Went to see a holiday screening of the great 1958 Rosalind Russell movie "Auntie Mame" on the big screen at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood tonight.
Before the movie ran the New York Times hosted a panel discussion about the movie that featured Jan Handzlik (left, above) -- who played the young Patrick Dennis (who was taken in by his Auntie Mame after his father died) on the Broadway stage and in the movie with Russell. On Broadway, Russell was replaced by Greer Garson a year and a half into the run -- and apparently the show ran about 30 minutes longer because Garson like to really...draw...her..lines...out.
After "Auntie Mame," Handzlik did one episode of "The Twilight Zone" (entitled "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street") and never acted again. He's now a successful criminal defense attorney and actually had to leave before the movie began because he is one of the attorneys arguing for clemency for Tookie Williams tomorrow morning before Governor Schwarzenegger in Sacramento.
My mother passed away four years ago this week. Around that time I happened to see "Auntie Mame" for the first time.
It touched me very deeply. I even mentioned in my eulogy how many aspects of the Auntie Mame character reminded me of my mother.
And Mame's philosophy that "life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death" resonated deeply with me.
In an odd, but very real way, watching that movie in 2001 helped me work through the grief of my mother's passing.
Though it in no way compares to losing my mother, I've really been way down in the dumps this week. Over the last three days it's become clear that I'm not going to be able to get tickets to the Rose Bowl from the University of Southern California. That may not mean a lot to most folks, but as any regular reader of this blog knows -- it means a lot to me.
Here's the back story: I've been a Trojan Football Season Ticket Holder since 1990. During that time I've been to EVERY bowl game the Trojans have played. Some have been really great -- the Orange Bowl at the beginning of this year and the Rose Bowl the year before that come to mind. And some have been real stinkers -- the time the Trojans lost to Fresno State in the Freedom Bowl in Anaheim and the time the Trojans lost to Texas Christian University at the Sun Bowl in El Paso qualify.
But win or lose, I've never regretted going. I've always received a mailing from the USC Ticket Office with the details on how to order tickets and for the past few years I've gotten an email as well.
Last Sunday (12/4)the Trojans were formally invited to play in the Rose Bowl and that night it occurred to me that I hadn't heard from USC about bowl tickets. I went on-line and discovered the deadline to get in the ticket lottery was the previous Wednesday -- and I had missed it! (In other words, the deadline to apply for Rose Bowl tickets was four days before the Trojans were invited to play in the Rose Bowl.)
I went down to campus first thing Monday morning to plead my case with the Ticket Office. They were quick to inform me the information about purchasing Bowl tickets had been on their website for a while before the deadline. They had no explanation for why I didn't receive a letter or an email they said they sent me and I had no explanation for why I didn't check the website. I guess "because I've never had to before" isn't a good enough excuse.
They agreed to check with the Trojan Athletic Department to see how to resolve the situation. Today I received this email from Jim Haley, the Director of the USC Ticket Office:
Mr. Green,
After discussing this matter with our Athletic Dept. client and my senior directors the final determination is that all Bowl Game applications were due, and must have been received, by the deadline of Wednesday, November 30, at midnight. At that point, the applications received were far in excess of the allotment of tickets to USC. We are sorry, but we are unable to accommodate applications either not received, or received after the deadline for whatever reason.
Thank you for your patience.
Jim
And this was my email back:
Thank you for the reply. I hope that your office will look into why a 16 year football season ticket holder received neither a mailing nor email about the lottery. If you do, please let me know what you find out.
Somehow I'm not expecting much of an investigation.
When I first heard about the screening of "Auntie Mame" about two months ago I put it on my calendar immediately.
How lucky I am to have seen it tonight.
I know it may seem odd, but having seen it again, I feel differently about the Rose Bowl situation. I'm now looking at it as I'm going to miss one course of the great banquet of life -- but there are many, many more to come.
And the next time USC has a shot at playing in a bowl game (hopefully 2007) I'll be the first one checking their website.
Thank you, Auntie Mame!
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