If DC disappears....so can MECCA!

   ....I had a lapse of judgment and made the right turn to go east on Atlantic Avenue in Coral Springs past terrorist Mohamed Atta’s old apartment building... and..yep...he appeared in my passenger seat again.
    “Greeting”s he said.
    “Oh Christ” I replied...not again.
    “Christ was a Muslim”   
    “sure he was...not Jewish...right?”  He ignored me.
    “Seems you’ve been having some problems with this  Isis lately!” he continued.“The sheik was correct...the battle will continue for 100 years!”
    “The sheik is a dead dummy...we dumped his body in the ocean and we’ll do the same for Isis” I argued.
    “Isis is smart.  This time all of Washington D.C. could disappear!” he warned.
    I thought this over for a second.
    “Mecca can disappear too you know.” 
But Atta was gone too. the seat was empty.
   
    ....show’s what happens when you make a wrong turn sometimes.

stanmajor@aol.com

Fun time...just put your birthday in and see what you get!

    

 some quick clicks.....

    Here’s some fun....a webpage that will tell you the number one song the day you were born!
    I’m not telling you mine...
click here and just put your birthday in...it’s FREE:

http://playback.fm/birthday-song?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003
                         ______________________

the ten hottest selling cars are not cars...
in the main.... TRUCKS & SUV’s...with FORD getting the number one prize.

click thru the ten:

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/best-selling-cars/#image-1
                            ___________________

    ....finally...click below if you are approaching 65 or over.  some good leads...for some valuable freebies for you:

    http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/02/12/best-retirement-freebies/

stanmajor@aol.com

SPOCK.....

          ....Spock!

        click here:

    https://flipboard.com/topic/leonardnimoy?lang=en&utm_campaign=10today&flab_cell_id=2&flab_experiment_id=19&uid=351168008&utm_source=email&part=topic&utm_medium=10today.0227&china_variant=False


stanmajor@aol.com

media giants who could make or break anyone!

 Liza & Sammy & KUP

   

    A recent post here dealt with my history, mainly in Los Angeles, of seeing big name superstars on the streets and elsewhere.
    Let me relate one more...this in Las Vegas.
    I headed to the famous Silver Slipper on the strip for my 98 cents all you can eat buffet. I learned quickly that THAT was the place to eat...and enjoy Sinatra’s buddy Hank Henry at the same time.
    As I approached the entrance...I had to make way for a gentlemen with a very familiar  face and an even more familiar voice...the one...the only...WALTER WINCHELL.
Most of you missed the Winchell era...when this man could and would make or break any individual he chose.  He indeed was the “Drudge” long before Drudge.
    If you watch that great movie “Sweet Smell of Success”...Burt Lancaster is Winchell.
    Winchell did not get all his power from writing his column...but it was printed in most of the major newspapers.  He got it because he was heard every week on one of the huge radio networks....and that gave him raw power.
                                                

    Irv Kupcinet of the Chicago Sun Times was a kind and benevolent Walter Winchell.  Kup and I were phone friends...and I was lucky when he made mention of me as he did on several occasions.
    There was an interesting development involving that celebrated Chicago Sun-Times columnist.
         I was a bit shocked...but pleasantly when Kup called me at the Rockford tv station one day to ask a favor.
    There is a lot to this so forgive me if I try to be brief.
    Kup lost his daughter...Karyn who was murdered(?) in 1963 in Los Angeles where she had been working in the movies and television.
    Kup informed me that the next day he and a bus load of well known personalities would be going from Chicago over to Mt. Carroll in Western Illinois for the dedication of the Karyn Kupcinet Playhouse at Shimer College.
He asked if I could bring a tv crew and do some interviews and I  agreed.

I interviewed several notables...the most well known being actor Hugh O’Brien.

    Kup was grateful for that. He would give me a couple of plugs in the forthcoming congressional race...and Paul Harvey picked one up for his popular noon news.

    As I’ve said of Drudge...he’s the only person in the media today who can weld the kind of power Winchell and Kup had.
    Who will be the winner in the Obama-Drudge power battle?
Drudge, of course.

stanmajor@aol.com

thru Jordan and onto the sand pile...

