Saturday, May 12, 2007

BIRTHDAY NODS TO KATHERINE HEPBURN, GEORGE CARLIN AND BURT BACHARACH

KATHERINE HEPBURN 'S ONE HUNDRETH BIRTHDAY!
Today indeed would have been Katherine Hepburn's 100th birthday. I wrote about Katherine as an off screen character in a play I wrote years ago called "Professor Chutzpah"-- a comedy in which the world's youngest con-man learns quite suddenly that he is the father of a nine year old son-- and this boy is not only a better conman than his father-- he's PT Barnum at four foot three. The conman convinces his ditzy, lame brain landlady Judy(when she comes to confront him about his bounced rent check) that she looks just like a young Katherine Hepburn and she should get into show business immediately. Of course dittzy Judy decides to dress up as Katherine Hepburn and somehow gets past the guard at dear old MGM studios. There she meets the REAL Katherine Hepburn and she and Kate have a really wild animated dioscussion which crazy Judy relates in the play. During one of the first performances of this play, we had an audience that just "rolled in the asile" as this character recounts her mis adventures on the lot. When Judy reveals that she has gone to a commercial audition dressed as Kate in her role as the queen (see picture) in "The Lion In Winter" and gets a Tidi-Bowl commercial, the good Professor Chutzpah character delivered the line "Well, that's Hollywood for you-- one day on the throne, the next day on the toilet"-- the audience screamed with laughter. it was a magic moment in theatre. The good Danny Simon taught me well. Today is also George Carlin's 70th birthday. Talk about a funny guy! My favorite George Carlin quote is "I want to something-- why is that the catepillar does all the work and the butterfly gets all the publicity" It is also Burt Bacharach's 79th birthday. Now here is a songwriter who could have stoped writing twenty years ago and still been a zillionaire. Well, someday-- who knows?