Podcasts about honorary oscar

For episode 160 of the podcast, join Rain Phoenix at Licorice Pizza as she hosts an engaging conversation with legendary songwriter Diane Warren and rising musician Mergui. This episode offers a deep dive into Diane's illustrious career, her creative process, and her collaboration with Mergui on the song "Criminal." The discussion provides unique perspectives on the music industry, including insights from one of modern music’s most celebrated songwriters. IN THIS EPISODE:  [5:05] Diane Warren's early musical influences [11:10] Writing I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing and OSCAR nominations [13:00] Diane launches Mergui [15:28] Diane's versatility across musical genres [20:00] Mergui’s insights on sampling Elton John’s song KEY TAKEAWAYS:  Diane Warren's journey into songwriting began at a young age, sparked by her fascination with record credits. She would study the names of songwriters on albums, dreaming of seeing her own name there one day. This early passion and determination set her on a path to becoming one of the most successful songwriters in the industry. Despite the challenges faced by women in the music industry, Diane never let her gender define her capabilities. Inspired by trailblazers like Carole King, she pursued her career with confidence, never doubting her potential to succeed as a songwriter. Collaboration with artists like Mergui showcases Diane and Mergui's ability to adapt and thrive in different musical genres. Diane’s intuitive sense for matching songs with the right artists has led to successful partnerships, allowing her to continue creating timeless music across various styles. It’s important for songwriters to find the right artist to sing and produce their songs, someone who will honor and preserve the meaning and the music. That’s when the magic happens. RESOURCE LINKS:  LaunchLeft Podcast Smart Link DIANE LINKS: https://www.realsongs.com/ https://x.com/Diane_Warren https://www.instagram.com/dianewarren/ https://www.facebook.com/DianeWarrenMusic https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGZlUzfjZd10wW5yDYUKJ0g Mergui LINKS: https://www.Mergui.com/ https://www.tiktok.com/@Mergui https://www.instagram.com/Mergui https://www.facebook.com/Merguiofficial/ https://x.com/Mergui https://www.youtube.com/@Mergui_ BIOS:  Diane Warren is one of modern music’s most celebrated songwriters. She has penned nine #1 and thirty-three top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and is tied for having written the most #1 songs as a sole writer in Billboard history. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and received the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award from the organization in June 2024. She has received 16 Academy Award nominations, is a GRAMMY winner with 15 nominations, an EMMY winner, and is a two-time Golden Globe winner whose songs have been featured in more than 150 films. In November 2022, Warren became the first songwriter in history to receive an Honorary Oscar, as voted on by the Academy's Board of Governors. She recently wrote the original song "The Fire Inside," performed by Becky G for the film Flamin' Hot, directed by Eva Longoria, which marked her 15th Oscar nomination. She most recently wrote the original song “The Journey” performed by H.E.R. for the feature film The Six Triple Eight directed by Tyler Perry which marked her 16th Oscar nomination. She is the sole owner of her publishing company Realsongs, the most successful female-owned and operated business in the music industry. Warren is a recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a nod to her legendary career, having worked with many of today's most popular artists, including Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, H.E.R., Snoop Dogg, Paloma Faith, Jon Batiste, Maren Morris, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Andra Day, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson and Janelle Monáe, in addition to having written songs for iconic artists such as Whitney Houston, Cher, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, and many more.   Mergui has made it his mission to push the limits of modern pop music. He’s accomplished some incredible feats such as opening for Bruno Mars and Maroon 5. His talent has been recognized by publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Wonderland Magazine, and Notion. Drawing inspiration from the rich tapestry of early 20th-century Italian opera and the nostalgic allure of ‘70s AM pop, Mergui’s sophomore EP Shadows of Blue was a remarkable fusion of influences. Notable tracks from the EP include the Elton John-approved “Cry,” and “Happy Now?”, which he performed on The Kelly Clarkson Show and NBC’s The TODAY Show, resulting in the track skyrocketing to the Top 10 on the U.S. iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts. Mergui’s music has been featured in top-notch editorial playlists across digital service platforms including Spotify’s New Music Friday (US & Global), Chill Pop, New Pop Picks, and Just Good Music. Mergui’s unguarded sense of vulnerability shines through in his art, landing him a coveted spot on People Magazine’s Emerging Artists of 2024 list. Following a successful tour with Forest Blakk and a collaboration with Sam Feldt in the latter half of 2024, Mergui is ready to take 2025 by storm with the release of his latest EP Nobody Really Knows.

To open their fifth season, Spro & Lee present their second honorary Oscar, this time to Miss Penny Marshall.   

Actress Gena Rowlands was known for her dramatic, deeply emotional performances in movies like “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “The Notebook.” She won four Emmy awards, two Golden Globes and was nominated for two Academy Awards, eventually receiving an Honorary Oscar in 2015. Rowlands’ career began in Wisconsin and spanned decades before she passed away at age 94 on August 14, 2024. Author Dean Robbins looks back on Rowlands’ legacy and one of her most iconic roles.

Agnès Varda's docufiction about a troubled – and troubling – young homeless woman roaming the French countryside was singular when released in 1985, but it anticipated a slew of 21st century films depicting women marginalized by their rejection of traditional roles. The film does not, however, cater to contemporary political morality. She is neither a hero nor a villain, nor are the people who try to help or exploit her. Is this unjudgmental approach simply un-Hollywood, or is it in some way old fashioned, a relic of a less fully politicized time? How will our young panelists understand this portrayal of a disempowered victim that refuses to valorize her victimhood? Listeners unfamiliar with the stellar career of Agnès Varda, perhaps the greatest female director to date, shouldn't miss this chance to discover this extraordinary film. An ElectraCast Production. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagabond_(1985_film) Original Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac-OohOehOw Winner 1985 Golden Lion, Honorary Oscar, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes  Winner 1986 Césars for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Hur is one of the greatest biblical epics of our time. When in 1959 Charlton Heston took the lead role and William Wyler directed it became the most expensive film ever made and won 11 Academy Awards. The following year Stunt Coordinator YAKIMA CANUTT was presented with an Honorary Oscar for his achievement in the action business. In 2016 a new version was made - technology allowed the filmmakers to do things they couldn't have dreamt of back in 59. The cast said, "its not a remake, its a reimagining". The action is very clever and well worth exploring....the final film although being over 80 mins shorter than the original, just doesn't tick any of the boxes ticked over and over again by the 1959 classic.Enjoy If you've enjoyed this episode then why not follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the following linkhttps://linktr.ee/behindthestunts

Sometimes you need a break from all the work in HQ and spend some time by the water cooler. Though this time around the team is joined by an honorable guest, George Stevens Jr. The founding director of AFI and a recipient of an Honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement in film. A man who provided us with great insight into his life and the world of Hollywood. *The first portion of the episode is spoiler free* Make sure to check out George Stevens Jr.'s memoir: "My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington" You can also find more information on his website: Georgestevensjr.com Make sure to follow us: Twitter and Instagram- @opsilverscreen Facebook- Operation: Silver Screen

Filosofia ja systeemiajattelu -luentosarja vuonna 2024 toteutetaan kahden live-luennon sekä muiden kurssisuoritusten muodossa. Sarjan ensimmäinen ja viimeinen luento toteutetaan livenä Aalto-yliopistolla.LINKIT LUENNOLLA VIITATTUIHIN VIDEOIHIN:1. Kuolleet lehdet (2023 Aki Kaurismäki, ei youtubessa)kohdasta 0:54:15 Holappa makaa puiston penkilläkohtaan 1:03:20 Holappa soittaa Ansalle, joka antaa hänen tulla luokseen2. Video/Youtube: Charlie Chaplin receiving an Honorary Oscar 1972https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Pl-qvA1X8Luennoista on saatavilla saavutettavuustekstitys podcast-sarjan sivuilla:https://www.aalto.fi/fi/podcastit/filosofia-ja-systeemiajatteluEmeritusprofessori Esa Saarisen Filosofia ja systeemiajattelu -luentosarjan tavoitteena on lisätä osallistujan kykyä omaehtoiseen, laaja-alaiseen, luovaan ja eteenpäinvirittyneeseen elämänfilosofiseen ajatteluun. Tavoitteena on synnyttää voimakkaasti rikastava oivallusympäristö, jossa osanottaja voi jäsentää toimintatapojaan, ajattelumallejaan ja arvokysymyksiä henkilökohtaisesti relevantilla tavalla. Luentosarja antaa työvälineitä rakentaa ja terävöittää oman henkisen kasvun ja elämänasenteen perusteita ja suuntaviivoja. Painopiste on kunkin osallistujan omassa toiminnassa ja elämässä. Tavoitteena on vahvistaa kunkin kykyä elää muutostilanteissa luovasti ja arvo-ohjautuvasti. Luennot hyödyntävät länsimaisen ja itämaisen filosofian voimavirtoja sekä nykyaikaisen ihmistutkimuksen keskeisiä tuloksia ja ilmentävät prof. Saarisen elämyksellisestä, kokonaisvaltaista ja tunnelmaintensiivistä luentotapaa, jossa avainroolissa on luentotilanteen osallistujissa synnyttämä ajattelun liike.

Join Holliewood and Rell from Holliewood And Friends in their latest podcast episode as they delve into the hottest topics from the week. From "The Book of Clarence Review" to Johnathan Majors' comparison of Megan Good's support to Coretta Scott King, Angela Bassett's Honorary Oscar, Vivica Foxx's take on underpaid Black actresses, and Kevin Hart's ex-wife touring with Katt Williams. And don't miss the discussion on prosecutors seeking the death penalty for the white supremacist Buffalo shooter. Tune in as they also tackle the Question of the Week: What food traumatized you as a kid? And, of course, catch their thoughts on "What Blows Mine?!" for the week. Stay informed and entertained with Holliewood And Friends!

We packed in a lot in this episode. Happy White Juneteenth I don't like you telling me what you don't like India Arie still isn't the average girl on the video Juvie had the best Tiny Desk ever And the Honorary Oscar goes to.... CheeKeke Palmer

Welcome back to News of the Month, where I talk about a few different entertainment news stories that feel important and/or interesting to me. The stories I'll be talking about this time involve this years Kennedy Center Honorees and Honorary Oscar recipients, Sarah Polley directing a live action remake of BAMBI, Bryan Singer attempting a comeback, as well as the deaths of Cynthia Weil, Treat Williams, Cormac McCarthy, Glenda Jackson, Frederic Forrest, Sheldon Harnick, and Alan Arkin. If you love this show, please leave us a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/karereviewspodcast and follow the simple instructions. Follow Kare Reviews at www.karereviews.net and on Twitter:@KareReviews Also please visit the newly launched Patreon page:https://www.patreon.com/jeffreykare?fan_landing=true Follow Jeffrey Kare on Twitter:@JeffreyKare If you like what you've heard here, please subscribe to any one of the following places where the Kare Reviews Podcast is available. AnchorAppleGoogleSpotifyBreakerOvercastPocket CastsRadioPublic --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jeffrey-kare/support

This week in headlines, we discuss Chrissy Teigen and John Legend's new addition, Ryan Seacrest's new hosting gig, the Barbie movie marketing campaign, and the strange item a fan threw onstage at a Pink concert. (03:39) In hot topics, we give our takes on the 2024 Hollywood Walk of Fame inductees, Angela Bassett's honorary Oscar, and the 2023 BET Awards. (20:33) Stay tuned for our next episode on Tuesday recapping another Jenny Han project, "XO Kitty" on Netflix! We are available on all podcasting platforms but please follow, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify apps. We greatly appreciate the support! Follow us on social media: IG: @recappinpodcast Twitter: @recappinpodcast FB: ReCappin' with Delora and Ashley Contact us: Email: recappinpodcast@gmail.com

6.27.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Moore v Harper decision; Ralph Yarl speaks; Angela Bassett honorary Oscar;Trump classified doc audio The latest U.S. Supreme Court decision denies Republicans in North Carolina favorable election district maps.  We'll discuss how this will impact voting access with a political strategist.  We'll also discuss Monday's decision involving Louisiana's House map and other decisions about affirmation action, student loan debt, and religious liberties that are expected this week. Today GMA had an exclusive interview with Ralph Yarl, a Missouri teen shot in the head after mistakenly entering the wrong house to pick up his siblings.  We will show you the interview and how he describes what happened that horrific night. Legendary actress Angela Bassett finally receives the honorary Oscar she deserves but is met with divided public opinion.  We will break down the debate. CNN released an audio recording of former President Donald Trump acknowledging possessing a classified military document.  We will speak with the author of "Trump is not Racist, Here's Why" about what this could mean for Trump's presidential campaign. It's summer, and finding delicious, refreshing black-owned drinks is hard.  Well, look no further today in our marketplace segment.  We will speak with the creator of Jase's Lemonade about his signature lemonade. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is this true or nah?  Let's just say Cardi B. had a response.  DAMN!!!  Angela Bassett gets and Honorary Oscar. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Offset calls Cardi B a cheater and she denies claims that she cheated on him! Plus, cheating, Angela Bassett gets an honorary Oscar, the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class 2024 announced and Tamar Braxton's big sister Toni Braxton is getting a star, and is Kevin Federline moving Britney Spears' sons to Hawaii to extend child support?! We're servin' up the hottest celeb dish on today's Dish Nation!

