{"id":1149,"date":"2018-04-24T01:41:04","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T19:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=1149"},"modified":"2018-04-24T01:41:04","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T19:41:04","slug":"have-you-read-any-good-books-lately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/falseducks.com\/theblahg\/?p=1149","title":{"rendered":"HAVE YOU READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Here we are April 2018 and the sun has decided to come back to us here in the North; Canada that is.<\/span><\/strong>\"Scott<\/strong> This past month has been brutal with cold and snow and freezing rain and little done by me to advance toward even writing a blahg.\u00a0 Oh, I’ve done a lot of thinking about about it but the motivation just wasn’t there.\u00a0 When you’re rubbing your hands together to try and keep warm then your fingers aren’t really free to type.\u00a0 So, this blahg is a little later this month and is a mish-mash of things; a hodge-podge if you will.\u00a0 Don’t you just love fancy words to describe variety or essentially everything chucked into the pot to make a stew?\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, what have I been up to?\u00a0 Reading.\u00a0 That should impress you but don’t be fooled.\u00a0 Reading was only part of it.\u00a0 I didn’t exercise.\u00a0 Ate comfort food.\u00a0 Watched a lot of videos; both television and movies.\u00a0 Generally did nothing to speak of but writing about it is another thing altogether.\u00a0 The reading part was to advance my mind while my body went to seed.\u00a0 Some of the video watching was actually connected to some of the reading I was doing.\u00a0 If you read on, you will find out more.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I like to think I am an avid reader but the truth is I’m a selective reader.\u00a0\""Go I don’t read many novels and if I do it’s usually not anything new.\u00a0 The last <\/span><\/strong>new novel I read was “Go Set A Watchman” by Harper Lee and even that was just a reprinting of a version of “To Kill A Mockingbird” that she had submitted early on to her publisher.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\""The<\/span><\/strong> Before that, the last novel I read was probably “The Ravine” by the late great Paul Quarrington or “Out of Oz” from the Wicked series of novels by Gregory Maguire.\u00a0 \""Out“The Ravine” was 2008 and “Out of Oz” was 2011 so who’s to say which one I read first.\u00a0 I’m not a fan of modern literature and am more likely to be caught reading a classic or something that’s at least 40 years old; after all I was an English major.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you care to ask, where my passion lies in terms of the bulk of my reading habits are biographies and autobiographies.\u00a0 Let me be clear about that though, again I am not a fan of modern celebrity tell-alls and you’re more likely to catch me reading about stars from years gone by.\u00a0 \"TheA couple of months back I read the autobiography “The Million Dollar Mermaid” by swimming star turned actress Esther Williams.\u00a0 It was a fascinating book about a star I knew little about and about the golden age of musicals at MGM in the 1940s and 1950s.\u00a0 \""GrowingAfter that I read “Growing Up Laughing” by Marlo Thomas.\u00a0 I like Marlo Thomas and am a fan of hers and her father Danny Thomas.\u00a0 The book was an okay read but it tried to analyze comedy too much with interviews by current famous comedians.\u00a0 Some of the interviews worked and some didn’t.\u00a0 The best part of the book was when she talked about her father or when she told of her work in television and movies.\u00a0 I think I have my own ideas about comedy thank you very much.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I should interject here to say that over the past couple of years I have also read some very fine biographies.\u00a0 Not all of the famous movie stars or celebrities got around to writing their own life histories.\u00a0 Sometimes a well researched biography is just as good and can be very enthralling.\u00a0 Case in point, there were three biographies I read over the past few years that were great reads. \u00a0\"Jimmy “Jimmy Stewart, A Biography” by Marc Eliot was fascinating and taught me a great deal about one of my favorite movie stars.\u00a0 As far as actors go, there was never such a wholesome actor with such a great range of acting.\u00a0 \"TheI also enjoyed “The Man Who Saw a Ghost: The Life and Work of Henry Fonda” by Devin McKinney.\u00a0 Henry Fonda was another one of those great actors who had a lot going on inside.\u00a0 He was a very intense man and actor.\u00a0 The most recent biography that I read was <\/span><\/strong>\""Bogart<\/span><\/strong>“Bogart” by Ann Sperber and Eric Lax.\u00a0 Bogart also was one of those fascinating actors who was a complicated individual but had an interesting career and personal life.\u00a0 I highly recommend all three books.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Last fall I found out about a book in which I did not have a lot of faith.\u00a0 In fact, I thought it was probably a totally unnecessary book that would be both boring and a botch job.\u00a0 Boy was I wrong.