I wish I could say that my story of meeting Rudy Vallee ended with him giving me his megaphone. It didn’t. But still it ended in a pleasant enough way to warrant this final Rudy posting. I did as Tommy, his friend/helper, suggested (see 1/11 post) and sent Rudy a
So there I am, standing in my parents house with a letter addressed to me from Rudy Vallee. I recall my mother coming in the room and saying–as if nothing before in her life had ever been quite so strange–“Raymond…did you get a letter from Rudy Vallee?” I opened it,
Does anyone remember the huge fuss made in newspapers around the world in the early 1970’s when the scandal broke that a faded star of yesteryear– singer Rudy Vallee–desired to change the name of the street he lived on (Pyramid Place in the Hollywood Hills) to Rue De Vallee? A Congressman
No, I didn’t in fact get that review, but I have reason to be modestly proud of the reception of my three and half years in the making documentary “Tis Autumn: The Search For Jackie Paris”, which opened last Friday in New York City to all around (mostly) excellent reviews.
And now, after a decade of keeping it locked in a dark vault as if it were the mutant child of a royal family, Showtime is bringing back my first feature, “Cafe Society”. It will air this Sunday evening at ten pm. Is that time Eastern or Pacific? I don’t
Sunday. Spent much of today in jazz-geek heaven, listening to transcriptions of old WRVR broadcasts of “Just Jazz with Ed Beech”. Beech was a New York based d.j. who made discography sound suave. Using a Shakespearean-trained actors voice (at least according to his publicity) he filled New York radio with
My producer, and dear friend, David Zellerford, has grown to hate me and this film like a disease that wont go into remission but also wont get worse. Every moment of this last few months of finishing is torture for him and me. But especially for him. Largely this has
A great sigh of relief as a week of uncertainty comes to a positive-ish close. “Ish”, by the way, is a very important trio of letters in show business. Things are always happening–until they’re not. Or perhaps they’re happening again. Never say never. Never give up. We’re shooting/releasing/whatevering September-ish. Which
There’s an old saying that the real movie isn’t the one that winds up on screen but, rather, is the one in the dailies (the unused film, the rejected takes). Certainly my moments with Hank Jones and Soupy Sales qualify. And plenty of other fascinating conversations (Mark Murphy, Harlan Ellison,
Five AM and done with sleep. What better time for some Jackie Paris. The above “Tis Autumn” is from his greatest album, “The Song Is Paris”. 1962. I’m perplexed by the re-emergence of 3-D. Not just the why of it but the reality of it. Seriously? 3-D? This isn’t a