Actors Strike Deadline Looms, New Hollywood Walk Stars, Angela Bassett's Honorary Oscar, Taylor Swift Signed Guitar Sells For $120K, Fans Help Lewis Capaldi Finish Song…See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode, we talk about the great American filmmaker Robert Altman, and what is arguably the worst movie of his six decade, thirty-five film career: his 1987 atrocity O.C. and Stiggs. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we're going to talk about one of the strangest movies to come out of the decade, not only for its material, but for who directed it.   Robert Altman's O.C. and Stiggs.   As always, before we get to the O.C. and Stiggs, we will be going a little further back in time.   Although he is not every cineaste's cup of tea, it is generally acknowledged that Robert Altman was one of the best filmmakers to ever work in cinema. But he wasn't an immediate success when he broke into the industry.   Born in Kansas City in February 1925, Robert Altman would join the US Army Air Force after graduating high school, as many a young man would do in the days of World War II. He would train to be a pilot, and he would fly more than 50 missions during the war as part of the 307th Bomb Group, operating in the Pacific Theatre. They would help liberate prisoners of war held in Japanese POW Camps from Okinawa to Manila after the victory over Japan lead to the end of World War II in that part of the world.   After the war, Altman would move to Los Angeles to break into the movies, and he would even succeed in selling a screenplay to RKO Pictures called Bodyguard, a film noir story shot in 1948 starring Lawrence Tierney and Priscilla Lane, but on the final film, he would only share a “Story by” credit with his then-writing partner, George W. George. But by 1950, he'd be back in Kansas City, where he would direct more than 65 industrial films over the course of three years, before heading back to Los Angeles with the experience he would need to take another shot.   Altman would spend a few years directing episodes of a drama series called Pulse of the City on the DuMont television network and a syndicated police drama called The Sheriff of Cochise, but he wouldn't get his first feature directing gig until 1957, when a businessman in Kansas City would hire the thirty-two year old to write and direct a movie locally. That film, The Delinquents, cost only $60k to make, and would be purchased for release by United Artists for $150k. The first film to star future Billy Jack writer/director/star Tom Laughlin, The Delinquents would gross more than a million dollars in theatres, a very good sum back in those days, but despite the success of the film, the only work Altman could get outside of television was co-directing The James Dean Story, a documentary set up at Warner Brothers to capitalize on the interest in the actor after dying in a car accident two years earlier.   Throughout the 1960s, Altman would continue to work in television, until he was finally given another chance to direct a feature film. 1967's Countdown was a lower budgeted feature at Warner Brothers featuring James Caan in an early leading role, about the space race between the Americans and Soviets, a good two years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. The shoot itself was easy, but Altman would be fired from the film shortly after filming was completed, as Jack Warner, the 75 year old head of the studio, was not very happy about the overlapping dialogue, a motif that would become a part of Altman's way of making movies. Although his name appears in the credits as the director of the film, he had no input in its assembly. His ambiguous ending was changed, and the film would be edited to be more family friendly than the director intended.   Altman would follow Countdown with 1969's That Cold Day in the Park, a psychological drama that would be both a critical and financial disappointment.   But his next film would change everything.   Before Altman was hired by Twentieth-Century Fox to direct MASH, more than a dozen major filmmakers would pass on the project. An adaptation of a little known novel by a Korean War veteran who worked as a surgeon at one of the Mobile Auxiliary Surgical Hospitals that give the story its acronymic title, MASH would literally fly under the radar from the executives at the studio, as most of the $3m film would be shot at the studio's ranch lot in Malibu, while the executives were more concerned about their bigger movies of the year in production, like their $12.5m biographical film on World War II general George S. Patton and their $25m World War II drama Tora! Tora! Tora!, one of the first movies to be a Japanese and American co-production since the end of the war.    Altman was going to make MASH his way, no matter what. When the studio refused to allow him to hire a fair amount of extras to populate the MASH camp, Altman would steal individual lines from other characters to give to background actors, in order to get the bustling atmosphere he wanted. In order to give the camp a properly dirty look, he would shoot most of the outdoor scenes with a zoom lens and a fog filter with the camera a reasonably far distance from the actors, so they could act to one another instead of the camera, giving the film a sort of documentary feel. And he would find flexibility when the moment called for it. Sally Kellerman, who was hired to play Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, would work with Altman to expand and improve her character to be more than just eye candy, in large part because Altman liked what she was doing in her scenes.   This kind of flexibility infuriated the two major stars of the film, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, who at one point during the shoot tried to get Altman fired for treating everyone in the cast and crew with the same level of respect and decorum regardless of their position. But unlike at Warners a couple years earlier, the success of movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider bamboozled Hollywood studio executives, who did not understand exactly what the new generation of filmgoers wanted, and would often give filmmakers more leeway than before, in the hopes that lightning could be captured once again.   And Altman would give them exactly that.   MASH, which would also be the first major studio film to be released with The F Word spoken on screen, would not only become a critical hit, but become the third highest grossing movie released in 1970, grossing more than $80m. The movie would win the Palme D'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival, and it would be nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Ms. Kellerman, winning only for Best Adapted Screenplay. An ironic win, since most of the dialogue was improvised on set, but the victory for screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. would effectively destroy the once powerful Hollywood Blacklist that had been in place since the Red Scare of the 1950s.   After MASH, Altman went on one of the greatest runs any filmmaker would ever enjoy.   MASH would be released in January 1970, and Altman's follow up, Brewster McCloud, would be released in December 1970. Bud Cort, the future star of Harold and Maude, plays a recluse who lives in the fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome, who is building a pair of wings in order to achieve his dream of flying. The film would feature a number of actors who already were featured in MASH and would continue to be featured in a number of future Altman movies, including Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, John Schuck and Bert Remson, but another reason to watch Brewster McCloud if you've never seen it is because it is the film debut of Shelley Duvall, one of our greatest and least appreciated actresses, who would go on to appear in six other Altman movies over the ensuing decade.   1971's McCabe and Mrs. Miller, for me, is his second best film. A Western starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, was a minor hit when it was first released but has seen a reevaluation over the years that found it to be named the 8th Best Western of all time by the American Film Institute, which frankly is too low for me. The film would also bring a little-known Canadian poet and musician to the world, Leonard Cohen, who wrote and performed three songs for the soundtrack. Yeah, you have Robert Altman to thank for Leonard Cohen.   1972's Images was another psychological horror film, this time co-written with English actress Susannah York, who also stars in the film as an author of children's books who starts to have wild hallucinations at her remote vacation home, after learning her husband might be cheating on her. The $800k film was one of the first to be produced by Hemdale Films, a British production company co-founded by Blow Up actor David Hemmings, but the film would be a critical and financial disappointment when it was released Christmas week. But it would get nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score. It would be one of two nominations in the category for John Williams, the other being The Poseidon Adventure.   Whatever resentment Elliott Gould may have had with Altman during the shooting of MASH was gone by late 1972, when the actor agreed to star in the director's new movie, a modern adaptation of Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel The Long Goodbye. Gould would be the eighth actor to play the lead character, Phillip Marlowe, in a movie. The screenplay would be written by Leigh Brackett, who Star Wars nerds know as the first writer on The Empire Strikes Back but had also adapted Chandler's novel The Big Sleep, another Phillip Marlowe story, to the big screen back in 1946.   Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich had both been approached to make the film, and it would be Bogdanovich who would recommend Altman to the President of United Artists. The final film would anger Chandler fans, who did not like Altman's approach to the material, and the $1.7m film would gross less than $1m when it was released in March 1973. But like many of Altman's movies, it was a big hit with critics, and would find favor with film fans in the years to come.   1974 would be another year where Altman would make and release two movies in the same calendar year. The first, Thieves Like Us, was a crime drama most noted as one of the few movies to not have any kind of traditional musical score. What music there is in the film is usually heard off radios seen in individual scenes. Once again, we have a number of Altman regulars in the film, including Shelley Duvall, Bert Remsen, John Schuck and Tom Skerritt, and would feature Keith Carradine, who had a small co-starring role in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, in his first major leading role. And, once again, the film would be a hit with critics but a dud with audiences. Unlike most of Altman's movies of the 1970s, Thieves Like Us has not enjoyed the same kind of reappraisal.   The second film, California Split, was released in August, just six months after Thieves Like Us. Elliott Gould once again stars in a Robert Altman movie, this time alongside George Segal. They play a pair of gamblers who ride what they think is a lucky streak from Los Angeles to Reno, Nevada, would be the only time Gould and Segal would work closely together in a movie, and watching California Split, one wishes there could have been more. The movie would be an innovator seemingly purpose-build for a Robert Altman movie, for it would be the first non-Cinerama movie to be recorded using an eight track stereo sound system. More than any movie before, Altman could control how his overlapping dialogue was placed in a theatre. But while most theatres that played the movie would only play it in mono sound, the film would still be a minor success, bringing in more than $5m in ticket sales.   1975 would bring what many consider to be the quintessential Robert Altman movie to screens.   The two hour and forty minute Nashville would feature no less than 24 different major characters, as a group of people come to Music City to be involved in a gala concert for a political outsider who is running for President on the Replacement Party ticket. The cast is one of the best ever assembled for a movie ever, including Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakely, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert DoQui, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, Cristina Raines, Lily Tomlin and Keenan Wynn.   Altman would be nominated for two Academy Awards for the film, Best Picture, as its producer, and Best Director, while both Ronee Blakely and Lily Tomlin would be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Keith Carradine would also be nominated for an Oscar, but not as an actor. He would, at the urging of Altman during the production of the film, write and perform a song called I'm Easy, which would win for Best Original Song. The $2.2m film would earn $10m in ticket sales, and would eventually become part of the fourth class of movies to be selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1991, the first of four Robert Altman films to be given that honor. MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and The Long Goodbye would also be selected for preservation over the years.   And we're going to stop here for a second and take a look at that list of films again.   MASH Brewster McCloud McCabe and Mrs. Miller Images The Long Goodbye Thieves Like Us California Split Nashville   Eight movies, made over a five year period, that between them earned twelve Academy Award nominations, four of which would be deemed so culturally important that they should be preserved for future generations.   And we're still only in the middle of the 1970s.   But the problem with a director like Robert Altman, like many of our greatest directors, their next film after one of their greatest successes feels like a major disappointment. And his 1976 film Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and that is the complete title of the film by the way, did not meet the lofty expectations of film fans not only its director, but of its main stars. Altman would cast two legendary actors he had not yet worked with, Paul Newman and Burt Lancaster, and the combination of those two actors with this director should have been fantastic, but the results were merely okay. In fact,  Altman would, for the first time in his career, re-edit a film after its theatrical release, removing some of the Wild West show acts that he felt were maybe redundant.   His 1977 film 3 Women would bring Altman back to the limelight. The film was based on a dream he had one night while his wife was in the hospital. In the dream, he was directing his regular co-star Shelley Duvall alongside Sissy Spacek, who he had never worked with before, in a story about identity theft that took place in the deserts outside Los Angeles. He woke up in the middle of the dream, jotted down what he could remember, and went back to sleep. In the morning, he didn't have a full movie planned out, but enough of one to get Alan Ladd, Jr., the President of Twentieth-Century Fox, to put up $1.7m for a not fully formed idea. That's how much Robert Altman was trusted at the time. That, and Altman was known for never going over budget. As long as he stayed within his budget, Ladd would let Altman make whatever movie he wanted to make. That, plus Ladd was more concerned about a $10m movie he approved that was going over budget over in England, a science fiction movie directed by the guy who did American Graffiti that had no stars outside of Sir Alec Guinness.   That movie, of course, was Star Wars, which would be released four weeks after 3 Women had its premiere in New York City. While the film didn't make 1/100th the money Star Wars made, it was one of the best reviewed movies of the year. But, strangely, the film would not be seen again outside of sporadic screenings on cable until it was released on DVD by the Criterion Collection 27 years later.   I'm not going to try and explain the movie to you. Just trust me that 3 Women is from a master craftsman at the top of his game.   While on the press tour to publicize 3 Women, a reporter asked Altman what was going to be next for him. He jokingly said he was going to shoot a wedding. But then he went home, thought about it some more, and in a few weeks, had a basic idea sketched out for a movie titled A Wedding that would take place over the course of one day, as the daughter of a Southern nouveau riche family marries the son of a wealthy Chicago businessman who may or may not a major figure in The Outfit.   And while the film is quite entertaining, what's most interesting about watching this 1978 movie in 2023 is not only how many great established actors Altman got for the film, including Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Howard Duff, Mia Farrow, Vittorio Gassman, Lauren Hutton, and, in her 100th movie, Lillian Gish, but the number of notable actors he was able to get because he shot the film just outside Chicago. Not only will you see Dennis Christopher just before his breakthrough in Breaking Away, and not only will you see Pam Dawber just before she was cast alongside Robin Williams in Mark and Mindy, but you'll also see Dennis Franz, Laurie Metcalfe, Gary Sinese, Tim Thomerson, and George Wendt.   And because Altman was able to keep the budget at a reasonable level, less than $1.75m, the film would be slightly profitable for Twentieth Century-Fox after grossing $3.6m at the box office.   Altman's next film for Fox, 1979's Quintet, would not be as fortunate.   Altman had come up with the story for this post-apocalyptic drama as a vehicle for Walter Hill to write and direct. But Hill would instead make The Warriors, and Altman decided to make the film himself. While developing the screenplay with his co-writers Frank Barhydt and Patricia Resnick, Altman would create a board game, complete with token pieces and a full set of rules, to flesh out the storyline.   Altman would once again work with Paul Newman, who stars as a seal hunter in the early days of a new ice age who finds himself in elaborate game with a group of gamblers where losing in the game means losing your life in the process. Altman would deliberately hire an international cast to star alongside Newman, not only to help improve the film's ability to do well in foreign territories but to not have the storyline tied to any specific country. So we would have Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, Spaniard Fernando Rey, Swedish actress Bibi Andersson, French actress Brigitte Fossey, and Danish actress Nina van Pallandt.    In order to maintain the mystery of the movie, Altman would ask Fox to withhold all pre-release publicity for the film, in order to avoid any conditioning of the audience. Imagine trying to put together a compelling trailer for a movie featuring one of the most beloved actors of all time, but you're not allowed to show potential audiences what they're getting themselves into? Altman would let the studio use five shots from the film, totaling about seven seconds, for the trailer, which mostly comprised of slo-mo shots of a pair of dice bouncing around, while the names of the stars pop up from moment to moment and a narrator tries to create some sense of mystery on the soundtrack.   But audiences would not be intrigued by the mystery, and critics would tear the $6.4m budget film apart. To be fair, the shoot for the film, in the winter of 1977 outside Montreal was a tough time for all, and Altman would lose final cut on the film for going severely over-budget during production, although there seems to be very little documentation about how much the final film might have differed from what Altman would have been working on had he been able to complete the film his way.   But despite all the problems with Quintet, Fox would still back Altman's next movie, A Perfect Couple, which would be shot after Fox pulled Altman off Quintet. Can you imagine that happening today? A director working with the studio that just pulled them off their project. But that's how little ego Altman had. He just wanted to make movies. Tell stories. This simple romantic comedy starred his regular collaborator Paul Dooley as  Alex, a man who follows a band of traveling bohemian musicians because he's falling for one of the singers in the band.   Altman kept the film on its $1.9m budget, but the response from critics was mostly concern that Altman had lost his touch. Maybe it was because this was his 13th film of the decade, but there was a serious concern about the director's ability to tell a story had evaporated.   That worry would continue with his next film, Health.   A satire of the political scene in the United States at the end of the 1970s, Health would follow a health food organization holding a convention at a luxury hotel in St. Petersburg FL. As one would expect from a Robert Altman movie, there's one hell of a cast. Along with Henry Gibson, and Paul Dooley, who co-write the script with Altman and Frank Barhydt, the cast would include Lauren Bacall, Carol Burnett, James Garner and, in one of her earliest screen appearances, Alfre Woodard, as well as Dick Cavett and Dinah Shore as themselves.   But between the shooting of the film in the late winter and early spring of 1979 and the planned Christmas 1979 release, there was a change of management at Fox. Alan Ladd Jr. was out, and after Altman turned in his final cut, new studio head Norman Levy decided to pull the film off the 1979 release calendar. Altman fought to get the film released sometime during the 1980 Presidential Campaign, and was able to get Levy to give the film a platform release starting in Los Angeles and New York City in March 1980, but that date would get cancelled as well. Levy then suggested an April 1980 test run in St. Louis, which Altman was not happy with. Altman countered with test runs in Boston, Houston, Sacramento and San Francisco. The best Altman, who was in Malta shooting his next movie, could get were sneak previews of the film in those four markets, and the response cards from the audience were so bad, the studio decided to effectively put the film on the proverbial shelf.   