Revisiting the time when Cary Grant experimented with LSD
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It is an indisputable fact that Cary Grant was one of the greatest leading men that Hollywood has ever seen. Known for his unforgettable performances in bonafide classics such as The Philadelphia Story and Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal masterpiece North by Northwest, among others, Grant was counted among the most celebrated acting talents of his generation.
Hollywood’s iconic star also had a wild experience during the 1950s while dealing with a very severe crisis. One of Grant’s most famous reflections about his career was: “I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.” At that time, he actively tried to rip open that facade through unconventional means.
LSD is an extremely popular recreational drug now, almost an omnipresent item at parties populated by college kids pretending to have spiritual revelations in dirty bathrooms. However, Grant used it before it entered the mainstream consciousness as a form of psychotherapy to deal with the problems that had been plaguing him all this while.
Back then, he was married to Betsy Drake who took him to meet Mortimer Hartman, a therapist interested in the effects of LSD on the human consciousness. Hartman was an advocate of the drug, describing the experience as “a psychic energiser which empties the subconscious and intensifies emotion and memory a hundred times”.
Ready to put all his troubles behind him, Grant ventured into the world of psychedelics with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised. While recalling what the experience had been like, the star claimed that he felt “an immeasurably beneficial cleansing of so many needless fears and guilts. I lost all the tension that I’d been crippling myself with.”
According to Grant, he embarked on around 100 LSD trips which ended up changing his life forever. These experiences were further explored in the 2017 documentary Becoming Cary Grant, a project by Mark Kidel which explored the man behind the image that had been projected and propagated by the studios and the media.
The documentary’s producer Nick Ware insisted that Grant’s experiences with LSD provided crucial insights about who he was and even ended up aiding their deconstruction of the icon more than anything else. Kidel also noted that Grant was private about his personal life but he wanted to reach out to magazines to spread the word about LSD’s effects and one of these interviews was allegedly read by pioneering psychonaut Timothy Leary.
These LSD trips were so incredibly other-worldly that he had this vision once: “In one LSD dream I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from Earth like a spaceship.” While Grant was indulging in copious amounts of acid, the greatest period of his professional career also happened thanks to projects like Charade and North by Northwest.
Despite his enthusiasm for psychotherapy inspired by psychedelics, Grant eventually reduced his usage and stopped. Even though he left £10,000 to Hartman for introducing LSD to his life which made him feel the happiest he had ever felt, Grant later retracted his views and the director of the documentary believes it was because he had become a father.
In recent years, many researchers have been actively working on finding new benefits of such forms of psychotherapy with lobbyists trying to translate those findings to public policy. Sadly, Grant went back on his own words: “Taking LSD was an utterly foolish thing to do but I was a self-opinionated boor, hiding all kinds of layers and defences, hypocrisy and vanity. I had to get rid of them and wipe the slate clean.”
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Chris Evans to play Gene Kelly in upcoming movie
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H’wood remakes get redux
Celebrities may come, celebrities may go, but not if you’re making a buck remaking oldies which once used to be called moving pictures which once used to play in movie theaters which once we also used to have. Every oldtime bigtime past-time Hollywoodite’s returning. Wait long enough and we’ll get Boris Karloff in a G-string making X-rated love to a naked Marilyn Monroe type. With Gary Cooper watching.
Now comes Chris Evans who was Captain America in Marvel’s whatever and plans to produce and play Gene Kelly in a new movie. Singer-dancer-actor Gene Kelly danced, sang and etcetera’d in 1952’s “Singin’ in the Rain” with Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Cyd Charisse — all now gone. It’s labeled “Best Musical Ever Made.”
So who else is in this one? Andrew Saffir — who does all the bigtime movie screenings — answered: “I don’t know. I only know Boris Karloff isn’t.”
More. Gary Oldman, who’s jazzed up a crate of Harry Potter movies: “I met the cast as kids. Now some are married. Grown up.” Yeah, but still has fans.
“Return to Hogwarts” — Harry Potter’s 20th Anniversary — is casting a spell on HBO Max.
Evans will also produce the upcoming movie. WireImage
Wait. More. 1955 Alfred Hitchcock directed Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in some jewel thief South of France cat burglary robbery thing. It’s coming back. Again. And so what’s a little 68-year difference make except that the newie’s not with Cary and Grace. It’s being remade into a new film to star the “Wonder Woman’s” wonder woman Gal Gadot. I won’t go. I’m still waiting on line for “Gone With the Wind.”
