Christina’s World (1948) by Andrew Wyeth
Christina’s World was painted by Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) in 1948 and is one of the most famous American paintings of the twentieth century. It shows a young woman on a barren, treeless hillside looking up the hill toward a bleak farmhouse. It is done in a realist style called magic realism.
The Love Letter (1666) by Johannes Vermeer
The great Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer painted The Love Letter in 1666. It shows a lady with a cittern (lute) being handed a letter by a servant. The tied-up curtain in the foreground suggests that we are looking at an intensely private scene in which domestic chores are for the moment set aside. The black-and-white floor tiles give the painting the impression of depth.
The Jockey (1887) by Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas, a French painter who lived from 1834 to 1917, was one of the founders of Impressionism, although he eventually preferred to think of his painting style as “realistic” rather than impressionistic. He was particularly adept at depicting movement, as can be seen in his painting The Jockey, which dates from 1887.
A Soldier (1881) by Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter born in 1848. Though an Impressionist, he painted in a more realistic manner than other artists in that group. He painted A Soldier with his distinctive red-and-blue uniform in 1881. Caillebotte died in 1894 at the age of 45.
Mona Lisa (1503-1506) by Leonardo da Vinci
The most famous painting in the world was painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1506. The title Mona Lisa did not come from the painter himself, but from the Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari. The painting is believed to be the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. It has been on permanent display in the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.
Bette Davis at her best in the final mad scene in the still-effective (after all these years), still-creepy and bizarre Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
The End is Not as Good as the Beginning ~ A Short Story
by Allen Kopp
“It’s a beautiful day,” Harmon Bracegirdle said as he approached Chaz Spurlock. He put his arm over Chaz’s shoulders and pulled him closer. “Thank you so much for meeting me here today!”
“Not at all,” Chaz said. “I’m free this afternoon.”
“I love the park, don’t you?” Harmon said.
“Indeed, I do!” Chaz said.
“I asked you here today, not so we could take in the scenery, but to have a little talk, just the two of us. A little private talk. There are so many interruptions at the studio, people coming in and out all the time.”
“I understand how it is, Mr. Bracegirdle, sir!”
“Please, Chaz! Call me Harmon!”
“All right, sir! Harmon!”
They walked a little way and sat down on a bench at the edge of a scenic pond, home to a flock of geese and ducks.
“They’re so beautiful!” Harmon said. “Nature is so beautiful!”
“I quite agree, sir,” Chaz said.
“Whenever you begin to feel dehumanized by what you do for a living, just come here and forget your troubles and in a little while you’ll begin to feel inner peace.”
“Inner peace, sir. Yes, sir!”
“But I digress. I didn’t come here to discuss nature.”
“I didn’t think you did, sir.”
“The picture business is a cruel business,” Harmon said, looking over his shoulder up the hill to his car, where his two associates and his driver were waiting. “It’s 1935 and there have been so many changes.”
“Don’t I know it, sir!”
“First sound and then color, and God only knows what’ll be next.”
“You roll with the punches, sir. It’s all you can do.”
“It isn’t easy being head of the largest picture studio in the country.”
“I don’t imagine for a second that it is, sir.”
“I’m responsible for hundreds of jobs. My decisions affect hundreds of workers and their families. If I don’t make the right decisions, a lot of people will suffer.”
“I wouldn’t want that much responsibility on my shoulders, sir.”
“The studio isn’t as profitable as it once was. Competition is fierce!”
“Terrible, sir! I’m sure it’s just terrible!”
“You were one of our most bankable stars for five or six years, Chaz, but your last three pictures have lost money.”
“Not my fault, sir! Those pictures just weren’t right for me.”
“I know. Each person has his own version of where things went wrong.”
“The studio is picking the wrong properties for me.”
“Do you think you could do better choosing your own scripts?”
“I’m sure I could, sir!”
“Well, that isn’t the way our system works. When you’re a contract player in a large studio, those decisions, whether right or wrong, are made for you.”
