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February 04, 2004
Janice Rule
I just found out that one of my favorite actresses died a few months ago. Her name was Janice Rule and she portrayed Roxanne in The Subterraneans. In that movie she wore heavy eye make-up, painted sad self-portraits, and did wild bohmenian dances. No wonder I loved her. She also guest starred in a couple Fugitive episodes. One of her husbands was Ben Gazzara. He was the lead in the TV show, Run for Your Life. I absolutely adored that show. It came on right after It Takes a Thief.
At the tender age of 15, I watched The Subterraneans on TNT. It was a sanitized version of the Jack Kerouac novella. George Peppard starred as Leo Percepied and Leslie Caron was his black, errrrr, I mean French girlfriend, Mardou. Arte Johnson from Laugh-In fame played a Truman Capote-like character. The other beatniks were portrayed by Jim Hutton and Roddy McDowall. Jim Hutton made a couple of movies with Paula Prentiss and he later starred as Ellery Queen on TV. Sadly, he is mainly known today as the father of Timothy Hutton. Roddy McDowall was in so many great movies. My favorite was Lord Love a Duck with Tuesday Weld. When I was in college, I interned at a local news station. One afternoon, I was told to take a cup of coffee down to the studio for some guest. I grumbled all the way to the studio wondering how I ever got myself into such a servile position. "Here's your coffee, sir" I said to the guest. The face that greeted me belonged to RODNEY MACDOWALL!
"Thank you my dear!" he said.
"You.. you... you are Rodney MacDowell!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, I do believe so" he replied.
"I... I... I WORSHIP YOU!!!!!"
"Oh my, you do have good taste."
Talk about servile and stupid. Oh well, we all have moments.
At any rate, The Subterraneans left a lasting impression on me. I remember, weeks after my first viewing, I took to wearing a black beret and too much eyeliner. Looking back I realize that what I loved was the beatnik image as portrayed by Hollywood. It wasn't Alan Ginsberg that I loved; it was Maynard G. Krebs*. That may explain why after about 20 attempts, I still haven't made it through the novella.
*Do you know what the G stands for? Walter.
Posted by donna at February 4, 2004 10:44 PM | TrackBackComments
Roddy was cool.
Posted by: David at February 13, 2004 10:38 AMI can't wait to see finished pictures!
Posted by: jewdez at February 5, 2004 05:04 PMYou may have read "On the Road." I really enjoyed the "Dharma Bums." It's funny how a cool attitude seems to exist in every era. Like today!
Posted by: gerald at February 5, 2004 12:02 PM
