Dogma Gone Wild: "Big Love" HBO Soap Opera

Both the TV soap operas “Madmen” and “Big Love” are riveting with common themes and characters -- power greedy buccaneer entrepreneurs who are calculating and manipulative. Both are patriarchal figures. In the foreground of “Big Love” is strict adherence to an impossible behavior code that presents challenging conflicts for the participants. (I have always resisted behavior codes in my own special way).

These series are real American stories -- Madison Avenue and the contemporary Utah religious sect.

“Big Love” was referenced in a recent article in GQ magazine about American religions with the memorable line that "atheists in Manhattan and Southern Baptists in Alabama can agree on one thing: Mormons are crazy.” In the shows I watched there was no disclaimer distinguishing LDS from the FLDS which is a separate sect pursuing polygamy.

The central character Bill in “Big Love,” an aggressive entrepreneur, has several wives simultaneously and therein lies his joy and predicament. This is a cautionary tale for those contemplating multiple marriage arrangements. They have their down side as the series “Big Love” depicts in lurid detail. I concluded that the series prompted the LDS church to air commercials on the TV networks portraying LDS members as "regular citizens" and not monsters.

Bill is caught in the spinning vortex as a result of his actions and those of his wives with different agendas that he can’t control through force of will or by citing his destiny as prescribed by The Prophet. The series with its excellent acting and writing has concluded on HBO but DVDs are available for most seasons.

Memories of Mom, 1914 to 2011

SPOKANE -- A short distance from Mt. Nebo Cemetery in Spokane is Fort George Wright where Mom took me and my sister, Claudia shopping at the Post Exchange in about 1945.
Mom was an Army wife when Dad was drafted, serving with the occupation forces in Japan post World War Two. Dad was not amused and Mom must surely have felt stressed raising two children by herself while we all lived with our grandparents and rented out our house on 29th Avenue. With the post war economy Dad tried to figure out a way to support the family, returning for a short time to a retail sales job that he disliked. Dad’s story is similar to the Dana Andrews character in the movie “The Best Years of Our Lives” in that he wound up in the junk business.
We held graveside services Friday at Mt. Nebo in Spokane for Mom, Gertie Zarkin, 96, who died May 20 in a Seattle convalescent facility.
With Mom I could share my joys and some frustrations, including a byline story in the Idaho Statesman or a photo I took of Lucky Peak Reservoir in winter that I was sure was a masterpiece. I enshrined it in a frame from Grand Central that I refinished and mailed to Mom for Mother’s Day. When Mom and Dad left Spokane she gave me the photo with the card pasted to the back. Now it hangs on my living room wall.
Mom at 96 remembered as a child being on a train from Toronto to Spokane and that the soldiers returning from World War One were courteous and attentive to Mom’s family.
Recently Mom would ask: “Are you keeping busy in retirement?” So I had pleasant conversations with Mom when I visited her in Seattle. She was an avid reader and years ago subscribed to the Readers’s Digest book club. She loaned me her books including Betty Macdonald’s “The Egg and I” when I was in grade school, but she would not let me read “Marjorie Morningstar” or “Peyton Place.”
Mom loved the lake and she is pictured here at Spirit Lake, Idaho, in the late 40s where the local movie house showed “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” which she wouldn’t let us see because scary movies gave us bad dreams. (See post on “Beer Hall Babies”.) Cousins Jan and Stan got to see that movie which my son Mike showed me a couple of years ago. Memories of my Mom.

