Italian postcard by B.F.F. Editore, no. 2986. Photo: MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer).

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

British postcard in "The People' series by Show Parade Picture Service, London, no. P 1137. Photo: Warner Bros.

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

(Due to this being a long post, I have to trim and split this documentary.)

  

Paradox Grey/Grey Police (flickr.com/photos/128407574@N08/sets/72157664323890298): Another spin-off after PF’s second season, where one of the main characters, Grey Cop, assembles his own team of heroes following the fallout in the main series. It would have been more noir-ish and emotionally driven with increased action beats.

 

Blazefire (flickr.com/photos/128407574@N08/sets/72157692560197855) and Grey Cop (flickr.com/photos/128407574@N08/sets/72157661369417428): The only two standalone stories that spun out of of the main universe. Grey Cop was very self contained, and is probably the only successful one to make out of it alive, even though I could have gave him sequels. Blazefire was pretty cool as well, as a prequel series, the next volume would take him to higher points, and much darker because the hero himself would go on revenge when he couldn’t save the death of some children and civilians in his neighbourhood in a incident. I also planned for a computerised villain, Hephaestus, to appear, but it didn’t work.

  

And the crossover. It never happened, because I’ve saved too much of the best for last. And it would have taken place after every series where all the heroes came together to fight against a threat, established by Paradox Force’s first season. Nuff said.

 

But wait, is it really dead? I guess it is. There is still hope for the dead project. While I may have lost track of the lore, concepts, it was never gone, as people still read that stuff to this date. The contingency plan? Shared universe. While Paladin is a spiritual successor, Paradox still remains in my heart as a first project when I joined Flickr. In order to do that, I should retcon stuff out in order to balance continuity. Thankfully the whole series was set a century ago, so there’s a lot to catch up.

 

By reorganising means a lot of work. While I love these characters, I won’t be using them in the next year or so, depending on how my direction takes me. The casual references can be slipped in because all the heroes in the current one know who they are while the world forgets. Breaking it down, they were public in the 22nd century while they’re left forgotten more than a 100 years later. It creates the link and mysteries which is possible.

 

While things can be ridiculous and nonsensical, I don’t support the theories of time travel or alternate realities like Endgame or what DC does; it’s something of a emergency panic button that I’ll use it when I need it or I screwed up. There’s a few ideas on my book that will keep it realistic and address what’s been going on with these guys—which I will share later.

 

Also, OCs coming too! You know I’ll never stop making them even then being lesser this year.

 

-All from Multi Sharp, creator of Paradox Force and Paladin Ascending

French postcard by Editions du Globe, no 485. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spanish postcard, no. 2319.

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Spaceship Earth

Future World, Epcot

Walt Disney World,. Fla.

 

Funny story about this trip I took last Feb with Dan (Fab05). Stop me if you've heard it. Too late!

 

So we decide to take a ride through Spaceship Earth. For those not in the "Disney-know", this is the ride that's housed in the geodesic sphere. Sorry..."golf ball thingy". It's a slow moving ride that wanders past various animatronic scenes depicting the journey of human communications throughout the ages. Wow, that sounds completely lame...but it's actually pretty cool.

 

The ride is designed around the Omnimover ride system. This is a method of loading and unloading passengers in a very efficient way. Basically the entire track of the ride is filled with cars connected to each other like some gigantic caterpillar whose been hanging out at the nuclear plant a little too long.

 

The cars don't stop to load. They just keep on moving around the track. Passengers step onto a conveyor belt or platform that's moving at the same speed as the cars. Well, close to the same speed as the cars. More like how an escalator and handrail never seem to totally get it together. Anyway, the people can then get into the ride vehicles safely and quickly before the cars peel off from the conveyor belt and continue on their merry way, while keeping the line moving at a slow, steady pace. You know, unless someone does something that would ultimately force an employee to do an emergency stop. I can't imagine what.

 

Foreshadowing - The presentation of details, characters, or incidents in a narrative in such a way that later events are prepared for (or "shadowed forth").

 

Where was I? Right, loading the vehicle.

 

So Dan and I get to the front of the line and step out onto the platform, heading for a vehicle. We both get in (safely and quickly) and here's where things begin to take a turn. Dan says to me, "We should probably get in our own separate cars so we can photograph both sides of the ride".

 

Makes sense to me. So I glance over my shoulder and see that the car behind us is empty. I get back out of the car and onto the moving platform and turn to head for the empty vehicle.

 

Well, the two ride attendant's day just got a whole lot more interesting. I wish I could find the words to describe the tone in the voices of these two guys. They had this half monotone/half panic thing going on. Like they've had to make this speech 1000 times before and are thinking "just shoot me now" but they also know that ride safety is their #1 priority.

 

"Sir, you can't get out of your vehicle. Please make your way to a vehicle and remain seated"

 

You know how sometimes events start to unfold at a certain pace and when all is said and done, it all transpired in a pretty brief amount of time but in your head everything just went into super slo-mo instant replay. Ya, that.

 

So Im thinking, no big deal guys. I'm just gonna hop into this empty car right over here and everything will be fine.

 

Oh, one more thing about the design of this ride that I didn't mention. The cars have doors. Automatic doors that close...AUTOMATICALLY...at a point of the platform where everyone has long since safely and quickly entered their car, sat down, and are preparing to enjoy their journey through time. Well, MOSTLY everyone.

 

"Everyone (I'm pretty sure "everyone" meant me) please make their way to a vehicle and remain seated. It's important that you find a seat safely and quickly"

 

At this point Im still pretty much standing beside the original vehicle that contains Dan and I think, "Well crap, I better just get back in to that car." This thought was quickly followed by the soft "clunk" of an automatic door closing...automatically.

 

So 2 things immediately go through my mind. First, judging by both common sense and the 2 gentlemen droning on at an increasingly accelerated pace, I've got a hunch Im running out of platform room. And secondly, that empty car right behind this one is looking preeeeetty good right about now. No problem on the first part. This thing doesn't exactly move at an airport walkway clip. So I start walking back towards that empty car.

 

But here's the thing. These vehicles aren't spaced very far apart at all. Kind of a good news/bad news thing really. That will mean I can get to it pretty fast. It also means that car is going to reach the AUTOMATIC point of no return door closing section of this journey any second.

