60th Anniversary of Buddy Holly's Crash

Eleven months prior to the fatal plane crash, Buddy Holly - who was memorably described as 'the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll' by music critic Bruce Eder - was on a tour of the UK. The tour which also included Gary Miller, The Tanner Sisters, Des O'Connors and Ronnie Keene & His Orchestra, stopped in at the Gaumont Theatre in Salisbury on March 22nd 1958. The Crickets stayed at the Grand Hotel, Wigan, and Buddy invited the receptionist, Barbara Bullough, to his concert. He dedicated ‘Everyday’ to Barbara and took her home in a taxi to Shevington. He wanted her to join on the tour but because this was 1958, she didn't accept his proposal. ‘He was the perfect gentleman,’ said Barbara of Buddy, whom she invited to visit her home. At the Old George Hotel, Buddy chatted with receptionist Margot Warrender, giving her two free tickets for the late show that night. She said: "I wasn't really a rock'n'roll fan and must admit I didn't really know who Buddy Holly was. I was bemused at the crowd of fans who were waiting for autographs." Back at the Old George Hotel after the shows, Buddy wrote a letter to his parents back home in Lubbock, Texas, using his new Woolworths pen. It read: "Dear Mother & Dad -- We had three good shows today. We are getting to where we can carry on pretty good on the stage what with a few little jokes and all. Everyone comments on how my jokes get bigger laughs than the comedian on the show. Who knows, we might change and be comedians instead of rock & roll stars. Love, Buddy." The Crickets were spotted by fan Diane Fishlock who remembers: My friend and I were in Woolworths before attending the early evening concert when we saw Buddy and Jerry Allison. We just followed them round, managed to get their autographs and had a short chat.

I was fifteen when I first heard of Buddy on Radio Luxembourg. It was the only source of this new pop music. I left art college and went to another college to study for a career in nursing. It was around that time that I heard this strange new sound on RL. Even the intro made me sit up and take notice, even before the singer started to sing!  I used to take New Musical Express every week. I can still remember the day I read those magic words "Crickets To Tour UK"! I didn't stop yelling and jumping up and down for ages! We saw some 'names' with our free seats - Terry Dene, Gene Vincent and lots of others I've long since forgotten. But Buddy was appearing in Liverpool. Happily, my friend and I had been to Liverpool before to see Paul Anka. The venue was the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall which meant it was built for acoustics rather than visualization. In other words, the stage was so far away from us, anyone on it resembled tin soldiers at the far end of a billiard table. I was crushingly disappointed. Still, we were in the front row.  the stalls below were ¾ empty, just the front ten or fifteen rows occupied. Imagine how peeving that was to strain to see them with all those empty seats in front of us, not to mention the effect it must have had on Buddy at all! First impressions of the theatre was that the stage was bare! It was also somewhat gloomy. Being a concert hall, there were no curtains and the stage was more like a big catwalk. Even Ronnie Keene's band didn't make much of an impression on the space. 

All the artists had to walk out from the wings which seemed like a long, lonely walk. Then Buddy came onstage and an embarrassing interlude happened with the plug. Buddy plugged his lead into the amp and started to play but nothing happened! He unplugged it and plugged it in again, picked at his guitar but still nothing. He finally picked up the electric cable from the back of the amp and followed it along. We had a variety of different plug sizes including 5amp and 15amp. So finding your plug didn't fit was not an uncommon occurrence! I reckon Buddy and The Crickets were on stage for well over an hour. Some songs rang straight from one to the next. Buddy introduced a few with some attempts at funnies in between though I wouldn't go so far as to describe them as jokes! During one of the songs - think it might have been "Oh Boy" - Joe B did some spectacular stunts with his bass, getting down first on his knees and then laying on his back, still playing up a storm! There was an encore which I think was probably "Ready Teddy" but by then I was just in seventh heaven! The show was absolutely, stunningly, fantastically brilliant! I had seen lots of the stars of the day by that time and Buddy certainly rated as not just the best but the best by about a thousand miles. After the show, I went to the stage door and waited, despite my friend and I having to run to catch the last train back! At the backstage, I was only aware that I was in the same room as Buddy. He was so kind and polite. I got my programme signed and had a nice talk with him. My lasting memory is of Buddy leaning against the wall looking happy! It was certainly one of those "nights to remember." Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Rock biographer Michael Lydon (Ray Charles: Man & Music, The Rolling Stones Discover America): Buddy Holly was the first singer-songwriter. It’s hard to remember now, after decades in which rock’n’roll music has been recognised as a legitimate art form, that in the 1950s even its fans didn’t take it seriously. Early rockers were considered to be musical slobs with crude guitar riffs. Everybody loved Chuck Berry songs, but no one thought of him as a ‘lyricist’. White middle class kids did not consider rock’n’roll a possible career choice – it was something that was fun but stupid. Buddy Holly changed all that. Holly was a highly intelligent kid, bursting with musical talent, who saw that rock’n’roll could be truly good music. He listened to everything with open ears, and from all the sounds of early rock, he put together his own sound, clear and strong enough to be heard through the electric din of 50s music.

