Here we go with more deaths of Old Hollywood-Mid-Hollywood Years Icons and 60's-70's Rock Stars. Dying is nothing unusual. We'll all have our day – one day. What makes the continuing stream of Death Newz so threatening to several generations is how fast the stars are dropping into the Celestial Heights these days.
And, my friends, as I may have written in the past, 'tis only the beginning of The End for those who are "up there" in age, as was today's Latest Death Report on Esther Williams, who, at 91, decided to swim her way into heaven's Glistening Pools.
So, to be succinct, brace yourselves, Boomers. Our Mortality is facing our Faces…just as our parents and grandparents are experiencing. For my mother's generation of Icons, it is yet another nail in the coffin of personal and cultural losses for Esther Williams To Bite That Dusty-Dust. Naturally, the recent passing of Jean Stapleton (to whom I must apologize for not creating an RIP post), is a mid-age trigger of The Sads for those who remember her primarily as Edith Bunker in All In The Family, although she had been a very dedicated, on-the-spot-at-all-times actress no matter what the role would be.
For some, her death could signal the End Of An Era. For a broad, vast, demographic, deaths of Specific Time Period Film and TV Characters/Films/Plays/Books, can trigger a jolt; a sudden wakeup shake of the arm as if someone was/were freaked that you had slept-in a few hours longer than usual, calling your name and disturbing your bed covers/duvet/whatever, when you're blissfully in the midst of a fascinating dream.
*cough*
When Icons Die, we suddenly realize, through the reminder of Mortality, that Everyone Will Die and that's just the way it is. The "Reminders" are Icons such as Esther William's' passing. The woman and what her image represented lasted long and strong. I recall a very pleasant Human Encounter with the Diving Diva, which is significant on a personal level for me based on how thrilled I was to watch my mother's calm yet quietly titillated reaction to spending time with Miz Williams and her then-husband, Fernando Lamas, as we waited for our cars via valet outside of what was once The Coolest, Most Authentic, Italian restaurant in Westwood within mere days of my move to LA during the first week of 1973 (having arrived on December 30, 1972).
Suffice to say, my mother and I somehow always stumbled into the-then Hot-Spots around LA based on interest in the restaurants. How fun it was to be in LA as a new resident (not counting visits) and run into Icons, etc. at every turn. The idea of "Seeing Stars" simply hit us face-on at each turn within the week she spent with me during my adjustment to a New World.
One last example: Without knowing Dan Tana's restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard was (at that time) THE place TO BE, good old Mums & Me drifted into that lair for dinner. In the quaint back alley, as we drove into the Parking Area, who did we see waiting for her car? The one and only June Allyson! For some, this sighting may not garner a blip on one's radar screen. For others of any age who love Old Films, it was a pure delight for my mother and me. We nodded her way and left her alone. But, Wow! for anyone with an inkling of her legacy in film and otherwise. Cool.
Abrupt ending: Just spent two hours on the phone with a friend who spent his childhood years watching and "hanging" with The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and so many more Music Greats IN HIS HOME! It was one of our annual Fascinating, Supportive Phone Calls. He is writing a book. I'll shill for nothing when it comes out as his Life Has Been Amazing and His Attitude So Real. And I love him as a friend and former companion in Music History.
This has been an uneven post…but, I hope you get the point: We're all "Feeling It" when our Icons die.
Once more, RIP Esther. You gave inspiration to many on both Water Sports and Athletic Glamour.
That's the best I can do today at this very late time of the posting hour.
Image via: http://schneidersflowersandcaskets
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