We were extremely touched by a wonderful acceptance speech from Comedy Central’s Jack Herrguth upon receiving a GILDA Award from the Cancer Support Community – Benjamin Center last Saturday night.

Founded in 1982 by Doctor Harold Benjamin, the CSC was built upon the principle that no one should face cancer alone. Offering support groups, mind & body classes, educational and nutritional workshops, social activities, and individual counseling sessions – all free of charge. For 31 years, the CSC is home to cancer patients and survivors alike. The fun event held at the Museum of Flying on the grounds of the Santa Monica Airport also offered a gallery showcase of fine art. Conguero Louie Cruz Beltran and his wonderful orchestra rocked the party with Latin Jazz.

In his speech, Herrguth, a cancer survivor, graciously ruminated on the vivacious Radner who was cut down at young age by ovarian cancer. Radner had been an early supporter of the CSC and the annual award is in her honor.

Excerpts from Herrguth’s comments:

When I first received the call … that I was being honored with this award – I thought there had been some mistake. I mean, me? Gilda Radner? She was a comedy icon who conquered TV, Broadway and the movies. And me? Well, I’m wearing this red sport coat.

But the more I thought about it, I realized Gilda and I had things in common. We both like to make people laugh, we both had cancer … and we’re both women.

I first saw Gilda on Saturday Night Live when I was a little kid. And she quickly became one of my comedy heroes. Her characters were part of the cultural zeitgeist: Roseanna Roseannadanna. Emily Litella. Lisa Loopner and Baba Wawa. I used to put on my mother’s wig and sunglasses and do impressions of all these characters, whether people wanted to hear them or not.

I remember hearing that Gilda was sick, diagnosed with ovarian cancer. As I kid I wasn’t sure what ovaries were, let alone cancer, but I knew it sounded bad. But what I didn’t know was this – Gilda would become my hero in another, unexpected way – in the way she battled cancer with courage, humility, and most importantly, with laughter.

Take it from me. It’s hard to laugh at cancer…

But cancer has taught me to embrace the beauty of life and all of its uncertainties.

Or, as Rosanne Roseannadanna said, “It just goes to show you. It’s always something.”

Jews regularly ask God which way they should go. But they rarely ask this of each other. It’s usually the opposite. There tends to be a lot of bossing around.

This cultural pattern will be confounded Wednesday night at the wonderful Autry National Center, in a program called “Which Way (Jewish) L.A.?” The panel discussion is being held in tandem with an important exhibit on Los Angeles Jewish history now in full swing at the museum. 

The cozy and comfortable Autry, located in the cross-hairs of lush Griffith Park and the smog-ridden Golden State Freeway, lately zeros in on cultural anthropology of Los Angeles. The new exhibit posits that L.A.’s diversity and dynamism have transformed the local Jewish community for the past 160 years.

Jews in the Los Angeles Mosaic tells the story of neighborhoods like Boyle Heights and Fairfax, people like Billy Wilder, Max Factor, and Frank Gehry, and lynchpin industries like the movies and suburban land development.
Jews helped change the region by recruiting the Brooklyn Dodgers, inventing the Barbie doll, and joining other Angelenos in electing the city’s first African American mayor.

Show features more than 150 stories, documents, objects, and images of family, community, and society.

Which Way (Jewish) L.A.? | Autry National Center | Wed May 22, 7 pm

Like this? Read more:

• California’s Designing Women at the Autry

It’s a big honor to be recognized in the New York Times.

We’re awfully proud to receive a shout-out (this used to be called a “name mention”) from Dave Kehr, the highly respected film critic. In his weekly New York Times round-up of recently released DVDs, Kehr writes:

MEET ME AFTER THE SHOW The choreographer Jack Cole has been enjoying a revival lately, largely thanks to the efforts of the critic Debra Levine. This Betty Grable vehicle from 1951 (otherwise directed by Richard Sale) features some of his boldest, strangest Dalí-influenced work, including a couple of numbers that point directly to the hallucinatory “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” But ghastly color reproduction renders this disc almost unwatchable. Gwen Verdon received her first screen billing as Grable’s partner in the wholly unbridled finale.

Read Dave Kehr’s piece, “Inconsistent Quality from Fox Cinema,” published May 19, 2013, New York Times.

