The LuLc Edition #4, 727, April 26th. 2022

 

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

Our “Maybe I’m Amazed” logo

LEE TRACY EDITION

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that even though he was born in Atlanta, Tracy spent some of his formative years in Sayre and Dallas, Pennsylvania. Lee during his teenage years studied at the Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois and graduated from that preparatory school before briefly attending Union College in New York to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. His studies there were interrupted by his induction into the United States Army during the final weeks of World War I. Although he served in the army for only a short time, he quickly rose to the rank of second lieutenant, a promotion likely attributable to his prior education at Western Military Academy and to his knowledge in engineering.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……Soon after his discharge from the army, Tracy decided to alter his career plans, abandoning engineering and turning instead to acting and to working in local stage productions. As early as 1920, in that year's federal census for Pennsylvania, he officially identifies his occupation as "actor, theatrical company". His rise in the ranks in theatre, as in his brief military service, proved to be rapid. After performing for two years in productions with traveling companies, Tracy began performing regularly in vaudeville in New York, earning a steady salary of $35 a week. A real go getter he was.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……but not really that In 1929, Tracy arrived in Hollywood, where he played a news reporter in several films, although he was not cast in that role for the 1931 screen version of The Front Page. Despite Tracy's success portraying the character Hildy Johnson in the Broadway production, the film's producers did not believe he possessed sufficient star power to attract large audiences to cinemas to see the comedy drama. They instead cast Pat O'Brien in the part. Undeterred, Tracy continued to gain admirers of his work among studio executives and moviegoers. In 1932 he again received praise for his portrayal of Alvin Roberts, a Walter Winchell-type gossip columnist, in Blessed Event (1932).

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……Lee Tracy's flourishing film career was temporarily disrupted on 19 November 1933, while he was on location in Mexico filming Viva Villa! with Wallace Beery. According to the actor and producer Desi Arnaz, in his autobiography A Book (1976), Tracy stood on a balcony in Mexico City and urinated down onto a passing military parade. Elsewhere in his autobiography, Arnaz claims that from then on, if one watched other crowds of spectators, they would visibly disperse any time an American stepped out onto a balcony. However, other crew members there at the time disputed this story, giving a sharply different account of events. In his autobiography, Charles G. Clarke, the cinematographer on the picture, said that he was standing outside the hotel during the parade and the incident never happened.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED……that  he was one of those rare soldiers who served in the two World Wars. In WWII, His career after the war focused increasingly on radio work and performing on the rapidly expanding medium of television. Between 1949 and 1954, he performed on both the radio and televised versions of the weekly series Martin Kane: Private Eye, in which he was one of four actors to play the title role. In 1958, he returned to the role of newspaper reporter in the syndicated series New York Confidential.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that in 1964 Tracy became known for one of his screen roles when  he portrayed the former President of the United States "Art Hockstader", a fictitious character loosely based on Harry Truman, in both the stage and film adaptations of Gore Vidal's novel The Best Man. The movie version featured Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in the film. Any political junkie has to see this film.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….that in “The Best Man” Tracy’s line,  Y'know, it's not that I object to your being a bastard, don't get me wrong there. It's your being such a stupid bastard that I object to.”

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…….but not, in an appreciation of Tracy and his career Imogene Sara Smith writes, “In 1964, he made a triumphant return to Hollywood in The Best Man, based on a play by Gore Vidal. In both stage and screen versions, Tracy played a Trumanesque former president who is being courted by two presidential candidates vying for their party’s nomination. In a more complex and nuanced role than any he had tackled on screen in his heyday, he is sly and folksy, shrewd and anti-intellectual, honest but willing to hand out fake sentiment, honorable but ready to fight dirty. Over all this hangs the pathos of mortality — he is dying of a cancer, as Tracy himself would in 1968 — yet he still brings a crackle of electricity into a room.”

MAYBE I’M AMAZED…..that one of his best performances from the early years was “Turn The Clock Back” He play Joe Gimlet who has the chance to get a second chance at wealth he originally passed up. It is a classic.

Check out the Three Stooges in a cameo role.  

(wikipedia, LuLac archives, New York Daily News).