Just finished reading this.
24 December 2019
21 December 2019
Ladies and Gentlemen: Sincerely, Dina Lamont
I'm really excited to announce the publication of my 17th book -- Sincerely, Dina Lamont.
It all started one day in Palm Springs, CA., when I found a box in a storage unit...That’s all there was: a small box, big enough to hold about two reams of paper, sitting in the middle of the otherwise empty storage unit. Inside the box were three manila folders, innocent-looking enough. There was also a mostly completed manuscript. But there was something else: a canceled check in the amount of $50,000.
This is how it began. This is how I first learned about the once-famous actress Dina Lamont. It was a discovery that led to five years worth of research to uncover the story of this lost star. And now, in print, fifty years after the project was started, you will read the greatest story never told, about how one of Hollywood’s biggest stars got lost to time.
Dina Lamont, nee Harris, is the young daughter of a once-famous theater actress. She and her mother strike out into the big world of entertainment thanks to a modeling job advertising the new invention of sliced bread. From there, it was a brief hop to the silver screen by way of a short film. Then it was onto the vaudeville circuit and a railway trip to Los Angeles that left the two women stranded and without any work. But, that was okay: the flickers beckoned, and Dina answered. A chance encounter at a flashy Hollywood party put Dina on the screen. It was a small role, but it would be the beginning of a life of celebrated success, stunning defeat, and renewed dreams.
Here, then, is the story of a woman who would rise to the pinnacle of success in Hollywood. She would be famous the world over, appearing in magazines and on the cover of newspapers in every language. Was it all worth it? We’ll never know. Not only is Dina long dead, but her tale remained untold until an unnamed author stumbled onto her in the last months of her life. He wrote her story and then put it all away, in a box, just barely big enough to hold about two reams of paper.
That’s where our story begins.
Read more about Sincerely, Dina Lamont and her journey from obscurity to fame, by clicking the link on the right-hand side of this page.
19 December 2019
Happy Anniversary to Me!
I just realized today is the 14th anniversary of this blog -- begun on a whim in 2005. Kinda fun to know it's been around this long. I've had fun writing the various entries -- and I hope you've enjoyed reading them.
14 December 2019
07 December 2019
Pearl Harbor Memory
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| USS Arizona before the war. |
29 November 2019
08 November 2019
$31,748.92 a Month
I was diagnosed with myeloma (bone marrow cancer) in December 2015. In March 2016, I began taking daily chemo pills called Revlimid.* (Along with monthly shots and a bunch of other treatments.)
When I began Revlimid, I tried to find out how much a monthly dose cost. My insurance company wouldn’t say, and neither would my doctor. The best I could determine was that it cost about $14,000 a month.
I got a report from my insurance company this week that lists of all my medical services for the first three quarters of 2019. My monthly chemo medication costs exactly $31,748.92.
$31,748.92 EACH and every month for nearly the last four years. It’s the drug I need to keep my cancer under control (keeping in mind that myeloma has no cure).
$31,748.92. I can hardly imagine an amount of money that high. This contributes to the amount of money my insurance company has spent for my health care so far this year (just over $300,000.00).
There is no way I could afford this medication without insurance. There is also no way I could afford the insurance I need without help from the Affordable Care Act. It contributes to my monthly premium allowing me to afford an insurance that covers my husband and me – especially me.
Who has $31,748.92 lying around for monthly chemo drugs?
When I read the monthly cost of my drugs, I felt sick to my stomach that I was costing my insurance company so much. I mean, whole families survive on that amount of money or less a year, and here I am popping drugs to keep my cancer at bay.
As I have said many times before, if the Affordable Care Act is ever done away with, I will have no way to get my medication. None.
(*Revlimid is a brand drug. There is no generic. That’s at least in part because the company that makes it, Celgene, refuses to release drug details to allow other companies to make generic versions. Gee, I wonder why...)
