#3 – Behind the Scenes with John Constable and “The Chanteuse from Cape Town”
Want to know what goes into crafting a mystery novel? Look no further! In this episode, we sit down with John Constable, author of the upcoming book “The Chanteuse from Cape Town” to discuss his writing journey, the creation of his complex protagonist Sol Nemo, the ins and outs of his writing process, authors that have inspired him, and more. And as always, we’ve got some book and movie recommendations for you to check out, including some lesser-known gems. Tune in for all this and more on today’s episode of Books & Looks.
Transcript
Blaine DeSantis
Hello, everybody, this is Blaine DeSantis. And I welcome you to books and looks. Yes, our podcast about books and what I’m looking at for the past few weeks. And first of all, let me wish all of you and hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, a happy new year, a happy holiday, a appy Kwanzaa, Diwali. I can’t name them all, folks. But hope you all had a happy holiday time. And now we’re getting ready for the New Year’s and I thank you. Thank you all my loyal listeners. And I hope you’re liking the new cover art. You know, we’ve had a lot of people talk about that. And yeah, it’s good. I’m enjoying it a lot. You know what you’re getting? You’re getting books and looks. You got a cup of coffee, you got glasses. What more can you want? I don’t know.
Blaine DeSantis
But by the way, talk about big numbers from around the world. Yeah, I gotta be honest with you. Yes. We’re getting around 46% of our viewers right now our listeners, I should say you’re coming from America, but we’ve got big numbers from Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Romania, India. Yeah, they’re calling in from all over the world, folks. It’s utterly amazing. And I’m so gratified to all of you are taking the time to listen to us. And please share it share our, our podcast, because it’s a podcast about books. It’s about reading. It’s not about politics or anything like that. It’s just about good books, and what I’m looking at in terms of TV or movie or things like that. So hey, let’s have a great time.
Blaine DeSantis
So let’s dive right on in today. Because we got a very special episode for you. We’re going to begin with our first book that I’m going to review actually, the only book I’m going to review today is called the bookseller, the bookseller by Peter Briscoe, Peter Briscoe, B R I S C O E. Now Mr. Briscoe is a librarian. And he has written some marvelous short stories in the past. And this is a collection of little vignettes, and a short story called “The Bookseller.” That’s the name of the title. That’s the name of the main story in here, and it is just great. Now, I know a lot of people don’t like short stories, but these vignettes are only two or three pages long. The main short story is probably 50-55 pages in length, because the total book is only 75 pages. Only cost a few dollars. It is a wonderful book, and is set down in Ecuador, and it’s about books that had been stolen from a town library in Ecuador. And of course, nobody knows this has happened. Because as you know, if you go to a library, you check out a book, people check out books, do they bring them back, do people secrete books when they leave? I mean, it’s a whole situation of how do you get books, and people have been stealing books from the library down there. And eventually, they’ve turned up, they’ve been stolen and resold. Resold to universities, resold to other libraries, resold the private collectors. It is a wonderful look at that business, which is a true business is going on down there. But the bigger point in this book, friends, I mean, the bigger point, and if you’re listening to this, I know you’re a reader. Okay, I know you like to read. But the bigger point has been the demise of the libraries, the demise of readers because people don’t read like they used to read. Remember, back in the days before TV, before radio, between everything else, the internet, blah, blah, blah, what did you do? Most people read. But nowadays, reading is not the same. And the same problem is happening with libraries. Libraries are not being used as much because people are either buying books, or getting them digitally online. And so the author through his characters, makes a very, very important point as to the demise of the library. Because when you would go to a library, you would go and you would look through the stacks. Yeah, because you go to the card catalog, you won’t really find anything interesting. But if you walk through the stacks, you might find a book, you might start reading it. And this is what happens. Now with everything being done digitally, who browses there’s no browsing anymore. You want to book, this is what I’m going to get and you don’t get anything else. You lose that that personal connection with a library and you’re losing a connection with books. We are we losing the connection with books because people no longer want to read books. Our social media, our digital world, is giving us sound bites. It’ss giving us snippets. It’s giving us something we can take care of in two minutes. And if it’s not in two minutes, we don’t want to read that. And that’s a problem. You and I don’t have that problem, but many people do. As I’ve told many people, as you all probably know, I have, I have a personal library of around 5000 actual physical copies of books. But I’ve got almost 3500 books on my Kindle app. Why? Well, because I have a hard time holding the books. I peripheral neuropathy, and getting older, as I said, on my blogs, and everything is getting harder to read. And so I find reading on the Kindle is easier for me than actually my physical books. But I am a firm believer that we all need to be reading books, and not just skimming them or anything else. I sit down and read the books and this gentleman says it better than me. It’s a wonderful book. I’m going to tell you what, I have been in contact with Mr. Briscoe. And Mr. Briscoe, Peter Briscoe, has agreed to come on to books and looks and going to give us an interview. As a matter of fact, we’re going to have a special edition podcast which is just going to deal with Mr. Briscoe, his life, his career as a librarian. Well, here’s one of the most fascinating things about this gentleman. He has arranged for over 1.5 million books to be donated to libraries. Imagine that. One and a half million books to be donated to libraries. It’s out of this world. So anyway, he’s going to be coming in on in probably a few weeks and we’re going to have his we’re going to have his interview that’s all we’re going to have that day. We’re just going to be talking to Mr. Briscoe, a special episode. I think you’re gonna really, really liked that. But now, yeah, we’ve got our first author interview. That’s right. We now are going to bring you an interview which I taped with John Constable. Now John Constable has written a book, which I think is very, very good that is called “The Chanteuse from Cape Town.” A very good book, John Constable, a wonderful gentleman to get to know and good writer and again, another one of these writers that many of us don’t hear about. And if you read my blog, I talk about that. There are lots of writers out there we do not know. So, without further ado, let’s go to that interview with John Constable.
