Part VI – From Byron’s files, on the eve of his 92nd birthday

The Byron Blog consists of writings, photographs and anecdotes related to my father, Byron Dobell (1927-2017)

Here are two amusing letters Byron received and kept in his files – one from Walt Disney Productions in 1941 (when he was 13 years old and Disney gave him a prize for his drawing based on music featured in the movie Fantasia) and one from his friend Lee Adams in 1961 (regarding what to name Byron’s firstborn – who turned out to be me). Lee Adams wrote the lyrics for Bye Bye Birdie and Golden Boy (among other musicals) and for “Those Were the Days,” the opening theme of the TV show All in the Family.

Happy Birthday, Daddy-o!

Recently discovered – 1941 newspaper clipping of the win:

(Byron standing second from left)

Part IV – Byron on Books

The Byron Blog consists of writings, photographs and anecdotes related to my father Byron Dobell (1927-2017)

A bit of humor and history from the archives ~ 

From Byron's piece, “Telling a Book by Its Cover,” published in New York Magazine, October 6, 1968 (when Byron was the editor of Book World):

There is no one book on the publishers’ lists of the current season that is likely to raise the temperature of your martini by any measurable degree . . .

What follows, then, is a list of books that would seem to be the leading fall contenders for cocktail and dinner party chitchat. I assure you I have read none of them and that all this is merely an exercise in a telling a book by its cover . . .

10.  Pentagonism by Dr. Juan Bosch (Grove). The New York Review will do a 40,000-word review. The book is 20,000 words . . .

13.  The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten (McGraw-Hill). The blurb says “768 pages of folklore, history and anecdotes.” Mazel Tov!

14.  Revolutionary Immortality: Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese Cultural Revolution by R. J. Lifton (Random House).  An important study but see item 10.

15.  How Babies Are Made (Time-Life). Seven-year-olds [Blogger's note: That was me!] and their parents will be talking about this book, which is doubtless the most charming introduction to sex for children, thanks to the paper cut-out illustrations by Blake Hampton. There was lots of fuss on the premises of Time Inc. about the use of a cross-section of a penis. What’s the matter with those people?

Finally, even though it doesn’t arrive until January, just beyond the season’s edge, we’ll end with one book that should be in a class with the most talked-about books of yesteryear. It’s Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint (Random House). Those who have read parts of it in Esquire, Partisan Review and the New American Review agree that it is the best written, funniest American novel of – here goes – my generation. It knocks most of the other talent in the room out the window. Will it cause a scandal? Well, for starters, it’s about masturbation and Jews. Talk all you want about this one, but please, darling, not in front of the children.

And here’s an excerpt from “Americana,” Byron’s review of holiday books for the New York Times Book Review in December 1983 (when he was the editor of American Heritage magazine):

If the Magi had traveled to Bethlehem bearing picture books, they’d still be en route. The weight alone of this season’s megabooks devoted to American life, history and art would be enough to flatten an army of Wise Men, not to mention a mere book reviewer with lower-back trouble. Fortunately, the express mail service has solved the heavy lifting problem these days, and the only remaining question is what we can learn about America from the current shipment. The answer seems to be, “Not much,” “Some,” and “A lot,” depending on whether the various texts spell out the specifics of the pictures (full captions, please) and make the necessary generalizations and connecting links without which the illustrations are just costly bonbons for the eye.

 

 In his 1983 holiday books review, Byron wrote about Oscar de Mejo: "He appears to be the only artistically successful history painter on the scene today."

Part III – On Assignment in Jamaica and Italy (1959)

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

Clark Gable and Sophia Loren, in a scene from It Started in Naples (Photo: B. Dobell)

In 1959, recently married to my mother Ande — and no baby (me) yet, Byron takes Ande along on two assignments for This Week magazine, where he is now photo editor:

in April to Jamaica, to photograph Noel Coward and Alec Guinness, who are taking a break from filming Our Man in Havana in Cuba, and are staying at Coward’s home, Blue Harbour, in Port Maria, Jamaica;

in September to southern Italy, to photograph Sophia Loren and Clark Gable, who are filming It Started in Naples, and also to photograph the cast of Five Branded Women (including actresses Barbara Bel Geddes and Silvana Mangano, and director Martin Ritt).

Below are some of Byron’s photos from these assignments (with a bit of my own Wikipedia-heavy annotation).

