Uvalde, Texas

Grand Opera House, c. 1891



The Kincaid Hotel, c. 1927


Uvalde County Courthouse, Texas Renaissance style, c. 1927




Without little churches such as this one, or struggling antique dealers, so many old, single screen theaters would be in worse shape, if not demolished. This one was once called the El Lasso Theater.

Autograph corral

My first, stumbling (in hindsite embarassing) attempts at blogging were devoted to the few autographs I received when I was 11-13. I wanted to be a "blogger," but wasn't sure what it was I would "blog," exactly. My autographs were exclusively mine, so I thought that would be a good start. Nowhere else on the Web could they be found(!). Isn't that what it means to blog -- present something that is unique enough to merit visitors? So EBIN began with these:

A treasure. It is framed and hanging on a wall. I apparently sent Gene Roddenberry a drawing I'd done (no doubt of the Enterprise), and poured out my 11-year-old's love for his creation onto my Star Trek stationary. How cool is it to have Gene Roddenberry wish someone luck in the future. Alas, "the future" has not meant being Captain Kirk......I've always wondered why my last name (Adams) was left off of the inside address. Perhaps my handwriting was illegible when I wrote it. Either way, surely he recognized that my first and middle names were the names of the first two (other than Captain Robert April) captains of the Enterprise -- Christopher Pike and James T. Kirk. I have so much love for Roddenberry because he did this:


When I was around 12, I began I hobby where I'd cut pictures out of magazines like Starlog, and mail them in a S.A.S.E. to the person pictured with a request for an autograph. Most would respond with something like this from Anthony Daniels. This is a picture from The Empire Strikes Back, so I received it around 1980:


The imprints and holes caused by the tacks I used to pin this one on a wall in my room are evident on my Billy Dee Williams:


I seem to recall sending Dave Prowse a picture I'd cut out of Darth Vader, but this was just as good(!):


Harrison Ford paused for a moment while making either Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) or Blade Runner (1982), presumably, to do this for me:


Finally, my Christopher Reeve:

"Can You Read My Mind"

From the Wikipedia entry:

"Can You Read My Mind" is the love theme from the 1978 film Superman (the day I bought my ticket, it was called Superman: The Movie), with music by John Williams and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.

The music is a theme for Lois Lane, played in Superman by Margot Kidder. It was originally recorded as a pop-influenced piece, but as that original version would have dated the picture, a more orchestrated and timeless version was done for the final film.


It has been said that either Karen Carpenter (The Carpenters) or Toni Tennille (Captain and Tennille) were originally considered to perform the vocal, but there is no existing proof that either one actually did it. What is known is that the producers of Superman tried to get Margot Kidder herself to actually sing it, but, according to Richard Donner's commentary track for the Superman DVD, "it didn't sound right." So it was decided that Kidder would just recite the lyrics, and this vocal track is what was used for the final film version.

Shortly after the film's release, Maureen McGovern recorded the song proper for the hit single version, which incidentally did not appear in the film.


my Christopher Reeve autograph, circa 1980
And why not, here's the opening credits sequence to Superman: The Movie (it does include the "love theme"):

The Fontainebleau Hotel

pic from
From the Wikipedia entry (any small, bold text):

The Fontainebleau Hotel is one of the most historically and architecturally significant hotels on Miami Beach. Built in 1954 and designed by Morris Lapidus, it was considered the most luxurious hotel on Miami Beach at the time of its opening and for a long time after that, and is also thought to be the most significant building in Lapidus's career.

According to this Lapidus biography:

"By the early 50s he had developed a bunch of principles that he called theories:

* Get rid of corners
* Use sweeping lines
* Use light to create unusual effects
* Use plenty of color
* Try to get drama
* Keep changing the floor levels
* People are attracted to light (The Moth Complex)"

In his 1996 autobiography Too Much Is Never Enough, Lapidus wrote that if: "American taste was being influenced by the greatest mass media of entertainment of that time, the movies.... So I designed a movie set!" Lapidus conceived of the ideas for the hotel each morning as he took a subway from Flatbush to his office in Manhattan.

1954 construction
The Fontainebleau was the setting for Jerry Lewis's comedy film, The Bellboy (1960).


The main street in this shot is Collins Avenue. Indian Creek is a block over, to the right. There are shots in Tony Rome (1967) that appear to have been done from the same room, the view is so similar. That scene in the day:





the lobby
huge conference/convention space



Inside and outside the lobby entrance:


Miscellaneous interiors:




out by the pool and cabanas:

night and day:


It (The Fontainebleau Hotel) was also featured in the James Bond movie Goldfinger (1964), most notably in the sweeping aerial shot that follows the opening credits and accompanies composer John Barry's big-band track "Into Miami" (so awesome):


"Just here?" Gotta love that.





The hotel was used in several scenes in one of my favorites, Tony Rome (1967):



This is the shot I think is so similar to one in The Bellboy. It's as if filming on both was done in the same room. If this was the case, perhaps that room offered the best view of Miami Beach and Collins Avenue.

The hotel, predominantly the pool area, was featured in the 1983 film Scarface. Other movies filmed there include Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, The Specialist and Bodyguard.