Billy Griggs: Buddy Holly is the original singer/songwriter. The things that he was doing in the 50s laid the groundwork for people writing their own songs. He showed that white guys with specs could make great rock’n’roll music. It was the Brits who really got Buddy Holly. The Americans don’t hold him in such reverence. They just see him as one among many. But Buddy should be acknowledged as rock’n’roll’s first great all-rounder and recognised for all his talents: singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He could perform ballads, country and rock’n’roll with a winning personality. No other rock’n’roll star possessed all these attributes at that time. Chuck Berry ticked most of the boxes but there was a coldness about him and he possessed no team spirit. Bob Dylan said, ‘The singers and musicians I grew up with transcend nostalgia – Buddy Holly and Johnny Ace are just as valid to me today as then.’ Dylan was being as mysterious as ever. Why didn’t he say Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry? We can say that Buddy Holly created a series of firsts, the first to have the lead/rhythm/bass/drums line-up, the first to have strings on a rock’n’roll record (yes, he was the first), the first to use the Fender Stratocaster (Paul Burlison from Johnny Burnette’s Rock’n’Roll Trio had a Fender Telecaster).

Maria Elena might disagree that Buddy wasn't sexy. Both he and Elvis played with their voices on ‘Baby I Don’t Care’, but Elvis sounds provocative while Buddy sounds childlike. No girl could have resisted Elvis’ pleas on ‘Don’t’, but Buddy singing the same song would have been a bit comical. However, even this worked in Buddy’s favour. It may be subconscious but one reason why he has so many male fans is because he is unthreatening. Male anxiety is a regular theme of his songs – ‘Maybe Baby’ or ‘Learning the Game’. A couple of suspect books: Ellis Amburn does an Albert Goldman to Buddy Holly, in his nightmarish story. Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue? is allegedly based upon her extensive diary entries, but despite the many illustrations, I would have liked a photograph of at least one page of the diaries to substantiate her claims. Unsurprisingly, Maria Elena has dismissed the book as fiction and as she is depicted as permanently bad-tempered, you wonder how anyone could have married her, let alone the effervescent Buddy Holly. Classic on-stage quote from Sonny Curtis: ‘Peggy Sue is still around. She is just not around us anymore.’ Holly's approach was such an anti-image, unlike Elvis. Most rock’n’roll artists were trying to be flamboyant sex symbols but he was like a college kid, and wearing your glasses on stage was unheard of in those days. He showed that you didn’t have to be glamorous to be noticed, the magic was in his sound. He also was very nice to talk to. —"Buddy Holly: Learning the Game" (2019) by Spencer Leigh 

Remembering Buddy Holly (Rise and Fall of Rock)

Buddy Holly greatly influenced the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Buddy once said in 1957, "Without Elvis, none of us would be here." In the mid 70's, before his own death, Elvis said, "Looking back over the last 20 years, I guess the guy I've admired most in rock and roll is Buddy Holly." Now, that's respect. In his book, "Rock 'n' Roll: The 100 Best Singles," Paul Williams wrote, "It only fully became rock and roll when Buddy Holly started singing it." Dick Clark (American Bandstand) remarked: "Elvis was the King of Rock 'n' Roll, but Buddy Holly was the undisputed father of Rock music." And Dick Clark was right. Holly went from violin to piano to steel guitar before switching to the standard acoustic model at age 11. At the age of 22, somehow Holly got the idea that he could do everything himself. Producing, working in different genres, exploring new compositive tecniques, a complete break from the norm at the time. Yes, Holly's ideas predated the Beach Boys and The Beatles, considerably, even to the point where he wanted to be his own George Martin. Buddy Holly was an intelligent dreamer with the proof that his songwriting was getting better. His quality output was also growing. Because of all of that, I see no reason that Buddy couldn't have met at least half of his big dreams if he was given more living years. Source: Remembering Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly had an optimistic, gentle self-mocking hiccup in his voice. He was as popular with the boys as Elvis Presley was with the girls, but for different reasons. Buddy Holly was the most influential rock star of his time, possibly of all time. Sunday, February 3, will mark the 60th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death in the crash of a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft near Clear Lake, Iowa. Consider how few new rock artists of comparable staying power or cultural significance have emerged since the '50s or the 90's alt-rock surge. “There is no figurehead band you could point to,” says critic Steven Hyden, host of the ­podcast Celebration Rock: “a band that comes from nowhere and takes over the culture, that’s ­unquestionably over. If a band like that came out, there would be no infrastructure to support it.” In the past “Rock & Roll era,” there was more space for eccentrics to skew the establishment game than today. —"Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars - 1955/1994" (2017) by David Hepworth

Buddy Holly & The Crickets never counted on their good looks to win them fans: “Buddy didn't really appeal to girls as far as a teen idol sort of thing,” said Jerry Allison. Not that girls didn't dig Buddy Holly, they even screamed. But compared to Elvis, Eddie Cochran or Dion, he simply couln't lay on his sex-appeal the same way. “It seemed like the boys liked us better,” continues Allison: “They were fans because of the music, not because of good looks, emotions or whatever.” Mrs. Holley (Buddy's mom) confirmed this aspect too: Around 90% of the letters she had received since Buddy's death were from males, even though females make up a large majority of the record-buying audience.

