The Writer's Life 8/30 - Big

RIP Brooklyn born Bernard Pomerance, 76, who wrote the highly successful The Elephant Man, which won the Tony for Best Play in 1979. It ran 916 performances and was made into a film for television using the original cast. It has seen many revivals, playing to sold out houses. Although Pomerance wrote several other plays that reached the stage in London, his adopted home, none garnered the attention of The Elephant Man, at least as far as I know. The part has been played by Philip Anglim, David Bowie, Mark Hamill and, most recently, Bradley Cooper. No make-up is used in the stage role. The actor is required to get at the essence of Joseph Merrick strictly through skill. The 1980 Hollywood film of the same name, directed by David Lynch, was not an adaptation. Having used the title and drawn on much of the original content of the play, the production company was successfully sued by Pomerance. The late John Hurt was the star - in full make-up. The movie received eight Oscar nominations, including one for Hurt's performance, but won none. Here's how Hurt looked in the production:

And here's Bradley Cooper as Merrick:

And here's the real Merrick, who died in 1890 at only 27:

And here's the author, who gave these memorable lines to Merrick: “Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams. Because it is.” 

In an ad in today's NY Post, Apple Bank boasts of its "great" CD rates: Six month: 1.01%; one year: 1.25%; two year: 1.60%. It's wrong to blame banks for such paltry returns. In an effort to bolster the stagnant economy, the Fed has kept interest rates near zero for about a decade. That hasn't spurred robust growth, but raising rates may hamper it. It's a damned if you you do, damned if you don't situation.

My thanks to the three elderly Russian women, one who bought two books in her native tongue, the other who made a three for one swap, and Natalia, just back from summer at her daughter's in Monticello, who bought three. Thanks also to the woman who purchased A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, one of the better mysteries I've read, and Moonlight Becomes You by Mary Higgins Clark. While waiting for customers to come along I witnessed an interesting scene. Vehicles headed in either direction on Avenue Z were awaiting the change of light. A thirty-something woman in an SUV noticed that the cop at the wheel in the squad car beside her was speaking on a cell phone, and she called him out on it. She said she had her four children in the car, and told the one beside her to take a picture of the law-breaker. The cop let the car coast ahead as far as possible to get out of the frame. I could not see the kid, so I don't know if the violation was caught on camera. The woman used a civil tone. I wonder if she'd once been nailed for the same act. Lady, you got big ones. Kudos.

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