"He gave us a signal!"
--Batman
Friday night I went to the Actor's Theater in Charlotte with my grandmother. One of her good friends owns the place and they just moved into it within the past year. This particular night they were having an "Evening with Pat Hingle".
Who might that be, I'm sure you are asking yourself. Well look him up. I'm sure most of you won't know him by name, and those readers in my age demographic will most likely only know him from his work as Commissioner Gordon in the four Batman movies that have come out since 1989. I also recall seeing him in "The Quick and the Dead" and "Splendor in the Grass".
The man is almost 81 yrs old, and for two hours he stood onstage in front of us and read the play "JB", which is a story about the 20th century Job, and played all the parts. Then he did the same with choice scenes for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", two plays which he performed on or off Broadway and are very near and dear to his heart.
He also related anecdotes of meeting and working with legendary director Elia Kazan (onstage and on film with "Splendor in the Grass" and "On the Waterfront", his debut film role). He told of how during some freak accident in New York, he fell down an elevator shaft and tore off his left pinkie, a digit I noticed missing late in the night as I started paying attention to his many hand gestures during his acting. Pat also mentioned how Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan visited him in the hospital, and Kazan had an abnormal fear of hospitals (back then they weren't all white and pristine) and kinda had a restrained freak-out during the visit.
Pat also told a humorous and sad story about running into Tennessee Williams in NYC. Pat was walking near the Plaza Hotel and stepped over what he thought was a drunk. As he looked he realized it was Tennessee, drunk, passed out. He tried to wake him.
"Hey Ten, it's me, Pat Hingle."
Tennessee- "Huh?"
Pat- "It's me, Pat Hingle."
Tennessee- "Wha...huh...."
Pat- "... It's me, Gooper." (character from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof")
Tennessee's eyes light up, a smile on his face - "Gooooper!"
Pat then helped Ten (as he called him) up and took him to the Plaza, where all the bellmen and members of the concierge came running up, worried about him, saying they'd been looking for him since yesterday. They took Ten up to his room and thanked Pat Hingle. And that was the last time he ever saw the famous playwright.
Pat then answered some questions from the audience. He revealed that two of his sisters live here in North Carolina, and Pat himself, along with his wife, are retired and currently living in Wilimington.
The audience then disbanded and went to the lobby for drinks and desserts. My grandmother's friend took my grandmother and I backstage and I got to meet Pat and shake his hand. Which was cool. I mean, that's Commissioner Gordon! Among other great roles, I know. But he'll always be Gordon to me.
He's a great actor. Watching this 80 yr old stand onstage for TWO hours and read the parts of every character for "JB", and then do pretty much the same for "Cat" was amazing. He's extremely talented, a true professional. My grandmother loves him because she says that every time he smiles, his eyes twinkle.
So I looked for that, and she was right, they do.
--Cbake
Friday night I went to the Actor's Theater in Charlotte with my grandmother. One of her good friends owns the place and they just moved into it within the past year. This particular night they were having an "Evening with Pat Hingle".
Who might that be, I'm sure you are asking yourself. Well look him up. I'm sure most of you won't know him by name, and those readers in my age demographic will most likely only know him from his work as Commissioner Gordon in the four Batman movies that have come out since 1989. I also recall seeing him in "The Quick and the Dead" and "Splendor in the Grass".
The man is almost 81 yrs old, and for two hours he stood onstage in front of us and read the play "JB", which is a story about the 20th century Job, and played all the parts. Then he did the same with choice scenes for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", two plays which he performed on or off Broadway and are very near and dear to his heart.
He also related anecdotes of meeting and working with legendary director Elia Kazan (onstage and on film with "Splendor in the Grass" and "On the Waterfront", his debut film role). He told of how during some freak accident in New York, he fell down an elevator shaft and tore off his left pinkie, a digit I noticed missing late in the night as I started paying attention to his many hand gestures during his acting. Pat also mentioned how Tennessee Williams and Elia Kazan visited him in the hospital, and Kazan had an abnormal fear of hospitals (back then they weren't all white and pristine) and kinda had a restrained freak-out during the visit.
Pat also told a humorous and sad story about running into Tennessee Williams in NYC. Pat was walking near the Plaza Hotel and stepped over what he thought was a drunk. As he looked he realized it was Tennessee, drunk, passed out. He tried to wake him.
"Hey Ten, it's me, Pat Hingle."
Tennessee- "Huh?"
Pat- "It's me, Pat Hingle."
