bunchofgrapes

Yes, he's quite dead (passed away in '84 not long after narrating the '84 Olympics) and he would be 97 if he were still alive. But he was one of my major crushes when I was a kid and okay, still to this day.

Happy Birthday, Richard. It's an honor to own your trousers.

( Pic spam! Too bad they don't come with sound because his voice was amazing )

It looks like the trip to Monterey and San Francisco is on for September. My friend is excited! I am excited! It will be very exciting!

( The third trip to CA )

I just had the worst week at work ever. Thursday was probably the worst day--or at least morning--I've experienced in my entire work history. On the positive side, all the stress has caused me to drop a couple of pounds.

I was looking up this street that my friend, Jack, lives on in Milan and I couldn't believe that there is a picture of it. Piazza Sant'Erasmo. Click on the link and then click on street view under the picture that pops up on the map. For those interested, when my friend and I went to visit Jack, he was in the villa at the end of the Piazza (tile roof house with two chimneys. In the upper left hand corner of the picture you can scroll the view. The entrance to the courtyard is right about where the yellow van is. The gate still said "Basehart" when we were last there. During our first two visits to Milan, we spent a lot of our time in that house. Jack always had us over for dinner or just to hang out and talk about his dad. Richard never lived there but he did pick Jack up from the house when he came to visit. Jack was always very protective of us too. On one of our trips there, we were staying at this hotel in a quiet part of the city. Jack insisted on taking us back there after dinner so he could check it out and make sure it was safe. And then of course, we'd find out later that he had paid for our stay.

Going back to the Google map, if you look to the left, above the roof of the villa (you might have to click on the "full screen" button in the upper right corner) and you'll see a terrace. That's where Valentina, Jack's mother and Richard's second wife, was living when we met her. Actually, that's also where Jack was living the last time we saw him back in 2004. He moved out of the big house the previous year, I think.

Seeing this street, the house, and the memories it brought back made me very sad because I really miss Jack, Milan, and Italy. Jack's health hasn't been the best these last few years and I'm afraid something will happen to him before I can ever get back to see him again.

Okay so tomorrow is Dante's birthday and again, I didn't get a card in the mail on time. I haven't even mailed his book yet either. He's recovering from surgery so I'm sending him my copy of Harold Clurman's "All People Are Famous". It's got a small blurb about Richard Basehart and how the director came to meet him at Fellini's. This was back in the 50's of course, when Richard and Valentina were still married and living in Rome.

Speaking of Rome, I really miss Jack. I do hope I can get to Rome this year to see him. He still calls us his angels sent my his dad to watch over him. I wish I could live up to that but I'm no angel. Still, Jack does need someone to watch over him. Hard to believe he's 54 now. When we first met him in Milan, he wasn't yet 50. He's such a gracious man, always taking care of us like we were family. And man, the food we've enjoyed because of him! If we go to Rome, I still have to get to La Tavernetta da Elio in Milan. The food there is fabulous. And FWIW, the name of this journal is the name of the street in Milan where Jack lives when he's there.

Jack has since moved but his mother still lives on the street though so that's where he stays when he's in Milan. The house he lived in was amazing. First house I've ever been in that had an elevator. We took it a couple of times to get from the living room to the dining room for dinner. I have great memories of that house. It was the first place we met Jack. I remember going up the marble staircase and seeing the pics of him with Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. and thinking at first it was his dad. Jack looks so much like Richard--except for being about a foot taller--and he sounds like him too. He's even got Richard's dry laugh. There was this beautiful ceramic fireplace in the middle of the room and on the grand piano, there were all these pictures of Jack and Valentina. Some with the Pope, President Reagan and various actors and conductors. Jack told us stories about his dad and a few of his drunken escapades. The man did like the ladies and the alcohol--probably together. Jack told us some hilarious stories about filming "Il Bidone" too. The funniest Jack story though has to be when he sent my friend and I, neither of us even remotely fluent in Italian, to this one restaurant with a note that basically said, in Italian, give these two anything they want to eat and put it on my tab. It was the best meal I have ever eaten and damned if I can't recall the name of the place. Ah, good times...