Last night on Movies!, channel 5-2 on my over the air antenna, I watched
Gilda (1946), a love-hate saga starring Glenn Ford and the smokin' hot Rita Hayworth. In researching the cast, I came upon a new leader in my unofficial list of all-time appearances in films and TV. Bess Flowers compiled an astonishing 913! This blows away the members of the 600 club, Frank O'Connor (650) and Jack Mower (620). I know many (most?) of the spots were non-speaking roles in which she was simply in the background, but still... Along her Hollywood journey, she appeared in five Best Picture winners and was in 20 other nominees. In
1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider, she is listed in 33, more than any other artist. Born in Texas in 1898, her career spanned from 1923 to 1964, many of her parts listed as "uncredited" at IMDb. She also made multiple appearances on TV shows such as
Perry Mason, on which she appeared 13 times. She also did commercials for Chevy. Fittingly, she was known as "Queen of the Hollywood Extras." She passed away at 85 in 1984. Here's a quote attributed to her: "I made a good living. I'm lazy, from the South, so I never took anything that was hard." Are you kidding me - how many appearances would she have made had she worked hard? Awesome, madam. She is a perfect poster child for Labor Day. Here's a pic:
And as for the labor of love that is the floating book shop - day one of the latest heat wave was a snap, as the shade of the scaffold and breeze along Avenue Z made conditions pleasant. My thanks to all the folks who stopped to chat, and to Bus Driver, who bought two more thrillers - Jonathan Kellerman's
Mystery and James Patterson's
When the Wind Blows.
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