Tennessee- "Wha...huh...."
Pat- "... It's me, Gooper." (character from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof")
Tennessee's eyes light up, a smile on his face - "Gooooper!"
Pat then helped Ten (as he called him) up and took him to the Plaza, where all the bellmen and members of the concierge came running up, worried about him, saying they'd been looking for him since yesterday. They took Ten up to his room and thanked Pat Hingle. And that was the last time he ever saw the famous playwright.
Pat then answered some questions from the audience. He revealed that two of his sisters live here in North Carolina, and Pat himself, along with his wife, are retired and currently living in Wilimington.
The audience then disbanded and went to the lobby for drinks and desserts. My grandmother's friend took my grandmother and I backstage and I got to meet Pat and shake his hand. Which was cool. I mean, that's Commissioner Gordon! Among other great roles, I know. But he'll always be Gordon to me.
He's a great actor. Watching this 80 yr old stand onstage for TWO hours and read the parts of every character for "JB", and then do pretty much the same for "Cat" was amazing. He's extremely talented, a true professional. My grandmother loves him because she says that every time he smiles, his eyes twinkle.
So I looked for that, and she was right, they do.
--Cbake
posted by Cbake at 12:04 PM
1 Comments:
For those of you who don't know Chris's grandmother.....Mamere is such an awesome babe!! She is beautiful, smart, kind entertaining, has a quick wit and great sense of humor. Has a Jackie O sense of style and class. Can cook, bake, sew, make killer jewlry, cross-stitch, knit, crochet and embroider!!! Knows how to make one feel "all better". Loves all people (except kathy lee gifford- which just goes to prove her intuition about people and things). She has been taking in any persons of need since i can remember. ( i have never been to a holiday gathering where there wasn't atleast one -two people who needed a good meal and some old fashioned family fun and dysfunction. she never leaves anyone out... always able to squish extras in at the table, even at the last minute. this has been going on for the 44 years i have known her). She knows how to decorate. Mamere doesn't hesitate to be different and bold---she knows who she is. Mamere doesn't try to be "IN"...she sets the style. I'm not kidding. When I was young, she would buy clothes for me from NYC and encourage me to wear them w/ style and "set the trend". So I would. Once in 6th grade I was put in detention for wearing a smock...the latest fashion in milano and paris, but in circa 1973 charlotte it looked like a maternity shirt and a nun at my school grabbed me when I patted my tummy to a goup of girls and teased "i was pregnant".( i was naive and had not considered how a baby is made yet, but i knew what 1st, 2nd and 3rd(gross!) base was). MAMERE'S RENDITION TO ME AT AGE 14 OF THE BIRDS AND THE BEES IS ANOTHER STORY AND VERY FREAKIN FUNNY!!! Mamere loves travel and adventure. She trusts her gut and goes with it. She still has best friends from 1st grade, and continues to make a new friend where ever she is... at a party or the bagel store. Anyone who meets her remembers her name and often becomes life long friends or admire'ers. She has friends of all ages that she sees on a regular basis, from gay to straight, married and single, my age and up. She is in her 70's, has beautiful green eyes and will go every where and any where with out make-up. She has taught me,,through example, that it is not your make-up but your heart and smile that people respond to. (i test this theory out often at starbucks mon-fri at 830am where i go w/ the "just out of bed look", amoungst the working women looking tip top in heels w/ matching bags, consumed w/ themselves. i smile with kindness as mamere would and people do respond to sunshine in ones eyes...not your purse. MAMERE IS FULL OF LOVE, GENEROSITY and WISDOM. She is confident and can not relate *at all* to those who aren't, but is sensitive to the weak & faint-hearted. She is smart, so you'd want to be on her team for Trivial Pursuit. She went to college for two years at Univ. of Pittsburgh, then ran off to NYC and became an airline stewardess in the day when you were measured in the bust, waist and hip because you had to a 36-25 36 or close to it, and be exceptionally attractive to get the job. But Frat-boy, Air-force Dad went after her before anyone else could win her heart.(He looovved Dois Day and Shirley Ann Kaiser). She shocked people in her just below the knee wedding gown, instead of the usual long gown and train at traditional Catholic (or otherwise) weddings of the day. With all this said,(and there's soooo much more to say!) Mamere some how manages to keep a part of the naive, innocent girl from Hermanie, Pa. I could blog on, but I won't. The point is Chris's grandma is cool.
LOVE, AUNTIE
P.S.Did I mention she can tell a joke like no other?
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