Regrets 3

Ernest Borgnine, the actor, made a very positive impression on me during my youth appearing in many films: From Here to Eternity as Sergeant Judson, Vera Cruz as Donnegan, Bad Day at Black Rock as Coley Trimble and especially Marty as Marty Piletti.  

In the first three of the above films, Borgnine portrayed a villainous character.  However, he was the lovable protagonist in Marty.

Between 1951 and 1967, Borgnine appeared in some 37 films.  He was enjoying a very successful career.

After I graduated college in May 1967, I moved to the Detroit Michigan area as my brother Ted lived there.  I met and started dating Bonnie (Bonita) Sobol, whom I married the following year.

One day later in 1967, I found myself with Bonnie and some of her friends in the VIP lounge at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.  Two of our group were heading out on their honeymoon.

As I didn't know well anyone in the group except for Bonnie, my eyes wandered around the VIP lounge, my first and only time in such an environment.  And there right in front of me, sitting alone on a sofa intently watching TV, was Ernest Borgnine.

Instead of walking over to engage him in conversation, I was frightened at the prospect that he would bite my head off for bothering him.  

In 2012, shortly before his death at 95, I saw his last  interview.  He was asked what he had learning over his long life.  He responded with, "Be nice to people."  That quote was reinforced by what I read in his autobiography and what I saw in numerous videos about his traveling around the USA.  

I regret that I did not have the courage to talk to Ernest Borgnine when I had the chance.  I am convinced that he would not have bitten my head off.  Quite the opposite I am sure.  

Take advantage of all opportunities.

Fiddler on the Roof

 Fiddler on the Roof  is a 1971 American period musical film produced and directed by Norman Jewison based on the 1964 stage musical of the same name. Set in early 20th-century Imperial Russia, the film centers on Tevye, played by Topol, a poor Jewish milkman who is faced with the challenge of marrying off his five daughters amidst the growing Antisemitism in his small village of Anatevka.

As I previously mentioned, I don't know much about the early life of my maternal grandparents who emigrated from Imperial Russia to the USA in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.  However, Fiddler on the Roof gives me some ideas about such early life.

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winning 3: Best Cinematography, Best Music: Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score and Best Sound.  Among its nominations were Best Picture (won by The French Connection), Best Director (won by William Friedkin for The French Connection) and Best Actor (won by Gene Hackman for The French Connection).

Fiddler on the Roof is a metaphor for survival in a life of uncertainty, precariousness while "trying to scratch out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck."

Through Yente the matchmaker, Tevye arranges for his eldest daughter, Tzeitel, to marry Lazar Wolf, an affluent butcher.  Arranged marriage was a common practice in many cultures, including Jewish culture, and still exists in today's world.  Romantic marriage is a more modern concept. 

However, Tzeitel is in love with her childhood sweetheart, Motel the tailor, and begs her father not to force her to marry the much older widower, whom she does not love.  Tevye reluctantly agrees and, despite Lazar Wolf's humiliation, Tzeitel and Motel are married. 

Tevye persuades his wife Golde to accept the marriage of Tzeitel and Motel by claiming that a prophetic dream told him that Lazar Wolf's dead wife will haunt Tzeitel if she marries her husband.  Furthermore from the dream, Tzeitel is fated to marry Motel.

The necessity of creating the dream to convince his wife demonstrates the matriarchal structure of the Jewish culture...outside of the religious life.

At the end of the film, Tevya and his family are forced to leave Anatevka and, like my grandparents, emigrate to America.