"In 2000, the governor of South Carolina signed a bill making his state the last to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official state holiday. "
Yet South Carolina was the first state to secede, stating its reason in its declaration of secession: "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery."
Thanks for that great piece Lucian. So much was sacrificed by so many and now it seems like people are pushing us back as hard as they possibility can to erase those accomplishments. It’s up to anyone that sees those pushing to speak up to its injustice. As Dr. king said, it’s the people who are silent that allow the injustice to continue.
I had the DON'T BLAME ME / I'M FROM MASSACHUSETTS sticker on my suitcase for many years. Also IMPEACH THE COX-SACKER. ;-)
It's worth remembering, however, that racism was alive and virulent in Massachusetts at that time. The war against school desegregation was not confined to the South.
I saw a car the other day with that old bumper sticker… battered but still legible. That Mass. electoral strikeout was one reason (among many) that paranoid, insecure Nixon hated and feared the northeast… at least the intellectual skepticism it represented. The appointment of Archibald Cox, an eastern WASP lawyer of impeccable credentials, was more than Tricky Dick could stand.
How I wish I could have seen that! And yes I do recall that Nixon had a vendetta against Massachusetts, as it affected government contracts in our state and in turn, my favorite Air Force veteran uncle's tech job.
Right. Another eastern establishment WASP, Elliot Richardson, resigned rather than fire Cox. Nixon had to go to his third choice before Cox was shown the door. Nixon was basically a sleazy, conniving, massively insecure man… yet he was brilliant at foreign relations. Unlike Trump, who is good at nothing except lying and self-promotion.
Nixon also had an awareness of his constitutional obligations (he broke them, but he knew he was doing it and knew enough to try to hide it as long as he could) and honored the separation of powers, which is why he resigned rather than face a Senate conviction.
Rhode Island went for Nixon, 53% to 46.8%. D.C. was the only jurisdiction besides Massachusetts that voted for McGovern. Since those were the only places I'd lived at that point, I couldn't understand WTH was wrong with the rest of the country.
With reference to MLK Day, Jamelle Bouie writes in The NY Times "that more than eight million children will be left out of a new federal food assistance program for needy families this summer because they live in one of the 15 states, all led by Republican governors, that refuse to participate. Although some of these states cite logistical concerns with administering the program — which will serve 21 million children across 35 states at the minor cost, relative to the federal budget, of $2.5 billion — others have a straightforward objection to the concept of food assistance.
"Mississippi won’t participate because its Republican governor, Tate Reeves, says that he rejects “attempts to expand the welfare state.” Nebraska won’t participate because, says its Republican governor, Jim Pillen, “I don’t believe in welfare.” And Iowa won’t participate because, says its Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, “an E.B.T. card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”
"The children have too much food, you see."
Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits.
Kim Reynolds’s who campaigned as a “mother and grandmother” has chosen to allow children in her state to starve. And how many chins can you count below Tate Reeves bloated face? DESPICABLE.
Amazing documentary on TMC right now, From Birmingham to Memphis. It has reminded me of all the strife and hate and beatings and water hoses and dogs and horrors our fellow citizens had to endure in the 60s. We should never forget!! But I fear many have. I wish the SCOTUS was watching this documentary - who have decided the Voting Rights Act is no longer needed. People in the 60s carrying the same 'white power' swastika signs they are now. Chicago Selma Birmingham Montgomery and sadly, Memphis.
Great photographs. Thank you, Lucian, for keeping the torch of freedom burning.
One of the things that has always amazed me about Americans who are white supremacists is their naked, unapologetic determination to attack, torture, and kill Black people who challenge white supremacy or attempt to claim their humanity, in big ways such as the Memphis sanitation workers' strike, or in very, very small ways, as Emmet Till did when he made some small, joking comment to a white woman that indicated that he did not consider himself her terrified, groveling inferior.