 

Now those that know me will tell you I have the reflexes of a jungle cat. Sure, a 50 year old, out of shape jungle cat with plantar fasciitis...but still. Cat-like...ish. Anyway, I'm thinking about bolting for that vehicle when I get this image of myself beginning to step into the car and having that door close right between my legs, leaving me with one leg in the car and one leg on the moving platform like I'm doing some waterskiing stunt show at Sea World. At some point before the end of the platform I'd have to make a choice, and that guy at the podium might just have a little "Wait, lets see how this turns out" attitude in him and NOT hit the stop button.

 

Ok, jungle cat. You waited too long and now that door is closed too. Hop over the door? Dear Lord, no. I just know that guy is going to have to hit the E-STOP panic button if I do that. So I begin the walk of shame, against the flow of the platform, like some 50 year old, out of shape salmon with plantar fasciitis swimming upstream, hoping for an empty car.

 

"Sir, please get to a ride vehicle"...

 

Yep, totally my (well, mostly Dan's) bad. Won't happen again. I take full responsibility for my (Dan's) mistake.

 

..."and sit down. For your own safety, Sir"

 

Now I didn't take the time to look back at Mr. Podium but I could just imagine his hand hovering over the big, red emergency stop button. And I'm just cringing, waiting for the platform, the cars, the line, to come to sudden halt.

 

The next car along in our little adventure has half a family in it...dad and son. No room in there.

 

Don't hit the button. Don't hit the button. Please don't hit the button.

 

Next car...the other half of the family, mom and daughter. I could probably cram myself in there but that kid looks like she might a crier and I bet dad would be pissed and I start to envision a whole other scenario going down right there on the platform so no, we'll skip this car too.

 

I continue on, pretty much back to where "Spaceship Treadmill" first began before I get an empty car. I get in and all is well. Looking up the line I spot Dan either having some sort of seizure or laughing his ass off, which gets me laughing too. And as my car reaches the point where Mr. Podium is, he looks at me and says, "And NO flash photography". Hahahaha...sure thing buddy.

 

It took every ounce of restraint to not hit the button for the pop-up flash and fire off a few in his face.

 

At any rate, Im pretty sure my headshot is now taped to the podium...right beside the big, red E-STOP button.

 

Anyway, here's a shot from the ride. Well, the second part of the ride I guess. Shooting with a really wide angle lens made for some interesting viewpoints where you could see several scenes at once. If you look closely in that darker area on the right of the shot I think you can see Dan still trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard.

 

A new fire-control radar, the RP-21 Sapfir-21 (NATO: ‘Spin Scan’), was tested on the Ye-7S in 1963 as a new tactical fighter prototype. This development led to the MiG-21S (Model 95; NATO “Fishbed-J) that included the production version of the Sapfir-21, the RP-22 (NATO: ‘Jay Bird’), which worked in conjunction with the ASP-PF-21 computing gunsight. The aircraft could carry all weapons of the MiG-21PFM (“Fishbed-F”) except the dorsal saddle tank of the MiG-21R (“Fishbed-H”) was carried over and it had four under-wing hard-points, with the two outboard pods being “wet” to carry drop tanks. The MiG-21S (“Fishbed-J”) used the R11F2S-330 engine and an AP-155 autopilot featuring a ‘panic button’ auto-recovery system.

 

An upgraded version of the Model 95 MiG-21S (“Fishbed-J”) was the Model 95M MiG-21SM (“Fishbed-J”) and used the R13-300 engine, a substantially updated avionics package, and carried a built-in GSh-23L cannon. There was also a mirror added to the top of the canopy to provide a better rearview.

 

In this image, a MiG-21SM (Fishbed-J) of the 812th Training Aviation Regiment (UAP) performs a low-level training flight over the forests near Kharkov. The external differences between the Fishbed-D/F and the Fishbed-J are evident. You can see the larger dorsal saddle fuel tank and additional outer wing pylons. The Fishbed-J is probably the most recognizable MiG-21 version, especially in the Eastern European camouflage!

Dutch postcard. Photo: Warner Bros.

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Nathan Bookard is in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

 

The first thing Nathan noticed was the smell.

Burning.

Never a good thing when you work at a reactor plant that serves an entire city. Especially if it manages to climb over all the other scents produced by the runoff pipes.

Nathan had just handed in his resignation and was finishing out his last day as a Safety Inspector. Tomorrow he’d become a bounty hunter, tracking down the Imperial spy he had met—and fallen in love with—a few weeks prior. A weight sat on his chest, an anxious need to get a move on. He had to imagine Imperial Spies didn't have safe, stable lives; he had to find Mayla before anything happened to her. He hoped he could convince her to defect.

 

He had been rounding the corner of a substation when he caught the scent. He had smelled electrical fires before, and this wasn’t that. It was more natural, more…roastey, for lack of a better word.

Then he saw the feet, all that was showing of the Ugnaught’s body from the runoff pipe he’d been stuffed into. It was Jep. Jep had helped Nathan fix a vulnerability in this substation just days ago. Nate’s heart raced as he pulled the Ugnaught out of the shadows. His eyes were open, but unmoving. Runoff waste stained his coveralls.

 

“Jep! Jep, can you hear me? C’mon, buddy, come on!”

 

Smoke rose from a burn on his chest.

A blast point.

Nathan heard footsteps on the catwalk behind him. He turned and looked up, eyes wide, to see a man standing there. He was wearing simple mechanics clothes. There was a blaster pistol clutched in his hand.

 

“Too many witnesses,” the man growled.

 

Connections sparked in Nathan’s brain. “You’re another Imperial spy?” he said.

Maybe if he could get him talking, he could stall. There was a panic-button on Jep’s coveralls, something he’d insisted all the employees have. He inched his hand towards it.

 

The man hesitated, frowning at what Nathan had said. “…Another?”

 

“You’re a lot uglier than the last one,” Nathan said, wishing his voice hadn’t shaken so much. His heart was hammering. He was seconds away from the fob, from calling for help.

The Imperial blinked as he processed what the boy had said. Rage flooded his eyes.

 

“The girl lied! She said she never got in! Useless little—“ He composed himself and remembered the matter at hand. “…No matter. We’ll deal with that loyalty problem later.”

 

Nathan blanched.

Oh no.

Mayla had covered for him, and he just blew her cover. What had he done?

With lumbering steps, the spy crossed the catwalk towards the prone Nathan, who quickly pressed the panic-fob’s button. An alarm klaxon sounded above them.

