Wilson's career

Hoodlum Rock
$1.99

Job-Bridge [VHS]
$78.50

Absolute Wilson
$29.95
Last time I have seen Robert Wilson is at the 2008 Spoleto Festival where his Hamlet was presented on video. It was shown at the end of a conference where he spoke about his first experiences in avant-gard theatre before introducing his Hamlet. These first experiences are the ones on which this documentary focuses since they are the most significant. The most intriguing one is definitely Deafman Glance. It is a silent opera built around the fantasies of a deaf-mute african-american kid that Wilson adopted after he defended him from the harassment of a policeman in 1967. Wilson talked about it at his conference in Spoleto. Before leaving, his last words were Hamlet last words "the rest is silence". There is a sense of tragic and absurd and at the same time a sense of hope in Wilson theatre which is rendered in this dvd.

Not So Dumb: The Life and Career of Marie Wilson
$19.95
Marie Wilson was a minor but fascinating actress during Hollywood's golden era. She was perhaps the quinessential "dumb blonde" in movies, more the innocent kitten who knew nothing than the more sexual big name stars or brassier women who also essayed similar roles. Marie never quite reached full stardom in films where she was almost always cast in a supporting role but she became quite famous nonetheless by the 1940's with her amazingly long run in Ken Murray's comedy burlesque revue in Los Angeles and especially for her long stint starring on radio in MY FRIEND IRMA (1947-1954) as the dingy blonde to end all dingy blondes. Superstardom eluded her but Marie had an amazingly long career for a woman specializing in playing dizzy blondes, she made her film debut in 1934 and was still working in Hollywood at the time of her death in 1972, when her last TV appearance aired just weeks before her death. At her peak in the late 1940's it's amazing Marie got any sleep at all - appearing nightly in the Murray revue, starring every Monday on her radio series, and still making movies in the daytime (and in bigger roles, thanks to her radio popularity).

This 231-page book includes in addition to the story of Marie's life, loads of photographs of Marie (including ad reproductions), a filmography and television appearance list and an amazingly detailed radiography of MY FRIEND IRMA complete with air dates and plot synopsis (taken from archives of the series' scripts). The series ran so long many of the episodes in the last years were performed from previously used scripts rather than repeated broadcasts, although around 60 radio episodes of MFI are known to survive today (easily obtainable on ebay and other net sites) and they remain very funny today.

NOT SO DUMB is a nice tribute to a charming little actress. Since Marie has been dead over 30 years and there are not many from her era in films still around today, it appears most of the information is from older publications, archives, and the like but Charles Tranberg has done a fine job of sorting out the details of Marie's life and career. I was particularly interested in Marie's unsuccessful attempt to campaign for the role of Billie Dawn in the film version of BORN YESTERDAY - there's no doubt she would have been fantastic in the part which could have been written for her stock character, perhaps as good as Judy Holliday (who ultimately recreated her Broadway role on film) but playing a softer, more vulnerable Billie.

I really enjoyed this book although the print text is somewhat smaller than normal for Bearmanor Media, had it been in the regular sized print the page count would be considerably higher (and no doubt the price too, this book is fairly inexpensive, listing $5.00 less than the average Bearmanor title. I think though I would have preferred paying a little more for a slightly larger type. This is a minor quibble though.) The layout of the book is very attractive and this small press title looks as professional as a volume from a major New York publishing house. Let's hope Bearmanor Media keeps the books coming on essential but often overlooked performers from the classic era of Hollywood like Marie Wilson.