The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Lauren Bacall (1980)

Source:The New Democrat  

I had an excellent motivation for not skipping school as a student. My father would’ve found out about the day that it happened and would’ve kicked my ass for it. Which meant day after day taking one boring class after another and trying to stay awake the whole time, without any coffee or any caffeine inside of the classroom. Well it wasn’t really all that bad. Some classes I was actually wide awake for. It is kind of hard to fall asleep playing basketball in gym, trust me I’ve tried. But similar to Lauren Bacall, I went to school in order to finish it. And get out of it what I needed to be able to move on. Not to have a good time, even though I managed to do that as well.

As far as Hollywood marriages. Classic case of the career move. “Gee, if I marry Joe or Mary, or at least get seriously involved with them, they’ll introduce me to Tom or Sally and I can get that part in that movie I want to be in and future big roles. And my publicity and reputation will shoot up”. There’s a big reason why half of American marriages end in divorce. One word, Hollywood and it’s probably more like 6-7 out of ten marriages out there that end in divorce. I mean they are all entertainers and have all played the role of husband and wife on the big or small screens and have played those roles in real life as well.

Easy for me to say as someone who is not in Hollywood. But my advice would be for people out there to marry people they are truly in love with and are in love with them. And only marry when those things are there and you want to get married at that point. Because once you get married and you’re still young enough to have kids, kids come next. And you’re responsible for them whether you are in love with the father or mother or not. And now your career move has just become a very complicated life move that you have to deal with.

Movie Clips Trailer Vault: The Big Cube (1969) Starring Lana Turner

Source: Movie Clips Trailer Vault-

Source:The New Democrat

I’ve seen this movie a couple of times in the last week. And there really isn’t a slow or dull moment in it. Sure some of the writing is kind of cheesy, at least by today’s standards, but is a very exciting, entertaining and at times a very funny movie. Sort of like a funny soap opera where a very successful movie financier played by Dan O’Herlihy who is a widower with a young adult daughter, is about to get remarried and to a very successful gorgeous veteran actress Adriana Roman played by Lana Turner.

The Dan O’Herlihy character’s daughter Lisa, played by Karin Mossberg, doesn’t like her future stepmother, but grows to like her. And without her new boyfriend John Allen played by George Chakris, the two women probably would’ve gotten along very well. But John wants Lisa’s father’s money and sees Lisa as his ticket to get the money. And he has other ideas and uses Lisa throughout the movie to get what he wants, which is Lisa’s trust fund and whatever he believes Lisa is entitled to financially.

What makes this movie even more interesting, is that Dan O’Herlihy, well actually his character dies in the movie. In a boating accident with his new wife when they are caught in a big storm in the water. He drowns trying to save his wife who gets knocked off the boat. She somehow makes it to shore and suffers a serious concussion from the accident that is effecting her memory and other things. Lisa’s boyfriend John sees this as an opportunity to get what he wants. And the fact that he’s a former medical student, gets him what he needs to carry out his plan.

This is where LSD comes in and John convinces Lisa that her new stepmother, will never allow for them to be happy and get married. One of the conditions of Lisa’s trust fund an inheritance is that she can’t marry John or anyone that Adriana disapproves of. So John hatches a plan to drive Adriana legally insane with LSD and with Lisa and John coming into her bedroom late at night and forcing her into nightmares with different special effects. They almost succeed, but Lisa breaks it off when Adriana is almost killed during one of the stunts.

This is a ninety-eight minute movie without any slow periods and pretty exciting almost the entire movie. Richard Egan has a big role in this movie as perhaps a screenwriter, director, informal agent and adviser of Adriana’s and perhaps her only real friend in the movie. And he helps bring her out of what she is suffering. Someone with memory loss and trying to hide the nightmare of the boating accident that killed her husband. As well as helping her come back from what Lisa and her boyfriend put her through in the movie.
Movie Clips Trailer Vault: The Big Cube 1969- Official

The Marilyn Monroe Lounge: The Kennedys (2011) Marilyn Monroe & JFK

Source:The New Democrat

I think this scene is pretty accurate. That Marilyn Monroe wanted Jack Kennedy, but that Jack was smart enough to know that he couldn’t get involved with her. Because of everything that he would’ve risked, especially his presidency. The thing I think that is interesting is that he didn’t feel the same way about mobsters girlfriends that he got involved with as President, like Judith Exner to use as an example. But he was smart enough to know that Marilyn was essentially a little girl mentally as far as maturity. And her baby-face on the outside was also part of her personality inside. And she saw things from a Hollywood perspective, the way she wanted to see them. And had a difficult time dealing with reality. And I think this scene make that very clear.

