Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail, May 15, 2014.]

Yes, Old Rex, “the grizzly bear that lives near Cutter’s Bluff,” has entered the scene. Rex will, I assume, save Mark Trail from the other (enraged) bear that has pursued him for many days now. Looking at the expression on Mark’s face, though, I imagine a different scene, one in which Cherry Trail has finally begun to speak frankly of her, uhh, needs.


[Mark Trail revised, May 15, 2014.]

You can read Mark Trail every day at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other fine news outlets.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

WindowMizer

Some years ago, the app WindowShade X made it possible to roll up a Mac window, so to speak, leaving nothing but a title bar. That’s tremendously useful to anyone working on a small screen. I began using this app not long after switching to a Mac in 2007.

As OS X evolved, WindowShade X stopped working. But the app has a worthy successor: RGB World’s WindowMizer (for OS X 10.6 and higher). WindowMizer has many options, among which is an option to hide its Dock icon (seen to the left) — that’s handy with an app that is always on. (Always on at least on my Macs.)

WindowMizer is not free and not exactly cheap: a $14.99 license allows installation on two machines. Given the app’s usefulness, the price is a bargain. And the app’s developer, Chris Kassa, stands by his work. E-mail him with a question or problem, as I did yesterday, and he’ll give you a friendly, helpful response. My problem: I was trying to install an old version of the app, not the more recent version for which I have a license. Chris figured that out, not me.

Before there was WindowMizer, before there was WindowShade X, and before there was OS X, there was WindowShade, built into the Mac operating system. A post at RGB World tells the story: History of WindowShade.


[A Chrome window, rolled up with WindowMizer.]

Musician v. singer again

About the categories musician and singer again:

“Anita was not a singer, in my estimation. She was a musician who used her voice as an instrument.”

That’s the trumpeter Denny Roche speaking, in the documentary Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer (dir. Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden, 2007), a great documentary about a great singer and musician. O’Day’s sense of time and her phrasing: where did they come from? She was a wonder.

If you’ve never seen the great clip of Anita O’Day at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival: here you go.

Nancy Malone in Life magazine

To my knowledge, she made three appearances.


[Life, November 25, 1946. Eleven-year-old Nancy Malone on the cover of Life ’s tenth-anniversary issue. She is identified on page 3 of the magazine as “Nancy Maloney of Long Island,” “one of the most successful younger Powers models.”]




[“Hokum and More Hokum,” Life, December 22, 1952. Ronald Alexander’s comedy Time Out for Ginger ran for 248 performances on Broadway. Notice that Nancy Malone’s character, a high-schooler who wants to try out for the football team, makes the cover of Life.]


[“Stubborn sinner Bill Walker (Eli Wallach) wallops a Salvation Army lass (Nancy Malone) to show his contempt while meek down-and-outers watch.” “Handsome Soapbox for Shaw,”Life, December 10, 1956. The scene is from a Broadway production of George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara.]

*

May 16: A correction: when I made this post, I wrote that Malone was not identified by name in the November 25, 1946 issue of Life. I came to that mistaken conclusion by reading the issue’s photo credits. But a description of the cover on page 3 of this issue identifies Malone (then Maloney) by name. The New York Times may have borrowed my mistake. I’ve made a correction above.

Related reading
A letter from Nancy Malone
Nancy Malone (1935–2014)

Mrs. Flood’s pencils

“I’m a product of Mrs. Flood. She didn’t take my crap”: Dixon Ticonderoga’s CEO Tim Gomez donates 100,000 pencils in honor of his high-school English teacher Wilma Flood.

Related reading
All OCA pencil posts (Pinboard)

A letter from Nancy Malone

Last March, Elaine and I wrote a letter to Nancy Malone. We told her — in a bit of understatement — that we had become die-hard Naked City fans. We praised the show’s writing, acting, and cinematography. We told her that we especially liked hearing Adam and Libby talk in poetry: “Hail to thee, blithe salami-bringer! Bird thou never wert.” We wondered if there might have been a backstory that explained such stuff. Did Adam and Libby meet in college, perhaps?

We were (as we explained) going on an incomplete acquaintance with the series, knowing only the episodes then available in a 10-DVD set. Had we seen the entire run (now available in a 29-DVD set), we would have known that Adam Flint was an English major who wrote a thesis on Emily Dickinson (as revealed in this episode). But that still wouldn’t explain how Adam and Libby met.

We were thrilled to get a reply, postmarked June 1 and beginning “Dear Michael and Elaine.” Nancy thanked us for our letter and praised the show’s writers and directors and crew. She called the director of photography Jack Priestly “simply astounding.” And she answered our question:


[“The back story on how they [insert: Libby + Adam] met was never made clear to us — we just invented our past — and as Paul was a joy to work with — he agreed + I agreed to our relationship from — ‘chance meeting in an acting class’ etc.”]

So there is more to Adam Flint than we ever suspected.

The Archive of American Television’s Naked City page has a wonderful interview with Nancy Malone. The conversation about the series begins at 40:47. Here’s her description of auditioning actors for the part of Adam Flint: “As soon as Paul Burke walked in the room, I thought, You better not go any further.” And explaining the chemistry between the characters: “Paul Burke and Nancy Malone were crazy people, who loved each other as people and trusted each other as actors.”

Elaine and I will always be grateful to Nancy Malone for taking the time to respond to our deep affection for her work.

Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, May 11, 2014.]

Even more startling than the glimpse of Lois outside “Vickie’s Secret” is the final panel of today’s strip. Trixie speaks! Yet her family is oblivious. Will Trixie have more to say? Or will she go back to a life of thought balloons? Perhaps her family’s not noticing means that the strip can continue with its youngest member silent, no questions asked. No one will have to wonder, “Wasn’t there that time when Trixie said something?”

Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)

[For clarity: the Vickie’s Secret panel illustrates one of four “options” for Mother’s Day that Hi presents to Lois: “an all-expenses-paid shopping spree.” Is it Lois who thinks about shopping at Vickie’s Secret, or Hi? Is Lois only walking past the store on her way to GNC or Sunglass Hut? Is that box in her hands from Vickie’s Secret, or has she bought a new pair of Hush Puppies? Am I the only one who thinks it’s more than a little insulting for a husband to present his wife with “options” on Mother’s Day? Should he be making those choices for her? Should I be asking these questions?]

Happy Mother’s Day

[Photograph by James Leddy, May 25, 1957.]

My mom Louise and a younger me, on a not-mean street in Brooklyn, New York.

I am very fortunate to have this woman as my mother. Happy Mother’s Day to her and to all mothers.

Nancy Malone (1935–2014)

Sad news: the actress and director Nancy Malone has died at the age of seventy-nine. She played the aspiring actress Libby Kingston, the girlfriend, and later fiancée, of Adam Flint (Paul Burke) on the television series Naked City. She was the last surviving member of the cast.

Elaine and I sent Nancy Malone a letter last year, telling her about our love of the show, of her acting, and of the Adam-Libby partnership, especially of the way the two characters toss out lines of poetry to one another. We were thrilled to receive a two-page handwritten reply. I’ll write something about that soon.


[Nancy Malone as Libby Kingston. From the Naked City episode “The Multiplicity of Herbert Konish,” May 23, 1962.]

Related reading
A letter from Nancy Malone
Nancy Malone in Life magazine
Adam and Libby at play
Adam and Libby at play again
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)

Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail revised, May 10, 2014.]

The look on Mark’s face — I had to do it.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[If you’re a regular reader, you know the context. If not, see here.]