Film fun

The Westbrook Historical Society put on a free movie Friday night in Riverbank Park – the 1942 film “The Palm Beach Story,” starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea and Westbrook’s own Rudy Vallee, as the bashful but lovesick John D. Hackensacker III, rich as a Rockefeller, even if the name wasn’t quite the same. It was great fun, a totally implausible comical farce loaded with clicha characters, winding up to a perfect ending where almost everyone gets a mate.

The plot in brief: Beautiful couple (McCrea and Colbert) married in a fever, five years into it, in debt, and his great idea for an airport hung above a city going nowhere. She concludes she’s holding him back and heads off to Palm Beach to get a divorce. Cadging a ride in a private train car full of aging millionaire hunt club members (the “Quail and Ale Society”) seems like a good idea, but then they get drunk, serenade her in her bed, and start blasting away with their shotguns.

She flees to a sleeper car where she endears herself to Rudy by stepping on his face as she climbs into an empty berth, breaking his pince-nez – twice for good measure. (Why is HE there? Grandfather John D. I taught him frugality).

He buys her an expensive wardrobe, ruby bracelet included, then off on grandfather’s old yacht to Palm Beach, where McCrea turns up waiting at the yacht club, and Colbert palms him off as her brother.

Hackensacker’s sister there falls for McCrea, rich brother and sister both woo them hard, but the couples reconcile and confess, and in the last minute of the film the happy ending: Seems each of them has a twin, so a trick photography dual wedding, with Rudy marrying Colbert’s twin, Rudy’s sister marrying McCrea’s twin, and McCrea and Colbert themselves there, too, to wish them well. Oh, and Hackensacker will build hubby’s airport in the sky.

We were all waiting, and Rudy sang twice, serenading Claudette from the mansion garden with “Good Night, Sweet Heart, Good Night,” backed by a small orchestra.

The movie-in-the park was a trial run for next year, the few attendees were told, when there will be more. It was jointly sponsored by the Saco and Biddeford Savings Institution, building a new branch on William Clarke Drive next to the Westbrook Hannaford’s.

And there lies another story: The bank plans to honor Westbrook by placing a string of enlarged photos of old Westbrook around its lobby. It contacted Mike Sanphy, a member of the historical society who has an extensive collection of old Westbrook photos, and he was able to provide the bank with what it needed. The bank wanted to pay him, but he suggested instead that the Westbrook Historical Society had some needs. So, thanks to Mike, the bank generously has bought the society a lot of equipment, including a laptop computer, the fancy digital projector that played Friday’s movie and a video camcorder.

The very large portable screen the film was projected on is also new to the society, purchased with a gift from Rudy’s widow, Eleanor Vallee.

The man in charge of the whole hookup, screen, sound system, laptop, projector, and running it, with an introduction, was John Morgan, a society member.

We were told that next summer’s movies would include some newer titles. Personally, we vote for the list to include a re-showing of “The Palm Beach Story,” with enough advance publicity to roust out the public in droves to enjoy it.

Diet drama

When I read in the March 2005 New York Times that the well-known soprano, Deborah Voigt, was fired from a production of Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos” at Covent Garden in London because the director deemed her too large to look right in a sleek black dress. I was sorry that her exceptional voice could not sing the part. She had struggled with her weight since adolescence, said that she was a compulsive eater, and actually she had already decided to undergo the most drastic treatment for obesity – gastric bypass surgery. She had the operation at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and lost 100 pounds.

A leading dramatic soprano, she is 5 feet 6 inches tall and used to wear size 30 garments. At seven weeks after surgery, she returned to performing and was already a size 14. She said her goal is to fit a size 12.

Pictures of her before and after her surgery, in the New York Times, were incredible. The slim Deborah Voigt is a beautiful lady. She says she is singing more Toscas than she ever thought she would (that statement was about Puccini’s glamorous Roman primo donna). Some of her recent performances were at the New York City Metropolitan Opera. Her voice, after the operation, is excellent, too. Voigt said that she knew that the surgery could be “extremely dangerous,” for opera singers who lose significant amounts of weight have been known to lose vocal luster as well, famous Italian soprano Maria Callas being the most notable example. Hurray for Deborah Voigt!

Clever couplets

We are happy with the occasional visits we have had with Phin Sprague of Cape Elizabeth when he stops by for a visit with Harry. He has recently sent us a few of his poems and I decided to share a few of them.

The first one is a compliment to Harry and me, and perhaps I am wrong to print it – but we were pleased, of course.

“To Harry and Anne, you bet they can,

’cause anything undertaken is soon overtaken.

Our heroes in print who know how to think

And with great care tell us the truth;

For this, ever grateful, we stand and salute.”

He writes: “Couplets is as far as I can go.

As long as there is so much snow.”

That note was sent to us in cold weather. Now here are a couple of his “couplets.”

“How come all the stars go away,

with the coming on of day?”

and

“Oh my goodness, oh, my dear,

It’s so good you’re finally here.”

This next poem Phin calls “My Favorite”:

“I see him and he sees me

He is as majestic as can be

His walk is very regal

Because he is a seagull

His flight is with very little might

And he soars and lands upon the sand

As light as any bird ever can

His water landings and take-offs

are without a run as he makes off

as fast as any bottle of rum.

To watch a gull will calm the breast

And allow you to forget all the rest.”

Thanks, Phin. You have developed an interesting hobby. Keep it up!

Oldie but goodie

Today’s recipe is from Fannie Merritt Farmer’s “Boston Cooking School Cook Book,” 1930 edition. The original edition was published in 1896. This recipe is one worth repeating, easy to prepare and delicious. She has listed two recipes. I chose the “Brownies I” version. (The Brownies II recipe uses molasses instead of chocolate.)

BROWNIES I

2 eggs

1-1/4 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

1/2 cup walnut meats, cut in pieces

Beat eggs slightly and add remaining ingredients. Spread evenly in buttered 7-inch square pan. Bake 20 minutes in moderately slow oven (325 degrees). Cut in squares.

I don’t have a 7-inch pan, so I used a larger one and baked it a little less than the 20 minutes.