{"id":398,"date":"2011-02-26T10:14:51","date_gmt":"2011-02-26T15:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/?p=398"},"modified":"2011-08-25T13:46:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T18:46:32","slug":"valley-of-the-dolls-the-movie-celerythe-vegetable-1967the-year-listssmartest-states-february-26-2011-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vichywater.net\/blog\/valley-of-the-dolls-the-movie-celerythe-vegetable-1967the-year-listssmartest-states-february-26-2011-2\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Valley of the Dolls.'(the movie) Celery(the vegetable). 1967(the year). Lists(smartest states) February 26, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Back in 1967 ‘Valley of the Dolls’ came to neighborhood movie theatres; a few years before (for those that remember) movies had double features, newsreels (what’s that?) and cartoons. Double features disappeared like our vestigial tail after we emerged from the ocean. Reasons for double feature disappearance; people lost interest and didn’t want to sit for so long. Funny thing about evolution, hair spray and Atlantic Blue Fin Tuna; today with commercials, public service announcements, coming attractions and miscellany, we’re back to sitting through an equivalent double feature.<\/p>\n

\"Celery\"<\/a>\u00a0I miss Abbott and Costello, Boris Karloff and Maria Ouspenskaya(she played Maleva, the old woman in 1941 ‘Wolfman’) Can you believe I’m still upset that Larry Talbot(Lon Chaney Jr.) got bitten and smitten; I’ll never buy a cane with a wolf head on it. A decade back I needed a cane for two days after knee surgery and still use it when I leave on a jet plane and need bulkhead seats (which they reserve for the needy) Well I am ‘kneedy’ at 6′ 5″. Ten years ago I pretended to limp around Newark Airport with my cane and at the gate asked for bulkhead. A long airline agent pause, glaring stare; I felt a bit guilty and self-conscious; a tennis racket was in my left hand.<\/p>\n

\"Celery\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

So why ‘Valley of the Dolls’ in the title?\u00a0 Symbolism of the ups and downs of life on earth. The title song by Dionne Warwick reduces me. The YouTube link for song:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9xKkSSKmjbk<\/p>\n

Here’s a verse from song:<\/p>\n

“Gotta get off, gonna get
\nOut of this merry-go-round
\nGotta get off, gonna get
\nNeed to get on where I’m bound”<\/p>\n

Feels like my head is spinning in a red Sedona valley. Maybe it’s 1967. Elvis married Priscilla. Six Day War erupted. Great multi-purpose room at Rutgers Pharmacy School was crowded at lunchtime. Two tuna fish sandwiches in a brown bag were opened next to an oasis of recreation: a ping pong table. A couple of seniors just got back from downtown Newark. I overheard them talking about almost getting (marijuana) high last night. I laughed or was it sulking or fear about another war. \u00a0I was still a few years away from my only (true and I’m not ever running for office) pot inhalation attempt. Some kids in school passed dexedrine around before exams; the ‘up doll’ manufacturer used to promote the drug as a diet aid; good for students and truck drivers if you had to stay awake for months. \u00a0Did I hear that the writer of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ thought he was dying and wrote the novel while high on amphetamines for six months straight, thinking it’s his last chance to write?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0In February, 1967, thirteen helicopters were shot down in one day in Vietnam; I was mortified about that. And I’m thinking now about Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and the earthquake in New Zealand. The Beatles released ‘Strawberry Fields.’ And I frequently think about getting to ‘where I’m bound.’ I was petrified and confused about Vietnam as I am now about the Middle East and the quest for freedom\/peace. And sure, we all worry about gas going to $5.00 a gallon. Hey, if gas goes up 30 cents a gallon, America has to spend $120 million more a day to drive around. In February 1967, 19 people from Mississippi were indicted for the murder of three civil rights workers, Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner. My mood then was up and down like dolls in the movie. “Gotta get out of this merry-go-round.” Just when I thought about taking a deep breath, I heard about a former judge in Pennsylvania (Mark Ciavarella) convicted last Friday of racketeering in a $2.8 million “kids for cash” plot to send youth offenders to ‘for-profit’ detention centers. Imagine a judge sentencing a young teenager, who was about to get a wrestling scholarship, but committed a minor infraction worthy of a just a lecture. However the judge puts the kid away for 6 months and ruins his life while getting a kickback from the detention center for sending the kid there. The kid killed himself a few years later. And if the judge doesn’t get the full 157 year sentence, then “there’s something really wrong here ”\u00a0(from movie “And Justice\u00a0For All” with Al Pacino)\u00a0Here’s the YouTube video of his mother confronting that judge and NBC coverage.<\/p>\n