#Town & Country Planning Act 1947

[houseboatisland]

Operation Nestled Dragon

Even before the passage of its iconic Transport Act 1947, the first Attlee ministry had been laying the groundwork for what we would today call a strategic steam reserve. Operation Nestled Dragon, which went into effect as early as December 1945, called for “at least 4,000” steam locomotives to be stored and kept in constant readiness in the event of “any cataclysm which could strain supply.” This was a somewhat arbitrary number; the LMS alone had 8,000 locomotives on the eve of Nationalization. It was believed that a majority of the country’s engines would survive attack during a wartime scenario, the most likely reason to activate the reserve at the time. 4,000 engines kept as a backup to unscathed stock was deemed sufficient. (It has to be said there were no strategic reserves of coaches or trucks, whether planned or even merely discussed!)

These engines and the necessary facilities would be dispersed as needed throughout the country. Bigger towns would have more engines and more MPDs (motive power depots) allocated to them, London having the most. The number of engines kept in a single “strategic MPD” was always limited to 20. In this way, an attack such as an aerial bombardment would be less likely to take out a population center’s entire locomotive stud at once.

To “activate” the reserve, the Minister of Transport was required to approach the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, and a vote be held on the matter.

Strategic MPDs could be crude or elaborate. By design they were severed from the nearest railway, so that no tracks were visible for any overcurious trespasser, potential spies or reconnaissance aircraft to follow. Every MPD had to be able to have these missing rails laid back in “within or under three hours” if called upon. Often, abandoned mines and tunnels were used and their insides fitted out. These ‘naturally-occurring’ locations were codenamed “dragon’s lairs.” Other times a location had to be built from scratch; these artificial MPDs were codenamed “rabbitholes.” Always was there emphasis on keeping the MPDs dry, ventilated and fireproof. Each MPD needed a turntable, a reliable water supply, coal bunkers, storage space for rails, sleepers, a small number of spare parts, adequate headroom and an overhead crane for heavy repairs like boiler swaps, and of course bunks for crews should the reserve be activated and they be based there. Otherwise bunkrooms were vacant, although men on duty for maintenance of stock and depots did find use for them during their shifts.

There was little methodology in place for which engine classes were preferred for the reserve. Great Western engines were less favored as they were built to run on high-quality South Welsh coal, and it was assumed the quality of coal sourced during a crisis would be poor. In any event however, some still “found their way in.” In general however, Eastern, Midland and ex-WD locos formed the majority of the workforce. Every engine belonging to the various military railways such as that at Longmoor were considered part of the reserve too, so it could be said that several pieces of the reserve’s stock were out in the open all along. Also joining their ranks as they came about were BR Standard classes, some built specifically for the reserve. These had neither BR nor serial numbers, being built “off the books.”

At first, engines reserved were simply stored and maintained in the livery they wore at the time of their “reassignment.” As time went on, (and their maintainers became bored,) a semi-official livery of black with white and navy blue stripes was settled upon and applied, one engine at a time. Quickly a crest for the Strategic Reserve was designed by one anonymous artistic crewman, and the reserve’s motto agreed: “Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” a superstitious British phrase.

Attlee and Churchill were both said to have toured a strategic MPD at least once. “Here we are in the belly of the beast. You lot have done some splendid work; Britain thanks you,” Attlee had said on his visit. “Men will do anything to play trains away from the wife without interrogation,” Churchill remarked on his, perhaps half in jest.

Thus was the system. As steam on the public or “civilian” British Railways was phased out, further freshly withdrawn engines were added to the reserve stocklist. Much speculation was made as to why coal bunkers and hoppers and water towers continued to be maintained even as the steam engines finally vanished from the national network in August 1968. This was explained away as infrastructure left in place for railtours by preserved engines, and in hindsight must have sounded ridiculous.

As generations of enginemen retired, they had to pass on their skills to the fresh blood. The years then went by without significant cause for alarm. The closest the reserve came to being activated was at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in late October 1962; declassified materials confirm that as many as half of the reserve was in full steam awaiting the call, and track gangs were ready and waiting to lay in rails. The crisis ebbed of course, and by the second week of November, the number of engines idle was back to “Normal.”

Margaret Thatcher’s Government planned to shut the program down, but this was averted… just. John Major however couldn’t be dissuaded. Privatization was in full swing, and the Soviet Union had dissolved itself. The reserve suddenly seemed very redundant, (but per its own 1945 definition, not completely,) and the winding down of it all began. On the 1st of December 1998, some 53 years after the beginning of Operation Nestled Dragon, all 4,855 locomotives and their associated depots and crews were demobilized by the Blair ministry and most of the reserve’s documentation declassified. Everything became public knowledge, including the engines themselves, quite literally overnight.

At once, the locos and their facilities were up for auction. Dozens of Strategic MPDs were made into living museums demonstrating how the reserve worked. Many of the engines belonged to classes otherwise thought extinct, such as the LNER Thompson L1s and the LMS Garratts, and here were surviving specimens being pulled out of the metaphorical wardrobe like nothing. The British preservation scene was in a matter of hours awash in perfectly functional engines no one expected to still exist, which coupled together in a line were longer than most if not all of the railways themselves! Several also were sold abroad to the United States and Canada.

The public couldn’t be blamed for this all being such a shock. They hadn’t been prepared.

Their predecessors however certainly were.

#houseboat’s writing #alternate railway history #arh: operation nestled dragon #fictional real life railways #fictional real life engines

[lilliankillthisman]

The nigger in the wood pile was known as the Third Schedule; it was in effect a mistake in Schedule 3 of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947.

Hey, um. The what?????

#the property boom #cw slurs #this is the 1989 reprint did no one seriously see a problem with your turn of phrase here?

[tomrogers-viscom]

ISTD - Commerce-centred urban design.

The roots of the modern high street can be found in the era of rural self-sufficiency when the vast majority of the populace grew their own food, and bartered for livestock and services. As early as 1688 there was as many as 50,000 shopkeepers, and by 1800 the number was perhaps 170,000. This number continued to grow with the improvement of transportation, manufacturing and a growing population.

The Victorian high street was characterised by independent, family-run shops, manned by shopkeepers who were increasingly regarded as respectable and skilled members of the community.

The First World War had a dramatic impact on all aspects of life in Britain – and the high street was no exception. There was panic buying and hoarding of food as soon as war was declared in August 1914. By 1918, prices had risen by 100 per cent, as imports were largely cut off and Britain’s agricultural resources could not meet demand.

Unemployment during the depression of the 1930s meant that the high street suffered. Staff were laid off, wages cut, several large department stores had merged soon after the war, while many smaller shops went out of business.

After WWII, Britain began to rebuild at an enormous scale. Emerging from a period of devastation, upheaval and uncertainty, the priority was to learn from the past but look to the future. The aim of the Act of 1947 was to promote the post-war regeneration of Britain’s towns and cities in response to the emerging progressive thinking in terms of architecture, urban and town planning. There was a boom in commerce and retail after the war, and architecture and city planning advocaded this by building walkable and commutable town centres filled with retail and office space. This movement was all about embracing the new and looking to the future. Modernist architects rejected ornamentation, embraced minimalism, architecture was about function and how spaces could be used practically.

Birmingham's original Bull Ring Centre in 1964 that sparked a boom in US-style shopping centre complexes. When the Bull Ring opened its doors it was meant to be "the ultimate shopping experience", according to historian Carl Chinn. Shopping centres across the nation followed its lead and started appearing in towns and cities up and down the country. By 1966 Britain boasted more than 20,000 service outlets.  Town centres became a place for a weekend day-trip or shopping spree. They continued to be a popular destination for shoppers in the 1980s and 90s, but the rise of online retailers such as Amazon, and the economic downturn post-2008, has had a dramatic shift in the visitor-ship of shopping centres.

Sources:

https://www.savills.co.uk/blog/article/301723/residential-property/rebuilding-britain--how-the-end-of-ww2-marked-the-beginning-of-modern-town-planning.aspx

https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/british-post-war-architecture-modernism-futurism

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46055936https://www.historyextra.com/period/modern/a-history-of-the-high-street/

LO1, A1

#specialist practice #istd

[zayaanhashistory]

The Salt March 

The Salt March, which took place from March to April 1930 in India, was an act of civil disobedience led by Mohandas Gandhi to protest British rule in India. During the march, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from his religious retreat near Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea coast, a distance of some 240 miles. The nonviolent march and other, similar marches resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. India finally was granted its independence from Great Britain in 1947. 

Britain’s Salt Act of 1882 prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in their diet. Indian citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from their British rulers, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also charged a heavy salt tax. Although India’s poor suffered most under the tax, all Indians required salt. After living for two decades in South Africa, where Mohandas Gandhi fought for the civil rights of Indians residing there, Gandhi returned to his native country in 1915 and soon began working for India’s independence from Great Britain. Defying the Salt Act, Gandhi reasoned, would be an ingeniously simple way for many Indians to break a British law nonviolently. Gandhi declared resistance to British salt policies to be the unifying theme for his new campaign of “satyagraha,” or mass civil disobedience.   

First, Gandhi sent a letter on March 2, 1930, to inform the Viceroy Lord Irwin that he and the others would begin breaking the Salt Laws in 10 days. Then, on March 12, 1930, Gandhi set out from his ashram, or religious retreat, at Sabarmati near Ahmedabad, with several dozen followers on a trek of some 240 miles to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British policy by making salt from seawater. All along the way, Gandhi addressed large crowds, and with each passing day an increasing number of people joined the salt satyagraha. By the time they reached Dandi on April 5, Gandhi was at the head of a crowd of tens of thousands of protestors. He spoke and led prayers and early the next morning walked down to the sea to make salt. 

He had planned to work the salt flats on the beach, encrusted with crystallized sea salt at every high tide, but the police had forestalled him by crushing the salt deposits into the mud. Undaunted, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud—and British law had been defied. At Dandi, thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens in making salt. Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued without him. On May 21, the poet Sarojini Naidu led 2,500 marchers on the Dharasana Salt Works, some 150 miles north of Bombay. Several hundred British-led Indian policemen met them and viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators. The incident, recorded by American journalist Webb Miller, prompted an international outcry against British policy in India. 

In January 1931, Gandhi was released from prison. He later met with Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, and agreed to call off the satyagraha in exchange for an equal negotiating role at a London conference on India’s future. In August of that year, Gandhi traveled to the conference as the sole representative of the nationalist Indian National Congress. The meeting was a disappointment, but British leaders had acknowledged Gandhi as a force they could not suppress or ignore. India won its independence in August 1947. The 78-year-old Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist less than six months later, on January 30, 1948. 

[stcrytime]

𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐬

hollywood actor.

NAME John Raymond Ellis. STAGE NAME Jack Ellis. DATE OF BIRTH 5 May 1930. AGE Early 30s / early 20s. GENDER Male (he/him). ORIENTATION Homosexual (closeted). NATIONALITY American. OCCUPATION Hollywood actor. RESIDENCE Los Angeles, California, USA. HEIGHT 5 feet, 10 inches. FACE CLAIM Paul Wesley / George Sear.

BIOGRAPHY Jack landed his first role at the age of seventeen, playing the lead's unnamed teenage son in Behind Closed Doors. He only appeared in a few scenes with a handful of short lines but it was enough to confirm his thirst for an acting career. The following year, he took another small role in Poker Face as a waiter. His first named role came in Playing with Fire. Although the film focused on the unhappy couple, Jack's part as the son caught up in his parents' schemes caught the eye of young women across the country, as well as his future manager, Howard Porter.

Eager to get an idea of Jack's full potential, Howard placed him in a supporting role as a comical sidekick to the lead in Wild Goose Chase. It became clear that he had a great career ahead of him with enough talent to join the ranks of Hollywood's leading men. Following the success of his previous comedies, the emerging heart-throb was given his first leading role as Prince Dunstan in Head Over Heels at the age of twenty-one.