This Week was a nationally syndicated Sunday magazine supplement that was included in American newspapers between 1935 and 1969. In the early 1950s, it accompanied 37 Sunday newspapers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Week_(magazine)

Here’s a cover of This Week:

This Week, Sunday, October 11, 1959

JAMAICA

Our Man in Havana

Released December 1959

Our Man in Havana is a 1959 British spy comedy film, directed and produced by Carol Reed and starring Alec Guiness, Burl Ives, Maureen O'Hara, Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward and Ernie Kovacs. The film is adapted from the 1958 novel Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Man_in_Havana_(film)

Noel Coward (1899-1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works. His plays include Private Lives, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noël_Coward

Alec Guinness (1914-2000) was an English actor, known for such films as: The Ladykillers (1955), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), and  The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Guinness

At the time of Byron and Ande’s visit, Jamaica was not yet independent from the United Kingdom. In 1958, it had become a 

province in the West Indies Federation, a political union of several Caribbean colonies of the United Kingdom. In 1962, Jamaica left the federation and became an independent country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica

Byron and Ande even made the front page of the Jamaican newspaper The Daily Gleaner, which proudly reported the publicity surrounding the Guinness visit in an article headlined “Coward, Guinness stay boosts island” --

Saturday, April 11, 1959

Presence in Jamaica of Sir Alec Guinness, famed British actor and Academy Award winner, has earned additional publicity for the island. With his cooperation, and that of his host in Jamaica, Mr. Noel Coward, a photo spread will appear shortly in This Week magazine, a mass-circulation Sunday supplement which is carried by several leading newspapers in the United States.

Mr. Byron Dobell, photo editor of the magazine, came to Jamaica last weekend

to do the assignment. He took photographs of Sir Alec and Lady Guinness and other houseguests of Mr. Coward at Mr. Coward’s home, “Blue Harbour,” near Port Maria.

Among other celebrities staying with Mr. Coward at present are Anton Dolin, the world-renowned ballet dancer; Graham Payn, Broadway actor; and John Gilpin, brilliant young English dancer.

Mr. Dobell did a number of “shots” of the party during a photographic session at noon on Sunday. He was given full cooperation by his “subjects” and expressed himself as “extremely satisfied” with the success of the assignment.

This island magazine publicity was organised by the Jamaican Tourist Board through its New York publicity representatives, Ruder & Finn. Mr. Dobell and wife arrived on the island on Saturday night and left on Tuesday for New York.

While here, they stayed at Tower Isle Hotel and Casa Montego.

This Week is a syndicated publication and the largest circulated magazine of this type in the United States.
https://newspaperarchive.com/kingston-gleaner-apr-11-1959-p-17/

 

Alec Guinness and Noel Coward (Photo: B. Dobell)

Alec Guinness and Noel Coward (Photo: B. Dobell)

Noel Coward (Photo: B. Dobell)

Alec Guinness (Photo: B. Dobell)

And, on one of Byron’s contact sheets, I found a shot of my mother and Coward.

Ande Dobell and Noel Coward (Photo: B. Dobell)

ITALY

It Started in Naples

Released August 1960

It Started in Naples is an American romantic comedy film made by Paramount Pictures and released in August 1960. The film stars Clark Gable, Sophia Loren, Vittorio de Sica, and an Italian cast.

Sophia Loren (b. 1933) is an Italian film actress. Loren began her film career in 1950 at age 16. She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Loren

Clark Gable (1901–1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". Between the years 1930 and 1960, he became a leading man in more than 60 motion pictures. It Started in Naples was the final film to be released within Gable's lifetime and his last color film. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Gable

Clark Gable (photo: B. Dobell)

 

Sophia Loren (Photo: B. Dobell)

Sofia Loren (Photo: B. Dobell)

Five Branded Women

Released March 15, 1960

Five Branded Women is a 1960 
Italian American film directed by Martin Ritt and produced by Dino de Laurentiis. It featured an international cast, including Silvana Mangano, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeanne Moreau, and Vera Miles, and was Ritt's only war movie, set during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia.

“Yugoslav partisans grimly crop the hair of a village quintet of women believed to have consorted with the occupational Nazis. Four, for various reasons, have indeed - and their seducer is a lone, swaggering sergeant whom the partisans briskly emasculate. Escorted out of town by the sheepish Nazis, the forlorn ladies link up, patriotically and romantically, with a band of tough mountain guerrillas.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Branded_Women

Barbara Bel Geddes, knitting during a break on the set (Photo: B. Dobell)

Barbara Bel Geddes (1922 –2005) was an American stage, screen, and television actress. Her notable films include I Remember Mama (1948) and Vertigo (1958). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bel_Geddes

Silvana Mangano (Photo: B. Dobell)

Silvana Mangano (1930 –1989) was an Italian actress. She was married to film producer Dino de Laurentiis from 1949 to 1988. Some notable films include Bitter Rice (1949) and Death in Venice (1971).

Martin Ritt, Director (Photo: B. Dobell)

Martin Ritt (1914-1990) was an American television and film director. He was blacklisted by the TV industry during the early 1950s and began directing movies some years later. Among other films, he directed: Edge of the City (1957), Hud (1963), The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965), Sounder (1972), The Front (1976), and Norma Rae (1979).

Last, but not least . . .

Another photographer on the set of It Started in Naples, John G. Ross, took the photo below (my father is standing at top center, with camera; Gable is sitting at middle right):

Photo: John G. Ross

Ross gave Byron a print of the original image, as well as a diagonal slice – capturing Byron’s proximity to the star!

Photo and crop: John G. Ross

THE END