One more. Francis Ford Coppola’s new/old 35mm print coming to the Film Forum. He oversaw the restoration. It’s his conversation about small 1974’s “The Conversation” with Gene Hackman listening into the private chats of Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams.
Coppola: “It dealt with invasion of privacy and its erosive impact on victims and perpetrators. I conceived it 50 years ago. The idea still resonates today.”
“Convo” got three Oscar nominations but lost. Winner that year was “Godfather II.” Also, in case you missed it, that was also Coppola.
His supper cost a song
Don’t go anywhere. I got more. Jackie Gleason’s TV cash register “The Honeymooners.” Coming back to CBS in a female-driven remake. Lady writer. Lady director.
Can’t recall if I told this before — so I’m retelling it in case I haven’t. My late husband, comedian Joey Adams, and I lived on Fifth Avenue, same building as our friend Jackie. We had the 10th floor. He, the penthouse. His bedroom was in red flocked wallpaper. One day our doorbell rang. Gleason. On hands and knees. “Tell Joey I’m broke. I need bread. Tell him I need three grand.”
Jackie Gleason’s “The Honeymooners” is getting remade with a female lead on CBS. EPA
Understand, Gleason was then TV’s No. 1 comedy star. Earning millions. ”Honeymooners,” his weekly show, on for years, was the big number.
In those days, before credit cards, guys had access to cash. No questions asked, Joey peeled off $3,000. That very night we all had dinner together in a restaurant. Gleason blew the whole $3,000 on hiring a band to serenade Joey.
In line with our new back and forth interstellar moon rockets:
Melvin the Martian lands in New York. The spaceship’s front wheel breaks off. Whizzing past a deli Melvin sees bagels in a deli and radios back: “Get one for a wheel.” He’s told: “Not a wheel. It’s a bagel. You eat them.” Slicing one in half, a waiter offered it to him. Grinned Melvin: “This is great. Needs only cream cheese and lox.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.
A story of transitions: Live theater returns to Chelsea’s Purple Rose with ‘Under Ceege’
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Read what you will about the city of Inkster and its economic woes or crime problems but playwright Jeffry Chastang, who grew up there, sees a different Inkster.
He sees a city that felt like home, a city with a unique and complicated history that dates back to Detroit’s housing shortage after World War I and policies that restricted where Blacks could live.
“My family has been here almost 100 years,” said Chastang. “They moved here in 1927.”
Inkster figures prominently in Chastang’s new play, “Under Ceege,” making its world premiere Wednesday at Chelsea’s Purple Rose Theatre, one of Michigan’s premiere regional theaters.
The play — which centers on a multigenerational family living in an Inkster housing complex, including an adult son who wants his mom to move to a better area and doesn’t understand why she wants to stay — is the Purple Rose’s first live production in nearly two years since COVID-19 hit.
Katie Hubbard, the Purple Rose’s managing director, said the theater did a virtual reading of “Under Ceege” during the pandemic and everyone fell in love with the story and characters.
“There are so many great Detroit specific references that our audiences will love,” said Hubbard. Chastang’s work “is new to the Purple Rose as well as the artists and understudies that make up this cast. The play supports so much of what we want this return of the Purple Rose to be. Inclusive, diverse, and welcoming to new and returning artists and patrons, yet remaining at the heart of our mission to create new original work.”
And for a play that Chastang says is really about transitions — a family in transition in a city also in transition — that’s appropriate for the Purple Rose, which also is in the midst of change after its longtime artistic director, Guy Sanville, stepped down last fall amid allegations of creating a toxic workplace. A search for a new director is ongoing, said Hubbard in a message to patrons on the Purple Rose’s website.
“Under Ceege” takes its name from a nickname for the son in the play, Cary Grant or CG for short. Ceege lives with his mother, Lucky, whose father has just died. Together, they live in the same Inkster housing complex — and play the lottery — where Lucky has spent her entire life. But her son wants her to consider moving to Annapolis Park Historic District, a Westland neighborhood with neat ranches.
Director Lynch Travis believes many will be able to relate to “Under Ceege,” especially for families with different generations and adult children trying to determining what’s best for older ones.
