Live Internet Television

“The trail may be cold, but the stories are hot!”

By ivi blog Guest Contributor Dr. Rob Moore

Part 3 of a series of two 3 posts.
This is the last in a series of three articles (see numbers one and two) that speak of happenings at the Garden of Allah, a hotel situated on the then outskirts of Hollywood at the far end of Sunset Boulevard. The original Garden of Alla (without the ending “h,” was built in the 1920’s as  home to Alla Nazimova at the height of her silent film career.

After Nazimova’s career began to fade, she converted her home to a hotel by adding 25 bungalows on the property, and renovating the main house with a bar and restaurant, which, in turn, became a sort of social vortex for the film colony.

The Garden was residence to many of cinema’s most interesting personalities (acting, writing and producing) during the 1930s and 1940s, at times when  stars-to-be were just beginning their careers (Jackie Gleason, Errol Flynn) or when their  personal lives needed airing (Humphrey Bogart, Robert Benchley). The Garden was also a favorite for artists on sabbatical or retreat from the New York stage or for those simply trying their hand at “something”  Hollywood. For example, literary giants like Faulkner and Fitzgerald were to be found often at the restaurant or bar, the latter being the better bet.

Viewing the Garden of Allah as the historical stage it indeed was, in this piece, we are entertained by three random, true stories acted out by the glitterati, scenes that became part of the Garden of Allah’s rich legacy.

Scene one…

opens upon David Niven, Errol Flynn, and writer, Bill Lipscomb, lounging around the large Black Sea shaped swimming pool which serves as the central out-of-doors community gathering location at the Garden.

None of these gentlemen at this juncture in their careers earns the monthly $200-$400 needed to rent one of the Garden’s bungalows. Therefore, they are combining their resources, bunking together in one of the smaller units.

On this day, the total cash available to the three, reserved in preparation for the Garden bar’s Happy Hour, is seventeen dollars.  Other than that, the trio are reputedly without funds, better known in less refined circles as busted.

(Note: The Garden’s Happy Hour was actually several hours. The later patrons showed up, the more expensive drinks became. For example, at 4 o’clock PM, drinks cost 40 cents each. As of 5 PM, the prices were adjusted to 50 cents apiece. At 6 PM, 60 cents, and so on.  Therefore, Niven, Flynn and Lipscomb were feverishly watching their time pieces, all three desiring to enter the Garden bar no later than 4:01 PM. The current time on this day is 3:30 PM.)

There are many versions of what happened next. However, the favorite is the story as told by David Niven.

“Errol, Bill and I were sitting around the pool. The pool phone rang at 3:30.  It was Errol’s agent informing him he had been cast as lead in a film to be called Captain Blood. (As we will recall, Captain Blood was the film that launched Errol to stardom.)

After the conversation was completed, and Flynn told us the good news, we all congratulated Errol, and then continued absorbing the Southern California sun.

Ten minutes later, twenty minutes to Happy Hour, the phone rang again. This time it was Lipscomb’s agent, announcing that Bill had been selected to write the script for Clive of India, a major professional coup for Bill. Again, a round of congratulations.

As if on cue, at 3:55, just five minutes before we were going to head toward the Garden bar, the phone rang yet again.

This time, it was my agent.

I listened attentively, nodding and hmming into the mouthpiece.

When I placed the receiver back on its cradle, Errol and Bill could barely contain themselves, both shouting in unison, “Well, Well?”

I informed the two men that my agent had landed me a part in Barbary Coast for Goldwyn. In Barbary Coast, my principal duty was to allow myself to be thrown from a moving train.” Read the rest of this entry »

I was just recalling a time when I was working on a contract at Microsoft and happened to mention how annoying it was that the Microsoft Outlook email program doesn’t let you select “Reply All” to an email message AFTER you’ve already selected “Reply.” You have to cancel the reply message and start all over again, selecting “Reply All.”

The Program Manager I was talking to expressed disbelief that ANY email program could let you chnage your mind and select the “Reply All” option after starting a reply — and, awkwardly, I had to tell him that in fact I do it all the time with Mac’s Mail program.

It’s a little embarrassing to admit that I almost NEVER remember to hit “Reply All” when replying to a message until I’ve already started the reply…but, that’s why I just love Mac Mail.

I have always thought it was weird that when you open a new browsing tab in Internet Explorer, you get told you’ve opened a new tab (up through IE7) or a full set of instructions about what you might want to do…as if you didn’t open the new tab for a reason you’re aware of.

I have always preferred Firefox, which just opens a new Tab on Command+T (Mac) or Control+T (PC) and lets you do with it what you will.

Now, Firefox has made opening a new Tab easier by adding a [+} tab along the top, kind-of like the IE blank tab…but, by adding a + to it, it’s now obvious what the Tab is for, and it’s a small but very smart change.

“The trail may be cold, but the stories are hot!”

I never anticipated that I’d have anything to add to Dr. Moore’s amazing  “True Tales” celebrity gossip series on this blog, but his last post affected me a lot and I found a resonance with this piece by Tom Gregory about the actor Thom Bierdz — who recently returned to The Young and the Restless.

Thom Bierdz has been able to overcome his tragedy and become an accomplished painter and an inspiration, so it’s a little sunnier!

“The trail may be cold, but the stories are hot!”

By ivi blog Guest Contributor Dr. Rob Moore

Most people who knew Charles Boyer and his wife, Pat, an accomplished actress in her own right, thought of them as a steady, happy couple.

Charles was of the quiet, distinguished sort, typical of a man who until the age of nineteen had spent every day of his life  in the conservative, picturesque, out-of-the-way village of Figeac in southwestern France.  Figeac’s people are agrarian even today, focusing their lives on the production of pate and entertaining tourists who come to view the quiet countryside as well as the 13th-century Benedictine abbey at the center of  the community.

Once he left Figeac, Charles’ only vice seems to have been gambling. He once confided in Ed Sullivan that he was always behind in his financial obligations in Europe because of his, Boyer’s, inability to resist the temptations presented by casinos in the large cities. When in the United States, Charles was a frequent visitor of  Las Vegas. Fortunately, Charles’ substantial fortune finally and magnificently outdistanced his ability to lose large sums in this way.

In contrast to her husband’s silent sobriety, even when he was surrounded by a tumultuous casino, Pat was prone to hearty laughter, possessing a sort of bubbly sense of delight as life’s surprises, no matter how small, presented themselves.

From the moment in 1920 when Charles was offered a leading part in the revised popular stage play, Les Jardin des Murcie (a part he had to memorize in less than twelve hours while being fitted for wardrobe, because of the sudden incapacity of the leading actor who collapsed on stage during the final rehearsal), Boyer was on his way to the peak of international stardom in live theater, cinema and television.

During their prime in the 30s through the 50s, Charles and Pat, discussing everything as an effective theatrical and business team, seemed to turn all they touched into box office diamonds.

Those born before the golden age of television remember when the local movie theater was at the heart of even small communities. Read the rest of this entry »