“Blacklisted”...but back bigger than ever”
While at WJJD in Chicago in 59-60...in edition to my DJ duties and programing responsibilities once in awhile if there was an interesting guest dropping by for an interview I’d select myself to do it. For instance...Ann Margret (hey it’s good to be in charge!)
So we had this half hour show which we passed off to the FCC as “public service” and it was pre-recorded each week and played back on Sunday morning.
My guest one week was Carl Foreman...directly from Hollywood and in town to promote Columbia’s new film “The Mouse That Roared” with Peter Sellers and a “hottie” at the time...the tragic Jean Seaberg.
Carl was a great interview...and I was not aware that he was at the top of the Senator Joe McCarthy’s list to be blacklisted.
I began by saying the opening few seconds with the Columbia “Miss Liberty” holding the torch but pulling her skirt to run from a mouse was one the funniest things ever on film.
Carl laughed and was impressed by my comment.
“I’m glad you liked that” he said “I wrote it but had a heck of a time getting Columbia brass to accept it.”
(Note: TCM reviewer Leonard Maltin notes in his writeup about that movie which airs tonight (Sat 3/22/14) that that bit of film is a “MASTERPIECE”...and I agree.)
Foreman was also plugging his next film...and World War II flick to be called “The Guns Of Navarone” which we all know now is probably the finest film of its kind ever!
He said filming would begin in England shortly. Off the air I joked with him about quitting my radio job and flying over if he’d cast me. He didn’t offer much hope but I’d bet you anything that if I had showed up there he would have come through with something...he was that kind of guy.
Here is just one note on Foreman’s work:
“As preparation for The Men (1950), Foreman(writer) and director Fred Zinnemann spent a month in a veteran's hospital researching, while star Marlon Brando lived, for a time, in its paraplegic unit.”
Foreman also wrote great western...called “High Noon!” With Gary Cooper of course.
stanmajor@aol.com
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