MOM'S FAVORITE ENTERTAINERS

She did love Clark Gable.  I think that Clark Gable must have reminded her of her Uncle, someone whom she loved fiercely.  And what should be obvious to us all, she loved John Wayne; I mean there was a decanter of John Wayne on the living room brick mantle for years, partly in tribute to the actor but more of a way to keep a presence of Dad around since in her eyes and everybody else's Dad did look like John Wayne.  Yes, Mom loved John Wayne's presence, his voice, his figure as an American.  She accepted his physical prowess as an athlete at USC, the probable hero as a cowboy in early westerns, the hero of choice to fulfill America's role as leader in the world--strong, determined, humble, fair, and likeable.  

John Wayne idealized America.  Coming out of a war that rationed butter, meat, and their physical presence with each other but certainly not their love, as is made clear by the devoted proclamations in their war letters, each was happy to be with the other, sharing a candy bar on the steps of some monument in each other's arms with a view of some part of Los Angeles, or enjoying a milkshake at Clifton's Cafeteria on Broadway to live and relive the storied and star-struck days of pre-war Los Angeles.  

John Wayne on horseback in Chisum, 1970. If you're interested in a review of Chisum, check out these.

Dad and Mom both knew sacrifice like nothing we could imagine.  What little script Dad got in the war, he sent home to Mom and to his ma and pa, our sporadically-employed truck driver and mechanic.  The war helped to diffuse individual hardships into shared sacrifice, which helped to ease and set aside individual longings.  Each worked to help each other until that faith in the collective, in the war stopped paying dividends to one's personal needs for love, for safety, for creating.  Some of our best years are in childhood; thankfully, not all of the best years are.  But whatever one missed in one's real life, we could find  inspiring and hopeful stories and performances in the movies.  And certainly Mom loved the movies, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Boris Karloff, Bella Legosi, Gene Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Fred MacMurray, Ida Lupino, Van Johnson, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner (she did not understand her marriage to Sinatra), Vivian Leigh, Claudette Colbert, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Joan Fontaine, whom I know she loved.  Mom had an appreciation of and a liking for classical sensibilities and tastes.  She did not understand the hype of Alfred Hitchcock.

Though known for his western pics and a war drama or two, Jimmy Stewart is best known for the uncertain young man finding his way in the world like in It's A Wonderful Life, Harvey, the biopic, Glenn Miller Story, Rear View Window, and others, my favorite of his is the 1938 film with Lionel Barrymore, You Can't Take It With You.

She liked Frank Sinatra but used to laugh at him because she remembers him early in the industry as a scrawny boy with protruding ears and trying too hard to produce a lilting voice.  I think that she laughed, too, at his appeal to the young girls, at the silliness of teenie-boppers going gaga over Sinatra, 1915-1998.  And it was funny.  That image of Sinatra as a young boy contrasted with his "Chairman of the Board" image later in his career tickled mom.  Mom enjoyed seeing Sinatra at the Palladium in Hollywood with Dad but I remember her tones about Sinatra as a singer were that she could not take him serious.  He was hype, not a star; not, that is, until enough years accumulated in his career.  For my part, I loved Frank Sinatra.  The guy was Mr. Production.  He'd made some of the best but underrated movies in Hollywoods, stories with some meaty themes which I just loved. 

She liked other voices.  She loved, no, she adored Bing Crosby, 1903-1977.  All of his songs; she found his voice comforting.  She appreciated his lyrics and his efforts and play with a song.  She loved his efforts to entertain, and why not?  Mom herself  liked entertaining,  liked having fun; she was a kind of director to her babies, whom she adored, orchestrating activities, and adventures.  She was a young girl all of her life, a perfect match for our adventure-seeking, adventure-loving Dad.

Anyway, if you know Mom's favorite actors or favorite singers other than the ones I mention here or remember any specific comments on any of the actors, if you could share them with me, I would be eternally grateful.

My mom liked the Mike Douglas Show and she laughed with delight over Ted Knight, 1923-1986, but who didn't? 

Mom was no fan of Freddie Prinze, 1954-1977, but I do remember this episode on Mike Douglas and how he made such a big deal out of the actor.  His father was Hungarian and his mother was Puerto Rican.  His birth name was Frederick Karl Pruetzel

About the change to his last name, Wikipedia explains that 

For the sake of his budding comedic career, he changed his surname to "Prinze". He chose this name because, according to his friend David Brenner, Prinze originally wanted to be known as the King of comedy but Alan King already had that last name and sobriquet, so he would be the Prince of comedy instead. 

His son is Freddie Prinze, Jr., 41, who has costarred in a lot of pics.  I'd heard that he was a bit crazy, but I did not know this about him: 

Prinze had a history of playing Russian roulette to frighten his friends for his amusement. 

That seems kind of awful, no?  

Until I read this.

Mae Brussell . . . can spew out a ticker tape with names of dead witnesses—literally hundreds of deaths she finds not exactly above suspicion.
    Labor leaders: Waiter Reuther, Joseph Yablonski, Saul Alinsky [I don't know that I would call Alinsky a labor leader], Jimmy Hoffa, Sam Bramlet—"And there was a contract to kill Cesar Chavez, from the Treasury Department no less—the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency. Meanwhile, Argentine, Chilean and Brazilian police squads are killing off labor people."
     Mafia leaders: Sam Giancana, Jimmy Hoffa, John Roselli—"It was just a fluke that he bounced up; his legs were cut off and his torso put in an oil drum. Carlo Gambino—given a shot of swine flu inoculation when he had a heart disease. Sheffield Edwards was killed and William Harvey was killed—the CIA contacts with the Mafia people—and the CIA agent Guy Bannister was killed. He worked with Robert Maheu and with Lee Harvey Oswald, and he flew out a window. The same people who were behind it are alive today, and they're sweeping away the bodies. It's at the highest levels that these conspiracies are planned, not just with a few Cuban exiles."
     Musicians: Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Mama Cass Elliott, Jim Croce, Tim Buckley—"And almost thirty other fine musicians have died under mysterious circumstances. Rock musicians had an ability to draw together youth at a time when protest meetings were being broken apart, and the hippie, antiwar youth became too visible with their own, unique art form at Woodstock. The Senate investigation documented that persons seeking 'racial harmony' and 'social protest' were defined as enemies of the state. Only people like Sonny and Cher, the Osmonds, John Denver and the Captain and Tennille make it as role models. They either have to tame you or kill you."
     And then there's Freddy Prinze. "He was an active Democrat, entertained by the President at the White House, a symbol for the Chicano. He had a deep concern about who killed Kennedy. He had a copy of the Abraham Zapruder film, and he kept playing it over and over. Time magazine says he had an intrigue about death because he kept watching Kennedy die. Well, you could say he was worried about how Kennedy was killed.
    "I know researchers who've played that film over two hundred times. It's not because they are preoccupied with death, but because it's perfectly obvious that the government is lying, that Kennedy's head is going back. And here's a guy, Freddy Prinze, who every time somebody comes over, he shows the film to them and talks about it. He tells a psychiatrist he's suicidal, who takes his gun, and then when he leaves, he hands it back to him. Then Freddy goes to Vegas and picks up a hundred Quaaludes from another doctor. The removal of Freddy Prinze means one less visual person from that stratum of society. They lose a symbol for the Puerto Rican kids sitting on the steps in New York. There are no positive visual images of Chicanos on the screen. No encouragement for the young ones, because this one's heavily doped and has blown his brains out."