Wow, Scout, I'm sorry I missed reading your erotic dream about Julia.  Have you ever seen Satan in High Heels?  Grayson Hall proved in that just how erotic she could be.  Those cat-like smiles of hers were pretty incredible.

Then, there's her cameo in End of the Road, where in the role of sex-starved "spinster" Peggie she makes out like a bandit with Stacey Keach, clawing at him and frantically licking his chest!  There's a magazine interview at the time where she comments something along the lines of "I defy anyone to say I'm a dyke after they see End of the Road!" (she wasn't quite that blunt about it, but I don't have time right now to go look up the actual quote).

The most vivid dreams I had about DS were back when I was a kid and I dreamt a couple of times about living at Collinwood.  In more recent years, whenever I've spent time working intensively on my Grayson Hall project, I've had dreams where I visit Grayson or she visits me and we discuss her career and her interests.

The Frid-tones--LOVE it!  You know he went to Yale ... that sounds just like one of those endless Yale glee clubs (the Whiffenpoofs are just the tip of the iceberg, darling).

Best,  Steve

Dear Criseyde, thank you for sharing the news about Mr. Selby's work on Lincoln & James/Better Angels.

I wish the play could be filmed for presentation on Great Performances (the PBS series).  Its message is more timely than ever, and it should be seen by all Americans, in my opinion.

In an era when taping a US flag to any spare surface and adding some slogan to it passes for patriotism, it is inspiring to see an actor give so much of himself to put forward the kind of vision that is what our country was supposed to foster, or so one would gather from reading the documents left by the people who were on the spot back in the 18th century.

In other news, I wonder whether the science fiction film Mr. S did back in the 70s will ever see the light of home video/DVD?

I'm still looking for at least one photo of Mr. S with Grayson Hall in the play they did at Manhatten Theatre Club together back in the 70s, Ribcage--he must have liked it because he did several other productions of it besides the one with Grayson.

Best wishes,

Steve

Mame is one of my favorite musicals (i. e. it is one of the few whose songs I can actually bear listening to more than once in a given day, week or year) and I look forward to hearing reviews of David's work in this.  I wouldn't have envisioned him as Beau--not a very substantial role for him and not at all his type, but I'm sure he'll put a special spin on it.  He'll definitely infuse the role with his own fabulous courtly charm.

I cherish the memory of seeing him as Lincoln in that wonderful play at the DS Festival some years back.  What a great role for him, and he played it beautifully.  It may be the best thing he's ever done, of the work I have seen of his, certainly.

Steve

Oh yes, the classic film for which JF wasn't paid for years on end ... and the crazed director had Martine Beswick parading about on a carpet of broken glass...

Gothy

Joan Bennett

I think Liz, the original characterization of Liz from 1966, was her best work on the series.  A runner-up is Judith Collins in 1897, a marvelous, layered performance from Bennett (and although you have to wait a LONG time for the payoff in the character's storyline, the denouement is fabulous).

John Karlen
Again, I thought the original Willie Loomis in 1967 was fabulous, subtle work.  There was an undertone of bruised sexuality, especially in the character's scenes with mad Maggie, that was remarkable given the often poorly composed scripts.  My runner-up here would be William Loomis in PT 1970.  Johnny Karlen is always wonderful to watch no matter what the role.

Nancy Barrett

Gawd, how do you choose.  Grayson Hall claimed that Nancy Barrett was the best actress on the show, and I think she was right.  There are just so many marvelous moments in every characterization.  Possessed Charity was wonderful because she was just so outrageous.  The portrait of the half-mad Carolyn in 1995 may have been her most remarkable work because it was so subtle and believable.

Louis Edmonds

Without a doubt, 1966 Roger.  Debonair, arrogant, suave and utterly vicious.

Thayer David

Petofi for acting ... Prof. Stokes is my heart's favorite though.  Also LOVE his work as drunken mad genius Tim Stokes in PT1970.  I feel true awe when watching any performance by Thayer David.  

Kathryn Leigh Scott

I think Lady Kitty Hampshire/Soames was the best work she did on the series.  She did some fine work in the original Maggie characterization of 1966 ... too bad they didn't keep the Eve Arden bits in.  I thought she was hauntingly vulnerable portraying Maggie's mental distintegration while a prisoner of Barnabas Collins in 1967.

Grayson Hall

Magda was her personal favorite,and unquestionably some of her finest work on the series, but I give top marks to the PT Hoffman characterization because she was so marvelously focused, clear, and poised in that work.  Particularly her first week's episodes--simply divine.  My sentimental favorite will always be Julia, of course.

Hmmm, I could think of some exciting situations involving Quentin and Desmond, those daredevil Collins boys with an attitude.  But I suspect the readership of such redactions would be rather ... recherche.

Back to the curio cabinet for

Gothick

Couple of thoughts about this week's episodes ...

So far as I know, they were the first episodes Dan Curtis actually directed on the show, so he was probably leaning even more heavily on the writers to have the plot go a certain way.

I also think they were giving viewers who had joined  the show during 1968 (the series got a tremendous ratings boost through that year) to get a glimpse of where Barnabas came from with this glimpse of 1796.  I know that back in the day it was an exciting week of shows for me because I had not been watching during the original 1795 storyline.

Warren Oddson's theories about the DS storylines are kind of like Platonic astronomers who kept adding more epicycles to their models of the Kosmos as they sought to give an orderly aetiology for an ever growing list of observed anomalies.  One has to admire the ingenuity with which he attempts to make sense of entire plot developments that underline the plain fact that DS is an out and out fantasy that has no relationship to the real world.

Gothick

I think it would have been just grand to have brought Count Petofi back.  He was so fascinating because of all his eccentricities, plus the fact that his own powers were constantly misfiring in unexpected ways.

Besides Thayer David's amazing strength in the role, the redoubtable Count's return might have lured Violet Welles back to the show.  (She did return for the last few weeks of PT 1841, when her scripts were credited to Gordon Russell.)

I don't see why they couldn't have had a couple of scenes of Petofi and Stokes onscreen together.  They managed this sort of thing fairly smoothly (by the standards of the time) for the 1970 PT storyline.

Gothick