Roger Sharp Archive: Video: ABC News Talking to Jack Ruby's Lawyers in 1963

Source:The New Democrat

The Jack Ruby case had to been fascinating and one of those cases that I bet just about any hard-working good defense lawyer would want to take. Because it was not clear if Ruby was guilty of actual murder, at least not first degree murder and for at least a couple of reasons. One, Ruby didn’t kill and innocent person. He killed Lee Harvey Oswald, but he killed the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy. It is clear now and perhaps even when Ruby Killed Oswald, that Oswald at the very least had something to do with the JFK assassination. Not saying Ruby is innocent here, just saying it is not first degree murder. And I believe you could’ve easily of gotten it down to second degree murder, twenty-five to life. Or first degree manslaughter is twenty-years, twenty to life. And you could’ve made a pretty good case for temporary insanity on Jack Ruby’s part.

The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: Charles Manson (1985)

Source:The New Democrat 

I don’t think there is a lot new here at least from what we already know about Charlie Manson, at least the people who have followed his life in and out of prison. The one thing that is different, is that he’s in a medical facility, instead of hardcore prison and he’s not in solitary confinement. Tom Snyder was granted excellent access of Manson and Manson’s time at Vacuville. It would’ve been nice to know what Manson was doing there, because it did look fairly healthy, at least physically. Mentally I’m not sure he’s ever been healthy and has ever been a right frame of mind, but that is a different story.

Manson apparently still living on his own planet. Tom Snyder asked him point-blank, “why do people follow you”? And he does this little dance and does all of these vibrations, like he’s a god or something. And Snyder asked Manson about Vince Bugliosi’s book, the man who prosecuted The Manson Family and his book about those trials. And Manson said that Bugliosi got the times and dates right. And that was essentially Bugliosi’s version of what happened back then. But nothing about whether Bugliosi was accurate or not.

Charlie Manson has been in prison for his last crimes for now forty-five years. The man is now eighty-years old and when he went to prison for the last time back in late 1969 or early 1970, he had already spend half of his life in either juvenile hall, jail or prison. That is all he knows. And even today he still doesn’t take any responsibility for his crimes. So why would he of bothered to do that back almost thirty-years ago. The man belongs in hell and if he’s going to be allowed to live he should and is in hell on Earth.

The Video Man: Video: Mobsters, Anthony Spliotro

Source:The New Democrat 

Tony Spilotro was one of the worst pieces of garbage and I’m being nice here, that was ever produced by the Italian Mafia. I’m not even sure he cared about his own family, wife and kids and people who are supposed to be close to you. If the man had any conscience, it was as tiny as a flea and you needed a telescope or something, perhaps super vision in order to see it. He wasn’t one of the worst killers in American history. He was one of the most successful as far as the amount of murders that he’s responsible for. Either doing them personally, or ordering people to be murdered.

Spilotro leaving Las Vegas for Chicago, was a Chicago blessing and Las Vegas hell. Because The Ant who was a giant among serial murderers for the amount of people he murdered, but he was never caught for any of them and never did anytime for them. To the point that Las Vegas Mafia saw The Ant as a threat and did everyone involved a favor by whacking him in 1986. Not the most successful and dangerous mobster of all-time. But that might only be because The Ant was killed in 1986.

Roy DeMeo in New York might of actually been worst than Spilotro. But that would be like comparing Ted Bundy with John Gacy when it came to serial murderers. You can’t really lose there, but Spilotro dying actually benefited everyone involved. And serial murderers like Tony Spilotro are why America has a death penalty. Whether you are in favor of the death penalty or not, it is for people who murder. Murder multiple people and have no feelings or remorse about their murders.

CBS Sports: NFL 1976-NFC Final-Los Angeles Rams @ Minnesota Vikings: 3rd Quarter

Source:The New Democrat

1976 was probably the Rams best opportunity to beat the Vikings in the NFC Final. This was an aging Vikings team that no longer had that dominant defense that they had before, with all of their great defenders in their early or mid thirties and even older than that. The Rams were still a fairly young, but veteran team, that Chuck Knox put together in Los Angeles. That had probably one of the top four defenses in the NFL, that also had one of the better running games in the NFL as well.

But Chuck Knox was called Ground Chuck for a great reason. He ran the ball probably 35-40 times a game and at least sixty-percent of the time, or more. And didn’t utilize his other weapons on offense in the passing game. And unless you’re blowing away the defense consistently in the running game and getting big plays from that and big runs and scoring touchdowns, which the Rams didn’t do much in this game, you’re going to struggle against tough defenses. That the Vikings still had in 76, that also were good and balanced on offense.