“I have high hopes, though, for my next picture.”
“The one based on the Russian novel?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Literary adaptations haven’t done well for us in the past, I’m afraid.”
“We have a couple of top-notch directors interested in the project and I’m pretty sure we can get Lola Lola to play the female lead.”
“Lola Lola won’t be available to appear in that picture.”
“I just spoke to her yesterday. She said…”
“She has commitments abroad.”
“Oh? She didn’t mention…”
“In fact, we won’t be making that picture at all, Chaz. I’m sorry.”
“Why not?”
“We just received word this morning that another studio has started production on that same story, using a different title.”
“Oh.”
“I know you’re disappointed, Chaz, but that’s the way things are in the picture business. As I said. Cruel.”
“There’ll be something else come along. What about that Western that everybody’s talking about?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I know I can be on top again with my next picture if I’m given the chance. I know I can!”
Harmon put his hand on Chaz’s leg and squeezed his inner thigh. “I’m afraid you’ve come to the end of your run, buddy. I’m sorry.”
“What are you saying? I’ve been with the studio twelve years! I have two years left on my contract!”
“We’re going to buy out your contract. Our lawyers are working on it now.”
“What if I say no?”
“The decision has already been made. I wanted to give you the news myself before you heard it from somebody else.”
“This is so unfair! My pictures have made a lot of money for the studio.”
“You’ve had three flops in a row. Last year alone, Intemperate Stranger and Rascal at Arms were our biggest box office flops. You’re only as good as your last picture.”
“I hope you’ll reconsider.”
“I’m afraid not. The die has already been cast.”
“Just one more picture. One more chance.”
“You have the very best wishes of all of us at the studio.”
“I’m just stunned. I don’t know what to say.”
Harmon gestured to his two associates up the hill, who were at that moment standing beside the front fender of the car smoking cigarettes. They came down in a wide arc so Chaz wouldn’t see them from where he was sitting.
“It’s going to be all right, buddy,” Harmon Bracegirdle said. “Just drink in the splendor of nature arrayed before you.”
“I think you’re making a big mistake,” Chaz said.
“That’s the nature of my job, kiddo. I have to make these hurtful decisions.”
Like children playing a game, the larger of the two men went up behind Chaz so as not to be detected. He waited for a signal from the other man, indicating that no one was watching, and when he received the signal he crept up behind Chaz, took a gun from inside his coat and shot him in the back of the head. One shot and Chaz lurched forward, dead before he hit the ground.
“Get his wallet and his wrist watch,” Harmon Bracegirdle said, standing up quickly. “That’ll satisfy the press.”
The news spread all over the world: Movie Star Shot Dead in Park. Robbery Suspected Motive.”
The funeral was well attended. Leading the pack of motion picture luminaries was studio head Harmon Bracegirdle, in dark glasses and tailor-made suit. On his arm was the great star Lola Lola, looking stunning as she wept behind her lace handkerchief. The picture of her placing one lily on the casket made all the pictures the next day.
Copyright © 2016 by Allen Kopp
Beyond Paradise ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp
Most people today will not have heard of Ramon Navarro, or, if they’ve heard of him at all, it’s because of his vicious murder at the hands of two “male hustlers,” Paul and Tom Ferguson, in 1968, and the sensational trial that followed. With his death, Navarro’s closely guarded, decades-long secret was out: he was a Hollywood homosexual and, in his later years, was in the habit of inviting “male escorts” to his home and paying them for sex. With his sexual predilections and his uncontrolled alcoholism (many run-ins with the law for drunk driving), he was, as one of the lawyers said at his murder trial, an “accident waiting to happen.”
Ramon Novarro (née Ramon Gil Samiengo), was born in Durango, Mexico, in 1899, into a large, devoutly Catholic family. As a teen, he made his way to Hollywood and, after a series of lucky breaks (bit parts and dancing stints), he became the protégé of Rex Ingram, an influential director of silent movies. Ingram used Navarro to great effect in some of the popular movies he directed in the 1920s and—if not overnight, at least pretty fast—Navarro became a bona fide “star,” with a loyal and devoted legion of fans at home and abroad. Between 1925 and 1932, he was THE top male movie star in the world. In 1925, he starred in Ben-Hur, the biggest and most expensive movie made during the silent era.
