The Writer's Life 7/23 - Fun Facts

Decades, channel 112 on Cablevision in NYC, is displaying a dismaying trend. It focuses on each day in terms of its historical relevance. Three times in the past two weeks it has showcased serial killers, Bundy, Speck, Dahmer, in prime time. Their stories dominated the headlines, but I wouldn't call them history.

On the other hand, Movies!, channel 113, continues to deliver. Last night at eight it ran Houdini (1953), starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh just as their stars were ascending. The film, criticized for its historical inaccuracies, is entertaining and endearing. In reading about it at IMDb, I discovered fun facts about two of the other artists involved. Director George Marshall has an astonishing 185 credits at the helm. He began doing shorts, several of which he wrote and appeared in, during the silent era, went on to feature films and ended in TV. Although none of his flicks is particularly noteworthy, respect is due for his long, prolific run. One of the supporting players, Ian Wolfe, whose face was only vaguely familiar, had an impressive run, amassing 300 credits from 1934 to 1995. In the latter part of his career he did many one-shots on popular TV shows. He lived until age 95. Here are pics of Wolfe, the master escape artist, and a poster from the movie:

Another surprise fun fact: Janet Leigh wrote four books: There Really Was a Hollywood, 1984--an autobiography; Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller, 1995, co-authored with Christopher Nickens; House of Destiny, 1996, a novel; and The Dream Factory 2002, a novel. Here is a quote attributed to her about receiving second billing to her husband in Houdini: "I don't care if he's made one picture and I've made a hundred. I will always take second billing to my husband." They were married from 1951-1962 and had two children.

My thanks to the gentleman who donated about 25 books, the couple who donated about 50, a quarter of them in Russian, and to the kind folks who bought and swapped books on this glorious day.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/