Lulu in Boca Raton, Fla. By Paul Goldfinger ©
FATS WALLER:
Archive for the ‘Music from the movies’ Category
Boca Baby: Lulu’s back in town.
Posted in Florida connection, Music from the movies, tagged Boca Baby on May 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »
The Nous Theatre in Blairstown. By Anna Murphey, “Sometime” Ocean Grover
Posted in Guest photographer, Music from the movies, Photographic Gallery, Color, tagged Anna Murphey, Music from Jack Goes Boating, NJ, photojournalist shares her work, The Nous theatre in Blairstown on April 4, 2018| 1 Comment »
By Anna Murphey. 2010. Last posted here in 2013.
DAVE’S TRUE STORY. “Blue Moon.” From the movie Jack Goes Boating:
Anna is a sometime Ocean Grover and a fan of Blogfinger. She is a retired photojournalist who responded to our offer to submit her work to us. Of this image, she said, “I am including a photo I took at the Nous Theater, Blairstown,on opening night, looking down the hall toward the lobby, with brilliant orange and reds accented with deep blue drawing patrons through the theater . The colors struck me and I love the almost painterly quality of the photo.”
We think it is wonderful also, with its strong use of colors and perspective. We hope to post some more of Anna’s work.
Thank you, Anna.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Paris, Left Bank
Posted in Music from the movies, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, tagged Music: Parlez moi d'Amour, Photo: Paris left bank on March 29, 2018| Leave a Comment »
SOUNDTRACK. From the film “Midnight in Paris” (Woody Allen 2011). Dana Boulé: “Parlez moi d’Amour” (Speak to me of love)
Sweet Lorraine: “A pair of eyes that are brighter than the summer skies”
Posted in Blogfinger News, Music from the movies, Theatre and movie reviews, tagged Sweet Lorraine, Tin Men by Barry Levinson on March 6, 2018| 9 Comments »
By Paul Goldfinger MD, Editor @ Blogfinger.net. Re-posted.
Barry Levinson (b. 1942) is a film director known for his work featuring the city of Baltimore. I’ve always loved his movies, especially “Diner” and “Avalon. ” He also directed “Good Morning Vietnam” and “Rain Man.”
In 1987 he made the third in his Baltimore series—“Tin Men” starring Danny DeVito (a Jersey guy born in Neptune Township,) Richard Dreyfuss, and Barbara Hershey.
Danny DeVito on the Asbury beach July 29, 2002 during the Springsteen launch of “The Rising.” Paul Goldfinger photo. © Blogfinger.net
The film, set in 1962, is about the con-men who sell aluminum siding door-to-door in Baltimore. The characters and dialogue are wonderful including several scenes with the guys sitting in a diner discussing television, gambling, women, money and their adventures as tin men. It features a soundtrack from the 1960’s including our song below by the Nat King Cole Trio, recorded in 1940.
“Sweet Lorraine” is a jazz classic written in 1928. There have been several hit versions, and the Cole Trio rendition is the one featured in “Tin Men.”
Here it is:
I think that “Sweet Lorraine” is one of the best musical tributes written as a paean to a woman with a particular name. I found a list of 200 songs that contain a woman’s name in the title. These are the ones that have Sweet——: Lorraine, Mary, Melissa, Annette, Caroline, Virginia and Adeline.
But here is my list of favorite songs with a woman’s name in the title: (feel free to add your favorites:)
1. Judy is a Punk
2. Jennie From the Block
3. Wake Up Little Susie
4. Song for Myla Goldberg
5. Patricia the Stripper
6. Help Me Rhonda
7. Long Tall Sally
8. Lonesome Suzie
9. Christine Sixteen
10. Believe Me, Natalie
11.Run Around Sue
12. Donna and Blitzen
13. Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter
14. And finally my favorite: Don’t Walk Away Eileen
Here comes the bride: Everyone says I love you at the beach.
Posted in Music from the movies, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, tagged MUSIC. John Pizzarelli, Photos: Wedding on the AP boards on February 10, 2018| Leave a Comment »
The biker and the bride: Asbury Park boardwalk. September 14, 2012. Photos by Paul Goldfinger © Reposted from Sept. 2012.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor@ Blogfinger.net.
Speaking of bike riding, this guy in Asbury Park was following the white line all the way, not distracted by the events to the left or the right. Personally, I would have stopped and taken a picture. Uh…. actually, that is what I did, but I was walking. The bike rider was illegal at that time of day, while the wedding party was OK.
