Saturday Night Fever and I: Bay Ridge Comes to Bryant Park

Bryant Park's free summer movies in NYC return this year on Monday, June 16. 1977's Saturday Night Fever kicks off the film festival that evening. Shot in Brooklyn and Manhattan, it's an iconic movie in many ways but, oddly, not a well-made or respected one by any means. I remember, when I first saw it theatrically on its initial release, being astounded by the sight of overhead mikes dipping into the shots. And the script (based freely on an article published in New York magazine) is very contrived, kind of a Rebel without a Cause Goes Disco.

SNF is best represented by and remembered for its soundtrack, for John Travolta's white suit and for evoking the zeitgeist of the disco era. That the movie celebrated disco music for mainstream movie audiences turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. It turned disco dancing into something more formalized, the music into something less soulful, forged stupid petty-bourgeoise fashions and hairstyles and disco culture itself into something ultimately overbearing. Every legit act that had been around for decades went disco in the wake of this film's success: Abbe Lane, Andy Williams, Ethel Merman! As if that wan't enough to put the nail in the coffin, there was that whole, ugly Comiskey Park (anti-gay, racist) Disco Demolition Night (akin to the Nazi book burnings; the Tea Party would have loved it).

The movie represents an era when young Brooklynites longed to move to Manhattan for the culture, the art, the money! Of course, this was in the time before Barclay's Center, DUMBO and Whole Foods. Travolta's character's escape plan was to get across the East River divide by hitting the disco floor in power platforms and an exposed chest adorned by costume jewelry.

I have a few Six Degrees of Saturday Night Fever: The disco is in Bay Ridge (Travolta's Tony Manero is from Bensonhurst); I now reside in Bay Ridge. The real-life disco it is shot in really exists; in the '90s and early 2000's, I'd travel out to Bay Ridge when it was a gay club, Spectrum. It was fabulously no-attitude; had great live acts like Hazell Dean and The Village People, great music, and that legendary flashing-colors dance floor from the film. My friend Allison's husband played John Travolta's feet! In the beginning, as Manero struts down the street near the elevated train, we see close-ups of his feet hitting the pavement. They belong to Allison's husband, foot double. Lastly, I'm gay and so, it turns out, is John Travolta. He always pinged our gaydar. Plus, we're both Jersey boys.

Saturday Night Fever, Bryant Park, on the big screen, starts @ sundown/ lawn opens @ 5 pm. Bring a blanket and a picnic basket if you wish. Alcohol ok.

Bette Midler Goes West on HBO

The big buzz you've been waiting for, people! Surely you've heard by now that none other than the Divine Miss M herself will be assaying (and sashaying in) the part of droll diva and camp icon, Mae West. The HBO film (to be released theatrically outside the U.S.) is to be directed by William ("The Boys in the Band," "Cruising" and some little opus called "The Exorcist") Friedkin. And who is writing this biopic? None other than Harvey Fierstein ("Kinky Boots," "Torch Song Trilogy"), based on Miss West's autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It, that's who.

Bette Midler has been having herself a grand time lately, coming hot off her Broadway hit, I'll Eat You Last (in which she assayed but pretty much stayed on her assets as famed Hollywood talent agent Sue Mengers) and now swirling into the role of Mae West.

I guess HBO had the urge to outdo themselves on the gay-o-meter after the success of their Liberace biopic. I first read the Bette buzz today via Playbill on-line. The next thing I knew, it was all over the Internet. Variety said it was actually Deadline Hollywood that first broke the news and wrote, "The performer who became synonymous with busty bravado, sex and sultry humor died in 1980 at age 87 after a long career on stage and screen." Doesn't that sound divinely perfect for Miss Midler, who just turned 71? "Pic focuses on West’s early years as a stage player in Gotham when she battled censors and faced legal sanctions for her risque Rialto show 'Sex,'" Variety informs. Well, Miss M looks good and can play younger, I suppose.

So, Bette in the Mae West biopic, Liza in the Sunset Boulevard movie! Sounds like things are shaping up for our cherished divas! Star vehicles at last, dahlings, for female stars not named Meryl!

"[Mae] West eventually moved from stage to screen and rose to super stardom in the 1930s when she became one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood at the time," Huffington Post touted.

Buddy Beaverhausen thinks Bette will be an ideal Mae West. In fact, she's notoriously gone West in her live stage shows from the start. The hair fluffing, her raunchy lines, her campy delivery, her knowing overtures to her gay fans, her petite but curvaceous figure. If there was no Mae, there might never be the Bette we know and love.

Mae West said, “I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.” She was also quoted as quipping, "Good sex is like good bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand."

Sounds like HBO's holding a firm hand on this one.


 

LGBT Pride 2013: Busting Out All Over!

June is Pride month and it's busting out all over! Ninety-plus degree weather in NYC, coming out of a chilly, damp spring, and it's time to celebrate. President Obama issued a Proclamation today that began: "The story of America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law. Each June, we commemorate the courageous individuals who have fought to achieve this promise for LGBT Americans, and we rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity."

You can read the whole Presidential Proclamation by visiting this White House page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/31/presidential-proclamation-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-pride-mon

Meanwhile, in Beaverhausen World, my blog has hit an all-time high regarding views for the month of May! 13,338 views, topping my previous monthly high of 12,529 for December. I love the international stats reflecting my audience; you guys (and gals) are fantastic! It's a disco world & we're all united. Dance on, dance for peace, for equality, for love and for a positive future!

