Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Fun Stuff

I want to draw attention to two obits: Adam Bernstein's WaPo obit of Ralph Nader's mother, a gem of the shorter form, and the Telegraph's obit of its eccentric columnist, Michael Wharton, which imho is about as good as it gets in obitland.

Nader

Wharton

posted by steve miller at 12:52 PM

3 Comments:

Blogger Bholly said...

In the same Telegraph issue there is the obit on Tony Franciosa including a quote form his one -time girlfriend Shelley Winters who just passed away:
They embarked on a turbulent three-year marriage in 1957. "She was the salt on my open wound," he said recently. "I'll always be very fond of her, though." Of Franciosa, Shelley Winters said: "If sex were an event at the Olympics, Tony Franciosa would have been captain of the team."

7:54 AM  
Blogger Alana Baranick said...

were franciosa and winters married at one time, corey, a.k.a. bholly?

8:11 PM  
Blogger Bholly said...

That they were Alana. By the way, I'm glad Andrew included Bloody Mama in her obit. Nobody played Ma Barker like Shelly.
Here's my favorite Shelly story courtesy of Mark Evanier:
It took place late in her career, about the time she hit age seventy. She had a string of auditions with directors and casting directors who looked like children to her and who, she felt, were not showing her the proper respect. She was, after all, Shelley Winters. So when her agent sent her to meet one particular gentleman who was casting a new feature film, she went prepared.

She sat down in the casting director's office, right in front of his desk. After some pleasantries, the man said to her, "Now, Ms. Winters...remind me what you've done."

Shelley Winters reached into a big bag she'd brought with her, pulled out an Academy Award statuette and slammed it down on the man's desk. "That was for The Diary of Anne Frank," she announced. Then she pulled out another Oscar and put it next to the first one. "And that one was for A Patch of Blue. Now, why don't you remind me what you've done?"

I don't know for sure that happened. But it should have.

9:14 PM  

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