California, mon amour (still)
I just canât stay away from California. It reminds me of Bostonâs legendary honky-tonk Scollay Square, a place where there was âalways something doing.â
By Alex Beam Contributor,Updated May 14, 2021, 24 minutes ago
Email to a Friend
SAN DIEGO
Iâve always loved California, and I still do. California-ism is matrilineal, inherited from my late mother, who was born in Oakland about a century ago. A friend of mine calls San Diego âLos Angeles for old people,â which seems harsh. Thereâs plenty of action here. The day I arrived, Mexican drug authorities raided a half-finished Tijuana-to-San Diego smuggling tunnel. The Drug Enforcement Administration has its own San Diego Tunnel Task Force.
This fall, the leading Republican candidate for governor in the nation’s largest state could be a transgender celebrity at a time when it is the cutting-edge social issue for conservatives across the country.
Not one of California’s previous celebrity lawmakers succeeded on fame alone, but rather came with actual political experience and advisors, columnist Mark Z. Barabak says.
Equally covered was her sometime combative, sometimes pathetic but perpetually percolating relationship with fellow star shooter Frank Butler (Howard Keel and his booming bass pipes).
Hutton’s brash and boisterous performance, literally eating the camera at points, sells and saves the movie that was plagued with issues, including original director Busby Berkeley being fired, Judy Garland having to step away from the role of Annie due to health issues, and the original Buffalo Bill, Frank Morgan (“The Wizard of Oz”) dying during the production.
As critical to Hutton’s giddy performance was, Berlin’s unending stream of classics such as “Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly,” “The Girl That I Marry,” “Anything You Can Do” and the absolute showstopper “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” making this musical one of the most memorable in the history of the genre.