A Contender

Marlon Brando, one of America's greatest actors, both on stage and in film, was born on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska.  After he finished with high school, he moved to New York City to study acting. Brando's big break came in 1947 when he played Stanley on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.

This led Brando to a film career beginning in 1950 with The Men, directed by Fred Zinnemann (see posts High Noon and From Here to Eternity), the story of a paraplegic coping with life after being wounded in WWII.  

In 1951, he resurrected his role in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Elia Kazan. Brando was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.  
  
In 1952, also with Kazan, Brando portrayed a Mexican revolutionary in the film, Viva Zapata, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to Gary Cooper in High Noon.

In 1953, he portrayed Marc Antony in the the film version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Brando was again nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, but lost to William Holden (see blog post) in Stalag 17 . That same year, he was Johnny Strabler, a cultural iconic figure in the film, The Wild One.

     girl:  Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?
     Johnny:  What you got?  

In 1954, Brando starred in one of my favorite films, On the Waterfront, again directed by Kazan, and which also starred Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint.  The film won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Saint), and Best Screenplay (Budd Schulberg).  Malden, Cobb and Steiger were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Edmond O'Brien in The Barefoot Contessa. 

On the Waterfront is the story of labor union violence and corruption involving longshoremen in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City.  Brando portrays Terry, an ex-pugilist, now a longshoreman who benefits from his brother, Charlie (Steiger), being the right-hand man of the corrupt union boss, Johnny Friendly (Cobb).  

Originally, Terry's cynical attitude towards life is "Do it to them before they do it to you." However, that changes when he falls in love with Edie (Saint), the sister of a man who was murdered by Johnny Friendly because he had threatened to testify against Friendly to a crime commission.  Originally, out of loyalty to Charlie and Johnny, Terry wants to remain "D & D" (deaf and dumb).  

Through the influence of Edie and a Catholic priest (Malden), Terry develops a conscience and contemplates doing the right thing by testifying about what he knows.  In a climactic scene (one of the most iconic in movie history) inside a taxi, Charlie fails to dissuade Terry from testifying.  Then, Charlie starts talking about Terry's former career in the ring.      
        
Charlie:  How much you weigh, son?  When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds, you were beautiful.  You coulda been another Billy Conn, but that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast.

Terry:  It wasn't him, Charlie, it was you.  Remember that night in the Garden.  You came down to my dressing room and you said, "Kid, this ain't your night.  We're going for the price on Wilson." You remember that?  This ain't your night.  My night!  I coulda taken Wilson apart.  So what happens?  He gets the title shot outdoors on a ballpark and what do I get?  A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville.  You was my brother, Charlie.  You shoulda looked out for me a little bit.  You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money.

Charlie:  Oh, I had some bets down for you.  You saw some money.

Terry:  You don’t understand.  I coulda had class.  I coulda been 

a contender.  I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is

what I am.  Let’s face it.  It was you, Charlie.


  

Israel

At the end of the Nineteenth Century, Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, headquartered in Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, in modern day Turkey. That changed after World War I (1914-1918).  As the Ottoman Empire was on the losing side, it lost control of Palestine. Great Britain, on the winning side, administered the area from 1920 to 1948 under a mandate from the League of Nations.

As a result of anti-British violence in Palestine from both its Arab and Jewish communities, the British government announced its intention to end the mandate.  The United Nations was given the responsibility to determine what to do with Palestine.  

In May of 1947, eleven UN member states (Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, India, Iran, Yugoslavia, and Australia) were asked to recommend a solution. The first seven of the above recommended that Palestine be partitioned into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem administered as an international city.  The next three recommended a one state solution.  Australia abstained.

On November 29, 1947, by a vote of 33 to 13 (with 10 abstentions), the UN General Assembly approved the above partition plan, to take effect upon the withdrawal of British forces from Palestine at midnight on May 14, 1948.  While the majority of the Jewish community in Palestine accepted the partition plan, the majority of the Arab community rejected it.  Neighboring Arab states called for a military solution.

Sixty-nine years ago today, May 14, 1948, the Jewish leadership in Palestine, under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of the State of Israel within the borders approved by the UN partition plan.  Soon after, military forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq invaded the former Palestine, taking control of the Arab area, while at the same time attacking Jewish forces and settlements.