One time I walked onto the OG beach to watch and photograph a wedding party that was having a photo shoot by the jetty near the pier. The father of the bride came down from the pier to yell at me for taking pictures. I pointed out to him that they were in a public place, so I had every right to take pictures.
He was really mad, and, for me it wasn’t worth having my Leica digital camera tossed into the Atlantic Ocean, so I gave up being a wedding photographer that day. After all, it is sort of trite. But who can resist a wedding, especially when it is on the beach or inside the Casino or on the boardwalk? —-not me, but the biker? He seems immune to the distraction. —Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
Flower girl. She stole the show. ©
Convention Hall Arcade © Paul Goldfinger photo. click on image to enlarge.
SOUNDTRACK: It’s Ed Norton from “Everyone Says I Love You:”
The Aurora is for sale. $3,750,000 (2013). $2,013,750 (2017) What will the next owner do with the property?
Posted in Feature article, Music from the movies, tagged Aurora Hotel for sale in Ocean Grove on January 23, 2018| 13 Comments »
January 23, 2018. This article was posted 4 months ago and is relevant today because of the latest news. Read it for background.
The Aurora in Ocean Grove. 6 Atlantic Avenue. Internet photo.
Aerial view of the Aurora. Source: Zillow
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger (updated post from 2013)
The Aurora on Atlantic Avenue in Ocean Grove, NJ is listed as a single family home. It sits on 4 lots with ocean views from 3 levels (and the top.) The house is still for sale—since 2013.
Built in 1884 , the Aurora has a garage and room to park several cars (or maybe two Bentleys).
This grand old hotel is considered a major Victorian historic treasure even when compared to the rest of the country (per historian Ted Bell.) It became even more renowned when the current owner converted it to a single family house. It cannot be changed back into a hotel. If you buy it, you will need a few more bathrooms. We are told that it needs a lot of work inside.
The Aurora Hotel when it was a hotel. They say that Broadway celebrities liked to stay there. (Source–Zillow)
The Aurora is perfect for the man who has everything, including more than one wife; or a playboy with lots of playmates. And, in case you are wondering if there is enough room, the Aurora also has a finished basement.
So, even though the price has been reduced substantially and seems to be a relative bargain, the issue is what can a buyer do with it? The current owner purchased the property because he wanted room for his large family, but 30 bedrooms? That would be one bathroom for 6 bedrooms, which has the potential for some family warfare.
So what would a new owner do with this huge property?
Other uses, besides a single family house, are technically prohibited because of zoning, including a hotel, a drug rehabilitation facility, a casino, a brothel, a frat house, a dormitory for Yeshiva students, a rooming house for Camp Meeting religious tourists, a multi-family condominium, a school, or a rooming house. You cannot rent rooms in Ocean Grove—so Airbnb is out. And there is no parking for more than 4 cars.
Of course, creative zoning without on-site parking is part of the Ocean Grove/Neptuner culture. How about Mary’s Place where two single family houses were supposed to go? It is now a spa/respite shelter for female cancer victims. It is officially a single family house with 10 bedrooms.
The Mary’s Place precedent might work for the Aurora. Turn that into a shelter for some victim group. The Neptune Zoning Department has proven itself to be very creative under Bernie Haney. They were the ones who found a solution for Mary’s Place, not the Planning Board. There’s a lot of money going into drug rehabilitation these days. Del Ray Beach in Florida is such a place.
And how about the Grand Atlantic Hotel which was turned into a home for nuns? What kind of zoning legerdemain made that happen? And what kind of zoning allowed Grove Hall to become a conference center/65 room hotel for visitors to use while attending religious based conferences?
Or consider the North End Redevelopment Plan which was supposed to consist of 25 single family Victorian style houses, but now the plans, after major zoning changes, consist of 165 residential units including condominiums, an underground garage, and a hotel.
And then there was the Surf Avenue House conversion into condominiums without parking. That hotel was officially listed as a single family house before the owner got the designation changed to “hotel” so it could go condo. And how about the the Manchester Hotel which was to go condo until it burned down.
That’s the problem with precedents. The double standards and favoritism in town create precedents. What’s to stop the Aurora buyers from tapping into the same sort of special treatment?
JERRY ORBACH:
Sorry, but spring will be a little late this year.
