INTERVIEWS

Cinema heavens welcome Luise Rainer, newest star

Tomorrow is the 100th birthday of cinema icon, Luise Rainer, the recipient of two consecutive Academy Awards. She joins the ranks of entertainment centarians George Abbott (1887-1995), Bruce Bennett (1906-2007), Irving Berlin (1888-1989), Margaret Booth (1898-2002), George Burns (1896-1996), Claire Du Brey (1892-1993), Bob Hope (1903-2003), Dolores Hope (b. 1909), Barbara Kent (b. 1906), Carla Laemmle (b. 1909), Charles Lane (1905-2007), Francis Lederer (1899-2000), Florence Lee (1858-1962), Huey Long (1904-2009), Irving Rapper (1898-1999), Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), Hal Roach (1892-1992), Frederica Sagor Maas (b. 1900), Miriam Seegar (b. 1907), George Beverly Shea (b. 1909), Dorothy Stickney (1896-1998), Doris Eaton Travis (b. 1904), Senor Wences (1896-1999), Estelle Winwood (1883-1984), Dorothy Young (b. 1907), Adolph Zukor (1873-1976). Note: Dorothy Janis will turn 100 on February 19, 2010. The following is a Los Angeles Times story about Rainer’s film debut in Escapade, almost 75 years ago.

By Katherine T. Von Blon

Los Angeles Times

July 8, 1935

A lustrous and exciting personality flashes across the cinematic horizon in Luise Rainer, M-G-M’s Viennese prodigy, appearing opposite William Powell in Escapade at the Chinese and Loew’s State theaters.

There’s so much emotion and dynamic energy stored in the small compact body of this wistful little lady, that one could never hope to press it into mere words. She’s a series of contradictions, and as fluid as quicksilver. One moment she’s gay and the next she’s sunk in depths of despair.

Luise is terrified of strangers. She has just come from one of those imposing studio luncheons, given for visiting nabobs. She huddled in a corner of the divan, like a small frightened rabbit, and managed one of her sudden, ingratiating smiles. “Luise doesn’t understand the English very welll.” She has a habit of speaking of herself objectively.

This same elfin creature will hold the entire studio force at bay, when it comes to a question of her artistic integrity.

“When I say to them, ‘Luise cannot do it that way,’ it is because I do not feel it, and I never do anything I do not feel here.” Needless to say, Luise gets her way and by the same token, those in authority admit that she has a sixth sense and is invariably right. However, there have been some stormy scenes, ending with the volatile star taking French leave.

Luise thinks American men are enormously fascinating, but she doesnt’ know how to take them. “Your American men, they are most charming. They all walk on little pink clouds. They are so happy and carefree. But you do not know if they love you, or if they are just your friend. The men, they are more serious in Europe.”

Luise has a passion for music and Beethoven is one of her mightiest gods. She said: “I have just purchased a beautiful phonograph that plays the entire Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, without interruption. It is heavenly.”

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TELEVISION

D’oh! The Simpsons: Two decades of funny

By Rita Sherrow

Tulsa World Television Editor

January 10, 2020

Happy birthday, Bart.

You may still be a 10-year-old, but “The Simpsons” is wrapping up its 20th anniversary, and the celebration includes a 3-D event and the 450th broadcast Sunday of the longest running scripted prime-time series on TV.

The series started life as 30-second cartoon shorts on “The Tracey Ullman Show” in 1987 and grew into a pop culture phenomenon, proving cartoons weren’t just for kids anymore.

It was originally titled “Life in Hell” after creator Matt Groening’s comic strip. He came up with new characters to populate the half-hour series newly titled “The Simpsons” and named them after members of his family. The series stars the dysfunctional (not to mention yellow) Simpsons family and the denizens of the Middle-American Springfield.

Dad Homer is a safety inspector for a nuclear plant. Wife Marge is a full-time mom to trouble-making son Bart and two daughters, vegetarian Lisa and pacifier-sucking Maggie. Groening has agreed that Bart (his own namesake) is angry, frustrated and doesn’t respect authority — just like a lot of kids.

Never boring and often the subject of controversy, the series has been smashing TV barriers to smithereens since its inception as a Christmas special in December 1989 and a regular series in January 1990. It unraveled tightly held traditions about cartoons, animated series in prime time, humor on broadcast TV and how many stars in the entertainment stratosphere can a show get to voice a role. The Simpsons’ faces are even on a 44-cent U.S. Postal Service stamp; its 2007 feature film was a hit; and Michael Jackson wrote the No. 1 single “Do the Bartman.” Heck, there’s even “The Simpsons Ride” at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort. Ay, caramba!

It was “The Simpsons” and NFL Football that basically opened viewers’ eyes to the existence of the Fox network. “The Simpsons” was Fox’s first show to be ranked in the Nielsen ratings top 30 (it was No. 28).

Now in its 21st season, the iconic show has garnered 24 Emmy Awards and a whole slew of other awards only a television editor would recognize. It holds the Guinness Book of Records titles for longest-running prime-time animated television series, most guest stars featured in a television series, most searched-for television show on the Internet and longest-running sitcom on American TV. And it has its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The anniversary celebration culminates Sunday with the 450th episode, “Once Upon a Time in Springfield,” in which Krusty the Clown gets a new female sidekick (guest star Anne Hathaway) who steals all his scenes and falls in love with him. It will be followed by the special “Simpsons’ 20th Anniversary Special in 3-D on Ice” executive producer and director of the special Morgan Spurlock’s own worldwide look at the series and its fans. For the special, he promises, “there may be a little bit of something on ice possibly towards the end” and ” a little 3-D-ish element” in the show.

On Feb. 15, the show moves into its next-generation phase — all-new main titles and the first high-definition episode of the series.

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