Joe B. Mauldin explains: “To be honest, I don't ever remember seeing Buddy hustling girls or sleeping with a girl during the tours. I think Buddy had enough on his mind... And as for drugs, no, absolutely no, for any of us. I didn't even know what marijuana was, until years later.” Nikki Sullivan: “Buddy was a star, and he knew it, he didn't mind anybody else sharing the stardom with him.” His marriage with Maria Elena Santiago was not kept a secret either, it just was not publicized. “They wanted to introduce me as The Crickets' secretary. But Buddy always introduced me as his wife, so it's not true to say our marriage was secret. We just didn't feel like broadcasting the news.” —"Remembering Buddy: The Definitive Biography Of Buddy Holly" (2001) by John Goldrosen

Buddy Holly: Learning the Game

Most people in the late 50s were into Elvis Presley, but Buddy Holly was the nerds’ hero. Music historian Dominic Pedler (The Songwriting Secrets Of The Beatles): As far as the mechanics of his music are concerned, Buddy Holly was arguably the first rock ‘n’ roll pioneer to make a convincing crossover from traditional three-chord structures to harmonically sophisticated pop. Most of Buddy Holly songs have subtle harmonic twists that distance themselves from the straight ahead, three-chord fare relied on relentlessly by, say, Chuck Berry, Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis. Even the simplest compositions like ‘That’ll Be the Day’ and ‘It’s so Easy’ enjoy watershed moments where a new chord deliberately cues that hanging end-of-bridge feeling that so reinforces the song’s most poignant lyrical line: ‘That some day, well, I’ll be through’ or ‘Where you’re concerned, my heart has learned’. The final release with the Crickets in this period featured Tommy Allsup & the Roses and the B side of ‘It’s so Easy’—‘Lonesome Tears’, recorded in the summer of 1958, which has remained a favourite.

John Tobler: ‘When Bob Dylan and Carolyn Hester were first speaking, he asked her how she knew ‘Lonesome Tears’ and she said, truthfully, that Buddy had taught her the song. Dylan would hardly believe that he was talking to someone who knew Buddy Holly.’ The lyrics of Lonesome Tears, like the best of Holly’s compositions, are clear and direct. They offer a simple structure for a breathtaking ensemble performance. It opens with four firecrackers from the guitar and drums. Then Buddy sings in synergy with the Roses to express his bitter distress at the loss of a love, and pleading and regret saturate the lyric. The Crickets’ frantic tempo underscores the restrained desperation of his delivery. The bridge is a revelation as his voice soars upward to emphasise his devastation at her departure. Buddy knew how to rein in this emotional outburst in order to return to the more controlled final verse, again blending in a lower register with the Roses. Then Jerry slams his kit to herald one of the most inspired guitar solos in the Holly canon. It achieves a peak that requires Buddy to resume his vocal at an even greater emotional pitch which he sustains to the end of the track. I’m left exhausted by the power of the performance which concludes with two simple but effective chords. These provide a sense of completion and emphasise the collective achievement of the performers in a 105 second masterpiece.’ 

Tim Whitnall: ‘Rock Around with Ollie Vee is the moment in American music history where rockabilly was about to become rock’n’roll, and Buddy Holly nailed it absolutely. The master take of ‘Peggy Sue’ is the best because the balance is so perfect. The way that they roll the reverb on the tom-toms and keep turning it on and off so that it sounds like you’re in outer space is wonderful.’   Maria Elena Holly: I wanted to be in show business myself, on Broadway, so I was taking lessons for dancing and singing and drama, but when Buddy came along, that was gone. He said, ‘It’s either you or I, we cannot both do the same thing.’ (Laughs) I said, ‘Okay, since you’ve already started, I give up.’’ Surprisingly, Maria Elena Holly was not used to dating: ‘I was 25 and I didn’t have much time for dating as I was involved with so many things. My aunt was very strict. She had told me that I was going to meet a lot of musicians, but I should not go out with them. She said that they were not responsible, but I saw Buddy coming through the door and it was like magic.’ On 15 August 1958 Buddy and Maria Elena were married at the Holley’s home on 1606 39th Street, Lubbock (Texas). Very few people were there: Ella and Lawrence, Larry, Travis and Patricia and their spouses, Jerry and Peggy Sue, and Joe Mauldin, while Buddy’s latest single was on the record player, ‘Now We’re One’. 

