Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve






Eve Arden


    One of this year’s regular pleasures has been listening to Eve Arden in Our Miss Brooks broadcasts on satellite radio.


    I’ve loved the show since I was very young, but previously was only familiar with the television version.  Like so many entertainments, listening to it on wireless  and mentally filling in the visuals decorating  the actors' voices (with their flawless  diction and vivid intonations) is the superior aesthetic experience.


    As beautiful and radiant as she was, Eve Arden’s honey- ochre voice defines her, and she delivers all of Connie Brooks’ clever observations, asides, straight lines and punch lines with devastating, unerring, but gentle precision.


    Our Miss Brooks, for anyone unfamiliar with it, is a fairly straightforward American high school situation comedy, which is both middle-of-the-road and nicely, unexpectedly  offbeat.   


   Consistently amusing, unlike today’s feel-bad, sarcastic and smutty television comedies, it earns its laughs and vibrates in tune with human nature as I used to perceive it.




With Gale Gordon (as Madison HS principal Osgood Conklin)


    Two of the show's other actors, the great Gale Gordon and the then-faux-juvenile (he had already fought bravely in World War II in both Europe and the Pacific) Richard Crenna, were also masterful voice artists.  I happily accept Gordon’s narrow range because he’s so funny inside it, but historical perspective makes Crenna’s versatility and varied career achievements incredibly impressive.  


    Merry Christmas, Eve. 

 


With Richard Crenna (as Walter Denton)


 

Our Miss Brooks: Home Cooked Meal (television link)

11 comments:

  1. I have always loved "Our Miss Brooks" as well, especially because Eve Arden always reminded me of my Mom. A high school teacher with perfect diction, a wicked sense of humor and skepticism, getting up to endless hi-jinx, Connie Brooks even looked a little like my Mom. But I never knew of the radio show either. What a wonderful posting, and such an early Christmas present to this reader!

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  2. Thanks so much. It's actually a great present to me to receive your response so early in the morning. The radio show is superb and was a big hit for several years before the television show, which followed many of the radio scripts, was created. The two shows ran simultaneously during the last few years of the radio broadcasts and used most of the same actors, including Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna and, of course Eve Arden. I'm glad you liked this. I always consider Eve Arden to be a great ray of light in an often-dark world. Merry Christmas. Curtis

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  3. Nothing like a voice with a bit of a honey like tone. Same thing for me with Billy Idol. I'm told he used to do punk, but his voice did not fit the mould there, although being a classical pianist, I don't really know these things:)

    Merry Christmas!!

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    1. Billy was actually quite a good and original punk in Generation X. He sort of grew out of the role mainly based on his undeniable "star quality." I once had the pleasure of standing behind him in line at the fairly staid First Women's Bank on East 57th Street in New York City, where he really stood out and made quite an impression. (Visually; he was simply quite and polite in line, although his attire assured him uniqueness.) My daughter is a student classical pianist, although she also has essayed trumpet, guitar, ukulele and saxophone. She's very talented on piano, though, and should really work harder at it. Merry, merry Christmas. Curtis

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    2. Tell her it makes sense to work ;) while young - the cynical pianist speaking :D Seriously, you may get a more stable technique when working on it properly while young, although many things are possible at many ages and nothing beats a structured mind.

      Thank you for telling me about Billy Idol, my partner is into punk and he told me a little about him, but not that much. He is a favorite - him and Jussi Bjørling :)))) - and J. Norman, Victoria de losAngeles and and and ....

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    3. Jane's one of those people to whom many things come naturally and easily, which makes her forget sometimes that you need to work at them also. She's only 15 and is developing her sense of self-discipline, which is strong when she's doing whatever obsesses her at the moment. Her musical performances are often really fine and she rises to the occasion at recitals, etc. For a number of years she was a developing and very talented figure skater, so she does know about self-discipline through that sport because nothing just "happens" on the ice for anybody. I'd like to see her work as hard at her music as we think it requires because she does love it and it's such a pleasure to hear her. I must check out Jussi Bjorling, J. Norman and Victoria de losAngeles. Personally, I'm stuck in a number of musical/listening (and other) ruts at the moment. By the way, I was sorry to add comment moderation to this space, but I was being stalked by a very annoying, kind of dangerous and threatening seeming, blog troll who was anonymously defacing my posts. Curtis

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    4. You see it in pupils, around 15 they may start to make great progress :) Their mind fall into place somehow, they seem to mature.

      L:)

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    5. And I don't mind comment moderation. There is a lot of spam, thankfully no blog trolls here.

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    6. I'm fairly confident that will happen with Jane. She's maturing every day and becoming, among other things, wittier and wittier, which is nice because I need the laughter. I was sorry to introduce comment moderation on principle, but I think it's necessary. Early this morning I read a movie review online, which an old friend of mine, who is a journalist, published in a fairly well-known and well-established magazine. The movie in question was the new Quentin Tarantino film, Django Unchained, which has excited much controversy. The "comment sewer" section of the magazine was filled with the vilest, most unworthy of publication remarks, that I longed for comment moderation. Unfortunately, the magazine is a journal for libertarians, so I guess they let people run wild as a matter of course. In one of my college's newspapers, the anonymous comments posted following articles are almost uniformly dispiriting, both for their crudeness and the fact that people are unwilling to sign their name to their opinions. Oh well-- it's Christmas. The kitchen is clean and Jane is receiving everything she wants, including a unicycle and a fantastic antique cash register from the early 1900s. Unfortunately the hard hat deep-sea diver helmet she wanted, which was the Holy Grail of diving helmets, cost $14,000, putting it out of reach until she scores her first hit record, probably not playing classical piano. Curtis

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  4. I noticed the comment moderation, and thought it a shame that you decided to use it, but I understand.

    I know my father was frustrated that I didn't "apply myself" as much as he would have wished to my violin and piano practice. In fact, I remembering wanting to learn to play the flute in sixth grade. He and my music teacher wanted me to focus on violin, and would not allow me to take up the flute. In protest, I stopped playing the violin, forever. It's hard to think about now; I had such an extreme reaction, I know. Of course, I'm not comparing myself to Jane. For years, I've regretted having traded in my violin for a guitar; I would have loved to have both. But I still love to play the piano, and I have my father to thank for that.

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    1. The troller I was dealing with was a vicious person. It makes you wonder who they were, but that's futile. It's nice to have music and I love to hear Jane play; the piano is outside my office. I expect she'll be applying herself a little more all around to her instruments as we progress. I've now exercised and now I need to dress so that we can go to Caroline's cousin's house for Christmas. That's always nice. Hope you're having a good day. Curtis

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