Back from the Mediterranean Sea, Altman would get permission to take the film to the Montreal World Film Festival in August, and the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals in September. After good responses from film goers at those festivals, Fox would relent, and give the film a “preview” screening at the United Artists Theatre in Westwood, starting on September 12th, 1980. But the studio would give the film the most boring ad campaign possible, a very crude line drawing of an older woman's pearl bracelet-covered arm thrusted upward while holding a carrot. With no trailers in circulation at any theatre, and no television commercials on air, it would be little surprise the film didn't do a whole lot of business. You really had to know the film had been released. But its $14k opening weekend gross wasn't really all that bad. And it's second week gross of $10,500 with even less ad support was decent if unspectacular. But it would be good enough to get the film a four week playdate at the UA Westwood.   And then, nothing, until early March 1981, when a film society at Northwestern University in Evanston IL was able to screen a 16mm print for one show, while a theatre in Baltimore was able to show the film one time at the end of March. But then, nothing again for more than another year, when the film would finally get a belated official release at the Film Forum in New York City on April 7th, 1982. It would only play for a week, and as a non-profit, the Film Forum does not report film grosses, so we have no idea how well the film actually did. Since then, the movie showed once on CBS in August 1983, and has occasionally played on the Fox Movie Channel, but has never been released on VHS or DVD or Blu-Ray.   I mentioned a few moments ago that while he was dealing with all this drama concerning Health, Altman was in the Mediterranean filming a movie. I'm not going to go too much into that movie here, since I already have an episode for the future planned for it, suffice to say that a Robert Altman-directed live-action musical version of the Popeye the Sailor Man cartoon featuring songs by the incomparable Harry Nilsson should have been a smash hit, but it wasn't. It was profitable, to be certain, but not the hit everyone was expecting. We'll talk about the film in much more detail soon.   After the disappointing results for Popeye, Altman decided to stop working in Hollywood for a while and hit the Broadway stages, to direct a show called Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. While the show's run was not very long and the reviews not very good, Altman would fund a movie version himself, thanks in part to the sale of his production company, Lion's Gate, not to be confused with the current studio called Lionsgate, and would cast Karen Black, Cher and Sandy Dennis alongside newcomers Sudie Bond and Kathy Bates, as five female members of The Disciples of James Dean come together on the 20th anniversary of the actor's death to honor his life and times. As the first film released by a new independent distributor called Cinecom, I'll spend more time talking about this movie on our show about that distributor, also coming soon, suffice it to say that Altman was back. Critics were behind the film, and arthouse audiences loved it. This would be the first time Altman adapted a stage play to the screen, and it would set the tone for a number of his works throughout the rest of the decade.   Streamers was Altman's 17th film in thirteen years, and another adaptation of a stage play. One of several works by noted Broadway playwright David Rabe's time in the Army during the Vietnam War, the film followed four young soldiers waiting to be shipped to Vietnam who deal with racial tensions and their own intolerances when one soldier reveals he is gay. The film featured Matthew Modine as the Rabe stand-in, and features a rare dramatic role for comedy legend David Alan Grier. Many critics would note how much more intense the film version was compared to the stage version, as Altman's camera was able to effortlessly breeze around the set, and get up close and personal with the performers in ways that simply cannot happen on the stage. But in 1983, audiences were still not quite ready to deal with the trauma of Vietnam on film, and the film would be fairly ignored by audiences, grossing just $378k.   Which, finally, after half an hour, brings us to our featured movie.   O.C. and Stiggs.   Now, you might be asking yourself why I went into such detail about Robert Altman's career, most of it during the 1970s. Well, I wanted to establish what types of material Altman would chose for his projects, and just how different O.C. and Stiggs  was from any other project he had made to date.   O.C. and Stiggs began their lives in the July 1981 issue of National Lampoon, as written by two of the editors of the magazine, Ted Mann and Tod Carroll. The characters were fun-loving and occasionally destructive teenage pranksters, and their first appearance in the magazine would prove to be so popular with readers, the pair would appear a few more times until Matty Simmons, the publisher and owner of National Lampoon, gave over the entire October 1982 issue to Mann and Carroll for a story called “The Utterly Monstrous Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. and Stiggs.” It's easy to find PDFs of the issues online if you look for it.   So the issue becomes one of the biggest selling issues in the history of National Lampoon, and Matty Simmons has been building the National Lampoon brand name by sponsoring a series of movies, including Animal House, co-written by Lampoon writers Doug Kenney and Chris Miller, and the soon to be released movies Class Reunion, written by Lampoon writer John Hughes… yes, that John Hughes… and Movie Madness, written by five Lampoon writers including Tod Carroll. But for some reason, Simmons was not behind the idea of turning the utterly monstrous mind-roasting adventures of O.C. and Stiggs into a movie. He would, however, allow Mann and Carroll to shop the idea around Hollywood, and wished them the best of luck.   As luck would have it, Mann and Carroll would meet Peter Newman, who had worked as Altman's production executive on Jimmy Dean, and was looking to set up his first film as a producer. And while Newman might not have had the credits, he had the connections. The first person he would take the script to his Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols, whose credits by this time included Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?, The Graduate, Catch-22, and Carnal Knowledge. Surprisingly, Nichols was not just interested in making the movie, but really wanted to have Eddie Murphy, who was a breakout star on Saturday Night Live but was still a month away from becoming a movie star when 48 Hours was released, play one of the leading characters. But Murphy couldn't get out of his SNL commitments, and Nichols had too many other projects, both on Broadway and in movies, to be able to commit to the film.    A few weeks later, Newman and Altman both attended a party where they would catch up after several months. Newman started to tell Altman about this new project he was setting up, and to Newman's surprise, Altman, drawn to the characters' anti-establishment outlook, expressed interest in making it. And because Altman's name still commanded respect in Hollywood, several studios would start to show their interest in making the movie with them. MGM, who was enjoying a number of successes in 1982 thanks to movies like Shoot the Moon, Diner, Victor/Victoria, Rocky III, Poltergeist, Pink Floyd - The Wall, and My Favorite Year, made a preemptive bid on the film, hoping to beat Paramount Pictures to the deal. Unknown to Altman, what interested MGM was that Sylvester Stallone of all people went nuts for the script when he read it, and mentioned to his buddies at the studio that he might be interested in making it himself.   Despite hating studio executives for doing stuff like buying a script he's attached to  then kicking him off so some Italian Stallion not known for comedy could make it himself, Altman agree to make the movie with MGM once Stallone lost interest, as the studio promised there would be no further notes about the script, that Altman could have final cut on the film, that he could shoot the film in Phoenix without studio interference, and that he could have a budget of $7m.   Since this was a Robert Altman film, the cast would be big and eclectic, filled with a number of his regular cast members, known actors who he had never worked with before, and newcomers who would go on to have success a few years down the road. Because, seriously, outside of a Robert Altman movie, where are you going to find a cast that included Jon Cryer, Jane Curtin, Paul Dooley, Dennis Hopper, Tina Louise, Martin Mull, Cynthia Nixon, Bob Uecker, Melvin van Peebles, and King Sunny Adé and His African Beats? And then imagine that movie also featuring Matthew Broderick, Jim Carrey, Robert Downey, Jr. and Laura Dern?   The story for the film would both follow the stories that appeared in the pages of National Lampoon fairly closely while also making some major changes. In the film, Oliver Cromwell “O.C.” Oglivie and Mark Stiggs are two ne'er-do-well, middle-class Phoenix, Arizona high school students who are disgusted with what they see as an omnipresent culture of vulgar and vapid suburban consumerism. They spend their days slacking off and committing pranks or outright crimes against their sworn enemies, the Schwab family, especially family head Randall Schwab, a wealthy insurance salesman who was responsible for the involuntary commitment of O.C.'s grandfather into a group home. During the film, O.C. and Stiggs will ruin the wedding of Randall Schwab's daughter Lenore, raft their way down to a Mexican fiesta, ruin a horrible dinner theatre performance directed by their high school's drama teacher being attended by the Schwabs, and turn the Schwab mansion into a homeless shelter while the family is on vacation. The film ends with O.C. and Stiggs getting into a gun fight with Randall Schwab before being rescued by Dennis Hopper and a helicopter, before discovering one of their adventures that summer has made them very wealthy themselves.   The film would begin production in Phoenix on August 22nd, 1983, with two newcomers, Daniel H. Jenkins and Neill Barry, as the titular stars of the film. And almost immediately, Altman's chaotic ways of making a movie would become a problem. Altman would make sure the entire cast and crew were all staying at the same hotel in town, across the street from a greyhound racetrack, so Altman could take off to bet on a few of the races during production downtime, and made sure the bar at the hotel was an open bar for his team while they were shooting. When shooting was done every day, the director and his cast would head to a makeshift screening room at the hotel, where they'd watch the previous day's footage, a process called “dailies” in production parlance. On most films, dailies are only attended by the director and his immediate production crew, but in Phoenix, everyone was encouraged to attend. And according to producer Peter Newman and Dan Jenkins, everyone loved the footage, although both would note that it might have been a combination of the alcohol, the pot, the cocaine and the dehydration caused by shooting all day in the excessive Arizona heat during the middle of summer that helped people enjoy the footage.    But here's the funny thing about dailies.   Unless a film is being shot in sequence, you're only seeing small fragments of scenes, often the same actors doing the same things over and over again, before the camera switches places to catch reactions or have other characters continue the scene. Sometimes, they're long takes of scenes that might be interrupted by an actor flubbing a line or an unexpected camera jitter or some other interruption that requires a restart. But everyone seemed to be having fun, especially when dailies ended and Altman would show one of his other movies like MASH or The Long Goodbye or 3 Women.   After two months of shooting, the film would wrap production, and Altman would get to work on his edit of the film. He would have it done before the end of 1983, and he would turn it in to the studio. Shortly after the new year, there would be a private screening of the film in New York City at the offices of the talent agency William Morris, one of the larger private screening rooms in the city. Altman was there, the New York-based executives at MGM were there, Peter Newman was there, several of the actors were there. And within five minutes of the start of the film, Altman realized what he was watching was not his cut of the film. As he was about to lose his stuff and start yelling at the studio executives, the projector broke. The lights would go up, and Altman would dig into the the executives. “This is your effing cut of the film and not mine!” Altman stormed out of the screening and into the cold New York winter night.   A few weeks later, that same print from New York would be screened for the big executives at the MGM lot in Los Angeles. Newman was there, and, surprisingly, Altman was there too. The film would screen for the entire running length, and Altman would sit there, watching someone else's version of the footage he had shot, scenes put in different places than they were supposed to be, music cues not of his design or consent.   At the end of the screening, the room was silent. Not one person in the room had laughed once during the entire screening. Newman and Altman left after the screening, and hit one of Altman's favorite local watering holes. As they said their goodbyes the next morning, Altman apologized to Newman. “I hope I didn't eff up your movie.”   Maybe the movie wasn't completely effed up, but MGM certainly neither knew what to do with the film or how to sell it, so it would just sit there, just like Health a few years earlier, on that proverbial shelf.   More than a year later, in an issue of Spin Magazine, a review of the latest album by King Sunny Adé would mention the film he performed in, O.C. and Stiggs, would, quote unquote, “finally” be released into theatres later that year.   That didn't happen, in large part because after WarGames in the early summer of 1983, almost every MGM release had been  either an outright bomb or an unexpected financial disappointment. The cash flow problem was so bad that the studio effectively had to sell itself to Atlanta cable mogul Ted Turner in order to save itself. Turner didn't actually want all of MGM. He only wanted the valuable MGM film library, but the owner of MGM at the time was either going to sell it all or nothing at all.   Barely two months after Ted Turner bought MGM, he had sold the famed studio lot in Culver City to Lorimar, a television production company that was looking to become a producer and distributor of motion pictures, and sold rest of the company he never wanted in the first place to the guy he bought it all from, who had a kind of seller's remorse. But that repurchase would saddle the company with massive bills, and movies like O.C. and Stiggs would have to sit and collect dust while everything was sorted out.   How long would O.C. and Stiggs be left in a void?   It would be so long that Robert Altman would have time to make not one, not two, but three other movies that would all be released before O.C. and Stiggs ever saw the light of day.   The first, Secret Honor, released in 1984, featured the great Philip Baker Hall as former President Richard Nixon. It's probably Hall's single best work as an actor, and the film would be amongst the best reviewed films of Altman's career.   In 1985, Altman would film Fool For Love, an adaptation of a play by Sam Shepard. This would be the only time in Shepard's film career where he would star as one of the characters himself had written. The film would also prove once and for all that Kim Basinger was more than just a pretty face but a real actor.   And in February 1987, Altman's film version of Beyond Therapy, a play by absurdist playwright Christopher Durant, would open in theatres. The all-star cast would include Tom Conti, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Guest, Julie Hagerty and Glenda Jackson.   On March 5th, 1987, an article in Daily Variety would note that the “long shelved” film would have a limited theatrical release in May, despite the fact that Frank Yablans, the vice chairman of MGM, being quoted in the article that the film was unreleasable. It would further be noted that despite the film being available to international distributors for three years, not one company was willing to acquire the film for any market. The plan was to release the movie for one or two weeks in three major US markets, depending on its popularity, and then decide a future course of action from there.   But May would come and go, without a hint of the film.   Finally, on Friday, July 10th, the film would open on 18 screens, but none in any major market like Chicago, Los Angeles or New York City. I can't find a single theatre the film played in that weekend, but that week's box office figures would show an abysmal $6,273 worth of tickets were sold during that first weekend.   There would not be a second weekend of reported grosses.   But to MGM's credit, they didn't totally give up on the film.   On Thursday, August 27th, O.C. and Stiggs would open in at least one theatre. And, lucky for me, that theatre happened to be the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz. But despite the fact that the new Robert Altman was opening in town, I could not get a single friend to see it with me. So on a Tuesday night at 8:40pm, I was the only person in all of the region to watch what I would soon discover was the worst Robert Altman movie of all time. Now, I should note that even a bad Robert Altman movie is better than many filmmakers' best movies, but O.C. and Stiggs would have ignobility of feeling very much like a Robert Altman movie, with its wandering camera and overlapping dialogue that weaves in and out of conversations while in progress and not quite over yet, yet not feeling anything like a Robert Altman movie at the same time. It didn't have that magical whimsy-ness that was the hallmark of his movies. The satire didn't have its normal bite. It had a number of Altman's regular troop of actors, but in smaller roles than they'd usually occupy, and not giving the performances one would expect of them in an Altman movie.   I don't know how well the film did at the Nick, suffice it to say the film was gone after a week.   But to MGM's credit, they still didn't give up on the film.   On October 9th, the film would open at the AMC Century City 14, one of a handful of movies that would open the newest multiplex in Los Angeles.   MGM did not report grosses, and the film was gone from the new multiplex after a week.   But to MGM's credit, they still didn't give up on the film.   The studio would give the film one more chance, opening it at the Film Forum in New York City on March 18th, 1988.   MGM did not report grosses, and the film was gone after a week. But whether that was because MGM didn't support the film with any kind of newspaper advertising in the largest market in America, or because the movie had been released on home video back in November, remains to be seen.   O.C. and Stiggs would never become anything resembling a cult film. It's been released on DVD, and if one was programming a Robert Altman retrospect at a local arthouse movie theatre, one could actually book a 35mm print of the film from the repertory cinema company Park Circus.   But don't feel bad for Altman, as he would return to cinemas with a vengeance in the 1990s, first with the 1990 biographical drama Vincent and Theo, featuring Tim Roth as the tortured genius 19th century painter that would put the actor on the map for good. Then, in 1992, he became a sensation again with his Hollywood satire The Player, featuring Tim Robbins as a murderous studio executive trying to keep the police off his trail while he navigates the pitfalls of the industry. Altman would receive his first Oscar nomination for Best Director since 1975 with The Player, his third overall, a feat he would repeat the following year with Short Cuts, based on a series of short stories by Raymond Carver. In fact, Altman would be nominated for an Academy Award seven times during his career, five times as a director and twice as a producer, although he would never win a competitive Oscar.   In March 2006, while editing his 35th film, a screen adaptation of the then-popular NPR series A Prairie Home Companion, the Academy would bestow an Honorary Oscar upon Altman. During his acceptance speech, Altman would wonder if perhaps the Academy acted prematurely in honoring him in this fashion. He revealed he had received a heart transplant in the mid-1990s, and felt that, even though he had turned 81 the month before, he could continue for another forty years.   Robert Altman would pass away from leukemia on November 20th, 2006, only eight months after receiving the biggest prize of his career.   Robert Altman had a style so unique onto himself, there's an adjective that exists to describe it. Altmanesque. Displaying traits typical of a film made by Robert Altman, typically highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective and often a subversive twist.   He truly was a one of a kind filmmaker, and there will likely never be anyone like him, no matter how hard Paul Thomas Anderson tries.     Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again in two weeks, when Episode 106, Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy, is released.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.  

