The Byron Blog consists of writings, photographs, and anecdotes related to my father, Byron Dobell (1927-2017)
In the course of things, I met and marveled at movie stars, world leaders, tycoons, scientists, scholars, athletes, poets, and assorted wise men and women, and lunatics. I’ve never spent much time thinking about famous people I’ve known – it was, after all, the nature of the business – but, to misquote Tennyson’s Ulysses, “All that I have met are part of me” – and it was great fun.
–– from Byron’s speech when he was inducted into the
American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame in April 1998
When my parents, Byron Dobell and Ande Rubin, got married on October 24, 1958, Byron was the picture editor of Pageant
magazine.
Pageant was a monthly digest-sized magazine (published in
the US from 1944-1977).
Pageant, courtesy of the film distributor United Artists, was sending Byron to Dublin and Madrid to cover the filming of two movies, Shake Hands with the Devil, starring James Cagney, and Solomon and Sheba, starring Tyrone Power and Gina Lollobrigida. So Byron and Ande made this trip their honeymoon, intending to go to Dublin, then to Paris for a few days on their own, and finally to Madrid.
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| Pageant April 1959 issue, containing Byron's account of his time on location in Dublin with the cast and crew of Shake Hands with The Devil |
Byron was 31. He had lived in Paris in 1949 (thanks to the GI Bill), but this trip was his first to Dublin and Madrid. Ande was 32. She had been to Europe a number of times. It was Byron’s second marriage and Ande’s first.
The Cagney piece that appeared in Pageant in April 1959 (after Byron had left Pageant to be picture editor of This Week magazine) was a much abbreviated and altered version of the draft Byron
kept all these years (illustrated with a different batch of photos from
the ones he saved). See below for excerpts from the draft he retained, with selected photos.
The film is set in Dublin in 1921, where the Irish Republican Army battles
the Black and Tans, ex-British soldiers sent to suppress the
rebels. The cast includes Cagney, Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, and Michael Redgrave.
(Source: Wikipedia)
In Byron's words . . .
Dublin Diary
The Irish have
opened their first movie studio [Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow] and one of the first films being made there is Shake
Hands with the Devil. I arrived when the cast, starring James Cagney, was on
location in Dublin on a dock along the slate-gray River Liffey.
Met Cagney. Discussed Ireland with him, its poverty. Ireland haunts not only the Irish, but tourists and visitors as well. He said, “You couldn’t have arrived at a better time.” Gun duel, armed raid, jump into river, and high dive from tower, climaxed by explosion, all to be shot in the next two days. Even the cast was excited.
Dockside had been shielded from street view by putting up canvas walls painted like brick. But persistent thousands of Irishers, anxious to get a look at the gunplay, had torn holes in the canvas and poked their heads through in ludicrous fashion. Before each “take,” they had to be shooed off.
Most persistent problem was the sun. The director [Michael Anderson] was willing to shoot his outdoor scenes in either shade or sun, but not both, and sun wouldn’t make up its mind. Elaborate scene involving armored car bearing IRA members out to capture one of their members from the British was rehearsed. Each time scene was ready to be filmed, sun went behind clouds. Waiting for the sun kept the entire cast and street traffic paralyzed for 20 minute stretches. Finally, word would echo over amplified megaphone, “Action!” Then cameras rolled.
Met Cagney. Discussed Ireland with him, its poverty. Ireland haunts not only the Irish, but tourists and visitors as well. He said, “You couldn’t have arrived at a better time.” Gun duel, armed raid, jump into river, and high dive from tower, climaxed by explosion, all to be shot in the next two days. Even the cast was excited.
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| Cagney on set (Photo: B. Dobell) |
Dockside had been shielded from street view by putting up canvas walls painted like brick. But persistent thousands of Irishers, anxious to get a look at the gunplay, had torn holes in the canvas and poked their heads through in ludicrous fashion. Before each “take,” they had to be shooed off.
Most persistent problem was the sun. The director [Michael Anderson] was willing to shoot his outdoor scenes in either shade or sun, but not both, and sun wouldn’t make up its mind. Elaborate scene involving armored car bearing IRA members out to capture one of their members from the British was rehearsed. Each time scene was ready to be filmed, sun went behind clouds. Waiting for the sun kept the entire cast and street traffic paralyzed for 20 minute stretches. Finally, word would echo over amplified megaphone, “Action!” Then cameras rolled.
Floating
population on set puzzled director. He swore half of Dublin had sneaked onto
the dockside. And the commissary at lunchtime was packed with faces unfamiliar
to him. He didn’t mind the extras bringing their relatives to lunch, but these,
in turn, seemed to be bringing their relatives.
Crisp weather made
food at lunchtime and teatime of major concern to cast. Tea served buffet style
on outdoor carts with actors and actresses spreading slices of white bread
thickly with apricot jam, honey, and cheeses. Mugs of hot coffee downed
throughout the long morning and longer afternoon. Moviemaking is hard work,
tedious. But everyone was cheerful.
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| Irish boy extra (Photo: B. Dobell) |
Dinner with Mr.
and Mrs. Cagney [and Ande]. He is a warm, intelligent man. Told stories of his
experiences with movie stuntmen, how he admired them as a breed. Mrs. Cagney
very attentive to her husband; they are an old team and work in unison. He was
concerned about his daughter at Mills College, wanted an explanation of her
working as a waitress. “Is that progressive education, or what?”
After dinner, we
walked to a dance hall where Cagney was supposed to watch a folk-dance
performance. Along street, had most moving experience of Dublin trip. Twenty
urchins spotted Jimmy and trailed us for four or five blocks.
“Are you Jimmy
Cagney?” they asked.
Cagney said no.
“Sure, you’re
Jimmy!” they cried, beseeching him to listen to them. They sang aloud, almost
did handstands to amuse him. Touched, he kept walking briskly but tousled the
hair of several of the lads. They had seen movies, he said, he no longer
remembered, shouting the plots to him and lines he had spoken many years
before. The Dublin movies had been running his old films for the last few
months.
“Where do these
kids come from?” he asked.
Finally, he stopped and asked, “Where’s your
mother and father?”
“They’re in
England.”
And so answered
another and another.
“Come on!” Cagney
said. “Don't give me that. You're making up a story, aren’t you?”
“No, no!” they
cried.
These are the
children of Dublin’s streets, abandoned to their old aunts and grandmothers, while
their parents leave for years at a time to earn their living elsewhere.
We dug for small
change and gave it to the kids. They milled around and in a moment it seemed as
if the group would multiply into one hundred shouting boys. But Cagney was firm
and said, “No more.” The older boys knew he meant what he said and drifted
away. But several lads no older than seven or eight held onto his coattails
until he was inside the dance hall. Cagney shook his head in amused, sad
bewilderment.
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| Cagney at dance hall (Photo: B. Dobell) |
Solomon and Sheba, directed by King Vidor, originally starred Tyrone Power, along with Gina Lollobrigida, Marisa Pavan, and George Sanders.
Two thirds of the movie had been shot and the unit was in Madrid
when on November 15, in the midst of filming a duel scene, Power complained of a pain in his left arm. He died later that day of a heart attack. Yul Brynner took over Power's role as Solomon.
Marisa Pavan (born in Italy in 1932) acted on film and TV for several decades. She is the twin sister of Pier Angeli, a film actress who died in 1971.
Marisa Pavan (born in Italy in 1932) acted on film and TV for several decades. She is the twin sister of Pier Angeli, a film actress who died in 1971.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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| Marisa Pavan and Tyrone Power (Photo: B. Dobell) |
Stay tuned for Part II of The Byron Blog
