Nice to see the beginning trickles of cortical activity from one of the finest minds loaded with useless trivia that was ever hatched, created, or appeared from under a rock. Hopefully you kept my last email so that you can address those last questions. If not I will look it up and resend it to your sorry ass. Great to hear that you are being trained as a thespian. That will make it easier when we start getting live audiences for the MICK & BUTT SHOW.
Good questions on Mitchum and Monroe; made me do some digging, sir.
Mitchum once said,"I gave up on being serious about making pictures around the time I made a film with Miss Greer Garson --and she took 125 takes to say,"No". "
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum, who was 6'1" tall, used to be pissed off at John Wayne towering over him. He once said,"John Wayne wore 4" lifts in his shoes --honest to God. The son of a bitch, they probably buried him in his goddamn lifts."
Mitch's father was a railroad worker who was killed in a train accident when the boy was 2 years old. His new stepfather was a military man, and Mitch rebelled against authority. He ran away from home several times, and rode the rails and bummed around. When he was only 14 years old, he was in Georgia and he got arrested for vagrancy, and was sentenced to hard labor on a chain gang. Mitch escaped. During the early years of WWII before he got drafted, yes, he worked at Lockheed Aircraft Company. It was said that job stress caused temporary blindness for him. I knew that Marilyn Monroe also worked at Lockheed during the war, but I didn't know they had met each other.
Norma Jean Mortensen was born in 1926. Her father bought a motorcycle and hit the road just before she was born. Her mother, Gladys (wasn't that the name of Elvis' mother too), was a very attractive woman, who was a film cutter at Fox, and had a long string of boyfriends. Norma Jean never really knew who her father was. Gladys gave her the last name of "Baker" after one of her boyfriends. Because her mother was "insane", and in and out of mental institutions so much, Norma Jean was raised in a series of foster homes. She was nearly smothered at 2 years old, and nearly raped at 6 years old. Perhaps what you are alluding to, that they had in common, was no father, the abandonment of youth. In 1942 she married a 21 year old soldier named James Dougherty. They divorced in 1946. She called him "Daddy".
Mitch was a pretty talented guy who played the saxophone, and wrote music, and poetry. At one point in the late 50's he co-wrote and composed an "oratorio" [a complex choral work of a religious nature] that was produced at the Hollywood Bowl by Orson Welles. He had a lifetime of alcoholism, and didn't get treated for it until the 60's. He was fired off BLOOD ALLEY (1955) for being a drunk. He loved the work of Elvis Presley. He wanted Elvis to co-star with him in THUNDER ROAD (1958), but it was an Indie done by Mitch's production company, and Colonel Parker asked for too large a salary for Elvis. Too bad, that might have been an interesting mix for that film. Because Charles Laughton had a "personal dislike" of children, Mitch actually directed all the scenes with his child co-stars for the entire shoot of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. Mitchum turned down several roles in his career. He turned down the Tony Curtis role in THE DEFIANT ONES (1958), telling Stanley Kramer," Your premise is nuts, daddy. I've been on a chain gang, and I can assure you they never chain a black man and a white man together." Some called him a racist. He just laughed in their face.
He turned down the role of Gen. George Patton in PATTON (1970), suggesting George C. Scott for the role. He turned down the lead for DIRTY HARRY (1971). He turned down the lead in Peckenpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969), and filmed FIVE CARD STUD (1968) instead. "What the hell's the difference. They were both Westerns," he said. That was Mitchum. He turned down Burt Lancaster's part in ATLANTIC CITY (1980), and then later when Lancaster had a heart attack, he replaced him on MARIA'S LOVERS. He disliked both Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, dismissing them as "posers and bad actors".
He said,"Every two or three years I knock off for a while. That way I am always the new girl in the whorehouse." He started out making 100 bucks a week working with William Boyd on HOPPY SERVES A WRIT (1941).
Marilyn Monroe's nude calendar, done in 1949-1950 was the first centerfold in the first issue of PLAYBOY in 1953. She was only actually married to Joe DiMaggio for 8 months. She stayed a lot longer with Arthur Miller. On THE RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954), the theme music was done by the KEN DARBY Singers, and Robert Mitchum was (uncredited) as one of the singers.
And here, sir, is the titty twister of all time. Please get from Tuesday Weld to Glenn Buttkus. If that one is too tough for you then get from Tony Shalhoub to Humphrey Bogart.
Hey I watched THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE the other day, and since we had discussed it so thoroughly, it was great seeing it again.
Big Hugs: Marshall Glenn Kane.
Mick
I am back in rare form and ready to harvest the pluckable pigeon-holed pea brain public with your help which they demand and grave for from our platitudes! I have joined the senior citizens recreation center here in Bremerton and have signed up for their drama and writing classes which keeps me in shape for the local public who need our expertise on things which will make it or aspire to the celluloid world of art imitating life. This memo will be short today and much lengthier over the weekend. What big company did Mitch work for in the L.A. area before the grade B days which were, (hint hint) pumping out war production goodies where he first met Marilyn Monroe, befor her discovery and some biggies in the movie business who suggested he try acting. What main fear did she suffer from which made her seem disconnected to some which Mitch picked up on even then and always sang her praises. Who sang the theme song for their movie "River of no Return" which was the first Drive-in movie that I recall. Much much more in the upcoming episodes; "On King, On!
Regards, The literary Lion who would be King, Mick-o-movies-o
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