Husband was exhausted Saturday night so he crashed by nine, leaving me all alone with Channel Thirteen and Neal Gabler. It was kind of fitting, though, since Thirteen reminds me of my father, who passed away this time of year in 2004. My dad was a generous supporter of public television, and when I was growing up, there was always some Thirteen tote bag, coffee mug, or other bonus item lying around the house as evidence of my father’s sponsorship ethic. He always encouraged me to become a member as well, which I’m ashamed to say I never actually did.
Saturday nights on Reel 13, Neal Gabler introduces three films in succession: a classic, a short, and an indie. The short is chosen by viewers who vote online for their favorite among that week’s offerings. I don’t vote (I try and be consistent here since I’m not a member) but if I did, I would have lined up behind the winner. I decided to take a pass on the indie, which was Hotel Rwanda and started at midnight. But I did fall right into the classic, that Spencer Tracy/Fredric March scenery-chewfest we know as Inherit the Wind.
My mom, who died less than four months before my dad, was a HUGE fan of the old studio movies, and Spencer Tracy was a real favorite of hers. The other was Lana Turner. My mom was never one to gossip, so in a way I think those two stars being her favorites was significant. In an era of movie-making when film moguls took great pains to protect their stars’ images, Tracy and Turner were each involved in major public scandals the studios could do nothing about – Spencer Tracy in his lengthy extramarital affair with Katharine Hepburn, and Lana Turner in the murder of her gangster boyfriend by her teenage daughter. I think more than any other Hollywood names, those two satisfied my mom’s closet need for real-life melodrama.
The week’s winning short film was New York Talk, a perfect accompaniment to my parental reminiscences that night. My dad was a quintessential New Yorker; the city’s biggest fan. He’d sit in the front seat with the cabbie and discuss landmarks long gone and mayors like Ed Koch who could say the word schmuck and mean it. If you have 3 minutes and 30 seconds to spare, click on the following link and it’ll take you to a YouTube site where you can watch New York Talk. For some reason, I had trouble downloading it off the official Thirteen website. Maybe they could tell I wasn’t a member.
Holiday Greetings via images from Daughter
The first is her own, the second an anonymous keeper
Happy Passover
peepshow (photographer unknown)