On this episode, we talk about the great American filmmaker Robert Altman, and what is arguably the worst movie of his six decade, thirty-five film career: his 1987 atrocity O.C. and Stiggs. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we're going to talk about one of the strangest movies to come out of the decade, not only for its material, but for who directed it.   Robert Altman's O.C. and Stiggs.   As always, before we get to the O.C. and Stiggs, we will be going a little further back in time.   Although he is not every cineaste's cup of tea, it is generally acknowledged that Robert Altman was one of the best filmmakers to ever work in cinema. But he wasn't an immediate success when he broke into the industry.   Born in Kansas City in February 1925, Robert Altman would join the US Army Air Force after graduating high school, as many a young man would do in the days of World War II. He would train to be a pilot, and he would fly more than 50 missions during the war as part of the 307th Bomb Group, operating in the Pacific Theatre. They would help liberate prisoners of war held in Japanese POW Camps from Okinawa to Manila after the victory over Japan lead to the end of World War II in that part of the world.   After the war, Altman would move to Los Angeles to break into the movies, and he would even succeed in selling a screenplay to RKO Pictures called Bodyguard, a film noir story shot in 1948 starring Lawrence Tierney and Priscilla Lane, but on the final film, he would only share a “Story by” credit with his then-writing partner, George W. George. But by 1950, he'd be back in Kansas City, where he would direct more than 65 industrial films over the course of three years, before heading back to Los Angeles with the experience he would need to take another shot.   Altman would spend a few years directing episodes of a drama series called Pulse of the City on the DuMont television network and a syndicated police drama called The Sheriff of Cochise, but he wouldn't get his first feature directing gig until 1957, when a businessman in Kansas City would hire the thirty-two year old to write and direct a movie locally. That film, The Delinquents, cost only $60k to make, and would be purchased for release by United Artists for $150k. The first film to star future Billy Jack writer/director/star Tom Laughlin, The Delinquents would gross more than a million dollars in theatres, a very good sum back in those days, but despite the success of the film, the only work Altman could get outside of television was co-directing The James Dean Story, a documentary set up at Warner Brothers to capitalize on the interest in the actor after dying in a car accident two years earlier.   Throughout the 1960s, Altman would continue to work in television, until he was finally given another chance to direct a feature film. 1967's Countdown was a lower budgeted feature at Warner Brothers featuring James Caan in an early leading role, about the space race between the Americans and Soviets, a good two years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. The shoot itself was easy, but Altman would be fired from the film shortly after filming was completed, as Jack Warner, the 75 year old head of the studio, was not very happy about the overlapping dialogue, a motif that would become a part of Altman's way of making movies. Although his name appears in the credits as the director of the film, he had no input in its assembly. His ambiguous ending was changed, and the film would be edited to be more family friendly than the director intended.   Altman would follow Countdown with 1969's That Cold Day in the Park, a psychological drama that would be both a critical and financial disappointment.   But his next film would change everything.   Before Altman was hired by Twentieth-Century Fox to direct MASH, more than a dozen major filmmakers would pass on the project. An adaptation of a little known novel by a Korean War veteran who worked as a surgeon at one of the Mobile Auxiliary Surgical Hospitals that give the story its acronymic title, MASH would literally fly under the radar from the executives at the studio, as most of the $3m film would be shot at the studio's ranch lot in Malibu, while the executives were more concerned about their bigger movies of the year in production, like their $12.5m biographical film on World War II general George S. Patton and their $25m World War II drama Tora! Tora! Tora!, one of the first movies to be a Japanese and American co-production since the end of the war.    Altman was going to make MASH his way, no matter what. When the studio refused to allow him to hire a fair amount of extras to populate the MASH camp, Altman would steal individual lines from other characters to give to background actors, in order to get the bustling atmosphere he wanted. In order to give the camp a properly dirty look, he would shoot most of the outdoor scenes with a zoom lens and a fog filter with the camera a reasonably far distance from the actors, so they could act to one another instead of the camera, giving the film a sort of documentary feel. And he would find flexibility when the moment called for it. Sally Kellerman, who was hired to play Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, would work with Altman to expand and improve her character to be more than just eye candy, in large part because Altman liked what she was doing in her scenes.   This kind of flexibility infuriated the two major stars of the film, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, who at one point during the shoot tried to get Altman fired for treating everyone in the cast and crew with the same level of respect and decorum regardless of their position. But unlike at Warners a couple years earlier, the success of movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider bamboozled Hollywood studio executives, who did not understand exactly what the new generation of filmgoers wanted, and would often give filmmakers more leeway than before, in the hopes that lightning could be captured once again.   And Altman would give them exactly that.   MASH, which would also be the first major studio film to be released with The F Word spoken on screen, would not only become a critical hit, but become the third highest grossing movie released in 1970, grossing more than $80m. The movie would win the Palme D'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival, and it would be nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Ms. Kellerman, winning only for Best Adapted Screenplay. An ironic win, since most of the dialogue was improvised on set, but the victory for screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. would effectively destroy the once powerful Hollywood Blacklist that had been in place since the Red Scare of the 1950s.   After MASH, Altman went on one of the greatest runs any filmmaker would ever enjoy.   MASH would be released in January 1970, and Altman's follow up, Brewster McCloud, would be released in December 1970. Bud Cort, the future star of Harold and Maude, plays a recluse who lives in the fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome, who is building a pair of wings in order to achieve his dream of flying. The film would feature a number of actors who already were featured in MASH and would continue to be featured in a number of future Altman movies, including Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, John Schuck and Bert Remson, but another reason to watch Brewster McCloud if you've never seen it is because it is the film debut of Shelley Duvall, one of our greatest and least appreciated actresses, who would go on to appear in six other Altman movies over the ensuing decade.   1971's McCabe and Mrs. Miller, for me, is his second best film. A Western starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, was a minor hit when it was first released but has seen a reevaluation over the years that found it to be named the 8th Best Western of all time by the American Film Institute, which frankly is too low for me. The film would also bring a little-known Canadian poet and musician to the world, Leonard Cohen, who wrote and performed three songs for the soundtrack. Yeah, you have Robert Altman to thank for Leonard Cohen.   1972's Images was another psychological horror film, this time co-written with English actress Susannah York, who also stars in the film as an author of children's books who starts to have wild hallucinations at her remote vacation home, after learning her husband might be cheating on her. The $800k film was one of the first to be produced by Hemdale Films, a British production company co-founded by Blow Up actor David Hemmings, but the film would be a critical and financial disappointment when it was released Christmas week. But it would get nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score. It would be one of two nominations in the category for John Williams, the other being The Poseidon Adventure.   Whatever resentment Elliott Gould may have had with Altman during the shooting of MASH was gone by late 1972, when the actor agreed to star in the director's new movie, a modern adaptation of Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel The Long Goodbye. Gould would be the eighth actor to play the lead character, Phillip Marlowe, in a movie. The screenplay would be written by Leigh Brackett, who Star Wars nerds know as the first writer on The Empire Strikes Back but had also adapted Chandler's novel The Big Sleep, another Phillip Marlowe story, to the big screen back in 1946.   Howard Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich had both been approached to make the film, and it would be Bogdanovich who would recommend Altman to the President of United Artists. The final film would anger Chandler fans, who did not like Altman's approach to the material, and the $1.7m film would gross less than $1m when it was released in March 1973. But like many of Altman's movies, it was a big hit with critics, and would find favor with film fans in the years to come.   1974 would be another year where Altman would make and release two movies in the same calendar year. The first, Thieves Like Us, was a crime drama most noted as one of the few movies to not have any kind of traditional musical score. What music there is in the film is usually heard off radios seen in individual scenes. Once again, we have a number of Altman regulars in the film, including Shelley Duvall, Bert Remsen, John Schuck and Tom Skerritt, and would feature Keith Carradine, who had a small co-starring role in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, in his first major leading role. And, once again, the film would be a hit with critics but a dud with audiences. Unlike most of Altman's movies of the 1970s, Thieves Like Us has not enjoyed the same kind of reappraisal.   The second film, California Split, was released in August, just six months after Thieves Like Us. Elliott Gould once again stars in a Robert Altman movie, this time alongside George Segal. They play a pair of gamblers who ride what they think is a lucky streak from Los Angeles to Reno, Nevada, would be the only time Gould and Segal would work closely together in a movie, and watching California Split, one wishes there could have been more. The movie would be an innovator seemingly purpose-build for a Robert Altman movie, for it would be the first non-Cinerama movie to be recorded using an eight track stereo sound system. More than any movie before, Altman could control how his overlapping dialogue was placed in a theatre. But while most theatres that played the movie would only play it in mono sound, the film would still be a minor success, bringing in more than $5m in ticket sales.   1975 would bring what many consider to be the quintessential Robert Altman movie to screens.   The two hour and forty minute Nashville would feature no less than 24 different major characters, as a group of people come to Music City to be involved in a gala concert for a political outsider who is running for President on the Replacement Party ticket. The cast is one of the best ever assembled for a movie ever, including Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakely, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert DoQui, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, Cristina Raines, Lily Tomlin and Keenan Wynn.   Altman would be nominated for two Academy Awards for the film, Best Picture, as its producer, and Best Director, while both Ronee Blakely and Lily Tomlin would be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Keith Carradine would also be nominated for an Oscar, but not as an actor. He would, at the urging of Altman during the production of the film, write and perform a song called I'm Easy, which would win for Best Original Song. The $2.2m film would earn $10m in ticket sales, and would eventually become part of the fourth class of movies to be selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 1991, the first of four Robert Altman films to be given that honor. MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and The Long Goodbye would also be selected for preservation over the years.   And we're going to stop here for a second and take a look at that list of films again.   MASH Brewster McCloud McCabe and Mrs. Miller Images The Long Goodbye Thieves Like Us California Split Nashville   Eight movies, made over a five year period, that between them earned twelve Academy Award nominations, four of which would be deemed so culturally important that they should be preserved for future generations.   And we're still only in the middle of the 1970s.   But the problem with a director like Robert Altman, like many of our greatest directors, their next film after one of their greatest successes feels like a major disappointment. And his 1976 film Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, and that is the complete title of the film by the way, did not meet the lofty expectations of film fans not only its director, but of its main stars. Altman would cast two legendary actors he had not yet worked with, Paul Newman and Burt Lancaster, and the combination of those two actors with this director should have been fantastic, but the results were merely okay. In fact,  Altman would, for the first time in his career, re-edit a film after its theatrical release, removing some of the Wild West show acts that he felt were maybe redundant.   His 1977 film 3 Women would bring Altman back to the limelight. The film was based on a dream he had one night while his wife was in the hospital. In the dream, he was directing his regular co-star Shelley Duvall alongside Sissy Spacek, who he had never worked with before, in a story about identity theft that took place in the deserts outside Los Angeles. He woke up in the middle of the dream, jotted down what he could remember, and went back to sleep. In the morning, he didn't have a full movie planned out, but enough of one to get Alan Ladd, Jr., the President of Twentieth-Century Fox, to put up $1.7m for a not fully formed idea. That's how much Robert Altman was trusted at the time. That, and Altman was known for never going over budget. As long as he stayed within his budget, Ladd would let Altman make whatever movie he wanted to make. That, plus Ladd was more concerned about a $10m movie he approved that was going over budget over in England, a science fiction movie directed by the guy who did American Graffiti that had no stars outside of Sir Alec Guinness.   That movie, of course, was Star Wars, which would be released four weeks after 3 Women had its premiere in New York City. While the film didn't make 1/100th the money Star Wars made, it was one of the best reviewed movies of the year. But, strangely, the film would not be seen again outside of sporadic screenings on cable until it was released on DVD by the Criterion Collection 27 years later.   I'm not going to try and explain the movie to you. Just trust me that 3 Women is from a master craftsman at the top of his game.   While on the press tour to publicize 3 Women, a reporter asked Altman what was going to be next for him. He jokingly said he was going to shoot a wedding. But then he went home, thought about it some more, and in a few weeks, had a basic idea sketched out for a movie titled A Wedding that would take place over the course of one day, as the daughter of a Southern nouveau riche family marries the son of a wealthy Chicago businessman who may or may not a major figure in The Outfit.   And while the film is quite entertaining, what's most interesting about watching this 1978 movie in 2023 is not only how many great established actors Altman got for the film, including Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Howard Duff, Mia Farrow, Vittorio Gassman, Lauren Hutton, and, in her 100th movie, Lillian Gish, but the number of notable actors he was able to get because he shot the film just outside Chicago. Not only will you see Dennis Christopher just before his breakthrough in Breaking Away, and not only will you see Pam Dawber just before she was cast alongside Robin Williams in Mark and Mindy, but you'll also see Dennis Franz, Laurie Metcalfe, Gary Sinese, Tim Thomerson, and George Wendt.   And because Altman was able to keep the budget at a reasonable level, less than $1.75m, the film would be slightly profitable for Twentieth Century-Fox after grossing $3.6m at the box office.   Altman's next film for Fox, 1979's Quintet, would not be as fortunate.   Altman had come up with the story for this post-apocalyptic drama as a vehicle for Walter Hill to write and direct. But Hill would instead make The Warriors, and Altman decided to make the film himself. While developing the screenplay with his co-writers Frank Barhydt and Patricia Resnick, Altman would create a board game, complete with token pieces and a full set of rules, to flesh out the storyline.   Altman would once again work with Paul Newman, who stars as a seal hunter in the early days of a new ice age who finds himself in elaborate game with a group of gamblers where losing in the game means losing your life in the process. Altman would deliberately hire an international cast to star alongside Newman, not only to help improve the film's ability to do well in foreign territories but to not have the storyline tied to any specific country. So we would have Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, Spaniard Fernando Rey, Swedish actress Bibi Andersson, French actress Brigitte Fossey, and Danish actress Nina van Pallandt.    In order to maintain the mystery of the movie, Altman would ask Fox to withhold all pre-release publicity for the film, in order to avoid any conditioning of the audience. Imagine trying to put together a compelling trailer for a movie featuring one of the most beloved actors of all time, but you're not allowed to show potential audiences what they're getting themselves into? Altman would let the studio use five shots from the film, totaling about seven seconds, for the trailer, which mostly comprised of slo-mo shots of a pair of dice bouncing around, while the names of the stars pop up from moment to moment and a narrator tries to create some sense of mystery on the soundtrack.   But audiences would not be intrigued by the mystery, and critics would tear the $6.4m budget film apart. To be fair, the shoot for the film, in the winter of 1977 outside Montreal was a tough time for all, and Altman would lose final cut on the film for going severely over-budget during production, although there seems to be very little documentation about how much the final film might have differed from what Altman would have been working on had he been able to complete the film his way.   But despite all the problems with Quintet, Fox would still back Altman's next movie, A Perfect Couple, which would be shot after Fox pulled Altman off Quintet. Can you imagine that happening today? A director working with the studio that just pulled them off their project. But that's how little ego Altman had. He just wanted to make movies. Tell stories. This simple romantic comedy starred his regular collaborator Paul Dooley as  Alex, a man who follows a band of traveling bohemian musicians because he's falling for one of the singers in the band.   Altman kept the film on its $1.9m budget, but the response from critics was mostly concern that Altman had lost his touch. Maybe it was because this was his 13th film of the decade, but there was a serious concern about the director's ability to tell a story had evaporated.   That worry would continue with his next film, Health.   A satire of the political scene in the United States at the end of the 1970s, Health would follow a health food organization holding a convention at a luxury hotel in St. Petersburg FL. As one would expect from a Robert Altman movie, there's one hell of a cast. Along with Henry Gibson, and Paul Dooley, who co-write the script with Altman and Frank Barhydt, the cast would include Lauren Bacall, Carol Burnett, James Garner and, in one of her earliest screen appearances, Alfre Woodard, as well as Dick Cavett and Dinah Shore as themselves.   But between the shooting of the film in the late winter and early spring of 1979 and the planned Christmas 1979 release, there was a change of management at Fox. Alan Ladd Jr. was out, and after Altman turned in his final cut, new studio head Norman Levy decided to pull the film off the 1979 release calendar. Altman fought to get the film released sometime during the 1980 Presidential Campaign, and was able to get Levy to give the film a platform release starting in Los Angeles and New York City in March 1980, but that date would get cancelled as well. Levy then suggested an April 1980 test run in St. Louis, which Altman was not happy with. Altman countered with test runs in Boston, Houston, Sacramento and San Francisco. The best Altman, who was in Malta shooting his next movie, could get were sneak previews of the film in those four markets, and the response cards from the audience were so bad, the studio decided to effectively put the film on the proverbial shelf.   Back from the Mediterranean Sea, Altman would get permission to take the film to the Montreal World Film Festival in August, and the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals in September. After good responses from film goers at those festivals, Fox would relent, and give the film a “preview” screening at the United Artists Theatre in Westwood, starting on September 12th, 1980. But the studio would give the film the most boring ad campaign possible, a very crude line drawing of an older woman's pearl bracelet-covered arm thrusted upward while holding a carrot. With no trailers in circulation at any theatre, and no television commercials on air, it would be little surprise the film didn't do a whole lot of business. You really had to know the film had been released. But its $14k opening weekend gross wasn't really all that bad. And it's second week gross of $10,500 with even less ad support was decent if unspectacular. But it would be good enough to get the film a four week playdate at the UA Westwood.   And then, nothing, until early March 1981, when a film society at Northwestern University in Evanston IL was able to screen a 16mm print for one show, while a theatre in Baltimore was able to show the film one time at the end of March. But then, nothing again for more than another year, when the film would finally get a belated official release at the Film Forum in New York City on April 7th, 1982. It would only play for a week, and as a non-profit, the Film Forum does not report film grosses, so we have no idea how well the film actually did. Since then, the movie showed once on CBS in August 1983, and has occasionally played on the Fox Movie Channel, but has never been released on VHS or DVD or Blu-Ray.   I mentioned a few moments ago that while he was dealing with all this drama concerning Health, Altman was in the Mediterranean filming a movie. I'm not going to go too much into that movie here, since I already have an episode for the future planned for it, suffice to say that a Robert Altman-directed live-action musical version of the Popeye the Sailor Man cartoon featuring songs by the incomparable Harry Nilsson should have been a smash hit, but it wasn't. It was profitable, to be certain, but not the hit everyone was expecting. We'll talk about the film in much more detail soon.   After the disappointing results for Popeye, Altman decided to stop working in Hollywood for a while and hit the Broadway stages, to direct a show called Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. While the show's run was not very long and the reviews not very good, Altman would fund a movie version himself, thanks in part to the sale of his production company, Lion's Gate, not to be confused with the current studio called Lionsgate, and would cast Karen Black, Cher and Sandy Dennis alongside newcomers Sudie Bond and Kathy Bates, as five female members of The Disciples of James Dean come together on the 20th anniversary of the actor's death to honor his life and times. As the first film released by a new independent distributor called Cinecom, I'll spend more time talking about this movie on our show about that distributor, also coming soon, suffice it to say that Altman was back. Critics were behind the film, and arthouse audiences loved it. This would be the first time Altman adapted a stage play to the screen, and it would set the tone for a number of his works throughout the rest of the decade.   Streamers was Altman's 17th film in thirteen years, and another adaptation of a stage play. One of several works by noted Broadway playwright David Rabe's time in the Army during the Vietnam War, the film followed four young soldiers waiting to be shipped to Vietnam who deal with racial tensions and their own intolerances when one soldier reveals he is gay. The film featured Matthew Modine as the Rabe stand-in, and features a rare dramatic role for comedy legend David Alan Grier. Many critics would note how much more intense the film version was compared to the stage version, as Altman's camera was able to effortlessly breeze around the set, and get up close and personal with the performers in ways that simply cannot happen on the stage. But in 1983, audiences were still not quite ready to deal with the trauma of Vietnam on film, and the film would be fairly ignored by audiences, grossing just $378k.   Which, finally, after half an hour, brings us to our featured movie.   O.C. and Stiggs.   Now, you might be asking yourself why I went into such detail about Robert Altman's career, most of it during the 1970s. Well, I wanted to establish what types of material Altman would chose for his projects, and just how different O.C. and Stiggs  was from any other project he had made to date.   O.C. and Stiggs began their lives in the July 1981 issue of National Lampoon, as written by two of the editors of the magazine, Ted Mann and Tod Carroll. The characters were fun-loving and occasionally destructive teenage pranksters, and their first appearance in the magazine would prove to be so popular with readers, the pair would appear a few more times until Matty Simmons, the publisher and owner of National Lampoon, gave over the entire October 1982 issue to Mann and Carroll for a story called “The Utterly Monstrous Mind-Roasting Summer of O.C. and Stiggs.” It's easy to find PDFs of the issues online if you look for it.   So the issue becomes one of the biggest selling issues in the history of National Lampoon, and Matty Simmons has been building the National Lampoon brand name by sponsoring a series of movies, including Animal House, co-written by Lampoon writers Doug Kenney and Chris Miller, and the soon to be released movies Class Reunion, written by Lampoon writer John Hughes… yes, that John Hughes… and Movie Madness, written by five Lampoon writers including Tod Carroll. But for some reason, Simmons was not behind the idea of turning the utterly monstrous mind-roasting adventures of O.C. and Stiggs into a movie. He would, however, allow Mann and Carroll to shop the idea around Hollywood, and wished them the best of luck.   As luck would have it, Mann and Carroll would meet Peter Newman, who had worked as Altman's production executive on Jimmy Dean, and was looking to set up his first film as a producer. And while Newman might not have had the credits, he had the connections. The first person he would take the script to his Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols, whose credits by this time included Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff?, The Graduate, Catch-22, and Carnal Knowledge. Surprisingly, Nichols was not just interested in making the movie, but really wanted to have Eddie Murphy, who was a breakout star on Saturday Night Live but was still a month away from becoming a movie star when 48 Hours was released, play one of the leading characters. But Murphy couldn't get out of his SNL commitments, and Nichols had too many other projects, both on Broadway and in movies, to be able to commit to the film.    A few weeks later, Newman and Altman both attended a party where they would catch up after several months. Newman started to tell Altman about this new project he was setting up, and to Newman's surprise, Altman, drawn to the characters' anti-establishment outlook, expressed interest in making it. And because Altman's name still commanded respect in Hollywood, several studios would start to show their interest in making the movie with them. MGM, who was enjoying a number of successes in 1982 thanks to movies like Shoot the Moon, Diner, Victor/Victoria, Rocky III, Poltergeist, Pink Floyd - The Wall, and My Favorite Year, made a preemptive bid on the film, hoping to beat Paramount Pictures to the deal. Unknown to Altman, what interested MGM was that Sylvester Stallone of all people went nuts for the script when he read it, and mentioned to his buddies at the studio that he might be interested in making it himself.   Despite hating studio executives for doing stuff like buying a script he's attached to  then kicking him off so some Italian Stallion not known for comedy could make it himself, Altman agree to make the movie with MGM once Stallone lost interest, as the studio promised there would be no further notes about the script, that Altman could have final cut on the film, that he could shoot the film in Phoenix without studio interference, and that he could have a budget of $7m.   Since this was a Robert Altman film, the cast would be big and eclectic, filled with a number of his regular cast members, known actors who he had never worked with before, and newcomers who would go on to have success a few years down the road. Because, seriously, outside of a Robert Altman movie, where are you going to find a cast that included Jon Cryer, Jane Curtin, Paul Dooley, Dennis Hopper, Tina Louise, Martin Mull, Cynthia Nixon, Bob Uecker, Melvin van Peebles, and King Sunny Adé and His African Beats? And then imagine that movie also featuring Matthew Broderick, Jim Carrey, Robert Downey, Jr. and Laura Dern?   The story for the film would both follow the stories that appeared in the pages of National Lampoon fairly closely while also making some major changes. In the film, Oliver Cromwell “O.C.” Oglivie and Mark Stiggs are two ne'er-do-well, middle-class Phoenix, Arizona high school students who are disgusted with what they see as an omnipresent culture of vulgar and vapid suburban consumerism. They spend their days slacking off and committing pranks or outright crimes against their sworn enemies, the Schwab family, especially family head Randall Schwab, a wealthy insurance salesman who was responsible for the involuntary commitment of O.C.'s grandfather into a group home. During the film, O.C. and Stiggs will ruin the wedding of Randall Schwab's daughter Lenore, raft their way down to a Mexican fiesta, ruin a horrible dinner theatre performance directed by their high school's drama teacher being attended by the Schwabs, and turn the Schwab mansion into a homeless shelter while the family is on vacation. The film ends with O.C. and Stiggs getting into a gun fight with Randall Schwab before being rescued by Dennis Hopper and a helicopter, before discovering one of their adventures that summer has made them very wealthy themselves.   The film would begin production in Phoenix on August 22nd, 1983, with two newcomers, Daniel H. Jenkins and Neill Barry, as the titular stars of the film. And almost immediately, Altman's chaotic ways of making a movie would become a problem. Altman would make sure the entire cast and crew were all staying at the same hotel in town, across the street from a greyhound racetrack, so Altman could take off to bet on a few of the races during production downtime, and made sure the bar at the hotel was an open bar for his team while they were shooting. When shooting was done every day, the director and his cast would head to a makeshift screening room at the hotel, where they'd watch the previous day's footage, a process called “dailies” in production parlance. On most films, dailies are only attended by the director and his immediate production crew, but in Phoenix, everyone was encouraged to attend. And according to producer Peter Newman and Dan Jenkins, everyone loved the footage, although both would note that it might have been a combination of the alcohol, the pot, the cocaine and the dehydration caused by shooting all day in the excessive Arizona heat during the middle of summer that helped people enjoy the footage.    But here's the funny thing about dailies.   Unless a film is being shot in sequence, you're only seeing small fragments of scenes, often the same actors doing the same things over and over again, before the camera switches places to catch reactions or have other characters continue the scene. Sometimes, they're long takes of scenes that might be interrupted by an actor flubbing a line or an unexpected camera jitter or some other interruption that requires a restart. But everyone seemed to be having fun, especially when dailies ended and Altman would show one of his other movies like MASH or The Long Goodbye or 3 Women.   After two months of shooting, the film would wrap production, and Altman would get to work on his edit of the film. He would have it done before the end of 1983, and he would turn it in to the studio. Shortly after the new year, there would be a private screening of the film in New York City at the offices of the talent agency William Morris, one of the larger private screening rooms in the city. Altman was there, the New York-based executives at MGM were there, Peter Newman was there, several of the actors were there. And within five minutes of the start of the film, Altman realized what he was watching was not his cut of the film. As he was about to lose his stuff and start yelling at the studio executives, the projector broke. The lights would go up, and Altman would dig into the the executives. “This is your effing cut of the film and not mine!” Altman stormed out of the screening and into the cold New York winter night.   A few weeks later, that same print from New York would be screened for the big executives at the MGM lot in Los Angeles. Newman was there, and, surprisingly, Altman was there too. The film would screen for the entire running length, and Altman would sit there, watching someone else's version of the footage he had shot, scenes put in different places than they were supposed to be, music cues not of his design or consent.   At the end of the screening, the room was silent. Not one person in the room had laughed once during the entire screening. Newman and Altman left after the screening, and hit one of Altman's favorite local watering holes. As they said their goodbyes the next morning, Altman apologized to Newman. “I hope I didn't eff up your movie.”   Maybe the movie wasn't completely effed up, but MGM certainly neither knew what to do with the film or how to sell it, so it would just sit there, just like Health a few years earlier, on that proverbial shelf.   More than a year later, in an issue of Spin Magazine, a review of the latest album by King Sunny Adé would mention the film he performed in, O.C. and Stiggs, would, quote unquote, “finally” be released into theatres later that year.   That didn't happen, in large part because after WarGames in the early summer of 1983, almost every MGM release had been  either an outright bomb or an unexpected financial disappointment. The cash flow problem was so bad that the studio effectively had to sell itself to Atlanta cable mogul Ted Turner in order to save itself. Turner didn't actually want all of MGM. He only wanted the valuable MGM film library, but the owner of MGM at the time was either going to sell it all or nothing at all.   Barely two months after Ted Turner bought MGM, he had sold the famed studio lot in Culver City to Lorimar, a television production company that was looking to become a producer and distributor of motion pictures, and sold rest of the company he never wanted in the first place to the guy he bought it all from, who had a kind of seller's remorse. But that repurchase would saddle the company with massive bills, and movies like O.C. and Stiggs would have to sit and collect dust while everything was sorted out.   How long would O.C. and Stiggs be left in a void?   It would be so long that Robert Altman would have time to make not one, not two, but three other movies that would all be released before O.C. and Stiggs ever saw the light of day.   The first, Secret Honor, released in 1984, featured the great Philip Baker Hall as former President Richard Nixon. It's probably Hall's single best work as an actor, and the film would be amongst the best reviewed films of Altman's career.   In 1985, Altman would film Fool For Love, an adaptation of a play by Sam Shepard. This would be the only time in Shepard's film career where he would star as one of the characters himself had written. The film would also prove once and for all that Kim Basinger was more than just a pretty face but a real actor.   And in February 1987, Altman's film version of Beyond Therapy, a play by absurdist playwright Christopher Durant, would open in theatres. The all-star cast would include Tom Conti, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Guest, Julie Hagerty and Glenda Jackson.   On March 5th, 1987, an article in Daily Variety would note that the “long shelved” film would have a limited theatrical release in May, despite the fact that Frank Yablans, the vice chairman of MGM, being quoted in the article that the film was unreleasable. It would further be noted that despite the film being available to international distributors for three years, not one company was willing to acquire the film for any market. The plan was to release the movie for one or two weeks in three major US markets, depending on its popularity, and then decide a future course of action from there.   But May would come and go, without a hint of the film.   Finally, on Friday, July 10th, the film would open on 18 screens, but none in any major market like Chicago, Los Angeles or New York City. I can't find a single theatre the film played in that weekend, but that week's box office figures would show an abysmal $6,273 worth of tickets were sold during that first weekend.   There would not be a second weekend of reported grosses.   But to MGM's credit, they didn't totally give up on the film.   On Thursday, August 27th, O.C. and Stiggs would open in at least one theatre. And, lucky for me, that theatre happened to be the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz. But despite the fact that the new Robert Altman was opening in town, I could not get a single friend to see it with me. So on a Tuesday night at 8:40pm, I was the only person in all of the region to watch what I would soon discover was the worst Robert Altman movie of all time. Now, I should note that even a bad Robert Altman movie is better than many filmmakers' best movies, but O.C. and Stiggs would have ignobility of feeling very much like a Robert Altman movie, with its wandering camera and overlapping dialogue that weaves in and out of conversations while in progress and not quite over yet, yet not feeling anything like a Robert Altman movie at the same time. It didn't have that magical whimsy-ness that was the hallmark of his movies. The satire didn't have its normal bite. It had a number of Altman's regular troop of actors, but in smaller roles than they'd usually occupy, and not giving the performances one would expect of them in an Altman movie.   I don't know how well the film did at the Nick, suffice it to say the film was gone after a week.   But to MGM's credit, they still didn't give up on the film.   On October 9th, the film would open at the AMC Century City 14, one of a handful of movies that would open the newest multiplex in Los Angeles.   MGM did not report grosses, and the film was gone from the new multiplex after a week.   But to MGM's credit, they still didn't give up on the film.   The studio would give the film one more chance, opening it at the Film Forum in New York City on March 18th, 1988.   MGM did not report grosses, and the film was gone after a week. But whether that was because MGM didn't support the film with any kind of newspaper advertising in the largest market in America, or because the movie had been released on home video back in November, remains to be seen.   O.C. and Stiggs would never become anything resembling a cult film. It's been released on DVD, and if one was programming a Robert Altman retrospect at a local arthouse movie theatre, one could actually book a 35mm print of the film from the repertory cinema company Park Circus.   But don't feel bad for Altman, as he would return to cinemas with a vengeance in the 1990s, first with the 1990 biographical drama Vincent and Theo, featuring Tim Roth as the tortured genius 19th century painter that would put the actor on the map for good. Then, in 1992, he became a sensation again with his Hollywood satire The Player, featuring Tim Robbins as a murderous studio executive trying to keep the police off his trail while he navigates the pitfalls of the industry. Altman would receive his first Oscar nomination for Best Director since 1975 with The Player, his third overall, a feat he would repeat the following year with Short Cuts, based on a series of short stories by Raymond Carver. In fact, Altman would be nominated for an Academy Award seven times during his career, five times as a director and twice as a producer, although he would never win a competitive Oscar.   In March 2006, while editing his 35th film, a screen adaptation of the then-popular NPR series A Prairie Home Companion, the Academy would bestow an Honorary Oscar upon Altman. During his acceptance speech, Altman would wonder if perhaps the Academy acted prematurely in honoring him in this fashion. He revealed he had received a heart transplant in the mid-1990s, and felt that, even though he had turned 81 the month before, he could continue for another forty years.   Robert Altman would pass away from leukemia on November 20th, 2006, only eight months after receiving the biggest prize of his career.   Robert Altman had a style so unique onto himself, there's an adjective that exists to describe it. Altmanesque. Displaying traits typical of a film made by Robert Altman, typically highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective and often a subversive twist.   He truly was a one of a kind filmmaker, and there will likely never be anyone like him, no matter how hard Paul Thomas Anderson tries.     Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again in two weeks, when Episode 106, Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy, is released.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.  