RANIA (again)  

repost    
  Jordan update:  My source responded to a few e-mails yesterday confirming he had “passed through Amman, Jordan on his way to who knows where. His mail is censored so I was a bit surprised they let that thru.  One of the things he did say was he thought the King there had a lot of “brass” in his battle against the crazies.  I said he could have the King...I’d take the Queen anytime!!!  wow.  Beauty AND smarts...RANIA is something.
                                                            ______________________

    ....This is the worst time of the year for me.
Not only does the weather suck big time...even down here in the “Sunshine State”...but if one is not into basketball or hockey...one is starved for football (gone) and baseball (too far off).
    So...I have my new HD tv and I turn to my old favorite dvd’s...Winds of War and Joan of Arcadia.  They were made before HD so basically they look just the same.
    About Joan of Arcadia...as I’ve written several times I can not believe one of the networks hasn’t revived that fine show.  Amber Tamblyn is to old and chubby for the teenage high school girl who hangs with “God” or vice versa....but I’m sure they could cast someone acceptable.  Selena Gomez would be good. (For other things also!)
    It would surely be better than the crap we will see with the  car smashes and gunplay with cops or whatever on our networks in the coming year.
    On Winds of War...a network would be smart to run it again...right out of the boxes from whence it became famous.
    You just can’t imagine how this country came to a stop when another hour of WoW came on.  It was as if we were all mesmerized by each and every episode with Pug and Pamela...Hitler and Roosevelt and Churchill.
    Anyway...I wish I could go to sleep and wake up when the Marlins are in town for good!
                                                    _______________________

    I stepped outside my apartment and guess what I saw in the grass nearby.  A huge and I do mean huge brown Whistle Duck!
    I spoke to him...”Hi whistle duck” and he stood up and actually spread his wings as if responded to me.  The wing span was a really big surprise and I’d love to see these guys fly in the air but they never do that until they are ready for take off back to the north.
    Then...he just lied down to take nap...right near my patio.
    .....and me without a camera! Damn.
Update:  This same Whistle Duck was sleeping right on the grass from my patio window.  I opened the curtains this A M and there he was.


stanmajor@aol.com

We need MORE CHARLIE ROSE ON EVERYONE'S TV!!!..... & do shows sound a bit "funny"? read on

Typical Showcase scene

....some pieces and bits

    I have AT&T cable...I just LOVE the Showcase channel...with 30 minutes of various things like...Winter scenes...Fall...Historical..Hawaii...The Silver State(Vegas etc)...but everytime I put the channel on this guy in a cowboy hat is putting on a show for someone?  He’s the only guy on TV more than asshole Charlie Rose...who seems to be on every channel sometime during the day/night.  He gets paid (I think) to be on PBS with old interviews(boy I could do that for nothing) and probably collects from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting...you and your tax support for PBS.  Blomberg pays him everyday too. You got to be kidding Rose....get off some of them!  I vote for PBS to dump him! 
    And by the way..how are the CBS morning show ratings since he climbed abroad for big bucks there.  Brian Willians would be a good replacement.  I can’t believe I just wrote that.  Someone toss a going away party for Rose...please!  And send that cowboy back to Nashville or where ever and get him off my Showcase!
                                                          _______________________

                                                

....do those tv shows you’re watching sound a bit funny?
    Back in the red hot days of rock radio...our engineers would speed up the turntables just a tiny bit.  Therefore...our rock records always sounded up a bit compared to our competition.

    Well if “Friends” Courtney or Jennifer sound a bit funny...some tv channels are doing the same thing.  But this is different...they need more time for commercials!  Can you believe that!

     click below for the full story:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/cable-tv-shows-are-sped-up-to-squeeze-in-more-ads-1424301320

stanmajor@aol.com

Sly DID NOT like the blue suite!

Peter Boyle's adventures with Mel Brooks!

                                                                                                                                                                          repost

Hanging on the set of the movie F.I.S.T. 

 (This is a true story the tabs never got!) 

