SECRETARIAT!

It has been a while since I have done a post on this blog.  I am having a hard time posting here and on The Southern Lady Cooks, too.  The fan page on Facebook now has 813 fans so it keeps me busy writing blog posts, cooking, getting new recipes together and posting both places.  I love to cook and I enjoy the Facebook page so I spend more time there these days.  So whether you like to cook or not, there are lots of good articles on the cooking blog and things to comment on. Today,  we are doing funny food stories over there, so click on the link above and tell your story and read the comments of some of my readers.

Anyway, I checked my friend Balisha’s blog this morning, Never Enough Time, and she has a post about the movie, Secretariat.  I have wanted to see this movie since it came out.  I had it on my Netflix list for months and behold it came today!  I watched it the minute I got it.

If you have not seen this movie be sure and watch it.  It is a wonderful movie.  I could watch it again right now and I just saw it today!  A lot of the scenes are filmed in Kentucky and several people I know were extras and such.  The scene where the horse runs the Belmont was filmed at Keeneland Race Track in Lexington about 30 minutes away from my house. I know you are going to love it.

HOW I MET KEENAN WYNN!

I posted this picture in my previous post about 10 things I like. Some of you have asked what the story is behind the picture.

 The picture is of me, the actor, Keenan Wynn, and a friend of mine.  I was nineteen years old in this photo.  I had graduated high school and was living in an apartment complex behind the new Holiday Inn in my town. I had just started working for Kentucky State Government. (Look at that teased big hair!)

The movie, The Great Race, a slapstick  comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn, Arthur O’Connell and Vivian Vance was being made about the first around the world automobile race. They filmed parts of the movie in my hometown in Kentucky.

The entire cast and crew stayed at the new Holiday Inn.  In fact, they took over the entire place for the duration of the filming. 

One evening a friend stopped by my apartment and told my roommate and me there was a party going on next door at the Holiday Inn.  We walked over and someone outside invited us to come into the party.  We found out later the person that invited us in was a stunt man with the movie.  We met the entire cast that night.  We were two starstruck teenagers excited to death.  Natalie Wood was absolutely beautiful.  Peter Falk acted just like he did when he played Columbo on television. Jack Lemmon was drunk every time I saw him.  Keenan Wynn was one of the nicest people you would ever meet and Tony Curtis was so good looking.  Tony Curtis would have been thirty nine at this time and he was married to Christine Kaufmann.  I think she was nineteen and she was gorgeous.  She was with him at the party.  We had a great time and just about fainted when Keenan Wynn told us he would take us to the movie lot with him in his limo the next morning if we were outside the Holiday Inn at a certain time.  My roommate said there was no way she could get off work but I called my boss and he let me off along with my co-worker that is in the picture.

True to his word Mr. Wynn let us ride in his limo in the back seat with him to the movie set.  I remember we stopped on the Main Street of my town and he jumped out and ran into a shoe store and bought a pair of sneakers to wear that day.  Each time he got a break from his part of the filming he would come over and stand with us and explain what was going on with the actors, etc.  We thought we had died and gone to heaven!  That evening we were brought back to the Holiday Inn and never saw any of them again except in the movies or if we saw them around town before they finished filming.  The picture was taken by a photographer on the set.

The movie came out in 1965 and was considered a flop at the box office but later became sort of a cult film. 

I am sure a lot of people don’t remember this movie or the actors.  Here is a poster advertising the movie and that is the story of how I met Keenan Wynn, the actor! 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!

I got notes from several of you saying the picture did not load on my previous post.  So, I deleted that one and replaced it with this one.

First of all, it has been very cold here over the weekend.  I turned the heat on yesterday for the first time this year.  We got some drizzle but we still need rain bad.  When the weather starts to get cold all I can think about is cooking and eating, making soups, breads, and comfort food.  I feel like my summer jobs are over and now all I want to do is curl up with a good book and a comforter.

Here is your question.  If you coud be a character from any book you have ever read or any movie you have ever seen, who would it be and why?

I think I would be Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind!  I loved the book and the movie and I loved Clark Gabel and Rhett Butler.  When I was a young girl, I dreamed of the plantations in the old South.  Margaret Mitchell and Frank Yerby were my favorite authors. 

Now, it’s your turn.   Have a good week.