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1. The
Shrine to Cary Grant |
11. Cary Memorabilia Where to buy? 12. How can I dress like Cary Grant? 13. Was
Cary Grant Jewish? |
3. Why is all this physics stuff
linked to a Cary Grant
Page? 4. I have a Mac but I still can't
play these AIFF sounds, what's up with
that? 6. Where can I get information
about the life of Cary
Grant? 8. I've seen a picture on the web
of Cary Grant taking acid. Can this be
true? 10. The Cary Grant movie I want is
out of print. What can I
do? 11. Where can I buy Cary
memorabilia? What is this certain item of memorabilia
worth? Cary Grant memorabilia is surprisingly
affordable and readily available, thanks to E-Bay. A word of
caution, make sure you understand the rules of bidding, and
make note of whether a poster or print is an original or a
reproduction. With autographs, more authentification is
usually required so e-mail the seller before you bid to find
out about their authenticity. Remember that E-bay isn't the
only source (there are companies like Iconographics
that deal in original posters, lobby cards and reprints).
Some antique and collectable shops might also have items
like old movie magazines that are alot of fun and a good way
to get more of the context of Cary's films. I get many questions about what a
certain piece of memorabilia is worth. You'd be amazed the
items that people have offered to sell me or asked me about
the value--everything from Cary's house in Bristol to a
racoon skin coat that he once owned. I usually check E-bay
for similar items or ask the Warbrides what they think since
there are some serious collectors on the Warbrides list. If
the particular item that you want to evaluate is not movie
memorabilia but a personal item then it's a bit trickier.
First you need to determine the condition of the item as an
antique, apart from Cary Grant, then see if you can find
some way to authenticate it. Having definitive proof that an
item was owned by Cary or used in one of his films would be
the determining factor in whether an item is worth big bucks
at an auction house or little bucks on E-bay. This comes from an interesting
question that recently landed on the Warbrides list asking
about who Cary Grant's personal tailor was. I've also gotten
questions in the past about what type of suit he wore in a
certain movie, or "How can I get that Cary Grant look?" I
don't know if we will ever come up with the name of his
personal tailor (there were many over the years I'm sure)
but it brings up an important point. If you want that Cary
Grant look you're never going to get it off the rack. You
need a quality garment (either vintage or vintage-styled)
and have it tailored to fit you. Cary was famous for being
meticulous in his appearance, never appearing in public
unless his clothes were clean, perfectly pressed and put
together with that Cary flare. Details like his monogrammed
hankie in North By Northwest or those suave shades he wears
in the same movie gave him that extra class. In his early
films his clothes were provided by the studio wardrobe
department. In some of his later films certain prominent
items of clothing, like the famous blue suit in North By
Northwest, were provided by garment manufacturers as part of
a promotional tie-in. A good way to get a sense of the
styles of the classic film era is to look at old movie and
fashion magazines of the era. Reading the ads can be as
informative as the articles, because they give you an idea
of not only what people wore, but HOW they wore them.
For the Warbrides, a fun part of the
last Caryvention was dressing up in the spirit of the era.
What is your favorite Cary co-star wearing in your favorite
movie? Maybe you can get a dress like than on E-bay or by
looking at vintage clothing stores. Remember that
appropriate accesories and tailoring are important to
achieve that urbane look in the spirit of Cary. This question pops up from time to
time. The source of this rumor is two-fold. The most
detailed exploration of this question was in Higham and
Mosely's biography "The Lonely Heart" which contends that
his mother Elsie Leech, wasn't his birth mother. They
theorize that his real mother was a seemstress in the same
factory where his father worked. This supposed real mother,
whose name remains unknown was Jewish according to local
rumors. Frankly I have a tendency to take most of what was
written in "The Lonely Heart" with a huge grain of salt.
Since there is little evidence to support this entire
theory, except for a an off-hand remark Cary made, which was
reported second-hand, and the fact that his birth was not
recorded until several days after it occured (a fairly
common practice in days when people still delivered babies
at home). If the question of his ethnicity is a
bit vague, his religious beliefs are fairly well-documented.
