Hard to believe, but it is thirty years to the day that I first sat in the Galvez Mall movie theater (now gone - the mall and theater) and marveled at The Empire Strikes Back. Although I was twelve years old that distant summer (12 years old seems so much older today), a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was completely into it. Darth Vader was still frightening and evil, and amazingly, nobody knew he was Luke Skywalker's father. A secret like that wouldn't have survived today.
And naively, innocently, I clearly remember walking out of the theater thinking somehow, Han Solo was really frozen in carbomite and in the hands of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Empire had a profound impact on me, and it is still the movie I say is my favorite film of all time if ever asked...I am not ashamed to admit (perhaps I should be) that the cliffhanger ending still gets me choked up. It's just so beautiful and poignant! Perhaps it's just John Williams' musical score, but I doubt any film will ever so affect me again.
At the Cannes Film Palace in 1956 where she attended the presentation of Yield to the Night
Diana Dors was born on October 23, 1931, in Swindon, England. Her birthname was Diana Mary Fluck, of which she is quoted as saying: "They asked me to change my name. I suppose they were afraid that if my real name Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew..." She died on May 4, 1984, in Windsor, England, from ovarian cancer.
She was England's first homegrown sex symbol, and she would come to be known as "The English Marilyn Monroe." Dors was trained at The Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (RAMDA) and appeared on stage while still a young girl. She married three times, including once to Richard Dawson from 1959 to 1966.
In addition to appearing in films and on television, Dors made a few musical recordings, the most notable being her 1960 Columbia Records album, the cleverly titled Swinging Dors. One of the best known tunes from it was the wonderfully cheesy "Roller Coaster Blues."
Dors was paid a high compliment in 1967 when The Beatles chose to put her image on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band among the Fab Four's other pop cultural influences and heroes.
Dors appeared as the "Fairy Godmother" in the Adam Ant music video for "Prince Charming" in 1981:
Ray Davies wrote a tribute to Dors after she died for The Kinks' 1984 album, Word of Mouth:
"News of the world, tea and biscuits in bed.
The headlines said that Diana is dead.
She couldn’t act much but she put on a show.
She always smiled even when she felt low.
I used to fancy her a long time ago."
She is on the cover of The Smiths' 1995 compilation album, Singles.
"Blame It on My Youth" is a jazz standard written by Oscar Levant and Edward Heyman in 1934. Frank Sinatra recorded a version in 1957 on the Close to You album, accompanied by pal Felix Slatkin and his Hollywood String Quartet. Although it's a mellow ballad similar to the things he recorded during his youthful, Columbia days, you can hear the crooner's years (just having turned 41) beginning to catch up with him here, when during the first time he sings "my" (as in blame it on my youth), his voice crackles just a bit due to the years of smoking and late nights. Often while performing on stage or in the recording studio, he would insert little jokes like "I think I swallowed a shot glass" or "Why'd I sleep in the pool?" if his voice faltered.
This is band leader Ray Anthony doing a really nice version of a Luiz Bonfá (of Black Orpheus fame) tune entitled "Samba de Orfeu." Anthony's version was recorded in 1966 and was originally released on an album called Hit Songs to Remember. What I can't get over is how nice (crystal clear) it sounds, particularly the violins, which seem to lift the song any time they enter. Do you remember those "Calgon, take me away" commercials? Well, this is the musical equivalent for me:
Anthony and a couple of Vegas dolls, circa mid-60s (pic source)
This place was built in 1907 and is Queen Anne Victorian style. The window up in the pediment is what makes it a Queen Anne. Nacogdoches architect Diedrich Rulfs supposedly built/designed something in Crockett. This home, the Old Denny House, reminds me a little of things like the Haden Edwards House. It may be the one-story porch across the front.
That Texas Historical Commission medallion for the the Queen Anne Victorian style Spence-Chamberlain House says:
"This house was built by teacher and lawyer John Spence and his wife Adele, also a teacher, about 1870. John died in 1879, and in 1891 Adele sold the house to druggist B. Frank Chamberlain and his wife Una. Sometime prior to 1920 the Chamberlains attached a kitchen to the house and added bay windows. The house exhibits a foursquare configuration with symmetrical windows and center dormer on a pyramidal roof. It remained in the Chamberlain family until 1978."
Hard to believe, but it is thirty years to the day that I first sat in the Galvez Mall movie theater (now gone - the mall and theater) and marveled at The Empire Strikes Back. Although I was twelve years old that distant summer (12 years old seems so much older today), a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was completely into it. Darth Vader was still frightening and evil, and amazingly, nobody knew he was Luke Skywalker's father. A secret like that wouldn't have survived today. 
And naively, innocently, I clearly remember walking out of the theater thinking somehow, Han Solo was really frozen in carbomite and in the hands of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Empire had a profound impact on me, and it is still the movie I say is my favorite film of all time if ever asked...I am not ashamed to admit (perhaps I should be) that the cliffhanger ending still gets me choked up. It's just so beautiful and poignant! Perhaps it's just John Williams' musical score, but I doubt any film will ever so affect me again.
