Exile in Blogville: My Not-So-Secret Shame

Okay, it's not really a secret, at least to my friends and family. I am a huge fan of old movies and old movie stars. Among my favorites are some of the most famous ones, people like Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, and so on. However, I also like a lot of the lesser-known actors from that era. I have a tendency to form these sorts of mini-obsessions sometimes (Dixie Carter, anyone?) where I'll try to find as many of one actor's work as possible (movies, TV shows, etc.) and I'll read biographies and articles and whatever I can find that may have been written by or about that particular actor. Like I said, I'm a little obsessive, but it's been relatively harmless so far :) Anyway, my current "crush" is on Burgess Meredith. He is probably best known as Mickey, the trainer from the "Rocky" movies and as the oldest of the "Grumpy Old Men" in those movies. He was also The Penguin in the 1960's "Batman" TV show, which is hysterical! Anyway, there's not any particular rhyme or reason to who I start to get interested in, though (like I said), I do sometimes tend to gravitate toward the offbeat ones. Burgess Meredith certainly falls into that category. He could (and did) play pretty much any kind of role. He did comedy, drama, horror, the works! And, I have to say, he was pretty darned cute when he was young. A movie that I absolutely love right now is "Tom, Dick, and Harry," an old Ginger Rogers movie. Basically, she has to choose from three different suitors (hence the title) and Burgess is the quirky one who doesn't make a lot of money but definitely has a great outlook on life. He is adorable and (spoiler alert!) she ends up choosing him in the end...smart girl.

I've read Burgess' autobiography and it turns out he was quite the ladies' man in real life. He was married to Paulette Goddard, one of the most beautiful actresses from the 1930's and 40's, and his 4th wife (yes, he was married four times) was a Swedish ballerina half his age who had been on the cover of Life magazine...I saw the cover and, seriously, she was like a supermodel! He also had affairs with Marlene Dietrich, Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall (not confirmed but sort of hinted at), Tallulah Bankhead, just to name a few. And if you know anything about the actresses I've mentioned, you'll understand that that's quite an impressive roster. To look at him, you wouldn't think that the ladies would be clamoring for him. Physically, he's not unattractive, but he's not exactly a heartthrob either. He's kind of on the short side too. Nevertheless, the more you see him on film and hear his voice, you begin to understand a bit better why he might have been so popular.

Some of the best work he did (in my opinion and of what I've seen) is in "The Twilight Zone." He appeared on the show four times and, in each episode, he plays a completely different type of character. In his most famous appearance, he plays a sort of timid fellow works in a bank and is continually ridiculed by his wife and boss for his love of books. They won't ever let him alone and can't understand why he's so bookish. One day, he goes into the bank vault on his lunch break to read and, while he's in there, there's a nuclear holocaust that basically wipes out the entire population of the world. Turns out he's the only survivor. At first, he's horrified that he's the last person left on Earth; however, he does some exploring and finds himself on the steps of a library and all the books he can ever read are among the rubble (yeah, a nuclear bomb blew up buildings and pretty much decimated all of mankind, but those darn books were made of excellent paper!). Finally, he's got his wish; he's got all the time in the world, plus supplies like food and such, to do the reading he could never do before. Then, in a hilarious and tragic twist, his glasses fall on the steps and break. He's virtually blind without them so, again, fate has played an especially cruel hand. It's really amazing and I highly recommend anyone check it out if they've never seen it before.

The episode I like the best is called "Printer's Devil" and he plays, you guessed it, the Devil! He is charming and sinister and quite lecherous (maybe employing some of his real-life skills...anyway...) toward the ladies he comes across. Again, these two episodes (the first and the last that he did) show the breadth of his talent. These two characters couldn't be more different and he's absolutely believable and wonderful in both. If you're interested, you can find all four of these Twilight Zone shows on YouTube. They are: "Time Enough at Last", "Mr. Dingle, the Strong," "The Obsolete Man," and "Printer's Devil."

I've probably written quite enough about Burgess Meredith (and maybe more than any single person besides me would ever want to read) but it may illuminate some more about me as well. Just one of my pasttimes that I like to share. I'll close with some pictures...

Here's Burgess as a young heartbreaker