Buddy was still wearing dark glasses in his wedding pictures, which suggests that his standard frames had not been repaired. Buddy and Maria Elena with Jerry and Peggy Sue drove to El Paso and then moved to Acapulco for a double honeymoon. Maria Elena Holly: ‘We had our honeymoon with Jerry Allison who had married Peggy Sue in June. Jerry suggested that we all went to Acapulco. I said I didn’t mind, but Buddy said, ‘I do mind because I do not like Peggy Sue.’ He would be uncomfortable but I said that it would just be a short break.’ On stage performances, Norman Petty said that his accounting records only showed what was deposited, which, in reality, was under half of what was earned. As the Crickets’ manager, this is atrocious and showed a dereliction of duty. Reportedly, Norman Petty was devastated when Buddy Holly stopped recording in Clovis. When asked about Elvis Presley, Petty stated that ‘Buddy was much the better artist.’ If he really believed that, then why didn’t he get the finances right? He must have assumed that Buddy would be too busy to notice. Quite possibly, he had persuaded the Crickets to stay because they might act as a lever to get Buddy back to Clovis. Maria Elena is quite clear where the blame lay: ‘Buddy didn’t have any money because his manager didn’t want to let the money go.’ Buddy Holly split with the Crickets as they wanted to remain in Lubbock while he settled in New York with Maria Elena. The Crickets had considered going to New York, but Norman Petty, and probably Peggy Sue, had talked them out of it. 

Niki Sullivan had left The Crickets and received a $1,000 cash settlement. His song, ‘It’s All Over’, was inspired by his angry split from the Crickets. Now deceased, Niki Sullivan did occasional interviews and said that Buddy Holly had a love child with a girl in Lubbock. Peggy Sue Gerron, also deceased, made it clear that Buddy was fond of this girl and helped her when she was in trouble, but he was not the father. Sadly, this means that nobody inherited Buddy’s genes. The Winter Dance Party was a 3-week tour in extremely cold weather and there could be hundreds of miles between dates. An essential requirement should have been travelling in a well-equipped bus with bunk beds and good heating. No way. The buses came from Trailways in Chicago and were requisitioned school buses unsuitable for the extreme weather conditions. From time to time, the musicians started writing together, but they were generally too cold to be bothered. Whatever they did has been lost. Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings and The Big Bopper did write ‘Move Over Blues’ and The Big Bopper’s notebook survived the crash with the lyrics to a new song, ‘If I Ever Lost You’. 

On 25 January 1959, the tour came to the Kato Ballroom in Mankato, Minnesota, and on the following day, Eau Claire in Wisconsin. Next came the Fiesta Ballroom, Montevideo, Minnesota and the Promenade Ballroom, St. Paul, Minnesota. On 29 January 1959, the Winter Dance Party was at the Capitol Theatre in Davenport, Iowa. On 30 January 1959, they had an unscheduled stop at the Gaul Motor Company, Tipton for repairs. Then they were on their way to Laramar Ballroom, Fort Dodge, Iowa. Tommy Allsup: ‘You could tell that Buddy missed Maria Elena. After a show, Waylon, the Bopper and me would usually go for a beer but Buddy didn’t come. He didn’t drink at all on that tour. Buddy knew how uncomfortable touring was, especially in the coldest winter ever but he could not get out of it. We nearly froze to death in Wisconsin when the bus broke down. Their drummer got frostbite and had to be left in hospital in Michigan. Though he wanted to come home, Buddy was a professional – he was the headliner and he could not leave. He always put on a great show despite the conditions.’  A conspiracy theory has Buddy Holly, with the added persuasion of his handgun, taking over the controls from an incompetent pilot. It was wholly implausible, especially as Buddy had had less than 2 hours’ flying experience. Waylon Jennings had fuelled this controversy by saying, ‘There’s a good chance that Buddy was flying that plane.’ Maybe the pilot Roger Peterson had gone to pieces and Holly had realised that the only hope lay with him, but it is seems highly unlikely. 

Redemption is a favourite theme of Hollywood films, but how often does it happen in real life? Rock’n’roll stars have been badly served by the cinema and there has yet to be a decent film about Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly. In Elvis (1979), Kurt Russell decides that the most important thing to do when he takes possession of Graceland is to display his gold records. Great Balls of Fire! (1989) conveys Jerry Lee Lewis’s manic energy but the result is an animated cartoon that gives no indication of his extraordinary talent. The first biopic of a rock’n’roll star was of a performer who had never appeared in a film, The Buddy Holly Story, in 1978, and, despite its many faults, it has turned out okay. In 1975, Jerry Allison had acted as advisor on a script, Not Fade Away, to be directed by Jerrold Friedman. 20th Century Fox agreed to finance the film but they closed down the shooting after 2 weeks. Nobody had looked closely at the script and the producers realised that this wasn’t the bright raveup they’d been expecting. It’s a pity that the film was not completed or that the shot footage has not been seen. Just prior to The Buddy Holly Story, there had been a very good film about a crucial week in Alan Freed’s life, American Hot Wax (1978). 

The producers of The Buddy Holly Story, Ed Cohen and Freddy Bauer secured the rights to John Goldrosen’s well-researched biography of the star, but their budget was only $2m and by way of contrast, the abysmal film of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was made around the same time with a budget of $12m. Gary Busey, who had played Jerry Allison in the aborted Not Fade Away, was a superb choice for Buddy Holly. He was a good actor, having played Kris Kristofferson’s road manager in A Star Is Born (1976). The Buddy Holly Story was his first lead role and it was wisely decided that he would perform in front of live audiences. Norman Petty is not mentioned in the film because he was denied script control. He, apparently, had a script for a TV movie, which was never made. According to Jerry Allison: ‘They didn’t have the rights to use our names in The Buddy Holly Story so they called me Jesse and Joe B. was Ray Bob. Apart from that, I hated it. They took a book and got that wrong, so the movie was very disappointing to me.’ According to Joe B. Mauldin: ‘Buddy was much smarter than his character in the film.’

