1. MY PARENTS, FRANK (1913-1988) AND RUTH(1928-)
OK...shoot me because there is no book (yet) about my parents and to be honest, I feel overwhelmed at how to even begin. As some of you know, my mom was born in Wittenberg, Germany in 1928 and she grew up under the Hitler Regime. She has fond memories of Christmas, her forest across the road and school but she was also taken out of her home and forced into the Hitler Youth. She suffered the bombings of Hamburg, Dresden, met Hitler, lost 2 brothers in the war, worked with the resistance to stop the Germans by blowing up bridges (she placed the TNT under the bridges), suffered starvation, gang rape by 7 Russians, escaped to the West, brought food to her mom and got her dad out when he was let out of the Gulag and so much more. My dad was born in 1913 near Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario and was so poor he often had no food or proper clothing. Suffered the loss of his mother when he was 6 and endured beatings by his step mother. He worked in lumber camps when he was 14, endured the Great depression, met up with wolves , moose and bears and hopped trains to find work. He fought in the Canadian Army and was wounded near the end of the war. In the 50's they both traveled-he out west and back, my mom, finally, to Canada. They met in 1959 and wanted to marry but my mom's first husband would not grant a divorce. It took 3 years to try to get rid of this jerk and there is a whole other book just about their love. They started living together when it was not the right thing to do back then and my dad was a religious man but he loved my mom so much. I wish to honour them here especially since Saturday is November 11th which is our Remembrance Day for all the soldiers and civilians who dealt with war. I wear my poppy with pride!
2. LOUISE BROOKS-1989-BY BARRY PARIS
If you find a book written by this man, read it! I find him an excellent writer and his biographies on Louise Brooks and Garbo entertaining. If you don't know this woman, read up! She was a rebel from day 1 and didn't give a F*&;^% about what she should or shouldn't do. She was a hedonist so she loved parties, men and women and took off to Germany to make 2 of the best films ever made (in my humble opinion even if they are silents). She had affairs with Charlie Chaplin, Hearst's niece (so she was often at the Hearst mansion) and a one night stand with Garbo. She was highly intelligent and never sugar coated Hollywood. Due to her F. U. nature, she hurt her own career and ended up selling perfume in some retail store until she was rediscovered. What a life and I think Rooney Mara would be a good choice to play this woman.
3. APRIL IN HER EYES-1979-SONG BY CHRIS DE BURGH
This is such a haunting song that I fell in love with when I was in High School. It would be a fairy tale and a sad one but I would love to see this on the big screen. They would need a girl with beautiful eyes and ethereal....too bad Audrey Hepburn isn't around any more.
Bonus
OK..I have to put this down...
DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED-1967-MOODY BLUES
I love...I mean LOVE this album and consider it a classic in rock but also in classical music because the whole thing seems like an opera without the operatic vocals but of these men who comprise this great band. I think of it as days of the week from Tuesday Afternoon to Knights in White Satin. It would be so cool to see an artistic film with these songs and lyrics in mind but how would the plot go? Would there be a big love story? Would we see them when they are young until they are old with "Another Day's useless energy spent?" Who would star in this. I like to see Hugh Jackman in it since I think he is the bee's knees.
OK so these are my picks. What would be yours?
Your parents lives would make an interesting book and film - get writing!
ReplyDeleteI know...I’m bad
DeleteYou need to write that book about your parents!
ReplyDeleteOf course, I want to see all four of my books as movies.
And if we're picking songs as well, Dream Theater's Count of Tuscany would be amazing.
I know....I also know your books would be cool as films and I have to look up that song
DeleteI agree with Alex that you need to write a book about your parents.
ReplyDeleteI hang my head low
DeleteYour parents' lives would definitely make an interesting book/movie. Wow!
ReplyDeleteI think so and thanks
DeleteYour parents' story would make for an excellent movie (and book).
ReplyDeleteYes I think it needs to be written
Deletemakes you wonder how some things get movies and suck while other better works never do.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right
DeleteOh Birgit what you parents went through bless them....what a movie that would make!....how is Mom?.....read the book...yep my hubby is a biography lover and particularly movie stars...moody blues...oh my miss spent youth and Chris De Burgh....lady in red is my favourite....xxxxxx
ReplyDeleteMy mom is doing better! She is eating and more alert which makes me happy. I still have my fingers crossed. Glad you read the Louise Brooks book
DeleteI cosign with the fact that your parents story would make a riveting film. What a journey!