     Rocky wouldn’t wear the blue suit.   Production of this big budget film being shot in Dubuque, Iowa in 1978 had stopped...and so we sat around for most of the day listening to and being entertained by Peter Boyle who described in finite detail all the makeup procedures for him as Mel Brook’s “Young Frankenstein.”

      I had read in Kup’s column in the Chicago Sun-Times that Sly Stallone was shooting this picture...loosely based on a Jimmy Hoffa type leader of the Teamsters Union, so I got on the phone to my union...Screen Actors Guild and ask them if they had a number in Iowa to call about work.  They did and I was hired over the phone but had to make the two hour drive from our home near Rockford for the next three days to be an extra on the film.

      I left at 4AM to get on the set on time and after being fitted out in heavy winter clothing...well worn...and given a Jimmy Cagney cap...(it actually had a tag saying that) I sat down for a treatment from Michael Westmore of the famous Westmore family of movie makeup artists who chopped my hair and slapped some stuff on my face.

     The movie was supposed to be in Cleveland in the middle of winter...so...the heavy clothes...but this was summer in Iowa and 100 degrees in the shade.  Sly’s dispute with director Norman Jewison about changing from a brown suit which Sly apparently loved...to a dark blue suit went on for hours with assistant directors and other bigwigs running back and forth between Sly’s air conditioned trailer where he had, of course, stewed in comfort and the set of the movie which was the very hot basement of a large Dubuque church...where Jewison stewed over the star’s apparel objection in less comfortable surroundings...along with a highly paid bunch of actors...and other staffers while hundreds of thousands of dollars was being wasted by the minute.

      Finally after we broke for lunch...a compromise was reached.  Stallone would wear the brown suit he loved...but he’d put a tan topcoat on to appease the director.  Hooray...production could resume.  This incident never made the trade papers, by the way.

      After the next scene was finished I was sitting on the steps outside trying to cool down and smoking one of my big black Tampa cigars.  Sly walked by and said that smelled great and ask me if I had another.  I gave him a couple and when he was on my show in Philadelphia by phone a few years later before Rocky 2 came out...I offered to send him a box which he gladly accepted.

      The  heat in Iowa got to me the third day so I quit but before I left I had a chance to chat with two future stars...who were just getting a shot at the big time.

      One was Melinda Dillon who no one had heard of at that time...but who everyone would know shortly as the mother of the little boy kidnapped by aliens in “Close Encounters of a Third Kind”.  

     The other was Kevin Conway who made a bunch of flicks after FIST and is probably best known for his part as the Sergeant with the Union Army in” Gettysburg”.

connect:

stanmajor@aol.com

Honda gets whipped....the Waffle House is what? ....and Miami Vice sneakers!

             ....SUBARU LEGACY beats out Honda!

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-24/tiny-subaru-storms-consumer-reports-list-of-top-automobile-picks
                                ____________________
                              

       ...If you can figure this out..please tell me!
click here:
    http://fortune.com/2015/02/24/waffle-house-deliveries/?ncid=AOL
                        ------------------------------------------------

    ....Miami Vice sneakers....these look real good to me.
    they are expensive though...over $100!

    here’s more on them:

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=33883513&parentid=M_SHOES_SNEAKERS&color=001&cm_mmc=CJ-_-Affiliates-_-ShopStyle.com-_-11389065#/


stanmajor@aol.com

do you remember "newspapers"?

                                                                                                                                                repost

     ...the double standards in our recent memory may soon be disappearing...along with the press functions that established them. 

One observer states if Obama was a Republican he would be facing impeachment now over this immigration fiasco.

The only President run out of office in my lifetime was Richard Nixon...Republican.  That was over a stupid thing called Watergate which two primary newspapers (neither of which are very “primary” anymore thanks to the internet) the Washington Post and the New York Times...basically successfully performed a media coup d’etat

that forced him to quit.

That’s one side of the double standard.

Here’s the other side:

A woman dies in car whose driver happens to be Teddy Kennedy but does Teddy pay for that.  Hell no...he goes on to the US Senate for years.  He’s also Catholic and gets a divorce to remarry..with money for the effort for the church which may be a third standard.

