Virtual Postcard from North Carolina- USS North Carolina

As the Democratic National Convention gets ready to start in Charlotte, NC, we thought we'd offer a Virtual Postcard from North Carolina, which is also where 'our headquarters' are located.

This image is of the U.S.S. North Carolina, which is docked in Wilmington, NC, and is now a tourist attraction. Many feature films have been shot in the Wilmington area, including the 1980s cult classic "Blue Velvet" and the Stephen King film "Maximum Overdrive."

The battleship was built in 1937 and it took part in the Pacific Theatre of Operations in World War II; the Carolina is the most decorated battleship of its era and it has 15 battle stars.

http://www.battleshipnc.com/

The Rabbitt Ears Quiz (11 of 12)_ Hogan's Heroes

In hind sight, our blog series on "Dead or Alive" which ran on here a while back (and, yes, it was my idea) may not have been as brilliant as we thought it was. One of the things we feared was that one of the subjects might actually die between the time we posted the entry and revealed the answer.

So, while Topol of "Fiddler on the Roof" is still alive and well (to our knowledge), we regret to inform those of you may have been in a cave in Tajikistan for the last month that one of other subjects Richard Dawson (1932-2012), whom we reported as being alive, died at age 79 on June 2nd.

But, in Dawson's honor, we are posting an entry to the sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" where he starred Peter Newkirk. Dawson was an actor before becoming a game show host on the long-running "Family Feud," where he would frequently kiss female contestants.

"Hogan's Heroes," the only sitcom ever set in a Nazi POW camp, starred Bob Crane (1928-1978), who died from a still unresolved murder in 1978, as Col. Hogan. And, much has been made of Crane's dubious personal life, which was the subject of the film "Auto Focus" (2002), which starred Greg Kinnear as Crane.

In real life, Crane was married to actress Sigrid Valdis (1935-2007) who played the now politically incorrect character Hilda.

The show's successful run from 1965-71 can also be attributed to the lovable antagonists, such as Col. Klink (to the right of Hogan) who was played by the late Werner Klemperer, who was ironically known for his serious roles before being on the sitcom. And, the late John Banner played Sgt. Schultz (to the right of Hogan).

So, today, we are simply asking just how many episodes were there to "Hogan's Heroes." Is the answer:

A) 157

B) 168

C) 177

D) 181

Program Alert- "The Dirty Dozen "on TCM, Sunday at Noon

As we have previously professed on our blogs, we are huge admirers of the late character actor Lee Marvin, who won a Best Actor Oscar for "Cat Ballou" in 1965. He is one of many great novelty screen legends in the epic action film "The Dirty Dozen" (1967. d-Robert Aldrich). Some of the other actors in the flick are Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine, Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes, Donald Sutherland, Jim Brown and George Kennedy. Of those actors, Borgnine (well at last report), Kennedy, Brown and Sutherland were still alive. We weren't sure about Kennedy until I saw on the IMDB that he is alive at age 85 though he has not supposedly made a film in a long time. Alas, the others are not.

I recently saw Marvin and Cassavetes in the second version of "The Killers" (1964, d-Don Siegel) which is best known as Ronald Reagan's last film role (he played a mob boss who slaps Angie Dickinson across the face.) Marvin also co-starred with Bronson in several films, including the early eighties novelty film "Death Hunt," which is still not available on Netflix!

"The Dirty Dozen" airs Sunday at noon on TCM, and it is one of several war films that the network is showing for Memorial Day weekend.

According to the IMDB, John Wayne was originally offered Marvin's role (Maj. John Reisman), but he turned it down to star and direct in his pro-Vietnam War film "The Green Berets."

Marvin himself liked "The Big Red One" (1980) which was directed by his good friend Sam Fuller as he said it better reflected his own war experiences, which he saw as both difficult and disturbing. Marvin, who was (perhaps surprisingly given his tough guy image) a political liberal, also publicly expressed reservations about how "The Dirty Dozen" glorified war.

Like Marvin, Savalas, Bronson and Borgnine all served in World War II.

Jack Palance actually turned down the Savalas role because of all the violence in "The Dirty Dozen."

Sutherland was a late addition to the cast, and his role in the film lead to him being cast in Robert Altman's vintage film "MASH" (1970) which was certainly not a pro-war film!

Special Quote of the Day- Frank Capra

Today in honor of Veteran's Day, we are quoting two filmmakers who served in World War II. Both were generations apart and they had different views of the world, but undoubtedly both Robert Altman and Frank Capra (who will be quoted here) had a tremendosu impact on film.

The quote from Altman can be found on our sister blog "The Daily Vampire."

My late grandfather Donald Sullivan also served during WW II.

Here is the quote from the director of "It's a Wonderful Life:"

"Film is one of the three universal languages, the other two: mathematics and science."