Roger O Green

Movie: The United States v. Billie Holiday

born Eleanora Fagan

Andra Day started drinking (some) and smoking cigarettes to prepare for her leading role in the movie The United States v. Billie Holiday. She shared that detail in several interviews, including with Oprah Winfrey and Trevor Noah. But, she added, she avoided taking narcotics. She felt a lot of responsibility in taking the role of such a musical icon.

Her investment of time and manner was well-rewarded. Day sounded very much like the recordings I have of Lady Day. The mannerisms are quite credible. She deserved the Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

I do wish I liked the movie as much as I appreciated Andra Day’s performance.

On the other hand

The storyline was brutalizing to Billie, as she’s kicked, punched, slapped, and sexually exploited repeatedly. Yet the narrative is oddly contrived and disjointed, with an uneven tone, convoluted chronology, and wasted opportunities. There’s a flashback in a whorehouse that should have been less confusing and more impactful.

Near the beginning and end of the film was Leslie Jordan in a dreadful wig playing a celebrity journalist interviewing a financially desperate but unwilling Holiday. I found it cringeworthy.

It is documented that she was hounded by the feds, who got her dealer-level jail sentences for possession of small amounts of heroin. But Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), the actual head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which became the Drug Enforcement Administration, was a one-note villain as written. The real man was clearly an avowed racist, who also hated jazz. But his rage over Strange Fruit, the anti-lynching song is without foundation, and, coming in 1947, was eight years after the recording.

A chunk of the film tells how Billie was betrayed by a Black informer and lover, an FBI agent, named Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes). It doesn’t bother me that it was largely fictionalized, but it didn’t provide help to the muddled narrative. The performers playing Louis Armstrong and Billie’s maybe-lover, actress Tallulah Bankhead, were disappointing cameos.

The director is Lee Daniels. The script was by Suzan-Lori Parks, based on the book Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari. Daniels, in particular, has done great work in the past, directing Atar and the Butler and executive producing the TV series Empire.

Still, your experience may differ. While only 53% of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes liked it, largely based on Andra’ Day’s performance, 88% of the general audience approved.

Lady Sings the Blues

Now I’m feeling the need to watch the 1972 movie Lady Sings the Blues. It was a Berry Gordy production starring Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, and Richard Pryor. Even though the critics were kinder to that film (69% positive), even the efficacious reviews were often a mixed bag. For instance, “Watch Ross dazzle in her screen debut but realize you will not gain much insight into Billie Holiday, the artist or the person.”

Maybe it’s because Billie Holiday was so much an enigma. In the recent movie, she says that she’d never read her own “autobiography,” ghostwritten by William Dufty. For legal reasons, the book had to leave significant information out, such as her relationships with Charles Laughton, in the 1930s, and with Bankhead, in the late 1940s.

16 candles for the Ramblin’ blog

Daily since May 2, 2005

16 Candles. I remember that track. The song by The Crests was released at the end of 1958. It got to #2 in the pop charts for two weeks and #4 on the soul charts in early 1959.

16 Candles was kept out of the #1 pop slot by Stagger Lee by Lloyd Price, a song that also kept Donna by Richie Valens from reaching the top of the charts.

The Crests was an “interracial doo-wap group formed in Manhattan, NY.” It included Johnny Maestro, later of the Brooklyn Bridge (The Worst That Can Happen); Harold Torres; Talmadge Gough; and J.T. Carter. Patricia Van Dross, older sister of Luther Vandross, left the group in 1958.

But I’ve never seen the John Hughes movie.

I suppose those paragraphs epitomize what I try to do in the blog. Find a hook for the topic, sometimes using information gleaned from something called books. And I have a fair amount of them in the office where I almost always write.

In fact, it’s the books, or more correctly, the built-in bookcases which contain mostly my books, many of them reference materials about music, television, and movies, that kept me in here during the pandemic. Meanwhile, my wife ended up in the guest room, where she now does her email, school planning, and church meetings.

How I write a daily blog

This sounds obvious, but it does help. What makes blogging easier is knowing what I am going to blog about. There are about 30 holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries. Then I’m going to write about my daughter once a month. All I need to write is about 300 more posts per year. Piece of cake!

Sometimes an event happens in the world, and I need to write about it; the death of someone significant to my understanding of the world, e.g. I might bunch a few together, as I did when Cicely Tyson, Hank Aaron, and others who died within two weeks of each other.

Often, I don’t know that I have something to say until I do. After the Atlanta-area shootings, I thought I’d just put some links in my twice-monthly linkage dump. But then they became so numerous I realized that I should probably create a blog post.

I try to write every day. If I go more than a day without writing, it becomes more difficult to restart. For me, writing begets writing. So I have to muse about SOMETHING. If I know I’m going to note the 1991 #1 hits in October 2021 – and I am, BTW – and I don’t have anything else in mind, I could write about that. I haven’t, yet; maybe tomorrow.

For the birds

My late blogger buddy Dustbury “noted that he and I have something in common: we are both magpies. As he put it: ‘The Eurasian magpie… is wicked smart, especially for a bird… I am not quite sure how ‘magpie’ became a descriptor for humans who flit from topic to topic unless it has to do with the bird’s tendency to be attracted to Shiny Things, but I’m pretty sure I fit that description, and I have several readers who seem to do likewise.”

