Reinventing Elvis: The '68 Comeback

Year 18, Day 230 - 8/18/26 - Movie #5,405 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #44

BEFORE: After tonight, just one more week of Doc Block, maybe a little more because I have to sneak a couple of ringers in there before the last doc to make sure I end with a solid film, plus an easy link back to fiction films. I'm running out of docs, believe it or not, there will be very few to screen next year, but you know, they build up again over time, you put two together on the list and they start breeding once they're in captivity. You know how it is. 

With all the delays caused by work and skip days here and there, in order to line things up with birthdays and such, I managed to get back on Elvis Presley as a topic on the 49th anniversary of his funeral, meaning the memorial service at Graceland. Yes, I've been there, I stood in front of Elvis' grave the way many tourists do, he died on August 16, 1977 and the official funeral was just two days later. See, I knew the chain had something in mind for me with all the skip days, it's very sneaky that way. 

Anyway, I've got two Elvis docs, they seem almost identical but that's honestly what I'm here to determine - and I saved two U.S. states for Elvis, the first one's going to be based on where he was born, which was Tupelo in MISSISSIPPI. Since I already covered Tennessee you can probably guess what other state he's associated with, which I'll get to tomorrow. I could have flipped them, but since I just covered Louisiana, Mississippi is just across the river. 

Date admitted to the U.S.: December 10, 1817 (20th state)

Claim to fame: Birthplace of Elvis, duh. Also a pretty big river, and all that that entails. 

Nickname: The Magnolia State or The Hospitality State

State Motto: "Virtue et armis" or "by valor and arms"

State Flower: Obviously the magnolia

State Bird: Northern mockingbird - northern? must have gotten lost

State Tree: Southern magnolia - wait, I thought it was a flower? 

State Food: Sweet potato

State Reptile: American alligator

State Fish: Largemouth bass

State Toy: Teddy bear

Notable Sports Teams: No pro teams, just college-level ones like the Ole Miss Rebels and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Minor-league baseball affiliates of the Brewers and the Braves. 

Fun Facts: Formerly colonized by the French and the Spanish, the state ended up in the hands of the British after the French and Indian War. But the U.S. won it in the American Revolution, before it became a state. No backsies. Americans pulled the usual fast one and made a law that said any Native Americans had to sell their land before moving on to find new tribal land in Oklahoma. Really, it was their mistake in the first place for settling down on land that would be so important to growing cotton in the future. Those cotton plantation owners brought in or acquired slaves, and by 1860 enslaved African-Americans totaled 55% of Mississippi's population. You can probably see by the numbers why the white people were so eager to keep the black people from gaining the right to vote. Back then it was the Democrats who tried to disenfranchise black voters, but still some black candidates managed to get elected, which set off white panic, which led to more violence and those Jim Crow laws. The only good thing to come out of all that was the blues music, along with the Gospel, country and jazz music that got exported to Chicago from the Mississippi Delta region. Of course, after it became popular a lot of it was stolen by white artists like Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin.

I have NOT been to Mississippi - so I'm still at 26 states visited out of 44 profiled. Just six films to go and seven states left. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon carry over from "Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy". 

THE PLOT: The story of the behind-the-scenes drama that took place during the making of Elvis Presley's iconic 1968 TV special. 

AFTER: Yeah, I kind of know a lot of this story already, from watching that longer 2-part HBO documentary series "Elvis Presley: The Searcher" a few years back. But specifically this is very rich on details about just one milestone concert in Elvis' career, the 1968 comeback special, which was originally meant to be a Christmas special, though once they started rehearsing it and filming it Elvis was having a lot of fun playing with his four-piece band again, playing in the round on a stage surrounded by a bunch of carefully-chosen teenage girls. To play songs like "Hound Dog" and "That's All Right, Mama" again for the first time in years, well, despite Col Tom Parker's incessant urging, they never got around to recording any Christmas music, except by accident. 

The director of the '68 Comeback Special, of course, was Steve Binder, who was riding high after a benefit TV special made for the NAACP, which had both white artists like Tony Bennett and black artists like Nat King Cole performing on the same stage. Controversial, because there were still parts of the U.S. back then where if you wanted to shoot a special like that, you had to use TWO soundstages, and one would be "whites only". This was a very good reason to rehearse and shoot the special in Burbank, California. But this meant flying out Elvis and his band, and hiring a bunch of California girls as dancers, and if Elvis was away from his wife and surrounded by a bunch of beautiful women, there's no telling what could happen. You know what, it's fine, we all know he did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. But he did inquire about renting a house in California and bringing Priscilla and Lisa Marie out there with him, probably so he'd be less likely to cheat. 

Steve Binder went on to direct more variety TV shows after this, including the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special", which I covered in last year's Doc Block, if you recall it was a complete disaster starring Art Carney, Bea Arthur and Harvey Korman, and the only people who could even stand watching it were 10 year old kids like me who didn't know any better, and would come to absolutely hate the TV special when they were in their 20s, forget about it in their 30's and then get curious about it again in their 40's. However, if they then watched in again in their 40's, they would absolutely hate it again, so it's a bit of a vicious cycle. 

At this point, Elvis had not been on live TV in over 7 years, he had been concentrating on making terrible movies that all had the same plot, basically, he would be a cowboy or a soldier or a tour guide in Hawaii and there would be a love interest, he'd get into some kind of trouble or a fight, but also he was a singer on the side, so they could showcase and sell more records, proving that a film career and a recording career could work hand-in-hand. However, the Beatles copied his formula and made "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help" meaning he no longer had a monopoly on the formula, which was starting to look quite out of date. And as the 1960's went on, his films kind of got worse and worse, the critics hated them with a passion, but there was an endless supply of teen girls to buy tickets for them, then a lot of them shifted over to the Beatles, too. 

Elvis did kind of make himself relevant again through the '68 comeback special - this doc likens his resurgence to the popularity the Beatles enjoyed after JFK was shot, and in a weird bit of cosmic irony, Robert Kennedy was assassinated during the filming of Elvis' show, and the country was in a funk once again, for nearly the same reason. History does not repeat itself, but it frequently rhymes, or something. The last song in the Comeback Special, "If I Can Dream", was written just for the special, and kind of encourages Americans to keep hope alive, to look forward to a brighter day when different races can work together and walk together hand-in-hand, maybe even on the moon. You know, or words to that effect. The song kind of riffed on the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and wouldn't you know it, he'd recently been assassinated too. Yeah, that was a difficult time in U.S. history, many of the people trying to enact change were being shot down. Why, it's almost like there was some kind of giant conspiracy of people who didn't want things to change.

Now, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's manager, was against this song, he said it wasn't the kind of song he should be singing, also he reminded everyone this was supposed to be a CHRISTMAS special and they still hadn't done one number with Elvis in a Santa suit or recorded anything even close to a Christmas carol. How the hell are they going to sell Christmas albums if Elvis is singing about racial equality and space travel? It's a valid question - but this doc reveals that Elvis was working with Binder to do their own thing, subvert the mandate of Tom Parker and make something truly new and popular that would be so successful it broke the rules and got Elvis out from under Parker's thumb. By the way, the man was not named Tom Parker, and he was nothing even close to a Colonel, in fact he wasn't even American, he was Dutch. His real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kujik, and he came to America illegally and hid out by working in carnivals, eventually making his way into music promotion. When his father died he cut off all ties with his family in the Netherlands, and this documentary comes very close to suggesting that he killed some woman in Europe and needed to get to America quickly to hide. You can say he managed Elvis or exploited Elvis, but he sure knew how to sell Elvis to America. This is a guy who probably needs his own documentary one of these days, because really, there just HAVE to be a lot of secrets there. Plus he wore a Hawaiian shirt to Elvis' funeral, 49 years ago today. 

What was up with the clips from "Bonnie and Clyde", "The Graduate" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"? Those films had nothing at all to do with Elvis or the 1968 special. I suppose this was an attempt to summarize the zeitgeist, but it feels more like an easy way to fill up space. Totally not necessary, this isn't "Film Geek", we came here for Elvis and not this. The clips from the NAACP special at least make sense, because they came from the same director, Steve Binder, and that's his origin story.

Well, Elvis went on to make some more good music after this special, like "In the Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds", and the TV special led to offers to tour again, playing the London Palladium and the International Hotel in Vegas. In 1970 he met with President Nixon, which has been depicted in more than one film, and in 1972 he separated from Priscilla because of all his affairs and such. Another comeback special took place in 1973, filmed in Hawaii. But his health was in rapid decline by 1976, and he died in August 1977. That kind of brings us full circle, but let's see what else we can learn tomorrow. 