Spokane's Dark Side: Rex Adult Theater

While some prefer to remember Spokane, WA, for its beautiful parks and lovely churches, I have a 55-year-old memory of the notorious Rex Theater on Riverside Avenue. This was too real to be a dream.
To say that the Rex was a BYOB “girlie show” movie house for gentlemen of dubious distinction is being kind. But to a hormonal 15-year-old the lurid poster advertising burlesque queen Patti Waggin in the feature “Too Hot to Handle” was something I never forgot. Not that I could see the movie because it was adults only and I was working. Then again who was going to negotiate with the imposing cashier, one stout tough looking bleached blonde.
For all I knew the publisher of the Spokesman-Review and local ministers could have been Rex regulars but I imagined it was a cheap place to enjoy a bottle of muscatel and take a nap.
Mom and Dad never took us to skid row so how did I find the Rex of my youth? After classes at Lewis and Clark High School, I delivered drugs for a downtown pharmacy and deliveries took me to west Riverside Avenue where I passed by the Rex Theater and saw the lurid poster with a nearly naked Miss Waggin for ADULTS ONLY.
No one will probably ever admit to the existence of the Rex Theater but me.
I realized that this was not a dream but the Waggin movie really existed. As I opened the pages of the Oldies.com movie catalogue I found the movie of my lost youth under the “exploitation” listings. So 55 years later I realize a youthful dream, I buy the DVD and watch THTH. The Rex was real according to the online document, “Washington State Movie Houses,” with 350 seats open from 1949 -59 at 326 Riverside Avenue. It also operated as the New Rex and the El Ray. I was fortunate to grow up in an era where movie houses had character and were distinctive if not colorful, That era lasted about 30 years as theaters were being torn down in the 50s. and 60s.
The DVD is pristine and features comics Harry Savoy and Mannie King, much like Abbott and Costello but with a lot of nauughtiness. (“I’ve got diabetes and you’ve got a couple of lulmps yourself. I went to a gay 90s party. The men were all gay and the women were in their 90s. I’ve never seen a waitress with such big tips”. Cop: “I’ve been pounding my beat for five years.” Comic: And you look it.”
Vegas has made an attempt to revive burlesque with the Absinthe show.
For more on the Paris sensation Ms. Waggin, go to www.pattiwaggin.com. A book is available, “Fan Letters to a Stripper” by Bob Brill.

Escape to a “Cinema Paradiso” Dream World

Some of us grew up in the pre-televison era of Saturday matinees with theaters filled with screaming kids, so the 1989 Italian somewhat biographical epic “Cinema Paradiso” brings back a lot of wonderful memories. It was a great time to be a kid so here’s a movie about growing up with movies.
I was fortunate enough to attend classes this term on the power of music where fellow students introduced us to the beautiful “Cinema Paradiso” love theme with solos by James Galloway and Chris Botti from this timeless classic by director Giuseppe Tornatore.
You will need to see the movie to fully appreciate the music because it’s a touching coming of age epic, somewhat like Peter Bogdanovich’s “Last Picture” show with attractive young actors. But this is set in post war rural Italy and while it’s reminiscent of Fellini’s biographical "Armacord", “Cinema Paradiso” is more evocative for those of us who are trying to write our life stories.
There’s a good reason why Baltimore’s Little Italy festival annually features “Cinema Paradiso” because it’s a magnet for young lovers. Originally criticized for being overly sentimental, the movie found an international audience in 1990 when it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
“Cinema Paradiso” was restored on DVD to its original full three-hour length and will delight you with everything that makes Italy so hauntingly beautiful.

Betty, Roy Neal, Arthur Godfrey and Me

In her otherwise unremarkable autobiography, “Here We Go Again,” Betty White describes co-hosting coverage of the Rose Bowl Parade (possibly in 1964) with legendary Arthur Godfrey. This was very likely at the time I was working at NBC News as an editorial assistant. White had previously co-hosted coverage of the parade with NBC newsman Roy Neal (space agency reporter). I distinctly recall Neal’s comments in the Burbank newsroom that Godfrey was very difficult or something to that effect. Godfrey could be downright subversive.
White confirms the “challenge” that Godfrey presented for the NBC crew. While the action was on the street, Godfrey was describing off camera nonsense of little interest to most viewers. Although Neal was not involved in that year’s broadcast, he had some role in arrangements involving Godfrey.
Godfrey was his own man and would tweak the nose of his sponsors on CBS, defying people to find any chicken in Lipton chicken noodle soup. Yet advertisers in the 50s made him and CBS radio and TV quite rich, I am sure. By the time he wound up at NBC covering the parade his career was in its twilight.
White’s book shows a photo of her covering the parade with Neal, who was a delightful man and treated me like a human being which is more than I can say of some others at NBC news in 1964. Neal sported a cigarette holder which gave him quite a continental look unlike the other heavy smokers in the windowless NBC newsroom. We never gave a thought to second hand smoke back in the 60s, confined in that converted RCA warehouse.
A couple of years ago I bought a “Life With Elizabeth” DVD which features White’s very early syndicated sitcom that started on LA’s KLAC-TV (now KCOP). It was the usual air head comedy but it was about all we had in the mid 50s on KHQ-TV. Also syndicated on the same channel was Liberace, with whom White enjoyed a “date.” Guess things went well with Betty and Lee, but she never dated any of the stars of Hollywood, Chicago and Texas wresting, all very popular on KHQ and KXLY in the 50s. Gorgeous George and Betty? Nah!
Also working at NBC Burbank were Jack Latham, news anchor, and an African American editorial assistant, whose name escapes me. Both are featured in the AIP movie, "Wild in the Streets," as news anchors. Latham had worked at KHQ in Spokane and was a very thoughtful, kind man. Elmer Peterson and Cecil Brown, both with long radio careers, were commentators on the KNBC nightly broadcasts. We were very old looking in '64. My big moment: When Peter Lorre died in '64 they needed movie footage and I suggested the AIP horror movie, "The Raven," so they sent me to AIP where I picked up a 35mm print of that movie. I had touched ground at nirvana-- American International Pictures. It doesn't get better than that.