Jack Kennedy...his brother...is the biggest womanizer in the oval office in history...until Bill Clinton came along.  But Jack’s not hit for that (despite the fact that JFK was screwing a Mafia boss’s girl friend!..and neither is his brother Bobby...despite the fact that he had at least two Mafia Godfathers who wanted him hit. Nope...Just couple of "crazies" who did it for the fame....while the guy with the kill shot on the grassy knoll got away for good!

Speaking of Clinton...yes he was impeached but the Senate let him go to roam for female pleasure again. More of that double standard.  If Billy had been a Republican they would have hung him out to dry fast.

The bottom line in this little essay is that powerful forces like major newspapers and at times television (Ed Murrow vs Senator Joe McCarthy) which have foisted the double standard on us “Democratics great...Republicans suck”... attitude don’t have that power anymore.

This is the effect of the internet and it may be the most positive change in this country since the death of prohibition!

The only question now is what or who moves into the internet power positions to have the same effect good or bad that the papers and tv once had. 

Matt Drudge?

my email:

stanmajor@aol.com

Holt's ratings are up...Brian Williams are down! & O'Reilly said what?

       ....Surprise!
   
     Lester Holt’s ratings are up....for NBC Nightly News!
    Must make Brian Williams feel pretty bad.
    Holt is not the “save-all” for the “Nightly” and I’m still rooting for Katie Couric to move into that chair  quickly.  But apparently Katie is scared of losing her “Yahoo” news  job...whatever in the hell that is!
   
    ...and what’s all the fuss about Bill O’Reilly (FOX news) and his Falklands coverage?
    Well...I didn’t have to lie when covering Vietnam or Cambodia (NBC  News) in 69-70.
    Shit just happened.  Like my report near the Cambodian border...interviewing a Colonel and watching and hearing the NVA firing stuff our way from Cambodia! The sounds are on that report with my other war related goodies on u-tube.
    anyway...here’s the NBC News ratings story:
    http://deadline.com/2015/02/brian-williams-nbc-nightly-news-ratings-up-lester-holt-1201380317/
                                                       _________________

    and...the link for my Vietnam reports:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyKFVa3TL9g


stanmajor@aol.com

NO MORE CABLE TV? We'll show you the future...after we take you BACK to the future!

I'm going to take you back to 1970....and then at the end of this post...there are three links...taking you to the future in 2015 and beyond!

                                                                                                                               repost

1970...back to the future...with a phone installer!

         Back in 1970 when I finished my fun times in Vietnam and Cambodia...our new house out at the farms was finished (you’ll recall I burned down the old one...an accident that had nothing to do with losing that Congressional race!)  Now we had to deal with the phone company.

        The company at the time was called General Telephone (now GTE) and they primarily served rural areas like ours in the midwest....and they were crap.

        My dealings with this company in the past were not good so I was concerned about what the installer was up to.

        He and I got into a discussion about the various colored wires he was placing in each box on the wall.  There was a red, a green, a yellow and I guess maybe a few others...and I wondered what they were all for.

        Now remember this was 1970...and there was just over-the -air televison...no cable as yet...at least not where we lived in the Illinois boonies.

        He said “come over here and I’ll explain the future in this box of wires.”

 And he “knocked my socks off” with what he told me.

“This black wire, he said “is for your telephone.”  

        "The blue wire is for an additional line you might want sometime in the future."  

       "The red line well...that is for television...it’s called cable and is capable of bringing in multi channels of televison...maybe up to a hundred!”  

  Wow.  I was stunned!  And here I’ve been in the broadcasting business all my life.

        But then he really slam dunked me with the next wire.

        “That green one there is for your computer.”

        “My what.”

        “Your computer.  Everyone will have a computer or maybe a couple of them in their home in the future.”

        Now this was just too much.

  You have to understand we all considered General Telephone to be the worst phone company in the world and this guy is laying all this far, far reaching into the future stuff on me from a phone company which was so antiquated they couldn’t even give us a private line yet!

       But look at it today.  That box with all those wires and all of them are being used for the things he just calmly mentioned back in 1970.

