Unlike most of the people writing about him on the hundredth anniversary of his life, I actually met Orson Welles. As I stood to shake his hand, I do remember thinking, Wow, here I am shaking the hand of the…
Yearly Archives: 2015
At Lunch With Orson Welles
Tagged with: Charlton Heston, Chimes at Midnight, Citizen Kane, John Houseman, John Huston, Ma Maison, Macbeth, Magnificent Ambersons, Michael Maslansky, New Yorker, Orson Welles, Peter Bogdanovich, Raymond Burr, Robert Wise, The Lady From Shanghai, The Other Side of the Wind, The Paper Chase, The Sound of Music, The Stranger, The Third Man, Touch of Evil
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The Lost Comics
Even though they had already been hugely popular in North American newspapers for at least twenty years, King Features, the granddaddy of newspaper syndicates, is celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of a lost, all-but-forgotten art form: the comic strip. As…
Tagged with: Flash Gordon, George Lucas, Gregory Peck, Indiana Jones, Jungle Jim, King Features, Li'l Abner, Mandrake the Magician, Milton Caniff, Richard Outcault, Steve Canyon, Steven Spielberg, Terry and the Pirates, The Guns of Navarone, The Yellow Kid, William Randolph Hearst
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Blowing Out the Candles at Frank Sinatra’s Birthday Party
Frank Sinatra will not attend his hundredth birthday this month. However, Frank was at his eightieth birthday party. I know because I was there with him. You might say I helped him blow out the candles. Mind you, we weren’t…
Tagged with: Anthony Quinn, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Dean Martin, Eydie Gorme, Frank Sinatra, Gigi, Gregory Peck, Hank Greenspun, Louis Jourdan, Maple Leaf Gardens, Martin Short, Mike Myers, My Way, Nat Hentoff, Patti LaBelle, Rat Pack, Sammy Davis, Selma Hayek, Shirley MacLaine, Shrine Auditorium, Steve Lawrence, Tony Bennett, Tony Danza, Vic Damone
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The New Tree Callister Mystery Is Now Available on Amazon
The Four Wives of the Sanibel Sunset Detective has just become available on Amazon. You can download an ebook copy immediately or pre-order the print version and have it on your doorstep when it is published November 21. For your copy of…
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Justin Trudeau’s Dad and Me
In Donald Brittain’s powerful 1978 television documentary The Champions, about the lifelong battle for Canada’s destiny between Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque, there is a shot of Trudeau being interviewed in the midst of the 1968 Liberal leadership convention. Days away from becoming…
Tagged with: Brockville Collegiate Institute, Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party, Oshawa Times, Ottawa, Pierre Trudeau, Progressive Conservative Party, René Lévesque, The Champions
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First Look: Ron Base’s new novel, “The Four Wives of the Sanibel Sunset Detective”
Tree Callister and his old friend Rex Baxter were having lunch on the screened-in terrace at the Lighthouse Restaurant, just off Sanibel Island, when Rex said, “I’m getting married in the morning.” “The song from My Fair Lady by Lerner…
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A Month In Provence: What? I’m Not In Provence?
The black bulls are charging outside our apartment in Uzès. We are in this medieval French town to spend the next month experiencing the joys of Provence. Who knew about bulls? Les tauraux are part of the tradition and commerce…
Tagged with: A Year in Provence, Anduze, Avignon, Boulevard Gambetta, Brigadoon, Comté cheese, Fete Votive, France, Gardon River, Grotte du Trabuc, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Languedoc-Roussillon, Le Bec a Vin, Le Grau-du-Roi, le Pont d’Avignon, Ménerbes, Nîmes, Paris, Peter Mayle, Place auxHerbes, Pont du Gard, Provence, San Quentin la Poterie, The Duchy, the Gard, Uzes
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Gone London
The London of Dickens, the London of countless Masterpiece Theatre portrayals, the black and white London of the British movies of my youth—in other words the traditional London that tourists flock here to experience, that London is fast disappearing. At…
Tagged with: Arnold Circus, Ashford, Big Ben, Brick Lane, Buckingham Palace, Carnaby Street, Charing, Chilham, Downton Abbey, Frank Sinatra, Harrods, Leeds Castle, London, Michael Jackson, Portobello Road, Ray Bennett, Selfridge's, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Tower Bridge, West End, Westminster Abbey, Wolf Hall
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Ron Base Writes 