Does Anyone Remember Speedy, Beanie, Cecil

It was dejavu all over again this past week on TV with the revival of little Speedy in the Alka Seltzer commercials and TV Pioneers showcased “Time for Beanie”. Does anyone remember these 50s icons?
A lad of 12 I was watching with Dad and sis every weeknight at 6:30pm on KHQ-6 Beanie, Cecil and Tear Along the Dotted Lion. Watching a clip from the show last night on the PBS TV Pioneer show brought back many fond memories of a cheesy kids show that even adults could enjoy thanks to Stan Freeberg’s sly humor (the oy ga vault). Beanie was a kinescope from Los Angeles, where it was hugely popular. Living in the Spokane TV market we missed Soupy Sales, Bozo the Clown and WCCO’s “Axel” or anything of that caliber. We had to settle for the “Salty” show on KXLY early evenings sponsored by Hillyard Furniture. Salty was a low rent puppet show, but what else was there to watch in the 50s?
Seattle’s KOMO had “The Captain Puget Show” in which I played a small part as a public relations assistant in 1962, ushering brats into the peanut gallery to watch the Captain pitch products and show cartoons. I remember one little snot who made a big deal about his father who was an executive at KAYO Radio, one of several Top 40 stations in Seattle. The Captain was a boring, cranky character and a far cry from the antics of WGN’s Bozo or most other kids shows. I believe that KTNT in Tacoma had Brakeman Bill.
The animated character Speedy in the Alka Seltzer commercials was also quite compelling as was cute Willie the Penguin who promised us kids that Kools were really the best smokes. So Speedy is back in HD but I am afraid Willie is but a foggy memory.

We Will Miss Jan Barer Curran, writer, friend

With the yellow fall leaves falling to the ground it is most ironic that news of the death of my cousin Janice reached me this day. I will miss sharing with her. More than a cousin, she was my friend. She was an amazing journalist and storyteller with a great sense of humor. She will be well remembered by many wonderful people in Palm Springs where she has supportive friends and was a reporter with the Sun for many years,
Jan could count among her friends the late President Ford, Sonny Bono, Artie Shaw and the actor Mel Ferrer. The collection of photos in her home of fabulous people she knew in her Palm Springs life is fresh in my memory.
I enjoyed my short time with Jan. Just recently we exchanged e-mails on Hollywood actors she knew based on autobiographies I sent her. She was a source for a biography on Bob Hope that a writer was researching when I visited her in 2005 in Palm Springs where we saw a performance by 40s era swing singer Beryl Davis who was a good friend of Jan’s.
More than that Jan was a caring mom and supportive of her wonderfully creative children. She made sure that I had copies of all the books written by her and her children. I recently wrote a review posted on the internet and led a discussion on her last book, “Active Senior Living”, for a senior group in Minnesota. I shared the book with her Auntie Gertie, my 96-year-old mom, who said she enjoyed Jan’s book.
Jan was a fighter and an inspiration. We grew up together in Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle, having fun times at Loon Lake, Spirit Lake, Diamond Lake and Walla Walla, and she was a gracious host and supportive when I lived in Northern California in the 60s. I have many fond memories of cousin Jan.