Posted in Music from the movies, Photography by Paul Goldfinger, tagged Music: Anita O'Day, Spring will be a little late this year on January 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Colts Neck, New Jersey. By Paul Goldfinger. 2013 ©
This song, “Spring Will be a Little Late This Year” by the great Frank Loesser was in the noir film (1944) Christmas Holiday. Another great standard by Irving Berlin was also in that film: “Always.” The actress Deanna Durbin starred in the movie and got to sing both these famous songs.
“Spring will be a little late this year
A little slow reviving that music it made in my heart
Yes, time heals all things so I needn’t cling to this fear
It’s merely that spring will be a little late, a little late this year.”
ANITA O’DAY:
A summer job with a soundtrack, just like a particular movie: Dirty Dancing
Posted in Music from the movies, tagged Love is Strange from "Dirty Dancing.", Mickey and Sylvia on January 2, 2018| 1 Comment »
In 1987 the move “Dirty Dancing” became a hit. It starred Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze. Jerry Orbach played the girl’s father, and the film takes place at a Catskill Mountain “borscht belt” resort. Jennifer plays a nice Jewish girl with a beautiful way about her. Guess what? She falls for the dance instructor.
I loved this movie for a bunch of reasons, but especially because I spent two summers “working” at a resort like that, and the depiction was quite accurate. Those were the best summers ever. My job at the Hotel Nemerson in South Fallsburg, New York, was on the athletic staff by day and the nightclub staff by night. All those “mountain” hotels provided a total experience where no one had to leave the grounds. They all had a professional “dance team” who gave ballroom dancing lessons in their studio by the pool and then performed at night in the club, just like the couple in the movie. Did the staff “mingle” with the guests? –you bet they did! 
Every show up there had 3 acts: a singer, a comedian and a dance team. That is why dancing was such an important component in the movie as was music. There was music all around. Each hotel had a dance/show band and a Latin band. That’s where I learned to play the claves. (sticks you bang together as part of the rhythm section of a Latin band.)
So here is one of the songs from the soundtrack. Actually it was written in the 1950’s and had been recorded by Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley before Mickey and Sylvia got hold of it for this movie. It has a unique feature: a conversation in the middle of the song. Here are Mickey and Sylvia with “Love is Strange.” —-Paul
Going to the movies—Do you remember?
Posted in Music from the movies, Photographic Gallery, Black and White, Photography by Paul Goldfinger, Photography in America, tagged Billie Holiday on Blogfinger, Strand Theatre Oak Bluffs on November 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »
The Strand Theatre. Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard. c. 1997. By Paul Goldfinger © (reposted from 2014 on Blogfinger–and updated.) Tri-X Collection.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
We recently ran a post regarding the Ocean Grove North End’s Strand movie house which no longer exists. Some years ago I visited Oak Bluffs in Martha’s Vineyard where the Strand theatre there, a historic site, was still functioning. Oak Bluffs is where a camp meeting ground still exists on that island. Judging from the Bruce Willis film, the photo is from 1997.
The Strand Theatre in Oak Bluffs was built in the 1920’s and closed around 2010. After that it became a bicycle rental shop. But in 2015, the Martha’s Vineyard Theater Foundation raised money to reopen the Strand for movies.
Movies can seem so real and important, so the MV community made sure that their cinema was brought back to life. Back when, we told our kids, “It’s only a movie.” But the magic of movies draws you in.
Try to stay disengaged if you see “Captain Phillips” with Tom Hanks.
Seen any good movies lately ? Tell us if you have. Comment below.
Oh, do sad movies make you cry? Sue Thompson says, “Yes.” See below.
MERLE HAGGARD:
SUE THOMPSON:
“Something Wonderful” from the Broadway stage. Reposted from 2014 Blogfinger.
Posted in Music from the Broadway stage., Music from the movies, tagged Music from the King and I on October 18, 2017| 7 Comments »
By Paul Goldfinger, music editor @Blogfinger
“Something Wonderful” is from The King and I. Carly Simon has a YouTube video where she addresses the women in the audience and asks them to think of these lyrics when they are upset with their man. Carly says this song is one of the most beautiful ever written. It was composed by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
This version is performed by Peggy Lee. She is a popular singer who is not particularly known for this song, but her repertoire has been wide ranging. Listen for the strong bass parts towards the end which add drama and are probably by the trombone section . Also there is a soft oriental gong at the very end–a tip of the hat to The King and I.
Peggy Lee
