#Joseph Buloff

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[davidpwilson2564]

Bloglet

Monday, April 17, 2023

Rep Jim Jordon and his unsavory friends here to bust  DA Alvin Bragg’s chops.  Saying that Bragg is soft on crime.  Odd, because Jordon’s Ohio district (Columbus and environs) is much worse.  He’s after Bragg for trying to bring Trump to justice.  (Jordon, who rattles on like an auctioneer...blah, blah, blah...always refers to Trump as the President.  It was Trump who bestowed on Jordon the Medal of Freedom, thereby rendering it valueless forevermore).  

Lovely weather continues.  More walking, but I should be doing more of this. Way back when I walked long strectches in an effort to lose weight.  Funny, those days are gone.  Now it is important to keep weight on.  That damn pandemic changed everything.  

Movie via Netflix DVD.  “Carnegie Hall.”  1947. Sappy story and great music.  Heifetz, Reiner, Stokowski, et al.  Joseph Buloff plays a brief  role, as the orchestra’s timpanist. Yikes.  I remember him from a (Second Avenue) Yiddish theater production in the Seventies.  He pretty much carried the show, even danced a few steps.  

Memories jarred loose (re the above)...those Yiddish theater shows.  Those who could compehend them were rapidly dying off.  We were the “incidental music” in those productions.  Plenty of time between tunes.  At first I used this time wisely (writing, notebook on drumhead) but eventually that began to pall and I would leave the pit with the others, just to hang out.  Also...that gig put me near all of those downtown used bookstores where I bought cheap soup-stained secondhand editions, many of which are still on my shelf.  

Later: I look up Joe Buloff.  He was in his late forties in the movie I saw.  He was in his (quite active) mid-seventies in the show I remember.  

to be continued

[letterboxd-loggd]

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) Robert Wise

January 2nd 2022

[pureanonofficial]

Ali Hakim’s plaid suit appreciation post.

[outoftowninac]

MORNING STAR

1940

Morning Star is a three-act play by Sylvia Regan. The original production was produced by George Kondolf and staged by Charles K. Freeman with revised staging by Stella Adler. It starred Molly Picon, Joseph Buloff, Ross Elliott, and Sidney Lumet.  

[The play should not be confused with The Morning Star by Emlyn Williams starring Gregory Peck that played the Morosco Theatre in 1942.]

The play is set in a New York tenement apartment on Broome Street, from 1910 to 1931.  The play tackles such events as the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire, and World War I. 

It opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on April 16, 1940, and played 63 performances, closing on October 3, 1940.  

During the brief run, Picon was honored by a visit from New York Governor (and former Presidential hopeful) Al Smith. 

Molly Picon (1898-1992) made was known as the “Queen of Second Avenue” for her contributions to Yiddish Theatre. Morning Star was her Broadway debut in an English-language play. She is probably best known for her TV and film roles, including Yente in Fiddler on the Roof (1971). 

Joseph Buloff (1899-1985) was born in Lithuania and came to the United States in 1927. Like Picon, he was a well-respected actor in Yiddish Theatre productions. This was his fourth Broadway show. In 1971 he received a Drama Desk Award for his performance in Hard To Be A Jew. 

Ross Elliott (1917-1999) was born Elliott Blum in New York City. He was a member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre but was best known for his film and television roles, including a recurring role on “I Love Lucy”. 

Sidney Lumet (1924-2011) was born in Philadelphia to parents who were also stars of the Yiddish Theatre. He transitioned from acting into film directing where he left his mark on the world with five Oscar nominations, and an honorary Oscar in 2011. 

Three weeks after the play opened, the Nazi’s invaded Luxemburg and the Netherlands and America’s appetite for theatrical entertainments waned with worry. 

When the play’s run was cut short on Broadway, it was decided to tour the show with the original cast and settings. Some minor roles were recast for the tour. First stop was familiar territory for Picon, the primarily Jewish neighborhood of Brighton Beach, at The New Brighton Theatre.  It was so successful that the theatre booked a return engagement in August. 

