Pursuits : Elizabeth Thomsen

Chicago, Chicago…

2009-07-09T23:07:17Z

Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin’ town
Chicago, Chicago, I’ll show you around
Bet your bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in Chicago
Chicago, the town that Billy Sunday could not shut down

I’m off to Chicago for the American Library Association conference tomorrow, and this song is stuck in my head. It plays there pretty much nonstop every time I’m there. My father used to play the Bob Scobey record of this all the time when I was a child, and the lyrics fascinated me. I had no clear idea of what a “toddlin’” town might be, but it sounded cool. I assumed that “Billy Sunday” was a mythical character, like Mother Nature and Father Time, and assumed that this line meant that Chicago didn’t observe the kind of Blue Laws we had in Massachusetts, and that people there went grocery shopping on the Sabbath. I wondered about State Street, that great street, and wondered exactly what they did there that they don’t do on Broadway, but thought perhaps it was better not to ask!

Here’s a wonderful version of the song, featuring Blossom Seeley (voice), Lil Hardin-Armstrong (voice and keyboard), Jack Teagarden (Trombone) and Jimmy Noone (clarinet.) The video quality is pretty bad, but that gives it a hazy, dreamlike quality that I think works well here.

Chicago – Assorted artists
Uploaded by boberwig – Watch more music videos, in HD!

Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania

2009-07-09T19:15:06Z

Mount Gretna is a unique and beautiful community. Originally established in the 1880s as a summer resort community, it soon became home to two institutions, the Mount Gretna Campmeeting, and the Pennsylvania Chautauqua, enriching the spiritual and cultural lives of their members.

Every summer, Mount Gretna hosts many special events, including a Bible Festival, an Art Show, theatrical and musical productions. However, many enjoy visiting Mount Gretna for the quieter pleasures of this unique community — the Jigger Shop, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor; canoeing on the lake, walking the quiet lanes lined with charming cottages nestled among the wooded hills.

RIP Gale Storm

2009-07-11T12:10:56Z

Gale Storm, best-remembered from her 1950’s program “My Little Margie,” died on June 27 at the age of 87.

Born Josephine Cottle, her career began in 1940 when she won a national talent contest called Gateway to Hollywood. The official prize was a movie contract RKO contract under the name Gale Storm. She fell in love with contest’s male winner, Lee Bonnell, who she married in 1941.

In the 1940s, Gale Storm appeared in many B movies but her big break came in 1952, when “My Little Margie” premiered as a summer replacement for “I Love Lucy.” Both shows were set in Manhattan and revolved around madcap women and their crazy schemes which often involved dress-up and deception, always backfired and both amused and exasperated the men in their lives.

But Margie was younger than Lucy and single, living alone in a Fifth Avenue penthouse with her handsome, widowed father, businessman Vern Albright. Many of the plots revolved around Margie’s attempts to advance her father’s career or protect him from romantic entanglements. When things fell apart, as they always did, Margie would do her classic “Margie gurgle” and Vern would say, “Well…that’s my little Margie!”

This program was never a critical favorite, but it was lively and popular, and I remember it well. I loved Margie’s glamorous lifestyle with her handsome, indulgent father. I thought her behavior was appalling, but loved her high spirits and was fascinated by the way she got away with the most outrageous antics just because she was so adorable.

“My Little Margie” was an unusual show because it began on television but crossed over into radio. The program ran from 1952-1955, and Gale Storm went on to new comedy, “The Gale Storm Show,” (known in syndication as “Oh, Susanna”) in which she played cruise director Susanna Pomeroy. Storm, who recorded several songs during the 1950s, sang on her new program, and three of her records from this period were commercial successes : “I Hear You Knocking,” “Teenage Prayer” and “Dark Moon.”

In later years, she continued to perform on the stage and in guest spots on television programs. Her 1980 autobiography, “I Ain’t Down Yet,” revealed her struggle and eventual success overcoming alcoholism.

Storm’s first husband died in 1987, and in 1987 she married former TV executive Paul Masterson, who died in 1996. Gale Storm and Lee Bonnell had three sons, Phillip, Peter and Paul, and a daughter, Susanna. Storm is survived by her children, eight grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, plus a lot of fans for whom she will always be Our Little Margie.

My Little Margie Episode from the Internet Archive

SearchMe Stack of Gale Storm Videos on YouTube

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Celebrate!

2009-07-03T02:52:58Z

Cardcow.com

Happy Fourth of July to all!

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-07-07T23:14:46Z

Hard to know what to say, what to remember, what’s better forgotten. But I do like this performance of the song “Ben” from the Sonny and Cher show. Here Jackson has outgrown the his role as the talented little kid with the Jackson 5, and not yet become the King of Pop…and all that came later.

North Korea on My Mind

2009-07-11T12:12:23Z

The news from North Korea continues to be disturbing, and I can’t get it out of my mind. North Korea is pretty close to Dalian, the Chinese city where I taught English for three summers. One hot weekend in 2004, I took a took a trip from Dalian to Dandong, a Chinese city on the Yalu River, directly across from North Korea.

Dandong has a beautiful park along the river, and like all the parks I saw in China, it was filled with people sitting and chatting, playing cards, roller skating, flying kites, and listening to a band playing traditional music.