ReplyDeleteLouise Brooks was a one that's for sure. I haven't read this book on her, though I read his one on Garbo, but have read her autobio Lulu in Hollywood and she really did live life on her own terms often to her detriment. She's be a great subject for a film.
Hadn't thought about songs but its a good catch. That first one is pretty and haunting. I see Days of Future Past as a big medieval pageant along the lines of Excalibur. I could see Hugh Jackman in it perhaps though it really would require someone like Errol Flynn to make it work and there just isn't anyone along those lines working now-certainly not those Hemsworth dolts. Hugh is the closest.
I went strictly with book adaptations but chose one each from a different genre.
How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater (2005)-Comic novel by Marc Acito tells the tale of young sexually confused Jersey teen Edward Zanni and the lengths he goes to his senior year when his divorced father marries gold-digging shrew Dagmar and she blocks his way to attending Julliard. Helping Edward are his group of very resourceful and game friends, free spirit Paula D’Angelo, enterprising Natie Nudelman (affectionately called Cheesehead), Edward’s sometime girlfriend, perky blonde Kelly, exotic Persian transfer student Ziba and football jock Doug Grabowski who’s more at home with the theatre geeks than his sport cronies. Together, with the sometime reluctant help of Paula’s dotty Aunt Glo, they scheme to defeat the rapacious Dagmar and make Edward’s musical dream come true.
The Queen’s Man (2000)-In the year 1193 young Justin de Quincy witnesses the murder of a tradesman on the road from Winchester to London. As he lies dying the man hands Justin a letter and begs him to find a way to get it to the queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Letter in hand he’s brought into Eleanor’s presence and her confidence leading to a world of intrigue and danger as Eleanor plots to save her favorite son, Richard the Lionhearted whilst her grasping younger son John schemes to seize the throne. Great historical detail and an engaging lead character makes a good adventure.
A Cast of Killers (1986)-In 1982 author Sidney Kirkpatrick is commissioned to write a biography of King Vidor, director of classics The Big Parade and Stella Dallas among many others. Delving into Vidor’s papers he discovered a trove of research that the director and his good friend former silent star Colleen Moore had compiled on the unsolved 1922 murder of film director William Desmond Taylor. Putting the Vidor bio aside for the moment Kirkpatrick built on the existing research and plunged into the jazz mad world of the twenties where men with vague pasts such as Taylor’s could rise to the level of respected film director. Along the way he acquaints the reader with the many people, shaded by Vidor’s intimate knowledge of the film community of the time, involved in the case including the two stars, comic legend Mabel Normand and supposedly innocent Mary Miles Minter, whose careers were destroyed in the scandal and the massive cover-up and graft that protected the killer, whom Vidor deduced, for decades. A fascinating story begging to be filmed.
Thank you for what you said about my parents. Glad you like the fact i went the song route. I like your picks and now must read the book A Cast of Killers. I know that King Vidor always wanted to write a book and make a movie about this killing. Why there has been no film about Taylor is beyond me. I think he always thought it was Minter's mother who killed him off.
DeleteThere is a film called Hollywood Story that was made in 1951 that used the Taylor killing as a basis but changed the names and reworked the story-probably because many of the participants were still alive and in the case of Mary Miles Minter and her mother highly litigious.
DeleteIt's not terrible but rather a weak sister. It has a good cast-Julie Adams (LOVE her!), Henry Hull, Fred Clark and Jim Backus among them but the lead is the uncharismatic Richard Conte (at least to me) and that and its rather cheap Universal budget holds it back.
Good choices. I agree with other commenters, you should totally write down your parents' story.
ReplyDeleteMy books as movies would work for me, I'd get money lol
ReplyDeleteShould write that book about your parents indeed.
Getting money is always a good thing
DeleteI love your choices, Birgit. Your parents' stories -- wow! I could envision Moody Blues as background music for the movie.
ReplyDeleteYour parents’ story would definitely make a great movie. Your poor mother. I read Woman of Berlin about the aftermath of WW2 and it went into horrific detail of what the Russian soldiers got up to.
ReplyDeleteYet another one here saying you need to write your parents' story! If you don't, who will?
