This purpose of this blog is to put together a virtual list/collection of memorable (if fleeting) references to the cities of Wilkes-Barre, PA or Scranton, PA in movies/TV/music/Broadway/books (in the script, setting, lyrics, etc).
We'd like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support and suggestions for the Entertainment blog. I'll continue adding these as blog entries as time permits.
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day today!
For the first time in a few years, I decided to catch the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade and, wouldn't you know it, there was a very funny reference to Scranton, courtesy of one of the stars of The Office.
Kate Flannery (Meredith) and Oscar Nunez (Oscar) were briefly interviewed on the sidelines of the parade. When asked by the host what they thought of this morning's festivities, Kate cheerfully replied, "It's almost as big as the Scranton St. Patrick's Day Parade. Almost."
Even when it's only yet-another-one-of-the-numerous-references-to-The Office references, I must admit I still get giddy when I see Scranton mentioned in my favorite magazine, Entertainment Weekly.
This time, Scranton was mentioned on page 9 of EW in the popular section called The Bullseye, which rates the pop culture news stories of the week ala a game of Darts (humorously, several events nobody cares about--usually those involving Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt--often miss the bullseye and the arrow lands two pages ahead).
On tonight's episode, titled Frame Toby (Season 5, Episode 8), Michael Scott is absolutely livid that former HR rep and his eternal arch nemesis Toby is back from Costa Rica and back at his old job at Dunder-MifflinScranton...and Michael will do anything in his power to get rid of him--including planting marijuana.
Michael approaches a couple of deliverymen from Vance's Refrigeration and asks if he could "buy some weed" from them. Though they don't really have any to sell, they offer to sell him some anyway for $500. When Michael reaches into his wallet for the money, inside the front card sleeve on full display is his library card from the Lackawanna County Library System. Oh, and the pot they end up selling to Michael is the salad Michael himself threw away that afternoon.
The legendary film noir actress Lizabeth Scott was born Emma Matzo in the PineBrook Section of Scranton, Pennsylvania on September 29, 1922. Emma attended Central High School and Marywood College (nowMarywood University).
After moving to New York City while only in her late teens, Matzo attended the Alvienne School of Drama. She also worked as a model.
Her first big break came in 1942 when she was hired to understudy the legendary actress (with a legendary acid tongue) Tallulah Bankhead in Thorton Wilder'sThe Skin of Our Teeth; unfortunately, Bankhead never missed a performance and Matzo never had the opportunity to perform. However, Matzo took over the lead in the play from Bankhead's ill replacement Gladys George and garnished rave reviews--the next night, Matzo was no longer needed.
Matzo's luck was forever changed when renowned Hollywood producer Hal Wallis discovered her in 1945 and offered her contract in Hollywood; however, Matzo put Hollywood stardom on hold when she was offered the lead in the Boston production of The Skin of Our Teeth. it was in Boston where Emma Matzo took the stage name Lizabeth Scott.
After moving to Hollywood, Scott made a total of 21 films between 1945 and 1957--her main studio was Paramount and her main producer was Hal Wallis. She made her film debut in 1945's You Came Along, directed by John Farrow (father of Mia). Her most famous film role was the femme fatale Toni Marachek in the film noir the classic The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin. Scott acted alongside some of the best actors in Hollywood--her other notable films include: 1947's Dead Reckoning with Humphrey Bogart; 1947's Desert Fury with Burt Lancaster and Mary Astor; 1949's Easy Living starring Lucille Ball and Victor Mature; 1949's Too Late For Tears with Dan Duryea; 1950's Dark City with Charlton Heston (whom she also starred with in 1953's Bad For Each Other); and 1951's The Racket with Robert Mitchum.
Lizabeth Scott was also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1624 Vine Street).
Her last screen appearance was in the role of Princess Betty Cippola in 1972's Pulp, directed by Mike Hodges and co-starring Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney.
For nearly forty years, Scott has mostly stayed out of the public eye.
Tina Fey made her third triumphant appearance this season as Sarah Palin on this past weekend's Saturday Night Live in a send-up of this past week's Vice-Presidential debate between Palin and Joe Biden.
