I Think

Surprised nobody mentioned Alan Ladd. Come back, Shane.

When I lived in New York City, I ran across a man who claimed to be Lee Van Cleef's very first acting teacher. He said that Lee wanted very much to step into Humphrey Bogart's shoes, after that great man was dead. It didn't happen, but, he did okay in his own way.

Lee VanCleef became the victim of the classic practice of 'type-casting' in studio-era Hollywood. He didn't look particularly villianous, actually. But once it had been noted by studio bosses that he could play a gunslinger type (as in High Noon), his fate was sealed. It was really hard in those days to break out of this trap. Steve Cochran was another one who never got cast as anything but a wife-beater or small-time gangster.

I understand Alan Ladd was a short guy, but they put him on stools when he played against taller women.

Yeah, Ladd was a pipsqueak height-wise which has always made me curious about just how they were able to stage that rip-roaring fist-fight in Shane.

I guess he was a hair over 5ft 6in. I really liked that western classic movie Shane with him as lead actor. BTW, Ben Johnson and Jack Palance were also in this one, speaking of heavies.

A personal quote attributed to him:
"I have the face of an aging choirboy and the build of an undernourished featherweight. If you can figure out my success on the screen you're a better man than I."

When I was a kid, it never crossed my mind that Ladd was so small. Lots of actors who look big are short, however. Stallone isn't particularly tall.

Of big actors, I saw John Wayne once at a Barry Goldwater rally. He had the biggest head I have ever seen, so I thought at the time. Maybe I was just star-struck and saw what I had expected to see.

Jimmy Stewart could be tough or bumbling, depending on the script. I really enjoyed him.

Speaking of Jack Palance, I understand he was a very nice guy - unlike his appearance in the movies.

Palance was something of a poet and sketch artist, if I got it right. He wrote one book titled THE FOREST OF LOVE, A Love Story in Blank Verse.

Yeah, unlike VanCleef, Palance really looked the part of the snake-eyed evil-doer. His portrayal of the gunslinger in Shane is iconic. For me, his best role (and best film), however, was totally against this type. In Roman Polanski's The Big Knife he plays an actor being screwed over by his studio at a time close to the end of the studio system. He is very, very believable in the role.

In The Good Bad and Ugly, the film clearly shows Van Cleef to be The Bad, but everybody began calling him The Ugly - even the studio. I never liked that they did that.

1199a. Tired. Went to bed last night, but before I got settled in good I got the call to go to work. I only had to replace a breaker, but that disrupted my sleep routine.
1200a. I saw some good folk music performers from the 60s on PBS yesterday. They did or mentioned many Bob Dylan songs, but I never heard his name at all. Discovered Roger McGuinn performed backup to the Chad Mitchell Trio before organizing The Byrds.
1201a. The night was hot and sultry. It must be a doozy coming up today.

When I came around the house, intending to climb the steps and go in, I heard two militant-sounding mockingbirds. I knew what was up and I followed their progress, as they bounced from branch to branch, until they occupied the nearest limb to the house. From there they boldly warned me that I had encroached their territory: Go back! I returned to the storage shed and found a white trash can liner. With it wadded in my hand, I came back to confront them. As they came again down the tree, I waited for them to get very near. Then I slung the bag about until it blossomed at them. Each time they flew up the tree and turned to launch a new assault, I renewed the waving and and began causing the liner to make a popping sound. I had discovered this little trick more than twenty years ago, when a mockingbird attacked me in my back yard, daily. I was able in both instances to frighten them off, without injuring them or taking down their nests. I did this to the birds two days ago and have not seen beak nor feathers of them since.

You speak their language.

You were encroaching on their territory. Private property is a Christian institution in its civilised manifestations. As are can liners.

You should mark out your territory in the standard evolutionary manner ed.

I was at least partially inspired by hearing that many animals regard white as a danger signal. Hence, the white, not brown or black, bag.

Just maybe, they also see it as "surrender."

If they saw it that way I am certain they would have attacked me for real.

You're probably right on that! I've never had to fend off from birds; they just **** on my head.