ReplyDeleteNot familiar with Barry Paris' book on Louise Brooks, but I'm very familiar with her life story. I'd love to see it onscreen.
As far as what I'd like to see adapted, most of my favorite novels are classics that have already been adapted. Some of them several times! Maybe Edie Adams' autobiography, Sing a Pretty Song, because I'm a big Ernie Kovacs fan. Or one of the many biographies of Orson Welles?
Oh my gosh, Birgit, your parents' lives would make a fascinating book and movie. You have every right to be proud.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
I think my dogs would make an exciting animated series.
ReplyDeleteI wore out the needle on my turntable listening to that Moody Blues album.
ReplyDeleteYour parents, especially your mother, led such an incredible life. I hope you get it all down before she dies. She is a a beauty, and I can't begin to imagine the horror she lived through.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the Moody Blues. I keep saying I was born a decade too late. These are the songs I listened to while others my age were listening to disco or bubble gum music. I read somewhere years ago they were all classically trained musicians, yet chose rock as their genre of choice.
Hi Birgit - I do hope you write your parent's life-story sometime ... but in the meantime - gather as much info as you can from your mother ... all snippets will prove so valuable ... write, write, write things down - draw things out of her - collect her memories .. perhaps you already have - I hope so ...
ReplyDeleteThose were challenging times and it's wonderful to read what's been happening and how the survivors have embraced their new opportunities ...
Please get gathering! Cheers Hilary
I concur that your parents' story would make an epic book. Probably even a trilogy. Get on that, or at least hire a ghostwriter to do it for you. You know TONS of writers, right?
ReplyDeleteAs for what I would adapt, does my own books count? :-P Other than that, I would ask for a Jem and the Holograms movie that doesn't suck. The live action film was terrible. A movie based on the new comic books by Kelly Thompson would be awesome.
If that sounds like a weird choice it's because I'm kinda tired of book/comic/video games adaptations and I don't need any more right now.
Yes on your parents' adaptation.
ReplyDeleteI pick "Brownsville Girl" by Bob Dylan.
Brooks is a good choice for a movie. She sounded like a fascinating personality.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend.
Louise Brooks was awesome as I fell in love with her in Pandora's Box. I also love Days of Future Passed as it's one of my all-time favorite albums.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see The Widower and I in movies.
ReplyDeleteWow. Your parents have a hell of a story. Maybe it would be worth it to try and write it out in a novel form....get that ball rolling. :)
ReplyDeleteThe book about your parents sounds like a good idea. I'd also like to see a book about my parents and their life in show biz. I think that would make for some fun content depicting various novelty acts who they worked with back in those days.
ReplyDeleteLee
Tossing It Out
Birgit,
ReplyDeleteI think your parents had an amazingly interesting life. You really should write a book about their story. Your father is older than my grandparents. They were closer to your mother's age but are no longer with us. My paternal grandma was born in 1908 but passed away in 1980. My grandparents had very hard lives growing up during the depression era. But, at least they didn't have to worry with the additional struggles that your mother endured. She sounds like a strong courageous woman who's story definitely needs a voice to tell. Thanks for sharing. Love the mewsic, too!
I love Days of Future Past. I used to listen to it all the time as a cassette tape back in the day. Time to update! Or at least visit YouTube.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous post, Birgit! ♥ The story of your parents would make a gripping biography, for sure. Your Mom went through so much and lived to tell the tale. Such courage! Your Dad had a fascinating story as well and overcame a lot. Yes, the poppy is something to be proud to wear. Remembrance Day is such a great Canadian tradition!
ReplyDelete"Days of Future Passed" is a masterpiece and we were fortunate to see the Moody Blues perform it live this past July, for its 50th anniversary, complete with a 67 piece orchestra. The entire show was filmed and will be released on DVD later this month, along with a new CD of the original, remastered album. It's available for pre-sale on Amazon.ca.
I've already written down Brooks as a book to look for. I really loved reading your parents' story. So touching and so in need of that book you're going to write.
ReplyDeleteYour parents' story is truly phenomenal, especially your mom's. Definitely deserves to be told.
ReplyDeleteAn adaptation I'd love to see is a great movie version of Stuart Woods' "Chiefs," one of my favourite books, or Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible." I believe "Chiefs" was made into a bad miniseries back in the '80s, but I'm pretending that never happened.