The war between the Jewish and Arab states lasted approximately nine months until March of 1949.  Armistice agreements, not treaties of recognition, were agreed to between Israel and its neighbors.  As a result of the war, the area of Israel expanded through the acquisition of about 60% of the UN designated Arab area of Palestine, plus West Jerusalem. In addition, Jordan annexed the remaining Arab area (plus East Jerusalem), with the exception of the Gaza Strip which was controlled by Egypt.  No Palestinian Arab state as approved by the UN was created.

When I was a student at Penn, I took an English course in which I was required to write an original composition of my choosing.  I wrote about the desire of the Jewish people to have a country of their own, Israel, a concept known as Zionism (a movement for the re-establishment and development of a Jewish nation).  My professor gave me a low grade, criticizing the concept I wrote about as "irrational."  

Theodor Herzl, a Jew, was born May 2, 1860 in the Kingdom of Hungary.  In 1894, he was the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse, covering the infamous Dreyfus Affair.  In December of that year, French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, was unjustly convicted of passing military secrets to Germany.  He was a scapegoat for the French military high command who wanted to protect the real culprit, a French officer named Esterhazy.  

When Herzl heard chants of "Death to the Jews" from anti-Dreyfus demonstrators, he became a Zionist.  In 1897, he convened the First International Jewish Congress.  It set out a program to establish "for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine," their ancient homeland until the Diaspora was enforced by the Roman Empire in 70 A.D.  The Congress also established the World Zionist Organization to implement the program.

An important event in the timeline toward the establishment of the State of Israel occurred on November 2, 1917 when the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, declared "His Majesty's government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object."

Although Herzl died in 1904, well before his vision of the modern State of Israel came into fruition, he is buried there.  I visited his tomb in 1973.  It was a fascinating experience for me as a Jew who had lived all his life as a member of a minority in the USA to be in a place where he was among the majority in the land of the Jewish people, who have the same right to their own state as do other people on the planet Earth.  It is not an irrational concept!  

So today is Israel's sixty-ninth birthday.  Mazel tov.

  

                               

My Sister

Eighty-six and a half years ago, November 7, 1930, my sister was born at the Oswego Hospital in Oswego, New York.  She was named Jane, after our father's father, Joseph, who died in 1925. She was the first of five children born to our parents, Harry and Margaret Lasky.  Jane was the only girl, followed by four boys.  I was the youngest, born fourteen and three-quarter years later on August 7, 1945.

Jane doted on me when I was a baby, changing my diapers, feeding me my formula, and playing with me on the floor of the bedroom. As she was my first baby sitter, Jane took me multiple times across the street to play in the East Side Park and to the Oswego Theater for the first time to see a Bugs Bunny cartoon.  When I was growing up, I thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

Jane graduated as valedictorian of her OHS class of 1948.  She went on to Barnard College in New York City, where the family frequently visited her on our father's business trips to nearby White Plains.  After she graduated in 1952, Jane matriculated at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, only about thirty miles from our home.  Four years later she was a doctor, satisfying our mother's dream.  

Jane stayed on in Syracuse for further training in her chosen specialty, obstetrics and gynecology.  She was one of the first female OB-GYNs in the area.  Eventually, Jane opened her own private practice in Syracuse.  Years later, she also taught at Upstate and was an active role model for her female students.  

As Jane never married, she stayed close to her parents and siblings. I remember when I was a shy, teenage boy, she boosted my self- confidence by giving me her female perspective.  When I suffered gastrointestinal symptoms while I was at Penn, she was someone I could easily talk to about how I should proceed with my treatment.

Over the years, all of us in the family benefited from having Jane in our lives.  As far as I could tell, she was an excellent physician who treated her patients and colleagues with care and dignity. Eventually Jane was forced to retire and lead a more relaxed life.  I try to visit her whenever I can. 

Eighty-six and a half years ago, November 7, 1930, my sister died at the Oswego Hospital in Oswego, New York.  She was never named and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Jewish section of a cemetery south of town.  Neither of my parents ever mentioned her brief existence to me.  I learned of her through persistent rumors which led to my requesting and receiving a copy of her birth certificate from the Oswego City Clerk's office.

Something happened that day, November 7, 1930, that led to the death of my sister on the very day of her birth.  As a result, our mother insisted the rest of her children be delivered at Syracuse Memorial Hospital, perhaps more advanced than the Oswego Hospital where my sister was born and died.

As a result of what happened that day, November 7, 1930, all the wonderful events of Jane's life I described above never happened and my parents and my brothers and I lived our lives as if my sister never existed.  I sometimes wonder what might have been.     



