my understanding is that in the old days
whatever any star wished
happened
courtesy of Klieg lights, accounting, guys with big cigars, top
dressing, tropical grasses
with ships and storms in ponds available on demand
often supplied
to spite rivals
contract artistes were king and queen within limits and what everyone wanted was paramount and universal and united lions roaring and muscled guys banging gongs
stars, made up on a whim, lived a wizard's wishes
larger than cowboys' horses those on silver screens bled like Christ and all his Indians surviving on umpteen dollars a day
in the audience, when the first show was done ice creams and popcorn appeared and folk bought the whole world over before the second feature came
my grandmother was a great fan but in that era I know of only one movie my mother saw alone Ben Hur she walked out during the chariot race missing the second feature entirely coming home shuddering, upset railing at how violent movies had become
it may have been the Blitz and hospital work, who knows but now that I've finally seen the chariot scene and those poor slaves drowning I understand only no amount of watching will tell me exactly what it was she saw one glum day in that movie
David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon
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