A visit by the Queen was mostly fleeting memories …

Posted on September 8, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – In June of 1973, Queen Elizabeth II made a tour of Canada and The Windsor Star newspaper sent me to cover her visit at the nearest city where she would be seen, London , Ontario.

The Queen, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, was in the rain-soaked city for precisely 140 minutes to meet local dignitaries, receive a bouquet of flowers and a gift from the city, inspect an honour guard, sign the guest book, lunch with 500 local bigwigs, stroll through a roped-off section of Victoria Park (where the sun came out) and wave goodbye.

This was my story … Continue reading →

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Recalling Rory Calhoun: car thief, jailbird, movie star

Posted on August 8, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Rory Calhoun was a colourful old-time film star whose real-life story was as action-packed as any movie. Born 100 years ago today, he stole cars, spent time in prison and worked as a logger, miner, cowboy, forest-fire fighter and, briefly, as a professional boxer before he turned to acting. Continue reading →

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When two ‘hippy’ reporters crossed the U.S. border

Posted on August 4, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – With the death on August 2 of my former Windsor Star colleague Bill Twaddle, aged 74, I’m reminded of a memorable escapade we had fifty-odd years ago.

Inspired by Woodstock, many venues in Canada and the U.S. in the early Seventies staged rock festivals including one at Goose Lake just outside Jackson, Michigan, and another at Motorsport Park, known as Mosport near Bowmanville, Ontario.  

There were reports from border crossing points across the province of young Canadians and Americans beng turned back into their own country by customs and immigration officers.  Continue reading →

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Composer Lalo Schifrin on fads and favorites

Posted on June 21, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin, who turns 90 today, is known for his concerts, recordings, film scores such as ‘Bullitt’, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ and ‘Dirty Harry’ and TV shows such as ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘Mannix’ but don’t ask him to name a favourite.

‘I like all of them,’ he told me, ‘because it’s like asking a father which of his children he likes better.’ Continue reading →

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When Gillian Anderson hit a home run onstage

Posted on June 14, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – At the Royal Court Theatre in April 2004, a  tiny, waif-like creature strolls silently onto a wide, spare stage with the audience still settling and chattering and then suddenly becoming quiet.

There is a window to the rear of what is a painter’s gallery and the young woman stares from it for a long time. She comes to the front where her brilliant television eyes make us think we know this person. But any thought of Dana Scully from ‘The X-Files’ evaporates quickly as Gillian Anderson presents us with another Dana, an artist whose tousled, tied-up hair draws back from a face filled with the misery of failure. Continue reading →

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How ‘Oz’ made Judy Garland a legend

Posted on June 10, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Judy Garland was born 100 years ago today and died more than half a century ago but her legend lives on. Mostly, that is thanks  to the enduring popularity of  ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and the song ‘Over the Rainbow’.  If things had gone differently, Shirley Temple would have played Dorothy and even as it was, the picture was not a success when it first came out. Continue reading →

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Why Raymond Burr was called a potato baby

Posted on May 20, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Nostalgia was very much in the air in 1986 when I met Raymond Burr, who was born 105 years ago today. He was in the thick of it. His two long-running series from the Fifties and Sixties – ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘Ironside’ – ran in syndication. ‘Perry Mason Returns’ had been the highest rated TV-movie of the previous year and a sequel did just as well. 

After he died aged 78 in 1993, stories emerged of how Burr had fabricated many details of his private life largely to shield the fact that he was gay. When I spent a couple of hours with him in the piano bar of the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles, that was not an issue. It was true that he was a world traveler, a gardener, a gourmet and a philanthropist. He was a wine expert, an authority on forestry, a grower of orchids and principal owner of a newspaper. Also, he was one of the most recognisable actors in the world. Continue reading →

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One morning in New York with Jack Nicholson

Posted on April 22, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – When he was a major star, Robin Williams told me where he thought Jack Nicholson stood in the Hollywood hierarchy. ‘There’s the rest of us,’ he said, ‘and then there’s Jack.’

One of the finest movie actors ever, Nicholson has long been retired but, as he turns 85 today, he remains an indelible and iconic figure. I met him in New York in 1975 at the junket for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (pictured below). Continue reading →

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Lois Chiles on the trouble with James Bond

Posted on April 15, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Lois Chiles, who turns 75 today, was the first American Bond girl as Holly Goodhead in ‘Moonraker’ opposite Roger Moore (above) but she told me that it hadn’t done much for her career. ’Has it anybody’s?’ she asked. Continue reading →

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When Tom Clancy feared losing his mind

Posted on April 12, 2022 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Tom Clancy, who would have turned 75 today, wrote best-sellers adapted into hit films such as ‘The Hunt For Red October’, ‘Patriot Games’  and ‘Clear and Present Danger’ featuring CIA man Jack Ryan but he told me in 1988 that he was finished with writing because he thought he would go mad. Continue reading →

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