[Leica] 50mm F1.4 redux, or on the need for speed.

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

On 6/29/04 8:25 PM, "Adam Bridge" <abridge@gmail.com> wrote:

> Well the criticism is drivel of the worst kind, but a portrait of
> Disney is very complicated. I remember a piece in, of all places,
> American Heritage, that wasn't kind and that dated from the period
> right after his death.
> 
> Still, it's important to place Disney in his times, something modern
> "critics" are loath to do, and for his time he was much more
> mainstream than otherwise. I say this remembering my own distress at
> hearing my own parents anti-Semitism and racial bigotry. It's easy to
> toss rocks at the value systems of the past. Far more difficult to
> hold an accurate mirror up for our own individual actions.
> 
> It will be interesting to see our our own cultures are judged 100
> years from now. More humanely, I hope.
> 
> Adam
> 
For Disney to manage to avoid casting any Jews in any of his movies was no
mean trick as a surprisingly high percentage of actors in Hollywood have
Jewish backgrounds. Many very famous actors as well as mainstream more run
of the mill character actors whose names were changed to very non Jewish
sounding ones. He knew who they all were.

To not hold Disney accountable for such narrow minded hatefulness would be
not humane. Not the other way around. I am very away of the climate of
Hollywood during that time. Disney went out of his way and out of a normal
path to be a bigot. He was in a class all his own on this regard.
Lets give credit where credit is due. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

Some actors with Jewish backgrounds that gave me a surprise having just
looked it up are:
Harrison Ford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Goldie Hawn, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ben Kingsley,
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, (I am not Spock.), Harvey Keitel, Jane
Seymour, Debra Winger, Douglas Fairbanks (the grandfather of all Zorro's and
the best, Lisa Bonet, Peter Lorre (Laszlo Lowenstein) and my favorite actor,
Marcel Marceau, David Janssen, River Phoenix, The Three Stooges, of course
the Marx Bros., Joseph Wiseman the first Dr. No), Peter Sellers,
bro-sis team Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
    Converted to Judaism were Kate Capshaw
 Nell Carter
 Sammy Davis Jr.
 Anne Meara
 Marilyn Monroe
 Elizabeth Taylor

Heck no I'm not going to cast these guys! Who else can I get?!!

Marilyn Monroe was going to be the voice of Bambi's mother but you know how
THAT turned out!  

(happy birthday! Mr.. President...)



Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/