_{photo of betty grable from “meet me after the show” courtesy of larry billman, the academy of dance on film}

Like this? Read more:

• A horse is a good clean animal, says Betty Grable
• Marie Byrant put a bun in Betty Grable’s oven
• Ow! Betty Grable sizzles in Jack Cole’s choreography
• arts·meme‘s thread of writing on Jack Cole — enjoy!

… so start frolicking.

“Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries & Mentors of Ricky Jay,” a new documentary directed by Alan Edelstein and Molly Bernstein, is a love story.

Oh …you thought it was about magic? Well, isn’t love the ultimate magic trick?

The film’s early sequences show Ricky Jay, magician, scholar, collector, author, historian and actor, obsessively practicing his card technique. Alone, for the camera, he shuffles, slices and spreads, like a vast fan, playing cards on a table. It’s choreography. There’s rhythm to it — and form. It is wonderful to watch. Jay talks easily to the camera, saying that this solo practice, unlike anything else in his life, soothes, comforts, and stimulates him endlessly.

It’s the bastion of the lonely, he admits. In truth — the nerd.

With this groundwork in place, it comes as a revelation that Jay (né Ricky Potash; he changed it, presto-chango, for show business) lately (seven years ago) found and married a woman who supports his quirky “hobby.” This goes beyond just magic; it is movie magic.

An unevenly made film, like so many contemporary documentaries, “Deceptive Practice” has a kitchen-sink aesthetic, featuring a potpourri of directorial styles. It lacks that final sweep-through of editorial discipline (do we really need to watch Jay’s young assistant in a Japanese television broadcast?) Although only running 90 minutes, the film feels long. But at its best, it’s touching, illuminating, and even educational: I loved watching this guy slap cards on the table.

Also sublime, footage of one of the magic-maestros toying delicately, at fingertip, with a small, hard ball. Crazy and good!

Film contains a parade of former greats whom Jay, as a young man, sought out and made into mentors. He eloquently advocates for them: New York-based Al Flosso, Slydini, Cardini, and in California, Jay’s primary gurus Dai Vernon and Charlie Miller.

With his craggy noir-esque visage, Jay forms a great character presence in the films of David Mamet and Paul Thomas Anderson (Mamet appears, rather wonderfully, as a talking head). I just watched Jay fit with perfection into Anderson’s great acting ensemble of”Boogie Nights,” playing a “cinematographer.”

And yet, there’s a sadness that this lumpen man, who in his act adopts a notably anti-glamorous persona, is sole successor to a lineage of debonair hocus-pocus guys. Something in the tradition seems broken …

The show goes on nonetheless. I enjoyed film’s philosophical musings on cheating, gambling, deception, show business and theater. Complicated subjects and I appreciated their inclusion. Jay comes off as cool, intelligent and sensitive. I’m glad I saw it. Recommended.

Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries & Mentors of Ricky Jay | Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles | opens May 17, Jay in-person for Q & A May 17, 18

Does love of dance run in the family? If so, then actress/producer Illeanna Douglas has traced her dance gene.

Illeanna, a great film buff, is hosting Turner Classic Movies’ “Second Looks” programming on Friday nights of this month. Her marvelous, quirky film curation is catalogued in a wonderful essay written for TCM by Roger Fristoe.

Recently visiting a Barnsdall Gallery exhibition of dance-move posters — the pride of its collector, dance-on-film specialist Mike Kaplan — Illeanna gravitated to the poster pictured at right.

Something instinctual drew her to it. Indeed it’s an image of her grandfather Melvyn Douglas cutting the rug with the early queen of MGM, Norma Shearer.

Now, this is delicious stuff, as, let’s be honest, we do not normally think of Norma Shearer and Melvyn Douglas as a dancing duo. But in those days film stars were so versatile. They sang, they danced (even a little); they spoke English with elocution, they did foreign accents, they flipped between comedy, musicals and drama. So, too, obviously, did Ileanna’s grandfather.

Writes Kaplan in a note:

Here is a pic of Illeana with the WE WERE DANCING (1942) 3-sheet poster. She had never seen this image of her grandfather, Melvyn Douglas, nor the film, which was based on a Noel Coward play and was Norma Shearer’s penultimate movie. It’s very rare to see a full-length dancing couple on a three sheet. The poster artist is Vincentini (Ted Ireland).