 

“No!” roared the spy. Suddenly frantic, he fired his blaster. The shot struck the grating past Nathan’s ear, and on instinct, he stood and spun, grabbing the man’s arms before he could flee. The blaster, knocked aside in the struggle, fell to the floor. There was shouting in the distance.

 

“Let go of me!” cried the Imperial.

 

“No!”

 

Though the spy was older and stronger, Nate had a strong grip and a firm hold on him. At any moment either of them could go over the edge, even with the guardrails Nathan had installed.

The spy, unable to break free, looked at the Ugnaught’s body, the blaster on the ground, and alarms. Security were on their way. He made a choice.

He bit down hard, crunching something in his teeth. Nathan felt him go limp. He stumbled to the floor.

The young man stared as the Imperial’s body began to shake and writhe in pain, like he was being destroyed from the inside out.

Snarling, the spy looked him in the eye.

 

“Pyerce….Resilient.”

 

There was a flash, and then he had been disintegrated. There had been a spy, now there wasn’t. Just a pile of dust. Nathan stumbled back, scrambling on his hands on the grating. He couldn’t even process what had just happened.

The shouts of security were getting closer. Hearing them, Nathan realized what the spy had done: The guards were on their way. They’d see him—and only him—with the blaster and Jep’s body. No one else in sight.

He would take the fall for this.

He could let himself be arrested, he could prove his innocence, maybe Albee would testify for him. But if Mayla had really lied to her Imperial superiors, then she was in danger. He didn’t have time for a trial. He had to leave the planet.

For a brief, confused, joyous moment, Nathan recognized what this meant, that he had been right about Mayla. She lied to the Imperials, took a risk, for him? That meant that she had doubts. That meant he might be able to convince her to leave it all behind.

This moment of delight was replaced by the crashing panic of the situation. He had to get away from here. He would never find her from a prison block.

It also occurred to him that, with two spies now sent, the Imperial threat to Targonn was getting serious. That was a thought for later.

He took a final, sad look at Jep’s body. The Ugnaught was—had been—a friend. He deserved better. He hoped his family would be alright. There had to be insurance or something, some way they’d be taken care of. Nathan decided to send a chunk of his savings their way, as soon as he could.

Time was running out. Security was just around the corner.

Nathan turned and ran.

  

Vintage postcard, no. 92. Photo: M.G.M.

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However, two films with Errol Flynn that followed, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women-in-prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied for the role. She got it, won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However, they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract with the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable in the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-be". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her first husband was Fred Losee (1943-1944). Her second marriage to Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953) produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952). Her third marriage was to American portrait painter Paul Clemens, (1954-1965) and the couple had one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958). Her fourth marriage with Raymond N. Hirsch (1966-2001) ended when Hirsch died of oesophagal cancer. She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91. Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Well, we got our storm! Woken about 2.30am by distant thunder and the dog trying to get in the loft on the 2nd floor (due to the fact the power was going on/off and so was our house alarm battery kicking in). Dog thinks it's his fault as he once accidentally set off a panic button alarm by jumping at a door!

 

I should add on here that this is the first time I have ever captured tried to capture lightning with my camera and that these were actually test settings used.

There were about ten longer-format signs, in five different versions (the Total Crisis Panic Button, High Fives, Monopoly, 1984, and Velociraptor Warning).

Panic Button

 

365: The 2025 Edition Week 15 Theme: Buttons (Apr 7 – Apr 13)

 

Just lounging about…SURE!!!

 

A bit of a story to go along with these photos! I had passed through this stretch of water where most of the alligators hang out in Horsepen Bayou and not sign of this guy! This is actually the second of three bends that the bayou makes just before it opens up and joins Armand Bayou and flows into Mud Lake! This is the bend that has the most trees on both sides and this is where most of the activity is at! As I paddled up on this guy he appeared all nice and sweet and calm but soon became agitated by my presence and let me know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t happy with me being there! He arched his back and began bellowing very loudly and you can see the water rippling above his back from the vibrations! It’s quite am impressive display and quite unsettling as well! Don’t hit the panic button because at no time did he advance toward me or make a move in my direction! He managed to get his point across without ever coming toward me! Hope everyone enjoys the photos!

  

DSC_9809uls

Our company has deployed new desktop wallpaper and touch sensitive screens, in their efforts to deal with work stress.

 

It is hoped that before staff crack under pressure, and start feeding their lunch to the mouse on their desk, they can whack the screen, and HR policy is that the men in their white coats will be at your desk within 10 minutes, to take medical precautions.

 

Look below to see this plan in action.

 

I would like to thank my friend Claradon who provided this excellent panic button. Don enjoys his Photoshop work, and has produced some excellent tutorials that I recommend to look at if you need some help.

 

He has an extensive range of Photoshop tutorials available.

 

More VALLIUM

 

Page one of DONS tutorials.

 

All new from the ground up, The 2019 SSV is ready to hit the mean streets, remote and rough backroads across anywhere USA.

 

Special Service Package Features (1 WT w/ 5W4 Option):

 

5.3L EcoTec3 V8 Engine

6-speed automatic electronically controlled overdrive and tow/haul mode. Cruise Grade Braking and Powertrain Grade Braking Transmission.

Heavy-duty air cleaner.

220-amp alternator and

Heavy-duty 720 cold-cranking amps/80 Amp-hr battery.

4-wheel disc with DURALIFE rotors, 4-wheel antilock brakes.

STABILITRAK Stability control system with Proactive Roll Avoidance and traction control includes electronic trailer sway control and hill start assist.

Electric Power Steering (EPS) assist.

120-volt instrument panel and bed-mounted power outlet.

Programmable remote key panic button and exterior lights/horn.

Surveillance Mode calibration lighting.

Also includes Fleet Convenience Package.

 

* Not rated for high speed emergency vehicle operations

 

1:64 Greenlight Collectibles:

2019 Silverado 1500 Crew Cab

Special Service Vehicle

General Motors Fleet Police

Hot Pursuit 32

 

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II

Olympus M.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R

 

For more info about the 2019 SSV: 2019 Chevy Silverado SSV

If you haven't read Chapter One and you are the kind of person who likes things to be in order, I would recommend you read that first. Sunshine doll and I thought it would be sweet to do a little story. This chapter mentions our flickr friend sincerely sarah. So, here it is: Chapter two!

  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“So where are you heading?” asked Sunshine in a sweet, confident voice.