Determined to prove that he had more range than just comedy, Jack insisted upon auditioning for something more serious. His emotional performance in Dead Man Walking was widely praised by critics, earning him two Golden Globe awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama) and New Star of the Year (Actor). After an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet as Romeo, Jack joined a small ensemble of rising stars in Birds of a Feather. His first experience of filming on location in another country came with Curse of the Pharaoh. In preparation for the role, he worked with Elijah Woodrow to craft an authentic portrayal of a heroic archaeologist.

Following the success of Henry Hawthorne’s film noir Midnight in Harlow, Jack's studio rushed to produce a similar project in colour with their own heart-throb in the lead. Although Jack's performance was generally well-received, the film was criticised as a poor imitation of Hawthorne's work and flopped at the box office. Despite their rivalry, Jack later starred alongside Henry in Two Roasts in the Oven as the competing love interests of Evelyn Shaw, played by none other than Marilyn Monroe. After winning an Academy Award for Best Actor in Deal with the Devil, Jack rejoined forces with his former rival in Break Every Rule.

FILMOGRAPHY BEHIND CLOSED DOORS (1947) In a small Midwestern town, the residents must work together to hide their dark secret from a nosy newcomer. Drama POKER FACE (1948) An undercover cop joins a high-stakes poker game to follow the final lead before his case goes cold. Drama PLAYING WITH FIRE (1949) Divorce proceedings turn sour when both parties are revealed to have hidden assets they weren't planning to share. Comedy WILD GOOD CHASE (1950) A security breach at the San Diego Zoo causes a mass breakout and a challenging day at work for animal control. Comedy HEAD OVER HEELS (1951) A charming prince is forced to compete against rival suitors to win the hand of his beloved princess. Romantic comedy DEAD MAN WALKING (1952) A young soldier and his injured comrade must find a path to safety after they get trapped behind enemy lines. War ROMEO AND JULIET (1953) An age-old feud between powerful families drives two star-crossed lovers to a devastating end. Shakespearean tragedy BIRDS OF A FEATHER (1954) A group of tourists band together when their hot air balloon gets blown off course and crashes in the jungle. Comedy CURSE OF THE PHARAOH (1955) Excavations of an Egyptian tomb are halted by a series of strange events until an wandering archaeologist investigates. Adventure DAYLIGHT ROBBERY (1956) After an argument with his boss, a bank teller convinces his best friend to help him rob his own bank. Comedy THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR (1957) An Athenian prince ventures into the labyrinth to slay the vicious beast within. Adventure OFF THE RECORD (1958) A homicide detective receives a mysterious letter from the alleged culprit behind his latest case. Drama JACK OF ALL TRADES (1958) An aspiring actor attempts a variety of day jobs to fund his dreams of moving to Hollywood. Musical comedy PARDON MY FRENCH (1959) A handsome journalist headed for London gets stranded in Paris following a mix-up at the airport. Romantic comedy DRESSED TO KILL (1960) An American spy meets his match in a seductive Russian assassin tasked with killing the President. Drama TWO ROASTS IN THE OVEN (1960) Two neighbours are dating the same girl, clueless that she is running between both their houses on Christmas day. Romantic comedy starring Marilyn Monroe and Henry Hawthorne DEAL WITH THE DEVIL (1961) The victim of a brutal murder strikes a bargain with the Devil himself to get revenge on his killers. Thriller BREAK EVERY RULE (1962) A cop is forced to work with the criminal in his custody to avoid the violent gangsters on their tail. Action comedy starring Henry Hawthorne

#🎬 ( dossier • jack ellis ) #🎬 ( report • jack ellis ) #🎬 ( portrait • jack ellis ) #🎬 ( request • jack ellis )

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor, director, author, poet, composer, and singer. Mitchum rose to prominence for starring roles in several classic films noirs, and his acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include Out of the Past (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Cape Fear (1962), and El Dorado (1966). Mitchum was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor “Pug” Henry in the epic miniseries The Winds of War (1983) and sequel War and Remembrance (1988).

Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of Classic American Cinema.

Robert Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Norwegian-Irish Methodist family. His mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter; his father, James Thomas Mitchum, was a shipyard and railroad worker of Irish descent.[3] His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. Their father, James Mitchum, was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. Robert was one year old, and Annette was not yet five. Their mother was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year. Ann married again to Major Hugh Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. Ann and Morris had a daughter together, Carol Morris, born July 1927, on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the Bridgeport Post.

As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. When he was 12, his mother sent him to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later, in 1930, he moved in with his older sister Annette, in New York's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School, he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping on railroad cars, taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. At age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he said he was arrested for vagrancy and put on a local chain gang. By Mitchum's own account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. During this time, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.

Mitchum arrived in Long Beach, California, in 1936, staying again with his sister, now going by the name of Julie. She had moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon joined them. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie convinced him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography (Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.

In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during wartime era WWII, with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary blindness), due to job-related stress. He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's Hopalong Cassidy western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the Mickey Rooney 1943 film The Human Comedy. Also in 1943 he and Randolph Scott were soldiers in the Pacific Island war film Gung Ho.

Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios. After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations.

Following the moderately successful Western Nevada, RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, The Story of G.I. Joe was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western (West of the Pecos) and a story of returning Marine veterans (Till the End of Time), before filming in a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.

Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie When Strangers Marry, about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Undercurrent, another of Mitchum's early noir films, featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's The Locket (1946) featured Mitchum as bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's Pursued (1947) combined Western and noir styles, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. Crossfire (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of World War II soldiers, one of whom kills a Jewish man. It featured themes of anti-Semitism and the failings of military training. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk, earned five Academy Award nominations.

Following Crossfire, Mitchum starred in Out of the Past (also called Build My Gallows High), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.

On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana.[10] The arrest was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. Life photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film She Shoulda Said No! (1949), which starred Leeds. The conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.

Despite, or because of, Mitchum's troubles with the law and his studio, his films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. Rachel and the Stranger (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella The Red Pony (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to film noir in The Big Steal (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.

In Where Danger Lives (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. The Racket was a noir remake of the early crime drama of the same name and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, Macao (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's Angel Face was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. In this film, she played an insane heiress who plans to use young ambulance driver Mitchum to kill for her.

Mitchum was fired from Blood Alley (1955), due to his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir Cut to the Chase, Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming Blood Alley, claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.

Following a series of conventional Westerns and films noirs, as well as the Marilyn Monroe vehicle River of No Return (1954), Mitchum appeared in Charles Laughton's only film as director: The Night of the Hunter (1955). Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the cellmate's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career.[15][16] Stanley Kramer's melodrama Not as a Stranger, also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.

On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was Bandido (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received Foreign Intrigue (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, starred Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study, they struggle to resist the elements and the invading Japanese army. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the WWII submarine classic The Enemy Below (1956), Mitchum gave a strong performance as U.S. Naval Lieutenant Commander Murrell, the captain of a U.S. Navy destroyer who matches wits with a German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, who starred with Mitchum again in the legendary 1962 movie The Longest Day. The film won an Oscar for Special Effects.

Thunder Road (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred in the movie, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road".

He returned to Mexico for The Wonderful Country (1959) and Ireland for A Terrible Beauty/The Night Fighters for the last of his DRM Productions.

Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film, The Sundowners (1960), where they played husband and wife struggling in Depression-era Australia. Opposite Mitchum, Kerr was nominated for yet another Academy Award for Best Actress, while the film was nominated for a total of five Oscars. Mitchum was awarded that year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his superior performance in the Vincente Minnelli Western drama Home from the Hill (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy The Grass Is Greener the same year.

Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films and missed opportunities. Among the films Mitchum passed on during the decade were John Huston's The Misfits (the last film of its stars Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe), the Academy Award–winning Patton, and Dirty Harry. The most notable of his films in the decade included the war epics The Longest Day (1962) and Anzio (1968), the Shirley MacLaine comedy-musical What a Way to Go! (1964), and the Howard Hawks Western El Dorado (1967), a remake of Rio Bravo (1959), in which Mitchum took over Dean Martin's role of the drunk who comes to the aid of John Wayne. He teamed with Martin for the 1968 Western 5 Card Stud, playing a homicidal preacher.

One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return, and The Night of the Hunter. After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso – is like so ... in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for Thunder Road, titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of Calypso ... and helped market the film to a wider audience.

Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings. The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western Young Billy Young, made in 1969.

Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film Ryan's Daughter, in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming, Mitchum was going through a personal crisis and planned to commit suicide. Aside from a personal crisis, his recent films had been critical and commercial flops. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could commit suicide after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his performance in Patton, a project Mitchum had rejected for Ryan's Daughter.

The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974) transplanted the typical film noir story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's Midway about an epic 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation Farewell, My Lovely (1975) was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's The Big Sleep.

In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season.

At the premiere for That Championship Season, Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from Time magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film."

That Championship Season may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle." He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in That Championship Season, the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.

Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries The Winds of War. The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's War and Remembrance, which continued the story through the end of the war.

In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of a drinking problem.

He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries North and South, which also aired on ABC.

Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie Thompson's Run. A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.

In 1987, Mitchum was the guest-host on Saturday Night Live, where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly". The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called Out of Gas, a mock sequel to Out of the Past. (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film.) He also was in Bill Murray's 1988 comedy film, Scrooged.

In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, in the same year he received the Telegatto award and in 1992 the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.

Mitchum continued to act in films until the mid-1990s, such as in Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and he narrated the Western Tombstone. He also appeared, in contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, as a protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear, but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biopic, James Dean: Race with Destiny, playing Giant director George Stevens. His last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie Pakten.

A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, in Santa Barbara, California, due to complications of lung cancer and emphysema. He was about five weeks shy of his 80th birthday. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94); his sons, actors James Mitchum and Christopher Mitchum; and his daughter, writer Petrine Day Mitchum. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.

Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir." Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Barry Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", which critic Dirk Baecker has construed as Mitchum's way of reminding himself to experience the world of the story without acting upon it.

AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains, respectively, of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.

A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" is in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.

#robert mitchum #classic hollywood #classic movie stars #golden age of hollywood #old hollywood #1940s hollywood #1950s hollywood #1960s hollywood #1970s hollywood #1980s hollywood #1990s hollywood #hollywood legend

[dd20century]

Trailblazing Hollywood Architect Paul R. Williams, Part Two

Read Trailblazing Hollywood Architect Paul R. Williams, Part One.

Paul R. Williams’s Early Commercial Works

By the 1930s, Paul R. Williams’s architectural career had taken off, he was hiring more staff for his firm, and he had built an impressive portfolio of private residences, yet like all architects, Williams yearned for important commercial contracts (3). In 1926, he had collaborated with Norman Marsh to build the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles, that would later become an important site to the civil rights movement in that area (7). One of Williams’s first solo commercial commissions was designing the interiors for the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue department store in 1938 (6). The following year he built the headquarters of Music Corporation of America (MCA) also in Beverly Hills (8). The clients hired Williams for their project because they envisioned their offices to look more like an English Georgian Revival style home than a typical office building of the time (3). He also designed the Arrowhead Springs Hotel in 1940. In 1941 Williams took on an international commission designing the Hotel Nutibara in Columbia (8).

Paul R. Williams, Music Corporation of America Building (1938), Los Angeles, CA. Photo credit: Maynard L. Parker. Image source.

During World War II Williams closed his architectural office in order to take on work for the military. “In 1942 Williams designs 125 housing units for the Army at Fort Huachuca,” 8 and over the following years he worked with the Allied Architects on the Roosevelt Naval Base Project.  Also during the war years, like European architect Jean Prouvé, Williams became interested in providing low-cost pre-fabricated metal housing. Williams established the Standard Demountable Homes Company of California in the mid-forties. The firm built mainly “Quonset-style homes [which] quickly fell out of favor after the war” 8.

Williams’s Post-war Buildings of the Mid-Century

After the World War II Williams teamed up with architect A. Quincy Jones, who had worked in Williams’s office in the years before the war. The two architects worked on several “projects in Palm Springs, including the Palm Springs Tennis Club (1947) and the Town & Country (1948) and Romanoff's on the Rocks (1948) restaurants” (6).