Apart from attending church as part of his early education
(as is quite common in English schools), Cary did not
practice any religion in any formal or traditional sense. In
his own writings, his ideas on spirituality and God are
fairly generic and agnostic. Cary did believe strongly in
personal-introspection and reflection, but these he
practiced in the context of modern psychology and in the
spirit of self-improvement.
The Shrine was established by Jenny Curtis in a kitchen
cupboard in Minneapolis. It started out as joke. A friend of
mine gave me a picture of CG (Cary Grant), but I didn't know
where to put it. It wound up in the cupboard, and it was
noted that it looked like some kind of shrine. From humble
beginnings in 1990, as one postcard and some bowls, the
Shrine has grown to include tokens brought by visitors over
the years. The Shrine has been given a yearly facelift to
incoporate new items into the overall layout. It has been
moved four times, and put into storage twice, until it came
to rest in the deluxe cupboard that's its current home. On
April 15, 1996, the Shrine went into cyberspace and can now
be seen on the web at
URL< http://www.hep.umn.edu/~tpi-web/CG_Shrine>.
The Shrine is dedicated to all things urbane. Questions,
comments and items for the Shrine can be sent to
jenny@physics.spa.umn.edu
The Crack Pot Critic is the alter ego of Jenny Curtis. She
is a crack pot because she has no real credentials as a film
critic. She took a few courses in college and even held film
as a minor for a day or so until she saw the reading load.
To paraphrase, Alexander Pope, "A little knowledge is a
dangerous thing." One spring, faced with unemployment, the
Crack Pot critic spent a lot of time in the basement of
Walter Library at the University of Minnesota watching the
three Cary Grant movies the library owned, over and over.
After an intervention by a concerned friend, she found a job
and forgot about Cary Grant for a while. The Crack Pot
critic settled down for a few years, working on her
unpublished masterpiece "Love Kills: Thematic Similarities
between Sid and Nancy and Wuthering Heights." Her big break
came as the in-house critic for the Shrine to Cary Grant
where she can be currently found working on multi-media
essays such as "Screwball Guru" and "Divorce and the
Sanctity of Marraige in the Films of Cary Grant." While the
Shrine job doesn't pay much, it affords her an oportunity to
vent her suspect ideas on the public in little reviews
called Pot Shots. This keeps her out of the basement of
Walter Library, for now anyway.
Because Jenny Curtis also maintains the Theoretical Physics
Institute homepage. They were gracious enough to let her use
their server space to set up the Shrine--very urbane of
them. The content of the Shrine to Cary Grant is in no way
regulated by the Physics Department or the University of
Minnesota. The content of the Shrine and its links are the
sole responsibility of Jenny Curtis.
The Shrine to Cary Grant highly recommends SoundApp for Mac
users. It is wonderful for converting almost any sound
format, including AIFF and Windows Waves. SoundApp can also
play and edit sound from quicktime movies. You can get
SoundApp and all other Mac sound utilities for free at URL:
http://www.wimmera.net.au/wimhome/macsound.html
No, there are no remaining active fan clubs, that I'm aware
of, but there is the next best thing: a Cary Grant Mailing
List, called the E-mail Warbrides. Zoë from the
Ultimate Cary Grant pages started the list on July 15th
1996, where Cary Grant fans can discuss his movies and life.
To subscribe, visit http://www.egroups.com/group/warbrides/info.html
to find out more about the list, chats, polls and other
events.
My
book has a biography. There
are also several biographies available in print: But I also
highly recommend the Internet
Biography available on the
Ultimate Cary Grant Pages.
I wish I could give you a straight answer on this
one, but the debate rages on. Higham and Moseley's
biography, "The Lonely Heart," contended that he was
bi-sexual. Cary Grant lived for a number of years with actor
Randolph Scott, with whom he acted in the movie My
Favorite Wife. This co-habitation started rumors in
Hollywood that the two men were lovers, and the gossip was
furthered by a set of publicity photographs of Scott and
Grant in various domestic poses in their Hollywood home.