Heh, yeah, in Texas, Jan. 19 was already celebrated as a state holiday as "Confederate Heroes Day", aka Robert E. Lee's birthday. When MLK Day came around, the state played around with semantics and "options" for a long while; I recall that there was an attempt to conflate the holidays, or allow employees to choose a Jan. MLK / CHD holiday OR Juneteenth, or Texas Independence Day (March 2), or from a menu of state holidays, your choice two out of three. LBJ's birthday (in August) used to be a state holiday, too, but it was stricken from the calendar along with another in the late 1980s IIRC. That was just a cheapskate move to save some money in the state budget, on the backs of public employees. Take away two holidays and push the date of state payday back a day (a one-time savings that calendar year). Accounting tricks. I was a state employee during that time so my memories are sound, if muddied (the whole situation was muddied, deliberately so by partisans).
Weirdly enough, MLK Day is supposed to be a federal holiday yet there was mail delivery in Madison, WI, today! Maybe they were just making up for several days on non-delivery during this recent winter storm.
King is another in a long list of people we've really missed in our lifetimes since killers took them away from us. He'd be denounced as a socialist radical now, of course, but man, could we use that vision.
And then Sen. John McCain railing against MLK Day. He never did find his "black friend". The late Senator showed his true colors the day he sat in a AG Conformation Hearing on his good yt-friend, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions when he attacked then Sen. Harris. ~never forget~
No racist can be a hero of any sort. Especially one who wrote his on tall tale and kept adding more and more heroic acts over time then planned a funeral so grandiose it would shame Kings, Queens, and Presidents. Heroes are humble.
Virginia used to have a state holiday for Jefferson Davis on June 3 until some time after my birth on June 3, 1944. Gone by the time I started school. I prefer to think of my birth as 3 days before D-Day.
I sat under a tree beside the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool -- I can point to it in the famous photo of Dr. King taken from behind him -- on that hot, humid August day in 1963. If you had asked me that day to imagine an ignorant Southern racist thug murdering Dr. King, I probably could have. If you had asked me to imagine the country electing a Black man as President in my lifetime, I probably would have wondered what you were smoking. Then if you asked me to imagine the assassination of Dr. King, and 40 years later, the election of a Black man as President, followed by the election of an ignorant Northern racist thug, with half the country following him into a netherworld of outright fascism, I would have guessed you were smoking something far less benign than mostly prevalent stems and seeds pot. Thanks, Lucian, for the posting and the photos. Someone who knows how to use Photoshop and/or AI should substitute the portly Deranged Bigoted Defendant for one of the
Black men wearing an "I AM A MAN" sign, with the caption: AS IF.
Henry Loeb was a scurrilous racist piece of shit who never should have been mayor. He pulled police coverage from Dr. King because he could, and bears responsibility for the assassination. History and guilt has glossed over how Dr. King was reviled as a communist, radical outside agitator, and a no-good scoundrel looking for something for nothing. He was attacked in editorials and letters to the editor daily across the country. Only death brought him a modicum of respect. Dr. King’s assassination broke Memphis apart in ways no one expected. We needed MLK then, and we need someone with his insight and skills now.
Agree. Can't de-couple all the confluences of the time, war in SEA-protests, the CSA fighting the VRA and CRA and being met with protests, Nixon's Southern [cynical] Southern strategy,, John Birch Society, and soon thereafter Woodstock. One could argue the re-birth of 2 Americas, with it one political party-Republicans- messaging of only binary choices.
If you're against the war in SEA , then your not a patriot instead a commie.
If you supported the VRA/CRA and the civil rights movement, then you aren't a real America instead a ni**a lover,
If you didn't wear the same clothing as did your parents, listen to the same music, and speak like your parents and go to church with them, then you were renouncing true blue American culture and were a dope smoking hippy.