He was not wrong. In early 2021, I watched five movies in five days and wrote posts about them soon thereafter. But I didn’t post five movie posts in a row because I didn’t want to. I sense that you don’t want me to either. The strength, and weakness I suppose, of this blog, is that it ping pongs all over the place. That’s because my mind does that.

Consequently, I don’t post in the order that I write. Frequently, I have something already scheduled for a date, but something more pressing/timely pops up. I will, and in fact, do move posts around. A lot, sometimes.

This has the added benefit that, as often as not, I have no idea what I’ve decided to post on a given day until I actually see it. Surprise! And, as I’ve often mentioned, it’s not until then that I see the damn typo or wrong word choice (site instead of cite, e.g.).

Long-form

Just recently, my wife asked me if I might want to “publish” sometimes, to which I said, “I DO publish, every day.” But I knew what she meant, write a book or something. The problem is that I don’t know what it would be about.

Now Jaquandor, HE writes books. I’ve read a couple of them and I liked them. Go read HIS books.

I never tried to get a doctorate because I couldn’t imagine spending the time necessary on one topic. And, as I get older, I realize that I keep learning “stuff” about myself, the world. It’s not that I have no preconceived notions, for surely I do. It’s just that they often tend to get dashed on the rocks. Reason enough to keep blogging, I suppose.

The hits of 1941: Jimmy Dorsey

Tommy’s big brother

Poor Jimmy Dorsey. He was a successful jazz bandleader, especially in 1941. But he only had 13 birthdays. That’s in part because James Francis Dorsey was born on Leap Year Day in 1904.

Jimmy was the big brother of Tommy Dorsey. They were born in Shenandoah, PA, the sons of Theresa Langton Dorsey and Thomas Francis Dorsey. Their “father, Thomas, was initially a coal miner, but would later become a music teacher and marching-band director.” The older brother played clarinet and the saxophone.

“In 1927, the brothers created the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra… Despite their success, the brothers frequently disagreed over management of the band and their conflict would come to a head in May 1935 when, after an onstage disagreement, Tommy stormed off.”

I imagine there was a sibling competition going on. In 1941, Tommy Dorsey had four songs in the Top 4, three with a promising young singer named Frank Sinatra, who reportedly had blue eyes.

Combination of the two

“Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey reunited on March 15, 1945, to record a V-Disc … The songs featured the combined orchestras of Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey.

“In 1947…, the brothers would put aside their tensions to film The Fabulous Dorseys. The film was a look inside the brothers’ lives from practicing as children to making it big as adults; the brothers played themselves in the film. It also highlighted their struggles leading the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra and showed what their lives were like on the road…”

In 1950, Tommy offered Jimmy “a seat in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. In 1953, Tommy and Jimmy would rename the band, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Tommy was the leader of the group, and made Jimmy both the co-leader and featured soloist.

“In 1956, after Tommy Dorsey died from choking in his sleep, Jimmy took over leadership of the orchestra. Around that same time, Jimmy was diagnosed with throat cancer.” He died June 12, 1957, at age 53, in New York City.

Hits of 1941

Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy) – Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell. Ten weeks at #1, gold record.

Chatanooga Choo Choo – Glenn Miller with Tex Beneke. Nine weeks at #1, gold record. It topped the charts when the United States entered World War II.

Piano Concerto in B Flat – Freddy Martin. Eight weeks at #1, gold record. Tchaikovsky piece played by Jack Fina.
Daddy – Sammy Kaye. Eight weeks at #1.

Green Eyes (Aquellos Ojos Verdes) – Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell. Four weeks at #1, gold record.

Maria Elena – Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly. Two weeks at #1, gold record.
My Sister and I – Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly. Two weeks at #1.

Elmer’s Tune – Glenn Miller with Tex Beneke. One week at #1.
Blue Champagne – Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly. One week at #1.
Song of the Volga Boatmen – Glenn Miller. One week at #1. Yes, the Russian folk song.

I always associate 1941 with two baseball stories. It was the season that Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 consecutive games, and Ted Williams became the last player to date to bat over .400, .406 to be precise.

April rambling: the automatic runner

Mandela’s Blues

Bonhoeffer musing on Who am I?

Bankruptcy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

The Unbelievable Story of Europe’s Runaway Nazi.

Planned Parenthood: We’re Done Making Excuses for Our Founder.

“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
– James Baldwin, “Letter From a Region in My Mind” essay

The anti-trans distraction.

American Library Association: books with antiracist messages climbed the list of most challenged or banned titles in 2020.

These inventors don’t get the credit they deserve.

Weekends In Space.

Best history podcasts: 14 shows that tell you forgotten stories.

Remembering Walter Mondale.

Gender reveal party death toll mounts, people ask Why?

Prince Philip’s Fascinating Family: A Russian Tsarina, A Greek Orthodox Nun, a Banished King, and More.

Make To Don’t Lists.

