The Original Trixie Norton.

I was going to write more today about the Emmy nominations, but that will have to wait.
Elaine Stritch only gets one day to die, and attention must be paid.
I've been trying to think about what I can add to the discussion.
So much has already been expressed.
Mostly by her.
Just last week, I watched the recent documentary about her, "Shoot Me".
And she pretty much said it all.
What I can add to the discussion is that she was the first actress to play Trixie Norton on "The Honeymooners".
I think it was only one episode, and then Gleason canned her.
She had the bad taste to try to be funny with it.
I saw it.
She was funny.
No clip from that episode made it to the documentary.
You can say a lot of things about Elaine Stritch, but "ordinary" is not one of them.
"Compelling" is one of them.
Whenever she was on stage, she owned it.
Even if you'd already bought a ticket, you still felt obliged to pay her some rent.
Kind of like landing on Indiana Avenue with three houses on it.
I saw her on Broadway four times.
""Company", "A Delicate Balance", "Showboat" and " Little Night Music"
Great, great, great, and forgetful..
In "A Little Night Music", she kept forgetting her lines, and the stage manager kept calling them out.
She was only forgetful in that sense.
Otherwise, she was great there too.
Her attitude was "So I forgot my lines.  Fuck 'em!"
This was a sentiment she actually expressed in her act at the Carlyle, when she blew the lyrics of one of her songs.
And the audience cheered.
She was somebody you probably didn't want to mess with.
But you sure wanted her to mess with you.
Another thing she was, was "Over the top".
Occasionally.
She performed her songs and shouted them for the most part.
Not the best pipes in the world.
But for the  most part, it worked.
In some ways, she was an enigma.
I can't imagine she was anyone's version of a raving beauty.
On the TV series "My Sister Eileen", she played the plain-looking older sister.
And it was good casting.
Yet, she had torrid love affairs with Hollywood's most handsome leading men.
Ben Gazzara, Gig Young......
Go figure.
Even JFK wanted to get into her pants.
She was a magnet for audiences, and I guess for men.
She died here in Michigan.
Not far from where I live.
If it's not a private service, or a private wake, I'm going to make every effort to find out where they are going to be held, and attempt to attend.
I can't imagine it would be dull.

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My books ,"Show Runner" and it's sequel, "Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne and Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays" and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are not
e-books. But they are available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings lined up for those, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one. If you'd like one of the paperbacks, personally autographed, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne and Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube, and my 4-hour interview at the Television Academy's Emmy TV Legends Website.
Here's the link:  www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/mark-rothman

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