Blaine DeSantis
John, welcome to books and looks.
John Constable
Yeah, no, thank you. And thank you very much for talking to me this afternoon.
Blaine DeSantis
Well, you know, John, before we get into the book itself, I just a couple background questions for you if I if I can. Where are you first? Where are you at? Right now? You’re in England?
John Constable
Yes, I live in Surrey, which is a county on the south side of London.
Blaine DeSantis
Have you always lived there? Or do you come from somewhere else in England?
John Constable
No, no, I was actually born in a place called Epsom, which is also in Surrey. So I haven’t really gone very far away from my roots. Actually, yeah.
Blaine DeSantis
Isn’t there a big Derby there? The horses?
John Constable
Yep. Yep. No, that takes place still every every year. So yeah.
Blaine DeSantis
Good. Wonderful. Before we get into the book, a little bit on your background. Your education, what jobs you had, and what got you into writing?
John Constable
Well, it’s a fairly conventional background. I left school, I did some training in accountancy for two or three years. I left that and went into voluntary work for a couple of years, worked for a period of time in local government, and then wanted really a new entrepreneurial challenge. So I moved into recruitment. And I worked for somebody else for about five years. And then I set up my own business. And spool forwards 20 years. I retired formerly from that 10-15 years back and I’ve done some other things in between. As far as the writing is concerned, that really started very early. I actually wrote a book in my late teens. I don’t quite know where the impetus came from, but it’s something that I’ve pursued intermittently over the succeeding decades, of which there have been far too many, I think. But yeah, it’s it’s something that I got back into with some more focus about five or six years ago. So the books that you’re seeing now was essentially completed about, as I say, five or six years back. And I’ve then gone on the journey in terms of trying to achieve publication. And I’m delighted now that you know, there is a paperback available. It’s something which I always prefer to read books that you know, you’ve got in your hands rather than read stuff on screen.
Blaine DeSantis
Wow, it took almost five years to find a publisher. I can’t believe that because this book is just dramatically good.
John Constable
Well, this is self published. So the journey, as always, I think with most people is you try to find an agent. And then from there, hopefully, the agent finds you a publisher. I’ve had one or two near misses on that front. But it’s incredibly difficult these days to get an agent to take you take you on. So you then start to look at alternatives. And self publishing has come on a very long way, I think in the last few years, and a lot of authors now prefer to self publish, because there is, in fact, actually more money, I think, to be made out of self publishing, than going the route in terms of, you know, finding a big backer who hopefully will put some money behind your, you know, debut novel, so that that’s the journey. And that’s what I’m committed to now, I think, going forward unless somebody comes to me and says, ‘Well, you know, we could do X, Y Zed for you.’ But we’ll see, this is a this is a marathon, isn’t it? It’s not a sprint, unless you get incredibly lucky. I think you just have to stick with it and, you know, keep plowing away. And hopefully things improve and change. Yeah.
Blaine DeSantis
Now, that’s, that’s fascinating, because it’s, it’s interesting in the fact that I think I’m getting more and more books that are being sent to me that are self published. And I’m finding the work tremendous. I mean, I just love the writers out there who I’m discovering who should have major imprint labels publishing their works, and you’re one of those.
John Constable
Well, you know, as I say, it is very, very difficult. And I think like any activity within Creative Media, it’s extraordinarily competitive. And, yeah, as I say, I think you get to a point of thinking, Okay, well, perhaps I need to take more responsibility for this and get on with it. And we’ll see where we.. we’ll see where we go.
Blaine DeSantis
Good for you. Now, do you have any influences in writing or any favorite authors that you enjoy the got you into this genre of writing?