Said another way and quoting a nevertrumper who thinks and believes he is always the smartest person in all rooms at once, Tom Nichols, the Woodstock generation killed America and are to blame for all today's problems and woes. FTR: Always and all ways be careful with embracing so-called nevertrumpers. The one exception is Stuart Stevens. The rest "hate" being out of power and influence ever since O thumpred them twice. That includes Rick Wilson and Bill Kristol.
no way will I ever trust ANY Krystal and at one time or another, I've encountered them all (mostly the mom, Gertrude Himmelfarb, because at the Graduate Center, English shared a floor with History and she had an ongoing--probably lifelong--flirtation with Irving Howe; perhaps at one time a good deal more than that). Rick Wilson's books have had a lot of the same stuff you hear every day. I am relaxing a little more about David Frum, now that he's on The Atlantic, where he presumably has less of a set political axe to grind.
I just saw the movie "Rustin" tonight about Baynard Rustin who organized the August 1963 March in Washington, D.C. It's on Netflix and it's a great movie. I saw it at the JCC in Manhattan and Ruth Messenger, former Borough President of Manhattan, was there to respond to questions. I recommend anyone to watch it if you haven't already seen it. I believe I was at that March as my parents took me when I was just a pre-teenager. I believe I might even have a button from the March. I have a box down in my basement storage with all my political buttons. I'll have to look for it soon!
I got to meet Rustin when I was about ten at the CCNY Homecoming I attended annually from about the age of three. tall, with a powerful gaze. he was my father's favorite of that older generation of Civil Rights leaders because he kept a low profile, worked his ass off and knew where and how everything was happening. I doubt it would have occurred to my father that Rustin was gay...in that generation (as the movie shows), it just simply wasn't discussed.
I don't know if anyone saw the HBO Bryan Cranston film All The Way, but it was a very good portrayal of Cranston as LBJ I had a close up view as I worked as an extra in the film, but he was amazing as LBJ. In one scene a couple of us were on the stage seated behind him as he is giving a speech. I was seated next to his VP as we were supposed to be town dinitarties, although we were also senators in other parts of the film. One scene was supposed to be at his home in Texas celebrating his reelection. . (I think I had mentioned before that I had started doing extra work for something to do in my old age. In some shoots we get to interact with the actors, it's called being a featured extra. Two examples are Fuller House "Angels Night Out" where the girls go on a cruise thinking it's 1970's themed but is actually a cruise for 70 year olds. It is actually very funny. I got a laugh when I got hit in the face with hair spray. It was a live audience. Guest stars were "Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner and Lainie Kazan: The ‘Fuller House’ ‘70s Cruise Is Packed with Cameos." Another featured extra role was with Rainn Wison in an episode of The Office called The Christening. We are members f a church congregation and the pastor asks if anyone wants to comment. I stand up to speak supposedly and Rainn stares me down. Not a big deal not meant to be funny but they had to shoot it again as everybody laughed and they weren't supposed to. I guess it was the pained expression on my face because I wasn't allowed to speak :) . At 91 now I gave up my extra/occasional acting career . But it was fun, Anybody can do it, just sign up with Central Casting. They only handle extras but there are other agencies on line you can sign with Like Casting Frontier, Casting Associates, Actors Access, etc., Great for students or retired people.
Oh, this is the trailer for the HBO film All The Way:
I'm a huge fan of Bryan Cranston. He's been excellent in everything he does. I'll look for you in the episode of "The Office". Sounds like you had an interesting career as an extra!
Thanks Gai, yes he is an amazing actor, To me i his portrayal of LBJ was Oscar level acting. As far as my extra work, while not acting it's fun to be on a set and observe all that's going on. There is a rule you never speak to an actor unless spoken to first. Y This is understandable as they are focusing on their lines and the character they are playing, they can't have people coming up to them all the time. But if you get booked, say as a stand In or body double as I did with Ernest Borgnine and later Arnold Palmer then it's a whole different thing. And once on the set of Hitchcock as an extra Anthony Hopkins spoke to me. he asked if I was having fun. We actually got in to a 10 minute conversation. . He was very nice. I saw Helen Mirren speak to a couple of extras too.BTW here is a clip from Fuller House where I get sprayed with hairspray, https://vimeo.com/358413773
Thanks for the clip from Fuller House - great job! I also love Lainie Kazan. Wow! You've had so many great experiences as an extra. What a fun second career!
