Day 176 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and the USGS reported that Kilauea Volcano remains Number One on a list of most dangerous volcanoes in the U.S. Numbers 2 and 3? Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. Happy Halloween!
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Cesar Sayoc was arrested on suspicion of being the pipe bomber. He was previously known by authorities to be a super Trump loyalist who despised Democrats and the liberal media.
In particular, he hated CNN. In a collage on his van window, he includes a lot of Trump stuff and a CNN Sucks sticker in the bottom left corner.
About Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Royal Family and Donald Trump keep changing their stories. The media continue to print details on these total reversals, which is the prime clue as to why they (media) are mistrusted. But the primary reason is that they (media) are just reporting the best known facts at the time of publication.
But on to my posting of today, place yourself back to 1933 in the depths of the Great Depression. I wasn't born yet. Few could afford anything, but 42nd Street (and you are in luck--this is the whole movie---or watch this version, which is ten minutes longer) became a resounding success. Rated (much later) by Rotten Tomatoes reviewers at 95%, this concept was copied a hundred times, but returned as a successful Broadway show only in 1980 (with a whole bunch of songs from other shows), followed by a revival in 2001.
Interestingly enough, in the same year came Gold Diggers of 1933 (again, the whole film), with essentially the same cast and production crew, plus more songs. Rotten Tomatoes reviewers bestowed a 100% rating to this follow-up.
However 42nd Street is the classic, being the first. Further, it was rated #13 in AFI's Greatest Musicals, and Gold Diggers is nowhere in sight.
To be brutally frank, the plot was corny, the new star, Ruby Keeler, (who at that time was married to Al Jolson) was a clunky dancer, amateurish actress and only passable singer. Yet, that was perfectly acceptable in those days, especially since she was likable.
The person who carried the film was the person in charge of putting the stage show together, Warner Baxter, the original Cisco Kid in 1929, the first all-talking western, where he won for Best Actor. By 1936 he became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. The memorable statement of Baxter to Keeler, after five weeks of rehearsal, where a day before the first public performance, the real lead literally breaks her leg, picked out of the chorus line with five hours to rehearse as the replacement: You're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star! You can better appreciate now why he won the Oscar. And here is a rare clip of Keeler in color.
There were only three big songs: You're Getting to be a Habit with Me, Shuffle Off to Buffalo and 42nd Street. That 1980 revival added: We're in the Money, I Only have Eyes for You, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Lullaby of Broadway and About a Quarter to Nine.
I should elaborate that the other performers in this 1933 42nd Street were Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell and George Brent, who, keeps popping up as the nice guy. See my recent blog involving him.
This was also the first major Busby Berkeley extravaganza. His kaleidoscopic routines became famous.
At the age of 75 he returned to the revival of No, No, Nanette in 1971. Ruby Keeler, who had divorced Jolson in 1940 (and avoided talking about him for the rest of her life), got married to a businessman in 1941, and immediately retired from show business. However, she surprisingly appeared in that same 1971 broadway production and made a wonderful stage return. I can identify with that time period, for I was born in 1940 and was a year from my PhD in biochemical engineering in that interval. Songs like I Want to be Happy and Tea for Two came from this show.
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The eye of Typhoon Yutu is now projected to pass just north of the Philippines, with serious damage anticipated in the impacted coastal region:
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