‘Forever Marilyn’ statue lands in Palm Springs, Calif. - Chicago Sun-Times

‘Forever Marilyn’ statue lands in Palm Springs, Calif. - Chicago Sun-Times

Hard to imagine that Phyllis Diller has left us but leaving us with tons of  memories & laughs…that raucous, loud  and totally Diller laugh.   I’ve been to her house as a press member so many times and she was always a most gracious hostess.  When The Thalians honored her, I went out to her Brentwood home.   Phyllis had broken her wrist and yet she took the time to show me the wonderful  file cabinets of her life.  I truly believe that The Thalians Book that year was one of my finest achievements.  She left  me alone to go through the files and pick out the photos for the layout and after being dazzled by her “stuff”, I was leaving when I saw the most wonderful photo of her in the hallway which I asked her assistant  if I could take it with me.  It was the perfect  cover.   When I took the finished product back to her, she asked me to pick a favorite lithograph which she signed to me.  I still have it on my living room wall….it is one of my favorite possessions just as Phyllis was and always will be one of my favorite ladies!

RIP…dear Phyllis and thanks for the hours of joy that you gave us.

Sunday, August 5...50th Anniversary of Marilyn much too early demise.

I had almost given up on making it to the services. My good friend Larry

emailed me and was shocked that I wasn't going...services begin at noon and it is 11:15....showered quickly and ran down to my car...yes, ran...drove over Oxnard to the 405 Freeway also known as Nightmare Alley...incredible timing...NO traffic on the freeway made it to Westwood in 20 minutes....drove to Westwood Village Memorial Park.   I drove up to the gate expecting no parking...guard saw my handicapped sticker and directed me to a spot right in front of ceremony.  I know that MM was guiding me through this. I was actually 10 minutes early. I took pics by MM 's crypt, in front of an MGM logo with MM in the center replacing Leo the Lion and visited Natalie Wood, Merv Griffin, Bob Crane, Rodney Dangerfield all buried there. Merv's tombstone says No I will not be back in a few minutes   Farrah Fawcett is also buried there but only her name on the tombstone.      My good friends, Kathleen Hughes (MM replaced her in Two Tickets to Tomahawk) and her husband  Stanley Rubin who produced River of No Return spoke and I then decided to leave…very hot…I  looked at the car parked next to me and it was theirs.   Hadn’t seen them for a while so decided to wait until they came out.  There was a reception at the Presbyterian Church around the corner so when the Rubins didn’t come out,  I went over there and I was so glad I went….a big room filled with MM fans, all ages, sizes…all loved her.   Food was great, received yet another MM Tee shirt, notecards. Etc.   Greg Schreiner, Founder of Marilyn Remembered who produces this event every year…yes, every year….does such an outstanding job…the program is a masterpiece of MMemorobila in glorious Technicolor & B&W designed by Michelle[O1]  Justice & Rick Carl…all the staff is great.   Scott Fortner who also did the video tribute actually told late comers that he would bring out the souvenir book before we left and DID IT!  They sold it at the reception for a mere $10 if you wanted an extra copy.  I should have bought several!!!

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 [O1]k

He’s back….and he’s glad he is….

TCM website kept me up for many hours and taping  a lot…..first…my beloved Tarzan marathon.  I spent many, many Saturday matinees at the Harris Theater in Tarentum, PA watching and loving the Tarzan films.  They were always fun and exciting for me….saw all the 40’s Weissmuller films and some of the later ones.   Maureen O’Sullivan was so lovely and I also enjoyed Brenda Joyce…who didn’t love Boy, an amazing Johnny Sheffield and last but most certainly not least…Cheetah.  Plus there were always wonderful supporting casts. 

The next day was Marilyn and although I have most of films on DVD, I watched the Monroe Magic and it was magic…Bus Stop, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Niagara, Some Like It Hot, Seven Year and The Sleeping Prince. 

