Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [27]
3. Show Biz
The famous Greek philosopher, Spyros Skouras, said it:
“There’s more than a little ham in everybody.”
I confess that this is true enough of me. I am, I think, a dedicated, lifelong fan of the theater and the world of entertainment – and especially of the wonderful people who make up Show Biz. And one reason show folks fascinate me so is that I am a ham at heart. In watching or listening to a gifted performer, we are really seeing at its finest an extension of talents that we all have in some degree. And make no mistake about it – Americans on the whole love show business. It is as integral a part of our culture as highways and hot dogs. Nowhere else will you find the quantity, diversity, and consistent high quality of popular entertainment that is America’s.
For a columnist on a beat like mine, it isn’t easy to devote just one short chapter to show business. As I’ve already indicated, some of my best friends are show people. Hollywood, New York, Las Vegas, Miami Beach, and other show-business centers are almost second homes to mc.
Each spring, during the presentation of the Academy Awards, my wife Essee and I take off for Hollywood to participate in the big “countdown” of the film industry – an event usually of tremendous excitement.
It has been my privilege and pleasure to attend many of the most important movie premieres. This has taken me everywhere: to Hollywood itself, where I was recently master of ceremonies at the premiere of Mervyn Leroy’s A Majority of One; to West Germany, where I covered the public debut of Stanley Kramer’s superb Judgment at Nuremberg (and reported on East-West political tension in Berlin at the same time).
Fittingly for a reporter who once masqueraded as a spear carrier in a Chicago performance of Aïda, I have also appeared in two motion pictures – and “appeared” is the word. If you looked sharp, you may have seen me debark from a train in Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder, or as one of a group of reporters in a scene in Advise and Consent, another Otto Preminger production. Otto, it seems, is the only Hollywood mogul to appreciate my acting.
Such experiences have not only been diverting, they have also instilled in me a hearty respect for everyone connected with the making of a major motion picture. It is long, strenuous work, from the early-morning make-up calls to punch-out time in the late afternoon or evening. It requires patience and a sense of dedication. I have seen Preminger, William Wyler, George Stevens, and other leading directors make and remake a single one- or two-minute scene dozens of times. In recent years motion pictures have reached new heights of technical and dramatic perfection, and for that the skilled and talented workers of Hollywood deserve more credit than they normally receive.
Speaking of films, let me say here that I am often surprised and saddened by certain kinds of criticism leveled at Hollywood. Movies dealing with sex, violence, and delinquency have come under the heaviest fire. Some of this criticism certainly has been justified, for movie-makers have made their share of mistakes. But many of the arrows have been aimed at the wrong target. On the whole, the movies simply mirror our mores, which include violence and delinquency. Our real indignation should be directed toward the society reflected in the films. If we don’t approve of the image, why blame the mirror?
It also has been my privilege to visit the homes of many prominent Hollywood personalities. I could write a whole book about these experiences alone and devote a chapter to each of Jack Benny’s beautiful houses – the one in Beverly Hills and the one in Palm Springs. The huge, winding staircase inside the entrance of the Bennys’ Beverly Hills mansion, the magnificent bedrooms in which Jack and Mary each have TV sets by their beds, and the movie projection room (a standard feature in many stars’ houses) are especially impressive. While Jack and Mary were in New York several years ago, Essee and I