Directed by John Scheinfeld (director of "Starring Dick Van Dyke" and "What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?")

Also starring Terry Baldwin, Steve Binder (last seen in "A Disturbance in the Force"), Allan Blye, Douglas Brinkley, Joan Gansky, Gillian Garr, Susan Henning, Tanya Lemani, Anita Mann, Maffio, Drake Milligan, Darice Murray-McKay, Alanna Nash, Jaime Rogers, Darius Rucker (last seen in "Jagged"), Kelefa Sanneh, 

with archive footage of Elvis Presley (last seen in "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan"), Harry Belafonte (ditto), James Brown (ditto), Nat King Cole (ditto), Muhammad Ali (last seen in "Reggie"), Lucille Ball (last seen in "Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion"), Anne Bancroft (last seen in "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!"), Warren Beatty (last seen in "Starring Dick Van Dyke"), Tony Bennett (last seen in "Mister Rogers: It's You I Like"), Chuck Berry (last seen in "Devo"), Jan Berry (last seen in "The Wrecking Crew!"), Dean Torrence (ditto), Petula Clark, Perry Como (last seen in "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes"), Faye Dunaway (last seen in "Film Geek"), Gene Hackman (ditto), Dustin Hoffman (ditto), Gene Kelly (ditto), Burt Lancaster (ditto), Sidney Poitier (ditto), Richard Egan, Bob Finkel, D.J. Fontana (last seen in "Elvis Presley: The Searcher", Charlie Hodge (ditto), Scotty Moore (ditto), Alan Ford, Marvin Gaye (last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Lesley Gore, 

George Harrison (also last seen in "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan"), Mick Jagger (ditto), Martin Luther King (ditto), John Lennon (ditto), Paul McCartney (ditto), Katharine Hepburn (also last seen in "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes"), Paul Newman (ditto), Bones Howe (last seen in "Summer of Soul"), Hubert Humphrey (last seen in "Rather"), Caroline Kennedy (also carrying over from "Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy"), John F. Kennedy (ditto), John F. Kennedy Jr. (ditto), Robert F. Kennedy (ditto), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (ditto), 

Debra Paget, Tom Parker (last seen in "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"), Gladys Presley (also last seen in "Elvis Presley: The Searcher"), Vernon Presley (ditto), Priscilla Presley (last seen in "The Naked Gun"),

Smokey Robinson (also last seen in "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan"), Diana Ross (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Ed Sullivan (ditto), Tom Sarnoff, Rod Steiger (last seen in "The Specialist"), Spencer Tracy (also last seen in "Devo"), Leslie Uggams (last seen in "Deadpool & Wolverine"), George Wallace (last seen in "Mike Wallace Is Here"), Andy Williams (last seen in "Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution"), Malcolm X (last seen in "Ali & Cavett: The Tale of the Tapes")

plus the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and the Supremes

RATING: 6 out of 10 tickets for the historic taping that disappeared after handing them to "Col. Tom Parker"

Beyond "JFK": The Question of Conspiracy

Year 18, Day 229 - 8/17/26 - Movie #5,404 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #43

BEFORE: The end is coming - I can wrap this Doc Block up in just over a week if I can just stop adding more skip days. Well, I have to work and I have to sleep and I have to line films up with birthdays, it's just what I do. 

This seems like maybe a bit of a weird doc because it appears to be a mix of a promotional piece for the 1991 Oliver Stone film "JFK", while at the same time serving as a recounting of the Kennedy assassination timeline and aftermath, and detailing the extent of the overlying conspiracy theories. Sure, and if you've got any time left over in those 90 minutes, please also update us on where Jimmy Hoffa's body is buried and what's being kept in Area 51 - if it's not too much trouble. Look after the Marilyn Monroe documentary turned out to be a big nothing-burger, I'm not really expecting too much tonight. It has been a really long time since I watched the "JFK" film, so maybe there's time for a rewatch of that, which would of course be an off-the-books viewing. Films which I've already seen before are exempt from my annual stats, and take place at my discretion. 

This is, however, another chance to cross another U.S. state off the list with another "Get to Know a State" profile, and with Jim Garrison's investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald, Clay Shaw and other people in New Orleans, and considering that I covered Texas already, tonight's state is therefore LOUISIANA.

Date admitted to the U.S.: April 30, 1812 (18th state)

Claim to fame: The Louisiana Purchase, sure, the big deal that like doubled the size of the U.S. They also seem very proud of their food down there but I have my own opinions. 

Nickname: Pelican State or Bayou State or Sportsman's Paradise (?)

State Motto: "Union, Justice, Confidence"

State Flower: Magnolia

State Bird: Brown pelican 

State Insect: Honeybee

State Tree: Bald Cypress

State Crustacean: Crawfish

State Reptile: Alligator. Sure, on the bayou. 

State Fish: Crappie

State Instrument: Diatonic accordion

Notable Sports Teams: Saints? Is that an NFL team? I think an NBA team moved down there and changed its name to the Pelicans, too. The next step down is apparently a rugby team and the college football thing. LSU Tigers and Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, plus various Jaguars, Tigers and Ragin' Cajuns. 

Fun Facts: The state is named for King Louis XIV and belonged to France, Spain and France again before the big Purchase. The culture is a mix of French, Creole, Cajun (Acadian), Spanish, Native American and West African people and their traditions. 

I have been to Louisiana! We drove from Houston to New Orleans on BBQ Crawl #2 in 2018, we were there the week before Halloween and we went on a Spooky Ghost Tour, one that really was about famous murders, the ghost thing was kind of tangential, assuming all murder sites are haunted. We also visited a museum that had one exhibit about Hurricane Katrina and another about Mardi Gras costumes, fun stuff. I know we had beignets from the city's 2nd most popular cafe, and I had a shrimp po'boy at a restaurant/bar. We stayed in a hotel next to a riverboat casino and ate more New Orleans food at their buffet - found out that I'm not really a fan of gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish etouffe or muffalettas, which is basically everything they're so proud of down there. Anyway, now I'm at 26 states visited out of 43 profiled, I'm over the 50% mark!

John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson carry over from "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan".

THE PLOT: A behind-the-scenes documentary on Oliver Stone's controversial epic "JFK" (1991) featuring interviews with the cast, the director and the personalities who remember the facts concerning the November 22, 1963 event, while analyzing the facts, myths and rumors about Kennedy's assassination. 

AFTER: Yes, we are moving ahead with our plan to re-watch the "JFK" film, we'll try to get through half of it tonight and the second half tomorrow, it's simply too long to watch in one sitting. My wife needs smoke breaks, I need bathroom breaks, and I need to be properly caffeinated or you know, right after dinner works too, we can be full and not distracted by being hungry or thirsty or tired or being on our phones. This will be the FIRST time I've seen the film in many years, and since the last time, I've been to both Dallas and New Orleans. We visited the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository, we saw the Oswald sniper's nest and the grassy knoll. This was in 2018, and surprisingly very little has changed around Dealey Plaza since 1963 - or maybe it has, and it all just LOOKS the same, I don't know. 

But a strange thing happened when we got down on ground level, after visiting the Assassination Museum on the sixth floor. We stood on the grassy knoll, near that monument-like thing, and I looked down Elm St. and in my mind's eye, I could SEE the President's car turning the corner and coming toward me. Probably because I've seen the famous footage, including the Zapruder film, so many times. I think standing in the "Zapruder spot" must have triggered it, also there was a medium-sized "X" painted on the street, so you will know what happened directly over that X. Also a street vendor was selling newspapers that were replicas of that day's edition, to really drive the point home that somehow we had both time-traveled back to November 1963. Well, I felt very morbid and gross after that, let's say, so we didn't hang around for long and we headed over to a BBQ place because it was my birthday. (Jeez, if we really had time traveled back I couldn't have celebrated my birthday because I wasn't born yet.)

So the Oliver Stone film and this doc both follow the same pattern, making their cases via the "shovel" method. That's when they shovel so much evidence in front of us that we get buried in it, and we're forced to admit that OK, yes, this sure is an awful lot of evidence, and therefore the conspiracy theories simply MUST be true. They're possible, sure, but evidence can be misleading and is not always convincing, in fact some of the pieces may not be convincing at all and the conspiracy nuts might be hoping that we don't notice that. Oswald was friends with Jack Ruby, Oswald was trained by the military and kept on a base in Tokyo, he was questioned for 12 hours without a lawyer present and there's no record of what the police asked him. Any of these by themselves are fine, but then when you put them together, it's very easy to assume that they add up to something. 

