Saturday, April 5, 2008

Paint Your Wagon


Writing my post yesterday got me thinking about Paint Your Wagon and the song "Gold Fever' from the movie. I really enjoy listening to that that song - love the clever lyrics. I remember reading somewhere that Clint Eastwood REALLY didn't like that movie. Well, I did - I love him singing "Gold Fever", "I Talk To The Trees", and "I Still See Elisa". I love Lee Marvin singing "Wan'drin' Star". Yes, we have the DVD, the VHS version, and the soundtrack CD. That's how I am about movies I like. I have even had the pleasure of seeing the play at least twice, I think one of the times was at the Music Circus in Sacramento years ago with the great Gordon MacRae in the lead. The story of the play is different than the film, and for the film Andre Previn did additional music that was not in the original Lerner and Loewe musical.

So, of course, I managed to find a piece of sheet music, too.
One funny thing about this movie is that when it first came out, I didn't see it. I was at the home of a fellow 4-H family one day, waiting for Mother to come and pick me up after a cooking meeting - she was quite late. I wanted to go home, and I was really annoyed at being there still. Well, the youngest of the three daughters decided she would regale me with tales from the movie - you know, the best parts, funny lines, etc. Their whole family had gone to see it, they LOVED it, they had the soundtrack album- yada, yada, yada! I remember in my selfish little 13 (or so?) year-old mind thinking it was all stupid, and being TOTALLY disinterested in everything she was saying about this movie I hadn't seen, and had no interest in seeing nor hearing about. Well- guess what?? Years later, when I finally saw it myself , I LOVED it! So, here and now I want to formally apologize to Beverly Battaglia - you were right - it's a great, fun movie, and I loved it, too.

3 comments:

  1. Well, I don't know where Beverly is, but I will pass this on to Barb when I see her next. She will enjoy it, her family is still very musical, she and her hubby can fiddle a folk tune with the best of them! I just knew you were talking about the Battaglia's when I first started reading, who else was in 4H that also had 3 girls? I wonder if Clint would rather be remembered for his blowing away of bad guys to make his day than his singing? To each their own. Remember when we went to his bar/restaurant in Carmel? Well, we almost met him! Love T

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  2. B. got to meet him on the train in November of 1991 when they were filming Unforgiven. He really liked him; said he was very nice. That's good to know. He has gotten to meet a lot of neat people over the years- Michael Landon, Dale Robertson,Kenny Rogers, Burt Reynolds, etc. - a cool perk of "working on the railroad"!

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  3. Heidi Ann, thanks for your sweet comments about my painting! Maybe I'll have to try another one sometime. :)
    Cheryl

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