       It’s like a miracle come true in communications and somebody somewhere invented that stuff at that crummy company and officials of that same company were farsighted enough to ok the huge expense of preparing for the future we all enjoy.

       One wonders who the guy was who conceived this in the 60’s yet...and the top officials he had to convince to roll the dice on installing something  that probably would not show a profit for decades to come.

       Wow, again.  

        I took back everything I’d ever said about that phone company.
                              -------------------------------------------------------------
                        
                         NOW...IT'S 2015 AND BEYOND...here's YOUR future!
                                                  
                                                   click these links and see
                                                    
                                                    http://www.hulu.com/

                                                                  
                                                                    https://www.uvvu.com/
                          
                                                 
                                                                    https://www.netflix.com/us/


 stanmajor@aol.com

ARGO & ZERO DARK THIRTY!..... Isis would do well to study both films!

     “ARGO” is an excellent movie.  
I’m not a Ben Affleck fan but he got this one right.  It’s a fast paced film with little or no BS and it tells a great story of how one smart guy at the CIA  almost single-handedly got a bunch of American Embassy employees out of Iran.  Get a copy.  You’ll see what I mean.

Now...we have two good CIA flicks...this and “Zero Dark Thirty.”

 I say Isis (the crazy) would do well to study both films...especially Zero Dark Thirty.
     The gal the at CIA who stalked Bin Laden is probably zeroing in on Isis....so maybe if he watched the film he'd start running!
     The only thing we know for sure is WHEN the Seals or others trap Isis...he won't be alive for long!
  “Geronimo...for God and Country...Geronimo!"

stanmajor@aol.com

If at first you don't make it....keep fighting...you will. The experience of JULIANNE!

    ....From the desk of Ft. Lauderdale casting director Lori Wyman:

     “Back in 1989 I was casting a TV show called BL Stryker starring Burt Reynolds. We were shooting in a sleepy little town called Jupiter, Florida. A young 20's red headed, pale skinned ingenue came down from New York to be a guest star on one of our episodes called...High Rise.”
She had worked on the soap operas The Edge of Night and As The World Turns. She was going to play the love interest of Ricardo Montalban. She was a friendly girl and gave me her New York City phone number in case I ever got up there and needed someone to show me around. Many years later she worked on the set with a friend of mine. He told some of his actor friends that she declared that she was "Going to be a Star." Some of the other actors heard her declaration and laughed. This girl would never be a star, they said. They just couldn't imagine it.
During the early years of her career she went through some hard times. She got divorced from the guy she was married to when I met her. She even had entire years where she didn't work at all. BUT, she kept persevering.
She studied! In 1990, she began working with stage director Andre Gregory on a workshop theatre production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. She describes it as "one of the most fundamentally important acting experiences I ever had." The group spent four years exploring the text and giving intimate performances to friends. FOUR years working on 1 theater production!!!!! Can you imagine? That's dedication!
Robert Altman saw her in Uncle Vanya, and was sufficiently impressed to cast her in his next project: the ensemble drama Short Cuts (1993).
From 1993 until now, 2015, she has worked, studied, performed in Television Shows, Feature Films and stage productions. She never lost focus and she never stopped believing that she would be a star.
She kept putting one foot in front of the other and she did the work that she needed to do in order to succeed.
Last night I was watching the Oscars. AND 26 years after meeting her for the first time, Julianne Moore won her first Oscar Award for the feature film STILL ALICE! 
Now, THAT'S PERSEVERANCE!!!!
Congratulations to you, Julianne!

 www.theorganicactor.com



stanmajor@aol.com

50 Years ago...I said legalize "pot" and tax the hell out of it! .....Same for Casinos and Lotteries!

   
    
....It only took FIFTY years!
I started doing radio talk shows around 1966.  Back then I took a strong stance for legitimizing pot..and taxing the hell out of it.
    Now...finally...it’s happening.
    I never smoked the “wicked weed”.  It’s not that I was a prude...it just that I hate to inhale.  I’ve smoked cigarettes and cigars my whole life with never inhaling.  I get just as much pleasure as any smoker does...and I never really had to worry about my lungs much.
    But my point is...what if the current movement to legalize had taken form back in the 70’s...80’s....etc and we had all that billions and billions of tax dollars over those years.  It boggles the mind what we could have done with that.
    I see the lotteries now too...which I always advocated...along with the casinos.
    I feel somewhat vindicated in all this...but regret that it has taking this long...almost half a lifetime to see these results. 
    You know...it might have been possible with tax dollars from pot alone to totally fund our public colleges...and  we’d have no problem with the asinine student loan situation that forces kids to work years to pay back what should have been FREE college education.
    Oh well.  Here are those terrible words again
    “What might have been.”