Jason David Frank the original Green/White Power Ranger has passed away, Cheryl Berg is leaving Dancing With The Stars, Ryan Reynolds wrote a Deadpool Christmas movie, and Michael J Fox recently accepted an Honorary Oscar!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to News of the Month, where I talk about a few different entertainment news stories that feel important and/or interesting to me. The stories I'll be talking about this time involve Netflix's EAST OF EDEN television miniseries, this year's Honorary Oscar recipients, Jennifer Hudson completing her EGOT, as well as the deaths of Donald Pippin, Philip Baker Hall, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and James Rado. If you love this show, please leave us a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/karereviewspodcast and follow the simple instructions. Follow Kare Reviews at www.karereviews.net and on Twitter: @KareReviews Also please visit the newly launched Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/jeffreykare?fan_landing=true Follow Jeffrey Kare on Twitter: @JeffreyKare If you like what you've heard here, please subscribe to any one of the following places where the Kare Reviews Podcast is available. Anchor: https://anchor.fm/jeffrey-kare Apple: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/kare-reviews-podcast/id1453846013 Google: www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy85NWFhZDFjL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6GL69s4zoDQmBcZf3NALTG Breaker: www.breaker.audio/kare-reviews-podcast Overcast: overcast.fm/itunes1453846013/kare-reviews-podcast Pocket Casts: pca.st/47Vw RadioPublic: radiopublic.com/kare-reviews-podcast-6rMdXk --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jeffrey-kare/support