 

“Well, its kind of not really been decided yet to tell you the truth. I’m just sort of trying to.. you know.. find myself.”

 

Sunshine quickly turned her head from side to side and looked around the diner. Then she made eye contact with Graham.

 

“You’re right there!” she said, pointing directly at him (which for some reason she had always been told was rude)

 

Graham looked back at her with a sarcastic yet humorous smirk that immediately let Sunshine know that he fancied her sense of humor. She wasn’t like the other girls he was usually surrounded by. There was something different about the way she behaved that let Graham know that he was in for quite an adventure.

 

Once the two new friends were finished dining, they paid the tab and walked out the door. Sunshine looked around the parking lot, trying to figure out which car belonged to her new pal.

 

“Oh wow, does that bumper sticker say ‘Palin 2012’” asked Sunshine. “Please tell me that’s your car! I call shotgun!”

 

Sure enough it was. The two were in the car and back on the road in no time. The road was wide and seemingly endless, like something you would see in a music video or a postcard from Arizona. It was already starting to get dark. Graham started to scan the radio for something good to listen to, and more importantly, something to keep him awake.

 

“We should probably pull over for the night, you look kind of worn out” Suggested Sunshine. “I have an extra sleeping bag with me!”

 

After a while, they pulled into a rest area that was overlooking a lake. It was surprisingly pleasant for a rest area in the middle of nowhere, and the weather was just right for a campout. There was a family of campers sitting around a glowing campfire, singing songs and roasting marshmallows. Graham attempted to lock his car doors but accidentally hit the panic button by mistake. The family quickly turned around to see what the commotion was about. Sunshine was of course laughing hysterically as she watched Graham try to figure out how to make his car stop making dreadful noises.

 

After some time, Graham and Sunshine were able to silence the car alarm. The family had resumed their song and marshmallow roasting, and a girl stood up from the campfire and introduced herself to the two travelers.

 

”Hey there my name’s Sarah. Are you two from around here?”

 

They both shook their heads no.

 

“Out of towners? Well sweet!” replied Sarah in an enthusiastic tone. “That’s pretty cool if you ask me! The one thing you should know is that the sunrise here is INCREDIBLE! We usually ring that there cowbell when the suns about to come up, so when you hear it ding-a-lingin’, be sure to hop out of bed because the sunrise is comin!”

 

The excitement and sound of Sarah’s voice carried throughout the camp site.

 

“Wow that sounds amazing!” said Sunshine, looking at Graham to see what his response would be.

 

Nothing but a yawn came out of Graham’s mouth however.

 

“Oh, um, yes. Yea! Sunrise.. sunset.. yea.” muttered Graham. It was obvious that he was not a night owl, at least not after he had been driving all day. “I’m sorry It really does seem cool. But I’m just too tired to think about anything but sleep at the moment.”

 

“It’s okay, you have a while before the sun comes up! Why don’t you just put your sleeping bag over by the fire and I’ll fix you some hot coca before you go to bed!” said Sarah.

 

After the best cup of Swiss Miss either Sunshine or Graham had ever tasted, the two went and got in their sleeping beds. It was late at night and Graham only had one thing on his mind: sleep. However, Sunshine was not quite as sleepy, and wanted to talk.

 

“Look at the stars! It’s like there always there but you can only see them when you’re at a place like this.” Said Sunshine. “Sometimes, I look at the stars and wish I could see them from every different part of the world. You know they’ve gotta look amazing from France, or Australia, or so many other places.”

 

“I’ve never thought about it like that” said Graham in between yawns. “But if you think about it, they probably look the same from there as they do here. You just have to know what you’re looking for.”

 

Sunshine was pretty sure what Graham had just said made little to no sense. However she smiled and nodded anyways. She thought it was probably time for sleep and she was starting to feel a little drowsy herself. Plus she knew she had a big day ahead of her. It wasn’t going to be all fun and games. From now on, she was a part of a team, whose main goal was self-exploration.

 

The next morning both Sunshine and Graham were awakened by none other than the cowbell they had heard about the night before. Sarah could be heard shouting “Sunrise people!” which was what they had all been waiting for. Sunshine and Graham crawled out of their sleeping bags and headed up to a hill overlooking the lake. They sat down Indian style in the dew covered grass and waited patiently for the sun to rise. It took a little while but once the sun started to come up, they knew what all the fuss was about. It was the most breathtaking thing either of them had ever experienced. A sunrise with yellows, oranges, reds, pinks, blues, purples, and every color in between was before their eyes. The rays of sunshine peeked through the pine trees on the lake. The golden glow of the sun fell on the faces of everyone who stared in awe at this incredible sight. It was truly breathtaking.

 

Once the sun was in the sky, the ten or so spectators including Sunshine and Graham began to clap, as if they had just watched a live performance.

 

“That was so cool!” exclaimed Sunshine with an excited fervor in her voice. “I feel all, inspired now!”

 

“I knew you two would like it. I just knew it!” said Sarah, proud of her ability to read people like a book. “You just know that when you’re lookin up at that sun, that there’s someone, or something lookin back down at you. Looking after you, making sure you make the right decision.” Sarah paused for a second. “Whoa! That was deep! I need to write that down or something!”

 

The two travelers said their goodbyes to their camp site friends and packed up their belongings once more. It was inspiring to see such a breathtaking site and it goes without saying that it brightened their day for sure. Sometimes the most beautiful things in life are right in front of us, we simply have to make an effort to get up and look for them first. This journey has only just begun, but already things are starting to make more sense to Sunshine and Graham.

Panic Button

One of the 10 shots for the Amy & Jani August challenge. Both mine and Amy's shots can be seen here : www.flickr.com/groups/ajac

 

The themes I chose were COLOR and SPACE.

Abandoned house near Fulton Missouri in Callaway County Missouri.

I have no idea why this is my most popular photo, it is so ancient, took with my first digicam XD

NOOO…he’s not sleeping!!

 

A bit of a story to go along with these photos! I had passed through this stretch of water where most of the alligators hang out in Horsepen Bayou and not sign of this guy! This is actually the second of three bends that the bayou makes just before it opens up and joins Armand Bayou and flows into Mud Lake! This is the bend that has the most trees on both sides and this is where most of the activity is at! As I paddled up on this guy he appeared all nice and sweet and calm but soon became agitated by my presence and let me know in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t happy with me being there! He arched his back and began bellowing very loudly and you can see the water rippling above his back from the vibrations! It’s quite am impressive display and quite unsettling as well! Don’t hit the panic button because at no time did he advance toward me or make a move in my direction! He managed to get his point across without ever coming toward me! Hope everyone enjoys the photos!

