Hollywood Magic: One Crazy Summer with Cool Hand Luke

Today I was reminded of the magic of Hollywood. There used to be a time when young people were inspired by the movies they saw on the silver screen. Maybe they would dream of some day growing up to be an actor or a filmmaker, but more likely something they saw in one of those movies was the impetus for the creation of a dream not to be in Hollywood but to be like one of the characters they saw on the screen.

Cool Hand Luke which I saw today in its entirety for the first time surely inspired millions of young men and boys all over the world. Imagine a young boy from Japan small in stature, but with huge impossible dreams that would some day bring him across the world to New York City where he likely inspired other young people with a dream of their own. The boy dreamed that someday he would grow up and eat 50 eggs like Cool Hand Luke. His schoolmates would tease him and tell him it was impossible for anyone to eat 50 eggs, but he knew that was the way Luke's fellow inmates felt and he would show everyone just like old Cool Hand Luke did. Even he never imagined that someday he would eat over 50 hot dogs, including the buns, to win the Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Competition. That boy was none other than the world famous competitive eater himself Takiro Kobayashi. Just let that sink in for a minute. Seriously just stop reading and pause and think of how amazing that is before you move on to the next paragraph. Ok I appreciate you pausing like I asked you, but now I would like to add a quick aside before we move on to the next paragraph. There is a scene in the movie where an incredibly beautiful buxom woman comes out to wash her car in front of the cons while they dig a ditch. She is clearly teasing them and probably many future cons thought to themselves that if and when they did go to prison there was at least some hope for romance or the tease of seeing a beautiful woman encouraging you to believe so. Sadly later prison movies taught us that there is usually nothing romantic about any of the sex and often those who tease you about sex in prison do so in a much more menacing way.

Another movie that I saw a few minutes of yesterday was One Crazy Summer with John Cusack. It is one of those classic teen comedies that could only have been made in the 80's. Watching a scene where they were at a dance club reminded me of a time when a white man with no real rhythm would not be mocked for his lack of skills and could actually do pretty well for himself as long as he could do the one basic 80's white guy dance move that everyone else did. I would like to again ask you to pause this time in a moment of silence for the white guys who can't dance who can no longer go to a dance club without fear of being mocked for dancing white. I wouldn't know personally because as far as you know I can cut a fairly decent rug when I am in the mood for cutting rugs or of course if I am served by a member of a rival dance gang. Another thing that was of course true in the 80's but is sadly no longer the case is that at the end of a great Cinderella victory by a group of ragtag teenagers in a sailing regatta championship the rich extremely attractive girl no longer feels the urge to dump the obnoxious spoiled rich kid for one of the lesser crewman on said ragtag sailing team who has absolutely no charisma. Believe me I learned this the hard way when I spent the summer building my own boat for the 2001 Nantucket Regatta. The winner's trophy is a crushing reminder to this day of that summer I wasted building that boat. Oh well live and learn as they say.

As most of you probably know Paul Newman died recently. I did not grow up wanting to be like Paul Newman or any of the characters in his movies, like millions of young people before me did, mostly because I was not familiar with his movies until I got older. I wanted to be a baseball player or to work in health insurance or some other such glamorous job. Simon and Garfunkel famously said in their song Mrs. Robinson, where have you gone Joe Dimaggio a nation turns it's lonely eyes to you and later in the song they sang Joltin Joe has left and gone away. Well the truth of the matter as far as I can tell is that Joe Dimaggio was always a deuchebag. I am not just saying that because he played for the Yankees. Every account I have heard of him over the years referred to him as a bitter stingy man who did not really like anyone. He was a really good baseball player, but apparently that did not make him a really good person off the field. Paul Newman was a great actor. He was a loyal husband to the same woman for decades which doesn't happen anymore in Hollywood or most other places for that matter. He took up driving race cars late in life and eventually bought his own race car team that won multiple championships in the Champ Car Series, which is now part of the merged Indy Racing League. He was a great humanitarian and philanthropist. He donated millions of dollars to his Hole in the Wall Gang charity through sales from his Newman's Own brand of food selling such items as Lemonade and Popcorn. More than anything else those who knew him marveled at his zest for life and how he still seemed to be passionate and youthful late in his life. The man was pure Hollywood magic in real life and on the big screen. To paraphrase Simon and Garfunkel Where have you gone Paul Newman, a nation turns it's lonely eyes to you... Cool Hand Luke has left us Lemonade... hey hey hey... hey hey hey.