It’s something of a tourist town for the Chinese. One of the main attractions is the Museum Commemorating the War to Resist American Aggression and Aid Korea, which is what the Chinese call the Korean War. I visited the Museum, which was quite interesting. I liked the big blow-ups of newspaper photographs and the old-fashioned full-size diorama displays. I didn’t like listening to the tour narration, which was all in Chinese. I don’t understand much Chinese, but I know the words for American, Korean and Chinese, and I know tone of voice, so I felt like I got the gist. Especially when everyone turned to look at me every time the word meiguoren, American, was mentioned. It was a little awkward, but I kept my China face on, the one that says “respectful observer” and it was OK.

There are two bridges in Dandong. The China-Korea Friendship Bridge carries pedestrian, road and railroad traffic between Dandong and the city of Siniju, North Korea. Nearby, the “Broken Bridge” extends only halfway across the river. It was damaged by bombs during the Korean War, and is now open as a memorial. You can walk out to the end, which has been secured by railings but still shows twisted pieces of metal. They sell refreshments and there are telescopes for viewing the North Korean coast.

But the most popular tourist activity in Dandong is taking a boat ride along the Yalu River to get a glimpse of life on the other side of the river. We took a ride on a boat that was much smaller and faster and went much closer to the coast than I expected. We saw a few fishermen, and a lot of old, broken-down looking wooden boats. But what we mostly saw were dozens of young kids, nearly all boys, running around, swimming and playing in the water. They sounded like kids at play anywhere in the world, and they clearly accustomed to having boatloads of gawking tourists observing them. Some ignored us and some waved to us. Here and there we saw thin young soldiers standing guard with rifles, looking only a couple of years older than the kids in the water.

That was five years ago. All those boys I watched playing in the river on that hot summer day — what are they doing now? Are they fishermen, or soldiers? Is one of them on board the Kang Nam right now, the North Korean cargo ship that may or may not be carrying weapons? Impossible to know, and maybe not useful to think about. But every time I read about North Korea or hear it mentioned on the news, I am trying to follow the story but it’s those kids in the water that I’m picturing.

You Made Me Love You

2009-05-09T22:04:03Z

Just remembering my mother with this movie clip of Judy Garland singing “You Made Me Love You” to a photograph of Clark Gable. My mother loved this song and sang it often, and described this scene to me many times. She was around 13 when she saw this, and thought it was wonderfully romantic. I never saw the movie, Broadway Melody of 1938, so I was happy to find this clip on YouTube.

RIP Mark Fidrych, Ballplayer and Diner Guy

2009-04-15T13:42:49Z

I was saddened to hear the news of the accidental death of former baseball player Mark “The Bird” Fidrych yesterday. In 1976, Fidrych joined the Detroit Tigers. He was named the American League Rookie of the Year and was selected as the American League’s starting pitcher for the All Star game. For a short time, he was a celebrity. A 1977 New York Times article referred to him as “the legendary ‘Bird’ of the Detroit Tigers pitching staff and the biggest box-office draw in baseball in years.”

But then he lost it all. His baseball career was cut short due to an injuries. He struggled to recover his pitching ability, and spent served some time in the minor leagues attempting a comeback. He ended his baseball career in 1983 at the age of 29.

He went back to his hometown of Northborough, Massachusetts, where he married Ann Pantazis, whose parents owned Chet’s Diner. On weekends, he helped out at the diner, serving breakfast, washing dishes, doing whatever needed to be done.

His mother-in-law, Nancy Pantazis, is quoted in the Boston Globe : “He loved it. Every Saturday he was there…He was a wonderful guy. I couldn’t ask for a better son-in-law, and he’ll be missed.”

I never met him, but by all accounts he had a good life in Northborough, and didn’t allow his life to be ruined by regret over the way his baseball career had been cut short.

In a 1999 interview, he told the Boston Globe : “I got a great life now…I got a family, I got a house, I got a dog. I would like my career to have been longer, but you can’t look back. You have to look to the future.”

I’m sure he’ll be missed.

Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych, 54; Pitcher Enthralled Fans — By Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe, April 14, 2009

I’ll Be Seeing You

2009-03-21T02:53:09Z

I’m posting this in memory of my mother, in honor of her birthday. She loved this song, and I often hear it in my head as I sort through all these old photographs, seeing her (and too many other loved ones now gone) in all the old familiar places…Pheasant Hill Street, Westchester Circle, Columbus Street, Swift’s Beach, Crystal Park and more.

Made You Look…

2009-03-07T17:29:33Z

In my old neighborhood, kids teased each other by pointing at your feet and saying, “Your shoe’s untied” or pointing up to the sky and saying “What’s that???” or, more imaginatively, pointing behind you and saying “Look! There goes Mr. Hennigan [our sixth grade teacher] and he’s wearing a dress!” And if you looked where they were pointing (who wouldn’t?) they would chant:

Made you look, you dirty crook
You stole your mother’s pocketbook!

I was a gullible kid, so I heard this a lot, and hated it.

But nowadays I am often wandering around with my camera, taking various random pictures of whatever strikes my fancy — old signs, architectural details, puddles, train tracks, vegetables, whatever. I especially like taking pictures from various angles. I’m not creating great art, I’m mostly just amusing myself. As I am doing this, I often notice that people driving or walking by will look in the direction that my camera’s pointing. It’s just a natural instinct, I think, to look where someone is pointing, where they are using their finger or a camera.

I’m not trying to attract any attention or to trick anyone, but I do like the feeling that for one fleeting moment, I have made someone look in a different direction. Presumably most people just look to make sure they aren’t missing something important, like flames coming out of a high window, or interesting, like an eagle perched on the roof.

But I like to think that maybe some people look at whatever I’m looking at and think, “Wow, I never noticed those beautiful columns” or “That rusty old car really is kind of cool.”