Williams’s most notable post war works include, the West View Hospital (1947), his 1949 additions to the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Al Jolson Memorial (1951), renovations to the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles (1954), the Frank Sinatra House (1955), and the Founder’s Church of Religious Science (1960).

During the 1950s Williams began a lifelong friendship with the popular comedian Danny Thomas when Thomas commissioned Williams to work on renovations to his existing home. When Thomas shared his vision of a children’s hospital open to all children regardless of race or religion that would offer free care, Williams was whole-heartedly on board. He designed the hospital gratis as an act of love for his dear friend (3). Saint Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital was built in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962, but was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for a larger more modern hospital (3).

Paul R. Williams, St. Jude’s Hospital Rendering (1961), Memphis, TN. Image source.

In 1960, Williams joined the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) planning and design team (1). He was not, however, the architect of the airport’s iconic Theme Building as many believe. It was designed by Gin Wong of Pereira & Luckman but [a] photo by Julius Shulman cemented the urban myth (5).

Paul R. Williams published two books on residential architecture: “The Small Home of Tomorrow (1945) and New Homes for Today (1946)” (5). He also wrote the essay "I am a Negro" first published in the 1937 and reprinted in Ebony in 1986 (5).

Architect Paul R. Williams in front of the LAX Theme Building in Los Angeles, CA. Williams is erroneously credited with the design of this building. He served on the LAX planning and design team, but did not design this structure. Photo by Julius Shulman. Image source.

Paul R. Williams’s Contributions to the African American Community

According to Paul R. Williams’s grandson Paul Hudson, Williams was instrumental in working on behalf of Los Angeles’s African-American community and in supporting its leaders and businesses. For his Golden State Life Insurance Building (1949) he commissioned two murals depicting the struggles of African Americans in United States history. A memorial to Williams was built in that building when it underwent a restoration in 2005 (3).

In 1946 along with Dr. H. Claude Hudson, Williams founded the Broadway Federal Bank. Its mission was to loan mortgages to African-Americans, and enabled many African-Americans to realize their dreams of home ownership. The bank also provided the financing on the 1960 Stall Case Study home designed by Pierre Koenig. Due to the house’s experimental nature, the owners could not obtain funding through traditional banks (3).

Williams’s Housing Project Work

Although Williams is best known for his mansions for movie stars and film moguls, he did design low-cost housing. Williams worked with another African-American architect Hilyard Robinson on the first federally funded public housing project in the Unites States Langston Terrace,  Washington, D.C. in 1938 and later on the Pueblo del Rio project (1941) in southeast Los Angeles. Williams also designed, Carver Park, a segregated development in Henderson, Nevada. It opened in 1943. “Many of the units were destroyed between 1994 and 1999” (5). Williams was the Chief Architect on the The Hacienda Village Housing Project, other architect who collaborated on the project were Adrian Wilson, Richard J. Neutra, Walter Wurdeman and Welton Becket (5).

Paul R. William’s Endangered Legacy 

In 1973 after a five-decade long career Paul R. Williams closed his firm and, he  retired (6). He spent his final years devoted to his family and to causes supporting the African-American community. He died on January 23, 1980; his friend Danny Thomas gave the eulogy at Williams’ funeral (3).

Paul R. Williams, Frank Sinatra House (1956), Los Angeles, CA. Destroyed. Image source.

Williams received many tributes and awards for his work during his lifetime among them, “the AIA Award of Merit, the NAACP Spingarn Medal, and USC’s Distinguished Alumni Award. In 1957, he became first African American to become an AIA Fellow (1). He was “posthumously awarded the AIA's 2017 Gold Medal, America's highest honor for an architect. Williams is the first African American to receive the AIA Gold Medal” (1). In 2020 a documentary about his life and work aired on PBS (3).

Tragically all of Williams’s business documents were destroyed in 1992 in a fire at the Broadway Federal Bank in the riots that took place in Los Angeles in the aftermath of the verdict in the Rodney King trial. Luckily, Williams’s blueprints and drawings had been saved by his granddaughter Karen E. Hudson who had borrowed them from the bank to do research on her grandfather’s career (3).

While several of Williams’s buildings have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places (6), an astonishing number of important buildings have not survived; notable among them are the Ambassador Hotel (1), the Frank Sinatra House, Perino’s Restaurant, the Sunset Plaza Apartments (3), the Claude A. Wayne House (1926), The George S. Seward House (1928), E. L. Cord House, aka Cordhaven (1932), The Lucy and Desi Arnaz Ranch (1941), The Tevis and Colleen Morrow House (1948) (5), La Concha Motel (1961) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Paul R. Williams, La Concha Motel (1961), Las Vegas, NV. Destroyed. Image source.

References

LA Conservancy, (2020). Paul Revere Williams,  FAIA (1894-1980), https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/paul-r-williams

Budds, D., (13 December, 2016). The Overlooked Legacy Of Pioneering African-American Architect Paul Revere Williams, Fast Company (online), https://www.fastcompany.com/3066503/the-overlooked-legacy-of-pioneering-african-american-architect-paul-revere-williams

Public Broadcasting System, (6 February, 2020). Hollywood’s Architect [Documentary Film]. https://www.pbs.org/video/hollywoods-architect-3prwsa/

Brane, K.D, (15 January, 2020). Paul R. Williams, Black Listed Culture, Issue 2. https://blacklistedculture.com/paul-r-williams/

US Modernist, (n.d.).  Paul Revere Williams,  FAIA (1894-1980), https://usmodernist.org/pwilliams.htm

Wikipedia.com, (10 December, 2020). Paul R. Williams, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Williams

Wikipedia.com, (12 December, 2020). Second Baptist Church (Los Angeles). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Baptist_Church_(Los_Angeles)

Paul Revere Williams Project, (n.d.). Education | Timeline, https://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/education/timeline 

For Further Reading

Hudson, Karen E. (1993). Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style. New York: Rizzoli. p. 240. ISBN 0-8478-1763-6. LCC NA737.W527 H84 1993

Hudson, Karen E. (1994). The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect. New York: Rizzoli. pp. 64. ISBN 0-8478-1780-6. LCC NA737.W527 H85 1994

#Paul R. Williams #architecture #California #mid-century

[architectnews]

English Planning System: New British Homes

New British Homes, English planning system, Building Houses in England, Virtual Committees

English Planning System Relaxation

5 May 2021

UK Government Scraps Virtual Planning Committees

Architect reacts to government decision to scrap virtual planning committees

Pete Ladhams, Managing Director, Assael Architecture, commented: “The Covid-19 crisis acted as an unlikely catalyst to finally cause change to the UK’s outdated planning system at pace. However, the decision not to extend powers enabling virtual planning committees will be a hugely backwards step.

“Whilst these measures were initially intended to be temporary, the feedback since implemented across the industry was overwhelmingly positive, with many recognising the advantages of a digitised planning process.

“The onus is now on the government to make sure we leverage the momentum created by this pandemic to reform the planning system fully and not miss this opportunity.”

Assael Architecture is an award-winning London-based practice that provides a cohesive suite of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and visualisation services both in the UK and abroad. They work across a range of sectors, including hospitality, commercial and master planning, and specialise in residentially-led mixed-use schemes.

Assael designs homes across all tenures, from private-for-sale, private-for-rent, including ‘Build to Rent’ through low-cost, shared-equity and social-rented affordable homes. They approach all projects from the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable design and often integrate uses from the leisure, retail and cultural industries to help deliver thriving communities.

3 August 2020

New UK Housing Delivery

Following housing secretary Robert Jenrick announcing in the Sunday Telegraph that Britain will get a new zonal planning system please find comment from Ken Dytor, founder of Urban Catalyst, the developer behind the £1bn regeneration of Purfleet-on-Thames town centre.

Ken Dytor previously held roles at the Crown Estate, British Land and British Property Federation and was recently appointed to the Thames Estuary Growth Board, which aims to add £115bn to UK GDP annually.

New planning rules risk infrastructure and housing delivery

Ken Dytor, founder and executive chairman of Urban Catalyst, said: “It’s encouraging that the government has put social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals alongside housing in its plans to speed up development.

“While the housing secretary is right the uninspiring design of some developments fuels NIMBYism, concerns over additional pressure on existing public services are typically another major driver behind local opposition to new development.

“Similarly encouraging is the drive to harness greater community participation in the planning process by embracing a more 21st century tech-savvy approach. This should hopefully lead to a wider range of voices being heard, resulting in more inclusive, balanced developments.

“However, if the government’s ‘build build build’ agenda is to align with its ‘levelling up’ promise we need to see regionally driven infrastructure linked to housing delivery to kick start both national and local growth.

“A great example are the strategies focused on unlocking the potential of the Thames Estuary region, such as the Thames Estuary Growth Board’s Green Blue plan and Thames Production Corridor, which seek to marry private and public sector expertise and tap into the growing power of industries such as the artistic, creative and media sectors.”

21 July 2020

New UK Planning Rules Relaxation

New planning rules risk creating substandard homes on high streets

Following the government’s move to relax permitted development rights and allow retail to residential conversions, please see a comment below from Rory O’Hagan, director at London-based practice Assael Architecture, on why the changes could be detrimental to our high streets and town centres.

Rory has significant expertise in working on converting complicated and constrained sites into mixed-use schemes. Assael’s notable projects include Essential Living’s Union Wharf scheme, Blackhorse Mills with Legal & General, and Pontoon Dock with Grainger and Linkcity.

Rory O’Hagan, director at Assael Architecture, said:

“The government’s relaxation of permitted development rights could do much for the revitalisation of our high streets and town centres. But there must be a cohesive government strategy and clear regulations in place to monitor the standard of homes and ensure it is done well. The need to reinvent the high street shouldn’t just be driven by an urge to reverse the decline of retail or to fast-track housing.

It should be about ensuring that town centres are places where people want to spend time, create new experiences, and live with high-quality, complementary housing. There needs to be a considered drive towards more mixed and blended developments, where retail uses are supported by additional purpose-built homes. By doing this, the onus is on creating desirable, amenity-rich locations with high-quality housing options for all.”

6 July 2020

Is ‘build build build’ best for England’s planning system?

Alister Scott, Professor of Environmental Geography and an expert in urban planning and infrastructure, writes for The Conversation on proposals to change the UK’s planning system.

Is ‘build build build’ really the best way forward for England’s planning system?

“Rip up planning red tape to spur house building,” says housing secretary Robert Jenrick, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson argues for a radical shake-up to the planning system to deliver on his “build build build” mantra. There’s a clear political message that England’s planning system is broken and needs change.

Such change should not be based on simply building more, but on an accurate diagnosis of the problems the planning system is experiencing and trying to solve. If it isn’t, there is a risk of a future prime minister saying again that the planning system is broken and in need of urgent reform.

After all, David Cameron in 2011 attacked the planning system as “the enemy of enterprise” and similarly embarked on a package of reforms to speed up housing delivery and economic growth and cut red tape. Yet consistently over 80% of planning applications are approved, challenging any simplistic presumptions that planning inhibits growth.

Political change has been a constant in England’s planning system. Since the landmark 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, some 360 pieces of planning legislation have been enacted. What’s more, since 1997 there have been 18 housing ministers, hindering policy consistency.

Managing change has been made more difficult with significant cuts to planning departments under austerity, compounded by incremental legislative changes that create the very complexity and delays that the government now complains about.

Today, calls for reform have been fuelled by a report by the right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange. With the country needing to build many more houses, the argument goes that replacing our plan-led system that assesses every application with a zoning system would reduce bureaucracy and help speed up decision-making.

There have already been some moves in this direction, with enterprise zones and brownfield “permission in principle” orders. Permitted development rights have enabled the government to fast-track more commercial-to-residential developments and housing extensions. Boris Johnson has just announced further loosening of the rules on converting other commercial establishments, shops and redundant premises into homes.

But these changes have already been criticised due to the growth of poor quality houses and flats with no windows, isolated from key services and infrastructure. Such homes would never have been given approval in the regular planning system, and also conflict with other policy considerations such as those of the advisory Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission.