War Heroes Unwelcome In Two Films

Returning war heroes are met with indifference, disrespect and hostility in two Hollywood movies, one from 1946, “The Best Years of Our LIves,” and more recently -- “Home of the Brave”.
In “Best Years,” they work menial jobs before the war but in conflict they are given heavy responsibilities to carry out missions that lead to victory in Word War II. How incredibly grim to return home to that menial job or to be unemployed with no direction to the future. At least in war, they were defeating evil regimes and enjoying buddy camaraderie.
Some returning veterans, like my Uncle Sam Zarkin, used the GI Bill to get a college education and pursued a career in business management. Returning with the occupation troops in what was left of Japan, my father, Phil Zarkin, became a scrap metal junk dealer much like the hero aviator Fred (played by Dana Andrews), in “Best Years”. The similarities are daunting between fiction and real life.
In 1946 when “Best Years” was released it was quite topical with soldiers and sailors having been wrenched from their families and now finding themselves in a strange world where they needed to reinvent themselves to survive. Imagine their anger and frustration upon realizing that the best years of your life may be wasting away.
I don’t know if my dad, somewhat of an isolationist when it came to wars, was proud of his work in Japan with the occupation forces as a telephone lineman, but he should have been because he helped desperate people build a future for themselves from the rubble of a horrendous war. Incredibly uncanny is the fact that the soldiers and sailors in “Home of the Brave” return from Iraq to Spokane, Wash. So it was with my dad who came back to Spokane and how incredibly stressful it must have been for him working in low paying retail sales before he found his future in the junk business.
Both movies touch on the nightmares of shell shock or post traumatic stress syndrome. In “Best Years,” one character advises her husband to “forget the war --- put it behind you”. But how can you ever forget the horrors of war?

Idahoans Duane, Nancy Visit Twin Cities

Brave warriors of global travel, Duane and Nancy Mitchell, arrived form Caldwell, ID this week. Duane and I lived in Mrs. Cook’s boarding house in Boise in the mid to late 60s. I left for college and he married Nancy a month later so they will be celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary in early October.
They recall that we went bowling and played tennis. Also we went for an evening swim at nearby Lucky Peak reservoir. The Mitchells are to be commended for not forgetting Mrs. Cook when they visited her in a senior residence some years ago.
Through the years they have reached out to others including exchange students from around the world who have stayed in their home in Caldwell, a short distance from Nampa and Boise. Somewhat of a bond with the Mexican student Oscar must have developed because the Mitchells visited Oscar’s family in Guadalajara in 1998.
Highlights of the Twin Cities brief tour included the Cathedral at St. Paul and Underwater World at the Mall of America. On their own they walked downtown to Walgreen’s where they bought post cards and made new friends amongst the homeless who gather at the nearby vacant RKO Orpheum Theater. (Unlike Boise where the Egyptian Theater has been restored to its mystic glory).
They brought a copy of the Idaho Free press which told of a pro-marijuana demonstration at the State Capitol in Boise. Also, there are preliminary plans to build a rail line connecting Nampa and Boise. I am sure that the BoiseGuardian.com is all over that story which is interesting that in a Republican state public officials are chasing federal dollars to improve transportation. I guess the taxpayer revolt is much over blown.
Duane adds that highways are being enlarged to accommodate growing traffic problems and of course this involves more public expenditures. I may yet visit the Treasure Valley again.

Book Review: “The Murdered Family” by Vernon Keel

Miscarriage of justice carried out by devious cops on the North Dakota prairie is the compelling focus of Vernon Keel’s novel “The Murdered Family”.
Well researched and suspenseful with insightful detail, this book is based on a true crime -- the 1920 murders of the Wolf family and their hired hand on their farm near Turtle Lake. It’s a novel since the last two chapters are drama based on speculation about the murderers from facts gathered by Keel, a mass communications research scholar, journalism educator and reporter.
More than another “In Cold Blood,” the author provides a pre-Depression snapshot of the harsh and bewildering lives of German Russian immigrants to the North Dakota prairie. The man convicted of the brutal killings, Henry Layer, was ill equipped to match wits with a cunning Bismarck police chief, his hired thugs and conniving politicians. (Keel doesn’t say this but I am convinced ot this having read the book).
The role of the news media as a social institution is a sidebar where regional and local newspapers are important in a community where information is otherwise dispersed through word of mouth or via the local telephone operator. In one case, the Bismarck news reporter takes dictation from the angry police chief without questioning his statements, yet the Bismarck Tribune plays an important role in reporting the story.
The premise of the prosecution was that Layer killed the Wolfs over a dispute about his cattle grazing on the Wolf farm. It’s entirely plausible that tempers could flare over such an event. I recall at least one rural crime in southern Idaho over water from an irrigation ditch when I was a reporter for the Idaho Statesman.
(Vernon Keel was my supervisor when I was a graduate student in Agricultural Journalism at the University of Minnesota in 1969-70 and helped me navigate my way through graduate school).