When I began Revlimid, I tried to find out how much a monthly dose cost. My insurance company wouldn’t say, and neither would my doctor. The best I could determine was that it cost about $14,000 a month.
I got a report from my insurance company this week that lists of all my medical services for the first three quarters of 2019. My monthly chemo medication costs exactly $31,748.92.
$31,748.92 EACH and every month for nearly the last four years. It’s the drug I need to keep my cancer under control (keeping in mind that myeloma has no cure).
$31,748.92. I can hardly imagine an amount of money that high. This contributes to the amount of money my insurance company has spent for my health care so far this year (just over $300,000.00).
There is no way I could afford this medication without insurance. There is also no way I could afford the insurance I need without help from the Affordable Care Act. It contributes to my monthly premium allowing me to afford an insurance that covers my husband and me – especially me.
Who has $31,748.92 lying around for monthly chemo drugs?
When I read the monthly cost of my drugs, I felt sick to my stomach that I was costing my insurance company so much. I mean, whole families survive on that amount of money or less a year, and here I am popping drugs to keep my cancer at bay.
As I have said many times before, if the Affordable Care Act is ever done away with, I will have no way to get my medication. None.
(*Revlimid is a brand drug. There is no generic. That’s at least in part because the company that makes it, Celgene, refuses to release drug details to allow other companies to make generic versions. Gee, I wonder why...)
01 November 2019
08 October 2019
27 September 2019
100th Anniversary of Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood
Everyone who has been anyone has eaten at the Grill. It was a hangout for famous Hollywood writers for decades, as well as actors, directors, producers, and anyone else who had anything to do with Hollywood.
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| The author, at his favorite Hollywood restaurant in 2019. |
I’ve had a love affair with M&F for more than twenty years, eating there whenever I got the chance to be in town. I have such admiration for the restaurant and its history that I included it as a major set piece in two of my James Murray Mystery novels set in the 1930s: Sabotage at RKO Studio (The James Murray Mysteries Book 2)
where James takes his new girlfriend for their first big night out after the opening of the movie "King Kong"; and in Abduction at Griffith Observatory: A James Murray Mystery (The James Murray Mysteries ) (Volume 3)
where James’s world comes crashing down around him. It’s so neat knowing my characters could very possible have eaten at this wonderful restaurant!
26 September 2019
The Taste of Things to Come
In January 2015, I had to have a heart defect repaired. I’ve written a lot about that week and the subsequent effects the surgery has had on my life. One of the most pronounced changes at the time, was how everything I put in my mouth tasted of copper: water, hamburgers, chips, cherry pie. You name it: copper. That lasted about six months and (very) slowly faded away.
Shortly after I regained my proper sense of taste, I was diagnosed with cancer and had to begin lifelong chemo treatments. After they started, I lost part of my sense of taste again. This time: sugar had no taste for me AT ALL. Cakes, pies, chocolates, anything sweet now tasted flat. It was both a good thing (not craving sweets has helped me lose weight) and a bad thing (when I want a piece of pie, I want it to taste like a piece of pie, dammit!).
Now, four years since chemo started, my taste buds are changing again. It’s hard to describe what’s going on this time, but I am not enjoying foods that have a lot of flavoring to them. An example: I used to love barbecue potato chips. Now, no. Something about them tastes wretched. I am starting to prefer plain chips (which I used to hate). I prefer eating a piece of chicken with no flavoring (salt, of course, is basically forbidden to me), or a piece of bread with nothing, a plain tortilla, etc. I’m kinda hoping this changes pretty soon. I don’t know of any change to my body or lifestyle that is causing it and this kind of food is already starting to get boring.
Shortly after I regained my proper sense of taste, I was diagnosed with cancer and had to begin lifelong chemo treatments. After they started, I lost part of my sense of taste again. This time: sugar had no taste for me AT ALL. Cakes, pies, chocolates, anything sweet now tasted flat. It was both a good thing (not craving sweets has helped me lose weight) and a bad thing (when I want a piece of pie, I want it to taste like a piece of pie, dammit!).