Though it was hysterical (even featuring a cameo by Queen Latifah as debate moderator Gwen Ifill), I have to admit I was a little unnerved when SNL regular Jason Sudeikis (as Joe Biden) made a somewhat shockingly negative speech about Scranton. Granted, it was quite funny, but shocking nonetheless.
Jason Sudeikis
as Sen. Joe Biden:
You know I get a little tired of being told I'm an insider. I come from Scranton, Pennsylvania! And that's as hard-scrabble a place as you're gonna find. I'll show you around some time and you'll see. It's a hellhole! An absolute jerkwater of a town! You couldn't stand to spend a weekend there. It is just an awful, awful sad place filled with sad, desperate people with no ambition! Nobody, and I mean nobody, but me, has ever come out of that place! It's a genetic cesspool! So don't be telling me that I'm part of the Washington elite, because I come from the absolute WORST place on Earth: Scranton, Pennsylvania! And Wilmington, Delaware is not much better.
If you missed it Saturday, check out the extremely funny video above (the Scranton reference begins at 5:38). To read the complete transcript of the fake debate on SNL, click here.
I would love to hear your opinions on this. Feel free to vote in the poll on the top lefthand side of the blog, or post a comment--do you think the Scranton reference was funny or offensive?
I've seen the show three times and absolutely LOVED IT.
Xanadu opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre in NYC on July 10, 2007 to rave reviews. It was nominated for four 2008 Tony Awards, including one for Best Book of a Musical for Beane.
If you haven't seen it yet, this is your final chance. To purchase tickets,click here. Ticket prices range from $60 to $110, with steep discounts available through sites such as TheaterMania; in addition, a handful of tickets for on-stage seating (priced at $41) are available for every performance.
Congratulations to Douglas Carter Beane and the entire cast and crew of Xanadu for a successful run and a job well done.
I recently read Monster: My True Story by Aileen Wuornos with Christopher Berry-Dee and to my surprise, the book reference Scranton as the place that Wuornos's girlfriend Tyria Moore hid out from the police (as opposed to Wilkes-Barre reference in the much superior telling of the story, Sue Russell's Lethal Intent).
Two Scranton references occur in Chaper Fourteen: Aileen Wuornos's Confession -- In Her Own Words on page 133:
"She (Tyria Moore) had fled her parents' home and was living with her sister in Scranton, Pennsylvania...He (Major Dan Henry) booked into a local motel with one of his prime suspects, Tyria, and then he summoned Jerry Thompson of Cirtus County and Bruce Munster of Marion County who flew to Scranton to interview her."
As a side note, if you have a choice of the two books to read, I would strongly recommended Lethal Intent as the better of the two books. Monster: My True Story features only about 10 out of 238 pages of actual interviews with the co-author. The rest of the book is comprised of court transcripts, police interviews and a sketchy reading of the events of her life.
Check out the cover art for the just-released DVD set of The Office: Season Four. The sign in the background reads "Scranton Business Park." In addition, one of the Special Features listed is The Office Convention: Writer's Block.
If you plan to buy the DVD, you may want to consider picking it up at Target; they're offering an exclusive box set with special packaging that also includes an exclusive bonus disc featuring the hour-long cast Q&A from The Office Convention in Scranton, PA, filmed atUniversity of Scranton. Unfortunately, the Target exclusive is not available for purchase online.
Season Five of The Office starts Thursday, September 25th at 9 PM on NBC.
Pittston/Scranton native and author Jay Parini's 1990 novel The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year is being made into a major motion picture.
The Last Station, the novel as well as the film, is a drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things and a troubled marriage.
Directed and co-written for the screen by Michael Hoffman (Soapdish, Restoration, The Emperor's Club) the film version of The Last Station includes an impressive roster of actors--Christopher Plummer as Leo Tolstoy, Helen Mirren as his wife Sofya, Paul Giamatti as Vladimir Chertkov, and James McAvoy as Valentin Bulgakov.
The film version of The Last Station will be released this winter.
Novelist and poet Jay Parini was born in 1948 in Pittston, Pennsylvania and raised in Scranton.
To place a hold on Parini's novel The Last Station, click here.