John Constable
Um, I’m not sure. So particularly, I was thinking particularly about this question when you posed it. And I guess where it started from going way back and we’re talking sort of 50 years, I was very impressed with Frederick Forsyth’s “Day of the Jackal.” I don’t know whether you’ve read the book, or you’ve seen the film, but you’ve done neither…
Blaine DeSantis
Both
John Constable
And I just thought, well, maybe I’ll try and emulate that. And, you know, I’ll launch this spectacular career. But you know, of course, in the way of these things at the end of the day, it doesn’t pan out necessarily like that. I used to read a great deal when I was when I was young. I still read. I have favorite authors. Yeah, Raymond Chandler is a is a big influence because of his style of writing. Graham Greene. Sue Grafton’s “Alphabet” series. And the standard which I come back to which I do read repeatedly. John Buchan’s “The Thirty Nine Steps.” Have you read that? Are you familiar with that?
Blaine DeSantis
Absolutely. I’m a big fan of his.
John Constable
Yeah, that’s a fantastic book. And as you know, you can read that from start to finish in a couple of hours. But I always take new things away from that.
Blaine DeSantis
I’m so happy you mentioned John Buchan. I don’t think many people have read his works over here. But I love him. And the thing is, everybody thinks that Hitchcock’s movie was based upon his book and it may have had some loose to it, but nothing at all like the book.
John Constable
I think there have been, I think three film versions. And none of them actually follows the book. Completely, certainly, as far as the denouement is concerned at the at the end, but, ya, that’s a real standard and I don’t think it’s ever gone out of print. I mean it was published in 1915.
Blaine DeSantis
It’s like, it’s like I have this love for Eric Ambler who le Carré considers the godfather of that genre, you know.
John Constable
Yeah, I have a first edition of “The Mask of Demetrius,” unfortunately, without the jacket, because with the jacket, that increases the value of it some exponentially. But yeah, that was a wonderful book and I’ve read that three, four times real classics.
Blaine DeSantis
We’re pulling some names out of the recesses of our minds here. That’s wonderful. And let’s talk a little bit about Sol Nemo. How did you come up with Sol? The name? The idea? Where did this all come from?
John Constable
Well, I think with me, it’s a it’s a process of percolation, you know, you sort of, you get something in your mind, it’s a grain of sand, and you start to build on that. And that’s the way the process, the process starts. And is continued. And that was what I what I did. And I wanted to create a character that was different. Because there is so much I think of a sort of sameness about a lot of a lot of characters. So I was looking to try to break the mold a bit. And, you know, setting the work in South Africa. Also is another another part of this dimension, I think. So you’ve got this character who’s, you know, sort of, really a bit conflicted between two different, different cultures. And he stands awkwardly between them, between the two of them, and he’s got this, you know, these these sort of mental health issues as well, which makes him more vulnerable. So it was really just trying to put all that together. But it’s not something where you sort of sit down with a blank piece of paper or, you know, just fire up the laptop and think, ‘Okay, well, look, I’ll make some notes about this guy.’ It percolates over a period of time. And that’s, that’s the way it has happened.
Blaine DeSantis
I love it. The very first communication we had I think was through your publicist when we I asked ‘Sol, was he mixed race?’ Because I got from the very beginning. I can’t pronounce the name of the gentleman who was like the financier. du Toit or something like that?
John Constable
It’s du Toit, yes.
Blaine DeSantis
You can just tell when he walked in the du Toit was dismissive of him. And I thought there’s something here. Now, you picked mixed race, and I never even considered an Indian mother. That was fantastic. Are there a lot of Indians in South Africa?
John Constable
Well, actually, I had a look back on this this morning, in fact. I just wanted to refresh my memory. There were a lot of Indians who came over at the end of the 18th, beginning of 19th century, and were brought over by the British, essentially, to provide labor. And many of those, and there is still a very strong community settled in in Durban. In addition to that, you’ve also got the Cape Malay population, and they tended to settle towards the Western Cape and Cape Town. So what I envisaged here was that Sol Nemos mother is actually of Indian stock from Durban. And her father, sorry, his father has has these roots, which date back to the Dutch founding fathers. So you know, I mean, he’s, he’s very privileged, and obviously became very, very wealthy. So again, that’s, that’s a contrast.
Blaine DeSantis
You had mentioned to me that you’re actually leaving to go back down to South Africa in a few weeks. Why, why is that?
John Constable
Well, my wife, who is South African, has a son and daughter in law and two grandchildren who live there. So we try to get down every year. And we’ll be going for a couple of months so it’s an opportunity to soak up some sunshine and probably a fair amount of beer as well. And escape our diabolical winters in the UK, which are long a dreary.
John Constable
Will you get a little research in for future Sol Nemo books?