Kevin Costner set to make back-to-back three-picture Western epic saga, while Michael J. Fox is among the names for an Honorary Oscar this year.

Jenn Hobby Throw Back Trivia 6-22

We are BACK! Yes, we talked about “The Slap” last week. We recap Samuel L Jackson winning an Honorary Oscar and some of our favorite SLJ movies. We also discuss other winners of the evening. We talk about BMore’s pending day in Court and who has pissed off DJ Don Pablo in Tampa Bay! Subscribe, […] The post Talking Schmutz: The SLAP!/BMore Gets a Ticket/Don Pablo Doesn’t Owe You Anything appeared first on Radio Influence.

We are BACK! Yes, we talked about “The Slap” last week. We recap Samuel L Jackson winning an Honorary Oscar and some of our favorite SLJ movies. We also discuss other winners of the evening. We talk about BMore's pending day in Court and who has pissed off DJ Don Pablo in Tampa Bay! Subscribe, […] The post Talking Schmutz: The SLAP!/BMore Gets a Ticket/Don Pablo Doesn't Owe You Anything appeared first on Radio Influence.

On this week's 51%, we recognize Women's History Month. We learn about Sarah Smiley, a controversial Quaker minister who dared to preach to women — and men — in the 19th Century, and Nancy Brown of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites provides a more local lens on the women's suffrage movement. We also stop by the New York State Museum to learn about a new initiative to expand its collection on women's sports. Guests: Samantha Bosshart, executive director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation; Nancy Brown, National Collaborative for Women's History Sites; Ashley Hopkins-Benton, New York State Museum 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. All month long, we've recognized Women's History Month by taking the time to learn about prominent American women, past and present. At the end of each episode, we visited exhibits at the New York State Capitol and spoke with the National Women's Hall of Fame. This week, I wanted to take a more local approach — mostly because, as a transplant in Central New York, I'm forever catching up on my Capital Region history, but also to serve as a reminder about the wealth of history that's right in our local communities. We're also flipping the script this week — rather than ending with a “woman you should know,” let's start with one. At the end of last year, the city council of Saratoga Springs, New York, unanimously voted to designate a small cottage on Excelsior Avenue a local landmark. The Smiley-Brackett Cottage, as it's called, is thought to be a prime example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing in the 19th Century — but it's also noteworthy for those who lived there. The house was owned by and built for Sarah Smiley, a popular, yet controversial Quaker minister.  "She really had this significant impact, I think, on women and public speaking," says Samantha Bosshart, executive director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation. The Foundation led the effort to acquire the local landmark designation. Smiley was born the daughter of a well-known Quaker family in Maine in 1830 (her father and brothers would go on to build the popular Mohonk Mountain House resort in the Catskills, which still operates today). She initially sought to become a teacher, but after the Civil War, Bosshart says Smiley went South to “relieve human suffering.”  "She traveled to Virginia and to North Carolina, aiding Quakers in organizing schools and libraries," Bosshart notes. "She helped to start a school for 1,000 free Black adults and children in Richmond, Virginia — but that's not really what made her well-known. She later spoke to what they called 'mixed audiences,' and when we say 'mixed audiences,' we're talking about men and women. Women did not speak in front of a congregation, that just wasn't happening." In 1872, popular minister Theodore Cuyler invited Smiley to preach before a mixed congregation at the Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn — making her the first woman to speak from a Presbyterian pulpit. "This caused a ruckus," says Bosshart. "This made Harper's Weekly news, and she was said to 'teach and to extort, or to lead in prayer in public and promiscuous assemblies...[it's] clearly forbidden to women in the Holy Oracles.' But what we learned, or what I learned after that, was that she was so well-received amongst her audiences that she was asked to speak across the country and abroad." Soon, Bosshart says Smiley was speaking in churches from Cincinnati, to London, to Cube. She was adamant that women could study the scriptures themselves, without the help of men. She started a home Bible study program for women, and would go on to write five books on the subject — some of which are still published today. Bosshart says Smiley's Gothic-Revival cottage was built the same year of her notorious appearance in Brooklyn. She's not sure why Smiley chose to settle in Saratoga Springs, but it appears she knew exactly what she wanted in terms of a home.  "Andrew Jackson Downing, he published his Cottage Residence in 1842, and The Architecture of Country Houses in 1850. Alexander Jackson Davis designed and drew the illustrations featured — her house looks nearly identical to one of those cottages. Perhaps because it was the gothic style that is reminiscent of churches, perhaps [she was] being influenced by seeing these rural cottages, and she wanted it to be in keeping with that," Bosshart adds. "She would come to Saratoga to study. In an article in 1874 in The Saratogian, it said, 'She speaks twice almost every day in the week. She only spends six months of the year in preaching, the remainder of the year, during the summer months, in diligent study in her cottage in Saratoga.' So I think, perhaps, it was where she had peace and quiet." Following Smiley's death in 1917, the cottage was left to The Society for the Home Study of Holy Scripture and Church History, the group she had founded to promote religious study by mail. It was ultimately bought by another famous name who owned the property until 1968: Charles W. Brackett. Brackett was a popular author, New Yorker drama critic, and screenwriter of films including Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, and 1953's Titanic. In 1958, he received an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. Bosshart says the cottage ultimately fell into disrepair following Brackett's death. The building is privately owned, so she notes there's nothing the Foundation or city can explicitly do to restore it at this time, but she remains hopeful that they can work with the owner down the line. In the meantime, the Foundation is celebrating the local landmark designation, which requires a review for any demolition or new construction in the future.  "I think it's important that we continue to recognize all the people that contribute to the stories of our communities. Having an opportunity to be a part of ensuring that Sarah Smiley's story is told and preserved is rewarding," says Bosshart. Saratoga Springs, as it turns out, saw many aspects of women's history. When we talk about the Women's Suffrage Movement, we tend to start with the Seneca Falls Convention and Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 — but as our next guest will tell us, there's a lot of local history to the movement, including in Saratoga Springs. Nancy Brown is a board member of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites, and chairperson of the National Votes for Women Trail, a database of more than 2,000 sites significant to women's suffrage across the U.S. She says the goal was to highlight the nationwide, grassroots commitment that was needed to gain women the vote, and honor the ongoing struggle for voting rights across the U.S.  How did you get involved in the National Votes for Women Trail? I think that my interest in women suffered comes from the fact that I'm a native of Johnstown, New York, and that is home to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, where not only she was born, but inspired. So I think that has always made me very interested in women's suffrage. I was a board member on the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites, and this became a project that was originally, actually, a funded project that was proposed by Hillary Clinton – to have a Votes for Women Trail. And it was passed, the legislation was passed, but there were never any funds appropriated for it. So I remember being on a phone call, years ago now, and we were bemoaning the fact that there was no money to tell the story of women's suffrage – how half of our democracy became enfranchised, which is a pretty huge story. And we got thinking that really, suffragists we're all volunteer operations. So that's how the National Votes for Women Trail got started: a number of volunteers stepped up and we ended up creating a national network. And our goal was to have 2,020 sites on a database, a mobile friendly, searchable database by 2020 – which we exceeded, and we're now at 2,300 sites, it at nvwt.org. And along the way, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation in Syracuse, New York, recognized the importance of the project and offered to fund historic markers for places of specific significance around the country. And they are doing that for over 200 markers. So it was through that project that I kind of stumbled across the wonderful suffrage history in Saratoga. So what role did Saratoga play in the women's suffrage movement? Well, I will tell you how I stumbled across it, to be honest with you. One of the most important and influential associations was the New York State Women's Suffrage Association. And when I was doing a little research on where it started, I realized that it started at a meeting in Saratoga in July of 1869. Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was famous suffragist from Syracuse, actually had called a meeting to form a state women's suffrage association, and it was held at Congress Hall, which is where the corner of Congress Park and Spring Street is in Saratoga. And it was chaired by Susan B. Anthony. And the result of it was the formation of the New York Women's Suffrage Association. Why that's so important is this will become the association that helps women win the right to vote in New York state, which happened in 1917. They lost the bid for voting in 1915, but were able to get it in 1917. And why that's so important is we were the 12th state in the nation to pass women's suffrage – but the other states were in the West, and we were the first state in the east to pass this. And Carrie Chapman Catt, the famous suffragist, called this the Gettysburg of the woman's suffrage association. So come to find out that started right in Saratoga. And when I looked back a little further, I found that that was not the first women's rights convention in Saratoga. Well, we know that the very first one was in Seneca Falls in 1848, that sort of began the idea of having women's rights conventions. And after that there was one in Rochester, but in 1854, actually – the suffragists were such strategic thinkers that there were some other associations meeting in Saratoga, and they decided to go to Nikolas Hall, which was on the corner of Phila and Broadway. And they had a meeting with Susan B. Anthony, and it was very well regarded, very well attended. It was before there was a race track, but still, it was very popular place to go for people who had money and influence, and they knew that that's what the suffrage movement needed, was money and influence. And they had another meeting again in 1855, because it went so well. Then they have the meeting in 1869, in Saratoga, that forms the New York State Women's Suffrage Association, which becomes so influential. And then what I think is so incredibly interesting is the last meeting of the New York State Women's Suffrage Association was held there in 1917. And that was the last one before the vote, and then fortunately, the vote was passed and women got the vote within our state. And that's a really interesting meeting. That is sort of a culmination of all the work that the Association had done throughout its history, and they had really won over all the legislators. They had worked during World War I, doing all kinds of anything that was asked of them. They had worked with the state military census, they had organized Red Cross chapters, they had sold bonds, they had organized food canning clubs, and every political party decided that they were going to support them. And it was quite a meeting. Even Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter and said, “I look forward to seeing the results of the meeting in Saratoga.” And it started out with a car parade, an automobile parade from Buffalo across the state to Saratoga. So that was August 1917. And hundreds of cars were coming down Broadway. And that's when about one in four people owned a car, so that must have really been quite a sight. And again, famous people like Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter, Samuel Gompers wrote a letter of support. Katrina Trask sent a letter saying that she supported suffrage and wanted to make a donation that would have been worth about $5,000 in today's money. So it was really quite an interesting place. I think what's especially interesting about it is it was a turning point, literally in the suffrage movement nationally. And Saratoga is known as the turning point of the Revolution, right? We all know that the American Revolution, and that enfranchised white men, essentially. But it was really a turning point in what many people have called the “bloodless revolution,” which was the 72-year-fight for women's suffrage over which no blood was shed, and voting rights were gained. So I think that its importance is very significant. You mentioned you're from Johnstown, and that's where Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born. And you also said it's where she was inspired. Can you go into what you mean by that for me? I sure can. Elizabeth was one of the children born to Judge [Cady] and his wife, and unfortunately, only one of their sons made it to adulthood. Eleazer. And when he came home from Union College, he passed away at the age of 20. And Elizabeth remembers in her autobiography, that, as her father, who saw this as the successor to his law practice, was sitting by the coffin, he was just despondent. She went, and she sat on his lap, and he said, “Oh, Elizabeth, if you've only been a boy.” And apparently after that, she talked to her neighbor, who was the Reverend Simon Hoosick, and asked if he thought boys are better than girls. And he said, “No, of course not.” And she vowed at that point in time that she was going to become as good as any boy. And she became a very good horse woman. And she went to the Johnstown Academy, and was in all the accelerated classes that very few girls were in. And there was a coveted Greek prize, that she won along with another gentleman at one point, and the story goes that she took that Greek prize, which was very coveted, and she ran it down the street, and she went to her father's law office and said, “There, I won the Greek prize.” And he said, “Elizabeth, if you'd only been a boy.” And because her father was a lawyer, and we believe that his law office was adjacent to their home, she spent time there and she learned about the law. And she learned how the law didn't favor women. And there's the story of a woman who came to see the judge, because she had no property rights, and her husband passed away, and her son and his wife were kicking her out of her house, and she had no rights to stay there. And Elizabeth heard this story and vowed to cut all the laws out of his logbooks. And he said, “Elizabeth, you would have to go and talk to the legislature to change a law,” never really realizing that she really would end up doing that one day, and she would help change the property law in New York state. So she really was inspired by the events of her youth that took place in Johnstown. You mentioned when you were describing the conventions that there's parades of cars and famous figures and big donations being made for the effort. Do you see it as a movement that, at the time in Saratoga, was particularly driven by the upper classes, or was there a movement for the everyday folks who wanted this too? I think that when we think about it, and we look at the suffrage movement in New York state, for example, there were women like Rose Schneiderman, who worked so hard for workers' rights as well as for suffrage, knowing that that would help the workers gain a voice in their destiny. But I also think women who had more money had more time to devote to this. And there were certainly women who were immigrants who were very interested in this and worked in suffrage, but they had so much on their plates just to survive and just to get educated and just to keep their families together. But there also were Black women who worked so hard to win the vote when the suffrage movement was not always kind to women of color. So there were really women of every class who worked terribly hard, and devoted themselves to a cause that they didn't even know if they were ever going to see. So I'm so impressed by that as well. And fortunately, I will say that the National Votes for Women Trail has worked hard to try and unearth as many stories as we could for those underrepresented women who aren't known as well as the upper class white women, who we tend to know their names. I was going to ask, as we're looking towards preserving sites that have to do with women's history, what are some things that we should keep in mind? And what are the obstacles that are we're running into nowadays to create more monuments to women in the U.S.? Well, the obstacles in terms of preserving sites are they weren't preserved, unfortunately. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's original house, for example, was moved, and a new one that she lived in was built out of stone, because there have been a number of fires in Johnstown. And it was taken down in 1963. And nobody thought a thing about it, actually. And she was a woman of means, so her family had some money. And that's why we on the National Votes for Women Trail are willing to mark sites, because so many homes, nobody preserved the history of them at all. And especially those that women of color [lived in], they're particularly hard to find. Before those names get lost, it's really our responsibility to do our best to shine a light on the information that we can find in for those few remaining places. Like fortunately, Katherine Starbucks' home is still there. So that's why it's so important to recognize it. Because so many of these homes in locations really are not. It's just, you know, ideally that that people really take some time and do their research. They can go on the National Votes for Women Trail and submit sites in their community, if they find information. We then have somebody who reviews them before they're released to populate the map. But we I just think, fortunately, with the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, there was more interested in women's history. And I think people are more interested in finding out who was in their communities that help them get the rights that they enjoy today. And we also need to be mindful of, you know, all women couldn't vote in 1920, Black Women's still had a long way to go to fight their way through Jim Crow laws before they could vote. And, you know, Native American women weren't even US citizens yet, not for another four years and women of Asian descent. Not until even after that they were not citizens yet, so they didn't get the vote. And as we know, unfortunately, today, voting rights are still being compromised in a variety of places. So I think that is equally important to commemorating their sites, I suppose is commemorating their struggle for the for the right to vote. Well, lastly, in looking at the local impact on women's suffrage movement, what has been your main takeaway? I think the main takeaways – I didn't know any of that history existed there, either. But in every county in New York state, there was an active women's suffrage association. That's how they were able to eventually get the New York state legislature to pass the amendment to the law so that they could vote. But so I think what I have learned is how widespread it was, how many people had to be involved to get this movement over the finish line, if you will. Also, there was a significant anti-suffrage movement that I wasn't aware of before I started doing research. And there were women as well as men who didn't think women voting was a good idea. They thought that they didn't need to vote to make their voice heard. If you dial it all the way back to that first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton said in her Declaration of Sentiments that she felt that women needed the right to vote, almost no one agreed with her then. They said, “Oh, that's too much. You know, we can't go quite that far.” But it was Frederick Douglass who stood up and said, “No, she's right. Without the right to vote…that's the right by which all other rights are gained.” It really was such a Herculean effort. There are so many people that we don't know about, that we should be so grateful for. I think there's so much research to do and so many people we need to try and remember their names and try and find out about them so that their efforts won't be lost. Nancy Brown is the chairperson of the National Votes for Women Trail. You can view the trail and learn more about a site near you on the website for the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has a map for all of its historic markers at wgpfoundation.org.  Lastly, on the topic of preserving women's history, the New York State Museum in Albany has launched a new effort to expand and diversify its collections — specifically, its sports collections. It's all ahead of the 50th anniversary of Title IX this June — Title IX, of course, is the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. It applies to all aspects of education, but one of its most visual impacts was in sports, requiring schools to equally support girls' and boys' teams. The museum is trying to balance out its own recollection of sports history by recognizing juggernauts like the WNBA's New York Liberty, or special events like the all-female Aurora Games, which launched in Albany in 2019.  I spoke with the museum's senior historian and curator for social history, Ashley Hopkins-Benton, to learn more.  "At the New York State Museum, our entire history curatorial department has been working on really evaluating our collections, and what strengths we have, and also what stories we're missing," says Hopkins-Benton. "And diversity, of course, is always something that we're trying to get more into the collections. But a couple of years ago, in 2017, when we were working on the Votes for Women exhibit about the centennial of women's suffrage in New York state, we realized women's history collections were really lacking. And then shortly after that, Steve Loughman, who is our sports curator, also was realizing that sports were really lacking, which is crazy when you think about New York and all of the great sports teams and sports stories that we have. So simultaneously, we were both working on these things. And because of the upcoming anniversary of the passage of Title IX, it became very apparent that women's sports were a particular collection that was lacking." So what kinds of items are you looking for in this collection? Well, let me start with what we have, because it's very small. It's all out on the table in front of us right now, we really have two collections that speak to women's sports as they relate to New York state. So one is a collection of material from the New York Liberty basketball team, the WNBA team. And this came in from a woman named Pam Elam, who is a feminist and a women's history scholar, and was really interested in collecting women's history and LGBTQ history as it pertained to culture and politics and sports and everything. So this came in before we even knew that women's sports was something that was missing from our collections, and it includes tickets and calendars and bios of the players. So it's a really great snapshot of the league. And these all came from around 10 years of the league being in existence. So that was the first thing that we had. And then a couple years ago, when Albany hosted the Aurora games, a couple of us all went out to different events and collected pins and basketballs and shirts and other materials from that. So that was a great opportunity as well. So we have two examples, more on the professional sports side of things. But we would love to collect more amateur sports, girls playing in high school, women in college, and those stories. I'm definitely looking for stories of trailblazers, women who were the first to play their sports. New York has so many great stories of girls who play on their high school football team, or I spoke to a woman earlier who was the first girl in her high school to earn a letter by playing on the men's golf team back in the ‘60s. So I am also looking to speak to women. I'd like to do some oral histories of women who were involved in sports at various times in history. Cool. Now, if someone has something that they think might be a good addition to the collection, what is the process of giving that to the museum? Well, reaching out to the museum and to me in particular, and then I bring it to our collections committee, and we discuss it as a group – how it fits into the collection, if it's something that we can responsibly take care of, and if it's something that has research and exhibition value in the future. If you think you may have something you'd like to contribute to the collection, you can find more information at the museum's website. You can also email Ashley Hopkins-Benton at ashley.hopkins-benton@nysed.gov. Title IX turns 50 on June 23. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

