Is That Your Wife?

On the Road may finally make its way to film. Though Francis Ford Coppola purchased the movie rights in 1979 and subsequently enlisted authors Michael Herr, Barry Gifford, and Russell Banks to each write their own screenplay adaption, it's taken this long to get things fired up. In 2001, Billy Crudup was pre-cast as the Kerouac character (Sal Paradise); Brad Pitt was imagined as his sidekick, Dean Moriarty (the Neal Cassady character). These guys may be too old for the parts now, but it would appear that Brazilian Walter Salles, after his successful Che Guevara road film The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), will direct -- Salles undoubtedly brings a needed freshness to the project. As with the Janis Joplin movies, we shall see. The timing makes sense, though, in that next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the original novel's publication.

As for Jim Jones, it has been purported that one of the rationales for moving the People's Temple from California to Guyana was his belief that the northern hemisphere would be destroyed in a nuclear war; one of his central cultural reference points was On the Beach. He hoped, by moving, that his people could survive within the safe compound of Jonestown; but, apparently out of a mixture of paranoia, heavy drug use, megalomania, and "a touch of the jungle fever," he didn't want to take any chances, and so instituted apocalyptic drills called "White Nights." Exactly as the Australian government does in On the Beach, he had a specific plan for "when the time comes." Of course, the time did come, not because of nuclear war, but because of external threats to Jonestown that amounted in Jones' psyche to the same thing; in response, he ordered "revolutionary suicide" on November 18, 1978. Consequently, more than 900 Temple members took a valium-cyanide cocktail mixed with grape Flavor Aid (not Kool Aid, mind you); many apparently did so voluntarily, thanks probably to White Nights conditioning, but many others were injected or shot trying to flee.

Now, leaving Jonestown for another day, let's turn once more to the stars of On the Beach, the outsiders who became insiders.

Stanley Kramer (1913-2001), a maniacal workahaulic from Hell's Kitchen, was raised by his mother's mother (his parents were divorced, a rarety at the time) and emerged after the Second World War as the producer and/or director of such well-known classics as Death of a Salesman (1951), High Noon (1952), The Wild One (1954), and The Caine Mutiny (1954). In true liberal (and sometimes naive) fashion, he wanted to make the world a better place. Especially after On the Beach, he took clear aim at religious and racial bigotry, hitting the world over the head with Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgement at Nuremberg (1961), Ship of Fools (1965), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967). Along the way, he married twice, had three daughters and a son and was lucky enough to work with some of the finest acting talent and biggest celebrities in the world.

Fred Astaire, born Frederick Austerlitz (May 10, 1899-June 22, 1987), became one of the great dancers of the silver screen and an elegant counterpoise to Gene Kelley, his muscular foil. On the Beach marks the beginning of his successful run at serious dramatic acting. His first wife, Phyllis Potter, died in 1955 of cancer after bearing Fred, Jr., and Ava Astaire. In 1980 (you do the math) he married Robyn Smith, a young jockey with a mysterious past. Ah, the drama!

Tony Perkins (April 4, 1932-September 12, 1992) will probably always be remembered most for (and haunted by) his spotlight role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). His personal life was complex, in that he assumed he was gay but later pronounced himself bisexual. Before the apparent change in orientation, he had romances with major male celebrities like Tab Hunter and Rudolf Nureyev. Subsequently, finding himself in a situation as bizarre as any fictional plot, Perkins married model/actor Berry Berenson only days after his latest longterm male lover married another woman. They met during the shooting of Play It As It Lays (1972) and got hitched in 1973. Perkins and Berenson had two sons -- "Oz" and Elvis. Seriously! And here's the real kicker -- Tony died of complications from AIDS, and Berry later had the incredible misfortune of finding herself on American Airlines Flight 11, one of the doomed planes that crashed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Lots of people adore Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916-June 12, 2003) for his courage, conviction, and sheer good looks. Like Kramer's, his early childhood was spent with a grandmother and for the same reasons. Especially given the family's Catholic milieu, this was unusual for the time. A Democrat in style and outlook, the mature Peck would have made a dignified president. For the sake of space and time, we'll skip his movie career and note his two marriages: the first to Greta Kukkonen that lasted from 1942 to 1955; and the second, with Veronique Passani, which lasted from 1955 until his death. Between the two marriages, they had six children. One of his sons committed suicide.

Last but not least of the On the Beach crew, there's the lovely Ava Gardner (December 24, 1922-January 25, 1990) pictured above. Hailing from a poor family in North Carolina, at age eighteen she made her way to a screen test in New York City and bada bing, off she went into the movies. The next year she married Mickey Rooney and quickly divorced him (what was she thinking?); she later married Artie Shaw for a year; and then hooked up with Frank Sinatra, with whom she endured an intense and rocky marriage from 1951 to 1957. Frankie, who at times could act monstrously, paid for her medical expenses when she suffered a stroke in 1989. Gardner romanced a number of men in her day, including two Spanish bullfighters and Howard Hughes. A museum in Smithfield, North Carolina, cherishes her memory and accomplishments: www.avagardner.org Viva, Ava! She was one of the most beautiful American actresses of the twentieth century.

Ciao for now. . . . .