According to Sonny Curtis: ‘He wasn’t anything like he was portrayed in The Buddy Holly Story. Gary Busey’s portrayal of Buddy was more like Chuck Berry than Buddy. He also depicted Buddy as a sloppy dresser and an unsophisticated rube. Buddy was neither. Another thing I didn’t like of that portrayal is that Buddy sometimes could be a smart alec, but he was always a gentleman.’ Maria Elena was one of the advisors on the film so the romance part is handled well. Buddy Holly was a clean guy, with good morals, and there are no groupies or drugs in the film. You may wonder: where’s the rest of the story and why they decided not to show the plane crash as they end on a high after a performance on the Winter Dance Party. It was down to lack of budget.

In the end it came down to Elvis or Buddy. They were both my personal heroes but I chose Buddy because he was less obvious than Elvis. His music was subtler and more inventive and he wrote much of his own material, so in many ways he was more original and off-beat. There’s also something about Buddy’s voice that is totally open and honest and speaks to the heart. It’s indefinable, but it is as though his music is the medium through which his spirit is conveyed directly to the listener – it’s the transparency of great art. His off-beat humor made him stand out from the crowd. The other astonishing thing about him is how timeless and undated the music sounds. The rock and roll musicians all came from poor backgrounds, and so did their own heroes. There are no doctors or lawyers in Buddy Holly’s family tree: it is a background of farmers and labourers and it is Buddy Holly, not John Lennon, who was the working class hero. —"Buddy Holly: Learning the Game" (2019) by Spencer Leigh 

Moments in Time: Marilyn Monroe

More than 50 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe continues to fascinate the public. The most recent example of her timeless, transfixing spell comes in the form of one of the legendary bombshell’s most admired assets: her gorgeous blonde hair. Moments in Time, a purveyor specializing in collectibles, is now offering up a lock of Monroe’s famous mane, giving the public a chance to own a piece of Old Hollywood history nonpareil. The cost for such an iconic piece of cinematic gold? A cool $16,500.

Housed in a display box, the hair clipping comes from the actress’s hairdresser Kenneth Battelle and is dated June 14, 1959. The paper box features two glass framed pieces: one which contains a lock of around 35 strands of hair (making each follicle worth somewhere around $471) and, next to it, there’s an image of the iconic actress in the middle of her signature laugh. Still, Marilyn Monroe’s legacy has cast a longer shadow than most, and a get like this will certainly go quickly. If you’re a Monroe aficionado, we’d suggest ponying up the dough as quickly as possible. As they say: Hair today, gone tomorrow. Source: robbreport.com

Marilyn Monroe has come to represent our notion (however nostalgic) of 1950s attitudes, as scholars like Sarah Paige Baty (in her essay American Monroe, 1995) show. As critic Richard Dyer argued in Stars (1980), "Monroe’s image must be situated in the flux of ideas about morality and sexuality that characterized the 50s in America and can be indicated by such instances as the spread of Freudian ideas in post-war America, the Kinsey report, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, rebel stars such as James Dean and Elvis Presley, etc. Marilyn Monroe’s combination of sexuality and innocence is part of that flux, but one can also see her “charisma” as being the apparent condensation of all that within her. Marilyn invented a persona—The Girl—that would at first seem to release her from the bad things of her childhood, but which later became like one of her childhood ghouls, leaning over her, making her all sex, suffocating her. Thus she seemed to “be” the very tensions that ran through the ideological life of 50s." —"The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe" (2005) by Sarah Churchwell

Bad Times at the El Royale, Cal Neva restored

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) is a stylish film marred by muddled social commentary, set in 1969 at a resort modelled after the 220-room Cal Neva Lodge, which straddled the California-Nevada state line. However, the El Royale seems to have only eighteen rooms, judging by the keys hanging in the key safe, considerably fewer judging by the floorplan, of which only four are rented. All four guests arrive within the span of half an hour or so, to find the resort entirely unoccupied. No staff either, other than the concierge/desk clerk. Most of the rooms have been unoccupied for so long, they haven't even been cleaned. Very Kafkaesque, but how does such a resort remain in business? With two non-guests, there are seven central characters. The suggestion that they represent the seven deadly sins and the hotel represents heaven and hell has considerable appeal. John Hamm's character is the only one to get a room in the California area.

