Mary Pickford at Bruno Walter Auditorium

An attractive image of Mary Pickford on Lincoln Center's Summer 2014 Silent Screenings at the world famous Bruno Walter Auditorium.

This summer's films include:

Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921)
Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918)
July 12, 2014: A Little Princess 1912 with School Teacher and the Waif (1912) and Love Among the Roses (1910)
August 2: Stella Maris (1918) with The Englishman and the Girl (1910) and The Dream (1911)

Films screen 2:30 p.m.

"Mary Pickford knows more about the business than any o us." D.W. Griffith

"There have been hundreds of stars, there have been scores of fine actresses in motion pictures. There has been only one Mary Pickford." Cecil B. DeMille.

Note: Stella Maris, according to Pickford historians, is her greatest dramatic role.

Colleen Moore, Joe Yule, Jr. and Lillian Gish

Here is an image from the archive on a Midwest appearance by Colleen Moore for her 1927 film "Orchids  and Ermine." She had a great look and super nice lifelong personality. This appearance was late 1970s. She was a longtime friend of Lillian and died in 1988.

This film is memorable due to her co-star Joe Yule, Jr. who later changed his name to Mickey Rooney.


James Patterson
LDGish.blogspot editor

James G. Patterson Remembered at St. Bart's

 

 

 

At the 11 am service June 29, the congregation at St. Bart's remembered late Alabama National Guardsman James G. Patterson for his service at Selma in March 1965.

 

 

 

Altar at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church Park Avenue.

 

Sunday, June 29, 2014 program at St. Bart's.

 

After the service, St. Bart's LGBT fellowship met for lunch at rooftop patio. Later, we joined other Episcopal parishes to march in New York's LGBT Pride parade. It was a warm day with many memories.

 

Of course, it was Lillian who first brought me to St. Bart's in the 1970s.

LDGish Editor James Patterson at the Reagan Library

LDGish editor James Patterson at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. June 2014. Harvey Milk stamped envelope to the Jesse Helms Center in North Carolina postmarked Reagan Library and Museum.

 

LDGish editor James Patterson with 10,000 Jelly Belly jellybean portrait of President Ronald Reagan, Air Force One Pavilion, Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Simi Valley, June 2014. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of President Reagan's death. Story is Regan used Jelly Belly jellybeans to kick his smoking habit. You can buy Jelly Belly jellybeans in the Pavilion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

LDGish editor James Patterson boarding Marine One at the Air Force One Pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Simi Valley, California. June 2014. You can buy expensive packages of these photos, taken by a vendor, or buy just one photo and iPhone it yourself to blogs, Facebook, etc.

 

Lillian, of course, was a longtime friend of the Davis family and President and Mrs. Reagan. Nancy's handwriting is beyond me. We have images from our files to upload so you can see for yourself how poor Nancy's handwriting was. I don't know how Lillian ever read it!

James Patterson filming Selma June 14, 2014

 

In character as "press type" scenes 45, 46, 47, at a news conference by Gov. George C. Wallace (Tim Roth) on the Montgomery (Alabama ) Capitol steps in late February 1965. The front of the Georgia Academy of Medicine was standin for Montgomery Capitol. Erie to see the Confederate Battle Flag hoisted behind "Wallace."

 

Originally, I was to be an Alabama National Guard CO addressing a young Guardsman as James G. Patterson, my late father who served at Selma at age 31 50 years ago. That fell through. I was offered a part as a Southern Senator and I declined as they were all racists. I was then offer a role as a "liberal Northern Senator" and I accepted. When I arrived at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport I learned my part was as a "press type." and I would stand a few feet away from Wallace (Roth) as he delivered a speech against the Selma to Montgomery march.

 

When a huge 1965 vintage camera was thrust at me, I declined it and took a reporter's table to be a print journalist. I did not want the huge handheld camera to hide my photogenic face. I did not wear a hat during filming. The assembled crowd behind the journalists mostly men wore the vintage hats. They were directed to applaud and nod their heads affirmatively in response to Wallace's hate speech. "Press types" with cameras and tablets were unable to applaud and nod which was fine with me.

 

My final email instructions stated if I brought iPhone or any recording device to wardrobe or to the closed set, I would be immediately fired even though I had a signed contract. I left my iPhone at my GSU temporary office. When I arrived at wardrobe, others were tweeting, imaging and posting furiously. Likewise at the afterparty. I got no image of Roth or the great Tom Wilkinson as LBJ. We are planning to do more scenes and publicity. The pay was fabulous! Thank you Oprah Winfrey and the Alabama Film Commission.

 

This role was a "silent" part. I carried an article on The Birth of a Nation by Lillian dated 1937 and a 1982 note from her in my coat pocket. Her signed image was on my flash drive, also in my pocket.

James Patterson and Selma

Atlanta, GA June 12, 2014

I am filming a scene in the Oprah Winfrey production "Selma." The part came from the Alabama Film Commission and the Office of the Governor.

My late father, James G. Patterson, served in the Alabama National Guard at Selma 50 years ago in March 1965. Dad served at the third and successful march from Selma to Montgomery. He told me it was more dangerous than his service in Korea.

It was a tense time. Neighborhood racists threatened to burn our house if Dad "took his orders from Washington" to protect the civil rights marchers. My late grandfather, Sam Johnson, came to our house and played non-stop solitaire, two decks of cards, on the kitchen table with his shotgun across his lap until the march was the over and Dad was home. Sure, Grandpa Sam believed in prayer and he also believed in is shotgun. It was a lawless time and our town of about 4,000 had only one sheriff.

As you all know, I am a longtime member of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and a Life Member of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, California. My role in "Selma," which shoots Saturday in Atlanta, is a "silent" part.

In the film, I am a "press type" at a Montgomery press conference held by Governor George C. Wallace. For the uninitiated, Wallace did not approve of the march led by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11207 ordering Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to federalize the Alabama National Guard for as long as it took to get the marchers to Montgomery. The Klan was silent during the day but struck on US Highway 80 between Montgomery and Selma that night.

In my pocket, I will be carrying my dad's National Guard papers from 1965 and his photo with Alabama Governor Bentley's March 2014 Commendation too hm.