COVID-related deaths--and close to 177 million cases.

While the crisis is by no means over--and, indeed, one hopes there will be a change of heart, on the part of those who have declined getting vaccinated--the numbers of U.S. deaths and cases, each day, have, fortunately, dropped significantly. 

The New York Times notes:  "The United States has been averaging fewer than 15,000 cases a day since early June, the lowest totals since testing became widely available."

The Times also notes:  "Around 350 deaths are being reported each day, the fewest since March 2020."

Yet despite the improving statistics, there is much cause for continuing concern. 

There is, for example, this sobering story about vaccinations, from today's USA Today: "Falling rates of COVID-19 across the United States mask a harsh reality – the overwhelming majority of those getting sick and being hospitalized today are unvaccinated, while vaccinated patients are becoming rare."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/06/16/majority-covid-19-hospital-patients-us-now-unvaccinated-younger/7684857002/

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, Dean at the Brown University School of Public Health, writes about the dangers of the "delta variant," and the matter of vaccinations, in The Washington Post.  His essay, which appeared on the Post's website this evening, includes the following:

"In India, the delta variant flattened the health-care system and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. In Britain, it has quickly become the dominant strain and has caused the number of daily infections to triple in just the past month. And it has arrived here. As of Wednesday, the delta variant accounts for 10 percent of U.S. infections and is doubling its share of new cases every two weeks. At this rate, delta will become our dominant strain in the next month to six weeks."

He continues: "For partly vaccinated Americans — those who have had just one shot of Pfizer or Moderna — the delta variant’s tendency to escape an immune response is a problem. While a single shot of these vaccines previously offered 80 to 85 percent protection (and two shots offered 95 percent), a single shot of Pfizer is only 33 percent effective against the delta variant. Thankfully, fully vaccinated individuals — that is, with two shots — get almost 90 percent protection. We don’t know how much immunity gained from prior infections alone will protect people, but it may not be enough."

Dr. Jha writes: "We are entering a time when being unvaccinated is going to become exceedingly more dangerous. Society is open. Distancing is a thing of the past, and mask-wearing is declining. All of the public health protections that kept unvaccinated people safe are disappearing, but the delta variant is gaining momentum."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/16/delta-variant-ashish-jha-us-vaccines/

George Floyd

You think about the killing of George Floyd, a year ago today--and it remains breathtaking, and heartbreaking: the tragedy and sadness of it, the terrible cruelty of it.  Mr. Floyd's killing remains (and will always remain) a deeply sickening event in America's history.

Bob Dylan...and Clydie King, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Nesmith, and José Feliciano

Today, the great Bob Dylan turned 80 years old.  He was born May 24, 1941 (a half-year before the attack on Pearl Harbor).

Here is a video of Mr. Dylan singing the 1968 song "Abraham, Martin and John," with singer Clydie King; Ms. King was perhaps best-known for her frequent work, over the years, as a back-up singer.  The video, taken during a tour Mr. Dylan made in 1980, appears to be of a rehearsal.

The vocals, and Mr. Dylan's piano playing, are, I think, quite beautiful.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7t6afl

Clydie King died in 2019, at 75.   Here is another video in which she appears, from December of 1973.  

It is from a telecast of NBC's The Midnight Special, and features Linda Ronstadt singing "You're No Good."  It is a superb performance by Ms. Ronstadt--a tremendously talented singer--and by her musical ensemble.  Clydie King sings back-up for the song, along with the singer Sherlie Matthews.  José Feliciano, host for that evening's broadcast, introduces the performance. (Five years earlier, in 1968, he had released "Light My Fire," his cover of, and extraordinary re-interpretation of, the 1967 hit by The Doors.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SOosWH6_M

Ms. Ronstadt's first hit song came in 1967, when she sang with the group The Stone Poneys.  The song was "Different Drum," which had been written in 1964 by another outstanding musician, Michael Nesmith, the year before he joined the cast of The Monkees, the television show which brought him to fame.  

It is a lovely song.  Here, in a video from 1992, is an enjoyable and charming live performance of "Different Drum," by Mr. Nesmith.  At the end of the performance, he mentions, warmly, Ms. Ronstadt.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMkiZ9tO-Zs

Lastly, here is José Feliciano's hit recording of "Light My Fire," from 1968.  I was very young at the time, twelve years old, yet I remember the sense of exhilaration one felt, hearing the song. Everyone seemed to be talking about the record--not only about Mr. Feliciano's exquisite vocal, on the recording, but about his virtuosic guitar-playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RtTWDv-yWM

Charles Grodin

Charles Grodin, who died this week, at age 86, was a wonderfully talented actor.

The following is an enjoyable and illuminating excerpt from his 1989 memoir, It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.).  The excerpt concerns the legendary acting teacher Uta Hagen; Mr. Grodin studied with Ms. Hagen for three years, in the 1950s.  

                              **********************

    Even thirty years later, I vividly remember the most important acting lesson I learned from Uta. It wasn't part of her regular teaching precepts ("Ask yourself, 'Who am I as a character? What do I want in the scene?' ").  I don't even remember it coming up or ever being mentioned in the couple of dozen or so books on acting I've read, but it was invaluable and Uta gave it to me.  I had played Holden Caulfield in a scene from J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye.  It was a scene between the teacher and Holden where they're discussing a terrible essay Holden had written.  After the scene was over, Uta said to me there was one "pure acting moment in that scene. Do you know what it was?"  Well...I was excited by the compliment.  I still hadn't heard many in my young career.  But I had no idea what Uta was talking about. "Was it the moment where I slowly turned and...?"

    "No," Uta interrupted.

    "Was it when I lifted my head suddenly and...?"

    "No," Uta interrupted again.

    I was quickly out of guesses.  Evidently, a "pure acting moment" had gone right by and I'd never spotted it. Neither had the class, whom Uta had invited to join in the quiz....

    When no one could spot my seemingly invisible "pure acting moment," Uta told me it was when I went to hand my essay back to the teacher, a fine actor named Scott Edmonds.  I thought Scott was going to take it, but for a moment he didn't reach out to accept it.  Then he did.  There was a moment when I wasn't sure what was going to happen next. That was the pure acting moment:  the moment of not knowing what the next moment was (just as we don't in life). I couldn't immediately repeat it, but when Uta identified it, I understood, and in the future strove to get myself again into a state of not anticipating what was next, of not knowing. Easier said than done, but it was invaluable to have been identified and experienced that once. Thirty years later, it's still about as valuable a lesson as I ever learned about acting, and that alone was worth the three years with Uta.