2003-07-02 - 12:43 a.m.

Dropping Like Flies

There has been a spate of deaths lately.  Famous people are dropping like flies. Katharine Hepburn died.  Now there was a woman I have loved all my life.  95 years old and she dies, just like that, from nothing!  There was just something about her, the young Katharine Hepburn, back in the 1930's and 1940's.  She was an iconoclast, according to my coworker, Ben.  And I realized that he was right once I looked up the word iconoclast in the dictionary.

I read her book, The Making Of The African Queen.  It was a diary she kept while shooting the film on location in Africa with John Houston and Humphry Bogart.  What an amazing woman.  She was also the love of my all time favorite actor, Spencer Tracy.  He was Catholic and unwilling to divorce his wife.  This arrangement seemed to suit all of them.

As she got older she began to shrink.  He spine became more compacted, I guess.  And she had a condition that made her head shake.  She used to stop it by drinking whisky.  And, even up into her late 80's she would go out into cove near her house and swim in the icy cold ocean.   This was her exercise.

And most of all she was an incredible actress.  I love watching her in a film.  She could get so much across.  Her style was simple and complex at the same time.  I guess her performances had depth because she was a deep person.

Comedian Buddy Hackett died, too.  Not so deep.  Just a big character.

And a couple of the old time segregationists died.  Senator Strom Thrumond died at age 100.  I'm sure Trent Lott wishes he had died before his 100th birthday.  Thurmond was an extremely strong advocate of "separate but equal" which really means keep whites and blacks apart.  This was a fairly popular notion her in the South up until the late 1960's, for crying out loud.  And once public opinion turned so did Thurmond and he continued to be elected for another 50 fucking years.  The man just would not die.

Up until now.

But one of my favorite old politicians passed away, too. Former Governor Lester Maddox died last week.  He also ran on a segregationist platform back in the 1960's and, through a weird quirk of fate, was appointed Governor of the state of Georgia.  His segregationist plans fell through.  He appointed more black men and women to state positions than any governor before or since.  He instituted a thing called "Little People's Day."  One day a month he would have all of the heads of the state agencies gather together in the capitol building.  Every citizen of the state was invited to just show up at any time that day, walk over to the table where the governor was sitting and explain his problems.  Then the governor would point to one of the agency heads and say, "Go to that table over there and tell that man that I said to fix it."

And that was that.  The heads of the state agencies had to sit there as average citizens with a gripe stood right in front of them and let them have it.  You don't see that sort of thing happening today.  Hell no.  Too bad.

My first memory of this man came when I was a child back in 1967 when he was running for Lt. Governor.  He came to my hometown and rode a bicycle backwards around the town square!   It was a publicity stunt and it worked like a charm.  I remember my parents telling me this man was going to ride a bicycle backwards.   I didn't know what they were talking about.  It did not seem possible.  But it was.

He sat on the handlebars of the bike facing the back tire and peddled moving the bike forward.  I think he had some kind of mirror to see behind him. Everyone watched him.  He went around a couple of times.  Then he stopped and took the stage to make his political speech and half the crowd turned and walked away.  Including my parents.  I was so disappointed.  I wanted to hear his speech.  Even at age 3 I wanted to know what all this was about.

In the Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta, under the gold plated dome, there is a gallery of paintings of former Governors.  If you look closely at the painting of Lester Maddox you will notice in the background, on a table is a dead fish wrapped up in a newspaper, The Atlanta Journal.  His long time feud with that paper is immortalized in his official portrait.  That kicks ass.

And former Atlanta Mayor Manard Jackson died.  He was pretty young, late 50's I think.  I remember him from my childhood, also.  He was Atlanta's first black mayor in the 1970's.  He was an amazing politician, and was pretty much perfect for the times.   It wasn't until after he left office that his talent was obvious.  Subsequent mayors were pretty lame.  And the most recent mayor, Bill Campbell, was an actual and literal crook.  But he was elected twice and basically ran the city into the ground.  I like the new lesbian mayor, though.

So many people from my childhood are passing away.  Some were young, some were old, and some were very, very old.   It just seems to be happening in a cluster.

I had my second Improv class last night.  I had the best time.  Something is starting to happen now.  Now when I get up on the stage to do a scene or play an improv game all I have to do is make a gesture to make my classmates laugh.  And things that I say that don't even make sense will get a big laugh.  I did an interview scene with Chris, the instructor.  He was the interview and I was a bee collector.  Not a beekeeper, but a bee collector.  I just kept talking for about 10 minutes and the class loved it and told me how funny I was.  I talked about bee collecting and they pretended to be people calling in to ask questions.

It is fascinating. These things just take on a life of their own.  People read things into a throwaway line that was not intended and I come off looking brilliant.  Something similar happens at work when I do my little monologues with the guys I work with.  They all realize I am starting a routine and they just stop talking and look at me, grinning like something funny is about to happen.

I like it.  It is a real confidence booster having people tell me how good I am.  One of my favorite compliments came from my former instructor at that last show I did.  He told me I was really good.  He made an effort to tell me so.  And he didn't tell anyone else that.  And he is not the sort of guy who hands out a lot of flattery.  He is also my all time favorite performer in that theater troop so his compliment meant the world to me.

The other night I went one of their shows.  It turned out to be an anniversary show so the stage was packed with all of their performers.  I laughed my head off. One of the girls in my class and her husband were there.  When I met him he said, "Oh, I've heard a lot about you!"

Huh?  Ok.  And the woman who was stalking me was there, too.  I did not plan this.  I didn't even know I was going until about half an hour before the show.  I just drove down there and took a chance I could get in.  The stalker girl is now very, very careful to ignore me, but only a certain amount.  She tries not to sit next to me now.

And the high school girl from my last class has emailed me a few times.  If only she were about 10 or 15 years older, I swear to God.  A very sweet girl, and very talented.  She has a great body and is a dancer.  Just graduated high school.  Yikes.  Why don't she stalk me?

All right.  That's enough for now.

I'm taking a few days off from work and then there is the Independence Day holiday.  July 4th, my favorite!

Jimmy
 
 
 
 

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