  

DSC_9849uls

At one of City Light's dams. Item 190572, City Light Slides (Record Series 1204-04), Seattle Municipal Archives.

Of course, we couldn't do this project without a shout out to the original Total Crisis Panic Button (http://jasoneppink.com/totalcrisispanicbutton/). I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.

 

Related story: shortly after this photo was taken, a disgruntled traffic cop noticed some of the other signs at this intersection and started taking them down. This one, however, he failed to notice -- it's still up as of this morning :)

  

.

   

BABUSHKA - SNAPSHOT OF A KILLER (Chapter Nine)

    

.

  

Самые недра ада

THE VERY BOWELS OF HELL

 

West London, England

     

.

   

" Keep her sedated and as uncomfortable as you possibly can until my return. I have a little matter to attend to before I have the pleasure of finally putting this bitch out of her misery ".

   

The stifled drone of hazy voices broke into the very depths of Tatiana's lurid nightmares, Visions of her formidable adversary walking out the strange room, the cacophony of dayglo colours and bizarre imagery swirling together in a rambling and incoherent form that slowly followed a pattern of darkness into light, of wild and wonderful shapes into images of normality. The rhythmic drip of a tap grew increasingly louder and the voice of a single male altered from muted tone to perfect clarity as her eyelids flickered wildly like soft satin head scarves in a wind tunnel, and the invasive pain of overhead fluorescent lights began to burn like flames, as she awoke.

 

Confused thoughts and feelings, the realization that her limbs could not move for the tethers that bound them tightly together, eyes scanning the vicinity for clues as to her whereabouts as instinctively she fought to free herself from the bindings which secured both arms and legs to a cold metallic medical table on which she lay.

   

The male to whom Agent Anastasiya had been issuing stern orders prior to departing the scene, gazed down on her from above, hidden behind a white surgeons face mask covering the lower half of his middle aged, pointy facial features, hands upwards and forwards of his torso, not unlike the posture of a kangaroo. Tatiana's head pounded like the big bass drum in a brass band, a searing pain that caused her to wince before regaining some semblance of composure. Waves of pain swept across her temple, the likes of which she had never before encountered, and a bitter taste filled her dry mouth, lips crusty under the tongue, a sharp jabbing pain in her left arm confirmed with a sideways glance at the white plastic cannula taped across her palm, the plastic tube from which went deep into the deep blue artery leading from her middle finger backwards, leaving a clearly visible and hardened vein that stood proud and angry from the torture it had obviously endured.

 

From the pain of the plastic intrusion into her flesh, Tatiana guessed that it must have been inserted for many hours, though her recollections of the events which lead to her capture and detention were only coming through as hazy waves in fits and starts.

   

Eyes following the machinery all around her, she noticed how the two long flexible cords from the three headed cannula led to an upright shiny chromed stand on which sat two full bags of differing liquids, suspended by metal hooks that glistened under the intensity of the lights. One paler in colour than it's stable mate and marked with white lettering too small and insignificant for Tatiana's bewildered eyes to make out, the other darker and unmarked. The third tap, directly at the base of the bothersome contraption, was temporarily capped by a small bright orange bung, traces of dried blood left a residue over the tape which lay in three small strips to secure the device in place.

   

" Oh that headache my dear ", the man quipped with an almost amused tone of voice that positively effervesced with self congratulatory sarcasm as he moved around to Tatiana's left hand side.

   

" I could give you something for it, Codeine would work, some water to take care of that Sahara like dryness that you are tasting right now in your mouth but then you'll be dead in a short while so it would really be a waste of your time and my resources ".

 

His eyes seemed to light up with the obvious smile that beamed from behind that face mask, the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes lighting up like a neon beacon, confirming his middle years, whilst the odour of tobacco emanating from the thin fabric protection was confirmed by the nicotine stains on his fingers as he prodded the Cannula, causing Tatiana yet more discomfort as the line within pushed against her vein.

   

On her right index finger was a plastic crocodile clip with a lead to a bank of machines to the right of the table, her pulse flitting across one of the screens at a reasonably steady rate, and two small circular discs lay affixed to the top of her chest, tiny metallic central balls connected by single leads to a heart monitor and a plethora of brightly coloured readings that Tatiana's eyes could not yet read as they tried to adjust to the reality of her plight.

   

“ Sodium thiopental, Left over from the cold war days, old and crude but so marvellously effective we find with a little dose of Narcosynthesis. You would have been singing like a canary and yet you don't remember a damn thing. You have to admire the beauty of the precious liquid, do you not? “, the man quipped, clearly amused by the situation and gratified by his own handiwork.

 

" Nice tits by the way. So pleasing to feel all, natural ones in these days of implants and surgical realignments, an area of the medical profession that bored me until the chance to take this opportunity came my way. If you are feeling any discomfort down below, it may well be from the roughness of the guards. Not that I saw them taking turns with you, you understand, but in my experience it's often been the case that they do in such circumstances. Well, who could blame them after all, such a pretty little wild animals aren't we ".

   

By now his right hand was stroking Tatiana's face gently, something much to her chagrin as she forcibly shook her head and made his attentions clearly unwelcome.

   

" Where did Anastasiya go to? ", Tatiana asked through pursed lips and an angrily flaring nose, the man smiling as he stepped away from her and walked to a silber metallic petri dish located on one of the side tables that contained blood soaked bandaging and the remnants of a large partly used hypodermic syringe. Gathering up the grimy syringe and returning to her, he popped open the small plastic securing lid to the drip line mid way between one of the fluid bags and the cannula and paused for a moment before inserting the needle tip into the plastic housing.