There is a question that permeates Bad Times At The El Royale without ever becoming a central focus: who is on the tape? The people who own the El Royale had been spying on people in the rooms with the footage being mailed to them by Miles. This, the last remaining reel, had captured a particularly famous person who visited the hotel in the recent past and has since died, committing what we can assume was adultery. One of the most obvious candidates is Robert F. Kennedy. According to director Drew Goddard: "Who knows how true any of the mob stuff and Kennedy rumors are, but it’s titillating to a writer’s imagination."  Everything in Bad Times At The El Royale exists in a gray area except two people: Darlene and Billy Lee, light and dark respectively. Indeed, she's the one who puts him in his place, too. By following her dreams despite having had her career stepped on by greasy producers, Darlene eventually finds her break, and a nice friend along the way. Billy uses the vulnerable to give himself a power trip before getting his comeuppance. Bad Times At The El Royale offers a couple of simple takeaways – hold onto your dreams as hard as you can, because so much of this world is out to destroy them, and if some bad people have made you do some bad things, it's okay, you are forgiven, because we all know who the real bad guys are. Source: screenrant.com

Built in 1926, the Cal Neva Resort, Spa & Casino was owned by Frank Sinatra from 1960-63, and frequented by the likes of the Rat Pack, Marilyn Monroe and members of the Kennedy family, among others. Company co-owner Robert Radovan previously said a December 12, 2014, reopening was originally eyed to coincide with what would have been Sinatra’s 99th birthday. However, various financing and construction issues delayed the reopening.  In July 2016, the Cal Neva was put up for auction. Billionaire Larry Ellison was the sole bidder, purchasing the property for $35.8 million in January 2018. The new Cal Neva offers a refurbished non-smoking casino with table games and slot machines. Further, the resort’s theater — The Showroom, originally imagined and built by Sinatra aka the Sinatra Ballroom — ‘will be carefully restored and upgraded to once again serve as Tahoe’s preeminent entertainment venue, which will also host local community events and recitals.’ A hotel similar to the Cal Neva in appearance and characteristics was featured in the 2018 film "Bad Times at the El Royale". Source: blog.everlasting-star.net

Merry Christmas in Weirdland

19. Remember the Night (1940)

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck famously co-starred in Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir Double Indemnity. They first teamed up for this 1940 Christmas romance in which Fred MacMurray plays John Sargent, a hard-charging DA who, through a misunderstanding, comes to spend the days before Christmas with Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), a small-time jewel thief he’s prosecuting. They start to fall in love during a road trip to Indiana, a sojourn that almost allows them to forget that John still has to try to send Lee to jail when they get back. Directed by Mitchell Leisen from a Preston Sturges script, Remember the Night begins as a broad, brisk comedy but shifts moods as John learns about Lee’s difficult past. In a classic holiday-spirit turn, he comes to realize the advantages his loving family have bestowed upon him once he sees how appreciative Lee is after sharing the first warm Christmas morning of her life with his family.

13. It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

A great Christmas movie that not enough people talk about, It Happened on Fifth Avenue opens with the homeless sage Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) moving, as he does every Christmas season, into the luxurious Manhattan home of vacationing tycoon Michael J. O’Connor (Charles Ruggles). From there the film keeps piling on the complications as it breaks down the divide between the haves and the have-nots. McKeever is soon joined by a displaced World War II vet (Don DeFore) and O’Connor’s daughter Mary (Gale Storm), who knows the house even better than those squatting there. The house grows more crowded, new loves get kindled, old loves get renewed, and O’Connor is forced to do a Scrooge-like about-face when he gets reacquainted with those less fortunate than him. Directed by Roy Del Ruth, who took on the project after Frank Capra decided to make It’s a Wonderful Life instead, It Happened on Fifth Avenue earns its warmth honestly, tethering a tale of fresh starts and changed hearts to the real difficulties faced by those reaching for the American dream in a postwar era that was supposed to bring prosperity for all.

12. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

In a film as sexy as it is funny, Barbara Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a magazine columnist who risks being exposed as a phony if she can’t create the perfect Christmas at the Connecticut home she’s writing about as part of a PR stunt to reward recuperating GI Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), who’s been dreaming of tasting her recipes while serving in World War II. The only problem: There is no Connecticut home, and she can’t cook. The farcical complications pile up from there, and Stanwyck deftly balances Elizabeth’s mounting sense of panic with wry humor as she reckons with her unexpected desire for Jones — a desire that has popped up just after she’s decided to give up on love in return for a marriage of convenience. Director Peter Godfrey keeps the action fast and light while trusting Stanwyck to excellently bring her character’s dilemma to life, even if it involves changing a diaper as if she’s never seen a baby before in her life.

5. The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

There are many great romantic movies set at Christmas, but somehow The Shop Around the Corner still stands above them all. Maybe it’s the irresistible premise: A pair of feuding co-workers don’t realize they’re falling in love with one another via anonymous letters. (If that sounds familiar, it’s because Nora Ephron drew on the same source material — the Miklós László play Parfumerie — for You’ve Got Mail.) Maybe it’s a cast headed by Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan and filled out with colorful character actors. Maybe it’s because few directors have balanced lightness and romance like Ernst Lubitsch. Whatever the case, it’s both a peerless romantic comedy and one of the great Christmas movies, weaving themes of forgiveness and second chances into a love story that reflects the season in which it takes place.

3. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

What was going on that led to so many great Christmas movies being released in 1947? That year saw the release of The Bishop’s Wife, It Happened on Fifth Avenue (see above), and offered most viewers their first chance to see the greatest Christmas movie of all time (see below). It also produced this lovely story of a girl (Natalie Wood) whose mother (Maureen O’Hara) unwittingly hires someone who may be the actual Kris Kringle as a department-store Santa at Macy’s. What follows is part fantasy, part romance (as O’Hara’s character starts to fall for a charming neighbor), part indictment of commercialism, part defense of letting children be children as long as they can, and part legal thriller (well, sort of). Mostly, the film, written and directed by George Seaton, is an irresistible bit of Christmas whimsy made unforgettable by Edmund Gwenn’s turn as the man who might be Santa.

1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Really, what other film could top a list of the greatest Christmas movies of all time? Frank Capra’s enduring classic stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the unwitting savior of Bedford Falls, a man whose goodness and generosity has touched more people than he realizes. In fact, as one bleak Christmas looms, he doesn’t realize it at all and is ready to commit suicide — until an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) arrives to show him the error of his ways.

Though it’s become synonymous with holiday cheer, Capra’s film works because of its willingness to go to some dark places, and because of Stewart’s ability to play a gregarious goof one moment and a man whose world comes crashing down the next. Curiously, the film didn’t go into wide release until after Christmas in January of 1947, which might have contributed to its underwhelming box-office performance. But it received a second life thanks to relentless airings on local television in the ’70s and ’80s, where its depiction of one man’s dark night of the soul (and a nightmarish vision of what unrestrained greed looks like without those interested in fairness and justice to stand in the way of the Mr. Potters of the world) connected with a new generation. It’s not hard to see why. It’s grounded in details of the times that inspired it — the Depression, World War II — but its vision of holiday kindness, and of the sort of country most of us would want to live in and the values of kindness and generosity most of us share, remains timeless. Source: www.vulture.com

Marilyn, Dorothy Kilgallen, JFK, Destiny Betrayed

Prior to the 1960 election, Marilyn – although politically astute – had apparently shown little interest in John F. Kennedy, dismissing him as too inexperienced. But like many Americans, she soon warmed to his youth and charisma. It is generally thought that they first met in late 1961. Marilyn met his brother Bobby, now Attorney General, over dinner at the Lawford home. She was accompanied that evening by Pat Newcomb. Pat was known for her extreme loyalty and protectiveness towards Marilyn, and some likened their relationship to that of sisters. In a letter to a colleague, Greenson wrote that Marilyn had been angered when Pat dyed her hair the same shade as hers. Dr. Ralph Greenson construed it as a fear of lesbian advances – which Pat denied. At lunchtime, Pat joined Marilyn by the pool, and Mrs Murray heard them bickering. It seems unlikely that Marilyn was angry merely because Pat had slept well, so it may have been about something more personal. “She was furious, it’s true,” Pat told Anthony Summers, author of Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. “But I think that she was also furious about something else, I think there was a lot more, not related to me, that I don’t know about.” Although she didn’t mention it in early interviews, Mrs Murray would later claim that Bobby Kennedy and Peter Lawford arrived, apparently unannounced, at the house early that afternoon. Many critics dispute this, because Bobby was supposedly with his family at a ranch outside San Francisco. Pat has denied outright that Bobby visited Marilyn. “Marilyn paid me my salary during her lifetime,” Pat told columnist Mike Connolly in 1962, “and I’m not going to write any post-mortems about my best friend.” True to her word, she declined all offers to publish a memoir of her time with Marilyn. “Evidence of Marilyn’s relationships with the Kennedys is mostly anecdotal – but substantial,” Charles Casillo asserts. However, he does not give credit to the many conspiracy theories implicating the Kennedys. The whole subject has become something of an urban myth that it has distorted Marilyn’s legacy.“Marilyn could not resolve her feelings of being unloved because she felt she was unlovable,” he writes, adding that “the depression that enveloped her in 1962 was like nothing she had experienced before.”  Source: tarahanks.com

The Reporter who knew too much was born of eight words: “They’ve killed Dorothy; now they’ll go after Ruby.” They were uttered by Jack Ruby’s attorney Melvin Belli. He said them to friend Dr. Martin Schorr shortly after Dorothy Kilgallen’s death. On April 14, 1965, Kilgallen was headlining her Journal-American column with the daunting words, “Why Did Oswald Risk All By Shooting Cop?” Her column proves she was continuing to question the “Oswald Alone” theory even after the Ruby trial had ended. Kilgallen wrote: "A mysterious and significant aspect of the events following the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas has never been explored publically, although it must have occurred to crack reporters covering the case as well as authorities investigating the tragedies. The important question—why did Lee Harvey Oswald, presumably fleeing from the police after the assassination, approach Patrolman J. D. Tippit’s car—in broad daylight with witnesses standing by—and shoot the policeman three times, although he had not said a word to Oswald. Oswald had managed to slip away from the scene and was—up to that point—not a reckless one. A man who knows he is wanted by the authorities after a spectacular crime does not seek out a policeman usually, unless he has decided to give himself up, and certainly Oswald was not doing that. By shooting Tippit instead of trying to make himself inconspicuous, Oswald put himself in double jeopardy. His act almost guaranteed his arrest. Why? A whodunit fan would infer that the policeman knew something about Oswald that was so dangerous [the policeman] had to be silenced at any cost, even Oswald’s chance at escape and freedom." 

