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Not too bitter.

Well, yes. I am bitter.

Why couldn’t they have hired ME for The Sound of Music, instead of that Julie!

I knew there was a reason I left all those photos locked away in that box and didn’t open them for decades. Too many bad memories! But then I took out that Black Sunday photo (I liked that one) and then ol’ Hatchet Jack made that nice flowers picture which reminded me of testing for The Sound of Music.

And then I found these other screen test shots with the rest of the cast.

from the “So Long” scene, with me standing on the floor.

When we tried that, they said I looked like one of the kids.

The “So Long” scene, with me standing on a box, beside Chris Plummer.

They weren’t too keen on that shot, either. They said it looked like I was standing on a box. Which I was, but still, it wasn’t nice to say that.

We then tried this shot outside, and I thought it turned out very well. The way we were staring into one another’s eyes, I think the love connection between the characters was nicely captured.

My screen test outside on the patio with the rest of the cast of The Sound of Music.

But the next day, when Chris Plummer complained that his neck was aching, after that Julie had arrived, and then she went over and started rubbing his neck, I kind of got the message that they were going do discriminated against me because I am height efficient.

What a disappointment. That film could have re-launched my career. And in a good way, too.

A Valentine Controversy from 1965

5 Replies

Jeb’s Telescope
from Hatchet Jack

Hatchet Jack posted a Valentine Book cover yesterday that sent my little mind whirling decades back to the sixties. The book, entitled “Jeb’s Telescope,” and written by “Remington Montana,” was very clearly a re-release of a very controversial novel that I encountered way back in 1965.

While the newer cover is in colour, and the title clearly refers to the key plot features of the original (and even the author name is clearly an updated pseudonym), the implications inherent in the original release have been clearly toned down to get the book safely onto to the book shelves and get money out of the book-buyers’ pocket books.

It took me a good day of scrounging around to find a copy of the earlier, release but compare Hatchet Jack’s find above with this:

Original cover (1965) of “The Gathering at Bushnell Falls” (Animated GIF)

I recall a lot of furor in the news when this book first came out. People really raised their eyebrows at the word “Gathering” in the title. There were lawsuits from manufacturers of optical devices. There was a mitigating attempt to re-issue the book with a more accurate and less stimulating and legally provocative title, “The Five Evil Brothers at Bushney’s Falls.” But it was all to no avail. The book was pulled, the author moved out of state (perhaps to Montana?), and everyone forgot about it.

To see that the book was re-released later, after all that spectacle (did you see what I did there?), with the relatively passive title “Jeb’s Telescope,” just goes to show how much folks still judge a book by its cover.

Speaking of which, I hope you are are seeing me in a new light, now that I am out of that old musty cardboard box and taking some time to work at helping folks see me as I truly want to be seen. Perhaps you have been enjoying my newly-updated publicity photo, my very first piece of voice work for ds106radio, and my Valentine shared for all of you yesterday.

I am still waiting for comments to float my way. I currently only have one measly pingback — and it is from myself (although those self-links I just added above should get me more).

I do trust that all my new friends here at ds106 aren’t too busy to pay me a little attention. You know that real Friends don’t forget one another.

That would be a sad thing. And a bad thing. Very bad.