It would be extremely difficult for anyone to shoot three rounds in six seconds. Oswald's rifle initially didn't have any prints on it, then later had his palm print. The amount of damage done to the bodies of Kennedy and Gov. Connally by so few bullets meant that one bullet would have had to leave Connally's body, turn around mid-air and enter JFK's body from another angle, the so-called "magic bullet" theory. Yes, if you put them all together you certainly might come to the conclusion that there were more assassins than just one, more bullets and more shooters. 

There's also no shortage of suspects, because there's the Cubans who hated Kennedy, the Mafia, the dreaded "military industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned us about, then the FBI that was run by Hoover, who also had a grudge against JFK, the CIA, the KGB and then there's the most/least obvious suspect of all, Vice President Johnson, who of course would become President after JFK's death, and then be able to tackle the war in Vietnam, Texas style. I'm not saying LBJ was an evil man, for all I know he was a sweetheart of a person, but if it were a movie, I would certainly not rule out the VP as a suspect. 

Now, I was raised in Massachusetts, a place where a Kennedy could really do no wrong - a Kennedy could have affairs or leave a girl behind in a car to drown and we wouldn't think much of it, they'd still have our support. But when I visited the Sixth Floor museum, I saw a Texas newspaper editorial from 1963 hanging on the wall, pointing out that JFK was a terrible President who had bungled the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Bay of Pigs and should be subject to charges of treason. This shocked me, I had no idea that he was so hated in the Dallas area, and if someone in the Dallas area hates you, you really should consider a bullet-proof vest, just saying. Riding through Dallas in an open-top car was probably asking for trouble, also taking THAT route past a bunch of buildings, making that turn onto Elm St. - as one of the characters in the "JFK" film points out, it's like driving into a kill zone. And then the car SLOWS DOWN? WTF?

Look, the Warren Commission clearly bungled their investigation, it was perfunctory at best, and the members were under pressure to keep focused on the original theory, that Oswald acted alone, was a crazy nut-job loose cannon, and that this was unlikely to happen again. Mistakes were clearly made during the original investigation, and probably the Warren Commission repeated those mistakes while adding a bunch of new mistakes of their own. They didn't call enough witnesses, they didn't explore every line of questioning, they didn't do their due diligence. Also, they were hampered by the fact that many of the witnesses from Dealey Plaza had died, maybe a few too many of them had "untimely accidents" that prevented them from speaking about what they saw that didn't fit the lone gunman theory. 

Here's what I think, because there were so many people and factions who were against JFK and wanted things to improve with him out of the picture - we're seeing this now with Trump, who has survived what, three assassination attempts? People get unhappy with the war, the economy, the loss of their abortion rights, and all of the lies, thousands of them, so they tell themselves that assassination is the only way. Different people come to this conclusion at different times, every nutjob has a different breaking point. But for JFK in Dallas, I think a lot of different factions turned up in the same place on the same day and had the same idea. It was a scheduling mix-up, that's all. Oswald showed up, the CIA showed up, the KGB and Cuban assassins probably car-pooled together, the mob hit-men were there - it was really quite a mess because they all saw each other setting up in different places and there was almost like a total turf war. "Wait, how come you get the grassy knoll, and I get the very uncomfortable overpass?" "Hey, how come you get a fence to lean on, and I just have this stupid stack of books? It's not fair!" That's not really a conspiracy, it's just friendly competition, really, they didn't coordinate, I mean if they had coordinated together they would have all picked different cities on different days, to maximize their chances. 

So naturally when they other groups heard the first shot, it turned into a free-for-all. And then the President's car slowed down before speeding away, jeezus, that's just like an invitation for the people on the grassy knoll and the guys on the overpass to open fire. Really, this explains so much, because if you stick with the "lone gunman in the book depository" there's just no way that Oswald's shot from behind could cause the most damage to the BACK of JFK's head, and we can throw out the "magic bullet" theory as there's no need to explain how three bullets made like eight entry wounds. But this way the conspiracy nuts are also wrong, because the different factions in Dealey Plaza were NOT working together, there were just like three or four different groups who all wanted to kill JFK for various reasons. No conspiracy, just over-scheduling, and you know, it happens. 

We just had a report in the news that the Secret Service did some decoy work to protect Trump after a summit in Turkey, after a credible (?) threat due to the continuing war in Iran, it was believed that Air Force One was vulnerable, so after boarding that plane, Trump was removed from it with the use of a catering van, which brought him to another plane. We're seeing this more and more in concerts and comic-cons, because crazy fans have been known to stand around and wait for a glimpse of their favorite actor or singer, because just seeing them on stage or from a distance is not enough. They could bring Taylor Swift, say, into an arena, or to the stage in a large box, we can assume it's probably cushioned in there and there are air holes, but for safety's sake, she needs to be protected from crazy fans. I once saw a bunch of people standing by a door at a Comic-Con because they were told that Natalie Portman would be entering that way, but I knew they just did that to keep the crazy fans there while she entered another way, and sure enough, they used the same box trick because she popped up inside the booth, as if by magic. So this recent revelation about Trump comes as no surprise, this could just be standard practice, and if so, we don't know how many assassination attempts it has foiled. They no longer bring the President down a busy city street with a lot of tall buildings in a slow-moving open-top car and print the motorcade route in the newspaper the day before, that's for sure. Lesson learned.

The "Shovel Method" is used again near the end of this film, because the doc chooses to focus on other scandalous U.S. government behavior, such as the Iran-Contra scandal, with Oliver North testifying, and Anita Hill's charges of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas. Well, logically if politicians are always lying and there have been many other scandals SINCE 1963, then that would seem to justify the conspiracy theories regarding the assassination - EXCEPT for the fact that those are all separate incidents, and the existence of one does not prove (or disprove) the other. 

Directed by Barbara Kopple (director of "ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black") & Danny Schechter 

Also starring Edward Asner (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Numa V. Bertel Jr., Madeleine Brown, Kevin Costner (last seen in "John Candy: I Like Me"), Walter Cronkite (also carrying over from "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan"), John Davis, James DiEugenio, David Duke, Mary Ferrell, Jim Garrison, Richard N. Goodwin, Robert J. Groden, Edward A. Haggerty, Jean Hill, Ed Hoffman, Larry N. Howard, Lou Ivon, Rosemary James, Tommy Lee Jones (last seen in "The Package"), Stanley Karnow, Jonathan Kwitny, Mark Lane, Jack Lemmon (last seen in "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes"), Jim Lesar, Ron Lewis, David Lifton, David MacMichael, Robert MacNeil, Jim Marrs, Walter Matthau (last seen in "Film Geek"), Wallace Milam, Dan Moldea, John M. Newman, Carl Oglesby, Gary Oldman (last seen in "Oppenheimer"), Beverly Oliver, Tip O'Neill, Marina Oswald, Ike Pappas, Jerry Policoff, L. Fletcher Prouty, Earl Ruby, Perry R. Russo, Zachary Sklar, Sissy Spacek (last seen in "The Luckiest Man in America"), Oliver Stone (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Malcolm Summers, William Turner, Cyril H. Wecht, Tom Wicker, 

with archive footage of Dean Andrews, Kevin Bacon (last seen in "Tom Hanks: The Nomad"), George H.W. Bush (last seen in "Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins"), Fidel Castro (also last seen in "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes"), Jimmy Hoffa (ditto), Robert F. Kennedy (ditto), Nikita Khrushchev (ditto), John Connally, John Dean, Allen Dulles, Dwight Eisenhower, Jodie Farber, Gerald Ford (last seen in "The Apprentice"), Will Fritz, Sam Giancana, Anita Hill, Jimmy Hoffa, J. Edgar Hoover (last seen in "When We Went MAD!"), Caroline Kennedy, John Kennedy Jr., Ted Kennedy (last seen in "John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls"), Wayne Knight (last seen in "Spielberg"), Ted Koppel, Russell Long, Marita Lorenz, Carlos Marcello, Richard Nixon (also carrying over from "Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan"), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (ditto), Oliver North, Lee Harvey Oswald (last seen in "Rather"), Jack Ruby (ditto), Joe Pesci (also last seen in "Film Geek"), Jerry Stiller (ditto), Donald Sutherland (ditto), Michael Rooker (last seen in "The Out-Laws"), Johnny Roselli, Jay O. Sanders (last heard in "The Assistant"), Clay Shaw, Arlen Specter, Santo Trafficante Jr., Henry M. Wade, Earl Warren, 

RATING: 4 out of 10 displays in the Sixth Floor Museum

Sunday Best: The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan

Year 18, Day 228 - 8/16/26 - Movie #5,403 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #42 

BEFORE: I'm skipping another day because this film has "Sunday" in the title and so even if I watched it on a Saturday, I'm going to review it on a Sunday in honor of Ed Sullivan. Also I snuck out to the movies today, so I fell behind, but I had a chance to watch the latest big-time Marvel movie for FREE, and I didn't want to pass that up. I'll review it next month if I can link to it. Also my wife came with me, so she finally got to see the theater I work in, I've only been there almost five years now. Two free movie tickets, that's a big deal these days with prices being what they are - I just had to pay for snacks, and we grabbed those at the deli the next block over. 