    Now...in case you missed this link (during the Oscars)...here it is again.
    Big tobacco’s comeback

    click here:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-20/big-tobacco-s-future-big-pot?cmpid=BBD022015&alcmpid=

stanmajor@aol.com

How to be seated fast in a fancy Beverly Hills resturant! & ....Guess what's saved the tobacco companies

NOW:
91 NATIONS VIEWING
THIS BLOG!
Views: 71,300
Posts: 923

                                                                                                                                repost

        Marilyn Monroe’s favorite restaurant......the Villa Nova in Beverly Hills. 

...Or a lesson in how to get seated fast in Hollywood!

When I was working at the post office in Beverly Hills back in the 60’s I had read that Marilyn often ate at the Villa Nova ...Italian food...green spinach noodles were her favorite.

I decided I’d try it out.

You have to dress well or that won’t even seat you...so I put on my only suite, dress shirt and tie and headed there for an evening meal.

As I entered there was a line of folks waiting to be seated and I thought...well anyway...it was a good idea.  I spotted at least two celebrities (from tv) in the line and almost turned around to leave when the maitre’d approached me and said “your table is ready”.

Ok...I was surprised...but I followed him and sat down.

I was to discover later how this speedy seating arrangement worked in Hollywood.  A friend at work told me if they know who you are they seat you accordingly...if they’ve never seen you before...you’ll get priority treatment because they don’t want to make a mistake if you’re some nova rich dude or a brand new shining star yet to gleam.

Wow...hooray for Hollywood!

...the meal was fine...by the way...and expensive!

------------------------

When my sister Sallee and her husband Steve came from New York City for a visit to our Stone House farm in Illinois & they discovered that none other than Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong was playing at a big fair about 20 miles north of there. 

      They said they wanted to see him in New York City but could never get tickets.

We hopped in the car and went to the Winnebago County fair and got great seats and ole Satchmo was in fine form!

We enjoyed the show immensely and I was happy to do them the favors as they had done much for me in the past.

Also...when I was at 30 Rock getting ready to fly the Saigon for NBC News I was able to give them a short tour of NBC’s studios. They met David Brinkley (Sallee was thrilled) and she joked to him that she worked for RCA in the floors above them dozens of years and had never seen NBC!

She checked out Johnny Carson’s office (he was still doing his Tonight Show in NYC) where a fire had broken out a few days earlier. Smelly but not too much damage. I told her Paul Newman was shooting a film in one of the NBC studios but they wrapped it up the day before.

----------------------------

GUESS WHAT'S SAVED THE BIG TOBACCO COMPANIES!

click to find out:
 

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-20/big-tobacco-s-future-big-pot?cmpid=BBD022015&alcmpid=

my email:

stanmajor@aol.com

If you get bored with the Oscars...hit this list! Have your friend come along for this ride.

     THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ACTRESSES OF ALL TIME!

     This is a list to end all lists.
     I got to 250 and gave up...you can keep going for 50 more!
You can click "like" or "don't like" with each actress...which is kinda fun.  Your favored list starts to build up in a side window....these would be fun with two persons.....
grab a glass or bottle! of wine and spend the next hour liking or zapping these women.


http://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/most-beautiful-actresses-ever

Garbo



stanmajor@aol.com

J. Binoche

Keira

MARLINS! (thank god) ....& My favorite flicks

NEW Marlins...spring training!

repost

      I love widescreen movies!  

I don’t mean “matted” screen...I mean REAL widescreen flicks or letterbox...mostly on TCM...occasionally on Max or Showtime.