Thank Gail, Yes, as I say I'm 91 now and although not doing that anymore, except for occasion bi for friends who have an Internet series on YouTube. They get like 14 million views per episode so very successful. If you Google Rebecca Zamolo it should come up. One music video I did had a good message about discrimination, Myself and another guy are seated in a restaurant with our dates (Young women, so must be dates :) and a group of black people come in to this very expensive restaurant and are immediately under suspicion. A cast member of the TV show Blackish who is also black and he greets them at the desk and is equally suspicious. We are the second couple back of the first couple It's called Warning by Trevor Jackson, I was trying to put together a list of gigs (some acting such as in San Andreas Quake (Mr. Lowenstein) or as Mr. Mr. Nordheim in Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss - both low budget films. Funny, my character names both Jewish sounding but i'm not Jewish. I think my Jewish friends were amused by this :) Oh, one other funny booking I got in a music video was as the conductor of a real orchestra/ I had no idea what I was doing, I don't read music or play an instrument. . I think it was called YUCK with 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne. Yucky lyrics and a bit graphic - some naked ladies :)
Thank you, Gal. Speaking of stories I read once that when people retire many don't live that long as they no longer feel useful to society and the zest for life fades, so I think it helps to find something useful to do even volunteer work. Anyway due to sight limitations and just not the same stamina now that I'm in my 90's I quit doing the extra/acting work and am attempting to write screen plays based on some unpublished children's stories I wrote. Also I just did a picture book and a second one also almost complete. Again, hard to find a publisher or even an agent so I found a service that allows you to access their AI program for free to create illustrations to match your text. The result is Amazing (if you google Julies Elves by Robert Evans it should come up on Amazon as an ebook (also a free service). I should mention that the service I mentioned (Bookbildr.com) will for a modest fee set up the book for you with the AI illustrations and even make a printed copy for you at retail price and market it if you wish for a mosest commision. My second book will be called Visitors From Oz.
Michael Gambon was also superb as LBJ on a different HBO movie which dealt a lot more with Vietnam. I remember that while he was shooting it, Gambon told an interviewer how he'd come to grasp that there was something "classically tragic" about LBJ.
a few years ago, Brian Cox played LBJ in a stage play here. BC said he'd come to love the guy. what's sort of funny is that Brian Cox is very short, but I've seen him live and close up several times and if he wants you to think he's six three or however tall LBJ was, he'll be that tall. I saw him do a monologue play in the '90s and as soon as it hit curtain time, I swear that I felt something supernatural happen. so did the guy I was there with, who'd seen many more plays than I have. he turned to me and asked "holy fuck...did you SEE that??"
Fascinating. Thanks David. Like any profession some actors are above all the others. A couple more as just two examples are John Lithgow as Churchill and Anthony Hopkins as the butler in Remains of the day. So man others of course.
"In 2000, the governor of South Carolina signed a bill making his state the last to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official state holiday. "
Yet South Carolina was the first state to secede, stating its reason in its declaration of secession: "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery."
Will the South ever stop fighting the Civil War?
No.
Nikki Haley, who could not say that slavery was why the South seceded, was the governor of South Carolina (not in 2000).
Yeah, she wouldn’t even say what the Civil War was about!!
The arc is going in the right direction, but all too slowly!
Thanks for that great piece Lucian. So much was sacrificed by so many and now it seems like people are pushing us back as hard as they possibility can to erase those accomplishments. It’s up to anyone that sees those pushing to speak up to its injustice. As Dr. king said, it’s the people who are silent that allow the injustice to continue.
I have always been proud of the fact that when I started my career as a Massachusetts state employee in 1976, we always had ML King Day as a holiday.
Yes, and as a Boston-born-raised Bay Stater let’s also remember that Mass. was the ONLY state that didn’t carry Nixon in 1972.
