Blog Archives

Tales From the Tour: Old Girl Friends, Movie Moguls, Sad Stories, and a Blind Raccoon

Posted on March 17, 2014 by ronbase — 2 Comments

If I’ve learned anything the past couple of months it is this: Do not do a book signing with a blind raccoon. Trouper is the raccoon in question. Kyle Miller has written a children’s book devoted to Trouper’s adventures. She…

Tagged with: A Hard Day's Night, Amazon, Bill Clinton, Brockville, Chicago, Chuck Hagel, Columbia Pictures, CreateSpace, David V. Picker, Eastern Ontario, Emma McLaughlin, Florida, George Stevens, Hillary Clinton, James Bond, John Wayne, Kyle Miller, Last Tango in Paris, Max von Sydow, Midnight Cowboy, Musts Maybes and Nevers, Paramount Pictures, Ron Base, Sanibel Island, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Nanny Diaries, The Sanibel Sunset Detective, Tom Jones, Trouper, United Artists
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Back To School–Without My Turtleneck

Posted on May 28, 2013 by ronbase — 1 Comment

I hated high school. All the more ironic, then, to find myself, nearly fifty years after I had successfully made my escape, back inside the Gulag of my youth. The Brockville Collegiate Institute (BCI, as we called it) celebrated its one hundred and twenty-fifth…

Tagged with: Brockville, Brockville Collegiate Institute, high school, Ogdensburg, President Kennedy, reunion, St. Lawrence River, Steve McQueen, The Great Escape
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And Then Ann-Margret Kissed Me…

Posted on May 1, 2013 by ronbase — 9 Comments

I have known many publicists over the years, but I have never known a publicist like Prudence Emery. Wild, wildly lovable, highly intelligent, no-nonsense, a combination gypsy, therapist, drinking buddy, and den mother, I covered more movies with Pru than…

Tagged with: Ann-Margret, Bobby Darin, Broadway, Brockville, Bruce Dern, Bye Bye Birdie, Carnal Knowleledge, Elvis Presley, Kitten With A Whip, Middle Age Crazy, musical, Pamela Tiffin, Pat Boone, Prudence Emery, Rogers and Hammerstein, State Fair, Tom Ewell, Toronto, Viva La Vegas
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James Bond Saved My (Sex) Life

Posted on September 25, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

I know exactly what made James Bond so popular when I was a kid fifty years ago. Sex. James Bond was not just the world’s most famous secret agent. He was also the first sexual superhero (the only one, come to think…

Tagged with: 007, Auric Goldfinger, Brockville, Casino Royale, Daniel Craig, Dr. Julius No, Dr. No, Goldeneye, Goldfinger, Honey Ryder, Ian Fleming, James Bond, John F. Kennedy, Lawrence of Arabia, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, Sean Connery, The Longest Day, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, To Kill A Mockingbird, Ursula Andress, Vanity Fair, World War II
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Please Don’t Tell My Mother I’m A Newspaperman. She Thinks I’m A Piano Player In A Whore House

Posted on June 19, 2012 by ronbase — 1 Comment

As soon as the curtain rose for the Shaw Festival production of His Girl Friday on a recent Saturday afternoon, I was transported back to the newsrooms of my wildly misspent youth. The design of the newsroom in this funny, inventive re-imagining…

Tagged with: Ben Hecht, Betty MacDowell, Brockville, Cary Grant, Charles MacArthur, Harry Painting, His Girl Friday, Howard Hawks, Joan Barfoot, John Diefenbaker, John Guare, Lester Pearson, Rosalind Russell, Sandy Runciman, Shaw Festival, The Brockville Recorder and Times, The Front Page, The Windsor Star
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The Brockville Boys

Posted on August 22, 2011 by ronbase — 13 Comments

The Brockville Boys, from left: Gord Johnston, Dave Cody, Ron Base, Calvin Prescott. The old home town is just not the same. The apartment where my brother and I lived above the Bank of Commerce at 98 King St.,…

Tagged with: Brockville, Brockville Collegiate Institute, friendship, Recorder and Times, Ron Base
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