THE AWFUL LIFE OF ARCHIE LEACH

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June     9     1093    4732        1185       246          82

July    22     1205    7128         1293     1120         572

Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835         130

Sept     3     1094    5886         830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168           82

Oct      8       957     6420         730       967        160

          12       316     3757           203       710          83

          13       843     5006           354      723       165

          14       970     6075           716       694       123

          15       873     6106           734       835       158

          16       928     6189           716       886         61

          17       638     5639           461     1032         38

          18       448     4040           215       578         63

          19       442     4392           321       594         21

          20       952     6169           662       714       164

Summary: Well, just when you thought the worse was over, it's back to being terrible.  The USA returned to being #1 in the World in both new cases and new deaths.

There was a short review this morning in the Star Advertiser about a new book by Scott Eyman, Cary Grant: A Brilliant Disguise.  Cary Grant was born in 1904 in Bristol, England as Archibald Alec Leach.  To quote the book:

Self-trained English actor Archie Leach pulled off the role of a lifetime: becoming Hollywood legend Cary Grant. Why the child of a broken family hid behind the silver screen’s definition of easy charm and handsome masculinity is another story entirely.

Further:

• His father was a negligent drinker who placed the then 11-year old's mother in an asylum, but telling him she had died.
• Prior to that, his older brother passed away from tuberculous meningitis, for which his mother blamed herself, becoming overprotective of Archie, ruining his future relationships with women.

• 
  He eventually found a hustling life in entertainment, and made it to America, where, at the of 28 in 1932 ended up in Hollywood.
• In 1937, after numerous films, Topper (Rotten Tomatoes rating of 89/81) and The Awful Truth (RT 93/87) made him into a star and charmer.

In addition to those light comedic films, he acted in four Alfred Hitchcock thrillers:

• Suspicion (1941, RT 97/78--with Joan Fountaine, right)

• 
  In 1942 he became a naturalized citizen, and legally changed his name to Cary Grant.

• Notorious (this is the complete 1946 movie with Ingrid Bergman, RT 98/91, with this rating, something you should watch--there is that 2.5 minutes kiss that broke some kind of record).

• To Catch a Thief (1955, RT 96/84--with Grace Kelly, right)
• North by Northwest (1959, RT 99/94--this is a 2hr 19min commentary, which means you need to play both this and the actual film at the same time)

What Grant did was protect his career by trying to maintain an image, turning down anything that would tarnish his reputation, like The Third Man, A Star is Born and Lolita, settling on bland comedies.  

• One of his wives was Barbara Hutton, then one of the wealthiest women in the world from the Woolworth family.

• 
  While he smoked two packs/day, he went out of his way to avoid being photographed smoking.  
• He did experiment a lot with LSD.   
• By 1950 he was near the top of salaries and left the studio system.  
• He was set to go as the first James Bond in 1962 but did not want to commit to more than one film.  

• 
  His final film in 1966 was of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Walk, Don't Run.  
• Hitchcock asked Grant to star in Torn Curtain, but he chose to retire at the age of  62, mostly to take care of his newborn daughter, only child Jennifer Grant, from his marriage to Dyan Cannon.  
• Personally, he was frugal, too much so.
• He had numerous affairs and five marriages, driving them away before they would leave him.  Again, much to do with his mother.  And, incidentally, he later in life, 1935, found out on his father's deathbed confession that his mother was alive in an institution.  He got her out and three years later went to visit her. 

• 
  He lived with actor Randolph Scott on and off for 12 years, but they probably were just good friends.
• In 1981 he married Barbara Harris, someone who was 47 years younger.
• He passed away five years later at the age of 82, with an estate worth around $70 million.

Why was he successful on the screen?  Men wanted to be him and women dreamed of dating him.  He never won a competitive Oscar, but received a lifetime achievement award in 1970, where close friend Frank Sinatra announced:

No one brought more pleasure to more people for so many years than Cary has, and nobody has done so many things so well.

From 1932 to 1966 he starred in over 70 films, and was named the second greatest male star after Humphrey Bogart, and again by another organization to Marlon Brando.  From a rotten start, he actually lived quite an admirable life.

#70 has two songs as finalists:

• Hearts of Stone:  Fontane Sisters
• Little Things Mean a Lot:  Kitty Kallen

Hearts of Stone was written by members of the Jewels from San Bernardino, California in 1954, but the cover by the Charms became more popular.

The Fontane Sisters hit #1 with Hearts of Stone in 1955.  As with songs of those days, this was a cover of R&B versions.  They were sisters, that began as a trio with a brother during World War II.  Frank was drafted and killed in action, so the group three girls.  They changed their name from The Three Sisters to the Fontane Sisters after their great-grandmother, Mrs. Fontaine.  

In 1951 they had a minor hit with The Tennessee Waltz.  They recorded 18 songs with Dot Records, with Hearts of Stone being their lone big hit.  They retired in 1961 to gain family lives

My #70 song is Kitty Kallen's Little Things Mean a Lot, recorded in 1954, which became #1 for the year, probably because it was also one my wife's favorites, and wanted me to act as accordingly.  A follow-up hit for Kallen was In the Chapel in the Moonlight.

Kitty was born in 1921 and began her career in 1930's with Artie Shaw and Jack Teagarden.  On her 21st birthday in 1942 she recorded Moonlight Becomes You with Liberty Records, which was renamed Capitol Records.  That year she joined the Jimmy Dorsey (middle) band, replacing Helen O'Connell.  She had two popular vocals with him, They're Either Too Young or Too Old and Besame Mucho, which became #1.  She joined Harry James' (right) band in 1943 when Bob Eberly (with Kallen) joined the service, where there two #1 songs:  I'm Beginning to See the Light and It's Been a Long, Long Time.  She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

During her popularity three different imposters billed themselves as Kitty Kallen.  When one of them died in 1978 it was incorrectly report that she had passed away.  Her real end came in 2016 at the age of 94.  Like so many, all her material was destroyed in that 2008 Universal Studios fire.

There are four ocean storms:

• An un-unamed cyclone in the Indian Ocean.
• A budding typhoon in the Western Pacific.
• Tropical Storm Saudel did some damage over the Philippines, and will make landfall just north of Danang, Vietnam.
• Category 3 Hurricane Epsilon is approaching the Bahamas.

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