"Active Senior Living" by Jan Curran - excellent

"Active Senior Living “, a shopworn marketing phrase, is also the title of a new book by Jan Curran, a resident of a California senior apartment complex and a former reporter and columnist for the Contra Costa Times and The Desert Sun in Palm Springs where she hobnobbed with retired movie stars and politicians.
In this ‘fictionalized memoir” Curran describes realistic dilemmas facing seniors who courageously try to live independently and avoid moving into “assisted living,” which may be the new name for nursing homes. In the independent living building, a nurse regularly evaluates present and prospective residents to determine if they are healthy enough to live independently and if they aren’t they need to make other arrangements. The corporation that owns the independent living building also operates a nearby assisted living facility, but assisted living expenses are out of the reach for some seniors trying to live independently.
Rather than being overwhelmed by these momentous decisions, residents band together to offer emotional support to each other -- a shoulder to lean on in tough times. “Life at the Inn is full to the brim with bountiful friends who just happened to be priceless octogenarians,” said Curran who was a 60 something “youngster” when she moved there from the desert.
Rather than an expose or sob stories about senior citizens being exploited, “Active Senior Living” is a testament that people like Curran with low expectations about senior living arrangements can open themselves to new friendships, share memories and experience life with renewed vigor. “Ages blur and friends become family,” she writes.
Curran’s innate reporting skills and her empathy for others come through as she gently probes and intervenes to help others who face overwhelming mental and physical challenges.
The book is somewhat reminiscent of the Betty Macdonald novels of the 1940s -- “The Egg and I” and “The Plague and I,” where humor is found in living on an island chicken farm and recovering from tuberculosis. Rather than “Ma and Pa Kettle,” Curran encounters 90-something would-be Romeos (with or without Viagra) aggressively seeking her companionship. Compassionate rather than mean-spirited is her approach to the 300-pound matron in the shocking pink K-Mart sweat suit and the 90-year-old widow with extensive cosmetic surgery who looks 55.
(Jan Curran, a vivacious socialite and newspaper reporter, reluctantly movies into an active senior living comples (the Inn) to recuperate from cancer. She tackles the surprises and challenges of her new life with warmth wit and courage, meeting a colorful cast of unforgettable charcters in an often hilarious and yet profoundly moving story of friendship and hope.
Curran is an award wining journalism and former columnist for the Contra Cost Times and The Desert Sun. She’s also been a fashion model, a realtor, a publicist and co-author of the book The Statue of Liberty is Cracking Up. She is retired and living in Southern California.
Jan says: I'm an award winning journalist, never took a class in writing! Been writing since I was a kid.  Send me any questions you want answered.
The book is doing so well on Amazon for the Kindle it is just amazing. I have 16 5 star reviews up there now! And getting all sorts of emails from fans asking for a sequel. There are now 94 fans of the book on a Facebook fan page , so that is amazing, too.

Yes, Boise Was My Dead Horse But I love It Now

It was the 60s, a revolution and a war were underway, and I was stuck in Boise, Idaho, capital of famous potatoes.
I was quite proactive in getting off the dead horse I was riding in Boise for 4 years when I contacted universities and applied to graduate schools in 1969. By September 69 I left my own private Idaho where I was a reporter for the Idaho Statesman.
But it was my coworker, Ralph Nichols, who suggested I go to graduate school, because that’s what he had dreamed of but never accomplished. Maybe that was his way of telling me to get out of town. So with a clear goal in mind I was able to endure the craziness of my supervisor Jim Golden, the city editor. It wasn’t long before I would take the graduate entrance exam at the College of Idaho in Caldwell with an upset stomach.
My Statesman job was not always a dead horse; in fact I had researched and written comprehensive reports on pollution, urban renewal, city planning and zoning as local government reporter. What more was there to do having written the story on Hot Cha Hinton the 300 pound go go girl (that was Betty Penson’s assignment, not my idea). It was the 60s.
I look back wistfully at my Idaho years but I was isolated, lonely and I had virtually lost my close friend Ralph when he married and moved to nearby Nampa. Quoting a line from the movie The Graduate, I told Ralph I was drifting. I had no social life although I beat that dead horse to death, dating women who really didn’t interest me. I was inching loser to 30.
I was to be in a major metropolitan area with a large Jewish community, a decent university and a host of urban issues. It was Los Angeles or Minneapolis and having lived n LA for two years I knew I didn’t want to do that again. With my undergraduate dubious scholastic achievements, I was lucky to get into grad school.
In Boise I was living in Mrs. Cook’s boarding house with four other young men and her grandchildren. For about 13 years, I had very limited access to a TV set I could call my own. Mrs. Cook’s daughter in law when born again and made vain efforts to convert me to Christianity when she would visit from Mt. Home. When the Ladies Circle would meet at Mrs. Cook’s house I would disappear which wasn’t easy when I was working nights and trying to entertain myself during the day.
As Fagan told the boys in Oliver, I needed a change of scenery. In September of 69 I packed my Magnavox radio and my typewriter into my Plymouth Satellite and headed east. Farewell Boise.

