The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Lee Marvin February 19, 1924 – August 29, 1987
Between The Comancheros and Cat Ballou (Oscar), Marvin continued his meteoric climb to the Hollywood heights with perhaps his most famous role as Liberty Valence in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Many will agree that Lees viscous performance easily upstages Hollywood greats John Wayne and James Stewart – and perhaps establishing an iconic benchmark for Western villainy. YET, on the official poster (below) we still see Marvin billed a distant 4th behind Stewart (billed first over Wayne?), Wayne, and Vera Miles – with no notable image of Marvin – even though his character (Valance) is in the movies title !!! I’ll never figure out Hollywood marketing.
Look for another future Western Badguy superstar (yet to emerge)
Lee (Van Cleef) as one of Marvin’s henchmen.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance Valance – Official PosterThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
(Above) That’s Lee at the bottom … I guess
The stage to Hollywood?LeeMaking a point …Making a stronger pointI demand a recountBad I tell ya.Badguys at Breakfast – Van Cleef, Strother Martin, MarvinTHE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE – John Wayne
Love him or hate him, you’d really have to search for a long time to find a lousy picture of John Wayne. This guy was charisma personified.
James StewartWoody Strode and WayneThree great Western Film icons- Stewart, Ford, Wayne
I can’t say where the The Man from Laramiewould place on most
Western fan lists, but because of the impact it had on me I place it high.
It is a good Western and I would guess that most Western fans
would watch it more than once. Would I call it a Classic?
Yeah … I think I would.
Official Trailer:
Ineternet Movie Database sez “7.3” outta 10.“100 %!!! Viewers agree with me. It’s Classic!
James Stewart stated that of all the westerns he made this one was his personal favorite. – IMDB Trivia
James Stewart and Anthony Mann collaborated on five Westerns: Winchester ’73 (1950), Bend of the River (1952). The Naked Spur (1953). The Far Country (1954), and The Man from Laramie (1955).
Dragged through the campire.
A scene you’d only want to shoot once.
And some images from this Movie were so powerful to me then
that they’ve stuck in my conciousness all these years:
The scene where James is roped by the badguys
and dragged through the campfire.
And, in particular, the brutal scene where
they shoot his hand.
But when I think that what we are exposed to these days – every day –
this stuff wouldn’t even make us flinch.
Is this what they call “Normalized” now? or “Desentitized”?
Makes me wonder how such things are affecting our kids …
Whether we like it or not, Weapons have played a monumental role
in World History. Still do. And we see no end in sight.
This should make us all wonder …
And somewhere among this uncountable tally,
are the weapons and guns of the American West.
The Winchester ’73
This is not to celebrate Weapon technology,
yet such has always been at the forefront of human endeavour.
IMFDB “Internet Movie Firearms Database” – a website I often refer to
for research here does offer quite a bit on “Winchester ’73”. https://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Winchester_%2773
I drop a few of their images here:
There she is:
During the Dodge City competition, Wyatt Earp (Will Geer) displays the prized “One of a Thousand” Winchester 1873 rifle.Lin McAdam (Jimmy Stewart) takes aim with the custom Winchester.‘Dutch Henry’ Brown (Stephen McNally) takes aim with the Winchester.
Tony Curtis even gets a good look at the rifle …
Pvt. Doan (Tony Curtis) takes up the Winchester.
OK … moving on to My Favorite James Stewart Western: The Man from Laramie / 1955
Apology:
I started this a while back, but I got distracted.
I was sick for quite a while and I got distracted by other things … Life.
This is just one of a few topics I need to finish before I die.
“I sort of got into Westerns… It was a sort of desperation move, really. I had several pictures that didn’t go very well, and I just realised that I would have to try something else.” – James Stewart
What can you say about James Stewart as a Western Movie Star?
You might he shoulda bin first on my list ! … and I wouldn’t argue.
Because in Westerns he had it all:
The drawl, the walk, the demeanor … everything.
Including a ton of charism/Star Power with Acting Talent.
So … if you think this was an easy selection … you’d be right.
Stewart was born to be Westerns and he made several Western Classics:
Winchester 73 / 1950
“100%”!!! WOW.
“7.6” out of 10 / Not so generous.
But most Westerns Movie fans regard this as Classic.
Tony was an uncredited extra in the movie.
You gotta pay your dues.
For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge
of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.
