The brooding, sensitive Freddie

How often does Luke Perry come up in conversation?!?!?  Not very.  So after two mentions of the James Dean look-a-like came up (with reference to BtVS film and the original Beverly Hills, 90210 series) in discussions yesterday with my friend Lauren, I thought I should dedicate a few words to the Ohio native.  This will be a bit telling of my age but the original cast of 90210 were supposed to be the same age as myself and their fictional class also graduated from high school and went off to college in 1993.  The character Dylan McKay, a brooding and sensitive rich boy managed to hit the right note for me as I was going through a James Dean and Laurence Olivier's Heathcliff phase at the time (to be completely honest, perhaps it was just the beginning).  Well, to get back to Perry, he was born in Mansfield, which is about 30 miles from my hometown, and grew up in Fredericktown.  It's been stated in interviews that Perry likes to return to Fredericktown annually for their Tomato Show.

Baseball 90210  

Fun Fact Friday: The Shawshank Redemption



"Like something out of a Robert Frost poem"

While working in the office of Spitalfields City Farm the other day, I overheard a cameraman (yes, quite a few come to the farm; in fact, the other week a whole film crew came to shoot a scene for Whitechapel. . .go figure) on the telephone mention The Shawshank Redemption.  I have no idea what the mention was in reference to but it took a tremendous amount of energy on my part to not pipe up with 'Hey, that film was shot in locations near my hometown!!'.  So I'm now sharing this information with those out there that may actually give a damn (well, who knows, maybe that guy would have too).

Weird Coincidence:  The 'Shawshank Tree' (see above photo) where Andy leaves buried money for Red is actually a tree across the road from Malabar Farm State Park but is meant to be in Buxton, Maine in the film.  What's the address of Spitalfields City Farm?!?!?  Yep,  Buxton Street.  Could this be a connection to that cameraman's discussion on the phone?

Filming Location Video
NPR's 'On Location:  Mansfield, Ohio 'Shawshank' Industry'
List of Filming Locations for 'The Shawshank Redemption'
Fan travels along the Shawshank Trail as part of his Bucket List

Bogie & Bacall (and Malabar Farm)

I will freely admit that I am neither a Bogart nor a Bacall fan but the fact that their nuptials took place in Ohio is fascinating to me. It's strange yet charming to imagine these two movie stars in their glitzy heyday getting married on a farm very near to where I grew up in a most unobtrusive part of the Midwest.  The farm in question is Malabar Farm, which was established by Bogart's long-time friend and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Louis Bromfield. After establishing himself as a writer in NYC and spending a decade in France with his family, the Renaissance Man Bromfield decided to return to his native Ohio to set up a farm implementing sustainable farming practices.  Bromfield has since come to be recognized as a pioneer in organic and sustainable farming in the United States.  He was awarded the Audubon Medal for Conservationism in 1952 and in 1980 was posthumously inducted into the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame.

"Ohio is the apothesis of Americanism. The middle west begins with Indiana, the east with Pennsylvania, the south with Kentucky, and, surrounded by these sits Ohio, one of the richest spots on earth. Its contribution to music, art, literature and the theatre is far greater than any two states in the nation."

—Louis Bromfield

"We eked out every last drop of Midwestern air and sky— of farm and cooking smells—boxer dogs." -- Lauren Bacall 

Bogie and Bacall, 65 years later in Ohio
To Have and Have Not:  Vanity Fair article with Bacall
Newsreel of Bromfield and Malabar Farm