Now, four years since chemo started, my taste buds are changing again. It’s hard to describe what’s going on this time, but I am not enjoying foods that have a lot of flavoring to them. An example: I used to love barbecue potato chips. Now, no. Something about them tastes wretched. I am starting to prefer plain chips (which I used to hate). I prefer eating a piece of chicken with no flavoring (salt, of course, is basically forbidden to me), or a piece of bread with nothing, a plain tortilla, etc. I’m kinda hoping this changes pretty soon. I don’t know of any change to my body or lifestyle that is causing it and this kind of food is already starting to get boring.
24 September 2019
14 September 2019
25 August 2019
13 August 2019
That Time I Discovered Sharon Tate
I was ten years old in 1969, the year Sharon Tate and others were murdered. My parents always had on the evening news during dinner, so I remember vague references to the murder, the search, the trial, etc; but the details never really registered with me.
About ten years later, I discovered the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls starring, among others, Sharon Tate. Love that movie. I bought the novel and read it. Love the book.
A few years later, I got the non-fiction book Helter Skelter about the hunt for the killers of Tate and the others. I was about half way through the book when my mind clicked into place that the “Sharon Tate” mentioned in this book was the same as the “Sharon Tate” who starred in the movie.
From that point forward, it was pandemonium: I wanted to know everything I could about Tate, her life, her films, her death. It was such a tragedy that the woman who made such an impression in the movie had been killed.
I have to admit I’m still a little fixated on Tate. She may not have been the best actor in the world, but there was something electric about her on screen. At least we still have that.
About ten years later, I discovered the 1967 film Valley of the Dolls starring, among others, Sharon Tate. Love that movie. I bought the novel and read it. Love the book.
A few years later, I got the non-fiction book Helter Skelter about the hunt for the killers of Tate and the others. I was about half way through the book when my mind clicked into place that the “Sharon Tate” mentioned in this book was the same as the “Sharon Tate” who starred in the movie.
From that point forward, it was pandemonium: I wanted to know everything I could about Tate, her life, her films, her death. It was such a tragedy that the woman who made such an impression in the movie had been killed.
I have to admit I’m still a little fixated on Tate. She may not have been the best actor in the world, but there was something electric about her on screen. At least we still have that.
11 August 2019
Time Travel
In 2001 our house was broken into. They stole only a few things, but they got our VHS player (although kindly took out the cassette and left that behind). It was at that time we decided to step into the future and invest in a DVD player. We have watched only DVDs in the past eighteen years.
Over time, we began to notice that some of the movies we wanted to see were not available as DVDs – either they had never been issued as DVDs or had been and then dropped out of production.
Clearly this wouldn’t do. So, my intrepid husband went out and found a nice used VHS player for us. We’ve been picking up odd shows and movies on VHS at various places, including thrift stores, to watch programs that we can’t see elsewhere – DVD or streaming.
There are times when modern technology just isn’t good enough!
Over time, we began to notice that some of the movies we wanted to see were not available as DVDs – either they had never been issued as DVDs or had been and then dropped out of production.
Clearly this wouldn’t do. So, my intrepid husband went out and found a nice used VHS player for us. We’ve been picking up odd shows and movies on VHS at various places, including thrift stores, to watch programs that we can’t see elsewhere – DVD or streaming.
There are times when modern technology just isn’t good enough!
28 July 2019
17 July 2019
16 July 2019
You Are Who You Are
I believe that every person should have the right to live his/her life as h/she wishes – as long as it does not include injury of any kind to any other person. Basically, the “your rights end where my nose begins” philosophy. It is certainly not my place to tell any person how to live his/her own life.
Being gay was not a decision I made: it was a realization that occurred after I was faced with an overwhelming amount of evidence. If I act on being gay, that is my choice and no business of yours. Choosing to live my life as a gay man was a difficult transition, but one I am glad to have made.