From one oceanside vista to another, the show moved to Atlantic City, performing at the Garden Pier Theatre. 

Built in 1913, the pier was damaged in the 1944 Great Atlantic hurricane and reopened in the 1950s.

Most of the scenery was left in storage when the play was the second outing at the Ringside Theatre, a theatre-in-the-round (or literally arena) in a converted boxing ring in Long Beach, Long Island NY.  

The play also played The Windsor Theatre in the Bronx. With such local success, there was hope that the Subway Circuit might return to its former glory. The play performed its last in August 1940. 

When Picon appeared in the Broadway musical Milk and Honey in 1961, she talked about her Broadway debut in Morning Star. 

Molly Picon returned to Atlantic City in 1957 with a tour of The World of Sholem Aleichem... but that’s another blog!

STAR DUST

The play was revived by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1999 and New York’s Pecadillo Theatre Company in 2007. 

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2019) - #112: The Loves of Carmen (1948) - dir. Charles Vidor

TCM’s Star of the Month in July was Glenn Ford, a fine actor who showed his range in such varied classics as Gilda (1946), The Big Heat (1953), Blackboard Jungle (1955), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1963) and, perhaps most famously for some viewers, when he played Pa Kent in Superman (1978). Ford was woefully miscast, though, in the romantic melodrama The Loves of Carmen. He co-stars alongside Rita Hayworth, who was often teamed with Ford during their years working at Columbia Pictures. Like another film I watched not too long ago, Carmen Jones, The Loves of Carmen is an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée‘s novella Carmen (1845), which was immortalized by Georges Bizet’s celebrated opera later in the nineteenth century. Charles Vidor’s film is an embarrassment for nearly everyone concerned, however, for although Rita Hayworth looks ravishing in Technicolor and she imbues the Spanish siren with an endless amount of sex appeal, Ford never should have played the soldier who falls madly in love with her, Don José Lizarabengoa. Yikes.

To Ford’s credit, he didn’t want the job and was forced to do it as part of his studio contract, and he said as much in interviews later in his life. (He even apologized for the ill-chosen wig.) Possibly the only performer who escapes scrutiny unscathed is the always wonderful Arnold Moss, who plays an army colonel with a surfeit of imperiousness; otherwise, the supporting roles are so poorly written or completely forgettable that I’m blanking out on the performances given by Victor Jory, Ron Randell, Luther Adler, Joseph Buloff and Margaret Wycherly. The final shot almost makes watching the film a worthy endeavor - William E. Snyder did indeed receive an Oscar nomination for his cinematography here - but I can’t envision returning to this messy production anytime in the foreseeable future.

[citizenscreen]

#OnThisDay in 1943, "Oklahoma!" premiered on Broadway and went on to a record 2,212 performances. Music by Richard Rodgers; Book by Oscar Hammerstein II. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian, Choreographed by Agnes de Mille. Pictured: Joan Roberts, Joseph Buloff, Betty Garde, and Celeste Holm

[silkstockings57]

Full Movie

[howardhawkshollywoodannex]

Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Peter Lorre, Jules Munshen , Joseph Buloff and Janis Paige in Silk Stockings (1957), directed by Rouben Mamoulian.  His entry on the TSPDT list of the 1,000 Best Films is Love Me Tonight.  His other entry on the New York Times list of the 1,000 Greatest Films is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Fredric March.

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[fyeahpeterlorre]

[citizenscreen]

The original #Broadway production of “Oklahoma!” opened on March 31, 1943. It was a box office hit and ran for an unprecedented 2,212 performances. Music: Richard Rodgers, Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II. Cast: Alfred Drake, Celeste Holm, Joan Roberts, Lee Dixon, Joseph Buloff

[citizenscreen]

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! opened on #Broadway #OnThisDay in 1943. Pictured: Joan Roberts, Joseph Buloff, Betty Garde, and Celeste Holm in the original production. https://www.instagram.com/citizenscreen/p/BvrDsF4lUzA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1brlesju3n8zh