On this day in 1880, Francis Browne was born. He was a Jesuit, like our current Pope. But he is best known for his photographs—especially for his photographs of the Titanic. He had received a ticket to take the ship from England to Ireland. During that leg of the trip, a rich couple befriended him and offered to pay his way to New York and back again if he would hang out with them. He sent a telegraph to his superior asking for permission. The replay was no, “GET OFF THAT SHIP – PROVINCIAL.” So he did and didn’t die. Maybe there is a God after all.

The writer J R R Tolkien was born in 1892. He was a good writer and I enjoyed his work well enough as a child. But good God, is the man ever overrated. And now, thanks to Peter Jackson and company, he’s more exposed than ever. And you know one of my big complaints about books: padding. Tolkien was the king of padding. And then, to make things worse, Jackson divides The Hobbit into three parts. I hate to break it to the great director, but that was Tolkien’s shortest and best novel. It wasn’t a trilogy! But there is this great John Rogers quote:

Victor Borge was born in 1909. What was he exactly? A musician? A comedian? I don’t know. He was a very good performer. Here he is describing the history of the piano. It is very funny:

The great film director Sergio Leone was born in 1929. Interestingly, he isn’t even listed on the front page birthdays of IMDB. Who is? Danica McKellar who I’ve never heard of. Dan Harmon who I’ve never heard of. Actors I rather like Dabney Coleman (82) and Robert Loggia (84). And of course, bigot with real anger issues Mel Gibson (58). I’ll admit, Gibson is a fine director. But Leone he isn’t. He isn’t even close. Here is the trailer from what I think is his most underrated film, A Fistful of Dynamite:

Other birthdays: Roman philosopher Cicero (106 BC); playwright Douglas William Jerrold (1803); actor ZaSu Pitts (1894); overwrought Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshinsky (1895); actor Anna May Wong (1905); the great music producer and arranger George Martin (88); singer-songwriter Stephen Stills (69); and musician who I thought was dead, John Paul Jones (68).

The day, however, belongs to Marion Davies who was born on this day in 1897. She was a fine comedic actor and would doubtless have become a great comedic actor and probably an actor everyone knows. Unfortunately for her, she was William Randolph Hearst’s lover and companion. And Hearst didn’t like seeing her be silly on screen, so with his many connections and gobs of money, he got her to star in historical dramas. She was pretty, there is no doubt of that. But that wasn’t who she was. You need to be careful who your benefactors are.

The only reason I even know who Davies was is because I’m a big Orson Welles fan. In Citizen Kane, Kane tries to make his talentless mistress into an opera star. This was certainly a dig at Hearst who tried to make Davies into something she was not. But it most certainly wasn’t an attack on Davies herself, who Welles defended time and again. Anyway, here she is in her final role—the kind of role should should always have been playing. It is Ever Since Eve (not available on video anywhere), and although it is sexist as hell, it is quite a fun movie.

Happy birthday Marion Davies!

We have a big day for music today. But ultimately, the day belongs to a filmmaker.

On this day in 1853, the great French composer Andre Messager was born. He wrote very lively and lyrical compositions like Solo de concours, which we hear here:

Rock music innovator Bo Diddley was born in 1928. He was one of the most important people responsible from changing the blues into rock music. Here he is doing his signature song “Bo Diddley”:

The singer-songwriter Patti Smith is 67 today. Here she is back in 1976 doing “Horses” and Billy Roberts’ “Hey Joe”:

Other birthdays: painter Louis-Jean-Francois Lagrenee (1724); Miss America host Bert Parks (1914); singer-songwriter Del Shannon (1934); bluegrass musician John Hartford (1937); singer Davy Jones (1945); comedian Tracey Ullman (54); and golfer Tiger Woods (38).

The day, however, belongs to the great film director Carol Reed who was born in 1906. He is known for films such as Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, and the musical Oliver! But I mostly know him for having directed one of my very favorite films, The Third Man.

Here is the trailer for The Third Man. It is absolutely terrible. “He’ll have you in a dither with his zither”? Oh my God! But the film really is great. Like The Fallen Idol, it was written by Graham Greene. If you have never seen it, you really must. And if you have, it is worth watching again. It is always even better than you remember:

Happy birthday Carol Reed!

On this day in 1800, Charles Goodyear was born. He was an inventor of processes for the manufacture of rubber—especially vulcanize rubber. What I think is most interesting about him is the fact that the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was named after him. But the company was founded by another inventor Frank Seiberling. And he did it almost 40 years after Goodyear died.

The great Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros was born in 1896. I love his work. But he was a Stalinist who was actually part of a plot of assassinate Leon Trotsky. That does kind of spoil things a bit for me. I’m not a great admire of Trotsky, but he at least maintained many of the ideals of the Russian Revolution. Stalin was nothing but a ruthless dictator. Nothing but the Russian Hitler. And a man responsible for many millions of deaths of his own countrymen. I understand that people on the outside didn’t have all the facts, but I think it is was clear by the early 1920s that Stalin was a bad guy. Siqueiros’ support of him in 1940 does not speak well of him.