I had the DON'T BLAME ME / I'M FROM MASSACHUSETTS sticker on my suitcase for many years. Also IMPEACH THE COX-SACKER. ;-)
It's worth remembering, however, that racism was alive and virulent in Massachusetts at that time. The war against school desegregation was not confined to the South.
Oh for sure. I remember well Louise Day Hicks and the busing battles in Boston. The north is not in any way pure in that regard.
I moved to Boston in August 1973 to attend college and I can still remember the "Don't Blame Me I'm from Massachusetts" bumper stickers on cars
I saw a car the other day with that old bumper sticker… battered but still legible. That Mass. electoral strikeout was one reason (among many) that paranoid, insecure Nixon hated and feared the northeast… at least the intellectual skepticism it represented. The appointment of Archibald Cox, an eastern WASP lawyer of impeccable credentials, was more than Tricky Dick could stand.
How I wish I could have seen that! And yes I do recall that Nixon had a vendetta against Massachusetts, as it affected government contracts in our state and in turn, my favorite Air Force veteran uncle's tech job.
Right. Another eastern establishment WASP, Elliot Richardson, resigned rather than fire Cox. Nixon had to go to his third choice before Cox was shown the door. Nixon was basically a sleazy, conniving, massively insecure man… yet he was brilliant at foreign relations. Unlike Trump, who is good at nothing except lying and self-promotion.
Nixon also had an awareness of his constitutional obligations (he broke them, but he knew he was doing it and knew enough to try to hide it as long as he could) and honored the separation of powers, which is why he resigned rather than face a Senate conviction.
"O where are the scumbags of yesteryear?"
RI did not vote for
Rhode Island went for Nixon, 53% to 46.8%. D.C. was the only jurisdiction besides Massachusetts that voted for McGovern. Since those were the only places I'd lived at that point, I couldn't understand WTH was wrong with the rest of the country.
With reference to MLK Day, Jamelle Bouie writes in The NY Times "that more than eight million children will be left out of a new federal food assistance program for needy families this summer because they live in one of the 15 states, all led by Republican governors, that refuse to participate. Although some of these states cite logistical concerns with administering the program — which will serve 21 million children across 35 states at the minor cost, relative to the federal budget, of $2.5 billion — others have a straightforward objection to the concept of food assistance.
"Mississippi won’t participate because its Republican governor, Tate Reeves, says that he rejects “attempts to expand the welfare state.” Nebraska won’t participate because, says its Republican governor, Jim Pillen, “I don’t believe in welfare.” And Iowa won’t participate because, says its Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, “an E.B.T. card does nothing to promote nutrition at a time when childhood obesity has become an epidemic.”
"The children have too much food, you see."
Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participant to pay for food using SNAP benefits.
Kim Reynolds’s who campaigned as a “mother and grandmother” has chosen to allow children in her state to starve. And how many chins can you count below Tate Reeves bloated face? DESPICABLE.
She should be hung upside down in the town square, by her heels!! Horrifying woman!🤬
The degeneracy is the point with these people.
And the cruelty. SMH.
Those governors have to be real sickos to deny food to hungry children!
They dont care.
Obviously we should
Call Orkin.
You can't make this stuff up. Bastards!
Yeah, well has Ms. Kim taken a look at Tate Reeves lately?
Martin Luther King day makes me sad to tears every year. Thank you for reminding us all that the struggle is not over--not by a long shot.
Amazing documentary on TMC right now, From Birmingham to Memphis. It has reminded me of all the strife and hate and beatings and water hoses and dogs and horrors our fellow citizens had to endure in the 60s. We should never forget!! But I fear many have. I wish the SCOTUS was watching this documentary - who have decided the Voting Rights Act is no longer needed. People in the 60s carrying the same 'white power' swastika signs they are now. Chicago Selma Birmingham Montgomery and sadly, Memphis.
The men in that second photo of the single file "I Am a Man" march show such bravery!
We have a lot of work ahead of us.
Great photographs. Thank you, Lucian, for keeping the torch of freedom burning.
