EngAGE Stories

From TheWeek.com:

Imagine a quiet, unassuming, rather short man who:

— was already considered a legendary standup in the 1960s;

— was responsible for getting the Smothers Brothers kicked off the air at CBS;

— made Richard Nixon’s enemies list, becoming the only comedian to do so (“In America, anyone can become President. I think we bend over backwards to prove it.”);

— logged more Tonight Show appearances than any other entertainer, save for Bob Hope;

— hosted the Tonight Show when he was 26;

— had a mobster for a best friend;

— directed hundreds of television commercials;

— whose imprint on TV comedies ranging from Bob Newhart’s shows to Mad About You to Seinfeld to Curb Your Enthusiasm is as indelible as the show’s creators themselves;

— continues to work today, as revered as ever by his peers.

How could David Steinberg not be a household name?

David Steinberg. That David Steinberg. Oh?

[Some of us of a certain age who do know David Steinberg also will remember The Existential Psychiatrist.]

From UCLA:

UCLA’s Film and Television Archive will be hosting a Hollywood hero at the Billy Wilder Theater. Norma Barzman, a screenwriter who fled to France when the House Un-American Activities Committee hunted down communists from the major studios in the 1940s and 1950s, will talk about her experience on the blacklist when she appears as the opening-night guest for the archive’s “Hollywood Exiles in Europe” retrospective.

The series opens on Friday, July 25, 7:30 p.m., with a screening of “Christ in Concrete,” the first blacklist exile film, directed by Edward Dmytryk — one of the legendary “Hollywood 10” — and starring blacklisted actor Sam Wanamaker. “Christ in Concrete” won acclaim and prizes in Europe.

Also appearing on opening night will be Rebecca Prime, author of the book, Hollywood Exiles in Europe: The Blacklist and Cold War Film Culture.

Among the films featured in the series are Jules Dassin’s 1955 French film noir “Rififi” and the 1952 “Stranger on the Prowl.”

Barzman will return to the Wilder on Sept. 15, her 94th birthday, for a screening of the 1946 drama “The Locket,” for which she recently received writing credit.

Tickets are $10 tickets and can be purchased online here. Find more information at the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The Billy Wilder Theater is located at the UCLA Hammer Museum, where parking is available for a flat fee of $3 after 6 p.m.