Grant is often credited for the first use of the word
"Gay"
to mean homosexual, in the film Bringing Up Baby.
Before Cary Grant jumped up in Katherine Hepburn's fluffy
pink bathrobe, "Gay" meant happy. Although, film historian,
Gerald Mast, wrote (in "Bringing Up Baby," Rutgers Press
1986) that the "Gay" was common slang for "homosexual" in
theatrical circles. Mast believed that the famous scene, was
merely the first mainstream usage of the term.
A new book by Graham McCann, (Cary Grant - A Class Apart,
Fourth Estate, 1996) claims that Cary Grant was straight and
that his many gay friends and colleagues led people to
believe that Cary was gay too.
While the origination of the often-posted acid photo is
unknown in its authenticity, Cary Grant did take acid. Cary
Grant's use of Lysurgic Acid was limited to a pyschotherapy
program. Timothy Leery claimed that Grant introduced him to
LSD. The complete story of Cary Grant's Acid
Test is published in an
excerpt from the book, "Cary Grant: the Lonely Heart" by
Charles Higham & Roy Moseley on the Ultimate Cary Grant
Pages.
The short answer:
none.
The essay answer:
Here are some explanations as to the origin from Nancy
Nelson's book "Evenings with Cary Grant" (thanks to
Zoë, for typing this up!)
Peter Bogdanovich believes that the genesis of the imitation
came from Grant's delivery in several lines in Only
Angels Have Wings.. 'In the film his former girl friend
is called Judith or Judy (played by rita Hayworth). Cary has
lines like "Hello, Judy. Come on, Judy. Now, Judy." But he
never said "Judy, Judy, Judy." '
Judy Quine has another explanation: 'Cary told me back in
1955 that when he did the Lux Radio Theater, they used his
voice introduction for Judy Garland, who was a guest for the
following week. He recalled some banter where he could have
said "Judy,
Judy, Judy," but he wasn't sure.'
Although Grant must have tired of being constantly asked to
say the line, he always obliged when women named Judy asked
him to say 'Juday, Juday, Juday.' And Rich Little admires
Grant's sense of humour about it: 'Cary said [Little
imitating CG], "Where is
this 'Juday, Juday, Juday' coming from? I don't know anybody
named Juday-Juday-Juday. the only Judy I knew was Judy
Garland. And when I saw her, there weren't three of 'em!"
'
During the making of Charade Peter Stone used to joke
with Grant about 'Judy, Judy, Judy.' He recalls: "While we
were shooting the taxi scene - right near the end of the
picture where Audrey's feet are up in his lap and he's
massaging them - Cary looked at the camera and said
[Stone imitating CG] "Juday, Juday, Juday. There.
Now you've got it on film!'"
As late as the 1980's Grant was still answering questions
about the phrase, and during on of his Conversations he
offered still another speculation on how it came
about.CG: We looked up track after
track and outtake after outtake.
As far as we can tell, I never said it. We think it
started
with a celebrity impersonator by the name of Larry
Storch.
He apparently was appearing in a nightclub and doing me
when
Judy Garland walked in. And that's how he greeted
her.
Well, you have four possibilities. I would suggest trying
all of them for the best results
1) You can try to tape it from cable T.V.
2) You can scour the bone yards. Check out used video
stores, (there are few online
) rummage sales, flea markets and any other place that might
have old videos.
3) You can network with other Cary Grant fans to find it.
You can also join the E-mail Warbrides to get the latest on
what people have and what they are willing to trade. See FAQ
answer #5 for details.
4) Debbie Dunlap, of the Email Warbrides, maintains
A
Cary Grant Video Source page
which is a real help to those looking for original tapes of
Cary's movies. She even has links to video sources in Canada
who are still selling many videos unavailable in the
States.
A web site called Deal
Pilot lets you compare the
price on online films.