Anyway, I'm going to try to get back on track, no more skip days until the end of the Doc Block, unless of course somebody has a birthday and I see that as a message from the linking gods to land THAT film on THAT day for reasons I don't quite understand just yet, but still somehow it's kind of meant to be. 

Tonight's "Get to Know a State" state (and at this point, there aren't too many left) will be the home of the Jackson 5, who made their first TV appearance on Ed Sullivan's show - yes, it's INDIANA. I suppose in retrospect I could have used this state on the day I reviewed the Tom Petty concert film, because he mentions Indiana in the song "Mary Jane's Last Dance" but, you know, I didn't think of that then and also I had to clear Oklahoma somehow. Anyway, INDIANA.

Date admitted to the U.S.: December 11, 1816 (19th state)

Claim to fame: Umm, Notre Dame, is that in Indiana? And the Indy 500, plus it's the state David Letterman is from, in addition to the Jackson 5.

Nickname: The Hoosier State

State Motto: "Crossroads of America"

State Flower: Peony

State Bird: Northern Cardinal

State Insect: Say's Firefly

State Tree: Tulip tree - well, at least they made different choices

State Food: Popcorn. Nothing wrong with that!

State Fossil: Mastodon

State Firearm: Grouseland rifle. Wait, are they the only state with an official gun? 

Notable Sports Teams: Right, they have some. The Colts are an NFL team and the Pacers are an NBA team, they also have the Fever, a lady basketball team. Then they got college teams like the Hoosiers, the Purdue Boilermakers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. 

Fun Facts: I know very little about Indiana, that's a fun fact, right? A Hoosier is a slang term for a backwoodsman or a country bumpkin, and if they want to lean into that, it's fine by me. William Henry Harrison was once governor of the state on his way to the White House, and this is a state that faced an influx of emancipated slaves from other states by barring further immigration and proposed re-settling them in Liberia, only to be told by the Supreme Court that would be quite illegal. Well, this was a state that had over 250,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan at one point. 

Well, I've never been to Indiana, and with that track record, I probably should boycott. So I'm still at 25 states visited out of 42 profiled, and Jackie Robinson carries over from "Reggie".

THE PLOT: Ed Sullivan broke barriers by booking Black artists on his Sunday night variety show. This documentary spotlights the TV pioneer's legacy of equality. 

AFTER: I've got a real beef with the forced scarcity of things in certain titles - in the last week I've watched films touting the "Lost Tapes" of Elizabeth Taylor, the "Unheard Tapes" of Marilyn Monroe, and now it's the "Untold Story" of Ed Sullivan. No, no and no. If Liz's tapes were lost, then how could I be hearing them in the film? Same with Marilyn's tapes, could nobody hear them when they were played, was there a technical issue? And Ed's story IS being told, right here in this film, right now, as you are watching it. How can THAT be called untold? It would only qualify as that if this documentary had NOT been made, so I guess it's a paradox - just call it something else, please. And then cheezy shows like "Entertainment Tonight" or "Extra" will say they've got "never before seen" footage coming up, if you just stay tuned. That's impossible - all footage is seen sometime by someone, what about the person who shot this footage, or the person who edited it into today's show, they must have seen it. What you meant to say was that it's "never before released", which is something different. It's all marketing hype and B.S.

But there IS an important story here, don't let it go untold or unheard. I had no idea that Ed Sullivan was such a champion for equality that he booked a lot of African-American performers on his show, for YEARS, at a time when people in Southern states were still pro-segregation and anti-civil rights, never mind the fact that equality had been mandated on the books since just after the Civil War, you know there were some states down South that claimed they never got the memo. Network executives and advertisers told Sullivan that he was SURE to lose ratings for this, especially down South, but he didn't care and just kept booking them. 

Now, at the same time, Motown Records was really coming in to its own, The Supremes and The Temptations and other groups were catching on, so the time was clearly right, maybe change would have come without Ed Sullivan's help, but probably things would have taken a bit longer. He had this platform, he booked all the acts HIMSELF, and he wanted to book performers of all races, that's a solid dude when much of the country didn't think that black people and white people should even be in the same building or swim in the same pool. If you want to change people's minds, sometimes you start by entertaining them, and then hopefully they'll come around - if they don't, well, screw 'em, then nothing was ever going to change their minds and they can just be stupid and racist until they die. 

I'm not saying Ed Sullivan didn't benefit from having the best Black entertainers he could on his show - hey, if you can get Ray Charles, Billy Preston, Diana Ross, Sammy Davis Jr. and Ike and Tina Turner, then that's who you book. A rising tide lifts all boats - and hey, even if some of those people were controversial, sometimes even the racists watch the show, even if they're hate-watching it, that still counts in the ratings. Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and once he was able to prove he wasn't a Communist, Harry Belafonte. Now, Ed also had famous white acts on, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley and we've all seen the footage of the Beatles on his show a thousand times. But equity is a powerful thing, you can still have on people of all colors and faiths and heritages, just try to be a little fair about it. Then both the Doors and the Rolling Stones refused to change the lyrics of their songs to appear on the show, which was probably a sign that the show wasn't hip any more and nearing the end of its life cycle. 

This show was on CBS for 23 YEARS - first as "Toast of the Town" and it was renamed "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1955. From 1948 to 1971, the same man hosted the weekly show, that's a long freakin' time, and it's estimated that he booked 10,000 acts during that run. And most bands played LIVE on the Sullivan show, at a time when lip-synching was common on shows like "American Bandstand". Sullivan set the standard, like if you can't perform live for the audience in the theater, what exactly are you even DOING? And the show aired live, too, at least in the Eastern and Central time zones, then they ran it on tape delay for the Western half of the country. Ratings didn't really suffer until 1971, when there were more and more variety shows on TV, competing for the same audience. 

What I find fascinating is that Ed Sullivan and his wife lived out of a hotel in Times Square, so he probably just walked to work (at what later became called the Ed Sullivan Theater). Later they switched from that hotel to a suite at the Hotel Delmonico, which was on Park Avenue, and that also served as his office until his show was cancelled. It seems the family also had a house in Connecticut, but I think most weeks Ed probably lived in Manhattan at least any week when they were getting ready for the Sunday night show. Really, Ed Sullivan was Lorne Michaels before Lorne Michaels was, and David Letterman before David Letterman was. Barring all the stresses and issues with the network, it sounds like it was a great gig for a long period of time. 

