Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 17th, 2011
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Methodist Group To Announce Same-Sex Weddings: NY and CT. A group of over 800 United Methodists in New York and Connecticut will announce today their intention to make weddings available to all people, gay and straight, in spite of their denomination’s ban on same-sex marriage. The announcement will mark the kick-off of a project called “We do! Methodists Living Marriage Equality” to directly reach out to LGBT groups in New York and Connecticut and let them know about clergy members who will perform weddings for gay couples.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Henry Hyde Slurs Barney Frank During House Debate: 1990. It was just another one of those ordinary debates taking place on the floor of the House of Representatives which would have otherwise passed into history unnoticed. One congressman accused another congressman from the other party of flip-flopping, this time a Democrat accusing a Republican of changing his stance on taxes. Barney Frank (D-MA) made the remark that he wasn’t in the chamber earlier when the subject came up but read in the Congressional Record that ten days earlier “someone passing himself off as the Republican leader” urged a vote on new taxes, but then eight days later said that taxes should not be raised. Frank said, sarcastically, that there must be a security problem in the house that allowed an impostor to speak for the Republican leader Robert Michel (R-IL). Henry Hyde (R-IL) leapt to the defense of his fellow Illinoisan and said that the reason Frank hadn’t heard Michel was because “he (Frank) was in the gymnasium doing whatever he does in the gymnasium and he wasn’t available.” The remark was made in reference to an unsubstantiated allegation by a male prostitute (and former roommate, who Franks kicked out three years earlier when he learned the roommate was still escorting) that he had sex with Frank in the House gym.
Rep. Craig Washington (D-TX) called out Hyde, saying he was appalled at Hyde’s remark. “Great minds think about ideas, average minds think about things, and small minds think about people,” he said. A few minutes later, Hyde apologized to Frank: “What I said was in anger. One should never speak in anger. It was out of line.” Frank accepted the apology.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Montgomery Clift: 1920. He was famous for playing what The New York Times described as “moody, sensitive young men.” You know what that means. Nevertheless, his riveting performance opposite Elizabeth Taylor in A Place In the Sun, which is regarded as one of his finest performances as a Method actor, fueled rumors that he and Elizabeth were dating. His next movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess, was less successful. Clift played a priest who was romantically involved with a woman, and that proved too controversial. But he rebounded in 1953 with From Here to Eternity. He lost the Academy Award for Best Actor to William Holden (for Stalag 17), which surprised everyone, including Holden.
The major turning point in his life was in 1956, when he was seriously injured in a car accident. His face was severely injured, requiring plastic surgery. After two months, he returned to the set of Raintree Country to complete that film. His looks were different because of the accident, but that’s not what led to a downturn in his career. The accident left him addicted to alcohol and pain killers, which affect both his health and his appearance, and it led to what observers called “the longest suicide in Hollywood history.”
He did keep working, making as many movies after the accident as he did before. He appeared in Lonelyhearts, The Young Lions, Suddenly Last Summer, and The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe. She was having her own emotional problems, and described Clift as “the only person I know who is in ever worse shape than I am.” His last appearance, in 1961, was in a twelve-minute part in Judgment at Nuremberg. Director Stanley Kramer later wrote that Clift kept forgetting his lines, and so he finally told him to ad-lib them if he had to. It worked, and Clift won an Oscar for best supporting actor. He died in 1966 of a heart attack in New York City.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
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Charles
October 17th, 2011
I heard about BTB, but only started subscribing last week. Why did I wait so long? I realize I have missed all the wonderful updates of our community – news, history, daily agenda, etc. Now I can’t think of starting the day without opening your daily email! Thank you.
iDavid
October 23rd, 2011
Thx Jim for the thorough outline of M Cliff’s Hollywood journey. He was an enigma I found captivatingly surreal. You put together a collage of scenarios that made me take a step back with even more admiration for the painfully intense tangle-strung life of a dauntingly mysterious high-drama movie star.
davids
November 11th, 2011
How did you manage to get things wrong? He was an alcoholic before the accident and in pills. The accident exacerbated the use of both. Also, the defector made in 1966 was his last picture. He died 3 months later. Df
davids
November 11th, 2011
How did you manage to get things wrong? He was an alcoholic before the accident and in pills. The accident exacerbated the use of both. Also, the defector made in 1966 was his last picture. He died 3 months later. Df also the accident was in 1957 and tho nominated 4 times, he never won an Oscar.
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