Beach Blanket Bingo Film Here in '65

MALIBU -- At a beach near Malibu named after actor Leo Carrillo (Poncho on The Cisco Kid TV show) I am tracing the foot steps of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funichello who filmed the classic, “Beach Blanket Bingo” 44 years ago for American International Pictures (AIP) here.
Visible in he background is the rock where an aged Buster Keaton (or his stunt double) fished in the movie. “Sink your toes in the sand and get ready to rock and roll” with Frankie and Annette is the hype that an AIP publicist wrote but as you can see there wasn’t much barefoot action here on this December day with temperatures in the 50s.
I was living in Glendale when AIP made history with the beach movies but I might as well have been in Bangladesh for all I knew about surfing and the Beach Boys then. In recent years as I try to cope with Minnesota winters I have been drawn to anything that relieves the winter blues including beach movies. The movie is full of “fun, frolic and song” with Don Rickles, Harvey Lembeck, handsome John Ashley, Paul Lynde and a very young LInda Evans included in the star studded cast.
As luck would have it, Angelinos this day were experiencing what a Barbie doll reporter on KTLA cooed was “bitter cold” which translates to a low of 40 or a summer day in Minneapolis. Hearty Southlanders testified on Channel 5 regarding their brave efforts to stem the threat of frostbite which included firing up all appliances that emit heat.
Later I was on the patio at our Mailbu beach motel collecting my thoughts when a fellow traveler joined me, barely visible through a thick cloud of cigarette smoke with his portable radio blaring gospel music. All this was jarring my serenity until I learned that I was in the company of an erstwhile Hollywood screenwriter recently transplanted from England who was fairly confident about his chances to break into the movies or TV at the very least. Hope springs eternal.
So it was no surprise that when we stayed a night at the LAX Marriott no less than the frenzied followers of sci fi and horror had gathered to commune about their mutual obsessions at “LosCom”. I was invited to join the festivities. I repeatedly asked the attendees of all ages dressed as characters in a Hammer gothic horror movie if they were professional writers. Not a writer in the crowd but many I suspect have turned the pages of a few comic books. To be charitable, this event looked like a lot of fun with the Horror Film Festival featuring such luminaries such as Patrick Kilpatrick and possibly Sean Young who star in “Parasomnia” -- a cinematic effort about a psychic serial killer who invades the mind of a distressed damsel. Hasn’t this been done?
For those who worship at the altar of bad movies, this must be the place. I plan to return soon.

Spirit Lake's Fireside Lodge in '48 Recalled

Mom, who is 95 years young, remembers summers at Spirit Lake Idaho and Fireside Lodge in 1948.
Fireside Lodge was probably at Settllemeyers resort on Spirit Lake and was basically a beer hall in 1948. I have fond memories of that time, going with my cousins to the beer hall on the resort and playing music on the jukebox. Later my Aunt Dora (shown in downtown Spirit Lake) and family stayed at nearby Conklin's resort which had a convenience "grocery" store where we shopped. We could walk between the two resorts and there was a burnt out cabin along the path which was quite spooky for little kids.
The July 4 hydroplane races were a huge event at the Lake and we watched. This attracted a lot of out of town beer drinkers as I recall. I stepped on a broken beer bottle in the lake and had to be taken to town where the doctor stitched me up and gave me a tetanus shot. Still have the scar on my foot.
We would go to the downtown movie theater (Auntie Dora standing in front of theater) where they showed "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" which Mom wouldn't let us see. The theater was quite primitive with folding chairs instead of theater seats. But that was before TV in post war times. There was a cafe in t own and no doubt a grocery store.
Spirit Lake is a short distance from Twin Lakes where we went by school bus for swimming lessons. Twin Lakes was more swimmer friendly with sandy beaches and a very gradual drop off.

Oh Canada: Niagra Falls Plus Health Care

Richard Halliburton wrote about Niagara Falls in his book about the seven wonders of the world. I got that book for my bar mitzvah and now 56 years later I am up close and personal with Niagara. Here I was with the Prime Timers convention last Saturday. Other trip highlights were the gothic castle Casa Loma. Equally fascinating was the photos of Alex Trebeck and Lorne Michaels at the CBC broacast museum when they were much younger. Several current CBC series look interesting but unfortunately not available on Netflix, like “Little Mosque on the Prairie”.
Neil Diamond when he was in his 20s was revisited by a young performer at the convention and this was exciting. I also enjoyed touring the many ethnic neighborhoods in cosmopolitan Toronto.
Under 65, Canadians have $2 copay for prescriptions; over 65 no copay. Oh Canada!

Leaving Idaho September 40 years ago

It was 40 years ago this month that I left the beautiful snow capped mountains of Southern Idaho for the flat, flat, flat prairies of Minnesota in my ‘67 Plymouth Satellite loaded with all I owned in the world. That would have included a Magnavox portable radio, Smith Corona typewriter and a rather meager collection of clothing.
As someone remarked this summer: “You are a Minnesotan.” I resemble that remark but I cling to the fiction that I am an Idahoan, born in Spokane, scant minutes from the Idaho border where the men are men and you know the rest. Famous for their libertarian notions, Northern Idaho is a far cry from the more straight laced Mormon dominated Boise where I was a boy reporter for the Idaho Daily Statesman, a Federated Newspaper, for four years, Local option gambling was popular in Northern Idaho.
I had exhausted my possibilities in Boise, having won a national award for my reporting on air and water pollution. I was a member of the Capitol Jaycees, a post frat drinking society, where I produced a slide presentation with audio on pollution that I showed to community groups. (Lon Dunne at KIDO NBC Radio did the audio track). By the time I reached the four year mark I was researching a story on pop culture , interviewing the program director at KFXD Radio, which boasted a Sunday night underground rock extravaganza. I can’t believe that Jim Golden, the assignment editor, gave me time to do this. Nothing came of that story.
I was massively bored by this time and when my friend at the Statesman Ralph Nichols suggested I get a master’s degree I jumped on that, researching universities and getting valuable insight from Gene Byrd, a Marquette University journalism professor who later transferred to the University of Minnesota to initiate a urban affairs emphasis in the School of Journalism. Byrd soon ran into a brick wall and left for the University of Texas. It was clear that the U of M faculty disdained anything as faddish as urban affairs journalism. So that was my first mistake.
It was a gorgeous sunny fall day when I drove into Minneapolis on Highway 12 with AM radio tuned to KUOM where they announced a seminar on the Urban River at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, sponsored by the University. I had a wonderful supportive supervisor, Vern Keel, at the Agricultural Journalism Department where I worked as a graduate assistant. So Vern got the University to pay my way to the Urban River seminar where I floated down the grossly polluted Mississippi with Star columnist Barbara Flanagan and other community do-gooders. It was a super introduction to Minneapolis.
So as Jim Gilligan of the Statesman observed: I had “returned to the womb” at the glorious U of M, a graduate student in journalism taking inter-displinary classes related to urban and regional affairs. I was the right guy for Agricultural Journalism because economist John Hoyt was heading an initiative on regional development, a controversial issue supported by Gov. Harold Lavander, a moderate Republican unlike the strident ideologue Republican who now holds the office. My student days at the University were all I dreamed they would be and after graduation I was hired by the U, based on my great efforts as a graduate student.
Bottom line: It’s better to be a student at the U than faculty where you bump up against petty egos, back-stabbing and other drama. In 1981 I returned to the University staff at KUOM radio for a one-year temporary dreamy job as an assistant producer on a radio documentary series on psychology with Vickie Lofquist. I cherish those memories of KUOM where I used broadcast tools I learned at the University of Washington.