On this week's 51%, we recognize Women's History Month. We learn about Sarah Smiley, a controversial Quaker minister who dared to preach to women — and men — in the 19th Century, and Nancy Brown of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites provides a more local lens on the women's suffrage movement. We also stop by the New York State Museum to learn about a new initiative to expand its collection on women's sports. Guests: Samantha Bosshart, executive director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation; Nancy Brown, National Collaborative for Women's History Sites; Ashley Hopkins-Benton, New York State Museum 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. All month long, we've recognized Women's History Month by taking the time to learn about prominent American women, past and present. At the end of each episode, we visited exhibits at the New York State Capitol and spoke with the National Women's Hall of Fame. This week, I wanted to take a more local approach — mostly because, as a transplant in Central New York, I'm forever catching up on my Capital Region history, but also to serve as a reminder about the wealth of history that's right in our local communities. We're also flipping the script this week — rather than ending with a “woman you should know,” let's start with one. At the end of last year, the city council of Saratoga Springs, New York, unanimously voted to designate a small cottage on Excelsior Avenue a local landmark. The Smiley-Brackett Cottage, as it's called, is thought to be a prime example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing in the 19th Century — but it's also noteworthy for those who lived there. The house was owned by and built for Sarah Smiley, a popular, yet controversial Quaker minister.  "She really had this significant impact, I think, on women and public speaking," says Samantha Bosshart, executive director of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation. The Foundation led the effort to acquire the local landmark designation. Smiley was born the daughter of a well-known Quaker family in Maine in 1830 (her father and brothers would go on to build the popular Mohonk Mountain House resort in the Catskills, which still operates today). She initially sought to become a teacher, but after the Civil War, Bosshart says Smiley went South to “relieve human suffering.”  "She traveled to Virginia and to North Carolina, aiding Quakers in organizing schools and libraries," Bosshart notes. "She helped to start a school for 1,000 free Black adults and children in Richmond, Virginia — but that's not really what made her well-known. She later spoke to what they called 'mixed audiences,' and when we say 'mixed audiences,' we're talking about men and women. Women did not speak in front of a congregation, that just wasn't happening." In 1872, popular minister Theodore Cuyler invited Smiley to preach before a mixed congregation at the Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn — making her the first woman to speak from a Presbyterian pulpit. "This caused a ruckus," says Bosshart. "This made Harper's Weekly news, and she was said to 'teach and to extort, or to lead in prayer in public and promiscuous assemblies...[it's] clearly forbidden to women in the Holy Oracles.' But what we learned, or what I learned after that, was that she was so well-received amongst her audiences that she was asked to speak across the country and abroad." Soon, Bosshart says Smiley was speaking in churches from Cincinnati, to London, to Cube. She was adamant that women could study the scriptures themselves, without the help of men. She started a home Bible study program for women, and would go on to write five books on the subject — some of which are still published today. Bosshart says Smiley's Gothic-Revival cottage was built the same year of her notorious appearance in Brooklyn. She's not sure why Smiley chose to settle in Saratoga Springs, but it appears she knew exactly what she wanted in terms of a home.  "Andrew Jackson Downing, he published his Cottage Residence in 1842, and The Architecture of Country Houses in 1850. Alexander Jackson Davis designed and drew the illustrations featured — her house looks nearly identical to one of those cottages. Perhaps because it was the gothic style that is reminiscent of churches, perhaps [she was] being influenced by seeing these rural cottages, and she wanted it to be in keeping with that," Bosshart adds. "She would come to Saratoga to study. In an article in 1874 in The Saratogian, it said, 'She speaks twice almost every day in the week. She only spends six months of the year in preaching, the remainder of the year, during the summer months, in diligent study in her cottage in Saratoga.' So I think, perhaps, it was where she had peace and quiet." Following Smiley's death in 1917, the cottage was left to The Society for the Home Study of Holy Scripture and Church History, the group she had founded to promote religious study by mail. It was ultimately bought by another famous name who owned the property until 1968: Charles W. Brackett. Brackett was a popular author, New Yorker drama critic, and screenwriter of films including Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, and 1953's Titanic. In 1958, he received an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. Bosshart says the cottage ultimately fell into disrepair following Brackett's death. The building is privately owned, so she notes there's nothing the Foundation or city can explicitly do to restore it at this time, but she remains hopeful that they can work with the owner down the line. In the meantime, the Foundation is celebrating the local landmark designation, which requires a review for any demolition or new construction in the future.  "I think it's important that we continue to recognize all the people that contribute to the stories of our communities. Having an opportunity to be a part of ensuring that Sarah Smiley's story is told and preserved is rewarding," says Bosshart. Saratoga Springs, as it turns out, saw many aspects of women's history. When we talk about the Women's Suffrage Movement, we tend to start with the Seneca Falls Convention and Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 — but as our next guest will tell us, there's a lot of local history to the movement, including in Saratoga Springs. Nancy Brown is a board member of the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites, and chairperson of the National Votes for Women Trail, a database of more than 2,000 sites significant to women's suffrage across the U.S. She says the goal was to highlight the nationwide, grassroots commitment that was needed to gain women the vote, and honor the ongoing struggle for voting rights across the U.S.  How did you get involved in the National Votes for Women Trail? I think that my interest in women suffered comes from the fact that I'm a native of Johnstown, New York, and that is home to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, where not only she was born, but inspired. So I think that has always made me very interested in women's suffrage. I was a board member on the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites, and this became a project that was originally, actually, a funded project that was proposed by Hillary Clinton – to have a Votes for Women Trail. And it was passed, the legislation was passed, but there were never any funds appropriated for it. So I remember being on a phone call, years ago now, and we were bemoaning the fact that there was no money to tell the story of women's suffrage – how half of our democracy became enfranchised, which is a pretty huge story. And we got thinking that really, suffragists we're all volunteer operations. So that's how the National Votes for Women Trail got started: a number of volunteers stepped up and we ended up creating a national network. And our goal was to have 2,020 sites on a database, a mobile friendly, searchable database by 2020 – which we exceeded, and we're now at 2,300 sites, it at nvwt.org. And along the way, the William G. Pomeroy Foundation in Syracuse, New York, recognized the importance of the project and offered to fund historic markers for places of specific significance around the country. And they are doing that for over 200 markers. So it was through that project that I kind of stumbled across the wonderful suffrage history in Saratoga. So what role did Saratoga play in the women's suffrage movement? Well, I will tell you how I stumbled across it, to be honest with you. One of the most important and influential associations was the New York State Women's Suffrage Association. And when I was doing a little research on where it started, I realized that it started at a meeting in Saratoga in July of 1869. Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was famous suffragist from Syracuse, actually had called a meeting to form a state women's suffrage association, and it was held at Congress Hall, which is where the corner of Congress Park and Spring Street is in Saratoga. And it was chaired by Susan B. Anthony. And the result of it was the formation of the New York Women's Suffrage Association. Why that's so important is this will become the association that helps women win the right to vote in New York state, which happened in 1917. They lost the bid for voting in 1915, but were able to get it in 1917. And why that's so important is we were the 12th state in the nation to pass women's suffrage – but the other states were in the West, and we were the first state in the east to pass this. And Carrie Chapman Catt, the famous suffragist, called this the Gettysburg of the woman's suffrage association. So come to find out that started right in Saratoga. And when I looked back a little further, I found that that was not the first women's rights convention in Saratoga. Well, we know that the very first one was in Seneca Falls in 1848, that sort of began the idea of having women's rights conventions. And after that there was one in Rochester, but in 1854, actually – the suffragists were such strategic thinkers that there were some other associations meeting in Saratoga, and they decided to go to Nikolas Hall, which was on the corner of Phila and Broadway. And they had a meeting with Susan B. Anthony, and it was very well regarded, very well attended. It was before there was a race track, but still, it was very popular place to go for people who had money and influence, and they knew that that's what the suffrage movement needed, was money and influence. And they had another meeting again in 1855, because it went so well. Then they have the meeting in 1869, in Saratoga, that forms the New York State Women's Suffrage Association, which becomes so influential. And then what I think is so incredibly interesting is the last meeting of the New York State Women's Suffrage Association was held there in 1917. And that was the last one before the vote, and then fortunately, the vote was passed and women got the vote within our state. And that's a really interesting meeting. That is sort of a culmination of all the work that the Association had done throughout its history, and they had really won over all the legislators. They had worked during World War I, doing all kinds of anything that was asked of them. They had worked with the state military census, they had organized Red Cross chapters, they had sold bonds, they had organized food canning clubs, and every political party decided that they were going to support them. And it was quite a meeting. Even Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter and said, “I look forward to seeing the results of the meeting in Saratoga.” And it started out with a car parade, an automobile parade from Buffalo across the state to Saratoga. So that was August 1917. And hundreds of cars were coming down Broadway. And that's when about one in four people owned a car, so that must have really been quite a sight. And again, famous people like Woodrow Wilson wrote a letter, Samuel Gompers wrote a letter of support. Katrina Trask sent a letter saying that she supported suffrage and wanted to make a donation that would have been worth about $5,000 in today's money. So it was really quite an interesting place. I think what's especially interesting about it is it was a turning point, literally in the suffrage movement nationally. And Saratoga is known as the turning point of the Revolution, right? We all know that the American Revolution, and that enfranchised white men, essentially. But it was really a turning point in what many people have called the “bloodless revolution,” which was the 72-year-fight for women's suffrage over which no blood was shed, and voting rights were gained. So I think that its importance is very significant. You mentioned you're from Johnstown, and that's where Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born. And you also said it's where she was inspired. Can you go into what you mean by that for me? I sure can. Elizabeth was one of the children born to Judge [Cady] and his wife, and unfortunately, only one of their sons made it to adulthood. Eleazer. And when he came home from Union College, he passed away at the age of 20. And Elizabeth remembers in her autobiography, that, as her father, who saw this as the successor to his law practice, was sitting by the coffin, he was just despondent. She went, and she sat on his lap, and he said, “Oh, Elizabeth, if you've only been a boy.” And apparently after that, she talked to her neighbor, who was the Reverend Simon Hoosick, and asked if he thought boys are better than girls. And he said, “No, of course not.” And she vowed at that point in time that she was going to become as good as any boy. And she became a very good horse woman. And she went to the Johnstown Academy, and was in all the accelerated classes that very few girls were in. And there was a coveted Greek prize, that she won along with another gentleman at one point, and the story goes that she took that Greek prize, which was very coveted, and she ran it down the street, and she went to her father's law office and said, “There, I won the Greek prize.” And he said, “Elizabeth, if you'd only been a boy.” And because her father was a lawyer, and we believe that his law office was adjacent to their home, she spent time there and she learned about the law. And she learned how the law didn't favor women. And there's the story of a woman who came to see the judge, because she had no property rights, and her husband passed away, and her son and his wife were kicking her out of her house, and she had no rights to stay there. And Elizabeth heard this story and vowed to cut all the laws out of his logbooks. And he said, “Elizabeth, you would have to go and talk to the legislature to change a law,” never really realizing that she really would end up doing that one day, and she would help change the property law in New York state. So she really was inspired by the events of her youth that took place in Johnstown. You mentioned when you were describing the conventions that there's parades of cars and famous figures and big donations being made for the effort. Do you see it as a movement that, at the time in Saratoga, was particularly driven by the upper classes, or was there a movement for the everyday folks who wanted this too? I think that when we think about it, and we look at the suffrage movement in New York state, for example, there were women like Rose Schneiderman, who worked so hard for workers' rights as well as for suffrage, knowing that that would help the workers gain a voice in their destiny. But I also think women who had more money had more time to devote to this. And there were certainly women who were immigrants who were very interested in this and worked in suffrage, but they had so much on their plates just to survive and just to get educated and just to keep their families together. But there also were Black women who worked so hard to win the vote when the suffrage movement was not always kind to women of color. So there were really women of every class who worked terribly hard, and devoted themselves to a cause that they didn't even know if they were ever going to see. So I'm so impressed by that as well. And fortunately, I will say that the National Votes for Women Trail has worked hard to try and unearth as many stories as we could for those underrepresented women who aren't known as well as the upper class white women, who we tend to know their names. I was going to ask, as we're looking towards preserving sites that have to do with women's history, what are some things that we should keep in mind? And what are the obstacles that are we're running into nowadays to create more monuments to women in the U.S.? Well, the obstacles in terms of preserving sites are they weren't preserved, unfortunately. Elizabeth Cady Stanton's original house, for example, was moved, and a new one that she lived in was built out of stone, because there have been a number of fires in Johnstown. And it was taken down in 1963. And nobody thought a thing about it, actually. And she was a woman of means, so her family had some money. And that's why we on the National Votes for Women Trail are willing to mark sites, because so many homes, nobody preserved the history of them at all. And especially those that women of color [lived in], they're particularly hard to find. Before those names get lost, it's really our responsibility to do our best to shine a light on the information that we can find in for those few remaining places. Like fortunately, Katherine Starbucks' home is still there. So that's why it's so important to recognize it. Because so many of these homes in locations really are not. It's just, you know, ideally that that people really take some time and do their research. They can go on the National Votes for Women Trail and submit sites in their community, if they find information. We then have somebody who reviews them before they're released to populate the map. But we I just think, fortunately, with the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, there was more interested in women's history. And I think people are more interested in finding out who was in their communities that help them get the rights that they enjoy today. And we also need to be mindful of, you know, all women couldn't vote in 1920, Black Women's still had a long way to go to fight their way through Jim Crow laws before they could vote. And, you know, Native American women weren't even US citizens yet, not for another four years and women of Asian descent. Not until even after that they were not citizens yet, so they didn't get the vote. And as we know, unfortunately, today, voting rights are still being compromised in a variety of places. So I think that is equally important to commemorating their sites, I suppose is commemorating their struggle for the for the right to vote. Well, lastly, in looking at the local impact on women's suffrage movement, what has been your main takeaway? I think the main takeaways – I didn't know any of that history existed there, either. But in every county in New York state, there was an active women's suffrage association. That's how they were able to eventually get the New York state legislature to pass the amendment to the law so that they could vote. But so I think what I have learned is how widespread it was, how many people had to be involved to get this movement over the finish line, if you will. Also, there was a significant anti-suffrage movement that I wasn't aware of before I started doing research. And there were women as well as men who didn't think women voting was a good idea. They thought that they didn't need to vote to make their voice heard. If you dial it all the way back to that first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton said in her Declaration of Sentiments that she felt that women needed the right to vote, almost no one agreed with her then. They said, “Oh, that's too much. You know, we can't go quite that far.” But it was Frederick Douglass who stood up and said, “No, she's right. Without the right to vote…that's the right by which all other rights are gained.” It really was such a Herculean effort. There are so many people that we don't know about, that we should be so grateful for. I think there's so much research to do and so many people we need to try and remember their names and try and find out about them so that their efforts won't be lost. Nancy Brown is the chairperson of the National Votes for Women Trail. You can view the trail and learn more about a site near you on the website for the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites. The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has a map for all of its historic markers at wgpfoundation.org.  Lastly, on the topic of preserving women's history, the New York State Museum in Albany has launched a new effort to expand and diversify its collections — specifically, its sports collections. It's all ahead of the 50th anniversary of Title IX this June — Title IX, of course, is the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. It applies to all aspects of education, but one of its most visual impacts was in sports, requiring schools to equally support girls' and boys' teams. The museum is trying to balance out its own recollection of sports history by recognizing juggernauts like the WNBA's New York Liberty, or special events like the all-female Aurora Games, which launched in Albany in 2019.  I spoke with the museum's senior historian and curator for social history, Ashley Hopkins-Benton, to learn more.  "At the New York State Museum, our entire history curatorial department has been working on really evaluating our collections, and what strengths we have, and also what stories we're missing," says Hopkins-Benton. "And diversity, of course, is always something that we're trying to get more into the collections. But a couple of years ago, in 2017, when we were working on the Votes for Women exhibit about the centennial of women's suffrage in New York state, we realized women's history collections were really lacking. And then shortly after that, Steve Loughman, who is our sports curator, also was realizing that sports were really lacking, which is crazy when you think about New York and all of the great sports teams and sports stories that we have. So simultaneously, we were both working on these things. And because of the upcoming anniversary of the passage of Title IX, it became very apparent that women's sports were a particular collection that was lacking." So what kinds of items are you looking for in this collection? Well, let me start with what we have, because it's very small. It's all out on the table in front of us right now, we really have two collections that speak to women's sports as they relate to New York state. So one is a collection of material from the New York Liberty basketball team, the WNBA team. And this came in from a woman named Pam Elam, who is a feminist and a women's history scholar, and was really interested in collecting women's history and LGBTQ history as it pertained to culture and politics and sports and everything. So this came in before we even knew that women's sports was something that was missing from our collections, and it includes tickets and calendars and bios of the players. So it's a really great snapshot of the league. And these all came from around 10 years of the league being in existence. So that was the first thing that we had. And then a couple years ago, when Albany hosted the Aurora games, a couple of us all went out to different events and collected pins and basketballs and shirts and other materials from that. So that was a great opportunity as well. So we have two examples, more on the professional sports side of things. But we would love to collect more amateur sports, girls playing in high school, women in college, and those stories. I'm definitely looking for stories of trailblazers, women who were the first to play their sports. New York has so many great stories of girls who play on their high school football team, or I spoke to a woman earlier who was the first girl in her high school to earn a letter by playing on the men's golf team back in the ‘60s. So I am also looking to speak to women. I'd like to do some oral histories of women who were involved in sports at various times in history. Cool. Now, if someone has something that they think might be a good addition to the collection, what is the process of giving that to the museum? Well, reaching out to the museum and to me in particular, and then I bring it to our collections committee, and we discuss it as a group – how it fits into the collection, if it's something that we can responsibly take care of, and if it's something that has research and exhibition value in the future. If you think you may have something you'd like to contribute to the collection, you can find more information at the museum's website. You can also email Ashley Hopkins-Benton at ashley.hopkins-benton@nysed.gov. Title IX turns 50 on June 23. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue.

