FLIGHT FROM THE
PAST
7 February, 2000 Click
on the Stanyan logo to subscribe to the McKuen Mailing List 
|
|
Rod in action at The Riverton Rendezvous, July 2001.
Photograph courtesy Jay Hagan.
A Thought for Today
Be tender every time you bid your friends
goodbye, who knows if or when you will meet again.
Rod is on the road for a
couple of weeks and will be back with you at the beginning of September.
FROM
NOTEBOOKS AND DIARIES
I love words. Underused words or words new to me, of course, but also
those overused or used so often their definitions become muddled. Take the
word glamour, I hear it applied to everything or anything that looks
halfway decent.
WORDS: GLAMOUR
In 1981 the Los Angeles Times
did an interesting piece on glamour. They approached it by asking the
offspring of a number of actors and actresses who had achieved a certain
amount of glamour themselves what their definitions were of the word.
Those polled included the
children of Julie Andrews, Harpo Marx, David McCullum, Gregory Peck,
Robert Stack, Walter Matthau, Mary Martin and Harry Belafonte.
Here are some of the answers:
“Glamour
means having confidence.” – Valentin McCallum Bronson.
“Any natural setting or natural style of dress that allows a person’s real
character to come through.” – Charles Stack
“I have difficulty understanding why people think jewels and furs are
glamorous, to me glamour is all about having interests greater than
yourself.” –Charles Matthau.
“Fifty years ago glamour was the end-all, now it’s just something nice to
keep in my back pocket and play with once in awhile.” – Gregg Marx
Julie Andrews’ and Blake Edwards’ daughter Jennifer said: “To me,
Hollywood glamour is Carole Lombard in a while Rolls, arriving at a ‘do.’
That sort of thing is irrelevant to my life now.”
Mary Martin’s granddaughter Heidi Hagman (the daughter of Mary’s son,
actor Larry Hagman) capped it off by stating: “To make me comfortable, any
glamorous occasion must have one foot on the ground.”
There is no doubt that glamour itself and the individuals idea of it
change drastically through the decades. Undoubtedly kids in the punk
generation with tri-color hair, safety pins piercing their cheeks decked
out in the uni-sex look, think they’re the epitome of glamour. Maybe.
Glamour is an attitude. It doesn’t call attention to itself. It simply is.
To carry it off you don’t need this year’s fashion, next year’s haircut or
a starlet on your arm. If you’re a man and you act like one, and other men
respect you and - very importantly, the opposite sex senses something
incredibly irresistible about you, you’re obviously glamorous whether
you’re a truck driver or a tycoon.
A woman doesn’t need tons of makeup, diamonds and furs and a blank check
from Daddy Warbucks to give her that extra something. She, too, needs to
exude that indefinable suggestion of not only assurance but something
promised that isn’t quite apparent.
Glamour is understatement but understatement in such a way that whoever
you are and whatever you do, when you walk into a room or pass through a
crowd, heads turn. Like a lot of things in life, glamour can’t be taught.
And if you have to define it for yourself, you really don’t have it.
This isn’t meant to be mean in
any way and it’s merely this man’s opinion but Elizabeth Taylor has
glamour to give away. Joan Collins merely dresses the part.
From a 1983 journal.
Previously unpublished.
- RM 02/07/2000
Rod McKuen concert and
appearance details can be obtained via the link below.
Concert & Appearance Details
|