Directed by Sacha Jenkins (director of "Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James")

Also starring Harry Belafonte (last seen in "Jim Henson: Idea Man"), Berry Gordy (last seen in "Cheech & Chong's Last Movie"), Jackie Jackson, Tito Jackson, Smokey Robinson (last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Dionne Warwick (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Otis Williams, 

 with archive footage of Ed Sullivan (last seen in "Starring Dick Van Dyke"), Louis Armstrong (last seen in "What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?"), Pearl Bailey, Peg Leg Bates, Sonny Bono (last seen in "Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion"), Diahann Carroll (ditto), James Brown (last seen in "Roberta"), Ruth Buzzi (last seen in "Lorne"), Cab Calloway, Johnny Carson (also carrying over from "Reggie"), Walter Cronkite (ditto), Ray Charles (last seen in "Music by John Williams"), Chubby Checker, Cher (last seen in "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes"), Kelly Clarkson (last heard in "Trolls World Tour"), Stephen Colbert (last seen in "When We Went MAD!"), Nat King Cole (last seen in "Flipside"), Sammy Davis Jr. (last seen in "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes"), Bo Diddley, Jimmy Fallon (last seen in "I Am: Celine Dion"), Ella Fitzgerald (last seen in "Billie"), David Frost (last seen in "Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything"), Justin Guarini (last seen in "Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives")

Toni Harper, George Harrison (last seen in "John Candy: I Like Me"), John Lennon (ditto), Paul McCartney (ditto), Ringo Starr (ditto), Goldie Hawn (last seen in "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not"), Lena Horne (last seen in "Sid & Judy"), Ice-T (last seen in "Kevin Hart & Chris Rock: Headliners Only"), Keenan Ivory Wayans (ditto), Jesse Jackson (also last seen in "Roberta"), Mahalia Jackson, Michael Jackson (also last seen in "Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion"), Diana Ross (ditto), Barbra Streisand (ditto), Tina Turner (ditto), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Devo"), Lyndon Johnson (also carrying over from "Reggie"), Richard Nixon (ditto), Janis Joplin (last seen in "Stevie Nicks: Wild at Heart"), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (also last seen in "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes"), John F. Kennedy (ditto), Dean Martin (ditto), Edward R. Murrow (ditto), Keegan-Michael Key (last seen in "Dear Santa"), Martin Luther King (also last seen in "Starring Dick Van Dyke"), Gladys Knight (last seen in "Luther: Never Too Much"), Jerry Lewis (last seen in "Film Geek"), Joe Louis, Miriam Makeba, Tony Martin, Clayton Moore, 

Carroll O'Connor (last seen in "Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print"), Jean Stapleton (ditto), Sally Struthers (ditto), Rosa Parks, Elvis Presley (last seen in "Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins"), Billy Preston (last seen in "Cheech & Chong's Last Movie"), Richard Pryor (also last seen in "Film Geek"), Rob Reiner (last seen in "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!"), Wanda Sykes (ditto), Alfonso Ribiero (last seen in "Muppets Haunted Mansion"), Joan Rivers (last seen in "Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story"), Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Hazel Scott, Jay Silverheels, Nina Simone (last seen in "Paul Anka: His Way"), Bruce Springsteen (last seen in "Roy Orbison Forever"), Herman Talmadge, Shirley Temple (last seen in "Child Star"), Oprah Winfrey (ditto), Ike Turner (last seen in "Little Richard: I Am Everything"), Ethel Waters, Flip Wilson (last seen in "Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution"), Jo Anne Worley (ditto), Jackie Wilson, Stevie Wonder (also last seen in "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes"), 

plus The Ink Spots, The Jackson 5, The Supremes, The Temptations

RATING: 5 out of 10 cameo appearances on other TV shows

Reggie

Year 18, Day 226 - 8/14/26 - Movie #5,402 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #41

BEFORE: I've got my BFF Andy staying with us for a couple of days, so we took him out to Long Island on Friday to show him how we do a cigarette run, from the Poospatuck reservation, most often that also includes a nice lunch at a restaurant from my Yelp! lists and usually shopping, although today I really also needed to find a post office (ideally, one with a much smaller line than the one by my house, where the wait for service can be two hours long) and right next to the post office, a very convenient beer store where I was able to start stocking up interesting fall and winter beers. After lunch at a place that specializes in French Dip sandwiches, it was a bit too late for shopping, so we headed home, but I think he got the idea of what Long Island is all about. 

Andy wanted to watch the "Cheech & Chong's Last Movie" doc, so I was willing to watch it again, but that end part where they're really genuinely actively fighting was still tough. Then we latched on to a Jack Lemmon marathon on TCM, caught the tail end of "The Out of Towners" and the whole remake of "The Front Page" (which was better the 2nd time around, and shared with a friend), but I had to bow out once "Some Like It Hot" came on, despite the fact that I JUST watched the doc about Marilyn Monroe and that would have been totally appropriate. No, I went upstairs and watched "Reggie", I would not force my fellow former Masshole to have to watch a doc about a famous NY Yankee, it's bad enough that I need to watch it for my chain to continue. 

Despite playing for a number of different teams, it was difficult to attach a state to the life or career of Reggie Jackson, most of his MLB years were spent playing for the Oakland A's or the Yankees, and I've covered both California and New York already, of course. But since there are a lot of Yankees fans in Connecticut (as well as Red Sox fans), today's "Get to Know a State" state is going to be CONNECTICUT. I've been to Connecticut many times, so I'm up to 25 states visited out of 41, I should finish above 50% for sure. 

Date admitted to the U.S.: January 9, 1788 (the 5th state)

Claim to fame: TWO major casinos, we've been to them both, and Mystic Seaport, a fun place to visit. Some pretty good rest stops, too. 

Nickname: The Constitution State or the Nutmeg State, or the Land of Steady Habits (that last one isn't really the flex you think it is)

State Motto: Qui transtulit sustinet, which is Latin for "stop here between New York and Boston"

State Flower: Mountain laurel

State Bird: American robin

State Fish: American shad

State Animal: Sperm whale

State Insect: Praying mantis

State Tree: Charter Oak

State Dog: Siberian Husky (go, U.Conn Huskies!)

State Shellfish: Eastern oyster

State Mineral: Garnet

Notable Sports Teams: Well, there's a WNBA team, the Sun, which is based near the Mohegan Sun casino. The rest is all college teams and minor-league stuff, due to being right between two VERY big sports cities. 

Fun Facts: I'm familiar with the fact that the state is split, perhaps right down the middle, between Yankees fans and Red Sox fans. On our trips up to Massachusetts we have a favorite rest stop that sells souvenirs from both teams, as well as candy, beverages, fried chicken and fireworks. One-stop shopping, right? But I've learned that the imaginary dividing line between the two fan bases is called the "Munson-Nixon" like, a play on Mason-Dixon based on Yankees player Thurman Munson and Red Sox player Trot Nixon. Connecticut is claiming to be the birthplace of the American hamburger, which is a bit contentious, and is now trying to position itself as the best state for pizza, which is even more contentious. 

Joe Dimaggio carries over from "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes" and we'll send out another Birthday SHOUT-out to Magic Johnson, born 8/14/1959.

THE PLOT: Follows the story of baseball megastar Reggie Jackson as he contemplates his legacy as one of the first iconic black athletes, a pioneer in the fight for dignity, respect, and a seat at the table. 

AFTER: Again, I was raised in Red Sox territory, but I live in Yankee territory, however if I'm going to root for any NY baseball team, it's going to be the Queens-based Mets. Yankees fans are not allowed to have it both ways, they can't brag about how many championships their team has won and also complain about how long it's been since they had one. Pick one, be proud of your team or complain about how much they suck. By the same token, Reggie Jackson can't really complain about not having the same opportunities as other players if there's footage of him counting his World Series rings and then rotating the very expensive cars in his multi-car garage. I mean, sure, he owned a chain of car dealerships, and it appears he invested his baseball money wisely but then I don't want to hear about the struggles, because it seems like he's done very well for himself. 

Did he encounter racism? Sure, most likely. Is the system still inequitable if there aren't many black managers or owners in baseball? Yeah, probably. But I can't agree with the portrayal of Reggie Jackson as a trailblazer when there were so many black players that came before him, who didn't have the same opportunities that HE did. Those are the history makers, Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, and so many others. Reggie got into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, was a member of FIVE World Series championship teams, and was a 14-time All-Star. I just don't think the deck was stacked against him the same way it was for, say, Jackie Robinson or Hank Aaron. I agree that Hank Aaron got a bad deal because of the hatred he encountered while breaking Babe Ruth's HR record, as if he was out to diminish a white man's accomplishments, which was not true at all. But where, exactly, does Reggie Jackson feel that he didn't get the respect or attention that he deserved? 

The NY Yankees is an evil, evil, entity, this was drilled into me at a very young age, and I still believe it. If you want to say that Steinbrenner or Billy Martin were unreasonable or even racist, I'm willing to listen. But show me some proof first, that's all I ask. By the same token, you can't imply that Robert F. Kennedy killed Marilyn unless you've got some proof in your pocket. If anything, Reggie Jackson broke the facial hair barrier in baseball, not the race barrier. Before Reggie players needed to be clean-shaven, and when he showed up for spring training in 1972 with a mustache and refused to shave it off, that was huge. OK, so the Oakland Athletics were a fairly loosey-goosey team, but I know that Steinbrenner was dead-set against mustaches and beards, if Reggie played with facial hair he was probably fined PER GAME, and that takes some cojones. We wouldn't have had that great period in the 1980's and 90's when some pitchers had throwback handlebar mustaches or mutton chops without Reggie Jackson. We need to band together and stand against facial hair harassment by employers, I'm pretty sure it's unconstitutional somehow. 

