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Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 8, 2012 15:41:03 GMT -5
Short personal anecdote about Julius Epstein. As I said, he would do round-table discussions with faculty and students. This was not big. Maybe 25 or 30 very interested film and/or theater majors, grad students and faculty.
At this time, years after graduating in the same department, I was working as film studio coordinator, training students on equipment use and handling its distribution to their courses. As such, my activities were not class schedule specific and I always had trouble getting to this cherished discussion at the beginning, so I would just come in quietly and stand in the background. This happened every year for about five or six years, and finally, one year when I tried to sneak in, Julie stopped mid-phrase and asked, "When are you ever going to graduate?!" Brought the house down!
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Post by Phil Riordan on Oct 8, 2012 18:06:06 GMT -5
Rich, your posts are always informative and enjoyable reading. (I read every dang one of 'em.) My second post was to clarify my first response to cje, which was brief - without much explanation.
Thanks for both your responses. Each time you post, I learn something new.
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Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 8, 2012 21:17:32 GMT -5
Rich, your posts are always informative and enjoyable reading. (I read every dang one of 'em.) My second post was to clarify my first response to cje, which was brief - without much explanation. Thanks for both your responses. Each time you post, I learn something new. Thanks, Phil. (I think. And each time you post, I have something new to say. LOL. And by the way, this is the ONLY way I learn, so keep at it. I sort of don't think of it until somebody else brings it up, whatever it is. Hopefully, my stuff contains only a low degree of B.S.
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Post by Tom Nuckols on Oct 9, 2012 1:55:08 GMT -5
Allen, you are flashing me back to Penn State years. Julius Epstein (co-writer of Casablanca with his brother) was an alumnus of ours and would return annually for Homecoming Weekend. We would have long wonderful round tables with him in the film department, and he told us the story of how he and his brother finally came up with the ending of the movie in the car on the way to the studio the morning they were to film it!!! Can't remember now which of them came up with it, but the line just popped out of his mouth and they immediately agreed on, "Round up the usual suspects." And now it is Cinema history. Six of AFI's top 100 movie quotes of all time are from Casablanca. Far more than any other movie: www.afi.com/100years/quotes.aspxIronically, Epstein was one of the suspects rounded up by the powers-that-be a few years later. Jack Warner, head of Warner Bros., gave Epstein's name to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. When asked if he was a member of a "subversive organization," Epstein replied "Yes, Warner Bros."
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Post by Allen Wiener on Oct 9, 2012 9:07:17 GMT -5
I'd never heard that one, Tom. That's really hilarious!
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Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 10, 2012 2:21:23 GMT -5
Allen, you are flashing me back to Penn State years. Julius Epstein (co-writer of Casablanca with his brother) was an alumnus of ours and would return annually for Homecoming Weekend. We would have long wonderful round tables with him in the film department, and he told us the story of how he and his brother finally came up with the ending of the movie in the car on the way to the studio the morning they were to film it!!! Can't remember now which of them came up with it, but the line just popped out of his mouth and they immediately agreed on, "Round up the usual suspects." And now it is Cinema history. Six of AFI's top 100 movie quotes of all time are from Casablanca. Far more than any other movie: www.afi.com/100years/quotes.aspxIronically, Epstein was one of the suspects rounded up by the powers-that-be a few years later. Jack Warner, head of Warner Bros., gave Epstein's name to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. When asked if he was a member of a "subversive organization," Epstein replied "Yes, Warner Bros." I had forgotten that. Yes. He even told us that. I think he said he was "one of the dirty nine." Does that make sense to anybody? I know Dalton Trumbo was another, and was ushered back into the industry by Kirk Douglas, who refused to give him a pseudonym as screenwriter for Spartacus in the credits.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Oct 10, 2012 8:28:33 GMT -5
I just read Douglas' new book "I Am Spartacus," which goes into that in detail and is a terrific read in any case. Well written book that gives a great inside look at Hollywood at the time and the usually hidden side of film making. Douglas is a good writer, by the way. His autobiography, "The Rag Man's Son," is the best, most honest and unvarnished Hollywood autobio I've ever read. Douglas pulls no punches and spares no one, least of all himself. He's also written some good novels. Who says there are no second acts in America?
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Post by Rich Curilla on Nov 26, 2013 1:50:29 GMT -5
[This post was deleted by me because it was a caption to a photo that I removed.
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