Jack Malone Reunion, Spokane News

I recently wrote my grade school, high school and college buddy Jack Malone of Spokane and now Longview, Wash. for making the a mini-reunion last week in Seattle great and we need to do this again before another 50 years slip by. The fact that he could remember the names of all those Roosevelt teachers is remarkable. The aging Southern Belle spinster Lou Eckhardt was my favorite in third grade and she abandoned us for a mink coat, Cadillac and diamond ring to marry a decrepit former governor named Martin. Never forgave her.
Jack recalled that his family was one of the first to get TV in 1952 since his dad owned a hardware store. It was an Emerson and like most kids at that time he watched the test pattern on KHQ with easy listening music providing audio. On the other hand our family may have been the last to get TV and it was an Arvin (Google that one). Jack’s brother, Jerry, who lives in the family’s Spokane Wall St. home, is planning a Roosevelt Grade School reunion, although the school was torn down and replaced with an ugly modern building.
I hoped that his daughter Jennilee wasn’t too bored with our tripping down memory lane but she is a treasure with her super electronic devices, like the GPS that talks to her from the heavens. How creepy is that but it sure eases travel anxiety. It’s a given that young people are on the cutting edge of everything electronic. On the other hand Jack doesn't do computers or DVDs. I can’t use an IPOD, detest my cell phone and still have a turntable and LPs that I bought in Spokane at the Music Box or the Crescent in the 50s.
In the 80s after Mt. St. Helen’s erupted, Jack produced and was a creative force behind an LP that paid tribute to Harry Truman who did not leave home during this catastrophe. I can identify with that because moving is way too much of a hassle -- bring on the flood or hot lava. I have played his wonderful LP and the music is reminiscent of Garrison Keilor’s show. I have framed the album and it is now on my living room wall.
Former Spokanites will be happy to know that the historic State Theater is being restored and renamed the “Bing” after Spokane’s favorite son, Bing Crosby. Twin Cities film archivist and historian Bob DeFlores is my authority on this and Bob is helping Gonzaga University with its Crosby collection and will be on hand for the State’s grand reopening.

50 Year Perspective: High School Was Fun

After 50 years, I finally came to terms with my hometown, Spokane, and my teen years. In the 50s, I thought it was life in hell. Reading the Lewis and Clark High School “Tiger Tales,” the 50-year reunion book, I came to the realization that I had friends and fun at LCHS for the first time in my life. I dithered over the trip to Spokane for the reunion but decided against it. I wrote the best biography in the reunion publication. It would have cheered my freshman English teacher Mrs. Watrous who probably thought I was an idiot when I showed up late on the first day of class (lost in the hallway).

Here’s the names that jumped out at me as I became totally consumed by the book:

Judy Eash, who along with her sister Margy, lived across the street from the Zarkins on 29th Street. Her grandmother, Mrs. Koss, was our baby sitter and we looked forward to her visits because she would always leave candy for us. Judy’s mother hosted a Halloween party one year for the neighborhood kids which was the only time I ever bobbed for apples. Quite messy but a Halloween tradition in the 40s and 50s.

Jack Malone, who listed his complete work history, was a Roosevelt grade school buddy and the most wonderful kid on the planet, at least I thought. I once went to his house. He writes poetry now and he apparently played the piano at one time. I recall running into Jack at the University of Washington where he was involved in the College Republicans. Aging comic actress Zsa Zsu Pitts gave a rather uninspiring endorsement for Tricky Dick at this event.
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Trini Lopez, Me Party in Palm Springs in '05

It's been almost three years since my trip to La Quinta to visit cousin Jan but I need to thank her again for inviting me to Ruth Gibson's 85th birthday party where 60s pop star Trini Lopez sang "Besame Mucho" and Jan took our photo.

Ruth, like all the other matrons in Palm Springs looked great and no doubt avail themselves of some nips, tucks here and there. Save your pension checks for Palm Springs retirement.

Interest in River Rewarded

Beautification of the urban landscape was a goal of the Johnson Administration when I was a local government reporter at the Idaho Statesman in Boise in 1964-69. As an eager boy reporter I was quite committed to the cause and reported extensively on urban renewal and plans for a Boise River Greenway that came to pass years later. It’s beautiful unless the river floods and then it’s every man for himself. A year ago my former Statesman reporter comrade Dave Frazier took me to the river interpretive center that provides an educational experience on rivers.

As I drove into Minneapolis from Boise in 1969 on my way to UM Graduate School, I heard on the car radio tuned to KUOM that the University was offering an Urban River symposium at he Minneapolis Art Institute. During the symposium we took a boat trip on the mighty Mississippi where we witnessed the sad state of affairs including junk yards and other blight,

The river over a period of years has become a crown jewel in our Twin Cities landscape as you can see from the photo above with the new park at St. Anthony Main that actually extends into the river and offers a breath taking panorama of this magnificent body of water, On the south side near the Guthrie Theater, a beautiful green park is the latest addition to the river renewal story.

With the river drives in both cities that extend from the University campus to the Ford plant in St. Paul you could get close to the river. Now that Ford is coming apart, the land will probably be marketed for high buck condominiums overlooking the river.

Sadly access to the river is difficult since it is many treacherous feet below street level. That didn’t stop a group of us from hiking to the river’s edge every year for a summer solstice late night gathering. With the new parks in downtown Minneapolis, the river is now quite accessible.