Reggie Jackson also benefited from free agency, I know it seems crazy now, but players in baseball used to have very tight, almost lifetime contracts, and it took a court case to determine that this was tantamount to slavery. Free agency was a game-changer, and it re-shuffled the entire league, but the best players saw salary increases, and that I think was a good thing. Hey, if you're not making the money you think you deserve, you should have the right to other options, find a team out there that could use your talents and also has some more money to spare. It seems more in line with American capitalism, we have a free-market in this country and every man (or woman) should get a salary in line with their talents and experience - in an ideal world, of course, and I know it's not, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. 

Reggie didn't rub everyone the right way, of course, that much is clear, and the conflicts with Yankees manager Billy Martin are probably the most famous. I mean, the team was on top and had a winning record, everything should have been coming up roses, and here's the manager arguing with whether Reggie is hustling to catch balls in the outfield. The flip-side of that, of course, is Reggie being arrogant enough to think he doesn't have to hustle, or should definitely be batting clean-up to have a chance to improve his RBI stats. Of course, there's no questioning the stats during the World Series games, which is why Jackson became known as "Mr. October". 

I'm only crediting Jackson with the fact that in 2021 he finally came around and determined what an evil, evil organization the New York Yankees is. Better late than never, I guess. He spent a long time after retiring from playing baseball with the Yankees as a special advisor, but eventually determined they weren't doing enough community work for people of color or making things more equitable overall. Well, he's probably not wrong, I just wonder why it took him three decades to figure that out - was he letting them slide on certain issues or just not paying close enough attention? 

Directed by Alex Stapleton

Also starring Reggie Jackson (last seen in "Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary"), Hank Aaron (last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Derek Jeter (ditto), Jose Altuve, Vida Blue, Dolores Jackson Burton, JIm Crane, Julius Erving (last seen in "Hustle"), Rollie Fingers, Franco Harris, Rick Hendrick, Joe Jackson, Aaron Judge, Joe Rudi, Hal Steinbrenner, Dave Stewart 

with archive footage of Muhammad Ali (last seen in "Being Eddie"), Tom Brokaw (last seen in "Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story"), Jim Brown (last seen in "Earth, Wind & Fire"), Johnny Carson (last seen in "Audrey"), Howard Cosell (last seen in "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!"), Dave Duncan, Charles Finley, Curt Flood, Lou Gehrig, Bob Gibson, Rickey Henderson, Martinez Jackson, LeBron James (last seen in "Citizen Ashe"), Lyndon Johnson (also carrying over from "The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes"), Magic Johnson, Mickey Mantle (also last seen in "Yogi Berra: It Ain't Over"), Willie Mays (ditto), George Steinbrenner III (ditto), Billy Martin (last seen in "Lorne"), Willie McCovey, Thurman Munson, Joe Namath (last seen in "I Am Burt Reynolds"), Pat Nixon (last seen in "Remastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black"), Richard Nixon (last seen in "Film Geek"), Satchel Paige (last seen in "The Saint of Second Chances"), Dan Rather (last seen in "Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins"), Ronald Reagan (last seen in "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not"), Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson (last seen in "Join or Die"), Pete Rose (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Bill Russell (last seen in "Citizen Ashe"), Babe Ruth (last seen in "Famous Nathan"), Bud Selig, Giancarlo Stanton, Bob Uecker, 

and the voice of Walter Cronkite (last seen in "Starring Dick Van Dyke")

RATING: 5 out of 10 Reggie! bars, which of course weren't "bars" at all, they were discs.

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes

Year 18, Day 225 - 8/13/26 - Movie #5,401 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #40

BEFORE: Now I'm getting down to it, after tonight this year's Doc Block will be 80% over, so I just have to stave off Documentary Burn-Out for a few more days, then I can watch fiction films again, hurray!  I'm in the "classic Hollywood" section right now, and after one baseball film I'll be in the 1950's and 1960's for a couple more films, then the path goes back through rock & roll for one last film about SNL/SCTV stars, and then I'm done. Really running out of days I have to figure out what I'm going to watch in September, but I've got a few free days next week to give that a whirl. And I've skipped a calendar day in order to make tonight's film line up with a birthday, see below. 

This may seem like an unlikely choice for a U.S. state to associate with Marilyn Monroe, because I don't know if she ever went there, but through Google I found out that the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming has an archive of rare photographs and documents from her life and classic portrait sessions. Also, the ART 321 center in Casper, Wyoming has a 6-foot tall painted portrait of Marilyn created via a community fund-raising campaign. Marilyn also appeared as an extra in a square dance scene in a film titled "Green Grass of Wyoming", but I doubt the film was shot in Wyoming. Anyway, tonight's "Get to Know a State" state is WYOMING! 

Date admitted to the U.S.: July 10, 1890 (44th state)

Claim to fame: Women's suffrage, I guess. First state to allow women to vote. 

Nickname: Equality State, or Cowboy State

State Motto: "Equal Rights" 

State Flower: Wyoming paintbrush

State Bird: Western meadowlark

State Fish: Cutthroat trout 

State Animal: American bison

State Reptile: Horned toad

State Insect: Sheridan's green hairstreak butterfly 

State Tree: Plains cottonwood

State Dinosaur: Triceratops

State Gemstone: Jade

Notable Sports Teams: None I can find, it's another place the state sport is rodeo. 

Fun Facts: Despite being the tenth largest state in area, it's the least populated of all. Even teeny tiny Rhode Island has more people living in it than big old Wyoming. And the population there is kind of declining, workers have been leaving in droves for North Dakoka. The federal government owns over half of the land in Wyoming, which raises questions, like what are they even DOING with it? National parks, I guess? Less people, less available land, so I don't think it's a fun place to be unless you're really into mineral extraction. And I've never been to Wyoming, so I'm still at 24 states visited out of 40 profiled. 

Marilyn Monroe carries over from "Audrey" and I've got another posthumous Birthday SHOUT-out to Fidel Castro, born 8/13/26. Well he would have been 100 years old today if he hadn't died in 2016 or any year after that. 

THE PLOT: Explores the mystery surrounding the death of movie icon Marilyn Monroe through previously unheard interviews with her inner circle. 

AFTER: This feels like I've been tricked into watching a typical documentary about Marilyn that really adds nothing new to what we already knew about her and her mysterious death. They teased me at the beginning as if they were going to reveal her killer at the end, and then of course they did not, they're still left with the conclusion that it was a suicide or an accidental overdose. Of course, there's the possibility that somebody just WANTED it to look that way, but come on, guys, that was 64 years ago, if you don't have proof of foul play and you're bringing nothing new to the table, why even bother? Just let it be, we're all over it by now, don't you think? 

I'll go ahead and tell you what they DO suggest, and that's the evidence based on a very wonky timeline of her last night, that she overdosed and was found alive, and brought via ambulance to a hospital, however she may have died in the ambulance, and then somebody thought it would be a great idea to bring her BACK home and stage her death there. If this is true, there's no real reason given for WHY it went down that way, what someone would have gained from doing this. There's an implication that the Kennedys, particularly Robert, might have been behind this, but again, no evidence so they can't just come right out and say that. 

The rest of the doc, beyond this "revelation" that she might have died in an ambulance and not at home, is pretty basic stuff, based on recorded tapes of people interviewed by Anthony Summers (20 years or so after the fact) and also sessions Marilyn had with a psychotherapist, Ralph Greenson. A lot of Summers' research for his book was done by phone, so the recorded phone conversations are played here, with actors portraying the people talking on the phone and lip-syncing with what they said. If not for this, half of this movie would just be images of those tape recorder reels going around and around, like they did in "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes". Anyway, you're hearing the right words from the interviews, even if you're not seeing the people who said them. I suppose it's a way to go. 

But being basic stuff, like going over the details of Marilyn's marriages to Joe Dimaggio and Arthur Miller, and then the break-ups with Joe Dimaggio and Arthur Miller, really places this in the same ballpark as my last two docs watched, about Liz Taylor and Audrey Hepburn. All of them were married at least twice, Marilyn actually three times (one was before she was famous) and of course Taylor had seven marriages to six men. It's not a competition by any means, but somehow Liz Taylor won, but also lost at the same time. 