 Like this? Read more:

• Mike Kaplan’s connoisseur dance-movie poster collection
• Matt Mattox remembered through “Seven Brides” movie poster
• Illeanna Douglas & Barrie Chase pictured at TCM Fest

A reader, Joshua Ireland, shares two Life Magazine photos with arts·meme.

They come from one of the magazine’s great ‘Day in the Life of a Starlet’ photo spreads.

Pictured are ballet instructor Nico Charisse, husband of Cyd, and his keen pupil, Marilyn Monroe. Writes Joshua:

*        *       *

“I am working on a research project about Los Angeles dance teacher, Nico Charisse (1906-1970). My best friend in childhood was Marc Charisse, Nico’s son.

Nico was a dance teacher/coach in Hollywood from the mid 1930’s – early 1960’s. He never had a big success (although his first wife Cyd did!), but for much of that time he ran successful dance studios — well known in the LA dance and film world.  

Nico’s ten brothers and sisters were in a dance troupe led by their mother, Calliope Charisse, first in France from 1918-23, and then, in 1923-24, Mme. Charisse and ten children toured the US in vaudeville.

Some of Nico’s siblings were well-known teachers; his sister Nenette taught ballet in New York with students like Jerome Robbins, Jose Limon, and Gwen Verdon.

Apart from Cyd, Nico’s most notable protege seems to have been Matt Mattox.”

*        *       *

Yes, Matt Mattox originally aspired to be a ballet dancer. But Nico’s other significant pupil — perhaps due to her va-va-voom figure or was it her late start? — did not pursue a ballet career.

The photos are charming. Thank you, Joshua, for sharing. 

It was a touching and exceptional march back through time. Wednesday night at the historic American Legion Hall (Hollywood Post #43 ) just south of the Hollywood Bowl, we attended a marvelous event mixing military veterans and classic film buffs, members of Hollywood Heritage. After pledging allegiance to the American flag, the strange bedfellows shared a fun night of nostalgia, movie clips and a book talk. The two organizations, facing neighbors across Highland Avenue, co-sponsored the event.

The Hollywood Canteen, for three years (1942-45) a Los Angeles wartime institution on Cahuenga Avenue, was a nightclub offering food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen, most heading overseas. The converted barn-turned-nightspot was spearheaded by leftie actors John Garfield and Bette Davis, financed by MCA talent agency founder, Jules Stein, and powered by scads of nightly volunteers, doling out grub and swabbing the deck.  

Those gathered Wednesday in the Legion Hall’s subterranean meeting room — many donned Legionnaire uniform with military-style envelope hats tipping jauntily, the other crop, film fans some in ‘forties costumes — enjoyed a presentation by co-authors Lisa Mitchell and Bruce Torrence of material from their new book The Hollywood Canteen. Listening, they munched on chocolate doughnuts, lemon bundt cake, grilled-cheese sandwiches and wine at $5.00 for a brimming portion.

One presentation excelled; it was that of the poised, articulate, and still beautiful actress Marsha Hunt. Hunt, an actress, political activist, and a great American, volunteered regularly at the Canteen. She addressed the room as follows:

The Hollywood Canteen is among my most prized memories. ‘How can I help you?’ I asked them. And they responded, “Would you give us Saturday night? We have the most guys then, and we cannot get the stars.”

It was a six-day work week in Hollywood then. The one and only night for actors to howl on their own was Saturday. It was the only night you could sleep in late the next day.

I was a war widow. So that was my stint. I spent every Saturday night of war at the Canteen.

I deserve no credit. It was the time of my life. The joy that that place brought to boys far from home. Only enlisted men, there were no officers admitted. That fell to my lot on Saturday night.

They all had to dance with me. Not that I was such a good dancer, but they had to write home, ‘Guess who I danced with [at the Hollywood Canteen]?’ They had to dance with fame.

Do you remember the “cut-in’? A stag, or unattached male, would tap [your] partner and he would have to surrender [you]. I was wrenched from one manly chest to another. I was snatched from one man to another.

I was [also] captain to a team of ten hostesses. I had to be captain to ten pretty young things.

At 95, I am losing my sight. But I know how the words ‘Marsha Hunt’ look. I had to sign my name over and over and over. I must have signed 5,000 “Marsha Hunt”s by midnight; ever hour they shoved 1,000 [boys] out and 1,000 in [the Canteen]. I signed their matchbooks, their girls’ photos. I had so many encounters that were heartwarming; many of [these boys] were right off the farm.