One of the things that has always amazed me about Americans who are white supremacists is their naked, unapologetic determination to attack, torture, and kill Black people who challenge white supremacy or attempt to claim their humanity, in big ways such as the Memphis sanitation workers' strike, or in very, very small ways, as Emmet Till did when he made some small, joking comment to a white woman that indicated that he did not consider himself her terrified, groveling inferior.
Heh, yeah, in Texas, Jan. 19 was already celebrated as a state holiday as "Confederate Heroes Day", aka Robert E. Lee's birthday. When MLK Day came around, the state played around with semantics and "options" for a long while; I recall that there was an attempt to conflate the holidays, or allow employees to choose a Jan. MLK / CHD holiday OR Juneteenth, or Texas Independence Day (March 2), or from a menu of state holidays, your choice two out of three. LBJ's birthday (in August) used to be a state holiday, too, but it was stricken from the calendar along with another in the late 1980s IIRC. That was just a cheapskate move to save some money in the state budget, on the backs of public employees. Take away two holidays and push the date of state payday back a day (a one-time savings that calendar year). Accounting tricks. I was a state employee during that time so my memories are sound, if muddied (the whole situation was muddied, deliberately so by partisans).
Weirdly enough, MLK Day is supposed to be a federal holiday yet there was mail delivery in Madison, WI, today! Maybe they were just making up for several days on non-delivery during this recent winter storm.
King is another in a long list of people we've really missed in our lifetimes since killers took them away from us. He'd be denounced as a socialist radical now, of course, but man, could we use that vision.
And then Sen. John McCain railing against MLK Day. He never did find his "black friend". The late Senator showed his true colors the day he sat in a AG Conformation Hearing on his good yt-friend, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions when he attacked then Sen. Harris. ~never forget~
No racist can be a hero of any sort. Especially one who wrote his on tall tale and kept adding more and more heroic acts over time then planned a funeral so grandiose it would shame Kings, Queens, and Presidents. Heroes are humble.
Virginia used to have a state holiday for Jefferson Davis on June 3 until some time after my birth on June 3, 1944. Gone by the time I started school. I prefer to think of my birth as 3 days before D-Day.
Man ,could we !
I sat under a tree beside the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool -- I can point to it in the famous photo of Dr. King taken from behind him -- on that hot, humid August day in 1963. If you had asked me that day to imagine an ignorant Southern racist thug murdering Dr. King, I probably could have. If you had asked me to imagine the country electing a Black man as President in my lifetime, I probably would have wondered what you were smoking. Then if you asked me to imagine the assassination of Dr. King, and 40 years later, the election of a Black man as President, followed by the election of an ignorant Northern racist thug, with half the country following him into a netherworld of outright fascism, I would have guessed you were smoking something far less benign than mostly prevalent stems and seeds pot. Thanks, Lucian, for the posting and the photos. Someone who knows how to use Photoshop and/or AI should substitute the portly Deranged Bigoted Defendant for one of the
Black men wearing an "I AM A MAN" sign, with the caption: AS IF.
Thank you, Dr. King, Jr. and everyone who keeps his hope alive. And thank you, Lucian.
Each One of Us Born Under the Sun is a Man.
Alan South o'Boston
But what if you are a Woman? ;-) Them, too!
I Agree Broh, All, not some, All are Welcome.
Henry Loeb was a scurrilous racist piece of shit who never should have been mayor. He pulled police coverage from Dr. King because he could, and bears responsibility for the assassination. History and guilt has glossed over how Dr. King was reviled as a communist, radical outside agitator, and a no-good scoundrel looking for something for nothing. He was attacked in editorials and letters to the editor daily across the country. Only death brought him a modicum of respect. Dr. King’s assassination broke Memphis apart in ways no one expected. We needed MLK then, and we need someone with his insight and skills now.
And inextricably linked to the other debacle, the Vietnam War.
