Indie films; Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals; All things related to the Rat Pack, pally! Overseas travel; Fine dining; Reading history and non-fiction tomes; All self help books; Philadelphia Phillies; Philadelphia Eagles; Classic Hollywood films (especially Warner Bros. films) starring Bette Davis, James Cagney, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, John Garfield, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Laurel and Hardy, Hedy, Lana, Rita, Betty, Joan (Leslie), Tyrone Power, et al though not as much as I used to watch. Meeting interesting people (actually this should head the list.
Anyone authentic. I mean real people who have experienced the normal doses of joy, sadness, triumph, exhiliration and the like. WHOM I WISH I COULD STILL MEET: My late parents (I have so much to tell and ask them) and my maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother (whom I never met). I would like to have met Rod Serling because many of his TWILIGHT ZONE episodes dealt with people wanting to return to an earlier, poignant time in their lives. A quest I would be willing to undertake.
Al Jolson, The Beatles, George Gershwin, The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Fats Waller, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Russ Columbo, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., Oscar Levant, Hank Williams, Eddie Cantor, Eddy Duchin, Fred Astaire, Jimi Hendrix, Coldplay, The Monkees, Count Basie, The Doors, Robert Cray, Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, Three Dog Night, Tiny Tim's rendition of "Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips," George M. Cohan, Ginger Rogers, Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Prince, The Bee Gees, Cab Calloway, Gwen Stefani, Jackie Wilson, Louis Armstrong, Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), Goldfrapp, Django Reinhardt, The Cars, Paul Whiteman, Neil Young, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, Led Zeppelin, Ella Fitzgerald, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Ethel Waters, Sam and Dave, The Andrews Sisters, Connie Boswell, Dick Powell, Doris Day, Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Gus Kahn, Irving Berlin, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Chick Webb, Mary J. Blige, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Pink Floyd, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey.
Here's my stream of consciousness list beginning with: The Jolson Story, Goodfellas, Angels With Dirty Faces, Full Metal Jacket, Jolson Sings Again, Dr. Strangelove (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), The Roaring Twenties, It Happened One Night, James Bond films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Sunset Boulevard, The Bride Came C.O.D., Viva Las Vegas, The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, any Norman Krasna screenplay, Waiting for Guffman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Rhapsody in Blue, Champion (Kirk Douglas), A Hard Day's Night, Help, Yellow Submarine, Let It Be, Gimme Shelter, Ed Wood, Baise Moi, all the Marx Brothers films, Barry Lyndon, all the "Road" pictures (with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope), The Hunger, The Great Dictator, Pulp Fiction, Hollywood Canteen, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Broadway Through a Keyhole, all the Busby Berkeley films, Boogie Nights, Secretary, Citizen Caine, Caine Mutiny, From Here to Eternity, Sabrina (helmed by Billy Wilder), Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, First Family, Kentucky Fried Movie, The Groove Tube, Lolita (1962 version), Zelig, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Rose of Washington Square, Stand Up and Cheer, The Poor Little Rich Girl, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, This is Spinal Tap, An American in Paris, Stardust Memories, Casablanca, Out of the Past, Easter Parade, Dirty Harry, any Johnny Depp starrer, Everyone Says I Love You, 42nd Street, all the Fred Astaire - Ginger Rogers starrers including: The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat and Swing Time; Dancing Lady, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Love Me Tonight, Golddiggers of 1933, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Go Into Your Dance, Wonder Bar, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Doors, Nixon, JFK, Patton, Footlight Parade, Flying Tigers, The House of Yes, Lost in Translation, Mrs. Miniver, Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), Gone With the Wind, all the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland films, Showboat (1936 version). I have more film titles to add but I'm running out of pens.
The Twilight Zone, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Dick Cavett Show, Have Gun Will Travel, The History Channel, One Step Beyond, Hogan's Heroes, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, The Jack Benny Show, The Burns and Allen Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, Six Feet Under.
Memoirs of an Amnesiac (Oscar Levant); President Kennedy (Richard Reeves); Inside the Third Reich (Albert Speer); Palimpsest (Gore Vidal); My Life (Bill Clinton); My Life So Far (Jane Fonda).
FDR, JFK, RFK, William Jefferson Clinton, Martin Luther King, Simon Wiesenthal, George S. Patton, Douglas MacArthur, Jackie Robinson, Curt Flood, Lou Gehrig, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor (read YES I CAN By Sammy Davis Jr.), James Cagney, Bette Davis, Charlie Chaplin, Walter Cronkite. MOST OF MY AFOREMENTIONED HEROES NOT ONLY BECAME LARGER THAN LIFE IN THEIR CHOSEN FIELDS OF ENDEAVOR --- ICONS IF YOU WILL --- BUT THEY ALSO "FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT."