Posted by
Sue on Sunday, February 25, 2007 10:38:35 PM
02/15/07
I haven't watched the Oscars in years. Caught brief mentions of who won Best Actor or Actress, but you can't avoid those. It's 7:19 p.m. pst and I am not sure how long it's been on. My daughter and granddaughter love the Oscars, I don't. Not anymore and not for a long time.
The movies in my time had men and women that one could admire. They had actors and actresses that until the last couple of decades, one didn't know how tough their lives had been, how mistreated, how much they suffered. It was all to be famous, of course. But the price paid by so many was so high. They didn't rub our faces in it.
Nonetheless, James Stewart, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Ben Johnson, Tyrone Power, Alan Ladd, Gary Cooper, Ida Lupino, and so many others of that time, gave my life
a lift that today's actors simply can't.
The actors of yesteryear had class. This new crop lacks it. Don't misunderstand me, many are very fine actors but they let their personal lives and beliefs become more important than their craft. Their private lives are lived on the front pages of the tabloids. Their examples aren't high enough or good enough to transport people today.
Maybe it was us. It was a more naive time or should I say innocent. But the performers of my time, truly made tears of joy and sadness run down my face. I loved them in anything they did. But, I didn't know them as people. Only now with hindsight I realize that many of my favorites were already in their forties, fifties and sixties. When you're young, old pretty much looks the same until you get close too.
The actors in my time went off to war. They lightened the hearts of our men in uniform. We lost over 2 million of our men in WWII, but they were never forgotten. John Wayne and all the others saw to that. It was a different time. A different people. A different country. And, I will always hold all the actors of my time in my heart for giving me a product that I could escape into. A product that gave me an opportunity to laugh, cry and scream.
And, to think, it was less than fifty years ago. Oh, how things have changed. The young of today will be the only ones to know, in the end, if this generation will contribute to them, the world and their country with class and honor. I won't be here to see it. But my wish is that they will.
In the meantime, I have good books to read and I'll retire to that rather then waste too much more time watching the Oscars.