Agree. Can't de-couple all the confluences of the time, war in SEA-protests, the CSA fighting the VRA and CRA and being met with protests, Nixon's Southern [cynical] Southern strategy,, John Birch Society, and soon thereafter Woodstock. One could argue the re-birth of 2 Americas, with it one political party-Republicans- messaging of only binary choices.
If you're against the war in SEA , then your not a patriot instead a commie.
If you supported the VRA/CRA and the civil rights movement, then you aren't a real America instead a ni**a lover,
If you didn't wear the same clothing as did your parents, listen to the same music, and speak like your parents and go to church with them, then you were renouncing true blue American culture and were a dope smoking hippy.
Said another way and quoting a nevertrumper who thinks and believes he is always the smartest person in all rooms at once, Tom Nichols, the Woodstock generation killed America and are to blame for all today's problems and woes. FTR: Always and all ways be careful with embracing so-called nevertrumpers. The one exception is Stuart Stevens. The rest "hate" being out of power and influence ever since O thumpred them twice. That includes Rick Wilson and Bill Kristol.
no way will I ever trust ANY Krystal and at one time or another, I've encountered them all (mostly the mom, Gertrude Himmelfarb, because at the Graduate Center, English shared a floor with History and she had an ongoing--probably lifelong--flirtation with Irving Howe; perhaps at one time a good deal more than that). Rick Wilson's books have had a lot of the same stuff you hear every day. I am relaxing a little more about David Frum, now that he's on The Atlantic, where he presumably has less of a set political axe to grind.
I just saw the movie "Rustin" tonight about Baynard Rustin who organized the August 1963 March in Washington, D.C. It's on Netflix and it's a great movie. I saw it at the JCC in Manhattan and Ruth Messenger, former Borough President of Manhattan, was there to respond to questions. I recommend anyone to watch it if you haven't already seen it. I believe I was at that March as my parents took me when I was just a pre-teenager. I believe I might even have a button from the March. I have a box down in my basement storage with all my political buttons. I'll have to look for it soon!
I got to meet Rustin when I was about ten at the CCNY Homecoming I attended annually from about the age of three. tall, with a powerful gaze. he was my father's favorite of that older generation of Civil Rights leaders because he kept a low profile, worked his ass off and knew where and how everything was happening. I doubt it would have occurred to my father that Rustin was gay...in that generation (as the movie shows), it just simply wasn't discussed.
I don't know if anyone saw the HBO Bryan Cranston film All The Way, but it was a very good portrayal of Cranston as LBJ I had a close up view as I worked as an extra in the film, but he was amazing as LBJ. In one scene a couple of us were on the stage seated behind him as he is giving a speech. I was seated next to his VP as we were supposed to be town dinitarties, although we were also senators in other parts of the film. One scene was supposed to be at his home in Texas celebrating his reelection. . (I think I had mentioned before that I had started doing extra work for something to do in my old age. In some shoots we get to interact with the actors, it's called being a featured extra. Two examples are Fuller House "Angels Night Out" where the girls go on a cruise thinking it's 1970's themed but is actually a cruise for 70 year olds. It is actually very funny. I got a laugh when I got hit in the face with hair spray. It was a live audience. Guest stars were "Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner and Lainie Kazan: The ‘Fuller House’ ‘70s Cruise Is Packed with Cameos." Another featured extra role was with Rainn Wison in an episode of The Office called The Christening. We are members f a church congregation and the pastor asks if anyone wants to comment. I stand up to speak supposedly and Rainn stares me down. Not a big deal not meant to be funny but they had to shoot it again as everybody laughed and they weren't supposed to. I guess it was the pained expression on my face because I wasn't allowed to speak :) . At 91 now I gave up my extra/occasional acting career . But it was fun, Anybody can do it, just sign up with Central Casting. They only handle extras but there are other agencies on line you can sign with Like Casting Frontier, Casting Associates, Actors Access, etc., Great for students or retired people.