                 

Best of Intentions, Chapter 10

Ben pulls his car into the parking area adjacent to Rudy's, a popular take-out restaurant right on the rocky shore of Lake Ontario, a short distance west of Oswego.  

Ben tells Rita that, "Their hot dogs are better than at Yankee Stadium."  He orders four of them plus two beers to go.  Ben and Rita carry their food and drinks past the picnic tables where many Rudy's customers are enjoying themselves.  They continue further down the beach until they are alone and can enjoy the beautiful view of the lake while eating and drinking.

After a while, Ben stares out at the seemingly endless body of water.  Finally, he starts talking.

"I want to tell you something, Rita, something I haven't talked about with anyone."

"You can tell me anything, Ben."

"I want to tell you about my son...my son, Frank."

Rita is very surprised, never having heard about a child. She stays quiet, mesmerized.

"It really starts with my wife...my ex-wife, Paula.  We were childhood sweethearts, grew up in the same neighborhood, fell in love in college and married after graduation.  We didn't have a child right away.  But, when Frank was born, we adored him.  He was a good boy.  He loved his mom, but he and I were special.  He wanted to be just like me.  I didn't push it...it was just the way he was.  He loved baseball like me.  Captain of his high school team...and he followed the Yankees, too.  We listened to their games on the radio and once every year we'd go see them in New York City."

Tears start to well-up in Ben's eyes.  Rita puts her arm around his shoulder.

"I had two passions in my life, baseball and hunting.  I got hunting from my father.  It brought us closer together.  He taught me everything.  We used to go after small game, like pheasants and rabbits mostly.  And he taught me how to be safe.  Frank wanted to hunt as well.  I didn't let him touch a gun until I thought he was old enough.  The first lesson was safety.  He was a good learner.  It was great walking through woods...spending time...just the two of us."

"Then one day, after Thanksgiving, when Frank was seventeen, I was down with a bad cold.  We were to go hunting with his best friend, Andy, and his father, Doc.  Frank had never gone hunting without me.  Paula was always nervous about hunting, but felt I would protect him.  She didn't want him to go that day, but he begged me, and I told her it'd be OK.  He was an experienced hunter and Doc could look out for the two boys.  Frank said, 'Thanks, Dad.  I love you.'  He was out the door and I never saw him again."

Ben's voice cracks.  Tears pour out of his eyes.  Rita puts both her arms around him.

"They were deep in the woods, close to a pheasant.  Frank was in the lead with his 12-gauge shotgun.  He turned his head back as far as he could to his left to get Andy's attention and signal with his hand.  He took a step forward, slipped on some ice and fell.  The gun went off and killed him instantly."

"I'm so sorry," said Rita, crying as well.

"Later, Doc called.  He said it real quick.  There had been an accident.  Frank was dead.  I went numb.  I hung up the phone and looked for Paula.  She was right there behind me.  I repeated what Doc said. There had been an accident.  Frank was dead.  She fell to the floor screaming for her son...her face distorted in agony."

"I tried to comfort her, but I was in great pain myself.  It was almost impossible to cope with Frank's loss.  After the funeral, my wife and I mourned, but it was different for each of us.  I tried to understand why such a great boy had to die.  But, Paula wanted to blame somebody, to focus her anger somewhere, on whomever was responsible and I was convenient.  I had encouraged his interest in hunting.  I taught him to hunt.  I taught him about gun safety, but I failed him.  When he needed me most, that day, I wasn't there.  It wasn't fair for her to blame me, but she did and it ate away our relationship.  I started pulling away from her until there was nothing left.  She said when she looked at me, she saw Frank and she couldn't bear it anymore.  She filed for divorce and I didn't fight it."

"You see, Rita, in one split second, I lost the two most important people in my life.  I was alone."

"You're not alone anymore, Ben.  I love you."

She leans over and kisses him on his lips.  

Then, she adds, "I want to make love to you, Ben...right now.  What are those buildings across the road?" 

Stunned, Ben replies, "Sunshine Cabins.  They rent them to tourists, by the day or the week."

"Let's spend the night there, Ben.  I love you very much." 

"I love you, too, Rita."

The two stand up and cross the road, holding each other close.



    

Twenty Years

New Year's Day, 1997, brought me a sense of relief.  I had just gone through a bad year, health-wise.  In the beginning of 1996, I suffered my second colitis attack (last since then) which I had to fight off with prednisone, a dangerous drug.  At one point, I lost more than ten kilos (22 pounds), partly because I completely lost my appetite.  I remember looking at a bowl full of chocolate pudding without being able to lift a spoon.  However, by the end of 1996 I felt the worst was over. With the prednisone, I got the 10 kilos back and more so.  

