Monday, November 5, 2012

The Entertainer by Margaret Talbot

The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century by Margaret Talbot
The Entertainer:
Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century
by Margaret Talbot
November 2012
Riverhead (Penguin)
Hardcover ISBN: 9781594487064
$28.95 US retail


In her captivating, impeccably researched narrative - a charmed combination of Hollywood history, social history, and family memoir - Margaret Talbot conjures warmth and nostalgia for those earlier eras of '10s and '20s small-town American, '30s and '40s Hollywood. She transports us to an alluring time, simpler but also exciting, and illustrated the changing face of her father's America, all while telling the story of mass entertainment across the first half of the twentieth century. - Riverhead Books

Margaret Talbot's The Entertainer is not simply a biography about her father the actor Lyle Talbot. Rather the book consists of two parallel stories; one of Talbot's life as a man and career as an actor and the other about the evolution of Hollywood and the entertainment industry in the twentieth century.

This book is a portrait of an entertainer placed firmly on the canvass of twentieth century history. The Entertainer is a charming book with a lot of insight and thoughtfulness and a rich abundance of information. The book chronicles Lyle Talbot's life and career almost chronologically. There are several jumps back and forth through time but the course keeps steady and it reads as though you are moving forward continuously rather than simply jumping around.

Margaret Talbot doesn't try to romanticize her father. She is frank about his drinking problem and how he never became a major movie star. But this book is also an ode to the father who she knew and loved dearly. Their age gap reminds me very much of the one I have with my own father (52 years in my case and almost 60 in hers). Her father was secretive about his romantic past, much like my own is now. A lot of what Margaret Talbot found out about her father Lyle's girlfriends and wives was from her research.

Speaking of research, the author relies a lot on the memories of her father as well as the stories that her father told her and the ones shared by family and friends. She also relies on scrapbooks, photographs, clippings, receipts, menus, telegrams, postcards and other papers saved over the years. She revisited taped interviews and transcripts and dug up articles and interviews from various publications and read many biographies, novels and books on history and criticism. She recounts a lovely story about a man finding a photo scrapbook of her father at a yard sale, realizing it's importance and contacting her about transferring the book back to the family. I'm sure a lot of people would have kept those photographs or sold them so it's nice to hear that someone was generous enough to give them to the family for safe keeping.

The book clocks in at over 400 pages and includes 45 black and white photos which appear throughout the text. This type of design is my ideal as the photos appear with the relevant text to go along with it. It keeps me from flipping back and forth from a photo insert to where I had left off reading (which I have done many times in the past with other books).


For those of you who are looking for a book about an actor's life, without all the salaciousness of other biographies and with plenty of context, then look no further than this book. I wish there were more books like this one; kind yet frank portrayals with lots of added information. I would go so far to call this book an enhanced biography. I found The Entertainer to be absolutely charming, well-written and insightful.

Check out the official Pinterest board for The Entertainer!

Disclosure: Thank you to Riverhead Books (a division of Penguin) for providing me with an advance readers copy of the book to review.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Catching Up with Quelle (6)


Celebrities in my town - I helped break a local news story that a scene from the HBO movie Clear History (2014) was being filmed in my town. Not only that the location was a block away from where I live. The film will star Michael Keaton, Eva Mendes, Jon Hamm (OMG), Kate Hudson and more. It's being directed by Larry David and he's the only celebrity anyone saw.

Another pair of celebrities in my town - Laurel and Hardy!



My town has a Halloween parade every year. That's right. A Halloween parade. And each year I see this miniature car with two guys pretending to be Laurel and Hardy. I always miss taking a picture of them but I got one this year!




TCM Classic Film Festival 2013 News - Tickets will go on sale November 15 and they haven't announced the full lineup but have revealed some of the events. There will be a gala to celebrate the restoration of the film Funny Girl (1968). I wonder if Barbra Streisand will be in attendance. Or perhaps Omar Sharif. I'd much prefer to see Omar Sharif! Other films being screened include The General (1926) with Alloy Orchestra playing live musical accompaniment, a restoration of Giant (1956)  and The Great Escape (1963). So far this is looking kind of disappointing. I have already seen the Alloy Orchestra perform, I have no interest in Funny Girl and watching newly restored brown face in Giant doesn't necessarily appeal to me. If Carroll Baker and/or Rod Taylor made an appearance, I think it would be worth going. And if James Garner attended the screening of The Great Escape that would be amazing. So far I'm not impressed. I look forward to see the full lineup which should be announced very soon.

At this point, it looks like I have a very slim chance of going. Finances are definitely a problem with my recent hospital visits and my car issues. But if the festival is truly amazing (Kirk Douglas, Olivia de Havilland or Joan Fontaine, Mickey Rooney, etc.) then I might make the sacrifice financially to go.

Friday, November 2, 2012

The Naked Prey (1966)

Cornel Wilde as The Man running away from the tribes men who are chasing him down like prey.

I remember Ginger from Asleep in New York raving about Cornel Wilde and dreaming about him in the buff. And in an episode of Mad Men, Don Draper is asked if he has seen The Naked Prey (1966). It's mentioned that Cornel Wilde is mostly naked in the film. Both of those nudity references got my interest piqued.

The Naked Prey (1966) is directed by Cornel Wilde who also stars in the film. He plays "the man" a nameless Westerner who is put in a very difficult situation. His colleague refuses to give a tribe a gift for their leader. This stirs their ire and their whole group, including members of another African tribe, are humiliated, tortured and killed. They leave Cornel Wilde's Man for last.

He's stripped down to nothing and released. He gets a head start but that's it. After a little while, a group of men from the tribe hunt him down like the naked prey he is.

I was both horrified by the story and impressed with Cornel Wilde's performance. I don't really see the appeal of  watching Cornel Wilde naked on screen. He had a very fit body but given the circumstances of the story I just felt bad for him. No lust involved! In fact, I really just wanted to give him water and food.

The theme of predator versus prey holds the story together as the man continues to elude the tribal men who hunt him down. The man witnesses snakes killing birds, lions killing antelopes, and one tribe killing another tribe. It's interesting to watch how resourceful both prey and predator become in the game of life. The tricks both the man and his hunters develop in order to achieve their goal.

I highly admire Cornel Wilde for taking on such a project. There is very little dialogue, conditions must have been harsh and the work was very taxing on his body. I've read that he was ill during the filming and that at one point he was bitten by a snake. Also to expose his body like that, to both the elements and to film audiences, must have taken a lot of courage.

 For me the hardest scene to watch was the stock footage of the elephants being shot down one by one. I also had a difficult time watching the captured men being tortured in various inhumane ways. The story was originally about Native Americans and took place in North America. However, the South African government gave the filmmakers an incentive to work on their land so the story was changed to suit the setting.




The movie is available on DVD from Criterion. You can rent it from Netflix. I recommend at least one viewing of this! It's quite a remarkable film.

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