This coming Friday, December 9, 2016, will be the 100th birthday of Kirk Douglas, the last of the old time movie stars I grew up watching. I think the first of his films I remember seeing at the Oswego Theater was the 1954 Disney film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with James Mason. Three years later, it was Gunfight at the O.K. Corral with Burt Lancaster. Then in 1960, Kirk made the epic film, Spartacus, with Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov (won Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), and Tony Curtis.
Kirk's given name was Issur Danielovitch. He was born into an immigrant (from present day Belarus) Jewish family in Amsterdam, New York, a couple of hours by car from Oswego. Kirk had six older sisters, some of whom my Aunt Frances told me she befriended when she worked there as a teacher.
After graduating from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, Kirk moved to New York City to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. While he was aiming to be a stage actor, his actress-friend, Lauren Bacall, recommended Kirk to Hal Wallis, a movie director, who cast Douglas in his first film, The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck, which I saw on TV.
Among other of Kirk's hit movies I saw on the little screen were Out of the Past (1947), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Champion (1949 - nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to Broderick Crawford in All The King's Men), Young Man with a Horn (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Detective Story (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952 - nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to Gary Cooper in High Noon), Lust for Life (1956 - Nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to Yul Brynner in The King and I), Paths of Glory (1957), Lonely are the Brave (1962), and The War Wagon (1967). I also remember seeing him in Seven Days in May (1964) at a movie theater in Philadelphia.
Spartacus was made by Kirk's company, Bryna Productions, named after his mother. Besides the above-mentioned Academy Award, it won three others: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color, Best Cinematography, Color, and Best Costume Design, Color.
Spartacus is the story of a slave forced to train to be a gladiator (Spartacus played by Kirk) who led a revolt against the Roman Empire in the 1st Century BC. The screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo, a writer who had been blacklisted by Hollywood ten years before because he refused to testify before the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee, which was investigating a possible communist infiltration of Hollywood. Douglas broke the blacklist by putting Trumbo's actual name (instead of pseudonym) in the movie's credits.
In 1991, Spartacus was re-released into movie theaters and I took my daughter, Rachel, to see it. There is a very dramatic scene after the revolt is defeated and those captured are offered to have their lives spared (they will be returned to slavery) if they identify their leader, Spartacus. Just as he is about to identify himself, all of those around him stand up and each of them say, "I'm Spartacus." Sitting a row behind us in the theater was the actor, Matt Dillon (The Flamingo Kid, 1984) who also called out, like the actors in the movie, "I'm Spartacus."
Some years later, but before his stroke in 1996, Kirk made a tour of the USA doing a one-man show, talking about his life and career. I attended one of his performances at The Town Hall in New York City. I remember Kirk doing a scene from the Broadway play he previously did, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I regret not taking advantage of the opportunity to talk to him after the show at his book signing (The Ragman's Son which I read). Let's all wish Kirk a very happy 100th birthday.
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