 

" I assure you that you need not worry your pretty little head over Agent Anastasiya, she'll be back to attend to your final moments shortly and ensure that your journey to the afterlife is as painful and unpleasant as is humanly possible. In the meantime, a little something to have you burningin agony from the inside, a concoction that I myself have developed, with a degree of considerable success if I might be so bold. "

 

Tatiana had already noted the leather restraining cuffs and the omission to tether both legs adequately, just enough play to allow her the opportunity to gather some power in her lower limbs, her right arm already turning inside the leather until her palm was flat to the bed side, pain searing through her body as she carefully began to bend her digits backwards, fingers and thumb tucked over and inwards, pushing back against her own hand, one of the tricks Sergei had taught her in counter interrogation tactics so many years previously. The man checked the two bags of liquid once again, oblivious to the imminent demise of his final breath as he inserted the needle and began to depress the plunger, the slightly orange coloured liquid making it's way into the plastic tubing and heading towards Tatiana's hand. Screaming in pain, Tatiana freed her right hand, pushing her midriff upwards from the bed and levering both legs violently upwards as she grabbed the syringe out of his hand, immediately planting the needle tip deep into his right temple and pumping the contents into his skull. Grabbing a scalpel from near Petri dish on the metal cabinet beside the bed, in an instant she had cut the leg bindings as both ankles locked around the shocked man's head, pulling him downwards and trapping his face into the mattress of the bed.

 

With her right hand she pulled at the cannula, tearing the see through securing tape off and ripping the lengthy plastic tubing out of her palm, a jet stream of fresh blood exploding from the gaping hole and spattering over the white coated man as she used the scalpel to cut the leather binding off her other hand.

   

The sweet taste of freedom was little noted before she ripped the heart monitoring discs and pulse leads from her naked flesh, pulling the man towards her until she had her left arm locked around his throat like a vice, placing the scalpel blade to his neck as she looked around.

   

“ Where the hell am I? “, she spoke angrily, the man grimacing under the pain of the assault as he managed a faint smile and replied.

   

“ The very bowels of Hell, my dear. "

   

" And you can get me out of here, right? ", she demanded, the man managing a faint laugh as he declined her question, fighting for breath as her hold increased, though clearly finding the situation quite amusing.

 

" Please, you have to help me, I'm burning, my head.... ". Eyes turning red, foam bubbling in the corners of his mouth, the man began to violently convulse and it was all that Tatiana could do to keep control of him as he shook and writhed before her.

 

" Then let me make it a little easier for you all, as you're no longer of any use to me it would seem. ", Tatiana snarled as she pushed the scalpel into the left side of his throat and pulled backwards until the blade came out just below his right ear. A muted scream of shock and a degree of gargling followed as Tatiana relinquished her fearsome grip, his hands raised to try and stem the tidal flow of blood from the gaping wound, to no avail. With force, she pushed the man onto the floor in front of her, directly into the plethora of stainless steel waste dishes. Rising up from the bed she spotted the CCTV camera in the left corner of the room, gathering up tray in her right hand and aiming it like a missile to disable the unit, which swivelled and turned away from her direction under impact. Eyes darting quickly left and right, she headed towards the only door into the room, above it a panic button in vivid red which she thumped for all she was worth. The droning alarm siren added to the pain in her head as she crouched down behind the door frame, and waited for her chance of making an escape.

   

Footsteps growing ever closer, voices elevated and tones of concern, as the door opened and a soldier rushed into the room. Combat greens, pristine pressed and black army issue boots bulled and glass-like shiny. Youthful flesh, no more than a fresh faced kid, bewilderment registering upon his face as Tatiana plunged her scalpel into the top of his thigh, rising to her feet and grabbing his Beretta 93 9mm automatic pistol before griping him by the chin and swivelling around to face the corridor outside.

   

Three other soldiers fell consecutively under the hail of twenty Luger 9mm cartridges from the magazine as she lifted the soldier and walked forwards from the room using him as a shield. Throwing him onto the ground as the final rounds were expelled, she reached down and took another pistol and machine gun which she slung over her right shoulder, from one of the freshly fallen corpses, dispatching the injured soldier with a single shot to the back of the skull, before moving deeper into the corridor, back to the pale blue painted walls and headed towards an intersection where four corridors converged in perfect harmony.

   

At that point, she came across a lone female civilian, mid twenties, smart attire with a pencil skirt over a petite frame and black high heels, long brown hair tied back with a single gold clasp, handbag around her left shoulder and a clutch bag in her hand, teary eyes testing water proof mascara that clearly was anything but. Tatiana pinned the young female to the wall, a surprised expression peeking over the forceful hand which gripped her mouth, preventing her from screaming. Tatiana momentarily removed her hand, forcing the cold steel barrel of her automatic pistol into the terrified girl's mouth, as she raised both arms in submissive fright.

   

“ Do you want to live longer than the next twenty seconds? ".

   

The girl nodded, a mouth full of metallic threat and a face full of fear, tears cascading as she looked straight into the eyes of the escaped killer.

 

“ Good, well that's a minor detail that we both currently have in common I guess. Do you speak English? “

 

“Uh Huh” the girl mouthed with subdued tone as she nodded.

   

“Uh Huh is not a language, try stringing a few words together”

 

“ I'm frightened ", the girl replied, liquid streaming from her eyes along with globules of thick mascara that trickled down her reddish cheeks like the banks of a breached river after a landslide of earth.

   

“ Don't be, you're not on my list right now. Do exactly what I tell you and you'll remain off that list. Get me caught and I will kill every person you ever loved before coming for you, starting with your husband. "

 

" Oh I'm afraid that's not possible as I'm not married ", the girl sobbed, now allowed the indulgence of two free hands to grab a tissue from her clutch bag to wipe her eyes.

 

" Your boyfriend then ", Tatiana continued.

 

" No, you misunderstand me, you see, I'm gay ", the girl spurted between the tears.

 

" Your girlfriend then "

 

The girl began balling once more as she explained, " She's just dumped me by text for another girl she works with...."

 

"For fuck's sake woman...", Tatiana was by now losing patience.

   

" Look, let me make it nice and simple for you bitch, help me or you die. OK. I need an exit. Quick. And do me a favour will you, try to act as naturally as you can or else you'll get us both killed. . The girl allowed her eyes to dart quickly to her left, towards the end of the corridor which curled away out of sight. Tatiana lowering the pistol from the girls face and pushing it into her rib cage with a menacing prod, eyes scanning the location feverishly.

 

“We need to exit via the stairwell and out onto the road, I'm parked there. We're not supposed to do so but I do it all the time and security here is pretty lacking at the best of times, you know, macho men and their stupid guns and all. Here's my level one pass that will get you through the security door, and my car keys "

   

“Keep them”,Tatiana quipped, “You're driving”.

   

Down the corridor and through the security door, the green light flashing merrily to afford exit into the South Stairwell as the card was entered, the pair entered the car park and located the terrified woman's shiny black pearlescent Porsche 911 Carerra, the doors opening as she blipped the black leather key fob.