Lethal Intent, subtitled "The Shocking True Story of One of America's Most Notorious Serial Killers," is a 2002 true-crime book by Sue Russell about Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute who was arrested, convicted, and executed for the murders of seven men. She was the subject of the 2003 film Monster, winning Charlize Theron a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Wuornos.
Lethal Intent also details Wuornos's lesbian relationship with a woman named Tyria Moore. According to the book, Moore hid out for a time with friends in Wilkes-Barre, PA, where the police tracked her down with some of the belongings of the victims. However, they believed her claim not to have been involved with any of the murders and she was not charged with any crime. Moore also agreed to turn state's evidence against Wuornos.
In the film Monster, Tyria Moore was morphed into the character of Selby, who was played by Christina Ricci.
To read excerpts from the book Lethal Intent, click here. To purchase a copy of Lethal Intent, click here.
A few weeks ago, my colleague Martina S. was watching The Antiques Roadshow on WVIA and heard a passing reference to Wilkes-Barre.
On the episode that aired Monday, August 11th, a woman exhibited a $75,000 chest that dated back to 1780. She said her relatives lives in Wilkes-Barre at one time and thought it was a Pennsylvania chest, but it was actually a Connecticut chest.
My colleague Brian Detrick, who works in our library's Technical Services Department and is a true horror buff (check out his awesome blog, Were80s Horror), recently showed me a copy of a screenplay he purchased of the recent horror flick George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead; he told he was shocked to see a reference to Scranton, PA in the dialogue.
In Diary of the Dead (a continuation of the zombie film series that Pittsburgh native George A. Romero began with 1968's Night of the Living Dead and continued with Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead), a group of young film students run into real-life zombies while filming a horror movie of their own.
The Scranton reference occurs early in the scripy (pages 18-19), when the filmmakers are riding in a van and filming introductions of themselves. The script is dated July 2006:
DEBRA
Debra Moynihan. I'm just trying to get home, too. Like Mary.
JASON (O.S.)
Where's home, Debra? Where are you trying to get to?
DEBRA
You know where I live.
JASON (O.S.)
Say it.
TONY (O.S.)
Say it, Debra. For the camera.
Tears well up in Debra's eyes as she SHOUTS...
DEBRA
SCRANTON! (Then, calming down) Scranton, Pennsylvania. That's my home. My parents' home, anyway. And my little brother's.
However, I'm not certain this was the final version of the script used in the 2007 film. According to the Internet Movie Database, the character of Debra--who actually says Scranton in the screenplay--is not listed as a character in the film.
If there are any readers of the blog out there who has seen Diary of the Dead and knows for certain if the Scranton reference was included in the actual film, please email me.
Thanks again to Brian Detrick for this truly terrifying Scranton reference. And check out Brian's Were80s Horror blog.
Check out the trailer for Diary of the Dead below:
Check out this week's double issue of Entertainment Weekly, the one with Harry Potter and the Fall Movie Preview on the cover.
On page 110 is The Ausiello Files, a column by EW writer Michael Ausiello that contains questions from readers requesting spoilers and such for their favorite television shows. One in particular caught my eye this week:
"Office news. You have it. I want it. Give it up! - Pamela
"Given all the tomfoolery that transpires at Dunder-Mifflin, it's kind of shocking to think that we've yet to meet this guy, but this season The Office will finally be introducing the paper company's head of HR. However, since he'll be heard before he's actually seen in Scranton, there's still time for Michael to remove that hidden camera in the ladies' room."
My extra-ultra-groovy colleague Elizabeth Davis from the Lackawanna County Children's Library, a huge fan of the AMC original series Mad Men, was quite surprised when she was watching this week's episode and suddenly hear the words Wilkes-Barre, PA come out of one of the characters' mouths.
Mad Men, created by Matthew Weiner (The Sopranos), is the first original series from tevevision network AMC (American Movie Classics). Set in New York City, Mad Men takes place amid the changing social mores in the early 1960s and centers on the fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper and its high level executive Don Draper (Jon Hamm), as well as his colleagues.
In addition to winning the 2007 Peabody Award, Mad Men recently made history by being the first basic-cable series (it shares the honor with Damages) to be nominated for the Prime Time Emmy Award for Best Drama (just one of a total of 16 Emmy nominations).
