Abraham's Son, Chapter 21

 INT. ABRAHAM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

ABRAHAM listens to the Mets baseball game on the radio.  It is the top of the ninth inning.  There are two outs and the Met pitcher has faced the minimum 26 batter so far.  

ANNOUNCER (O.S.):  Pinch hitting for the Giants will be Gregor Blanco.  He's hitting .242 with 2 home runs and 20 RBIs.  The left-handed hitter is their last hope to end this thing Wheeler's got going for him...here's the first pitch...ball one, a slider, belt high, but a little inside...the crowd is on edge...strike one, Blanco looked at a fastball right over the plate at the knees...what drama here at the Stadium...one ball and one strike...swung on and missed, a curve ball, almost in the dirt...one ball and two strikes.  One strike away for Wheeler and immortality...swung on, a line drive into right field, here comes Bruce, he dives...and makes a great catch for the third out.  Zach Wheeler has pitched the first perfect game in the history of the New York Mets.

ABRAHAM turns off the radio, not sure what to think.

Janice Paige

Janice Paige (originally Donna Mae Tjaden) was born September 16, 1922 in Tacoma, Washington.  After high school, she moved to Los Angeles, California where she became a professional singer and a model.

A Warner Bros. talent agent saw her potential and signed her to a contract. She began co-starring in low-budget musical films, often paired with Dennis Morgan or Jack Carson. 

Janice Paige co-starred in Romance on the High Seas (1948), the film in which Doris Day made her movie debut. She later co-starred in adventures and dramas, in which she felt out of place. Following her role in Two Gals and a Guy (1951), Janice Paige decided to leave Hollywood.

Janice Paige appeared on Broadway and was a huge hit in the comedy-mystery play, Remains to Be Seen, co-starring Jackie Cooper.  It was staged at the Morosco Theatre from October 3, 1951 until March 22, 1952.

From May 13, 1954 until June 23, 1955, Janice Paige appeared at the St. James Theatre as the female lead, Babe Williams, in the musical, Pajama Game.  One evening during that period (age 8 to age 9), my parents took me to see the play.  

I haven't forgotten Janice Paige after almost 70 years.  A beautiful red-haired woman singing I'm Not At All In Love.

I'm not, at all in love, not at all in love, not I!
Not a bit
Not a might
Though I'll admit he's quite a hunk a guy

But he's not, my cup of tea, not my cup of tea, not he!
Not an ounce
Not a pinch
He's just an inch, too sure of himself for me...

Janice Paige returned to the Broadway stage in 1963 (Shubert Theatre) starring in the play, Here's Love.  It was based on the classic film, Miracle on 34th Street.

In 1968, Paige portrayed Mame at the Winter Garden Theatre.  In 1984, she appeared a final time on Broadway, this time at the Music Box Theatre in Alone Together.

Yesterday was Janice Paige's 101st birthday.  Happy birthday, Janice.  

Edmond O'Brien

Edmond O'Brien was born September 10, 1915 (108 years ago) in Brooklyn, New York.  An aunt who taught high school English and speech took him to the theatre from an early age and he developed an interest in acting.  He began performing in plays at school.

O'Brien studied for two years under such teachers as Sanford Meisner.  He began working in summer stock in Yonkers, NY. O'Brien made his first Broadway appearance at age 21.

His theatre work drew the attention of Hollywood.  In 1939, O'Brien made his first film as the romantic lead opposite Maureen O'Hara in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Over the next 35 years O'Brien appeared in over eighty films.  Among the most memorable to me were The Killers with Ava Gardner (1946), White Heat with James Cagney (1949), The Barefoot Contessa again with Ava Gardner (1954), The Man Who Shot Liberty with James Stewart (1962) and Seven Days in May with Frederick March (1964).

Edmond O'Brien won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Barefoot Contessa.

To me, his finest work was in The Killers.  In 1927, Ernest Hemingway had written a short story of the same name about a gas station attendant who was killed by professional assassins who came to his small town in New Jersey.  Why did they want to kill him?  He said, "I did something wrong...once."

Screenwriter Anthony Veiller concocted a story for the film about what was that something wrong:  The gas station attendant had been tricked into double crossing his fellow-thieves after they had committed a massive robbery.  O'Brien portrayed an insurance investigator who solves the mystery of that something wrong...once.

In the late 1970s, O'Brien fell ill with Alzheimer's disease.  He died from it on May 9, 1985 at the age of 69.    

The Goodbye Girl

The Goodbye Girl is a 1977 romantic comedy-drama starring Richard Dreyfus, Marsha Mason and ten year-old Quinn Cummings.  It was nominated for five Academy Awards:  Best Picture (Ray Stark, producer) won by Annie Hall, Best Actor Richard Dreyfus (he won), Best Actress (Marsha Mason) won by Diane Keaton for Annie Hall, Best Supporting Actress (Quinn Cummings) won by Vanessa Redgrave for Julia and Best Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen (Neil Simon, husband of Marsha Mason) won by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman for Annie Hall.

Paula (Mason) and her daughter Lucy (Cummings) are returning to their Manhattan apartment, which they share with Paula's actor-boyfriend Tony, from a shopping trip in anticipation of moving to Los Angeles where Tony has landed an acting job.  

When they arrive they discover that Tony has abandoned the pair and has instead gone to Italy for a part in a movie.  To Paula's further dismay, she has discovered that Tony has sublet his apartment to a third person, which means Paula and Lucy could be living on the street.  Paula means to fight eviction.

In the middle of the night, Elliot (Dreyfus) arrives at the apartment he sublet from Tony, only to be locked out by Paula.  After much arguing, they eventually agree to share the apartment.  

When Elliot says, "I got a lawyer acquaintance," a famous line from the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Paula realizes she is stuck living with another actor, much to her chagrin.  Elliot is in New York to play the lead in an off-off Broadway production of Richard III.

Unfortunately for Elliot, his director wants him to play the role as an exaggerated homosexual stereotype, "the queen who wanted to be king."  The New York theatre critics pan the play, especially Elliot's performance.  The show closes after one night.

Philip Fleischman, one of my high school history teachers, once mentioned that if you put two people together in close proximity for an extended period of time, one of two things will happen:  love or hate, but not apathy.  So what happens to Paula and Elliot who start out disliking each other?

Well, to give away the plot, they fall in love.  But then, a complication arrives.  

While in a different play, Elliot is discovered by a movie director who offers him a four week stint in a film he is making in Seattle.  Both Paula and Lucy are convinced this is Tony all over again.  Elliot will leave and never return, which he denies.

Ironically, Paula says, "If you are ever up for an Academy Award, I will keep my fingers crossed."  As I previously mentioned, Dreyfus won such Award for playing Elliot.

Elliot convinces Paula he will return by asking her to come with him to Seattle.  She declines but agrees to restring his guitar, his one possession he didn't take with him.  We are sure Elliot and Paula will live happily ever after...with Lucy, of course.