BEFORE WE HAD T.V.

I wonder if the confining screen and lack of color has much to do with that.

I remember sound from radio more. Door slams....the floorboards reverberate from pounding footsteps, a doorbell rings...

gulp.

McGee's closet emptying every time he opened the door.

Edgar, I enjoyed your memories of those shows you saw
at the age of 12.

For me, as well, at age 12 I was treated to an experience
that is still unforgetabble.

On my 12th birthday my mother and I hopped on a
streetcar (cost was 5cents each) and went downtown
to the Tivoli to see a movie.

My mother had not told me what was in store, nor did I
read any signs in the marquee.

But when the lights went out and the curtain parted
I saw my very first TALKIE, the JAZZ SINGER.

The date was Aug 10, 1927

ronmac
I bow to your experience. How do you like 21st Century entertainment?

Edgar, I suspect we are alike in our slant on
present day entertainment, e.g. some of it is
breathtakingly wonderful and some of it is the pits.

The best thing about living in the western world is
that we have "choices". Nobody tells us what to
watch or what to enjoy.

I actually have friends who watch only sports on
the Telly, and others (two women friends) who
watch nothing but Soaps and still others who do
NOT watch any TV. The guy has a great job, is
a wonderful father, his wife and kids are all very
musical and great fun to be with but TV is NOT part
of their lives ! I think this is remarkable.

My taste in TV or movies is based on my family
background, my education, my lifetime experiences
and my instinctive curiosity.

I run through the TV guide listing what's available
on the 52 channels we get. I manage to select
enough to tape on my two VCR's and that gives
me 16 hours of pre-recorded stuff to watch each
day.

When viewing a program or movie I give each
about a five minute preview. After that time I
either watch it or delete it. In that way I don't
waste precious golden hours.

And you know, Edgar, out of the 16 hours of tape
I manage to get about five or six hours of damned
good entertainment every day with no commercials.

The other four hours I spend at my beloved
computer.

I really can't believe anyone would criticize TV
or the movies or live shows either. The choices
are there for those who like action, politics, sports,
romance, blood, news or even filth.

I've enjoyed your many many posts on Abuzz
and I hope you are enjoying your Able2know
experience as well.

Than you for replying. Ron

Ron
Thanks for your thoughtful post. I agree wholeheartedly with what you say. Each time I want to give up on today's entertainment, something wonderful comes along.

Liked Ronmac's post.

What a great dog...Ossobuco

He/she looks more intelligent than some of the people I know

Before TV and VCRs I remember waiting and waiting for new movies to make it to our local theatre. Sometimes it took a year for them to get there. They seemed better, the movies, real stories with real character development.

Hmm, I guess they were not made for vidio release.

Now I feel ancient! My dad was a blue collar union guy. My family is very conservative with money. They didn't see TV as a big necessity. Get this, the one we had was in our dining room so no one could mess up the living room. Today, people center their living room furniture around a TV. We didn't get UHF, but my friends did. We didn't have color. My friends had those big console things. My parents saw a TV set as a luxury item.

I have to say, my life was probably a lot better before a wide screen TV with surround sound and high speed computer entered my life. People used to socialize with their friends and neighbors. Now, it seems we substitute that for isolation. How many cable channels do we get? About a zillion. I can substutite friends and socialization on a chat room.

You can't stop technology. I think it is good and bad. I do feel isolated. My neighbors barely say hi, if they bother at all. They go from their car to their house. The most lengthy conversation I have had with my next door neighbor was when my obnoxiously friendly puppy took off flying to greet a new person while she was trying to get into her car. I am making apologies for my puppy. She asked how old she was. That was about it. That's the bad stuff TV and computers bring.

I have to say that I love my wide screen TV. I fail to understand why anyone would bother to go to the movie theater these days. My furniture is a lot more comfortable than those seats. I can hit pause and back up anything I want. Can't do that at the theater! I do also like fast information at my fingertips with cable net. I adore the ability to make my own CDs with music I want. I would hate to give that up.

Is life better with all this technology in our homes? I'm still not sure. I guess it's both, better in ways and worse in others.

Wildflower, my parents were very much like that. We kids had to ask permission to turn on the set and when we did so the answer most often was "why don't you read a book?"

ronmac, This is a rather late response to your post on the JAZZ SINGER, but one of the really great stage shows I have ever seen was "Jolson" in Toronto in 1997. It was a interactive show where the audience was invited to sing along, and the guy that played Jolson sounded just like him. It was the 'original' cast from London. I've often wondered why it didn't travel outside of Toronto, because it was such a fantastic show. If I remember correctly, the show ended with the singing of "Mammie."

CI, didn't that get to Broadway and flop or run into some sort of controversy? I may be wrong.

Acquiunk, That could be, but it wasn't common knowledge - especially here in California.

Cicerone, Acquink and Oddobuco :

Thank you very much for the kind words. It is never too late to
reply to a topic of mutual interest.

I do indeed remember "The Many Faces of Jolson" that played at the Royal Alex in 1997.

I loved that Theatre (built in 1907 and closed for 20 years until 1970,
when a discount store owner named Ed Mirvish bought it for demolition and spent $1 million of his own money to refurbish it just as it was in
1907).

Alas by 1997, I was 81 years old and had ceased to travel to Toronto.
But I knew all about the show. It was written and directed by ROB
BETTINSON and FRANCIS ESSEX. Bettinson is famous for having produced the BUDDY HOLLY show and 125TH ST.

He found an English actor called BRIAN CONLEY to play Jolson and the play had already won the OLIVIER award for best play in London, before it came to Toronto.

The play then travelled throughout the world and played to packed houses everywhere. It was really popular in Germany and the entire show can be heard on a CD which is available at this web site for 19 Euros:

http://musical-shop.de/details.asp?Artikelnr=40532

My guess as to why it didn't go to Broadway is that a suitable theatre was NOT available and the producers chose not to accept a smaller theatre or perhaps an "off broadway" venue.

A very interesting article about the show appeared in one of our national magazines. You can read it at this web site :

http://www,canoe.ca/TheatreReviewsJ/Jolson.html

(don't forget the strange "J" after the word "Reviews" in the site.

Another interesting article about BETTINSON is at this web site:

www.125thstreet.co.uk/article/articleprint/18/-1/10


Very nice talking to you all. Ron

rommac, that just blows me away. ... by about 20 years.

Ron, Thanks for sharing all that good info. Unfortunately, your TheatreReviews link doesn't work. I was hoping to make a copy of it - especially any poster of the show if it has one.

CICERONE : My apologies. I made that common error of touching the
"comma" button in place of the "period", after WWW.

So if you go to :

www.canoe.ca/TheatreReviewsJ/jolson.html

the site will come up. And the poster is in plain view in front of the theatre.

I was thinking of mentioning the availability of the CD to my family who are constantly asking me what I would like for my birthday or Christmas.
They end up buying something expensive but often unuseable so the CD might be an inexpensive suggestion. You might get one the same way!

Write me if you can't get the site up. ([email protected])

OSSOBUCO : Sorry for mispelling your name. It is an interesting one and perhaps you might tellus how you derived it. Ron

ron, Apologies not necessary. However, I do have one question; does UK CD soundtracks work on US machines? I know that some countries CD's do not work in others, and wondered about compatability between the UK and US.