DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[Fading Fast]

I think the theremin had its film debut in "The Lost Weekend"(1945).

There is a weird, synthesized, almost slowed-down Twilight Zone musical theme that is used to reflect Milland's character's mental need for alcohol and for when he loses himself in alcohol - is that what you are referencing? Basically, the music emphasizes how his addiction all-but takes over his brain / will / power to think.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Theremin - The awesome Bernard Herrmann score for The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) prominently features the theremin and other electric instruments:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_(soundtrack)

Don Rickles - It's worth mentioning that, like most comedians, he could give an excellent dramatic performance when he wanted to. Example - X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963). Hey, Ray Milland stars in that one too!

 

[LizzieMaine]

A theremin performance of the 1930 pop tune "You're Driving Me Crazy," recorded by soloist Lennington Shewell for Victor, as part of RCA's marketing campaign to prove the instrument wasn't just an oddball curiosity. Leon Theremin himself, the old toe-tapper, was a strong advocate for the theremin's integration into dance orchestras.

 

[Worf]

Just confused that a man of normally impeccable taste would like that infernal machine.

Me???? Impeccable? Hardly! I live for good/great film but I also like weird stuff. All the classic Sci Fi of the 50's and 60's had that "infernal machine".... Kinda goes with the territory... If I started hearing a Theremin in the background I know something's about to go down and I'd put my runnin' shoes on... VERY helpful instrument!

Worf

 

[HudsonHawk]

Another rock n roll player is gone. Guitarist John Geils was found dead at his home yesterday of natural causes. Geils formed the J. Geils Blues Band in 1968, who later dropped the "Blues" from the name. They were a popular blues rock band of the early 70s, and later had some success with a more commercial pop sound in the 1980s. Geils was 71.

 

[MisterCairo]

I should also post this in the you know you're getting old when thread, but 70s/80s rock guitarist J. Geils has died of apparent natural causes:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/j-geils-founder-john-warren-geils-jr-1.4066828

 

[MisterCairo]

Another rock n roll player is gone. Guitarist John Geils was found dead at his home yesterday of natural causes. Geils formed the J. Geils Blues Band in 1968, who later dropped the "Blues" from the name. They were a popular blues rock band of the early 70s, and later had some success with a more commercial pop sound in the 1980s. Geils was 71.

Talk about timing!

It's a shame most people associate the name J. Geils as both the early 80s pop rock, and in error in thinking he was the singer...

 

[HudsonHawk]

Talk about timing!

It's a shame most people associate the name J. Geils as both the early 80s pop rock, and in error in thinking he was the singer...

Agreed. He was a fine blues/rock guitarist, and the band did some good stuff in the early 70s. Said singer, Peter Wolf, will be remembered as that goofy guy in the 80s music videos and being married to Faye Dunaway.

 

[Frunobulax]

The J. Geils Band was a force to be reckoned with live. I too think it's too bad their touchstone is the 80s music such as "Centerfold." I had the pleasure of seeing them a couple of times in the 70s, and they were a band on fire. Weaving blues, R&B, and funky originals into a masterpiece of a show. Geils was an excellent guitarist and Wolf is one of the best frontmen in Rock and Roll. I thought every one of them was at the top of their game: Klein, Justman, Magic Dick, Bladd, they were fun and exciting to see. I've seen several hundred live shows of every stripe, and the J. Geils Band is up there with the best.

RIP guitar guy.

 

[MisterCairo]

Said singer, Peter Wolf, will be remembered as that goofy guy in the 80s music videos and being married to Faye Dunaway.

To be fair, not bad things to be remembered for!

 

[MisterCairo]

I remember watching her various bits on David Letterman back in the day.

His mum, Dorothy, has died aged 95:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-mengering-dorothy-letterman-1.4067180

I remember watching these Olympic clips from Norway:

 

[Touchofevil]

I remember watching her various bits on David Letterman back in the day.

His mum, Dorothy, has died aged 95:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-mengering-dorothy-letterman-1.4067180

I remember watching these Olympic clips from Norway:

It was fun to watch him go back-and-forth with mom.

 

[Fading Fast]

... Said singer, Peter Wolf, will be remembered as that goofy guy in the 80s music videos and being married to Faye Dunaway.

What the heck / how did I not know this? / how did this happen? / Good for him, I was smitten from her "Bonnie and Clyde" days*

And "Centerfold," horrible song that can get stuck in your head in a torturous way.

*In her later years, Dunaway lived near me in rent-stabilized apartment next to one of NYC best original German bread bakeries. Eventually, the rent-stabilized police caught up with her and she lost the apartment as her income / net wealth greatly exceeded the maximum (NYC' rent control program is rife this type of corruption, see Charles Rangel, long-serving Congressman - with four rent stabilized apartments in his name - as another example).

 

[MisterCairo]

Man, this is a bummer.

Comedian Charlie Murphy, Eddie's brother, has died from leukemia at age 57:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-charlie-murphy-1.4067848

Tragically, his wife had died from cervical cancer in 2009.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Time to watch those brilliant, hilarious "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories" sketches from Chapelle's Show again.

"So there we were, playing basketball with Prince... And it was like the shirts against the blouses."

 

[MisterCairo]

"I'm Rick James, b$#@*!

 

[Worf]

Time to watch those brilliant, hilarious "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories" sketches from Chapelle's Show again.

"So there we were, playing basketball with Prince... And it was like the shirts against the blouses."

To quote a hackneyed phrase (but totally appropriate in this case):

"Comedy Gold!"

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

Outstanding cinematographer Michael Ballhaus - check out stills from some of his films at:

http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2017/4/13/michael-ballhaus-1935-2017.html

 

[LizzieMaine]

Former major league outfielder Bob Cerv has died at age 91. He was one of the many players shuttled back and forth between the Yankees and the Athletics in the late 1950s on the "New York-Kansas City Shuttle," the snide name given by sportswriters to the illegal collusion between the two clubs during that period, a scheme which basically turned the A's into a de-facto farm club for the Yankees. Cerv was one of the few players involved in these deals who ever did the Athletics any good, having several excellent years as a power threat on a team that usually ran a good bit short of power threats. He is also renowned for having shared an apartment in New York with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris during one of his stints on the Yankees, and for having kept his own counsel on what no doubt went on in that apartment over the course of the season.

"No, Bob Cerv is not trying to knock himself unconscious with a fungo bat. And that isn't a blue felt gravy boat he's wearing on his head."
-- The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book, commenting on the unconvincing airbrush job made necessary by one of Bob's off-season trips on the NY-KC Shuttle.

 

[Stearmen]

Emma Martina Luigia Morano 29 November 1899 – 15 April 2017. She was the last person documented to have been born in the 19th century. Hard to believe, when I was a kid, I was surrounded by people born in the 1800s, Grandparents, neighbors, friends of the family, now they are all gone.