Diagnosing the planning challenges

“Build build build” is the wrong starting point. Planning is dominated by a target of building 300,000 homes each year, and the prime minister’s rhetoric reinforces that narrative. But one simple quantity metric on housing is dangerous and limiting when planning encompasses so much more.

The planning system should instead be designed to address the long-term challenges and opportunities our society faces. And that means a more integrated quality-based approach based on a shared vision of the kind of places we want to live in. Let’s identify these challenges in more detail:

There is a housing challenge. Plenty of luxury flats are built but not enough affordable family homes. The key national priorities do not match the types of housing now being built and wanted by developers.

There is a climate challenge. We are not doing anything like enough to meet the 1.5℃ Paris target, with 3℃ or more of warming now more likely. The planning system needs to have strong policies that help the transition to a greener lower carbon future with higher priority given to retrofitting of existing housing stock.

There is a biodiversity challenge. The state of UK nature is declining year on year with many species on the brink of extinction. Biodiversity forms the backbone of viable ecosystems on which we depend on for basic necessities, security and health. This diversity makes us more resilient to change and uncertainty in much the same way as investing in a diverse range of stocks protects a financial portfolio from uncertainty.

There is a health challenge. Poor housing stock and noise and air pollution, along with a lack of access to key services, all affect physical and mental health.

There is a poverty and social justice challenge. The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening. Here child poverty is a major issue. The planning system was founded on the need for improved social justice, yet in recent years this has been conspicuously absent from policy.

There is a public engagement challenge. Ordinary people should be able to understand and engage with planning more effectively and help co-produce the kinds of sustainable places they want to live, work and play in. The current system is too complex and too adversarial. A key opportunity is for the public to be more involved in planning processes which should be based on modern interactive “e-planning” and not dense and static PDF files.

These challenges are all interlinked and collectively should form the key principles on which a better and more joined-up planning system should be built. However, what that planning system looks like is not for me or anyone to dictate in a top-down fashion. We urgently need better diagnoses of these challenges and integrated interventions, so that then we can then design better governance and delivery frameworks that are less complex and fragmented.

I fear that the government will continue on its present trajectory, based on the populist but fallacious presumption that planning is restricting housebuilding, and impose yet more change on a public sector ill-equipped to deal with it. In effect, the country lurches from one crisis to another. And that is definitely not good planning.

This article was originally published by The Conversation.

Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. Find out more about at www.northumbria.ac.uk

Related material

How to design and build better green environments in our towns and cities May 24, 2019 13:11 BST

The latest edition of the influential journal Town & Country Planning has been edited by a leading Environmental expert from Northumbria University, Newcastle. How can we put the green back into our urban spaces? Nov 06, 2017 16:47 GMT

The question of how to encourage city planners and developers to incorporate green spaces and infrastructure in our towns and cities is the subject of a £226,000 research project being run by Northumbria University.

English Planning System: New British Homes image / inforation from Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, a research-rich, business-focussed, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence

Previously on e-architect:

UK Housebuilding Policy

UK Architects welcome landmark ARCO Report

image courtesy of architects

New UK Housing for an ageing population

UK Housing Shortage photograph © swns.com

New UK Housing – British Housebuilding news

British Houses

UK Housing Links:

Housing Crisis

New London Housing

British Homes

British House Designs

English Architecture:

English Architecture Designs – chronological list

Location: UK

Contemporary British Homes

Recent British Housing Designs

Fleet Street Hill Housing Design: Peter Barber Architects image from architect Fleet Street Hill Housing

Murray Grove Housing Stadthaus photo : Will Pryce Murray Grove Housing

Recent British Home Designs

Black House, Kent, South East England Architect: AR Design Studio image courtesy of architects Black House in Kent

A House for Essex, Essex, South East England Design: FAT Architecture and Grayson Perry photograph : Jack Hobhouse A House for Essex

Balancing Barn, Suffolk, South East England Design: MVRDV photo : Living Architecture Balancing Barn Suffolk

Hurst House, Buckinghamshire, Southern England Design: John Pardey Architects with Ström Architects photo : Andy Matthews Buckinghamshire Property

Comments / photos for the English Planning System: New British Homes page welcome

The post English Planning System: New British Homes appeared first on e-architect.

#e-architect

[dweemeister]

Blue Hawaii (1961)

Elvis Presley’s ascent to stardom struck the United States (and the world) like a lightning bolt. Hounded from Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry due to the country music establishment taking offense to his genre-blending musicianship, Elvis grew from being a regional phenomenon to a national sensation as he helped innovate rockabilly, a form of rock and roll. Movie producers, sensing an opportunity to cash in on Elvis’ skyrocketing popularity, gave Elvis star vehicles such as Love Me Tender (1956) and Jailhouse Rock (1957). Critics shrugged at these films – low-budget affairs where most of the budget went to Elvis’ salary – but his fans made them critic-proof, turning out in droves to scream and swoon at their slick-looking dreamboat. Grappling with television’s advent and the dissolution of the Old Hollywood Studio System, Hollywood’s major studios shifted their efforts towards more bombastic, showman-like films. Such was the situation in the early 1960s that longtime Warner Bros. producer Hal B. Wallis (1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1942’s Casablanca), now at Paramount, joked that, “a Presley picture is the only sure thing in Hollywood.”

To the horror of Elvis’ fans and movie studio executives but to the delight of those fans’ parental figures and teachers, the U.S. Army drafted him in March 1958. Elvis served twenty-four months before his discharge with the rank of Sergeant. During his service, Elvis nevertheless had plenty of singles in the can, many ranking high on the charts while he was at basic training and later his posting in West Germany. Looking forward to restarting his musical and acting careers, Elvis soon returned to the recording studio and shot G. I. Blues (1960) – he had discussed the film with Wallis months prior to his discharge – in short order. For the eighth film of his career and his fourth after his discharge, Elvis starred in Blue Hawaii, directed by Norman Taurog (1938’s Boys Town, nine Elvis films) and produced by Wallis. The film stars Elvis as an Army veteran recently discharged from the service, returning to his home state. I wonder where did they get that idea from? It also marks the unlikely beginning of Elvis’ association with the Aloha State – which shed its territorial status in 1959 and was ready for a Hollywood treatment that had nothing to do with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Chadwick “Chad” Gates (Presley) returns home to Hawai’i from his military service, greeted by girlfriend Maile Duval (Joan Blackman: “MY-lee”) and a flower seller named Waihila (Hilo Hattie in a cameo). Instead of immediately seeing his parents – mother Sarah Lee (Angela Lansbury, only ten years Elvis’ senior) and father Fred (Roland Winters) – he escapes to a secluded oceanside shack with Maile and his Hawaiian surf buddies. Chad is the son of pineapple plantation owners, and Sarah Lee wants him to succeed Fred when the time comes. But Chad is not interested in those plans, electing instead to work as a tour guide for Mr. Chapman’s (Howard McNear) travel agency – among other things, Maile works at the agency. The first tour he gives serves schoolteacher Abigail Prentice (Nancy Walters) and her four teenage students, all girls. One of those girls, Ellie Corbett (Jenny Maxwell), appears standoffish at first but then begins to flirt shamelessly with Chad.

If by that point in Blue Hawaii you are still concentrating on the plot, just note that your approach to watching Elvis movies is not advisable. Watching Elvis movies for a sensible plot is to invite frustration; accept the narrative drivel and enjoy.

Shot mostly on location on the Hawaiian Islands of O’ahu and Kaua’i, Hawai’i offers splendid backdrops to even the most mundane scenes of this film. Charles Lang’s (1947’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, 1959’s Some Like It Hot) camera allows characters to be dwarfed by the green mountains in the distance, the crystal blue waters extending to the horizon, and palm tree fronds wafting amid a gentle breeze. Scenes of breathtaking natural beauty abound in Blue Hawaii. In conjunction with the production (Hal Pereira and Walter H. Tyler) and set design (Sam Comer and Frank R. McKelvy), Blue Hawaii becomes, by default, the most colorful Elvis movie to date. The film, by design, partly becomes a tourism advertisement for the new state. Its white characters and filmmakers exotify and romanticize Native Hawaiian culture to fit their own expectations and perspectives – these sorts of depictions have endured across the last century, figuring heavily in cinema (1935’s Honolulu: The Paradise of the Pacific as part of [James A.] Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalks for MGM) and tourism advertising. This is the first live-action feature film from a major Hollywood studio to make even a minimal attempt to depict native Hawaiian culture since Waikiki Wedding (1937), another Paramount film.

Here are some more connections between Waikiki Wedding and Blue Hawaii: both share one song (“Blue Hawaii”) in both their soundtracks and both films are musicals. The Hawaiian musical sound is just as integral to popular conceptions of Hawai’i, and it is used liberally here in orchestrations, if not melodic structure. Blue Hawaii’s soundtrack contains the greatest amount of songs (fourteen) for an Elvis film. For those who enjoy their breathless musicals with a song at every turn, Blue Hawaii does just that. The musical numbers arrive in the most innocuous situations – from forming a melody from a tune heard on the radio, an impromptu jam session with a guitar conveniently within arm’s length of Elvis, or starting from nothing. The worst of the soundtrack avoids many of the novelty songs that plague Elvis films, especially the later entries. Given how nonsensical the plots to Elvis movies are, the lower-tier songs in Blue Hawaii are preferable compared to more stilted acting and fraternizing shenanigans. Thus, the bar is raised, and the inclusion of two non-original songs – “Blue Hawaii” (music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo Robin) and “Aloha ‘Oe” (Queen Lili’uokalani) – are arranged in such a way that beautifully complements Elvis’ velvety singing voice. Among the original songs, “Moonlight Swim” (music by Ben Weisman, lyrics by Sylvia Dee) is a sensuous, laid back song that perfectly serves Chad’s characterization: an unabashed Casanova, effortless in romance, a hint of masculine arrogance.

The runaway hit of the Blue Hawaii soundtrack is among Elvis’ most popular songs. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” – music and lyrics by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss – appears approximately midway through the film as Chad says hello to Maile’s grandmother (Flora Kaai Hayes, a former Hawaiian Territorial Representative to the U.S. House of Representatives) for the first time since before his military service. It, like so many other musical entries in Blue Hawaii, arrives without much warning, backed by a constantly harmonizing music box and a steel guitar played in a Hawaiian style. One might take issue with the song’s use in context, but it is a crooners’ standard that has crossed linguistic barriers worldwide. Its simplicity is self-evident: a memorable melody, chorus, and a minor key bridge aching for resolution as it modulates to major key. Perhaps “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is not considered one of the greatest original songs in movie history because of the questionable quality of the film it appears in. More likely, Elvis’ gravitational pull as a crossover music and movie star writes its own legends that defy a critic’s or a historian’s corrections.

Somehow, I have written all the above without remarking on the acting. Other than Elvis himself, everyone else is a passing interest at best. Joan Blackman’s chemistry with Elvis is apparent, but she does not distinguish herself from every other female lead in an Elvis movie. Angela Lansbury’s exaggerated Southern accent displays her considerable range, even if there are better examples in other films. As much as some may deride Elvis’ performances for being unchallenging, one could not imagine an Elvis movie without the star attraction. His persona is effervescent; his charisma incontestable. According to Weiss, Elvis’ comedic instincts manifested themselves in subtle ways. If Elvis requested a joke to be explained in discussions about the screenplay, it was his roundabout, maybe overly polite, way to warn Weiss, Taurog, and screenwriter Hal Kanter (1952’s Road to Bali, at least twenty-two Academy Award ceremonies) that the joke was not funny. During test screenings of Blue Hawaii, every joke kept in the film that Elvis questioned elicited nothing from the audience. On- and off-screen, an Elvis movie with Elvis removed would collapse from the void of hilarity and charm such an absence would create.