 

" How much are they paying you for Christ's sake! ", Tatiana exclaimed as she ran a finger along the seductive bodywork and beckoned the girl over.

 

" I would have thrown you in the trunk but seeing as it's actually in the hood and not big enough to store anything bigger than a handbag, you'd better get inside. The smell of leather and real walnut wood permeated the confines of the capacious boot as Tatiana closed it down behind her, instructing the woman to drive her to the safety of city. The escape was made, freedom found and whether or not the young Porsche owning lesbian would live to see another sunrise depended upon the mood and whims of a natural born killer.

     

.

   

Rewritten on August 1st 2011

 

Originally penned in August 2010

  

Photograph taken of a Porsche 911 just off Bedford Street near The Strand in Central London, England, at 06:20am on July 14th 2011.

 

Nikon D700 28mm 1/125s f/4.0 iso200

 

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. UV filter. Nikon GP-1

  

LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 33.53s

LONGITUDE: W 0d 7m 27.46s

ALTITUDE: 43m

 

-anytime someone states "needless to say", they're going to say whatever it is anyway.

-the statement "no comment." is a comment within itself.

-people generally hate getting splashed by water, but don't mind if they get rained on a little.

-kiwis should be eaten like apples, peel and all.

 

that last one was thrown in for good measure. eat fruit!

 

i started out with a colour version of this and then did a b&w and liked it too much. sorry, colour version! maybe you'll show up some day down the line. i've fallen into black and white and i can't get up! now, where did that panic button go...

 

hit the L key.

 

167/365

Don't panic! I came home from today's trip to the Landsdowne Theater with a pile of great images. Won't get them all up right away (got to get through a workout at the gym, a photo club picnic, and a band rehearsal first). So in the meantime, here's something you might put to good use...

Optare Versa YJ12 MZV is reversing out of its bay at Harrogate bus station... Hanover and Mobitech destination equipment can be programmed to display a special warning message across the boards when the vehicle is reversing - this works on there being 24v across two pins on a communication cable plugged into the back of the controller when the reverse gear is selected (the controller has to be set with the function enabled too). A similar setup can be used for if the panic button is pressed, and even when the 'next stop' button is pressed.

Boredom + Photoshop

 

Blue Marble

 

Thanks to Kitsch Bitsch

Another angle of the Panic Button.

KS23 RUO seen responding to a panic button call in central Manchester.

Collier's: March 5, 1954

Illustration by John Fischetti

In a stairwell of the parking garage at Northside Hospital in Atlanta

This TLC is a territory-softening Syn-Ack “air cover” node for the Telstar interventional-photography troupe and their urban assault vehicles.

Press it. You know you want to.

this is definitely a bit over the top-- it does say PANIC, tho !!!

 

macromonday- sticky...... given a "sticky situation" one could save the day by hitting the panic button, thereby frightening away the intruder, eh?

 

ODT/ODC-- gadget

 

CMWD_red

  

#keys for Flickr Friday

Photo #209

Things to do with your children this summer! Shrink wrap them. New interactive display at Inventorium exhibition at the Science Centre in Toronto. Give a group of kids a few rolls of clear tape and stand back. Took picture last week at the opening of the exhibition with Minister Eleanor McMahon. So far the Science Centre hasn't had to get out their scissors and make a rescue (but if you suddently can't find you kids, check out this display before pushing the panic button!)

 

 

From an old derelict Mill somewhere in the darkest depths of the Norfolk/Suffolk border area.

 

Only time I've been ushered out by the Police - as we were walking out, typical. But they were very nice about everything.

 

"You panic button collector

You clock of beautiful ticks

You run out the door if you need to

You flock to the front row of your own class

You feather everything until you know you can always, always shake like a leaf on my family tree and know you belong here

You belong here and everything you feel is okay"

 

- Andrea Gibson

 

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 2679. Eleanor Parker in The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955).

 

American actress Eleanor Parker (1922-2013) appeared in some 80 films and television series. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951) and Interrupted Melody (1955). Her role in Caged also won her the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. One of her most memorable roles was that of the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965). Her biographer Doug McClelland called her ‘Woman of a Thousand Faces’, because of her versatility.

 

Eleanor Jean Parker was born in 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio. She was the daughter of Lola (Isett) and Lester Day Parker. Her family moved to East Cleveland, Ohio, where she attended public schools and graduated from Shaw High School. She appeared in a number of school plays. When she was 15 she started to attend the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. After graduation, she moved to California and began appearing at the Pasadena Playhouse. There she was spotted by a Warners Bros talent scout, Irving Kumin. The studio signed her to a long-term contract in June 1941. She was cast that year in They Died with Their Boots On (Raoul Walsh, 1941), but her scenes were cut. Her actual film debut was as Nurse Ryan in the short Soldiers in White (B. Reeves Eason, 1942). She was given some decent roles in B films, Busses Roar (D. Ross Lederman, 1942) and The Mysterious Doctor (Benjamin Stoloff, 1943) opposites John Loder. She also had a small role in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow (Michael Curtiz, 1943) as Emlen Davies, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R (Walter Huston). On the set, she met her first husband, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, but the marriage turned out to be a brief wartime affair. Parker had impressed Warners enough to offer her a strong role in a prestige production, Between Two Worlds (Edward A. Blatt, 1944), playing the suicidal wife of Paul Henreid's character. She played support roles for Crime by Night (William Clemens, 1944) and The Last Ride (D. Ross Lederman, 1944). Then she got the starring role opposite Dennis Morgan in The Very Thought of You (Delmer Daves, 1944). She was considered enough of a ‘name’ to be given a cameo in Hollywood Canteen (Delmer Daves, 1944). Warners gave her the choice role of Mildred Rogers in a new version of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage (Edmund Goulding, 1946), but previews were not favourable and the film sat on the shelf for two years before being released. She had her big break when she was cast opposite John Garfield in Pride of the Marines (Delmer Daves, 1945). However two films that followed with Errol Flynn, the romantic comedy Never Say Goodbye (James V. Kern, 1946) and the drama Escape Me Never (Peter Godfrey, 1947), were box office disappointments. Parker was suspended twice by Warners for refusing parts in films – in Stallion Road (James V. Kern, 1947), where she was replaced by Alexis Smith and Love and Learn (Frederick De Cordova, 1947). She made the comedy Voice of the Turtle (Irving Rapper, 1947) with Ronald Reagan, and the mystery The Woman in White (Peter Godfrey, 1948). She refused to appear in Somewhere in the City (Vincent Sherman, 1950) so Warners suspended her again; Virginia Mayo played the role. Parker then had two years off, during which time she married and had a baby. She turned down a role in The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) which she wanted to do, but it would have meant going to England and she did not want to leave her baby alone during its first year.