New JEOPARDY guest hosts announced! LeVar Burton, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, David Faber, and Joe Buck.

Theology in the DCU and MU.

Now I Know: The Picture of Abraham Lincoln’s Fake Ghost and The Birthday Problem and When Stalin’s Grapes Went
Sour and The First Boycott and Mussels and When Baseball Went to Pot.

Not me: Four Mustangs caught going more than double the speed limit in Surrey. “High-risk driving behaviour… is one of the leading causes of collisions in BC,” said Sergeant Roger Green of the service’s Community Response Unit.

Not me: Immigrants in Greece who can’t book Covid jabs. Roger Green, a British writer who has lived on the island since the early ’90s, says some are afraid to leave their homes.

SPORTS

MLB’s extra-innings rule is back in 2021; here’s why baseball should use
ties instead. “Each half-inning beyond the ninth — i.e., extra innings — in Major League Baseball now begins with a runner on second base and no outs.” The automatic runner rule is dreadful, a baseball abomination,IMO.

Why Home Runs Are Bad for Baseball.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in Kansas City is a “privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America.”

Pitcher Hope Trautwein Throws A Perfect Game Of All Strikeouts

Mulligan? Golfers consult rule book after ball lands on alligator’s back

MUSIC

Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace by S.S. Wesley (Isaiah 26:3).

Mandela’s Blues -Kinky Friedman.

Wichita Lineman – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade.

Solfeggio by Arvo Part, San Diego Master Chorale.

A Rainbow in Curved Air – Terry Riley.

I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo – Glenn Miller band with Tex Beneke and the dancing of the Nicholas Brothers (1942 movie “Orchestra Wives”).

Music for Percussion Quartet – David Crowell, plus Music for Pieces of Wood, by Steve Reich.

Coverville 1355 : The Roy Orbison Cover Story III and 1356: Tribute to Jim Steinman and 50th Anniversary of The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers.

The Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius.

Flintstones theme: Jazz Ambassadors, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis, Hungarian Border Guard Orchestra, FMU Jazz Ensemble, Bjørn Jørgensen
and his Big Band, Jacob Collier, Postmodern Jukebox, The CompanY, and Vinheteiro.

Robert Schumann’s Traumerai. You KNOW this tune!

Names: changing, remembering

Archibald Leach

I’ve been thinking about names a lot. In my Bible reading, God’s often renaming people. “Abram, you’re now Abraham.”
“But, God, why would you make my name longer? Won’t take up more papyrus when people write about me in a few millennia?”
“Abraham, I created papyrus. Don’t sweat it.”

And when the Holy Spirit – ah – puts Mary with child, will she and Joseph have any say in the naming? They will not. Some angel shows up and says, “Mary, you’re gonna conceive, give birth to a son, and you’re gonna call him Jesus.” Joseph and Mary were thinking, “But we have no one named Jesus in our families.” They didn’t say this aloud, of course, because when angels show up unexpectedly, you tend to keep some of your thoughts to yourself.

The idea of changing one’s name is an old one. Popes always do that. I have no idea who Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin was, but I’m familiar with George Sand. Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Dr. Seuss, John le Carré are all familiar noms de plume.

I’m fine with people changing their names when it’s their choice. Actors have been doing it forever. I used to be really good at remembering that trivia. Maurice Micklewhite? Michael Caine. Archibald Leach turned out to be Cary Grant at least five times in Jeopardy! clues. Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. Would John Wayne be JOHN WAYNE if he were billed as Marion Morrison?

George Terebeychuk, a Ukrainian immigrant in Sudbury, ON Canada, changed his surname to Trebek, as his cousin Mike had done. George was Alex Trebek’s dad.

He’ll be back

Still, I was oddly pleased when a bodybuilder named Arnold Schwa…something-or-other decided to keep his moniker, which the so-called tastemakers thought was career-killing. Schwarzenegger, that’s it. According to Box Office Mojo, films in which he has acted “have grossed a total of more than $1.7 billion within the United States, and a total of $4.0 billion worldwide.”

I recall real antipathy in the 1960s when a heavyweight boxer changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He may have been revered upon further reflection, but in the day, some of his opponents would taunt him with “Clay! Clay!”

One of the terrible things that happened to enslaved people is that they lost their names. Likewise, indigenous people from the Americas to Australia experienced intruders who thought they needed a change in order to make it “easier.” Easier for whom?

Lots of people’s names were changed because of bad transcription, or willful changes at Ellis Island. Conversely, my Nordic ex took back her family name.

Steve?

I’m rather bad with names. I am of the opinion that everyone should have name tags. This is especially true when almost everyone is wearing a mask. The last time I watched Grey’s Anatomy, the doctors wore picture IDs so you could tell who the heck was treating you under all that PPE. I could never be a teacher, learning new names every year.

Some folks are great with names. Former US Senator and basketball star Bill Bradley would go on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He’d meet the audience before the show and share all of their names. Likewise, my former Congressman Matt McHugh was astonishingly good at remembering not only people’s names but the names of their spouses and children.

The Name Game -Shirley Ellis
The Name of the Game – ABBA
You Know My Name – The Beatles (Anthology 3)