When movies switched to sound in the late 1920s, it was with his pleasant (though heavily accented) speaking and singing voice that Ramon Navarro segued into sound movies, while many of his contemporaries in silent films were not able to make the transition. Though small of stature (5 feet, six inches) and slightly pudgy, he had other assets that made him a favorite of audiences: a handsome face, an undeniable charm and appeal, coupled with a genuine talent for screen acting. Women loved him and men did not feel threatened by him.
Every star that rises, however, must fall. After 1932, his bosses at MGM (Mayer and Thalberg) began putting him in movies that were not only unsuitable for him (at age 32, he played a college football player in a movie called Huddle) but were almost destined from the start to fail. After a series of box office flops, the studio dumped him in 1935 and, at age 36, he was washed up. He tried for decades to recapture his box office magic, but nobody wanted him anymore and he was relegated to playing small parts in cheap productions. He was successful for a while on the concert circuit and in summer stock, but soon his heavy drinking began to undermine everything he attempted. From the age of 36 to the end of his life at 69, he was merely a “once-was” or a “has-been.” Many of the once-great stars of his generation shared the same fate.
Beyond Paradise by André Soares is the fascinating and unforgettable story of a likeable star (to some a hero) who, in the end, became a tragic figure. Ramon Navarro’s story is a story of the twentieth century and of one of the defining industries of that century. Beyond Paradise reads like a novel, is never boring and is never bogged down in extraneous detail the way some nonfiction books are. The final chapters that cover Navarro’s murder and the subsequent trial are gripping. Highly recommended for those interested in Hollywood biography and lore from the golden age of movie making. A time and place that are no more and will never be again.
Copyright © 2016 by Allen Kopp
Oliver Hardy as himself and, minus the mustache,
as his “sister,” in Twice Two (1933).
Luncheon of the Boating Party ~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp
Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted Luncheon of the Boating Party (Le déjeuner des canotiers) over a two-month period during the summer of 1880, using some of his friends as models. The location shown in the painting is a restaurant terrace overlooking the Seine river in a place called Chatou, not far from Paris. It was an ambitious undertaking for Renoir, both in its size and composition. He was nearing forty and he hadn’t been as successful as a painter as he once was. Many critics dismissed Impressionism as a genuine movement; it hadn’t been fully embraced by the art-loving world. Many believed that Impressionism as an art movement was dead, or that it had never been alive in the first place. Renoir wanted to prove the critics wrong.
Luncheon of the Boating Party is a novel by Susan Vreeland that tells the story of the painting, how it came to be and at what price, the people involved, and the time (1880s) and place (Paris). Among the fourteen people in the painting are an actress; an illiterate seamstress (who would later become Renoir’s wife and bear him three sons); a homosexual painter (Gustave Caillebotte, seen in the foreground of the painting on the right); an avid canotier (boatman); the daughter of the proprietor of the place (leaning on the railing to the left); her brother (in the singlet on the left); an art critic; a wealthy aristocrat (in the top hat in the background). With this mix of people, Renoir wanted to show la vie moderne, or life as he believed it to be in 1880s France.
Luncheon of the Boating Party is a historical novel, not exactly a biography of Renoir, well-researched (if we are to believe the author’s note at the end of the book), and based on facts where facts were available. That means that some (a lot?) of the book is made up by the novelist, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an accurate portrayal of Parisian life in the late nineteenth century or of the life and times of Renoir. We are gratified to see at the end that Renoir is fully vindicated and that Luncheon of the Boating Party was instantly hailed as a masterpiece and Renoir as a genius. It stands today as the finest example of the Impressionist style.
Copyright © 2016 by Allen Kopp
Literary Fictions 