Three months later, in April of 1997, something else happened to me.  I started noticing wavy horizontal lines in the upper portion of the vision in my left eye.  As days went by, the lines extended downward until they completely covered what I saw out of my left eye.  I could make out only images, but nothing in detail.  I had lost about 90% of the vision from my left eye.  

My eye doctor recommended a specialist.  After examining my left eye, the specialist said three words I'll never forget: "ischemic optic neuropathy."  He also told me there was nothing that could be done to restore the vision.  I would face the rest of my life with only one good eye.  What a frightening occurrence!  

From the lowvision.org website, I found the following: "Ischemic optic neuropathy is a potentially visually devastating disease that occurs in the middle aged and the elderly.  This condition is often referred to as stroke of the optic nerve, and it usually begins suddenly with little warning in one eye, but frequently progresses to the other eye over time."

What could I do to protect my right eye?  The specialist recommended taking 81 mg. aspirin, a blood thinner, to cut down the risk of going completely blind.  With the aspirin and some good fortune, the vision in my right eye has survived since April of 1997, twenty years.  

However, with only one eye, I have had to adapt a little.  My biggest problem is my left peripheral vision.  If someone or something comes up behind me on my left side, I cannot see them or it until they are almost in front of me.  When we are walking on the street, I always tell my wife, Cristina, to stay to my right.  I have to be especially careful when I am driving.  By the way, in New York, North Carolina, and Brazil, you need only one good eye to get a driver's license.  

In spite of the fright when I received the news from the eye specialist, I have discovered that one good eye is enough to live a full life.  I can read books and newspapers, watch TV at home and movies in the cinema, walk inside and outside the house, drive a car (when I am in the USA), etc.  In other words, I can do everything I did with two eyes now with only one eye.  I do take the precaution to wear non-breakable glasses.  I don't want anything to happen to my right eye. It's got to last me a long time.  

     


           

The Seven Year Itch

"The seven-year itch is a psychological term that suggests that happiness in a relationship declines after around year seven of a marriage."  In 1955, Billy Wilder (see blog posts for Sunset Boulevard and Shut Up And Deal) wrote, produced and directed the film, The Seven Year Itch, which starred Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe.

In the film, Richard (Ewell) is a "nerdy, faithful, middle-aged publishing executive" whose wife (of seven years) and young son are spending the summer in Maine.  After seeing his family off at the train station, he returns alone to his Manhattan apartment, where he meets his beautiful new neighbor (Monroe), who is subletting the upstairs apartment while temporarily in town to do some TV spots for a toothpaste commercial.  Richard invites her to his apartment for a friendly drink, hoping she is attracted to him, but her interest is only in his air conditioner.    

Over the next few days, Richard and his neighbor spend more time together and he feels he is succumbing to the seven year itch that he read about in a psychology book.  Eventually, fearing his wife is having her own seven year itch, Richard tells the neighbor she can stay in his air conditioned apartment as he will spend the rest of the summer in Maine.  

There is an iconic scene in the film when Richard and his neighbor come out of a movie theater after watching the classic 1954 science fiction film, The Creature from the Black Lagoon. As did I, she feels sorry for the creature.  Monroe then "stands over the subway grate to experience the breeze...in the pleated white halter dress, blowing her skirt in the wind."

Marilyn Monroe, or Norma Jean Baker, was born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. She "spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage."  At eighteen, Monroe started doing modeling for pin-up photos which led to her signing a movie contract.   In 1950, she had small parts in two critically acclaimed films, The Asphalt Jungle, with Sterling Hayden, and All About Eve, with Bette Davis.         

These parts eventually led to starring roles in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) with Richard Widmark, Niagara (1953) with Joseph Cotton, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) with Jane Russell, and River of No Return (1954) with Robert Mitchum.  As Burt Lancaster served as an image of masculinity (see blog post for Elmer Gantry), Marilyn Monroe became the iconic image of femininity. 

After The Seven Year Itch, she starred in Bus Stop (1956) with Don Murray, Some Like It Hot (1959 - another Billy Wilder production) with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, and The Misfits (1961) with Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable.

