Continuing with our 60th anniversary celebration of the filming of DeMille’s GSOE, here are some frame enlargements taken from the 1951 equine number PICNIC IN THE PARK. (If you have more information as to who and what is being shown in these images, your sharing it with the rest of us will be greatly appreciated.) |
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Picnic In The Park #1 (From Eric Beheim)
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8 comments:
This is Jimmy Armstrong, and although we did have Merle Evan's band, Jimmmy still played the three calls to alert us to get ready. Jackie LeClaire
Eric:
You have obviously devoted years to researching the making of this movie.
Many thanks not only for the pictures but for your fascinating commentaries.
Is that Brad's Jeep?, Nowadays, they would give him a Golfcart...
Jackie: Jimmy performed this same duty after he joined Beatty-Cole.
Emmett & Otto in the backgroud, today they would be called "politically incorrect" because we shouldn't laugh at the down trodden, homeless and out of work. One thing that the current defectors don't stop to realize is that these characters brought hope that if we don't give up, we can make it. Oh, something they gave us that is serious lacking today - LAUGHTER AND COMEDY! ~frank
Jimmy Armstrong was my great pal on the Castle show, where we relied on his warning bugle. He was our only little man, and everybody like him. His jackpots were priceless. For a while around there, the local Shriners found it amusing to invite Jimmy into their "hospitality tent" and get him drunk. In his characteristic manner, Castle lit into them, and made them leave Jimmy alone.
Our drummer, Hap, bemoaned travelling with Jimmy. "I'm never gonna hotel it with him again! My phone never stops ringing! It's Jimmy! 'Come put me in the bathtub, I might fall. Come get me out! Come turn on my TV, I can't reach it! This show is shit, come change my channel! Hurry,come take me to the Post Office, I'm late!' I'd rather sleep in the truck. My life is not my own!" But he liked Jimmy, and felt a little special looking out for him.
Jimmy doubled as the show's Mail Man, and wasn't bashful about reminding everyone of his tip at season's end, in Utica. Some of the acts got Jimmy hopping mad, claiming, "Your tip is not in my contract." But everyone paid him, and Jimmy went home to his wife, Margie, in Michigan, with a comfortable winter bankroll.
I don't have Jimmy on film for the Castle show, but seeing him blow his bugle in GSOE, takes me back to yesterday's matinees.
This system isn't allowing me to blow up our photos, and my new glasses aren't ready at Wal-Mart.
Is that well-dressed fellow in the jeep Buddy North?
I blew up the picture until it was too fuzzy to tell who's who, the gentleman in the jeep looks a little thin to be Buddy North, but the person on Emmett's right is Chuck Heston, (Probably wondering who's sitting in HIS jeep!) ~frank
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