Now with HD being paramount...they don’t run them often.

If I actually buy a dvd and it says widescreen but turns out to be matted I am really pissed. I have to be careful because it generally says “widescreen” but isn’t.

Murphy’s Romance was like that...but that flick is so good and Garner and Field are so good I didn’t mind.  A lot of folks don’t like Sally Field but you just could not dislike her in that movie.  Garner was a bit “grumpy” for my tastes but I accepted that as part of his demeanor. Sally’s pic on the cover of the dvd is “hot” and I mean hot.

Your response to my personal music list has opened up the possibility of me “publishing” a long list (I have a lot of em) of my favorite movies that you may or may not agree with.

So...hang onto your seat and fill your drink...here we go.

These are not in any special order:

THE DAY OF THE JACKAL...the original with Edward Fox (scary sob)

AVANTI....Jack Lemmon (Billy Wilder)

THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN....Anthony Quinn

FLAWLESS....Demi Moore & Michael Caine. Stealing diamonds. 

FFOLKES...Roger Moore & Anthony Perkins(he’s scarier in this than in Psycho! And Moore loves cats..so do I!)

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT....Annette Bening & Michael Douglas. (Ignore the left wing script...enjoy the Prez getting laid)

3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR.....Robert Redford

MOON OVER PARADOR....Richard Dreyfuss

THE GOOD THIEF....Nick Nolte (outstanding...except matted...not letterbox even with “widescreen” and full screen choices

EMPIRE RECORDS...but only because Liv Tyler runs around in short plaid and even removes it for us! Wow! Otherwise this sucks.

OCEAN’S 11 (THE ORIGINAL)...Takes me back to my days in Vegas in this era.  Angie Dickinson was cool & HOT!

BOTTLESHOCK...Alan Rickman....makes you thirsty as hell!

THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR...Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway.  The music is great too...but the heist is better!

THE RUSSIA HOUSE....Sean Connery & Michelle Pfeiffer.  Great twists...fine music and letterbox best!  Thank you Russia for the beautiful locales.

MAROONED...Gregory Peck.  The original “Lost In Space” epic,another great “letterbox” flick.  Don’t miss the scene where the cop...who just stopped Peck for speeding, gets a call on his police radio from the President!

RONIN...Robert De Niro and Jean Reno(steals the show) and letterbox on the Riviera! Wow.

WAG THE DOG...Another DeNiro film with a script right out of the Clintonian era.

COMING TO AMERICA...Eddie Murphy.  Not a big fan of his but this is a fun flick.

VANISHING POINT (original)...Barry Newman.  Two sides one for U.S. and other for U.K.?  Says “widescreen” but ain’t...but on the U.S. side the great outdoor scenery looks pretty good matted.

ABSOLUTE POWER....Clint Eastwood. Nasty folks in DC. Judy Davis is too much!

STRIPTEASE....Demi Moore (as you’ve never seen her before or again).  Awful flick but how can you not love that body!

CITY OF ANGELS....Meg Ryan.  C’mon Meg....a heart specialist? But she did a good job pretending and I still have a crush on her. Hated the ending...awful. Great music!

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED....Michael Caine & Robert Duvall.

ARTHUR.....Dudley Moore.  Whole cast is great along with script etc.

JFK....Kevin Costner (Oliver Stone).  See my posts on Jim Garrison and Jim Marrs, author.

CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR.....Tom Hanks.  I collected $ for them before Wilson even knew them!

1776....William Daniels and Howard Da Silva

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN....Dustin Hoffman & Robert Redford.  The retelling of the media coup d’etat that changed our history. 

SIX DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS....Harrison Ford & Anne Hech. Fun and real letterbox for the island scenery. 

TO CATCH A THIEF....Grace Kelly & Cary Grant on the Riviera! Sad to say it says “widescreen” but it’s not letterbox.

GOOD ADVICE....Charlie Sheen & Angie Harmon.  I got a kick out of this one and I’ve had the hots for Angie for years!

DAVE....Kevin Klien & Sigourney Weaver

CHANCES ARE....Robert Downey, Jr.& Cybill Shepherd (she’s still looking fine here!)