– Alexander the Great
There are a many incredible people throughout history that did amazing things that seem to defy normal human ability.
Napoleon was one. Alexander another.
I believe that if the truth about these people in what they achieved
and how they were able to do it were revealed,
most people would not believe it.
Yet I feel because of this I feel most depictions fall short.
How is possible to credibly reveal such a thing? or person?
Which is not to say that what they did would be held as positive or noble
in achievement by us – only that were able to do so.
???
Solve this my friend … and the Gordian Knot is childsplay.
Whatever possession we gain by our sword cannot be sure or lasting, but the love gained by kindness and moderation is certain and durable.
– Alexander the Great
I know you’ve all bin waitin’ with Bated Breath to hear …
… who the Mystery Artist was who sang that Mystery Song I’d been looking.
It took over a month …
But I wasn’t going to give up.
I had long exhausted everything I could think of to find it:
Lyric Searches -Artist searches – Album databases searches
of Country and Country Rock Artists from the early 70’s … and I even used Shazam which claims it “will identify any song in seconds.” But it didn’t.
When it was finally discovered who it was, I was surprised to see that it was a Country Rock artist I had investigated early in my Search,
but had dismissed him because I couldn’t locate
any album by him that had that song on it.
Finally I asked Greg at Country 105 Radio if he could help me out
and I sent him the Lyrics and MP3.
It took him a few days, but he found it!
I had not been confident.
But here it is:
I’ve also discovered that Ray is still around
making music and giving concerts.
Good to hear.
I often wonder where certain expresions we use every day come from …
“bated breath” vs. “baited breath”
July 2, 2021
You’ll breathe easier once you master this frequently misused phrase. Bated breath first appeared in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice in 1605.
Using a shortened form of abated, which means “stopped or reduced,” the phrase refers to people holding their breath in excitement or fear as they wait to see what happens next. If you’re watching the Olympics and Simone Biles is performing a new dismount to win the gold, you might watch her dizzying twists and flips with bated breath.
These examples show the breathless suspense that the expression evokes:
As the world watched with bated breath, Apollo 13 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on April 17 and splashed down in the South Pacific. (Fox News)
The whole common room listened with bated breath. (Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban)
Bait refers to small pieces of food used to catch fish or lure animals into traps. So it’s not possible to have baited breath, even if you eat a ton of minnows. The association of bait with a trap ready to spring may lead people to misuse this expression, even in national publications:
While the world is waiting with baited breath for the announcement that Beyoncé’s much-anticipated twins have arrived, the Internet has come up with plenty of theories about this milestone event. (Time)
We’ve now spent around 85 straight minutes this season with the show just spinning around in its own private circle, waiting with baited breath for something to change, or for the show’s comic-book bad guy to show even a hint of nuance. (The Verge)
Bated isn’t in common use any more except in this phrase — but knowing that abate means “to slow or stop something” can help you remember that waiting with bated breath means you’re breathless with anticipation. Unless you’ve devoured several cans of sardines in the hopes that your fishy breath will lure a nice big trout out of the river, baited breath is incorrect.
There are several (many?) exellent recitations
of Robert Service’s classic poems.
I like those by Hank Snow.
Hank Snow
May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999
In his time Hank recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles
on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980.
ROBERT W. SERVICE
16 January 1874 – 11 September 1958
Not your average Sourdough.
Robert Service with Marlene Dietrich
The Spell of the Yukon
by Robert W. Service
I wanted the gold, and I sought it;
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy—I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it—
Came out with a fortune last fall,—
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn’t all.
No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth—and I’m one.
You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it’s been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end.
I’ve stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I’ve watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I’ve thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o’ the world piled on top.
The summer—no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness—
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.
The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I’ve bade ’em good-by—but I can’t.
There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land—oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back—and I will.
They’re making my money diminish;
I’m sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I’m skinned to a finish
I’ll pike to the Yukon again.
I’ll fight—and you bet it’s no sham-fight;
It’s hell!—but I’ve been there before;
And it’s better than this by a damsite—
So me for the Yukon once more.
There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;
It’s luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It’s the great, big, broad land ’way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.
In the early 70’s up into the late 80’s I made about 200 cassette tape recordings from music off the radio and a few albums I had …
… which I played mostly in my car – driving around the continent.
Then … my car finally blew up (I couldn’t get parts anymore).
So I put the tapes away and basically forgot about them.
