Author: Douglas McLennan

How An Unemployed Actor Pursued JD Salinger (Much To Salinger’s Displeasure)

The Catcher in the Rye, which spent thirty weeks on the New York Times’ best-seller list, had generated immeasurable publicity and adulation for Salinger, who wanted none of it. Among his new suitors were such Hollywood bigwigs as Samuel Goldwyn and David O. Selznick, both vying for the screen rights to Catcher. They failed to secure Salinger’s approval, as did many others, in turn—but that didn’t stop Bill Mahan, an unemployed former child star and devoted fan from Los Angeles, from giving it a shot. In the early sixties, he resolved to claim the film rights himself, even if it meant disturbing Salinger at home.

At 94 Norman Lear Is Still Working On Projects And Reflecting On America

“I am the peer of whoever I’m talking to. If I am talking to a 15-year-old, that’s who I am. If I’m talking to a 50-year-old, that’s who I am. I see too many 75-year-olds who seem much older than I feel. I’m aware I’m an older person, and I wish my back didn’t hurt and my legs didn’t weigh 1,000 pounds. But I go to bed at night and can’t wait for the first taste of coffee in the morning.”

Did the NY Times Pass Up An Opportunity When It Hired Its New Theatre Critic?

“For the greater good of theater criticism as a legitimate form of journalism and for the greater good of theater as an art form, yes, I’d have preferred that the Times authentically looked for, and found, a 30-year-old woman of color or a 34-year-old man of Asian ethnicity or even — in the spirit of a long tradition — pulled some 27-year-old reporter off the sports desk and provided them with a shot.”

French Town Are Being Stripped Of Their Architectural Heritage

Throughout the French countryside, especially in less visited rural areas of eastern and central France, some homes have fallen victim to speculators who strip their architectural treasures and sell them, often abroad, leaving once graceful historic structures little more than empty shells behind gaily painted facades. In other cases, the owners themselves sell the architectural elements to raise some cash.

The Couple Who Owned A Greenwich Village Building And Rented Only To Creative Artists

When the Frosts moved into their building, the Village was still a thriving creative enclave. The neighborhood became a sort of engine for Western culture after World War II, with Beats, artists, musicians and oddballs flooding the cheap, drafty rooms in rundown brownstones. On Ninth Street alone lived Dawn Powell, Marianne Moore, Astor Piazzolla, Barbra Streisand, Maurice Sendak and Jimi Hendrix.

Is Shen Yun Nothing More Than Falun Gong Propaganda?

“To be sure, the persecuted Falun Gong movement is within its rights to promote its agenda. Through The Epoch Times and other means, it has worked hard to expose human rights abuses at the hands of the Chinese government that has mercilessly suppressed the movement’s spread. Many of the goals of Falun Gong followers are laudable, and its religious tenets – while perhaps striking Westerners as odd – seem to be generally focused on meditation and moral teachings. But none of that excuses its creation of one of the most brazen and deceptive theatrical infomercials ever conceived.”

Writers In Hollywood Are Voting On A Strike Over Exclusivity Rules And Pay

“A strike would have serious implications. When writers walked out a decade ago, the impasse cost the Los Angeles economy an estimated $2.5 billion. As production halted, income dried up not only for writers but also for set decorators, caterers, limo drivers and florists. Fans were not thrilled, either, as television schedules became a sea of reruns.”