 

Eleanor Parker returned in Chain Lightning (Stuart Heisler, 1950) with Humphrey Bogart. Parker heard about a women in prison film Warners were making, Caged (John Cromwell, 1950), and actively lobbied the role. She got it, and won the 1950 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also had a good role in the melodrama Three Secrets (Robert Wise, 1950). In February 1950, Parker left Warner Bros. after having been under contract there for eight years. Parker had understood that she would star in a film called Safe Harbor, but Warner Bros. apparently had no intention of making it. Because of this misunderstanding, her agents negotiated her release. Parker's career outside of Warners started badly with Valentino (Lewis Allen, 1951) playing a fictionalised wife of Rudolph Valentino for producer Edward Small. She tried a comedy at 20th Century Fox with Fred MacMurray, A Millionaire for Christy (George Marshall, 1951). In 1951, Parker signed a contract with Paramount for one film a year, with an option for outside films. This arrangement began brilliantly with Detective Story (William Wyler, 1951) playing Mary McLeod, the woman who doesn't understand the position of her unstable detective husband (Kirk Douglas). Parker was nominated for the Oscar in 1951 for her performance. Parker followed Detective Story with her portrayal of an actress in love with a swashbuckling nobleman (Stewart Granger) in Scaramouche (George Sidney, 1952), a role originally intended for Ava Gardner. Wikipedia: “Parker later claimed that Granger was the only person she didn't get along with during her entire career. However they had good chemistry and the film was a massive hit. “MGM cast her into Above and Beyond (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1952), a biopic of Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (Robert Taylor), the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It was a solid hit. While Parker was making a third film for MGM, Escape from Fort Bravo (John Sturges, 1953), she signed a five-year contract to the studio. She was named as star of a Sidney Sheldon script, My Most Intimate Friend and of One More Time, from a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin directed by George Cukor, but neither film was made. Back at Paramount, Parker starred with Charlton Heston as a 1900s mail-order bride in The Naked Jungle (Byron Haskin, 1954), produced by George Pal. Parker returned to MGM where she was reunited with Robert Taylor in an Egyptian adventure film, Valley of the Kings (Robert Pirosh, 1954), and a Western, Many Rivers to Cross (Roy Rowland, 1955). MGM gave her one of her best roles as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence struck down by polio in Interrupted Melody (Curtis Bernhardt, 1955). This was a big hit and earned Parker a third Oscar nomination; she later said it was her favourite film. Also in 1955, Parker appeared in the film adaptation of the National Book Award-winner The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955), released through United Artists. She played Zosh, the supposedly wheelchair-bound wife of heroin-addicted, would-be jazz drummer Frankie Machine (Frank Sinatra). It was a major commercial and critical success. In 1956, she co-starred with Clark Gable for the Western comedy The King and Four Queens (Raoul Walsh, 1956), also for United Artists. It was then back at MGM for two dramas: Lizzie (Hugo Haas, 1957), in the title role, as a woman with a split personality; and The Seventh Sin (Ronald Neame, 1957), a remake of The Painted Veil in the role originated by Greta Garbo and, once again, intended for Ava Gardner. Both films flopped at the box office and, as a result, Parker's plans to produce her own film, L'Eternelle, about French resistance fighters, did not materialise.

 

Eleanor Parker supported Frank Sinatra in a popular comedy, A Hole in the Head (Frank Capra, 1959). She returned to MGM for Home from the Hill (Vincente Minnelli, 1960), co-starring with Robert Mitchum, then took over Lana Turner's role of Constance Rossi in Return to Peyton Place (José Ferrer, 1961), the sequel to the hit 1957 film. That was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced Madison Avenue (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1961) with Parker. In 1960, she made her TV debut, and in the following years, she worked increasingly in television, with the occasional film role such as Panic Button (George Sherman, Giuliano Carnimeo, 1964) with Maurice Chevalier and Jayne Mansfield. Parker's best-known screen role is Baroness Elsa Schraeder in the Oscar-winning musical The Sound of Music (Robert Wise, 1965). The Baroness was famously and poignantly unsuccessful in keeping the affections of Captain Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) after he falls in love with Maria (Julie Andrews). In 1966, Parker played an alcoholic widow in the crime drama Warning Shot (Buzz Kulik, 1967), a talent scout who discovers a Hollywood star in The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), and a rich alcoholic in An American Dream (Robert Gist, 1966). However, her film career seemed to go downhill. A Playboy Magazine reviewer derided the cast of The Oscar as "has-beens and never-will-bes". From the late 1960s, she focused on television. In 1963, Parker had appeared in the medical TV drama about psychiatry The Eleventh Hour in the episode Why Am I Grown So Cold?, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. She also appeared in episodes of Breaking Point (1964). And The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1968). In 1969–1970, Parker starred in the television series Bracken's World, for which she was nominated for a 1970 Golden Globe Award. Parker also appeared on stage in the role of Margo Channing in Applause, the Broadway musical version of the film All About Eve. In 1976, she played Maxine in a revival of The Night of the Iguana. Her last film role was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn (Richard C. Sarafian, 1979). Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money (Mark Cullingham, 1991). Eleanor Parker was married four times. Her husbands were Fred Losee (1943-1944), Bert E. Friedlob (1946-1953; the marriage produced three children Susan Eleanor Friedlob (1948), Sharon Anne Friedlob (1950), and Richard Parker Friedlob (1952)), Paul Clemens, American portrait painter (1954-1965; the marriage produced one child, actor Paul Clemens (1958)), and Raymond N. Hirsch (1966- 2001 when Hirsch died of esophageal cancer). She was the grandmother of actor/director Chasen Parker. Eleanor Parker died in 2013 at a medical facility in Palm Springs, California of complications of pneumonia. She was 91.Parker was raised a Protestant and later converted to Judaism, telling the New York Daily News columnist Kay Gardella in August 1969, "I think we're all Jews at heart ... I wanted to convert for a long time."

 

Sources: Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

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