Blue Hawaii, like all other Elvis movies prior, succeeded at the box office in comparison to its budget. Adding to this bounty for Elvis, the film’s soundtrack album sold millions of copies, sitting atop of the Billboard charts for twenty weeks, and garnering a Grammy nomination. The soundtrack profits from Blue Hawaii and the preceding G.I. Blues led Presley’s obstinate manager, Colonel Tom Parker, to have his client concentrate on film soundtrack albums at the expense of non-soundtrack albums – setting the groundwork for the remainder of the 1960s (Elvis released 16 soundtrack albums versus six non-soundtrack albums during this decade), with diminishing returns. Parker reasoned to Elvis that his fans demanded to see him in these musical romantic comedies, rejecting any roles that did not fit this mold. Elvis, believing his manager, continued to make films until well past the point an Elvis Presley picture was a guaranteed hit in theaters.

In its visual splendor and Pacific appeal, Blue Hawaii sealed the fate of Elvis’ post-Army career. No other subsequent Elvis film would match the commercial heights of Blue Hawaii, although one could argue several of those movies surpass this one in terms of acting, aesthetics, and musical interest (like 1964’s Viva Las Vegas and two concert documentaries in 1970 and 1972). Elvis returned to Hawai’i several more times during his career for concerts and two films – Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) and Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966). As much as Elvis is associated with Tupelo, Mississippi (his birthplace) and Graceland in Memphis, there is also a special relationship between Elvis and Hawai’i. That relationship – one that touches Elvis’ personal life and the musical traditions of Native Hawaiians – begins with Blue Hawaii, an archetypal Elvis film and one of his best.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

#Blue Hawaii #Norman Taurog #Elvis #Elvis Presley #Joan Blackman #Angela Lansbury #Nancy Walters #Roland Winters #John Archer #Howard McNear #Jenny Maxwell #Lani Kai #Hal Wallis #George David Weiss #Hugo Peretti #Luigi Creatore #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

[apenitentialprayer]

The government hailed the temple as a sign of Pakistan’s growing tolerance under Prime Minister Imran Khan. But pressure from clerics mounted, and the government gave in. A Hindu temple planned for Islamabad, the city’s first, was supposed to be a symbol of tolerance. Instead, violence and controversy have turned it into an emblem of Pakistan’s troubled relationship with its religious minorities. When Pakistan’s former government allotted land for the Shri Krishna Mandir, or Krishna temple, in 2018, Muslim demonstrators quickly camped out on the plot, refusing to allow a Hindu structure to be built in their nation’s capital. But the temple’s Hindu advocates seemed to prevail, and when the temple’s first foundation stones were laid last month, government officials proclaimed it marked the start of a new, tolerant chapter for Pakistan. Days later, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered the government to provide about $1.3 million for the temple’s construction, roughly a fifth of what is needed. “When we broke ground, the prime minister told us in a meeting that he was quite happy that the temple would give a good image of Pakistan to the outside world,” said Lal Chand Mahli, a Hindu parliamentarian and member of the governing party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. “A Hindu temple in the capital,” he added, “was going to show the world that Pakistan is a place for all religions.” Then Muslim clerics stepped in again, and things started changing. Several clerics ruled that no Hindu temple should be built, because Pakistan is a Muslim country. Citizens denounced the government for using their taxes to provide funding for the temple. And media outlets openly campaigned to shut the project down. Under mounting pressure, the government on Friday backtracked from its initial pledge to donate money to the temple’s construction, instead asking for guidance from the Council of Islamic Ideology on whether to give the grant. The government then halted construction of a wall being built around the temple’s empty plot of land, ruling that the complex’s blueprint had to be approved first. Islamabad’s Hindu council claimed that the wall was necessary to keep vandals out, and that they worried that Muslim extremists would try to occupy the land and delay the temple’s construction as they had before. Similar barriers protect empty plots of land across Pakistan, they argued. But the government held firm. The fever pitch around the temple finally erupted on Sunday when a group of men destroyed the partially constructed wall around the temple’s land, claiming it was their Islamic duty to do so. They gleefully filmed their exploits and posted it on social media. None of the vandals have been arrested. In a matter of two weeks, the hope surrounding Islamabad’s first Hindu temple was derailed, as were any aspirations that the government of Mr. Khan would deliver on the religious coexistence he had promised when he won elections in 2018. While the plan for the temple was approved in 2017 under the former government, Mr. Khan put the plan into action and received praise for what many had hoped would mark a new, more tolerant chapter in Pakistan’s violent sectarian past. During Mr. Khan’s election campaign, he promised to improve conditions for Pakistan’s religious minorities, often treated as second-class citizens and targeted in attacks by violent Islamists with few repercussions. He also vowed to restore their places of worship. Mr. Khan seemed to make good on his promise late last year when the government reopened one of Sikhism’s holiest shrines, the 500-year-old Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. The government hailed the reopening as proof of their religious tolerance at a time when Pakistan’s neighbor and archrival India was marginalizing their Muslim minority. On Tuesday, Amnesty International condemned the campaign against the Hindu temple and urged the government to allow the Hindu council to resume building immediately. “Prime Minister Imran Khan must lend his commitments to religious freedom for all some weight and ensure that Pakistan’s Hindus and other religious minorities are able to practice their faith freely and without fear,” said Omar Waraich, the head of Amnesty International’s South Asia department. “Every reported act of violence against minorities must be promptly investigated and those responsible must be brought to justice. A recurrence can only be prevented if adequate measures are taken,” Mr. Waraich added. Although Hindus are between two and four percent of Pakistan’s population, Islamabad does not have a temple for them to worship in. If their relatives die, they must travel long distances with the body to Hindu-run cremation facilities to perform traditional burial rites. Founded as a state for South Asia’s Muslims, Pakistan had a secular, democratic Constitution crafted by the father of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who is still revered across the country. But the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 unleashed a wave of violence between Hindus and Muslims that both nations have not recovered from, decades later. Neighbors turned on each other to cleanse their villages, towns and cities of Hindu or Muslim minorities. Although estimates vary, up to 2 million may have been killed in the violence. Amendments to the Constitution, followed by a wave of Islamic radicalization within the powerful armed forces, have seen Pakistan morph into a considerably more sectarian nation than Mr. Jinnah had envisioned. “Pakistan is a religiously diverse place and people of different religions live in the country. Islamabad is our capital and all religions have equal rights in it,” said Mr. Mahli, the Hindu parliamentarian. “Jinnah promised our rights would be upheld when the country was created.”

#Pakistan #Islam #Hinduism #religious pluralism #persecution

[notesonfilm1]

  Burt Lancaster got his contract with Hal B. Wallis at Paramount on the basis of a test directed by Byron Haskin with Wendell Corey and Lizabeth Scott for Desert Fury. Lucky for him, the film was not ready to shoot for another six months and he was able to fit in Robert Siodmak’s The Killers(1946)  for producer Mark Hallinger at Universal beforehand. Desert Fury started shooting two weeks before the release of The Killers but there were already whisperings of Lancaster as a big new star, and the whisperings were so loud that Hallinger gave him first billing and a big publicity build-up rather than the little ‘and introducing….’ title at the end of the credits that was then typical, and is indeed the billing offered Wendell Corey in Desert Fury as you can see in the poster above. Before Desert Fury started shooting, Hal Wallis knew he had a big fat star on his hands and that his part had to be beefed up so as to capitalise on it.

By the time the film was released on September 24th, 1947,, Burt Lancaster was the biggest star in the film. The Killers hit screens on the 29th of August 1946. As Kate Buford writes, Ít was an extraordinary debut for a complete unknown. Overnight he was a star with a meteoric rise ¨faster than Gable´s, Garbo´s or Lana Turner,¨as Cosmopolitan said years later (Buford, loc 1260). In New York the movie, ‘played twenty-four hours a day at the Winter Garden theatre, ‘where over 120,000 picture-goers filled the 1,300 seat theatre in the first two weeks, figures Variety called “unbelievably sensational.”‘ Brute Force was the fourth film Lancaster made, after I Walk Alone, but it was the second to be released, on June 30th 1947. According to Kate Buford, it too ‘set set first-week records at movie houses across the country’ (loc 1412).

  Lancaster’s status as a star is reflected in the lobby card and poster above, where in spite of being billed third, what´s being sold is what Burt Lancaster already represented, the publicity materials giving a false impression that he is much more central to the narrative than is in fact the case. His image dominates in both, and even the tag lines are attributed to him: ‘I got a memory for faces…killer´s faces…Get away from my girl…and get going’, is the tagline in the lobby card. The text on the poster reads, ´Two men wanted her love…the third wanted her life.

  In the ad below, he´s billed second, as ´the sensation of The Killers, Dynamite with the fuse lit’

When trying to recapture a past moment in relation to cinema, it´s often useful to look at trailers and other paratextual publicity materials. Trailers hold and try to disseminate the film´s promise to viewers. Of course, its purpose is to sell, to dramatise its attractions so that viewers will go see it. And of course, they often lie, dramatising not what is but what they hope will sell. That said, those promises, lies and hopes are often very revealing.

  As you can see above, the trailer is selling melodrama — violent passions — in a magnificent natural setting filmed in Technicolor. Burt Lancaster’s name is only mentioned 39 second into the 1.41 trailer, after Lizabeth Scott with her strangeness and her defiance of convention and after John Hodiak with his secrets and coiled snakeyness. And Lancaster’s introduced as ‘hammer fisted’ Tom Hanson, erroneously giving the impression that this will be an action film. But note too that by the end of the trailer, Lancaster is given top billing.

According to Kate Buford, in Burt Lancaster: An American Life, Lancaster thought ‘Desert Fury would not have lunched anybody’, later ‘dismissing it as having ‘starred a station wagon’ (loc 1157). The film is really a series of triangles: Eddie (John Hodiak) and Tom (Burt Lancaster) are both in love with Paula (Lizabeth Scott), Fritzy (Mary Astor) has already had an affair with Tom who is currently pursuing an affair with her daughter Paula, Paula and Johnny (Wendell Corey) are both in love with Eddie etc. I have made a not-quite-video essay that nonetheless well illustrates the Johnny-Eddie-Paula triangle, surely one of the queerest of the classic period, which can be seen here:

Tom is really a fifth wheel in the narrative. But by the time the film started shooting, Burt Lancaster was already the biggest star in it.  His part was beefed up to take his new status into account, scenes were added, According to Gary Fishgall, the film was based on a 1945 novel, Desert Town by Ramona Stewart, and ‘ Lancaster’s role was an amalgam of two of the novel’s characters: the embittered, sadistic deputy sheriff, Tom Hansen, and a likeable highway patrolman named Luke Sheridan. Neither character was romantically linked to Paula (p.55). But in the film, he ends up with Lizabeth Scott at the end. All these additions probably contributed to the film seeming so structurally disjointed.

In Desert Fury Tom, a former rodeo rider, just hangs around waiting for Paula to get wise to Eddie, leaving her enough rope to act freely, as he does with colts when taming them, but not enough so that she hangs herself, or so he thinks. Really, he’s extraneous. He gets to walk into the sunset with Paula at the end of the film but the film really ends once Paula and Fritzy kiss, on the lips. He certainly doesn’t get much to do during it, except for a couple of great scenes where Fritzy tries to buy him into marrying her daughter (above) and another bit of banter when she thinks he’s come to accept her offer (below). Mary Astor steals both scenes. In fact she steals everything. Every time she appears, her wit, weariness, intelligence, the intensity of her love for her daughter — she lifts the film to a level it probably doesn’t deserve to be in. But Lancaster is good. These are the only scenes in the film where he looks like he’s enjoying himself.

Tom is the closest the film has to a ´normal character’. Indeed, aside from the character he plays in All My Sons (1948) this is the closest he’d come to such a type during the whole of his period in film noir in the late 40s and which includes all of his films up to The Flame and the Arrow in 1950. Even in Variety Girl, which is an all-star comedy where he and Lizabeth Scott spoof  the hardboiled characters they’re associated with, the surprise is that they’ve already created personas to spoof in such a short time (see below).

    According to Fishgall, ‘Lancaster –billed third before the film’s title — acquitted himself well in the essentially thankless other man’ role. Still, if Desert Fury had marked his screen debut as originally planned, it is unlikely that he would have achieved stardom quite so quickly. Not only did the film lack the stylish impact of The Killers, but so did the actor. Without the smouldering intensity of the Swede and his first pictures’ moody black and white photography, he appeared to be more of a regular fellow, and guy-next-door types rarely become overnight sensations’ (p. 67).

In Desert Fury we’re told that unlike the drugstore cowboys who are now criticising him, Tom used to be the best rodeo rider there was but a while back, whilst wrestling a steer, he got thrown off and is now all busted up inside. Being ‘busted up inside’ is what all the characters Burt Lancaster plays in the late ’40s have in common. He thinks of returning to the rodeo all the time but knows he can never be as good. He used to be a champ, now all he can hope for is to be second best. He knows he ‘ain’t got what it takes anymore’. He’s in love with Paula and she knows it. But she doesn’t know what she wants. He think he does: ‘you’re looking for what I used to get when I rode in the rodeo.  The kick of having people say “that’s a mighty special person” I’d like to get that kick again. Maybe I can get it with just one person saying it’. He will, but he’ll have to wait until the end of the movie.

But even in this,  Lancaster doesn´t play entirely nicey-poo, true-blue, throughout, and his Tom is given moments of wanton bullying and cruelty where he gets to abuse Eddie just because he’s a cop and wants to. And it´s interesting that it´s that moment, which jives so well with the ´brute force´Lancaster was already known for, and which would attach itself to his persona for many a year, that is the one chosen for the trailer.

According to Robyn Karney, in Burt Lancaster: A Singular Man, ‘As the straightforward moral law officer in a small Arizona town who rescues the object of his affections from the dangerous clutches of a murderous professional gambler, Burt had little to do other than look strong, handsome and reliable. Despite Wallis’ much vaunted rewrites, the role of the Sheriff Tom Hanson remained stubbornly secondary and uninteresting, with the limelight focused on John Hodiak as the villain, fellow contract players Elizabeth Scott and Wendell Corey’ (p.31).

  I mainly agree with Robyn Karney except for four points, two textual and stated above: the first is that even in this Lancaster is playing a failure, someone once a somebody that people talked about but now all busted up inside; the second is that that element of being ´busted up inside´leads to a longing that gets displaced onto Paula. If the rodeo is what made feel alive and gave him a reason to live before his accident, now it´s Paula, and the idea that she might also be an unobtainable goal  leads to his outbursts of unprovoked violence towards the rival for his affections, Eddie (John Hodiak).

The other two points of interest are extra textual. Desert Fury is gloriously filmed by Charles Lang. A few years later, in Rope of Fury, Lang would film Lancaster as a beauty queen: eyelashes, shadows and smoke, lips and hair (see below):

  Here, even with his pre-stardom teeth and his bird´s nest of a hairdo, Lancaster sets the prototype for the Malboro Man:

He looks good in technicolour, and Lang brings out the blue of his eyes:

  More importantly, the film visualises him, for the first time, as Wester Hero, a genre that would become a mainstay of his career from Vengeance Valley (1951) right through Ulzana´s Raid (1972) and even onto Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1981):

  Desert Fury was not well reviewed. According to the Daily Herald ‘The acting is first-class. But except for Mr. Lancaster as a speed cop, the characters in the Arizona town with their lavish clothes and luxury roadsters, are contemptible to the point of being more than slightly nauseating’ (cited in Hunter p. 27),

The Monthly Film Bulletin labelled the film a western melodrama, claiming, surprisingly, that ‘The vivid technicolor and grand stretches of burning Arizona desert give a certain air of reality to the film’. Hard for us to see this thrillingly melodramatic film, lurid, in every aspect, evaluated in the light of realism. The MFB continued with, ´This reality is however counteracted by the way in which the sharply defined, but extremely unnatural characters act. Everything is over dramatised, and the title is a mystery in that the desert is comparatively peaceful compared with the way the human beings behaved…Lizabeth Scott is suitably beautiful as Paula and Burt Lancaster suitably tough as Tom. (Jan 1, 1947, p. 139)

Thus, we can see that on the evidence above, the film was badly reviewed, Time magazine going so far as to call it, ‘impossible to take with a straight face’ (Buford, loc1293). But Burt Lancaster´s performance was either exempted from the criticism or its faults where attributed to the film rather than to himself. More importantly still, the film was a hit, Burt Lancaster´s third in a row. Finally, as I´ve discussed elsewhere, the film is now considered by many a kind of camp classic,  a leading example of noir in technicolor as well as arguably the gayest film ever produced in the classic period. 

  José Arroyo

  Burt Lancaster in Desert Fury: Third Film, Fifth Wheel Burt Lancaster got his contract with Hal B. Wallis at Paramount on the basis of a test directed by Byron Haskin with Wendell Corey and Lizabeth Scott for…

#Burt Lancaster #Desert Fury #Lewis Allen #Lizabeth Scott #melodrama #noir #post-war cinema #post-war stardom #stardom #Third Film Fifth Wheel #westerns

[angry3dprintingexodonkey]

A TRIBUTE TO WHO HAVE LIFE FOR OUR LIFE

Open main menu



Search

Kargil War

Language

Download PDF

Watch

Edit

"Operation Vijay (1999)" redirects here. For the 1961 Indian operation, see Annexation of Goa.

The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict,[note (I)] was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LOC). In India, the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay (Hindi: विजय, literally "Victory"), which was the name of the Indian operation to clear the Kargil sector.[22] The Indian Air Force's role in acting jointly with Indian Army ground troops during the war was aimed at flushing out regular and irregular troops of the Pakistani Army from vacated Indian Positions in the Kargil sector along the Line of Control.[23] This particular operation was given the code name Operation Safed Sagar (Hindi: ऑपरेशन सफेद सागर, lit. "Operation White Sea").

Kargil WarPart of the Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts and the Kashmir conflict

Indian soldiers in Batalik during the warDate3 May – 26 July 1999

(2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)Location

Kargil district, Jammu and Kashmir (now Ladakh), India

Result

Decisive Indian victory[1][2][3][4][5]

India regains possession of Kargil

Territorial

changesStatus quo ante bellumBelligerents India PakistanCommanders and leaders K. R. Narayanan

(President of India)

 Atal Bihari Vajpayee

(Prime Minister of India)

 Gen Ved Prakash Malik

(Chief of the Army Staff)

 Lt Gen Chandra Shekhar

(Vice Chief of the Army Staff)

 ACM Anil Yashwant Tipnis

(Chief of the Air Staff) Muhammad Rafiq Tarar

(President of Pakistan)

 Nawaz Sharif

(Prime Minister of Pakistan)

 Gen Pervez Musharraf

(Chief of the Army Staff)

 Lt Gen Muhammad Aziz Khan

(Chief of the General Staff)

 ACM Pervaiz Mehdi Qureshi

(Chief of the Air Staff)Strength30,0005,000Casualties and losses

Indian official figures

527 killed[6][7][8]

1,363 wounded[9]

1 Pilot (K Nachiketa) held as prisoner of war [10]

1 fighter jet shot down

1 fighter jet crashed

1 helicopter shot down

Pakistani claims

1,600 (as claimed by Musharraf)[11]

Independent figures

700 casualties[12]

Pakistani figures

453 killed (Pakistan army claim)[13][14]

Other Pakistani claims

357 killed and 665+ wounded (according to Pervez Musharraf)[15][16]

2,700–4,000 killed (according to Nawaz Sharif)[12][17]

Indian claims

737-1,200 casualties[18][19][20]

1,000+ wounded[21]

The cause of the war was the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers disguised as Kashmiri militants into positions on the Indian side of the LOC,[24] which serves as the de facto border between the two states. During the initial stages of the war, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely on independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents left behind by casualties and later statements by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces,[25][26][27] led by General Ashraf Rashid.[28] The Indian Army, later supported by the Indian Air Force, recaptured a majority of the positions on the Indian side of the LOC infiltrated by the Pakistani troops and militants. Facing international diplomatic opposition, the Pakistani forces withdrew from the remaining Indian positions along the LOC.

The war is the most recent example of high-altitude warfare in mountainous terrain, and as such posed significant logistical problems for the combating sides. It is also the sole instance of direct, conventional warfare between nuclear states (i.e., those possessing nuclear weapons). India had conducted its first successful test in 1974; Pakistan, which had been developing its nuclear capability in secret since around the same time, conducted its first known tests in 1998, just two weeks after a second series of tests by India.

Location



Location of the conflict

Before the Partition of India in 1947, Kargil was a tehsil of Ladakh, a sparsely populated region with diverse linguistic, ethnic and religious groups, living in isolated valleys separated by some of the world's highest mountains. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947-1948 concluded with the Line of Control bisecting the Ladakh district, with the Skardu tehsil going to Pakistan (now part of Gilgit-Baltistan).[29] After Pakistan's defeat in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the two nations signed the Simla Agreement promising not to engage in armed conflict with respect to that boundary.[30]

The town of Kargil is located 205 km (127 mi) from Srinagar, facing the Northern Areas across the LOC.[31] Like other areas in the Himalayas, Kargil has a continental climate. Summers are cool with frigid nights, while winters are long and chilly with temperatures often dropping to −48 °C (−54 °F).[32]

An Indian national highway (NH 1) connecting Srinagar to Leh cuts through Kargil. The area that witnessed the infiltration and fighting is a 160-kilometre (100 mi) long stretch of ridges overlooking this only road linking Srinagar and Leh.[24] The military outposts on the ridges above the highway were generally around 5,000 m (16,000 ft) high, with a few as high as 5,485 m (18,000 ft).[33] Apart from the district capital, Kargil, the populated areas near the front line in the conflict included the Mushko Valley and the town of Drass, southwest of Kargil, as well as the Batalik sector and other areas, northeast of Kargil.

Kargil was targeted partly because the terrain was conducive to the preemptive seizure of several unoccupied military positions.[34] With tactically vital features and well-prepared defensive posts atop the peaks, a defender on the high ground would enjoy advantages akin to that of a fortress. Any attack to dislodge a defender from high ground in mountain warfare requires a far higher ratio of attackers to defenders,[35] and the difficulties would be exacerbated by the high altitude and freezing temperatures.[36]

Kargil is just 173 km (107 mi) from the Pakistani-controlled town of Skardu, which was capable of providing logistical and artillery support to Pakistani combatants. A road between Kargil and Skardu exists, which was closed in 1949.[37]

Background



The town of Kargil is strategically located.

After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, there had been a long period with relatively few direct armed conflicts involving the military forces of the two neighbours – notwithstanding the efforts of both nations to control the Siachen Glacier by establishing military outposts on the surrounding mountains ridges and the resulting military skirmishes in the 1980s.[38] During the 1990s, however, escalating tensions and conflict due to separatist activities in Kashmir, some of which were supported by Pakistan,[39][40][41][42][43][44][45] as well as the conducting of nuclear tests by both countries in 1998, led to an increasingly belligerent atmosphere. In an attempt to defuse the situation, both countries signed the Lahore Declaration in February 1999, promising to provide a peaceful and bilateral solution to the Kashmir conflict.

During the winter of 1998–1999, some elements of the Pakistani Armed Forces were covertly training and sending Pakistani troops and paramilitary forces, some allegedly in the guise of mujahideen, into territory on the Indian side of the LOC. The infiltration was codenamed "Operation Badr";[46][47][48] its aim was to sever the link between Kashmir and Ladakh, and cause Indian forces to withdraw from the Siachen Glacier, thus forcing India to negotiate a settlement of the broader Kashmir dispute. Pakistan also believed that any tension in the region would internationalise the Kashmir issue, helping it to secure a speedy resolution. Yet another goal may have been to boost the morale of the decade-long rebellion in Jammu and Kashmir by taking a proactive role.

Pakistani Lieutenant General Shahid Aziz, and then head of ISI analysis wing, has confirmed there were no mujahideen but only regular Pakistan Army soldiers who took part in the Kargil War.[49] "There were no Mujahideen, only taped wireless messages, which fooled no one. Our soldiers were made to occupy barren ridges, with hand held weapons and ammunition", Lt Gen Aziz wrote in his article in The Nation daily in January 2013.[50]

Some writers have speculated that the operation's objective may also have been retaliation for India's Operation Meghdoot in 1984 that seized much of Siachen Glacier.[51]

According to India's then army chief Ved Prakash Malik, and many scholars,[52][53] much of the background planning, including construction of logistical supply routes, had been undertaken much earlier. On several occasions during the 1980s and 1990s, the army had given Pakistani leaders (Zia ul Haq and Benazir Bhutto) similar proposals for infiltration into the Kargil region, but the plans had been shelved for fear of drawing the nations into all-out war.[54][55][56]

Some analysts believe that the blueprint of attack was reactivated soon after Pervez Musharraf was appointed chief of army staff in October 1998.[46][57] After the war, Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan during the Kargil conflict, claimed that he was unaware of the plans, and that he first learned about the situation when he received an urgent phone call from Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his counterpart in India.[58] Sharif attributed the plan to Musharraf and "just two or three of his cronies",[59] a view shared by some Pakistani writers who have stated that only four generals, including Musharraf, knew of the plan.[lMusharraf, however, asserted that Sharif had been briefed on the Kargil operation 15 days ahead of Vajpayee's journey to Lahore on 20 February.

[citizenscreen]

Marjorie Main is one of my favorite character actors. It’s an impossibility to see her in a film and not find I am smiling broadly. With one of the most recognizable voices in movies, Main managed an abrupt, but lovable persona in many of her films. It is a joy to watch her and to honor her with this entry for the What a Character! Blogathon 2019.

Born Mary Tomlinson in Acton, Indiana the daughter of Reverend Samuel J. Tomlinson and the former Mary McGaughey, Marjorie Main changed her stage name to avoid embarrassing her minister father who disapproved of entertainment careers. She chose the name she did because “it is easy to remember.” Main was born with a thirst for entertaining even while growing up on a farm, quenching her thirst through stock companies from an early age. Her studies of the dramatic arts led her from Hamilton School of Dramatic Expression in Lexington, Kentucky onto Chicago and New York. In the meantime Ms. Main toured the vaudeville circuit meeting lecturer Dr. Stanley LeFevre Krebs whom she married in 1921. By that point, Marjorie Main was a Broadway veteran.

Marjorie’s physical look, her mannerisms, dry wit, and that voice! all made a package that was not easy to forget. Main had an impact on audiences immediately. Her stage work included a long stint opposite W. C. Fields in a skit titled “The Family Ford” that brought them all the way to New York’s Palace Theatre, the top vaudeville house in the country. Main’s Broadway shows ranged from “Cheating Cheaters” in 1916 in which she played opposite John Barrymore to playing Lucy the Reno Innkeeper in “The Women,” the role that led her to Hollywood and one she reprised in George Cukor’s 1939 big screen gem. Marjorie Main had taken a break from performing for a few years as her husband’s lecture demands grew, but she returned to the stage after his death in 1935 with a popular turn as Mrs. Martin in “Dead End,” again a role she reprised memorably on film, this time directed by William Wyler in 1937. That happens to be one of my favorite of her performances, by the way. It’s a small, but affecting turn as the mother of killer Humphrey Bogart.

Main and Bogart in the film version of DEAD END

Ms. Main made her screen debut in William Wyler’s A House Divided (1931) as a town gossip, an uncredited role in crowd scenes she’d repeat in several movies in the early 1930s. She was in her forties, unheard of in the youth-centric movie industry, but the roles Main would excel at called for a special brand of loud maturity. Anyway, it was when Samuel Goldwyn bought the rights to “Dead End” and insisted that Marjorie reprise her stage role that her film career seemed destined for attention. That’s exactly what happened. The movie and her performance were instant hits.

Dead End (1937) proved an important movie in Marjorie Main’s career and for Hollywood in general as it introduced the Dead End Kids who, in one way or another, were subjects of about ninety movies in over two decades either as the Dead End Kids, the Eastside Kids, or the Bowery Boys. Marjorie Main made several Dead End Kids movies playing the impoverished mother of these kids from the slums. She was perfect in the part garnering great reviews along the way. Ms. Main never had children of her own so it was somewhat ironic that in the majority of her roles she played mothers to which she said, “That’s acting!”

The same year Marjorie made Dead End, she played another Mrs. Martin, this time as Barbara Stanwyck’s mother in King Vidor’s three-hanky classic, Stella Dallas. This film too was praised as was Main’s performance with the Hollywood Reporter referring to her as “an artist and her contribution to the picture is out of all proportion to the length of her part.” That was probably true for the entirety of Main’s career including her appearance as a nosy boarding house owner in W. S. Van Dyke’s Another Thin Man (1939), the third of six Thin Man movies starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. You may have heard of them.

Seven films were released in 1940 featuring Marjorie Main. That should give you a clue as to how much her gruff manner and loud, distinctive voice were sought in Hollywood. This included the beginning of a new screen partnership with Wallace Beery. Main replaced the great Marie Dressler as Beery’s female partner and was successful at it even though it was not an easy task to work with him, “Oh my, I should get two checks, one for the acting and the other for working with Wally Beery.” No matter though because the difficulties did not translate to the screen. The public loved Marjorie. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) noticed the audience’s admiration for Marjorie and had signed her to a seven-year contract on October 8, 1940. It was at MGM that Marjorie Main started on a comedic path to cinema history and she was happy to be given the chance.

Main and Beery in Norman Z. McLeod’s JACKASS MAIL (1942), the third of seven films they made together between 1940 and 1949.

It was the movies Marjorie Main appeared in during the MGM years in the 1940s (give or take a year) that made her a warm part of many a childhood, including mine. These include such memorable lavish films as Ernst Lubitsch’s Heaven Can Wait made at 20th Century Fox and such MGM gems as Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis, George Sidney’s The Harvey Girls (1946), and Cy Walters’ Summer Stock (1950). All are favorites and one recognizes the worth of Marjorie Main to the industry by noting the major Hollywood films she was appearing in at the time. Her brand of humor, her stout build and indelible voice were by this time cemented in audiences’ consciousness. An actor who had started her movie career playing upper class dramatic roles could now be counted on for comic relief as matronly maids or ornery, but funny hillbilly types. The latter portrayal was to be Main’s primary legacy at Universal International, rather than at her home studio, which loaned her out with regularity. It’s interesting to note that MGM had planned a series of films starring Marjorie featuring the character of Tish, which she portrayed in the enjoyable 1942 film of the same name co-starring ZaSu Pitts. That movie made a nice profit for MGM so it’s strange the studio decided not to capitalize on a series. By the way, Tish directed by S. Sylvan Simon is replete with legendary character actors.

Aline MacMahon and ZaSu Pitts restrain Marjorie Main in a scene from the film Tish

Marjorie Main made two movies released in 1947, much less than other character actors popular at the time, but the year proved an important one in her career nonetheless. Released in March of that year was Chester Erskine’s The Egg and I, which garnered Main the only Academy Award nomination of her career, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for a portrayal she would forever be associated with. Charles T. Barton’s The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap was released in October of 1947. Although Wistful Widow is not as memorable an outing as The Egg and I, it pitted Main against the legendary comedy duo of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, which all but guaranteed the second hit of the year for the veteran character actor with a devoted following.

The plot of The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap was based on an old Montana law, which stated that a man who killed another man was responsible for the care and support of his victim’s family. Well, our story begins when traveling salesmen Chester Wooley (Costello) and Duke Egan (Abbott) stop in the town of Wagon Gap, Montana on their way to California. It takes no time for Chester to be accused of killing Fred Hawkins, a notorious criminal married to the equally infamous Mrs. Hawkins (Main). A trial and a conviction quickly follow and Chester is stuck with the Widow Hawkins and her brood of seven. The widow is immediately hell bent on making Chester Wooley her new husband and works him to the bone until he agrees to marry her. Meanwhile, as is the case in all Abbott and Costello movies, Bud Abbott’s character coasts along taking naps and eating well.

The Widow Hawkins-Chester Wooley situation turns out to be a blessing in disguise for Chester who eventually becomes Sheriff of Wagon Gap simply because every other man in town is afraid to be stuck taking care of the Widow. Let me tell you, the Widow is a doozy in Marjorie Main style. She is flirty, desperate for a husband, a raucous mother and an unapologetic farm lord. Widow Hawkins is such a character, in fact, that she alone keeps the peace at Wagon Gap, which was a notoriously lawless place prior to her falling into widowhood. Although there are many movie instances wherein Marjorie Main plays characters similar to Widow Hawkins, the resemblance is particularly noticeable in William Wyler’s Friendly Persuasion (1956) wherein she plays the riotous Widow Hudspeth with similar bravado, but with better results. The latter is a better film and resulted in a Golden Globe nomination for Ms. Main as Best Supporting Actress.

With Abbott and Costello as the Widow Hawkins

With Gary Cooper as the Widow Hudspeth

In the end of The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap, Chester and Duke find a way to leave Wagon Gap and continue their journey to California. Mrs. Hawkins gets a new marriage proposal after she is offered lots of money for her farm. It is utterly entertaining to see Abbott and Costello and Marjorie Main together and Universal International was thrilled. Universal had set the mold with legendary monsters in the early 1930s and they had saved the studio’s hide. Later, it was Show Boat (1936) directed by James Whale that had all but kept the studio’s doors open. Now Universal depended almost entirely on comedy, specifically the talents of Abbott and Costello throughout the 1940s and Marjorie Main by way of her most famous hillbilly, Phoebe “Ma” Kettle, a character introduced in Chester Erskine’s 1947 romantic comedy, The Egg and I based on the book of the same name by Betty MacDonald.

Erskine’s The Egg and I tells the story of a young married couple, Bob and Betty MacDonald, who give up city life in order to become chicken farmers. The main characters are played charmingly by Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. The movie is a pleasant one that shows the couple’s escapades, particularly Betty’s, as she tries to put up with the tribulations of an old farm house because it’s her husband’s dream. The disrepair abounds and the chicks, who need constant care, lend themselves to amusing anecdotes. The result was that 1947 audiences liked the film enough to propel it to one of the year’s big moneymakers. In fact, The Egg and I was Universal International’s biggest moneymaker of the decade. That was due in large part to the raw rural charms of Bob and Betty’s neighbors, Ma and Pa Kettle. While The Egg and I received mixed critical reviews, Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as the Kettles were a hit across the board. Of them the New York Times film critic wrote, “… tops as character players, accounting, by their feeling and understanding of their roles, for high points in the film every time they’re on the screen.” That type of sentiment coupled with the box office success of The Egg and I prompted Universal International to produce nine more films starring Marjorie Main as Ma Kettle in all nine and Percy Kilbride as Pa Kettle in seven of the outings. Kilbride retired after the seventh film in the series and was replaced by Parker Fennelly in the last. The eighth film, Charles Lamont’s The Kettles in the Ozarks, does not feature Pa Kettle.

Let honesty reign. I spent considerable effort watching all nine Ma and Pa Kettle movies in succession and could feel brain cells dropping out onto my shoulders. Before irreparable damage was done I gave up. The jokes grow old and the situations more absurd as the series advances. A highlight for me in the first three films is Richard Long who plays the Kettle’s eldest, Tom. Still, one cannot deny the appeal of the two main characters who propelled the series into one of the most popular in Hollywood history. Audiences simply could not get enough of the hillbilly couple with fifteen children – they picked up two from The Egg and I. Ma is a harsh, domineering, loud woman of considerable opinion and Pa, a slight, slow-moving, slow-thinking man with lazy as a middle name. For all their faults, however, you can’t help but love the Kettles.

Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main as Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle had many adventures in film. They went to town, came back to the farm, went to the fair, went on vacation, were just at home, went to Waikiki, were featured in the Ozarks, and finally went to Old MacDonald’s farm. All between 1949 and 1957. Considering they had no formal education (example of Kettle math) and could live comfortably on almost nothing, they were quite adept at living adventurous lives. The entire thing began in Ma and Pa Kettle also known as The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle, the 1949 sequel to The Egg and I directed by Charles Lamont. Here, Pa writes a slogan for the King Henry Tobacco Company and wins a house of the future. And just in time too because their farmhouse has been condemned as a garbage dump. Many hilarious moments later thanks to the modern gadgets none of the Kettles have ever seen, the lives of the Kettle clan are irrevocably changed and, for several reasons, so are ours. We have never met the likes of them before.

Critics were not thrilled with the low budget Ma and Pa Kettle movies, but who could argue with box office returns, which were over $3 million for the first movie in the series and every one after that hit Variety’s Top Grossers of the Year charts. Overall the Ma and Pa series made over $35 million and is credited with saving Universal International. Who did not reap the financial benefits of the Ma and Pa Kettle films? The actors. Marjorie Main considered breaking her contract at various points knowing full well both Universal and MGM were profiting nicely from her portrayals without extending additional perks to the actors.

The Kettle clan in the 1949 movie. One of my life-long crushes, Richard Long, is on the left.

As you’ve seen, Marjorie Main made most of her most famous movies on loan out to Universal. Well, her most famous if you are a casual film fan, but not necessarily her best. For my money her best films were at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which could afford more expensive productions, which translated into richer films. Marjorie’s contract with MGM ended in 1954 and she finished at that studio playing against type, as Lady Jane Dunstock in Mervyn LeRoy’s Rose Marie (1954). I should mention that the film released before Rose Marie was Vincente Minnelli’s The Long, Long Trailer (1954), which I love. In this one Marjorie stays true to popular expectation as a meddling neighbor of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz at a trailer park.

It is fitting that Marjorie Main’s last film appearance came in a Ma and Pa movie, Virgil W. Vogel’s The Kettle’s on Old MacDonald’s Farm in 1957. Ma Kettle gave Marjorie security and comfort while she was able to pursue varied roles elsewhere for many years. Later in life she praised the character for the joy she brought people. Ms. Main’s final acting jobs were in 1958 with appearances on two episodes of Wagon Train. Following that she retired to make an occasional appearance at a premiere or to answer interview questions. Marjorie Main appeared in 85 films over a 26-year movie career.

When one goes back through Marjorie Main’s career you realize she was adept at much more than that character you love to laugh with. However, she invokes an immediate smile like she did my mother who saw her in a movie on TCM recently, “Hey, it’s that old lady!” she said with a smile as big as the sun. That’s not a bad deal at all for a woman who intended to do just that, “I love making people laugh more than anything,” Marjorie Main said. She has been doing that now for about eight decades. I get that Ms. Main could not have known how much she meant to people, but she got an inkling in 1974 at the world premiere of That’s Entertainment celebrating MGM’s 50th anniversary. As the “more stars in the heavens” were being introduced, one of the largest ovations went to Marjorie Main. That was a year before her death of cancer at the age of 85 in April 1975.

What a character, she was. Loud and domineering, but always lovable.

◊

This is my entry to this year’s What a Character! Blogathon, an event I am hosting with Kellee of Outspoken & Freckled and Paula of Paula’s Cinema Club. Be sure to read the entries honoring character actors or all eras. The Day 1 entries are here, the Day 2 entries here, and Day 3 here.

Marjorie Main, a Domineering Lovable Character Marjorie Main is one of my favorite character actors. It's an impossibility to see her in a film and not find I am smiling broadly.

#Character Actors #Ma and Pa Kettle #Ma and Pa Kettle Films #Marjorie Main #Marjorie Main What a Character!

[ggungabyfish]

planning permission: Word of the day for August 6, 2019

planning permission , n : (Britain, construction, law) Legal permission granted by a government authority to construct on one's land, or to change the use of the land. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 of the United Kingdom, which was the foundation of modern land-use planning in the country, received royal assent on this day in 1947 and came into force on 1 July 1948.

#wiktionary #word of the day #planning permission

[emzeciorrr]

planning permission : (Britain, construction, law) Legal permission granted by a government authority to construct on one's land, or to change the use of the land. The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 of the United Kingdom, which was the foundation of modern land-use planning in the country, received royal assent on this day in 1947 and came into force on 1 July 1948.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/planning_permission#English

#wiktionary #wordoftheday #planning permission

[funeralist]

E-Aadhar Card Download

Uidai.gov.in e-Aadhar Card Download Online. E Aadhaar Card Status From UIDAIUidai.Gov.In E-Aadhar Card Download Online. E Aadhaar Card Status From UIDAI

Uidai.gov.in e-Aadhar Card Download: The UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has issued an E Aadhaar card to every Indian resident. UIDAI.GOV.IN, which is a central government agency of India is considered as the largest national identification number project. They insisted every Indian have their Aadhaar card which will serve as their proof of address and proof of identity anywhere in the country.

Uidai.Gov.In E-Aadhar Card Download Online

The UIDAI was formed on 12 July 2016 and is located in New Delhi and it serves as the allotting authority of the Aadhar card. The agency is authorized by the Indian government in order to identify, develop, and set up the essential substructure of allotting Aadhaar cards. The UIDAI was established in 2009 as a part of the Planning Commission of India and it issues the cards with the aid of a number of registrar organizations composed of state-owned units, divisions, Life Insurance Corporation of India, and the public sector banks.

Till now, the UIDAI has issued more than 1.127 billion UID numbers and Aadhaar cards all across India. The UIDAI also works with the Registrar General of India, which is solely liable for census data in India. UIDAI is regulated by Ajay Bhushan Pandey after Nandan Nikelani stepped down from the post.  Prior to this post, Pandey was the Director General of UIDAI for 5 years.

E-Aadhar Card & UIDAI.Gov.In DetailsUidai.gov.in & Aadhaar Card Details

Name Of Aadhaar Issuing Authority

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

Aadhaar Customer Care Number

1947

The inception of Aadhaar Card

September 2010

Validity Of Aadhaar Card

Life Time

Number Of Enrolment Centers

More than 30,000

Number Of Enrolments

119 crore (approximate)

Official Website

https://www.uidai.gov.in/

e-Adhar Card Download Site

Uidai.gov.in Aadhar Card Download Portal

What Is Aadhaar Card, And Its Importance In India

The Aadhaar card contains a 12-digit unique identification number distributed to every Indian resident depending on their biometric and demographic data. This data is collected by UIDAI which is established under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, under the provisions of the Aadhar Card act 2016. More than 99% of the Indian citizens are enrolled in this system. The World Bank Chief Economist, Paul Romer defined Aadhaar as the ‘most sophisticated ID program in the world’. But also keep in mind that, Aadhar card does not work as a proof of citizenship, neither it grant any rights to abode in India.

The UID number issued is linked to the individual’s basic demographic and biometric information like ten fingerprints, photograph, and two iris scans, which are stored in a centralized databank. The ID is issued to eliminate fake and duplicate entries and so that people can verify and authenticate themselves easily with a cost-effective online system, anywhere and any time in India.

An Aadhar card is issued after verifying and authorizing an individual’s details such as name, address, and other officially valid documents. The UID number starts with a random digit 0 or 1. The Aadhar card is granted in any government services like an LPG connection, ration card, kerosene, banks, etc. and benefits under pension schemes, NSAP (National Social Assistance Scheme), e-sign or digital locker. The UIDAI.gov.in website also allows you to verify your Aadhaar number through a user-friendly service called Aadhar Verification Service on its website.

Eligibility Criteria To Apply For Aadhar Card @Uidai

The Aadhar card is distributed to serve the official purposes of any Indian resident. A single Aadhar card can serve multiple purposes and work as an authentic proof of address and proof of identity. When you think about the eligibility criteria for applying for an Aadhaar card, you should know that the card is originated just to establish a person’s identity.

Therefore, The Eligibility Criteria For Applying An Aadhar Card Are:

You should be a citizen of India.

Children under 3 years do not require the Aadhar card.

NRI’s can also apply for an Aadhar card.

Foreigners who are residents of India can also apply for Aadhar card.

UIDAI has not set an age limit for the enrolment of Aadhar card just that, a child below 3 years does not need to provide any demographic details. In this case, linking to the child’s Aadhar number will be performed by their parents or guardians. When the child reaches 5 years, they need to provide their biometric information to update their records in the UIDAI database. If a child has registered their Aadhaar between 5 to 15 years, they will again require their biometric details to update their details in the record.

The re-registrations are required because as the child grows, their biometric differs along with their ages. And if they are not timely updated, then it might lead to false identity and the child might face difficulties during verifications in the future.

How To Apply For Aadhar Card At UIDAI.GOV.IN

An individual should be 18+ years old to get enrolled for an Aadhar card. You’d require all the necessary documents containing your demographic and biometric data before filling up the application. Based on your town or city, you’d need to find the enrollment center near you and once you find it, you need to book an appointment online. In case you are uncomfortable with the online process, you can also visit the center for booking an appointment.

On the day of the appointment, make sure you carry all the necessary documents and get present before time so that there is no possibility of missing it. And once you reach the center you need to follow the below steps:

Fill out the enrolment form. You can also fill it before when you book an appointment online.

Once the form is filled, submit it along with the necessary documents, which includes your proof of address, proof of identity, and passport size photograph. You’ll have to submit your biometric data also which will include your fingerprints and iris scan.

The agency person will also click your photograph for the records.

Once the details are gathered, you are done with the appointment and make sure you carry the slip of your enrolment. The slip will contain your 14-digit enrollment number which will help you keep a track on the status of your application.

There are a number of states and districts where the enrolment is done by the Registrar General of India which disproves the citizens to enroll individually. They are,

Arunachal Pradesh

Assam

Jammu & Kashmir

Meghalaya

Mizoram

Odisha

Tamil Nadu

West Bengal

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Dadar and Nagar Haveli

Lakshadweep

Udupi

Gadag

Uttara Kannada

Haveri

Davangere

Bangalore rural

Chikkabalapur

Kodagu

How To Know Your Aadhar Card Status Online

After you successfully applied for Aadhar card, now you can track the status of your application through the UIDAI online portal. You can also check it with your mobile phone via a text message. Whichever method you use, are hassle-free and easy for anyone to use.

To Check Your Aadhaar Card Status Online, Please Follow These Steps:

Visit the official UIDAI website at http://www.uidai.gov.in/.

Scroll down the homepage and click on the ‘Check Aadhar Status’ under Aadhaar Online Services > Aadhar Enrolment.

A new window will open where you’ll require to fill up the mandatory fields, including your Enrolment ID and Date/Time. Also, enter the displayed Security Code.

Click ‘Check Status’ and the page will display the status of your application.

If you are not sure of your enrolment ID then please check the enrolment slip handed over to you after submitting the form. At the top of the slip, you will find the 14-digit enrolment number and the date/time of the enrolment.

You can also update, reset, or cancel in case you’ve entered the wrong details.

To check your Aadhar card status via mobile, please follow the below steps:

Go to the official website of UIDAI at http://www.uidai.gov.in/.

Click on ‘Verify Email/Mobile Number’ under Aadhar Online Services > Aadhar Services.

Enter your 12-digit UID number and email or mobile number.

Enter the Security code.

Generate the Verification Code.

A verification code will be sent to the mobile number you just entered.

Enter the verification code in the provided space.

Click Verify.

You will receive an SMS whenever your Aadhaar card status is processed.

To check your Aadhar card status over the phone, you’ll need to follow the process below:

Type an SMS or text message UID STATUS followed by the 14 digit enrolment number, e.g. UID STATUSxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Send the SMS to 51969.

You will receive the information associated with your Aadhaar card.

Which Status’ You Can Receive After Submitting The Form?

You may receive the following statuses after filling up the form:

Under Review

Rejected

Successful

An application is rejected for the following reasons:

Insufficient documents were submitted.

Improper details submitted.

Human error when filling out the request form.

In case your application is rejected, you can do any of the followings to get it to work properly:

Fill a fresh request with the exact documents to your Aadhaar center.

Organize the documents and fill up a new form to submit it online again.

Please note, if you have applied for the card at the center and not online, then you cannot check your status online since it is not requested online.