They don't go into much of Marilyn's pre-fame backstory, like that first marriage and working in a munitions factory during the war, which led a photographer to take some "Rosie the Riveter" style photos of her, and that led to her quitting the factory and taking more modeling work, and all that that entails. Pin-up work, magazine work, sometimes under her real name and sometimes under made-up names. And the modeling work led to acting work, as an extra in the background at first, but according to the interviewed casting director, there were ways to advance in the movie industry which mostly involved having sex with the casting directors. She got a contract with Fox and divorced her first husband, who was against her having a career. 

She spent six months learning acting and dancing and singing, and observing the whole filmmaking process and the ways to get ahead. There were screen-tests and bit parts in films like "Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hey!" (whatever that means) but nothing succeeded like having sex with Joseph Schenck, a Fox executive who then got his friend, head of Columbia Pictures to sign her, but that only led to more screen-tests and more auditions that went nowhere. One assumes that if she did succeed in films, it meant she could STOP having casting directors, so really I can see how nobody was therefore eager to cast her. Finally she tried nude modeling, artistic ones at first, and this got her to become the mistress of someone more important, Johnny Hyde, the VP of talent agency William Morris. Hyde got her a small role in "All About Eve", and then John Huston's film "The Asphalt Jungle". 

Shortly after that, Hyde died of a heart attack, but things were already in motion - Marilyn was getting thousands of fan letters a week, and thousands of men were trying to figure out how to become casting directors. And Marilyn started sleeping with more influential men, like Elia Kazan, Yul Brynner and Peter Lawford. Eventually she began the romance with Joe Dimaggio, but scandal erupted when her nude calendar photos from three years before re-surfaced, and thousands of men were so shocked and disappointed that their favorite actress had posed nude, but they also were determined to research the photos for themselves and then probably decide to forgive her. 

It's the same old story, again and again, isn't it? Fall in love, get married, spend time together, spend time apart, work on a movie, spend more time apart, realize that you've both changed and want different things now, separate because it's easier than compromising or working things out, and start the whole damn cycle over again. Taylor, Hepburn, Monroe, the names and other details change but really, it's the same story, it's everyone's story, to some degree. Except that everyone doesn't then go on to have affairs with both the President of the U.S. and also his brother who happens to be his Attorney General as well. 

The documentary also has to take a departure to show us the filming of "The Seven Year Itch", even though it's got nothing to do with Marilyn's death or any of the taped interviews. Except that we learn here that Joe Dimaggio was on set during the infamous shot of Marilyn's white dress being blown upwards by the air from a subway grate, and, well, Joe wasn't happy that all of the movie fans got a peep at his wife. He didn't have to be jealous, except that it was the 1950's so yeah, he kind of did. He also didn't like the fact that she would go on U.S.O. tours, and thousands of horny sex-deprived soldiers were having fantasies about Marilyn as well. Dude, you've got a smoking hot wife who gets paid well for being in movies, take the damn win!  But no, their marriage was over after just nine months, so she started the eternal cycle over again. 

Of course there's also footage here from "The Prince and the Showgirl" and "Some Like It Hot", but of course neither of those have anything to do with the mystery surrounding her death either, they're here because everyone knows those films, and everyone likes "Some Like It Hot", it's a great movie. However, we were promised a solution to the mystery, and the film does not chart a direct course there, it's all over the place and keeps acting more like a career retrospective than a murder mystery. Let's keep in mind that the Los Angeles County D.A. John Van de Kamp re-opened the investigation into Marilyn's death in 1982, and officially, no evidence of any foul play was ever found - so on that level, this doc is kind of misleading and a waste of time.

Directed by Emma Cooper

Also starring Anthony Summers, Ray Bull, James Croft, David Erdos, Linzi Hateley, CJ Johnson, Sorel Johnson, Andre Lillis, Sion Lloyd, Michael Matus, Shelagh McLeod, Mauro Montuschi, Jason Mulhearn, Jason Rudenskaya, Victoria Scowcroft, Heather Sherry, Daniel Stockton, Wayne Swan, Brian James Twiddy, Ben Watson, Edmond Wells,  

with archive footage of Fred Astaire (also carrying over from "Audrey"), Lauren Bacall (last seen in "Film Geek"), Tony Curtis (ditto), Cary Grant (ditto), Gladys Baker, Joey Bishop (last seen in "Paul Anka: His Way"), Dean Martin (ditto), Fidel Castro (last seen in "Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story"), George Cukor, Sammy Davis Jr. (last seen in "Being Eddie"), Jack Lemmon (ditto), Marlene Dietrich (last seen in "Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion"), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (ditto), Ginger Rogers (ditto), Joe Dimaggio (last seen in "Yogi Berrra: It Ain't Over"), Tom Ewell (last seen in "My Mom Jayne"), Clark Gable (last seen in "Call Me Kate"), Greta Garbo, Ralph Greenson, Jean Harlow (last seen in "Diana Ross: Supreme Sensation"), Jimmy Hoffa, Johnny Hyde, Arthur Jacobs, Lyndon Johnson (last seen in "Rather"), John F. Kennedy (last seen in "John Candy: I Like Me"), Joseph P. Kennedy, Patricia Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy (last seen in "Join or Die"), Nikita Khrushchev (last seen in "What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears?"), Peter Lawford (last seen in "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes"), Edward R. Murrow (ditto), Arthur Miller, Thelma Ritter (last seen in "Daddy Long Legs"), Jane Russell, Joseph M. Schenck, Frank Sinatra (last seen in "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!"), Billy Wilder (also carrying over from "Audrey")

and the voices of John Danoff, Jim Doyle, Peggy Feury, Milton Greene, Danny Greenson, Hildi Greenson, Joan Greenson, Sydney Guilaroff, Harry Hall, Gary Hubbard, Ken Hunter, John Huston, Natalie Jacobs, Arthur James, Eunice Murray, Patricia Newcomb, Angie Novello, Fred Otash, Gloria Romanoff, Al Rosen, Henry Rosenfeld, Walt Schaefer, John Sherlock, Robin Thorne, Natalie Trundy, Reed Wilson, Gladys Witten, Billy Woodfield,

RATING: 4 out of 10 foster homes and orphanages during her childhood

Audrey

Year 18, Day 223 - 8/11/26 - Movie #5,400 - SQC DOC BLOCK FILM #39

BEFORE: I find myself unable to think clearly if I post after working a shift - it doesn't matter if I've been at the theater or at the stadium, there's something about working next to a big crowd of people that focuses me on the task at hand, but also robs me of my thought process that's in charge of writing reviews. So once I'm home I have to take a while and decompress before I write my thoughts on last night's movie, which is another thing that is making me post later and later - I'm a full day behind on posting now, but I catch up very easily just by calling for another skip day, I'm trying to put this off as long as possible, perhaps the birthdays of famous people will signal the need to skip a day and make the chain line up with them, and that could work out in my favor. We'll see. 

Tonight's "Get to Know a State" profile, #39 in a series, will focus on COLORADO - because of Audrey Hepburn's final film, "Always", which was a 1989 movie about pilots in Colorado who were aerial forest-fire fighters. She played an angel or a ghost or a spirit-guide of some kind, and I'm not sure that she ever went to Colorado for this film or any other reason, but it's honestly the only film on my list I could make a Colorado connection to. So here we go: 

Date admitted to the U.S.: August 1, 1876 (Happy 150th Birthday, Colorado, a bit late)

Claim to fame: Rocky Mountains, Coors beer and the future home of the Sundance Film Festival

Nickname: "The Centennial State", right, I see that. 

State Motto: "Nil sine Numine", which means "Nothing without providence"

State Flower: Rocky mountain columbine

State Bird: Lark bunting

State Fish: Greenback cutthroat trout

State Animal: Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep

State Reptile: Western painted turtle

State Amphibian: Western tiger salamander

State Mushroom: The Emperor

State Cactus: Claret cup cactus

State Tree: Colorado blue spruce

State Gemstone: Aquamarine

Notable Sports Teams: Denver Broncos in the NFL and the Rockies in the MLB, also the Denver Nuggets in the NBA and the Colorado Avalanche in the NHL. I guess they have a soccer team too, the Rapids, but we've already proven nobody cares. 