THE LAST OF THE DOGMEN....Tom Berenger & Barbara Hershey.  Great letterbox here....but Barbara looks good any old way.

VOLCANO...Tommy Lee Jones & Anne Heche.  “The Coast Is Toast”...logo beats anything Mad Men could come up with.

GETTYSBURG....Martin Sheen & Jeff Daniels.  Great epic.

MAD MONEY....Diane Keaton & Katie Holmes.  How can you go wrong with a scene where Katie is stuffing bills in her panties! Right guys?

SPEECHLESS.....Geena Davis (at her most beautiful) and Michael Keaton.  Not a great script but the two play well off each other. Stupid ending though.

THE STALKING MOON....Gregory Peck & Eva Marie Saint. Excellent dramatic fare without one crashing “car”...but the chase is scary as hell and the Indian Chief trying to rescue his son is rarely seen which makes it more suspenseful.  This is real letterbox and shot outdoors mostly so enjoy.

DER TUNNEL (German)Nicolette Krebitz & Heino Ferch.  Bunch of E. Berliners dig their way out.  Great, Great, Great flick!  Nicolette is more than "hot".  Don't miss their dancing scene.

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING....Sandra Bullock & Bill Pullman. Love ya Sandy!  Chicago scenes as usual are great.

MIDWAY....Charlton Heston & Henry Fonda. This “widescreen” is really “letterbox” so enjoy the action.

KISS THE GIRLS....Morgan Freeman & Ashley Judd(hot)  

KELLY’S HEROS....Clint Eastwood & Telly Savalas.  Get the gold guys!...letterbox too!

COPYCAT....Sigourney Weaver & Holly Hunter.  Don’t watch this (letterbox) with the lights off!

TORA TORA TORA....Epic on the attack at Pearl Harbor....and letterbox too boot!

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE....John Belushi & Blair Brown.  Matted but acceptable with the great scenery.  Belushi at his best...Brown at her prettiest.

STARMAN....Jeff Bridges & Karen Allen.  One of my all time favorites and true “letterbox”. Why no sequel?  He left her with a baby.  I want to know what happened to the alien baby!

FRENCH KISS...Meg Ryan & Kevin Kline.  My Meg favorite here...and I know you’ll pick Sleepless or Mail...but this is the one for me.  Probably because I love France so much. True letterbox too.

BLACK WIDOW....Debra Winger & Theresa Russell (as the widow) Man she is bad!

DEEP IMPACT....Morgan Freeman as the Prez.  Love the way the FBI kidnaps a member  of the press right off the highway and dumps her in the White House basement for the Prez. One wonders if Nixon’s group could have done the same for those Washington Post guys.

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER....Alec Baldwin & Sean Connery. Real “letterbox” in this one.  Very suspense filled from start to finish.

LOVE ACTUALLY.....Hugh Grant & Keira Knightley (yep I had to mention her, right)  Some great songs here and some miscasting but it all works out in the end.  Grant as PM is akin to Ryan as a heart doc!

But enjoy it...it’s fun. KK is hot and London in letterbox is good too.

LIVE FROM BAGHDAD...or how CNN conquered the world. Michael Keaton & Helen Bonham Carter (before becoming a Queen.) Having been in Nam for NBC News I could relate a bunch to this script and two guys I know well were written in...Bernie Shaw and Peter Arnett because they were there when the bombs fell. 

MISS CONGENIALITY...Sandra Bullock & Michael Caine

THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL....Peck, Olivier & James Mason.

could that have really happened?  Is there a DNA Hitler among us today?

NOTTING HILL....Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant.  My favorite JR flick.  Letterbox too!

WARGAMES....Matthew Broderick & Ally Sheedy(yummy)

ENEMY OF THE STATE...Will Smith & Gene Hackman. Letterbox.  On the set of Bad Boys ll (I was an extra) I wanted to ask Smith about this film but it was a no-no to talk to superstar!

That’s it for list ONE.  Oh yes...you can expect another soon...and still another Stan's list of my favorite movie songs!

stanmajor@aol.com