For Pride, I highly recommend reading my ongoing Q & A with classic-disco producer Bob Esty, as he talks about Donna Summer, Cher, Giorgio & much more:

Part 1: http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/05/exclusive-q-with-bob-esty-part-1-once.html

Part 2: http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/05/exclusive-q-with-bob-esty-part-2-from.html

Also, from guest blogger The Engin33r, an essay on hip hop and LGBT people:

http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-engineer33r-my-first-guest-blogger.html

Of course, hep HBO brought us the Liberace gay tell-all in time for Vegas Pride which kicked things off on the Memorial Day weekend:

http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/05/life-with-liberace-behind-candelabra.html

Queens (NY) Gay Pride kicks off this Sunday, with the original Manhattan one set for the very end of the month.

Finally, my Pride memories:
http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/06/gay-pride-ghosts-of-pride-past-present.html

And, post-finally, Hildegarde! (Are we sure she and Christine Jorgensen aren't the same person? Have you ever seen them together?) Enjoy this and Happy LGBT Pride to all:

Life with Liberace Behind the Candelabra

HBO's latest film -- Behind the Candelabra -- is based on the 1988 tell-all memoir, Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace. I prefer to call it Libby Dearest as it's a juicy view through a glass darkly. Well, Viva Las Vegas for that! The glitz, the glamor, the gossip! Why, there's not a skeleton left in Liberace's closet by the time this memoir's been told, never mind a wire hanger!

It must be said that Scott Thorson's story (co-written with Alex Thorleifson) is told by someone whose life has been shady to be sure; sordid to be certain; sleazy easily. Not the most reliable of narrators, perhaps. But what drama!

Surely, screenplay writer Richard LaGravenese and director Steven Soderbergh saw the purple possibilities. The sex scenes in this movie (released on HBO in the USA; theatrically through the rest of the world) are so raw, they even shocked me! I never thought I'd see such high-calibre movie stars act out what's going on in BtC!

This is an all-around solidly made film, however, starring Michael Douglas as legendary lady, Liberace. In my opinion, a crowning achievement in his career. Matt Damon, as Scott, also turns in a powerful performance, though playing a 17-year-old (when our story starts) was quite a stretch. Supporting cast is excellent: Cheyenne Jackson, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds in a scene-stealing role as Liberace's mother; Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula, Paul Reiser!

Set in the Sin City of Vegas, what goes on there obviously doesn't just stay there! BtC takes us behind, on top of, under, over and up the candelabra! The delicious decadence, debauchery, dissipation, depravity, drugs and dirty linen! Divine! Who knew Liberace was such a sex pig?

On a trip to Vegas a few years back, my friend, Tracey, and I cabbed out to the desert to visit the city's cultural conservatory, the Liberace Museum (now closed), to see the opulence and sheer, unashamed excess of the man's cars, coats, jewelry. Yet, not a cock ring in sight! The recreation of Liberace's Vegas bedroom was visited. The room smelled, oddly, as if Lee's body had been buried under the Museum's floorboards. Ah, the aroma!

So, yes, something's rotten in the state of Liberaceland. At the Museum, and on HBO. Long live Liberace!

Video Beaverhausen: Phil Spector According to HBO

When I discuss the Phil Spector murder case, as when I discuss Mommie Dearest, let me say I am most distinctly neither a defender or apologist for either the abuse of women or child abuse. But, as I have reasonable doubt about the Christina Crawford book (and the cult film based upon it),  I have the same regarding music producer Spector's guilt regarding the death of Linda Clarkson that has sentenced him to jail for life. (Ironically, Ms Clarkson had a role in Pacino's Scarface.)

The David Mamet-directed and -written HBO telefilm, Phil Spector, ends with Helen Mirren, as defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden, saying, "I believe Phil Spector is not guilty." To which "Are you sure?" is the response. Mirren offers the last line in the film with the reply: "No. But I have reasonable doubt."

And so I felt precisely that way after watching the British documentary, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, to which this dramatization makes a great companion piece. I'm not confident in Spector's innocence but feel he was convicted with very reasonable doubt outstanding.

Ms Mirren stepped into the role of Spector's attorney at the last minute after original cast member Bette Midler suffered a back injury “and had to be carried off the set," according to the real Ms Baden (who, like moi, is a Jersey Girl). That might explain why the ubiquitous Ms Mirren, emotionally real in the part, slips back and forth from a British to a neutral American accent but never nails the Jersey nasality. (I was roundly lampooned when I went to University of Colorado amongst the Northwesterners with their contrasting open vowels.)

Phil Spector opens with the disclaimer: "This is a work of fiction. It's not 'based on a true story.' It is a drama inspired by actual persons in a trial, but it is neither an attempt to depict the actual persons, nor to comment upon on the trial or its outcome." I.e., "Don't sue!" ("Not based on a true story"??!!)

Al Pacino's Phil Spector is a brilliant performance, wigs, prosthetic teeth and all! He speaks like Phil,  gestures like him, and even has something of the unfortunate watery mouth on display (as seen in The Agony)! I thought Spector's famous though tragic "Jewfro" was meant to make him look like Beethoven, but it turns out he was going for Jimi Hendryx. Go figure.

Yet Pacino humanizes the hermetic eccentric especially in his bravura explosion during an arranged rehearsal of the trial meant to prepare him for his court appearance.

He flies into a rage at the video testimony of Ronnie Spector  (shabbily portrayed by Linda Miller), calling her a "psychotic bitch." This scene is classic Pacino and absolutely riveting. (Of course, the real-life Ronnie has her own version of all this.)

Early on, Mirren enters the Spector mansion, a recluse's scary Gothic air-conditioned labyrith within a guarded compound, where even some of the doorways aren't real. The film's focus is on the two characters' growing sense of trust and affection. Though moments of this movie have a very Law & Order feel, there are certainly flashes of brilliance that set it apart.

Obviously, Spector permitted HBO to use his songs "Be My Baby," "He's a Rebel" and "When I Saw You" in the context of this film. Below, HBO's trailer: