Showbiz History: Mohican's Opening, Cary's Outing, Audrey's Marriage
Friday, September 25, 2020 at 8:00AM 7 random things that happened on this day, September 25th, in showbiz history...
1936 Another reminder that inappropriate racial casting has been with us always and not just for the common and commonly excoriated practices of yellowface or blackface. Ramona opened on this day in movie theaters, a romantic drama starring Loretta Young as a girl who doesn't know she's bi-racial and Don Ameche as the Native American hired hand that she falls for.
1953 The Actress, a movie about future Oscar winner Ruth Gordon (Rosemary's Baby) WRITTEN BY Ruth Gordon (with Jean Simmons playing her) opens in movie theaters. Spencer Tracy will win the Golden Globe for his performance as her father.
Audrey Hepburn, Last of the Mohicans, Chevy Chase vs Cary Grant and more after the jump...
1954 Audrey Hepburn (25) marries Mel Ferrer (37) in Switzerland. It was his fourth marriage and her first but they were both coming off banner film years as his career was at its peak (he had just starred in Lili) and hers was just exploding (she had just won the Oscar for Roman Holiday). They will make one child and one film together (War and Peace, 1956... though he'll also cameo in a couple of her other films, uncredited) in their 14 year marriage.
1965 The first installment of what would become Truman Capote's non-fiction masterpiece "In Cold Blood" appears in The New Yorker, the writing of which is beautifully captured in Capote (2005).
1980 Chevy Chase gets in hot water when, in a televised interview, he quips of Cary Grant "I understand he was a homo. He was brilliant. What a gal!" Grant immediately sues him for defamation and they settle out of court with Chase issuing a retraction. This interview isn't available online but from this six minute segment, embedded above (which does not include the Grant bit) you can see that Chase was taking no prisoners and he wasn't at all concerned with burning bridges (though the host Tom Snyder warns him not to!). The incident was a bad look for both men and indicative of Grant's problems owning his own sexuality.
1992 The gripping romantic period epic Last of the Mohicans opens in movie theaters... and somehow Oscar doesn't care! Daniel Day Lewis and Madeline Stowe were at their all-time sexiest as the leads and breakout performances by supporting players Wes Studi and Jodhi May helped put those actors on the map.
2018 Bill Cosby is sentenced to 3-10 years for sexual assault.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 37th to Donald Glover. Remember when he did Magic Mike XXL?
Other actors born on this day: Ryu Jun-Yeol (34), Mark Chao (36), Zach Woods (36), Bin Hyun (38), Van Hansis (39), Clea DuVall (43), Catherine Zeta Jones (51), Hal Sparks (51), Will Smith (52), Michael Madsen (53), Jason Flemyng (54), Tate Donovan (57), Mikael Persbrandt (57), Aida Turturro (58), Heather Locklear (59), Jayne Houdyshell (67), Mark Hamill (69), Mimi Kennedy (72), and Michael Douglas (76); Other showbiz types: Rapper T.I. (40), Game of Thrones man David Benioff (50), Pedro Almodóvar (71), Oscar favourite costume designer Colleen Atwood (72), Model Cheryl Tiegs (73), Barbara Walters (91); Gone but not forgotten: Novelist William Faulkner (born on this day in 1897), French auteur Robert Bresson (born on this day in 1901), Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (born on this day in 1905), Russian director Sergey Bondarchuk (born on this day in 1920), Childrens book author Shel Silverstein (born on this day in 1930), dancer Juliet Prowse (born on this day in 1936), Oscar nominated mysterious actress Catherine Burns (born on this day in 1945), Superman Christopher Reeve (born on this day in 1952)
Reader Comments (7)
Isn't it amazing that Oscar didn't go for Last of the Mohicans??! It checks all their boxes!!... DDL & Madeline Stowe were SCORCHING hot together.
and that film score!, my God the score... absolutely beautiful.
Last Of The Mohicans is probably my favorite (straight) romance movie, and my favorite "western" /frontier movie. Heck, it might be my favorite war movie. Why this was not up for multiple Oscars is beyond me, though the thing that has really surprised me is that it seems to be forgotten now. I don't get it. Was it too gruesome or something? Too involving? Not serious enough? Who knows.
Ramona was the movie that Loretta Young was filming when she had to leave the shoot out of exhaustion after shooting several movies in a row. After a few weeks he returned to finish the film but with the news that he had adopted a newborn girl. Actually, that girl was her real daughter, the result of her relationship with Clark Gable.
Ramona is a dreadful film and it's not just because of the blatant ridiculousness that we're supposed to swallow poor Don Ameche (who looks as miserable as he probably was) as an Indian. The story is dumb and it's painfully overlong.
Like everyone else I'm at a total loss at the indifference to The Last of the Mohicans by the Academy. A fantastically propulsive adventure story with just about everything you could ask for from a film including a chemistry between the leads that just can not be manufactured. It flies right off the screen. Madeleine Stowe said that DDL was the most responsive screen partner she ever played opposite. A pity they never worked together again.
I don't think I want to see Ramona as I heard Don Ameche had problems playing a Native American as he was quite progressive in those times and didn't like the idea of racism. It was true he admittedly was reluctant to say the N word in Trading Places as he was very uncomfortable in saying that. Especially in front of Eddie Murphy.
The Last of The Mohicans won an Oscar: Best Sound.
Peripheral story: Many years ago, I went to see Máire Brennan in concert. During the break, I went to see her and told her that my family lost a sister in a tragic water accident and because we could not find her body for days, the song that's always in my mind and heart then was Máire Brennan's song "I Will Find You" from The Last of the Mohicans (a film I also loved like many of you). She was so taken by the story, she gave me a long and big hug and thanked me for the story. When intermission was over, she told the audience about the story I told her and she said that she'll sing "I Will Find You" to me. I was awed and although it rarely happens especially in public, I was in tears. The Last of the Mohicans will always have that effect on me, even if the most memorable thing I remembered was Jodhi May's dramatic fall from a cliff.