Tuesday, March 1, 2011

If they were still alive....

....it'd be the birthday of the following folks:

David Niven
A man who made debonair elegance seem easy, David Niven would be 101.  He was also a fine writer who chronicled his many Hollywood (and wartime) adventures with some of the biggest names in "old Hollywood" in a few excellent autobiographies, which are great reads, if you have an interest in that era:  "The Moon's a Baloon" and "Bring On the Empty Horses".  Both available on Amazon for pennies (59 cents and ONE PENNY, respectively--plus $3.99 postage).  You can order them here, if you'd like:







Brilliant Polish composer and virtuoso pianist, Frédéric Chopin would be 201 today.
He is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, but immediately after his death (at his request), his heart was removed and interred in an urn in a pillar at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw, where it remains today.  Of all his works, his nocturnes remain, for me, his most sublimely beautiful works...this one is, perhaps, the best known, and certainly one of the most lovely:









Glenn Miller would be 107 today, had his plane not been lost somewhere over the English Channel during World War II (December 15, 1944).  Neither he nor his plane have ever been found.  He left an amazing legacy in his many big band recordings and is revered amongst musicians for his great skills as bandleader, composer and trombonist.  Here's one of his many hit songs, with a fine photo essay:








Nita Naldi would be 116 today.   She was a silent film actress who was most definitely "of her era," and the likes of whom will never be seen again.  She, along with rivals such as Theda Bara and Pola Negri were known as "The Vamps"--cariacaturized versions of alluring women that seem fairly ridiculous today.  But in the Nineteen-Teens and early Twenties, they positively scandalized a moralistic America and were decried from pulpits everywhere.  Naldi had a nebulously-foreign, exotic appeal, and was quite a big star, co-starring opposite stars such as Rudolph Valentino(in fact, she referred to herself as "The Female Valentino"!).  In reality, she was a nice Irish girl named Nonna Dooley from Brooklyn.  Here's a very well-done video tribute to her, if you'd like to see what all the "scandal" was about:






American actress Joan Hackett (Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1981 for Only When I Laugh) would be 77 today, but unfortunately died young of cancer.  She left an interesting "goodbye" on her crypt at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery:
 

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