Oh, this is the trailer for the HBO film All The Way:
https://youtu.be/eLwSeF35jfo
I'm a huge fan of Bryan Cranston. He's been excellent in everything he does. I'll look for you in the episode of "The Office". Sounds like you had an interesting career as an extra!
Thanks Gai, yes he is an amazing actor, To me i his portrayal of LBJ was Oscar level acting. As far as my extra work, while not acting it's fun to be on a set and observe all that's going on. There is a rule you never speak to an actor unless spoken to first. Y This is understandable as they are focusing on their lines and the character they are playing, they can't have people coming up to them all the time. But if you get booked, say as a stand In or body double as I did with Ernest Borgnine and later Arnold Palmer then it's a whole different thing. And once on the set of Hitchcock as an extra Anthony Hopkins spoke to me. he asked if I was having fun. We actually got in to a 10 minute conversation. . He was very nice. I saw Helen Mirren speak to a couple of extras too.BTW here is a clip from Fuller House where I get sprayed with hairspray, https://vimeo.com/358413773
Thanks for the clip from Fuller House - great job! I also love Lainie Kazan. Wow! You've had so many great experiences as an extra. What a fun second career!
Thank Gail, Yes, as I say I'm 91 now and although not doing that anymore, except for occasion bi for friends who have an Internet series on YouTube. They get like 14 million views per episode so very successful. If you Google Rebecca Zamolo it should come up. One music video I did had a good message about discrimination, Myself and another guy are seated in a restaurant with our dates (Young women, so must be dates :) and a group of black people come in to this very expensive restaurant and are immediately under suspicion. A cast member of the TV show Blackish who is also black and he greets them at the desk and is equally suspicious. We are the second couple back of the first couple It's called Warning by Trevor Jackson, I was trying to put together a list of gigs (some acting such as in San Andreas Quake (Mr. Lowenstein) or as Mr. Mr. Nordheim in Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss - both low budget films. Funny, my character names both Jewish sounding but i'm not Jewish. I think my Jewish friends were amused by this :) Oh, one other funny booking I got in a music video was as the conductor of a real orchestra/ I had no idea what I was doing, I don't read music or play an instrument. . I think it was called YUCK with 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne. Yucky lyrics and a bit graphic - some naked ladies :)
So cool! You have great stories!
Thank you, Gal. Speaking of stories I read once that when people retire many don't live that long as they no longer feel useful to society and the zest for life fades, so I think it helps to find something useful to do even volunteer work. Anyway due to sight limitations and just not the same stamina now that I'm in my 90's I quit doing the extra/acting work and am attempting to write screen plays based on some unpublished children's stories I wrote. Also I just did a picture book and a second one also almost complete. Again, hard to find a publisher or even an agent so I found a service that allows you to access their AI program for free to create illustrations to match your text. The result is Amazing (if you google Julies Elves by Robert Evans it should come up on Amazon as an ebook (also a free service). I should mention that the service I mentioned (Bookbildr.com) will for a modest fee set up the book for you with the AI illustrations and even make a printed copy for you at retail price and market it if you wish for a mosest commision. My second book will be called Visitors From Oz.
Michael Gambon was also superb as LBJ on a different HBO movie which dealt a lot more with Vietnam. I remember that while he was shooting it, Gambon told an interviewer how he'd come to grasp that there was something "classically tragic" about LBJ.
a few years ago, Brian Cox played LBJ in a stage play here. BC said he'd come to love the guy. what's sort of funny is that Brian Cox is very short, but I've seen him live and close up several times and if he wants you to think he's six three or however tall LBJ was, he'll be that tall. I saw him do a monologue play in the '90s and as soon as it hit curtain time, I swear that I felt something supernatural happen. so did the guy I was there with, who'd seen many more plays than I have. he turned to me and asked "holy fuck...did you SEE that??"
Fascinating. Thanks David. Like any profession some actors are above all the others. A couple more as just two examples are John Lithgow as Churchill and Anthony Hopkins as the butler in Remains of the day. So man others of course.
Oh, this is the trailer for the HBO film All The Way:"
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