The actor Mary Tyler Moore is 77 today. She is best known for the television shows The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran for five seasons, and then The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which ran for seven. I loved both of those shows, but it was mostly just because they were both so well written. I rather prefer Moore in serious roles. She was amazing in Ordinary People, and even more in The Gin Game. She added a level of fear to the part that was totally absent from Jessica Tandy’s performance of it. I can’t find a clip of that, so here she is in Ordinary People:

The actor Jude Law is 41. By the standards of British actors, I would have to say that Law is not very good. Passable, but that’s about it. The reason I bring him up is that Wikipedia lists him as, “actor, film producer and director.” This is standard practice for Wikipedia and I think it is wrong. Law’s directing credits consist of the “Bird in the Hand, A” segment of Tube Tales. So he directed one-ninth of an 84 minute film. As for producing, he was one of seven who produced the horrible remake of Sleuth and one of ten who produced Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Note that he starred in both the films he “produced,” so the extent of his producing was probably just that his acting contract required that he be given producing credit. Look, I understand. There are actors who really are writers of enough merit to be listed in Wikipedia. For example, Kirk Douglas. But Jude Law is an actor, and a very successful one at that. But he is not a director and he is not a producer. At least, he isn’t either of those things to the level that Wikipedia would list him for them if he weren’t a famous actor. So can we stop pretending? It turns out that Jude Law is also a rock climber. Why not mention that? “Jude Law is an actor, producer, director, and rock climber.” It would make as much sense. And it would be as insulting to professional rock climbers as it is to professional film producers and directors.

Other birthdays: mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes (1856); father of libertarian environmentalism, which is interesting but wrong, Ronald Coase (1910); very interesting physicist and traitor Klaus Fuchs (1911); Bengali painter Zainul Abedin (1914); the great Australian painter Albert Tucker (1914); chicken “nugget” inventor Robert C Baker (1921); actor Ed Flanders (1934); actor Jon Voight (75); musician Rick Danko (1942); actor Ted Danson (66); screenwriter Paul Rudnick (56); actor Jennifer Ehle (44); and actor Danny McBride (37).

The day, however, belongs to Jon Polito who is 63 today. He is one of my all time favorite character actors. He is probably best known for being in various Coen Brothers films. He absolutely steals Miller’s Crossing in the part of Johnny Caspar, the psychopathic gangster with a strong sense of ethics. He is so perfect in that part, because he really doesn’t want to be a crime boss. He just wants the level of respect that is owed to him. And even though he’s the “bad guy” in the film, he’s right. If Leo acted properly, there never would have been a problem with Caspar. And it is sad when he meets his end.

I first saw him in the role of Willy’s boss Howard in the Dustin Hoffman Death of a Salesman. And he’s great. But I would so love to see Polito play the part of Willy Loman. It’s almost like he was born to play it. He would kill the role. The thing is that the role is all subtext—what isn’t said. And Polito is the king of that. Unfortunately, great actors like Jon Polito are generally relegated to supporting cast. And so he’ll likely never get the chance to play the really great roles like Willy Loman or Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men. But as a result, he probably has a better life. He is famous enough for it to be flattering but not so much it is annoying. And he works all the time doing a lot of different stuff. But as a viewer, I miss out. Still, it is a great pleasure to watch him work, regardless of what he does.

Happy birthday Jon Polito!

You wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had. I’m exhausted and angry. I doubt I will write more today after this very late birthday post.

On this day in 1891, the great novelist Henry Miller was born. I’ve never especially liked his work, but he really did revolutionize the novel. Not that anyone really followed in his footsteps—maybe the Beats and Burroughs. I think a lot could be done with his approach to the novel without his various annoying habits and obsessions. I’ve often thought that this approach might work well for me. Anyway, he’s an important guy and well worth reading. His novels were apparently banned in the United States until 1961, although I really can’t tell you why. They seem tame even by the standards of the 1950s. But America has never been as free a nation as people have claimed. And that is especially true from about 1820 onward.

Other birthdays: English poet Thomas Gray (1716); science writer Mary Somerville (1780); inventor Charles Babbage (1791); American novelist E D E N Southworth (1819); Irish poet Dion Boucicault (1820); French playwright Rene Bazin (1853); French cityscape painter Maurice Utrillo (1883); novelist Jean Toomer (1894); Russian painter Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan (1902); comedian Steve Allen (1921); comedian Alan King (1927); music producer and possible murderer Phil Spector (74); and comedian Tony Rosato (59).

The day, however, belongs to one of my favorite character actors Elisha Cook Jr who was born on this day in 1903. I liked him most in Shane and House on Haunted Hill. He’s also great in The Big Sleep. He had a great and varied career. If you were going to be an actor, his is the kind of career you would want to have.

Happy birthday Elisha Cook Jr!

You know this is quite a day for birthdays when Ludwig van Beethoven, who was born on this day in 1770, doesn’t win the day! But it gets even more bizarre, so read on. Nonetheless, I’m not a huge Beethoven fan. He was great, I don’t question that. But really: Mozart’s my man. For one thing, Beethoven is a bit overwrought for me. And he only wrote one opera and it is hardly great. What’s most important about the man is that he really expanded what classical music could do. Unfortunately, I don’t think it fully pays off for about 50 years after his death. Until then, we have to listen to a lot of Schumann wannabes. Oh my!

So you are probably wondering, “What’s he gonna force us to listen to?” It’s really hard with the great man. I do think that first movement of the Symphony No 5 is great, but the rest is kind of boring. And, of course, the Symphony No 9 is just flat out great, but do we really have to listen to that again? But you can say that about just about everything he ever wrote. So I give you something you will recognize, Fur Elise. I’m kidding! Even I am not so cruel as that. I offer you something you will nonetheless recognize, the Piano Concerto No 5, better know as the Emperor Concerto. I found what I think is the best YouTube performance of it. It is the Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Leonard Bernstein with the great Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman. Yes, it is 40 minutes long. But do you have anything better to do? No. No you don’t.

You really know it is quite a day for birthdays when Jane Austen, who was born on this day in 1775, doesn’t win the day! Since you probably just skipped right past the Beethoven concerto, I’m sure you won’t be running out to read Pride and Prejudice, which I think is the best of her work. You know, Persuasion had real potential, but my understanding is that she rushed through it because she knew she was dying. She only lived to be 41. I don’t think she is necessarily that great a writer from a technical standpoint. George Eliot is undoubtedly better in that regard. But who really wants to read that stuff? But she puts the Brontes to shame. Am I being sexist? Well, she isn’t technically as good as Thomas Hardy either. But all of these writers are from the generations after Austen. And reading Austen is still fun. What’s more, you know all that modern breezy writing, not just “chick lit” but also people like David Foster Wallace? Where did they come from if not Austen? She is just absolutely great and in a fundamental sense the best English language writer of the 19th century. But we can’t leave without a little something from the great lady. So here is one of her poems, “Ode to Pity”:

I love that! She mentions Philomel! There was much darkness in the lady. I’m sure we would have seen that had she lived longer. As it is, Sense and Sensibility is a very dark novel if you read it correctly. And she savages the Romantics. It is delicious fun. And no one gets her tongue cut out!

You really, really know it is quite a day for birthdays when Philip K Dick, who was born on this day in 1928, doesn’t win the day. He is the kind of guy I wanted to be when I was young and now I can think of little worse. He was brilliant and pretty much single-handedly changed science fiction from something boring to something profoundly interesting. He was also a nut who suffered from paranoia. I’ll take a more mundane talent along with an easier life. As for his work, there is a tendency to focus too much on his ideas. Although he did have some very interesting ideas, most of them were not thought through very deeply. Check out my article on his short story, “The Minority Report.” But the main thing is that Dick was a great storyteller. Take everything else away and he is still a lot of fun to read. He really understands what ought to be in a story and what is just padding. There is no padding in his work.

Other birthdays: one of the Bluestockings, Elizabeth Carter (1717); physicist Johann Wilhelm Ritter (1776); playwright Mary Russell Mitford (1787); the great economist Leon Walras (1834); the great artist Antonio de La Gandara (1861); if only I had more time I would tell you all about the great painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866); the (Great?) Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly (1882); what kind of day is it when Noel Coward (1899) is tossed into “other birthdays”?; anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901); the “great” action screenwriter Shane Black (52); the great comedian Bill Hicks (1961); film director James Mangold (50); and one of my favorite stand-up comedians Todd Glass (49). I can’t help it, I have to break format:

The day, however, belongs to a man you have probably never heard of, Max Linder, who was born on this day in 1883. If you like comedic movies, then you should really care about Max Linder. Before him, silent film comedy was of the style of Mack Sennett and the Keystone Cops kind of humor—outrageous pratfalls and general silliness. What they didn’t have where actual characters who the audience cared about. That’s what Max Linder brought to the movies. He created the character of “Max,” rich man-about-town who got into adventures. The films stand today as satire of the well to do buffoon. His later films are better, but below is an early one (1907!), The Skater’s Debut where you can see what will become of screen comedy and not really change, right through the Marx Brothers and on to Jim Carrey. Note also, Charlie Chaplin was a huge fan and eventually a friend of Linder. On Linder’s death, Chaplin dedicated a film to him, “For the unique Max, the great master —his disciple Charles Chaplin.”

I suppose I should tell you something else about Linder: he suffered greatly from depression and anxiety. He and his young wife made a suicide pact, and the two killed themselves (their second attempt), leaving behind an infant daughter who went on to package Linder’s work for later generations. It’s very sad.

Nonetheless, happy birthday Max Linder!