Recently, my husband and I watched the two-part “Medical Center” episode from 1975 called “The Fourth Sex.” (S7E1-2) In it, a successful surgeon has come to the realization that he is a woman living in a man’s body and decides to make the changes necessary to align his body with his feelings. (It is a situation now called gender dysphoria.) The doctor (played by Robert Reed, who was nominated for an Emmy for his performance) must deal with doubting colleagues, a disbelieving wife, a hate-filled son and an evil sister-in-law all of whom resist his plans. I imagine it is a situation that was all-too-true then and remains all-to-true today.
I don’t understand why people are so afraid of any person making this kind of decision in his/her own life. It’s a perpetuation of the ages old discrimination: first, we hate you because you are a different religion; then, we hate you because you are a different skin color; then we hate you because you want to be in a same-sex relationship. Now, we hate you because you want to change the sex you were born with.
That hatred is fueled by any official organization (ahem, catholic church) that dismisses gender dysphoria as a “trend.” Getting a tattoo is a trend, not undergoing painful hours of surgery to change your physical body.
Personally, I think gender dysphoria is the most difficult life-changing situation to deal with, and it must be miles more difficult than my choice to live life as a gay man. I can’t imagine being in a situation where I felt that I was the wrong sex, and then having to deal with the necessary changes. My hat is off to every person who has traveled that road.
Being gay was not a decision I made: it was a realization that occurred after I was faced with an overwhelming amount of evidence. If I act on being gay, that is my choice and no business of yours. Choosing to live my life as a gay man was a difficult transition, but one I am glad to have made.
Recently, my husband and I watched the two-part “Medical Center” episode from 1975 called “The Fourth Sex.” (S7E1-2) In it, a successful surgeon has come to the realization that he is a woman living in a man’s body and decides to make the changes necessary to align his body with his feelings. (It is a situation now called gender dysphoria.) The doctor (played by Robert Reed, who was nominated for an Emmy for his performance) must deal with doubting colleagues, a disbelieving wife, a hate-filled son and an evil sister-in-law all of whom resist his plans. I imagine it is a situation that was all-too-true then and remains all-to-true today.
I don’t understand why people are so afraid of any person making this kind of decision in his/her own life. It’s a perpetuation of the ages old discrimination: first, we hate you because you are a different religion; then, we hate you because you are a different skin color; then we hate you because you want to be in a same-sex relationship. Now, we hate you because you want to change the sex you were born with.
That hatred is fueled by any official organization (ahem, catholic church) that dismisses gender dysphoria as a “trend.” Getting a tattoo is a trend, not undergoing painful hours of surgery to change your physical body.
Personally, I think gender dysphoria is the most difficult life-changing situation to deal with, and it must be miles more difficult than my choice to live life as a gay man. I can’t imagine being in a situation where I felt that I was the wrong sex, and then having to deal with the necessary changes. My hat is off to every person who has traveled that road.
01 July 2019
Neatness (Sometimes) Counts
A friend of mine recently posted on FB that she was feeling taken advantage of because she did something really well. That reminded me of something that happened to me when I first moved to California and got a job at a bank in Berkeley.
I was assigned a teller cage. I put my stuff down and looked through the drawers and was absolutely appalled by the messes therein. I’m not a neat freak, but I like things organized. I mean, a place for everything, etc. So, I set out to clean and organize the drawers between customers. It took a while (teller stamp ink is pretty hard to get off surfaces), but in a few days I had the cage looking splendid – good enough to be featured in a spread in Better Homes and Teller Cages magazine, if you know what I mean.
About a week later, I was assigned to another cage. I moved my things to the new, even more disgusting cage and set about cleaning and organizing. I didn’t really catch on to what was happening until I was moved for a FIFTH time in as many weeks. At first, I thought they were trying to position me where I could do the most good (I was easily the fastest and most accurate teller on the line); then I realized I was the only person cleaning and organizing my drawers because, obviously every time I moved I landed in a pig’s sty. Of course, by then, I had been moved through the entire line and cleaned and organized every cage.