Fun Facts: The U.S. acquired Colorado in the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, but in 1806 Colonel Zebulon Pike led a U.S. Army expedition into the region, and he and his troops were arrested by Spanish Cavalrymen the following year and were taken to Mexico. The Spanish apparently did not get the memo about who bought Colorado three years before. Colorado spent 33 years as an unorganized territory just because of the slavery issue, I guess 50% of the people didn't want it to be a slave state and 50% of the people didn't want it to be a free state, so they were at an impasse. But it's kind of funny how when gold or silver gets discovered somewhere then there's a sudden rush to make that territory a state, right? 

I've never been to Colorado, so I'm still at 24 states visited out of 39 profiled. Rex Harrison carries over from "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes" and so do 2 other people.

THE PLOT: Examines the remarkable life and career of actress, fashion icon and humanitarian Audrey Hepburn. 

AFTER: There are so many other things to talk about, I forgot to note that this is another "Century" film, film #5,400 since I started this crazy thing. That means Movie Year 18 is officially 2/3 over, so I really really need to start thinking about what horror films I'm going to watch in October and how I'm going to wrap up this crazy, wonderful but also occasionally horrible and no-good year. Let me get through all these 11 remaining docs and I'll figure it out. 

I definitely have Documentary Burn-out though, which makes it very easy to adopt a "Who Cares?" attitude about a number of things. OK, sorry you had seven marriages that didn't work out, Liz Taylor, but I suspect that just maybe your actions and/or personality had something to do with that. It is possible to look inside yourself or maybe have a talk with the mirror and admit that you have faults and that you're maybe not the easiest person to be in a relationship with. Audrey Hepburn was married twice, to Mel Ferrer and Andrea Dotti, and then in a long-term relationship with actor Robert Wolders, and she had two children, one with Ferrer and one with Dotti. I mean, she seemed like a very nice person so sometimes we just have to shrug and say, you know, it happens, people tire of each other or change over time, or sometimes they just NEED a change in their lives. These days it's very hard to find someone who's 60 or 70 that hasn't been married at least twice, I mean you can't beat the power of entropy over time. 

"Hepburn" isn't even her real last name, like many Hollywood stars she changed it when she got cast in a film, what many people don't know about her is that she came from an aristocratic family in Belgium, but then World War II happened and being an aristocrat kind of fell out of favor, especially when Nazis invaded and started killing them. Her original last name was Ruston, and during World War II she hid out in the Netherlands and went by the name of "Edda van Heemstra" which sounded a little less English than "Audrey". Her original first name wasn't "Audrey" either, it was "Adriaantje", so now I don't even know how she even knew who she was anymore when she became a ballet dancer and then an actress. A couple of her uncles were executed by Germans, but then her father supported the Nazis for some reason and not just because they were in power, because when he moved to Britain he supported the Fascist Party there, too. Anyway he kind of abandoned the family, so I guess good riddance to bad Nazis. 

Adriaatie, or Edda, or Audrey or whoever, endured famine and malnutrition and several illnesses during World War II, and she survived by delivering messages, volunteering at a hospital and performing in "underground concerts" to raise money for the Dutch resistance. Meanwhile, somewhere else, Marcel Marceau was working with the French resistance to save Jewish children from going to concentration camps, it's true. After D-Day things kind of got worse, because as the Germans started losing the living conditions got worse in occupied countries, hence the Dutch Famine of 1944-45. This led to widespread malnutrition, which led to diseases like jaundice and anemia. 

But eventually the war did end, and Audrey was able to resume her studies of ballet in Holland and then London. She did get a small role in a movie, playing a stewardess in an educational travel film, but did not consider herself an actress until she was cast in minor roles in films like "The Lavender Hill Mob" and "Secret People", in the latter she played a ballerina, then her big break came while making a movie in a Paris Hotel, where she was spotted by Colette, the infamous French novelist and sexual freedom advocate, who right away wanted to cast her in the Broadway version of "Gigi". Even though critics said the stage play was much worse than the French film version of "Gigi", Audrey still stood out and won a Theatre World Award, then went on tour with the play in 1951-52. 

The next year she was noticed by William Wyler and cast in "Roman Holiday" with Gregory Peck, and by then the giant snowball was really rolling down the mountain and picking up speed. She won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Academy Award for that role, and was signed to a seven-picture contract with Paramount, that included the films "Sabrina", "War and Peace", "Funny Face" and "Love in the Afternoon". All that AND "The Nun's Story" led up to her starring in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", really her most successful and perhaps career-defining film. That was also the start of her collaborations with Hubert Givenchy, the French designer who made that "little black dress" she wore at the start of that film, and for years she and Givenchy were synonymous, much like Bob Mackie and Cher, later on. 

"The Children's Hour", "Charade", "Paris When It Sizzles", leading up to "My Fair Lady", she never really made a BAD film, they were all very different of course, but she had like a 100% success rate for a very long time. Sure, only John Cazale had a perfect record - five films, five films nominated for Best Picture", but Audrey Hepburn also did better than all right. And she was so bankable when it came time to film "My Fair Lady" that Julie Andrews, who had played the character on stage and was considered a shoo-in for the movie, was bumped in favor of Audrey getting cast as the movie's Eliza Doolittle. How many career-defining movies can one actress have? I guess as many as it takes, right? 

"How to Steal a Million" with Peter O'Toole, "Two for the Road" with Albert Finney and then "Wait Until Dark", which we saw clips of in "Film Geek". "Robin and Marian" with Sean Connery, and then after that, honestly, a bunch of quite forgettable movies, until that cameo in "Always". But sure, she's an EGOT winner, the Emmy for "Gardens of the World", the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album in 1994, the Oscar for "Roman Holiday" and the Tony for "Ondine". Since she's got BAFTAs too I guess that makes her a BEGOT winner. 

Lucky in awards, unlucky in love, I guess - she was married to Mel Ferrer and they co-starred in "War and Peace", they were together 14 years and had a son, but Ferrer was allegedly "too controlling" and so she moved to Switzerland in 1960 to raise their son. She married an Italian psychiatrist, Andrea Dotti, in 1968, and they had a son, too, but Dotti apparently liked the club life and had numerous affairs, while Audrey had an affair with Ben Gazzara while working on the film "Bloodline". She and Dotti were together 12 years, and then Audrey was in a long-term relationship with a Dutch actor, Robert Wolders, and though she was retired from acting at that point, she spent her time working as an ambassador for UNICEF in war-torn and impoverished nations. Good for her. 

I didn't really care for all the ballet dancing here, they cast three actresses to play Hepburn at different ages, and then filmed them all doing ballet. I mean, it's fine if you like ballet, I just don't see the point of it, and then all three of the actresses danced together at the end of the film, like what the heck did that even mean? You can't dance with your younger or older self, it's just not possible, and if it's a metaphor, what for? Also the last 10 minutes of the film is due to making the same points over and over about Audrey's life, really really stretching things out, as if the editor was getting paid by the minute. 

Directed by Helena Coan

Also starring Robin Ager, Michael Avedon, Peter Bogdanovich (last seen in "Roger Corman: The Pope of Pop Cinema"), Clemence Boulouque, Anna Cataldi, Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "Film Geek"), Emma Hepburn Ferrer, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, Alessandra Ferri, Molly Haskell, Francesca Hayward, Clare Waight Keller, Edith Lederer, John Loring, Keira Moore, Pierluigi Christophe Oronesu, Marlena Pilat, Mita Ungaro, Lucia Valentini-Terrani, Andrew Wald,

with archive footage of Audrey Hepburn (also last seen in "Film Geek"), Julie Andrews (ditto), Fred Astaire (ditto), Truman Capote (ditto), Alec Guinness (ditto), Richard Avedon, Johnny Carson (last seen in "John Candy: I Like Me"), Colette, Doris Day (also carrying over from "Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes"), Marilyn Monroe (ditto), Andrea Dotti, Mel Ferrer (last seen in "Paris When It Sizzles"), Hubert Givenchy, Adolf Hitler (last seen in "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!"), William Holden (last seen in "Blake Edwards: A Love Story in 24 Frames"), George Peppard (ditto), Wilfrid Hyde-White (last seen in "Ten Little Indians"), Merle Oberon, Gregory Peck (also last seen in "Roger Corman: The Pope of Pop Cinema"), Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, Jack L. Warner (last seen in "Sid & Judy"), Billy Wilder (last seen in "Stan Lee"), Robert Wolders, William Wyler,

RATING: 5 out of 10 romantic films made with older male co-stars