The Wilkes-Barre reference occurs about halfway through Flight 1, the second episode of the second season which had its premiere on Sunday, August 3rd. which first aired on Sunday, August 3rd. The character of Sis is talking to Peggy (Eilzabeth Moss) about how their mother lies about Peggy's activities to save face in front of her gossipy neighbors. Mom tells the nosy neighbors that the reason Peggy is is never seen at their church is because she is always out of town on business and even makes up a fictitious church that she attends in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
To watch the complete "Flight 1" episode of Mad Men online,click here.
A big ol' holla to Elizabeth Davis for this reference.
Regular blog contributor (and my gorgeous esteemed colleague) Evelyn Gibbons left an article from this morning's Citizens' Voice on my shelf this afternoon; the article announced the passing of Louis Teicher, a pianist best known as one half of the legendary piano duo Ferrante & Teicher. My parents had several of the duo's LPs in their collection when I was a child (including an album with a sexy 1960s era model posed against a gold background on the cover and a killer samba-like version of Chopsticks on the vinyl), so I have known of them as a child in the 1970s. But I have absolutely no idea that Louis Teicher was a Wilkes-Barre native until I read that he passed away this past Sunday (August 3rd) of heart failure.
Louis Teicher was born in Wilkes-Barre on August 24, 1924; he lived there until he was 5 years old, but he continued to spend his summers and even took his first piano lessons in W-B. Furthermore, his first concert was at the age of 8 at what is now Wyoming Seminary.
A child prodigy, Teicher attended the Juilliard School of Music at a mere 6 years of ageand receivied his diploma at the age of 16. He joined the Juilliard faculty when he was a mere 20 years old.
Teicher met his musical partner Arthur Ferrante (b. September 7, 1921) at Juilliard and began performing together while still in school, where Ferrante also became a faculty member.
The two pianists officially launched their professional partnership as Ferrante & Teicher in 1947. They became famous for their film themes (such as The Apartment and Exodus) and toured extensively for over 50 years, even playing several concerts in Scranton.
Sadly, Louis Teicher passed away on Sunday, August 3, 2008 from heart failure at his summer home in Highlands, North Carolina. He was 83 years old.
Don McKeon, who I can always count on for some good Scranton references, emailed me on Sunday about a reference to Scranton in a recent Blondie comic strip:
"Hello!
It's been a while but I came across a mention of "Scranton" in the comic section of Friday's Aug. 01, 2008 Scranton Times. Dagwood, from the Blondie comic strip, is looking for some perfume as a gift for his wife but all the "fancy" selections are too costly. He finally settles on just the right item, a cologne costing $6.50 an ounce called "Ned McGillicutty of Scranton". It's cute. Take care."
Created by Chic Young, the popular Blondie comic strips have been published in newspapers around the country since September 8, 1930.
The Blondie comic with the Scranton reference can be seen in full by either clicking on the image above or visiting the Official Blondie and Dagwood web site; a direct link to the Scranton comic can be viewed by clicking right here.
Much thanks again to the eternally observant Don McKeon for another great Scranton reference. Keep 'em comin'!
A reader of this blog, Mike Champlin, recently sent me a question that I need your help with. He writes:
"Hi Bill-
"I saw your blog and thought you might be the right person to ask about this company 'De Frenes and Company, Wilkes-Barre, PA' which producedfilms from 1920 to well into the 1950s.
"Is there any institution in Wilkes-Barre that may have information about this company, or its sister company 'B.D.F Films'?
"I am doing research on a film this company produced in 1921 'A Movie Trip Through Film Land'. The goal would be to research what became of the production company and to discover if any of their records or production materials survive. Thank you for taking the time to read this and considering my request. Any help would be most appreciated.
Best, Mike Champlin"
I did refer Mike to both the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre and the Luzerne County Historical Society. BUT I need your help, too. If there are any local history or movie buffs out there who are familiar with either De Frenes and Company or BDF Films (both now defunct, but originally based in Wilkes-Barre, PA), will you PLEASE help Mike by emailing me with any information you have? Or you can even leave me a message in the Meebo box on the lefthand side of the blog.
Thanks for your question, Mike, and I'll do my best to seek an answer for you. But if you find it first, please email me too so I can post the info here in the blog.
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day today!