\u00a0 \""The<\/a>“The Final Film of Laurel and Hardy: A Study of the Chaotic Making and Marketing of Atoll K” by Norbert Aping was one of the most well researched and intensely spellbinding books I have ever read about a single film.\u00a0 “Atoll K” was Laurel and Hardy’s last film together and this book is a detailed “study of the chaotic making and marketing of Atoll K”.\u00a0 I lifted that quote right from the cover because I cannot find a better way to describe the contents.\u00a0 If you are a fan of Laurel and Hardy then you have to read this book.\u00a0 \"Atoll<\/a>I had only ever seen “Atoll K” in butchered prints released as “Utopia”.\u00a0 Fortunately there is a new digitally remastered DVD of the Director’s cut of the U.S. version of”Atoll K” available from FunFactoryFilms.\u00a0 Read the book first and then watch the DVD.\u00a0 I had to watch it a couple of times and pause at points and refer back to information from the book.\u00a0 Both the book and this new DVD are a must for Laurel and Hardy fans; even if you never liked “Atoll K”.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So what have I read lately?\u00a0 That’s a good question and I have a good answer.\u00a0 \""HarryIt will also link to what I’ve been watching lately.\u00a0 I’ll tell you the name of the book before I tell you about it.\u00a0 It’s “Harry Langdon: King of Silent Comedy” by Gabriella Oldham and Mabel Langdon (Harry Langdon’s third and final wife).\u00a0 The book also has a foreword by Harry Langdon Jr.\u00a0 It’s been many years in the making and many had despaired that it would ever be completed.\u00a0 Many of you may be scratching your head and wondering who Harry Langdon was.\u00a0 If you’re a fan of silent screen comedy then you already know.\u00a0 Many, including myself, put him up there among the greats with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton.\u00a0 At least one of those names should ring a bell.\u00a0 Simply put, Harry Langdon was, at his best, as good as those three but uniquely different as well.\u00a0 I can’t really give you a run down on him in 25 words or less.\u00a0 I don’t think even one blahg would be enough to tell you why Harry Langdon deserves his comedy legend status.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What some people will tell you about Harry Langdon is all they know from Wikipedia or repeated hack sources.\u00a0 He burned bright, he was popular, he got a swelled head and made some bad films, and then he faded away.\u00a0 Most of that is very far from the truth.\u00a0 He did burn bright and was popular for a time and some believe his last silent films weren’t very good.\u00a0 Essentially Harry Langdon was a latecomer to films.\u00a0 He didn’t start making films until 1923\/1924 after more than 20 years of a successful run in vaudeville.\u00a0 He was almost 40 before he came to the silver screen.\u00a0 Compare that to Keaton who started out with Roscoe Arbuckle in 1917 when Keaton was 22.\u00a0 Harold Lloyd was 20 when he started in 1913 and Chaplin was 24 when he was on the screen also in late 1913\/early 1914.\u00a0 Langdon was twice the age of Lloyd when he started out and he would only have 5 years before silent films were out and talkies were in.\u00a0 Keaton had a decade in silent films to perfect his craft and Lloyd and Chaplin had a decade and a half.\u00a0 As I said, Harry Langdon was a latecomer but what he did during that time was both fascinating and groundbreaking.\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harry Langdon only made five silent film features:\u00a0 “His First Flame”,\u00a0 “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” (1926), “The Strong Man” (1926), “Long Pants” (1927), “Three’s A Crowd” (1927), “The Chaser” (1928),\u00a0 and “Heart Trouble” (1928).\u00a0 “His First Flame” was made around 1925\/26 but was not released until 1927.\u00a0 Harry’s other output during this time were silent shorts.\u00a0 Frank Capra worked with him on his first three features but Harry Langdon directed himself starting with “Long Pants” and that’s when some say he got a swelled head and the quality changed for the worse.\u00a0 I don’t believe that’s all true.\u00a0 \"Image<\/a>I think he was getting some bad advice from others around him after Capra left but I think “Three’s A Crowd” was meant to be Harry’s masterpiece like Harold Lloyd’s “Kid Brother” and Keaton’s “The General”.\u00a0 Chaplin had many great films like “City Lights” but I don’t know if anyone would agree which of his films were meant to be his masterpiece.\u00a0 Chaplin would have said they all were.\u00a0 Getting back to Langdon, “Three’s A Crowd” is a very moving picture with some very funny bits.\u00a0 “The Chaser” is a bit of a let down but has some funny moments as well.\u00a0 As for “Heart Trouble”, we may never know because it is considered a lost film.\u00a0 If you want to read a fascinating blog that tracks the last showings of “Heart Trouble” in Australia from 1928 to 1931 then check out http:\/\/cablecarguy.blogspot.ca\/2013\/08\/harry-langdon-heart-trouble-in.html<\/a>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harry Langdon didn’t just fade away after sound film came in.\u00a0 He was popular for a time and I think his character adapted well to sound.\u00a0 Check out this promo announcing Harry Langdon joining the Hal Roach studios to make sound shorts:\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong>
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