Sometimes we just like to share one of our favorite photos with our readers.
You know who that is above, and the orchids give you a clue as to the character he’s portraying.
No, its not “the Fat Man” as pictured below:
No, it not the fly-swatting night club operator below in competition with “Rick’s Cafe Americain.”
Nor is it the sweaty fellow below tussing for the gat with Joan Crawford.
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Well then, who is this mysterious character. And what do orchids have to do with anything? (See the conclusion of this blog for the answer.)
A SAD NOTE: We are saddened to report the death of our former comrade, Larry Michie, who passed away last week.
Larry logged a distinguished career in journalism (see obit below) and enjoyed contributing to Classic Movie Chat in our earlier years. His specialty was tracking the progress (or lack thereof) of book properties being adapted into classic films. He wrote with skepticism and great humor. We miss him. Goodbye, good friend.
Larry Michie, television editor of weekly Variety from 1973 until 1984 where he was part of a triumvirate of legendary TV editors at the trade newspaper, died Wed. Nov. 7 at an assisted living facility in Hadley, Mass.
Michie, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, was 77. He is survived by his wife of 56-years, Virginia, with whom he pursued newspaper ventures in the Northeast after leaving Variety.
New York-based Michie was the third in a triumvirate of Variety tv editors who wielded great influence in their era at the broadcast TV networks, local tv stations and in the burgeoning TV syndication market when Variety was often the principal source of information about the inside workings of the industry when three terrestrial networks dominated the airwaves and cable TV was in its infancy.
Michie succeeded Les Brown as Variety tv editor, who in 1965 had succeeded the widely admired George Rosen. (Brown left for a distinguished career at The New York Times.)
Following his departure from Variety, Michie became in the 1990’s news editor of The Vineyard Gazette , a weekly published in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. He and his wife had earlier bought and operated a Western Massachusetts weekly, the Shelburne Falls & West County News, for a decade starting in the mid-1980’s.
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ANSWER TO OUR SYDNEY GREENSTREET RIDDLE: The role we are talking about was superbly played, as usual, by the actor on RADIO, not the movies. Novelist Rex Stout’s fictional detective genius — Nero Wolfe — was a good fit for Greenstreet since the character preferred eating to pounding the pavement, and amused himself by raising orchids. The radio series, The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe, was aired on NBC from October of 1950 through April 1951. Author Stout was reported to be delighted by Greenstreet’s portrayal.
On a SAD NOTE…
Joe and Frank, condolences for your friend.
When you get to our age and attend a funeral of a relative or friend, you can’t help but think of your own mortality and when will I be next…
For those you’ve lost in any profession, let alone one such as journalism where you get to reach out and be a voice for so many, it’s always painful…
But for an idealistic journalist who wants to really report the truth, to inform and educate his readers, they quickly learn that there is no FREE PRESS…
“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.”
The remarks were apparently made by John Swinton, then the preeminent New York journalist, probably one night in 1880. Swinton was the guest of honor at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:
“There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
But despite all the impossible restraints and restrictions, there have been many noble journalists, some with big names but even many more with names you’ve never heard of who, that still managed to get their message out and report the facts.
In the field of showbiz, journalists for the trade papers like Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter had their own unique set of obstacles as Joe & Frank and their colleagues well knew and had to live with… And as they too would probably tell you, what passes as ‘journalism’ today in just that one field, well their answer I’m sure would be an unprintable expletive!
So here’s to all the unsung journalists who fought back and did their best to not sell-out their ideals and principles, but still managed to give us some measure of truth.
Anyone else care to COMMENT?