From that point forward, I have spoken of the “curse of competence” – where you do something so well, the “powers that be” begin to take advantage of you. That same thing happened to me in pretty much every job I’ve ever had: same ends, different means. It got to the point where I had to act like I was only as competent as my co-workers to make sure my bosses didn’t keep piling work on my desk. I hated the deception, but I was picking up the slack for a number of my co-workers who I KNOW just said, “Eh, I’m not going to bother because I know Christopher will do it.”
I was assigned a teller cage. I put my stuff down and looked through the drawers and was absolutely appalled by the messes therein. I’m not a neat freak, but I like things organized. I mean, a place for everything, etc. So, I set out to clean and organize the drawers between customers. It took a while (teller stamp ink is pretty hard to get off surfaces), but in a few days I had the cage looking splendid – good enough to be featured in a spread in Better Homes and Teller Cages magazine, if you know what I mean.
About a week later, I was assigned to another cage. I moved my things to the new, even more disgusting cage and set about cleaning and organizing. I didn’t really catch on to what was happening until I was moved for a FIFTH time in as many weeks. At first, I thought they were trying to position me where I could do the most good (I was easily the fastest and most accurate teller on the line); then I realized I was the only person cleaning and organizing my drawers because, obviously every time I moved I landed in a pig’s sty. Of course, by then, I had been moved through the entire line and cleaned and organized every cage.
From that point forward, I have spoken of the “curse of competence” – where you do something so well, the “powers that be” begin to take advantage of you. That same thing happened to me in pretty much every job I’ve ever had: same ends, different means. It got to the point where I had to act like I was only as competent as my co-workers to make sure my bosses didn’t keep piling work on my desk. I hated the deception, but I was picking up the slack for a number of my co-workers who I KNOW just said, “Eh, I’m not going to bother because I know Christopher will do it.”
30 June 2019
23 June 2019
22 June 2019
Anesthesia and Me
I have always been ultra sensitive to medications of all kinds. This includes anesthesia. There are stories I could tell you… I had a kidney biopsy last Tuesday and I am still reeling from the effects of the anesthesia. Four days later I still feel drugged and drunk, like a perpetual hangover that refuses to go away. There has been vomiting, diarrhea, lack of appetite, etc – all of the things my body is doing to try to rid itself of the poison.
I called and talked to nurses at the hospital about this and they say it cannot be the anesthesia, that the body rids itself of the chemicals in a couple of hours. In my case they forget that I have diminished kidney function that would slow down that process. In research I’ve done, I discovered that older people have a harder time getting rid of the chemicals.
One of the drugs they gave me this time is fentanyl – an opioid that people abuse on purpose. All I can say is that if these are the effects they desire, then they are idiots.
I called and talked to nurses at the hospital about this and they say it cannot be the anesthesia, that the body rids itself of the chemicals in a couple of hours. In my case they forget that I have diminished kidney function that would slow down that process. In research I’ve done, I discovered that older people have a harder time getting rid of the chemicals.
One of the drugs they gave me this time is fentanyl – an opioid that people abuse on purpose. All I can say is that if these are the effects they desire, then they are idiots.
28 May 2019
12 May 2019
25 April 2019
14 April 2019
22 March 2019
17 March 2019
27 February 2019
24 February 2019
My Interview with Ann Miller
Back in 1992 I did a story for our local NPR affiliate KJZZ on the renovation that had recently begun on Phoenix’s Orpheum Theatre. It was a big project to restore the once-glittering showplace that had fallen on hard times. This story was especially interesting for me to produce because I had a chance to interview Ann Miller, MGM dancing star, who appeared at the Orpheum to promote her film “You Can’t Take it With You.”
I would cross paths again when I interviewed Miller at another Orpheum-renovation event (see photograph).
You can hear my 1992 radio story here.
16 February 2019
07 February 2019
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