Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 12 april 2018
Review: Book on film 'Giant' a window into 1950s Hollywood

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL new maturity to his movie happily with Stevens, her The male co-stars disliked
No matter what you think career. His long standing as director for "A Place in the each other. By some ac-
of the 1956 epic "Giant" a top director ("Gunga Din" Sun" a few years earlier. counts Hudson thought
— some love it as an all- and "Shane," among oth- She was with husband No. Dean was crude and un-
time favorite, some find ers) helped fend off Warner 2, actor Michael Wilding, professional while Dean
it overblown — Don Gra- Bros. boss Jack Warner as and a mother of two young dismissed Hudson as a Hol-
ham's book is an entertain- the "Giant" budget nearly boys, yet skipped off to lywood actor not up to
ing case study for anyone doubled to accommodate West Texas for weeks of lo- Actors Studio standards
who wants to understand Stevens' desire for loca- cation shooting. Before the — and too fey for Dean's
how Hollywood lived and tion shooting and plenty of movie came out she was tastes, which spanned the
breathed in the mid-1950s. footage — he took a year separated from Wilding sexual universe from Mars
His behind-the-scenes story just to edit the seemingly and six months from marry- to Venus. "Giant" was still
provides as much drama endless amounts of film. ing again. in production when Dean
as director George Stevens' Shooting in little Marfa, Her two co-stars competed fatally crashed his Porsche
sometimes lumbering mov- Texas, instead of Southern for her attention, in Hud- sports car on a California
ie about a handsome but California gave British-born son's case a deep friend- highway in September
hidebound cattle baron Elizabeth Taylor and Mid- ship rather than a movie- This cover image released by 1955. He would compete
who brings his East Coast westerners Rock Hudson set romance. Just 29, he St. Martin's Press shows "Giant: with Hudson posthumously
bride to a not-so-little house and James Dean a stron- was fearful his career up- Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, for Oscar honors, but the
on the prairie. ger sense of their charac- swing would be ruined if James Dean, Edna Ferber, only Academy Award from
In the book "Giant," writer ters and the land that im- word got out that he was and the Making of a Legend- the movie's 10 nominations
ary American Film," by Don
Edna Ferber did what she pacted their lives. Among gay. After completing his Graham. would go to its director.
had done so well in the the delights of Graham's role in "Giant" he married Associated Press Warner's investment paid
best-sellers "Show Boat" making-of book are their his agent's secretary. The off financially when "Giant"
and "Cimarron," present- fish-out-of-water experi- movie brought Hudson he was the quintessential brought in $12 million at
ing a barbed social history ences and the everlasting new respect, plus an Oscar bad boy, showing up late, the box office, trailing only
of a place and its people influence of "Giant" on Mar- nomination and top rank- driving fast, turning rude mega-hits "The Ten Com-
riven by family clashes and fa itself. Stevens welcomed ing at the box office. He to colleagues and guests mandments" and "Around
conflicting business inter- all visitors to his set, espe- and his wife soon separat- without warning — in gen- the World in 80 Days" in a
ests (cattle versus oil) and cially the local folks, who ed and he returned to his eral, a glutton for attention year when the average
stained by racism (white got an eyeful of celebrities secret life. and a bur under his direc- ticket cost 60 cents. Wheth-
mistreatment of Latinos). and moviemaking. Dean liked to be mothered tor's saddle. Yet Stevens er it holds up artistically is
Real-life Texans waited and Stevens had to corral wildly by Taylor and most other discovered what directors arguable, but the film is a
worried to see how their different personalities on women in his orbit, having Elia Kazan ("East of Eden") fine example of the post-
state would fare in a movie his set, and each gets an lost his own mother when and Nicholas Ray ("Rebel war epic drama. Graham
version. All that tension ap- insightful mini-biography he was a child. He might Without a Cause") already makes the most of the toil
pealed to Stevens, then 50, in Graham's pages. Taylor, have had the most to gain knew: Dean was a pain, and trouble behind "Giant,"
whose documentary work 23, and just starting to take from "Giant," only his third but you couldn't take your bringing to life an era of
in Nazi death camps dur- acting seriously after nearly film after numerous televi- eyes off him when he was filmmaking that's gone with
ing World War II brought a two dozen films, reunited sion appearances. At 24, on the screen. the West Texas wind.q

Yvonne Staples of hit-making Staple Singers dies in Chicago

By CARYN ROUSSEAU interested in singing as limelight, Carpenter said.
CHICAGO (AP) — Yvonne the rest of her family but "She didn't want to talk
Staples, whose voice and stepped in when her broth- about her own singing,"
business acumen powered er, Pervis, left for military Carpenter said. "She said
the success of the Staple service, according to fam- 'Mavis is the star. Mavis is
Singers, her family's hit- ily friend Bill Carpenter, au- the voice.' She never cared
making gospel group that thor of "Uncloudy Day: The about attention for herself."
topped the charts in the Gospel Music Encyclope- Yvonne Staples was Mavis
early 1970s with the song "I'll dia." Yvonne Staples also Staples' road manager un-
Take You There," has died. helped her father with busi- til recent years, Carpenter
She was 80. ness tasks, Carpenter said. said.
Staples died Tuesday at "She was very no nonsense The family's music career
home in Chicago, accord- but at the same time had had its roots with Pops
ing to Chicago funeral a heart of gold," Carpenter Staples, a manual laborer
home Leak and Sons. said. "But when it came to who strummed a $10 guitar
She performed with her sis- business she was very strict. while teaching his children This March 15, 1999 file photo shows the sibling group The Staple
Singers, from left, Pervis, Cleotha, Pops, Mavis, and Yvonne at
ters Mavis and Cleotha and If this is what the contract gospel songs to keep them the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York.
their father, Pops, on hits said, this is what you better entertained in the eve- Associated Press
such as "Respect Yourself" do." nings. They sang in church
and "I'll Take You There," Staples was inducted into one Sunday morning in group became an unlikely active in the civil rights
their first No. 1 hit. The fam- the Rock and Roll Hall of 1948, and three encores hit maker for the Stax label. movement after hearing
ily was also active in civil Fame with her family in and a heavy church offer- The Staple Singers had a the Rev. Martin Luther King
rights and performed at the 1999. The group also re- ing basket convinced Pops string of Top 40 hits with Stax Jr. deliver a sermon while
request of the Rev. Martin ceived a lifetime achieve- that music was in the fam- in the late 1960s, earning they were on tour in Mont-
Luther King Jr., the Chicago ment award from the ily's future — and the Staple them the nickname "God's gomery, Alabama, in 1962.
Sun-Times reported. Grammys in 2005. Still, Sta- Singers was born. greatest hitmakers." They went on to perform at
Yvonne Staples wasn't as ples wasn't interested in the Two decades later, the The family also became events at King's request.q