“You want the best for them,” said Travis. But “maybe your idea of what the best is doesn’t match theirs.”
Inkster, located 14 miles west of Detroit, became home to thousands of Black workers in the early 20th century because of a lack of housing in Detroit and redlining practices. In 1920, Detroit Urban League President John Dancy found 140 acres in Inkster without restrictive covenants to build homes, according to The Henry Ford.
“That’s how a lot of Henry Ford’s Black workers got to Inkster,” said Chastang. “That’s how my uncle and aunt and another couple who they came from Georgia with got to Inkster, moved to Inkster. Henry Ford built a lot of homes for his Black workers in Inkster.”
Ford has been criticized for his paternalism, but “I always say you have to put it in the context of the times,” said Chastang. “It was light years better than what they left behind, particularly in the South.”
“Under Ceege” opens with the death of Lucky’s father, Ceege’s grandfather. And while her son wants her to move, Lucky plans to die in the same complex where she’s spent her life.
“She was strongly rooted there,” said Chastang, who in his 50s lives in Westland now but has family still in Inkster.
Growing up Inkster, Chastang remembers feeling the city’s transition when segregation lifted and people could live wherever they wanted. But even as negative stories dominant Inkster, “there were so many beautiful people there,” he said. “It’s so much more than that.”
‘Under Ceege’
at the Purple Rose Theatre, 137 Park Street in Chelsea.
Thursday through March 12
Go to https://www.purplerosetheatre.org/
Arsenic and Old Lace: A Hysterical Classic
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Arsenic and Old Lace, a black comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Cary Grant, is just as funny now as it was in 1944.
Shot over the course of eight weeks in late 1941, the film wouldn’t see the light of day until 1944. Broadway plays are always a great source material for films. However, Broadway producers were always worried that movies would impact their attendance. At least, this was the case during the Classic Hollywood era. Because of this, many movies would not be released until after the run on Broadway ended. Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, and John Alexander reprise their role in the film. However, Boris Karloff stayed in the show so that the play wouldn’t lose money during the film’s production. Raymond Massey steps in for Karloff in the film. Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, who would win an Oscar for Casablanca, adapt their screenplay from Joseph Kesselring’s play.
On Halloween, Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), a writer, marries Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane). Ironically, Brewster has denounced marriage. Anyway, they go back to their Brooklyn neighborhood so Elaine could pack. Mortimer uses this time to visit his aunts, Abby (Josephine Hull) and Martha (Jean Adair), and mentally ill brother Teddy (John Alexander). Teddy believes that he is President Theodore Roosevelt and always charges up the staircase. Anyway, Mortimer discovers a body in the window seat. Naturally, he assumes that it’s because of Teddy. He becomes horrified to learn that his aunts are culprits. Moreover, they are serial murderers!
Just when things couldn’t get worse, Jonathan Brewster (Raymond Massey) returns home with Dr. Herman Einstein (Peter Lorre). Nobody wants him home and it shows. Like his aunts, he is also a serial murderer and brings the body of Mr. Spinalzo with him. I love how they go for hardly any lighting when people are moving dead bodies around. While all of this is going on, Mortimer is trying to commit Teddy to the Happy Dale Sanitarium. He realizes his family has a history of mental illness and decides that he can no longer go forward with his marriage. Chaos continues to ensue as both the cops–including aspiring playwright, Officer Patrick O’Hara (Jack Carson)–and Dr. Witherspoon (Edward Everett Horton) show up. Listen, I’d tell you what happens next but you really should see for yourself.
Unlike a lot of the studio players during this era, Grant was a free agent. Grant had commitments for one film a year at both Columbia and RKO. To make the film, Warner Bros. loaned out Humphrey Bogart to Columbia for Sahara. Of his $150K salary to work on the film, he only kept $50K. The rest went to a combination of the British War Relief (Southern California branch), American Red Cross, USO and another $10K to his agent.
One thing that never gets old while watching this film is Cary Grant’s facial gestures. This is never more true than seeing his reaction after opening the window seat. Grant is one of the best comic actors of all time and his reaction is gold. I mean, how would you react to discovering a corpse? Grant described his performance as being “way over the top.” It was a film that he felt “embarrassed doing it.” The actor felt he “overplayed the character” and that “Jimmy Stewart would have been much better in the film.” Regardless of Cary Grant’s thoughts on the film, Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the best comedies of all time.