My dignified father was a bus boy at the Canteen. My mother was spreading sandwiches, my sister was waiting tables. We were a family bent to be of service to the Canteen.

The Canteen is a memory that I will cherish. Giving our boys perhaps their last joy. May we pray that there will never be the need for another Hollywood Canteen.

A Rat-Packy night in L.A. — so much royalty, show biz and more. The memorabilia comes from arts·meme friend Larry Billman, founder of the Academy of Dance on Film.

From Larry’s photo archive, a groovy snapshot of the cocktail hour before the 22nd annual ball of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on Feb. 4, 1978 — honoring Fred Astaire.

Prior to the event, at the bar in the Astaire home: (L to R) Larry Billman, dance historian, Dick DeNeut, writer, Princess Shahrazad Pahlavi, niece of the Shah of Iran, Tomo Billman, Fred Astaire, choreographer Hermes Pan, Feb. 4, 1978.

Remembers Billman: ”We [he and his wife Tomo] were part of a circle that included Mary Tyler Moore, Grant Tinker, Betty White and Allen Ludden. Fred’s sister Adele was part of that group.

“The Shah’s [niece] was Hermes’ date. She went by the name of “Sherrie.” He had a very long and deep friendship with the [Iranian] Royal Family.

“I love the fact that Fred’s bar was decorated with photos of his horses, rather than show biz connections,” writes Larry in an email. “No Emmys, etc. He did have one very ugly painting by Irving Berlin!”

Fred Astaire, John Travolta at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 22nd Annual Ball, Feb. 4, 1978.

Billman explains: “Astaire invited Travolta to join his table after seeing “Saturday Night Fever.” Fred called him and said, ‘I’d love to meet you.’ He did that with Michael Jackson after he [MJ] did the moonwalk; he reached out to all the up and coming people.

“John didn’t [quite] know how to behave. It may have been his first time he wore a tux. And he has that scarf.

“This is a photo of a man in his golden age … and a man who just stuck gold.”

 Like this? Read more:

• Book review: Hermes Pan, the man who danced with Fred Astaire
• Wherefore art thou, oh Hollywood choreographer?
• Barrie Chase’s favorite dance partner

A marvelous event opened the annual Dance Camera West film festival Thursday evening. At dusk, we gathered ’round the Jacques Lipchitz “Peace on Earth” sculpture-fountain that anchors the plaza of the Los Angeles Music Center, one of our city’s rare pedestrian hobnobbing spots. Suddenly a tall tube of ruby fabric mysteriously appeared and began to sway in the balmy air.

Los Angeles City Hall, capped by its tiered white beacon-top, stood erect in the background. The writhing tube, in its shape, echoed the Lipchitz sculpture — but sprung to life and gone stark-raving red, like a smear of lipstick oozed from its container.

It was dance maker Sarah Elgart’s fine execution of her Dance Camera West commission: to use choreography to augment a familiar locale and cause an audience to see with new eyes. Bathed in God’s best lighting scheme — a glowing pink California sunset — and powered by a cool electronic sound score, Elgart’s five brave performers solemnly spooled a twin set of Gothic pas de deux betwixt the wooshing waters. 

The site-specific showcase was a clever adjunct to DCW’s film offerings and supportive of under exposed dance makers in our community. It was the brainchild of dance agent Julie McDonald, who worked with DCW director Tonia Barber to bring the fountain fun to fruition.

At LACMA, choreographer Tony Testa lit the fuse on a romping group dance — six men, one lucky woman — dedicated to ‘Healing the Bay’ that exploded with strong dynamics at the top of the long corridor leading from Wilshire Boulevard on to the museum campus. 

Further location-inspired works by Daniel Ezralow and Kitty McNamee rolled out at the Getty Museum. The Getty, of course, hosted, not a month ago, the mother of all site-specific dances: Trisha Brown’s Roof Piece dating from 1971. This rash of populist, plein air dancing in L.A. indicates dance makers rarin’ to go but unable to secure production in traditional theatrical outlets. I like the spunk — let’s dance anyway! We’re also reminded that along with this weekend’s creative quartet our community includes two long time, respected practitioners: site-specific experts Heidi Duckler and Stephen Koplowitz.

_{photos: courtesy julie mcdonald, jean glass dale}