Can you imagine we are still talking about the Oscars?! Now the Academy is saying they told Will Smith to leave the Oscar behind on his way out and he didn't. EXCUSE ME?!? Should he have done so?... Did you know Samuel L Jackson received an Honorary Oscar from his longtime friend, Denzel Washington?...Lizzo just laughed a size inclusive shape wear for women...Blac Chyna complains about lack of child support funds but her (2) ex's said AHT AHT AHT! They joined the chat and disclosed how much they are financially supporting their children...Sperm donor, a wife and a forgotten moment he forgot to share! YIKES! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spro and Lee cordially invite you to the first half of their season two finale - a celebration of the late, great Alan Rickman.  Friends of the show, Emily and Rudy, join the boys for a lengthy lovefest to cover the lore, the laughs, and the legacy of the man with the voice.   

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Ray Johnson, Barbara Stanwyck Superfan Harvey and Ray discuss Barbara Stanwyck, her life and careerAbout Harvey's guestall about one of the most hard working, versatile and respected legends in cinematic history: Barbara Stanwyck. In her 64 year career, she made 95 films, including “Double Indemnity”, “The Lady Eve”, “Golden Boy”, and “Meet John Doe”. She was nominated for 4 Academy Awards and won an Honorary Oscar. And she starred in 4 television series and won 3 Emmy awards. Our guest considers himself Miss Stanwyck's oldest living fan. He fell in love with her in 1946 when he first saw her on the silver screen, and he started corresponding with her at the age of 21. He administers the Facebook page “Barbara Stanwyck – Queen of Hollywood”. For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com https://www.barbara-stanwyck.com#rayjohnson  #barbarastanwyck   #harveybrownstoneinterviews

We are closing out Pride Month by talking about the films of JOHN WATERS! Plus: Elaine May is getting an Oscar! — an Honorary Oscar, that is Britney speaks! Britney Spears was back in court asking a judge to end the conservatorship that has controlled her life for 13 years. Here's her full statement: https://variety.com/2021/music/news/britney-spears-full-statement-conservatorship-1235003940/ Oh, and Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment inked a huge deal with Netflix so we HAVE to talk about the hypocrisy of it all  

In the 388th Ellises’ Analysis, we’re back on the Martin Scorsese mob-movie train. The Depahted is a high-energy remake that finally won Marty an Oscar, even though it’s something of a greatest hits flick, especially for this living legend and his frequent collaborators. While it’s entertaining and the cast is an impressive collection of talent, the film doesn’t have the depth or staying power that Scorsese’s best pictures do. Is this even in his Top 5? Anyway, make no mistake, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon doing fine work in the compare-and-contrast lead moles…uh, make that roles…you know you’re in good hands. So don’t be a rat in Jack Nicholson’s gangster crew and please don’t make an appointment with the worst therapist in Bahston…or perhaps in the entire world. Just settle in for a solid hour of us celebrating AND grousing about ol’ Bullet To The Head. Well, Actually: Stanley Kubrick won an Oscar for 2001: A Space Odyssey’s Visual Effects (not an Honorary Award). Also, Orson Welles won a trophy for co-writing Citizen Kane and then many years later DID win an Honorary Oscar too. Also also, Alfred Hitchcock won the Thalberg award, not the Honorary Award. And finally, Chloe Zhao DID win the DGA award for Best Director on April 10th, as expected. You don’t need to take a single gunshot to your noggin to get yourself some Sparkplug Coffee. In fact, you can order as much as you want and they’ll offer you a 20% discount if you insert our promo code “top100project” into the appropriate place. Look us up on Twittah. We’re @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis Our website is top100project.com Ryan also has a sports movie podcast called Scoring At The Movies

On March 21, James Baskett becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.He was an American actor and singer, known for his portrayal of Uncle Remus in the 1946 Disney animated feature film "Song of the South."  Baskett became the first live actor to be hired by Walt Disney.In recognition of his portrayal of the famous black storyteller, Baskett was given an Honorary Academy Award, making him the first black male performer to receive an Oscar.BlackFacts.com is the Internet's longest running Black History Encyclopedia. Our podcast summarizes the vast stories of Black history in daily episodes known as Black Facts Of The Day™.Since 1997, BlackFacts.com has been serving up Black History Facts on a daily basis to millions of users and followers on the web and via social media.Learn Black History. Teach Black History.For more Black Facts, join Black Facts Nation at BlackFacts.com/join.Because Black History is 365 Days a Year, and Black Facts Matter!

The African History Network Show with Michael Imhotep on 910AM Superstation WFDF Detroit 1-29-21: 1) Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) says she was ‘berated' by crazy QAnon Conspiracy Theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).  Is moving her office away from Greene's 'for my team's safety'.  2) Cicely Tyson never won an Oscar but received an Honorary Oscar in 2018. Here's what she said. Cicely Tyson, Legendary Actress who broke stereotypes, dies at age 96. 3) Republicans are considering more than 100 bills to restrict Voting Rights after African Americans voted their interests. 4) Jan. 25, 1941: A. Philip Randolph and The March on Washington Movement which led to Executive Order 8802. Support The African History Network through Cash App @ https://cash.app/$TheAHNShow or PayPal @ TheAHNShow@gmail.com or http://www.PayPal.me/TheAHNShow or visit http://www.AfricanHistoryNetwork.com and click on the yellow “Donate” button.

This time, we're diving into French cinema and reviewing the 1965 neo-noir, thriller Alphaville and along the way we ask, is this film just ripping off the works of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, who exactly is Lemmy Caution, why does he look so haggard, and is there hope for an English language remake? Let's dig in…. Alphaville Movie Cast and Crew Directed by Jean-Luc Godard: If that name doesn't sound familiar to you, don't worry since it wasn't familiar to us either, but after doing some digging into his career, we discovered he's one of the most influential filmmakers in French cinema and pioneered the New Wave style of film making during the 1960's and 1970's. While he exclusively made films in France, directors like Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Brian De Palma and Steven Soderbergh have cited Godard as an influence on their respective styles of directing. He was also awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2010 due to his contributions to the world of cinema. Eddie Constantine as Lemmy Caution: You may be noticing a trend of naming people you may not have heard of before, but Constantine is considered one of the legends of French cinema. Constantine was a well-traveled individual before he wound up in France - born in Los Angeles and emigrating to Vienna in order to jump start a singing career, but returned to America when that career path didn't yield results. He then returned to Europe when the only acting parts he could get in Hollywood were minor roles and began performing in cabarets where he was discovered by legendary French singer, Edith Piaf and he helped her break into English markets. The character of Lemmy Caution became his signature role after this discovery, but more on that later. Anna Karina as Natacha Von Braun: At the time Alphaville was being filmed, Karina and Goddard were married and they continued to work together even after they divorced. Karina is also a legend of French cinema and continued appearing in films as recently as 2008. She also became known as a director, model, singer and writer during her iconic career. Who is Lemmy Caution? Alphaville doesn't address this question until almost 50 minutes into the story, but as our podcast show hosts point out, the film really begins to move after this revelation. We're introduced to Caution as a journalist named Ivan Johnson, but it's not clear if he's there looking for a story or just on holiday. It becomes obvious that he's not really a journalist when he pulls out a handgun and begins shooting at an intruder in his hotel room. Lemmy's real mission is to investigate the city of Alphaville and either destroy the malevolent computer that controls the city, Alpha 60 or to assassinate the creator of Alpha 60, Professor von Braun. The Alpha 60 entity does appear in the film, but as a disembodied gravelly voice that offers vague philosophy as it tries to control its population. Caution's pursuit of Professor von Braun becomes complicated when he falls in love with von Braun's daughter, Natacha, and his mission gains additional objectives as he now has to save her from Alphaville's imminent destruction. The character of Lemmy Caution was created by a British author named Peter Cheney who started his career as a FBI agent, but later became a private detective (starting to sound eerily similar to James Bond). Despite Caution being an American agent created by a British author, he has yet to appear in an English language adaptation. Following World War II, American culture was heavily promoted in France and the population formed an attachment to the American liberators from Nazi occupation. French film producers began to mine for material that would appeal to audiences - Caution became an obvious answer to adapt for the big screen. Constantine would go on to appear as the character in many films beginning in the mid 1950's to the late 1980's, but Alphaville was a polarizing film at the time of release as fans had associated the...

Show Notes: 0:00 - Right Down the Middle1:00 - Intro2:06 - Episode 883:58 - Hauls & Shoutouts 01:04:55 - Nerd News:Deaths:Kirk Douglas, 103, American actor (Spartacus, The Final Countdown, Saturn 3, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Fury), Honorary Oscar winner (1996)John Grant (Paul Barnett), 70, Scottish science fiction writer, awards for The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, co-author Lone Wolf books. Project Aon Trailers:The Invisible Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_FJdiY9dAThe Hunt - https://youtu.be/sowGYbxTPgUKingdom Season 2 - https://youtu.be/Dd7WM06AxMEThe Green Knight - https://youtu.be/VoJc2tH3WBwCastlevania Season 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYNGDUIBUhECyberverse Season 3 - https://youtu.be/K5LQ3ZRHNb0 News:JOKER Star Joaquin Phoenix Wins The Academy Award For Best Actor, Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Once Upon a Time, Toy Story 4 won Best Animated FeatureTHE MANDALORIAN's Baby Yoda Is Already Funko's Best-Selling POP Of All TimeThe Falcon and The Winter Soldier will premiere this August, followed by the second season of The Mandalorian in October, and WandaVision in DecemberCastlevania Season 3 release on March 5th, 2020. 10 episodesHe-man animated cast 1:47:39 - Weird news:Seriously, fuck that guy. https://news.yahoo.com/da-says-couple-accused-drugging-025144677.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=1_04 Perhaps today is a good day to die! https://www.denverpost.com/2009/02/04/klingon-sword-used-in-two-colorado-springs-heists/ That's here. That's us. https://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-reveals-updated-pale-blue-dot-photo-to-mark-30th-anniversary-and-its-still-breathtaking/ 2:05:37 - Toy NewsWonderfest 2020 winter:X-Men - Cable - Amazing Yamaguchi - RevoltechX-Men - Magneto - MafexAvengers: Endgame: Cap, Thor, Iron Man MafexThreeZero Berzerk - Guts 1/6 scaleMAX FACTORY That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime figma RimuruFansToys Soundwave/tapes, PerceptorMP-50, MP-51 02:59:21 - Listener's Questions:SLB Vlog: Remember back in the day the GI Joe figs has accessory packs? Like it was just a couple guns and what not on a blister card. Am I the only one that thinks it’d be cool if they did that again with this new line of 6 inch GI Joe figures? And fuck you Rob Liefeld. Gary Allen: Share your favorite Toy Show or Comic/Collectible Convention Memory!! NOT as a vendor, but an attendee, what was the event or scenario that got you interested in attending? Dustin Hayward: Do you think the new 6" Gijoe line will be more like The Black Series (with mostly unique sculpts and more paint) or Marvel Legends (with a lot of reused parts)? Brotha Kyle: What do you guys think of the evidence that Marvel Legends are going up 50% to $30 a pop. Personally I don't know if I buy it 100%. There was some pictures of price tags but nothing to indicate it was a US Target. And Gamestop has always been more expensive and they seem to be circling the tank so I can see them trying squeeze out every dollar they can. Are people panicking for no reason? Also is Mike going to stop collecting Legends now? Sorry for the long question. Go Birds and Bards. Adam Urban: Does your significant other get mad at you if you came home with a new toy on V day EOL   

In this episode the crew cover the following topics.. Zion Williamson Situation (1:44) NBA lowering draft Age limit back to 18 (17:00) Robert Kraft (26:08) R.Kelly NEW Case (33:16)Jussie Smollette Case(37:10) Top 5 Favorite Black shows (44:30) Spike Lee First non Honorary Oscar (53:34) Regina King (1:0:01)Blank Panther (1:00:10) Spike Lee Trying to leave Oscars (1:02:55) Russell Wilson wanting out of Seattle?(1:09:06) Antionio Brown (1:11:24) Le’Veon Bell (1:14:07) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/councilintheclutch/message

This week actor Donald Sutherland discusses his new film “The Leisure Seeker” and a legendary career that culminates with an honorary Oscar this weekend. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are set to present an Honorary OSCAR to writer-director Charles Burnett, at the Governors Awards on November 11th in Hollywood. Charles Burnett, is a legendary figure in the indie film community., he dramatized African-American life in his first feature, 1977's Killer of Sheep, and has gone on to make both dramatic films and documentaries like America Becoming and Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property. He joins me to talk about receiving the Oscar as well as his storied career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Continuing where we left off last week, for this week's episode, myself, Michael Schwartz and Will Mavity discuss some other categories from the first half of 2017 such as directing and acting, thus providing our picks for some of the year's best work so far. We also answer fan questions and discuss whether or not Andy Serkis will one day win an Honorary Oscar for his acting contributions towards the film industry. Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... SoundCloud - @negsbestfilmpodcast iTunes Podcasts - itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-…d1087678387?mt=2

 Movie Addict HQ remembers the legendary Mickey Rooney with a celebration of his remarkable show biz career. Joining in this tribute are comedian George Bettinger, film historian James Colt Harrison and Classic Movie Guide founder Diana Saenger. Mickey passed away in 2014 at the age of 93. He leaves behind a legacy of versatile performances on film, stage and TV. He was the top box office star three years in a row (1939, 1940, 1941) and earned four Oscar nominations for supporting performances in Black Stallion, The Bold and the Brave, The Human Comedy and Babes in Arms. In 1938, Mickey won the Juvenile Actor Oscar, and in 1983  received an Honorary Oscar for over 50 years of outstanding performances.   Making his first film appearance at six years of age, Mickey began wowing audiences with his singing, dancing and ability to do roles in both comedy and drama. He achieved great success in the Andy Hardy films and as Judy Garland’s partner in a string of backyard musicals, including Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy.  Mickey also won acclaim as a burlesque comic in Broadway’s Sugar Babies and as the mentally challenged Bill on television. The Internet Data Base lists a whopping 337 acting credits for Mickey Rooney!    

Hal Needham, our favorite stuntman, died Friday at 82. He did stunts in more than 300 films, directed "Smokey and the Bandit" and "The Cannonball Run," won an Honorary Oscar last year, got a lot of speeding tickets, and broke a lot of bones. He was a regular guest on our show, and here we listen back to a few of our favorite moments with him. 

Laurence Olivier's 1944 propagandist (at the behest of Churchill himself) adaptation of Henry V is not only Olivier's first film directorial, it's also the first time in film history that an adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays actually made money. It was nominated for four Academy Awards but only managed to garner Olivier an Honorary Oscar for "for his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen." Honorary Oscars are, as you know, even more masturbatory than real Oscars, though that doesn't lessen Olivier's feat here. It's a fine production with a lot of smart choices behind it. If only Pat and Adam could make it through a Shakespearean History without losing focus.