DIRECTOR: Frank Capra
SCREENWRITERS: Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein
CAST: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, with Raymond Massey, Jack Carson, Edward Everett Horton, Peter Lorre, James Gleason, and Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, John Alexander, Grant Mitchell
Warner Bros. released Arsenic and Old Lace in theaters on September 23, 1944.
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4 Takeaways From Andrew Goldman’s Never-Before-Heard Peter Bogdanovich Interview for ‘The Originals’
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During an interview before he died, the late director opened up about his previous relationships and how he hated working with Cher on ’Mask’
On the latest episode of Los Angeles’ podcast, “The Originals,” Andrew Goldman shares his career-spanning 2019 interview with director Peter Bogdanovich, who died on January 6 at 82 years-old. In the episode, the Last Picture Show and Mask director is shockingly candid about his tempestuous personal life and the extreme highs and lows of his career.
The 1974 Los Angeles magazine cover illustrating this article had a minor role in his undoing. The public began to turn against Bogdanovich in the mid-Seventies after he and girlfriend Cybill Shepherd, for whom he left his wife, began appearing on magazine covers together celebrating their love. “We were on the cover of Los Angeles magazine, where [Shepherd] was sticking her tongue out of the camera,” Bogdanovich said. “People didn’t like that. I showed Orson [Welles] a copy of People and he leafed through it and said, ‘I don’t know if I like this.’ Cary Grant called me and said ‘Peter, will you for Christ’s sake, stop telling people you are happy and stop telling them you’re in love…Because they’re not happy and they’re not in love!’ He was right.”
Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022) with Cybill Shepherd on the cover of the June ‘74 issue of @LAmag pic.twitter.com/SYBRFnYySC — Chris Nichols (@ChrisNicholsLA) January 7, 2022
Bogdanovich found nothing to like in Marvel and DC films. “This superhero shit is so boring to me,” Bogdanovich said. “It’s just special effects. One of the great things about movies is they are a great recording device for things that happened. So when you see Astaire and Rogers dancing, it’s not tricks. There’s no special effects. The glory of movies that you’re seeing something that actually happened so it’s almost like a documentary of that moment. And now that they can do anything in special effects, who gives a shit? It’s all fake.”
The lyrics of Frank Sinatra’s song “Nancy (With The Laughing Face)” provided justification for his biggest scandal. In 1988, the then 49-year-old Bogdanovich was the subject of a huge tabloid scandal after he married Louise Stratten, the 20-year-old sister of his Playboy Playmate girlfriend Dorothy Stratten, who had been murdered eight years before. “I met [Louise] when she was 11 and a half,” Bogdanovich said. “Dorothy brought over to the house on New Year’s Day in 1980. We loved Dorothy, we both tragically felt lost without her, and we just got close and eventually got married. They made such a big deal out of the fact that I married her sister. In fact, why not? There’s a line in a famous song by Frank Sinatra, ‘You can’t resist her, sorry for you she has no sister. No [angel could] replace.”
Bogdanovich never forgave Bob Fosse for directing Star 80. Bogdanovich was appalled to learn that Bob Fosse was directing Star 80, the 1983 film about Dorothy Stratten’s murder. “Star 80 was completely ridiculous,” Bogdanovich said. “I knew Bob Fosse, and when I heard he was making Star 80 and I called him and I said, ‘Bob, if it happened to you, I wouldn’t do a movie about it.’ It was a terrible movie. The first time I appear on the screen under a different name, [the director character] says to her, ‘So what do you know about me?’ I thought to myself, ‘Okay, Bob, I get it. You’re a fucking asshole too.’ Jealous, envious, fucking awful.”
PLUS: one online-only extra not included in the episode.
Bogdanovich says Cher was the most difficult actor he ever worked with. Bogdanovich did not enjoy directing the singer for his 1985 film Mask. “[Cher] can’t act. She can’t sustain a scene. She’d start off in the right direction, but she’d go off wrong very quickly. So I shot a lot of closeups of her because her eyes have the sadness of the world. When you get to know her, you find out it’s self-pity, but still, it translates well in movies. I didn’t like her. I came on set and I said, ‘You know, you depress me. You’re always so down and acting like somebody’s stealing from you or something.’”
Listen to the new episode of The Originals podcast.
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