June 6, 2009
Anna Maria Luisa Italiano
Brooks.
Her time on earth was a brilliant success and a blessing to everyone she
touched.
Thank you for
the humor, the grace and the intelligence, Annie.
You are missed.
According to this link: in Betty White's autobiography, In Person, she describes the Pictionary parties she and her husband would go to at Carol Burnett's house. They would set up a big board and separate into two teams. Her teammates included James Stewart, Anne Bancroft, Mel Brooks, Harvey Korman, Rock Hudson, and George Burns.
Can you imagine?
One of the best tributes to Anne 'n Mel that I've read in quite some time! (Here.)
It must be tough for an author who is successful in her own right to share Anne's name:
"First it's Shirley MacLaine, now Anne Bancroft. Who next?!" an editor of the Yoga Journal once exclaimed to us. She did not realize that she was actually talking about Deb's mom, who is the author of a bunch of books, including Women in Search of the Sacred and Modern Mystics and Sages. She also shares the same name as the legendary actress: Anne Bancroft. As a result there have been many amusing moments of mistaken identity, such as the time she was invited to give a talk in London and when she arrived there was a mass of paparazzi waiting for... the other Anne Bancroft.
The best moment was when a magazine asked if she would write an article based on her book about Zen. She sent them the article and thought no more about it. But when the magazine was published, the article -- Zen, Direct Pointing to Reality -- was illustrated with photographs of the other Anne Bancroft taken from her movie The Graduate, frantically smoking a cigarette and looking anything but Zen-like.
Deb's mom has a remarkably ego-less attitude to all this. She is not concerned in the slightest that people think she is the Anne Bancroft, or that they give the credit for her books to the other more famous one. She does not need to identify herself as an author, or to think of herself as anything special, as she is genuinely content with herself.
more
Anyone who appreciates Fatso is a friend of mine. Great piece to read here! Thanks, Anthony & Rusty.
Arthur Penn -- an exquisite interview, and he certainly has some salty comments about the movie version of Two For The Seesaw! (Link.)
Another nice little piece recognizing A&M here.
From Anna:
I was just watching Jeopardy, and she was an answer in Double Jeopardy today! I remembered you had Jeopardy clues related to her up on the site elsewhere. The category was something along the lines of "Stars of Stage and Screen" and all the answers were actors who had played the same roles both on Broadway and in the movie version of the show. Her clue was "Annie Sullivan: The Miracle Worker."
I have become aware of the presentation of the inaugural Anne Bancroft Memorial Memoir Writing Award at last year's Stony Brook Southampton Writers Conference (link). The recipient was Carol O’Malley Gaunt, the author of “Hungry Hill,” a memoir about her struggles as a teenager coping with the death of her mother and her father’s alcoholism.
If you have any further information about this award, please share it with us. Here is a link to this year's upcoming conference.
Have I mentioned lately that I am such a big fan of The Hindenburg? Shire's music is amazing. I'm always secretly hoping that this time, Ritter will figure out how the bomb works. My son and I DVR'd the movie last month and have watched it a several times lately. He and my husband downloaded the Hindenburg to fly in their Microsoft Flight Simulator! My husband tells me that flying a dirigible is quite a feat, even when the controls have been adjusted for the solo flyer, and he had a great deal of difficulty at first getting it into the air at Lakehurst. My son, of course, enjoyed crashing the Hindenburg into Big Ben across the pond!
If you enjoy the movie, and the history, as much as I do, the best Hindenburg site I've come across yet is this one. It details the story of every passenger on the flight that day, and I'm reading through every single one.
Housekeeping note to my regular visitors: I'm sure you've noticed how quiet things have been at the site lately. The fact is, my family is a General Motors family, and things are slightly chaotic at the moment, to say the least. When things are chaotic, your hobbies become low on the list of priorities, unfortunately. I'm doing all that I can to keep this site going, and will strive to update it as often as I possibly can. Thank you for your patience and continued support of the site!
March 4, 2009
Fannes supporting fannes: if you are able to attend this fun and amazing exhibition in Los Angeles which opens on March 14th, you simply must track down Paul, he is a fannetastic fanne and supporter of this website, not to mention an incredible artist!
"Paul Evans contributes a series of drawings and paintings that mine the mysterious and refer to the numinous in a flat, dead-pan style."
Yes, Paul, Anne would definitely appreciate your work, I have no doubt!
Too wonderful: this excellent blog has a page all about Password that you've just gotta read. The comments at the bottom are fun to read, as well. Two great pics:
screen caps courtesy of James at lileks.com
screen caps courtesy of James at lileks.com
Explore his site, there's so much to enjoy. I've been a fan of his regrettable food book for quite some time.
Interesting clip about AB in The Graduate here.
Link here to an EXTREMELY good blog piece about Annie that is a must-read. This was sent in to me by many of you before my AB news alerts notified me of its existence, so thank you! I love it when you guys beat my news alerts. For awhile, I thought I had already posted it. That's the trouble with the site getting so large -- I'm starting to lose track of what has been posted and what has not. But isn't that a lovely problem to have when it comes to information about and pictures of Anne B.??
Anyway, this blog piece was created last August and I am sorry it took me so long to get it over here. The section about the backwards cigarette smoke in The Pumpkin Eater is priceless -- the writer expresses beautifully something with which I've been impressed for years.
Visit and leave him some comments!
Found this little item at Gawkster Stalkster, from August 2003:
Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks using a cart buying produce and candy at Schmidt's Produce, North Sea Road, Southampton. Mel wearing FDNY shirt, orange EH [East Hampton] hat (not trucker), and those SUPER-LARGE south Florida black sunglasses that go over regular glasses. wow. Joking about melons and thanking the owner for getting his favorite chocolate bar.