Then … one day I fould a Sony Tape Deck in the garage that
had belonged to my Wife’s (Rose) Father.
I hauled it inside, cleaned it up and started to play my old Tapes on it.
Thereby discovering a lot of songs that I had almost completely forgotten.
I then to tracked these Songs down on YouTube
and converted them into MP3’s – which I now play in my car again.
However, some of these took some extensive detective work because I had seldom noted the Identity of the Artist or the Song!
And though I’m not finished replaying all of them yet
I have only been stumped once.
This is that song which I can neither identify
the Artist or the Song title.
The Lyrics:
Well it’s four in the morning
Too cold to keep warm and frost on the windows and pain in the streets.
He stands alone on the stone empty sidewalk … Just a shadow of a stranger to the faces he meets.
He left this town years ago and he found they just as soon turn you down as just breath.
And nobody knows him and he alone half frozen and nobody knows what he needs.
And time eases the pain. Well that’s easy to say.
Easy to say … Easy to do. Easy to say … Easy to do. Easy for me … Easy for you.
Nice electric quitar break here. (This guy could play the electric guitar pretty good}
Easy to say … Easy to do. Easy to say … Easy to do. Easy for me … Easy for you.
You’re a surprise and to see through your eyes You’ve heard too many lies. To believe what he said. And he’s got no story of good times and glory … No money, no hope, no dreams For you babe. For he’s down and he’s lonely and you are the only illusion left he can believe in.
His high rise horizon Have left no surprises For someone as wasted as he is. And they say time eases the pain. I say that’s easy to say.
It’s easy to say … Easy to do. It’s easy to say … Easy to do. Easy for me … Easy for you.
Easy for me … Easy for you.
You’d think then that this Song would be easy to identify wouldn’t you?
Since I have finally been able to get an MP3 of it off the tape …
(Thanks to Rose’s son Ray)
… and I have the Lyrics which I wrote out.
Yet NO LYRIC finding Search Engine on the Net finds this Song.
None.
And even though you could easily guess from the Refrain
repeated 3 times the Song that it would be entitled: Easy to Say.
It doesn’t come up.
???
Furthermore when I play the song for people they mostly all say
“I know that guy! I recognize his voice.”
But they still can’t recall WHO it is.
So here we are.
Any ideas?
I’ve enlisted the help of a local Country Music radio Station: Country 105 to see if they can figure this out.
This might be the best way to go
except this song is from the early 70’s
???
I’ll let you know if I figure it out.
We weren’t surprised.
It’s Winter.
So I went out and shovelled the sidewalk.
Then …
This happened …
It’s called a Chinook Arch (around here).
A Chinook is a warm wind that comes across the Rockies
from the West Coast – and raises the temperature
to balmy conditions.
We’ve had about 12 Chinooks so far this year.
That’s not normal.
But they just keep coming.
A Chinook arch can span the Rockies all the way from
Northern Alberta to New Mexico, USA
Around here that can bring weather like this:
We know this won’t last.
But we’re appreciating it while we can.
???
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
– Charles Dickens
My favorite film version of Charles Dickens great Classic: A Christmas Carol (1843)
is Scrooge (1951) starring Alistair Sim. I regard this as not only the finest version of this Classic,
but as one of the greatest films ever made.
Brilliant all the way around, but in particular
in the casting of Alastair Sim as Scrooge.
Some Actors seem to be born for a role
and Simwas definitely perfect for the part.
The great Charles Dickens
Available on YouTube.
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
used.
Available through Sothebys
Yours for $9500 US
Free Shipping.
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
“One is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
“The other is is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied,
“The one you feed.”
I worked as a Greeter at Home Depot for 7 years.
And though this was a job that a people wouldn’t hold in high regard,
it was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Why?
Because I got to help people,
Customers and Co-Workers alike.
To GIVE …
the whole time I was there.
And got paid for it!!!
That’s a pretty good deal!!
And soooo …
The last year I was there they came and asked me
if I would you be SANTA for them?
This took completely by surprise,
and for second I had to think about?
Then … “with my nose so bright” …
I said YEAH!
And the more I thought about it,
the realized what a great Honor this was!
There aren’t many beings around who are greater
Champions of Giving than Santa Claus.
So to me this became the opportunity of a lifetime.
“100%”!!! WOW.
Beautiful job Jack.
Beautiful song Paul.
An opportunity that I could have missed.