Sadly, Marilyn Monroe died on August 5, 1962, at the age of 36, as a result of "acute barbiturate poisoning."  Was it suicide (official report) or perhaps murder (conspiracy theory)?  I remember listening to radio reports of her death with my brother Ted, who was a big fan of hers.  I mentioned above that, during her movie career, she was an iconic image of femininity. More than fifty years later, Marilyn Monroe is still an iconic image of femininity and may well be forever.
_________
I will be on vacation next Sunday.  Next post will be Sunday, April 23. 

           

Third Term

George Washington, the first president of the United States of America, ended his tenure after two terms in office (1789-1797). The next president to face the possibility of a third term was Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809).  In declining the opportunity, he stated on January 10, 1808 that, "If some termination to the services of the Chief magistrate, be not fixed by the constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for years, will in fact become for life, and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance."  What say you?  

Following the examples of Washington and Jefferson, Presidents James Madison (1809-1817), James Monroe (1817-1825), and Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) ended their presidencies after two terms.

Ulysses S. Grant served two terms as president from 1869 to 1877. Despite the precedent set by five previous presidents, he sought a third term.  However, his party, the Republican Party, turned against Grant and to his successor, President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Grover Cleveland served two terms as president from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.  He also sought a third term but his candidacy was rejected by his party, the Democratic Party.  

After President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt (TR) served almost two complete terms as president until 1909.  He willingly retired from office at the end of his second term. However, in 1912, dissatisfied with his successor, President William Taft, a fellow-Republican, TR ran for a third term as a third-party candidate, but lost.

Woodrow Wilson, who defeated both Roosevelt and Taft in the 1912 election, served two terms as president from 1913 to 1921. He wanted to run again for a third term in 1920, but his party, the Democratic Party, turned him down.

When President Warren Harding died suddenly in 1923, Calvin Coolidge became president.  He was re-elected in 1924 and served until March of 1929.  Coolidge declined the opportunity to seek a third term.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) shattered the two term precedent when he was successfully elected four times: 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. He served in office from March of 1933 until his death in April of 1945, shortly after the beginning of his fourth term.  The fact that the world was at war in 1940 and America was in a war in 1944 helped FDR convince the American people he was still needed in the White House.  

In the 1944 presidential campaign, the Republican candidate, New York Governor, Thomas Dewey, announced his support for a Constitutional amendment that would limit future presidents to two terms.  He stated that, "four terms, or sixteen years, is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed."  Really?  

In March of 1947, the Republican controlled U.S. Congress, embittered by their failures to defeat FDR, passed a joint resolution calling for a two term limit Constitutional amendment. On February 27, 1951, Minnesota became the 36th state to ratify the 22nd Amendment, satisfying the required 75% threshold.  It took effect beginning with the first president elected after the then president, Harry Truman (1945-1953).  He considered running for a third term in 1952, but abandoned the idea after losing in the Democratic Party's New Hampshire primary.

Under the Brazilian Constitution, a president can have more than two terms, but not three consecutive terms.

I believe in democracy.  To me that includes the right of the people to choose their president.  The Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution reasonably limited the requirement to be president to a "natural born citizen" of at least 35 years-of-age. However, the Founding Fathers did not include a term limit.  There are no term limits for Senators, Representatives, nor other federal office holders.  We do not approve when Iranian religious leaders disqualify candidates for their country's presidency nor when the People's Republic of China disqualifies candidates for office in Hong Kong.  Yet, by law some very qualified candidates are disqualified to be president of the USA.  Are we hypocrites?  

As President Theodore Roosevelt stated in his autobiography, "The American people have wisely established a custom against allowing any man to hold (the presidency) for more than two consecutive terms...but...it would be very unwise to have it definitely hardened into a Constitutional prohibition.  Most certainly the American people are fit to take care of themselves, and stand in no need of an irrevocable self-denying ordinance. They should not bind themselves never to take action which under some quite conceivable circumstance it might be to their interest to take.  In time of great peril (the American people) should be able to command the service of every one among its citizens in the precise position where the service rendered will be most valuable.  It would be a benighted policy in such event to disqualify absolutely from the highest office a man who...had actually shown the highest capacity to exercise its powers with the utmost effect of the public defense." I agree with TR.  What say you?
    

Five men, Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), Bill Clinton (1993-2001), George W. Bush (2001-2009), and Barack Obama (2009-2017), were limited to two terms in office as a result of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.  It is my opinion that all of them, with the exception of Bush, would have been re-elected had they been willing and legally able to run for a third term.  What say you?

It is ironic that the first two presidents who were affected by the Republican-driven 22nd Amendment were Republicans.  It is also interesting to contemplate that, without the 22nd Amendment, nothing very important would have happened on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.