Commenting on Ruby’s state of mind, she added, “He opened the floodgates of his mind and unloosed a stream of consciousness that would have dazzled a James Joyce buff and enraptured a psychiatrist. There was a great deal of fear inside Jack Ruby that Sunday in June [when he testified]. He feared for his own life.” In her “Voice of Broadway” column, and to anyone who would listen, Kilgallen called the Warren Commission report “laughable” and continued her assassination probe with Jack Ruby as the focal point. She learned of his three prison attempts at suicide in late 1964. First, Ruby stood 20 feet from a concrete wall. His face soaked with perspiration, he ran as fast as possible head first into the wall. He hoped to crack open his skull. He did not. Ruby’s second attempt involved use of an electric light socket. His third try involved using his pants legs to hang himself. A guard, always on watch, squelched Ruby’s intended plan. Hearing of Ruby’s suicide attempt anguished Kilgallen. She continued to ponder the shocking statement Ruby made after appearing before the Warren Commission: “The world will never know the true facts of what occurred. My motives. The people who had, that had so much to gain and had such an ulteior motive to put me in this position I’m in would never let the true facts come above board to the world.” Ruby’s admission only reinforced Kilgallen’s belief that Oswald’s killer was part of a conspiracy and cover-up. More certain every day of her suspicions, Kilgallen was not shy about sharing them. She told friend Marlin Swing several times, “This had to be a conspiracy.” The savvy Kilgallen realized what other competent researchers who fit facts to conclusions instead of the other way around, have during the years: Oswald was a puzzling/confusing character and attempts to decipher his role in the killing of JFK an absolute quagmire with few answers available. The famous reporter, like John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Jack Ruby, was doomed. She just did not know it yet. —"The Reporter Who Knew Too Much: The Mysterious Death of Dorothy Kilgallen" (2016) by Mark Shaw

While sequestered at the Inn of the Six Flags in Arlington, Marina Oswald was asked about her husband’s activities after she left New Orleans. She first replied that she thought he stayed in New Orleans and looked for work. She then said she had no knowledge of any trip to Mexico by Lee in September, and she added that, to her knowledge, Oswald had never been to Mexico. Marina was repeatedly asked about this topic on six more occasions. But she continued to deny that Oswald had ever said anything about being in Mexico City. In February she signed a deal with an entity called Tex-Italia films for the rights to her story. She would go on to make 132,500 dollars from this mysterious company, which never produced a film. In February, before the Warren Commission, she now reversed her story: Oswald had told her he was going to Mexico. And she now backed up what the CIA was saying: Oswald went to Mexico City to get a visa to Cuba. Again, the Commission now had some corroboration for a trip to Mexico that no one recalled Oswald mentioning. And it began with Ruth Paine. The Commission was enthralled by Ruth Paine now producing questionable evidence to implicate Oswald in the shooting. Why would a communist be shooting at both a rightwing ideologue like General Edwin Walker and the most liberal president since Franklin D. Roosevelt? Further, it was Kennedy who pushed Walker out of his command after a thirty year career in the service. This was for distributing rightwing, John Birch Society literature to his troops. No one from the Commission posed these obvious questions. To my knowledge, no critic before Jim Garrison ever seriously questioned the Warren Commission’s version of Oswald’s alleged journey to Mexico City.

Today, with the declassified documents secured by the ARRB, it appears that Garrison was correct about both the importance of and deliberate mystery surrounding Mexico City. The declassified record suggests that, seven weeks before the assassination, certain individuals in the CIA were manipulating either Oswald or an imposter in Mexico City. Almost all the information the Commission received came from the CIA and the FBI. And it arrived in heavily censored form. It was not until August of 1996, thirty-four years later, that the ARRB declassified the Slawson-Coleman Report. This was the report written by Warren Commission lawyers David Slawson and William Coleman describing their journey to Mexico City to investigate what Oswald did there. The excursion was actually suggested to them by Deputy Director Richard Helms. One reason for the Commission’s ignorance about the Oswald file is that Helms actually appointed James Angleton to be the main liaison to the Commission. Unlike his predecessor in that spot, John Whitten, Angleton tried to accent Oswald’s Russian period for the Commission. Since Angleton and Dulles were close colleagues from the 1940s, Allen Dulles tipped off his friend as to what queries they would get about Oswald from the Commission. Since there had been a rumor that Oswald was an FBI agent, Dulles informed Angleton in advance as to what the Commission queries would likely be about Oswald’s possible intelligence ties. Then Angleton and William Sullivan of the FBI rehearsed and unified their responses to deny any intelligence connection to Oswald. This is the reason that the HSCA report on Mexico City was not part of the published volumes in 1979. The report is over 300 pages long. It was therefore classified until the ARRB was created. And then it had to go through several reviews. But even today, an annex to the report, “Was Oswald an Agent of the CIA” has not been released.—"Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case" (2012) by James DiEugenio