When I was a cabdriver here in Los Angeles (can U believe that????) The dispatcher sent me to Hecht, Hill & Lancaster, and a major production company in Beverly Hills (Hill was Rita Hayworth’s husband) and Lancaster was Burt)   It was around 7 PM and no one was in the lobby and as I walked up the staircase,   wondered who it would be, Hecht…Hill or Lancaster?  I stuck my head in the doorway and asked “Did somebody called a cab??”  You can only imagine my surprise when Laurence Olivier turned around and said, I did   the gentleman with him turned out to be Terrance Rattigan, the playwright who wrote The Sleeping Prince.  They gave me the address and we entered the cab.   I couldn’t resist. I had to ask why they had changed the title to The Prince and the Showgirl.    Sir Laurence said “Well dear boy, seems that the powers that be at Warner Brothers had decided that it was much more marketable film title” and he winked at me…yes, he did…

And just when  I thought it couldn’t get any better…we pulled up at the address and British fiilm star Kay Kendall (one of my favorites) came out of the house to greet them!  All  I needed was for Sexy Rexy to join her!  (He didn’t)

The World of Television According to McInnes

THE YOUNG & RESTLESS....Don't which writer has a sense of humor but the stuff on "Father Knows Best", the house, etc. was a stroke of genius. It is so ripe for daytime to throw some humor into the dreary soaps and having ELINOR DONAHUE (Betty Anderson) .. from original FKB as the judge was joyous. Wasn't Elinor's first soap, she appeared on DOOL as Kate Honeycutt (1984-1986). Also trippy was an episode with all the ladies of Genoa City in a spa sequence right of the classic film, THE WOMEN (1939). The classic one, not the piece of junk that came out last year. You know, MGM itself tried to update and musicalize it as "THE OPPOSITE SEX'with JUNE ALLYSON, ANN SHERIDAN, ANN MILLER, ETC. and then in the infinite wisdom of producers who take a great film and then change it, added men. The total charm of THE WOMEN is that you never see the men. Anyway, my adored ladies of GC were terrific and non-restrained. A lot of fun to watch. And I watched it three times.

DAYS OF OUR LIVES.....Did you notice the nun nurse, Sister Anne on DOOL? Look familiar??? She's EILEEN BARNETT who was Stephanie Wooddruff (1978-1980) She's also listed Brooke Hamilton for the same time period. She was killed off in a red convertible and afterwards in her nightclub act (she's an outstanding singer) included a song written by Billy Barnes warning actresses not to ever get into a red convertible cuz that's the car of death on soaps.l Very clever!

Let's Soap Talk

Daytime Emmies....DOUG DAVIDSON was soooo robbed, It was nice to see the two ATWT actors being honored. Watched Young & Preposterous & Bold & Stupid today. They wonder why soaps are going down the tubes. The powers that be seem to want to make soap watchers total jerks. No one can believe these storylines. Do the "writers" realize how much damage they do to actors. It's painful to see KKL have to say those lines and for Flannery to act like such a stupid bitch and wonder who would go to Taylor for advice and help for mental health when she doesn't even recognize it in her own daughter. Of course mental health takes beating on Y&P, what kind of a hospital has so many ways for patients to escape and good old Adam knows them all ! Kathryn Hayes is supposed to be blessed by getting 5 appearances a year! Do these fools realize that we grew up watching soaps and enjoyed all the age groups because we entered each category along with the actors.? Young, young, boring! Hope (B&B) turns into a shrew, I understand her pain but her mean, mean comments to her mother. Mean. Meanwhile kudos to DOOL and Corday for bringing back so many oldies but goodies. What a pleasure to see faves making a return, Alice's funeral was terrific. Wish some of them would come back and stay. Maggie (the magnificent Suzanne Rogers) is still knocking me out with her multi colored performance and she should have been nominated for an Emmy and won it. Whew...do I feel better. Love to hear your comments.
The Bubble King has to go to bed!