John Constable
Just try to keep my eyes open while I’m down there. But, you know, yourself. I mean, you know, the internet these days is a wonderful resource. I mean, you know, you come across something and you just think, ah, you know, I’ll just do a Google search and see what I can turn off. I make quite a lot of lot of use of Wikipedia, which is fantastic. And I got, you know, I lived long enough and I think I’ve hopefully got enough imagination to be able to think well, okay, so I can sort of research this on online, and I can then get a feel for what it would be like to be in that sort of situation. So that seems to work quite well, for me. And the, the feedback I get from people is well, yeah, you know that. That’s how it is. You know, so that’s what I work on.
Blaine DeSantis
Good. Good. One thing I’ve always.. when I was reading this book is you made Sol Nemo a real person. Because he has some issues. And he’s trying to work through those. And he eats. I mean, the guy eats you actually have eating scenes in the book, which I love. And most writers don’t make.. don’t do that.
John Constable
I haven’t counted up how many. Perhaps I should have checked for this. I think there were a couple of occasions, but I can’t…
Blaine DeSantis
There are around five or six times he went somewhere to eat. And I didn’t know if these were legitimate restaurants or whatever. But I loved it.
John Constable
There’s a mention in the book, I think of Mug and Bean, and that is a South African brand. You know, they do.. that’s a sort of coffee shop operation, and they do some meals and so on as well. So some of it’s real, and some of it isn’t.
Blaine DeSantis
You wouldn’t know it. Because it all sounds real. To me, it reads real. And it makes Sol, it makes Sol a real character to me. You make him do real things. It’s just not like running from one thing to another to another to another. You actually put in a time period by this, you know where he’s at. You know this all doesn’t take place in two days. And I absolutely love that. Love it John, tremendous stuff.
John Constable
This is one of the techniques, I think in terms of of the writing, because I do create a very short synopsis for each scene that I write. But I’m also tracking the days that pass between, you know, the onset of an investigation, and then how it plays out. Because I think you need to have some idea of the timeline that you’re addressing. And of course, the other thing about it is that if you write 100-200 pages, and then you’re suddenly thinking, ‘Well, you know, there was this scene way back, but I can’t really remember quite where it was.’ And you have to spend a lot of time, you know, thinking about trying to trying to find things, which is not very good. So, I do that on an ongoing basis as as I write. I mean, the book that you’re looking at at the moment is 50-55 scenes, covering a period of, you know, several, several weeks, but that’s a good that’s a good ready reckoner. Yeah.
Blaine DeSantis
Great. Wow, that is very good. Now, the book, we’re talking about, “The Chanteuse from Cape Town.” Just a very quick synopsis for the listeners out there. What’s this book all about?
John Constable
Well, it introduces my main character, obviously. But essentially, the onset is that he is approached and advised that a lady by the name of Mira, who is the wife of the man who’s been like a father to Sol, has been kidnapped. And that’s really the starting point. And from there, there’s an attempt at an exchange which goes disastrously wrong and Sol gets shot. And then subsequently his investigation leads to a rescue attempt and that fails. After that as the inquiries move along, Sol’s investigations take him inevitably to Cape Town where Mira used to sing five or six years ago at at a nightclub and the and the plot goes..vI don’t want to tell you too much. I’d like to encourage people to to read but yeah, essentially the action moves between Port Elizabeth and and Cape Town and yeah.
Blaine DeSantis
That’s what I like about this book. It is was I consider an action book. But without all the necessary guns blazing that I get when I read maybe a book by Steve Berry or others out there who just, you know, are blowing things up from day one. And it’s just like, nothing. It’s not believable.
John Constable
I think it needs to be nuanced. You know, you’ve always got sort of peaks and peaks and troughs.
Blaine DeSantis
Very well done. I tell all my listeners out here if, and when, you read this book, there is one scene that looks like it’s coming right out of the movie Scarface when we have.. what were those weapons? Were those bazookas or what were those things?
John Constable
No, these are rocket propelled grenades.
Blaine DeSantis
Yeah. Yeah. All I’m thinking John is ‘say hello to my little friend,’ you know, because this guy, he blows up everything. It’s wild. That’s the only real, I thought, massive destruction scene in there. And it was perfectly done perfectly placed. And I loved the whole thing. You did a great job, you know. Now let’s ask a little bit about Sol. Is Sol Nemo going to be coming back again?
John Constable
Yeah, there is actually a you know, whilst this, this book that you you’ve got was written five, six years ago, there is a second boat which is completed, which is called the “The Truth About Anton van Zoll.” And I’m hoping to publish that, perhaps late summer next year. Just need to see, I think how it all fits together in terms of logistics, and time, and so on. I mean, apart from thing else, there’s a whole new book cover, which will need to be designed. And that can be a bit of a bit of a process. And I’m currently working on a third book, which I think is about three quarters of the way through. And that’s called “The lost sister.”
Blaine DeSantis
So we can look forward to more of the Sol Nemo mysteries.
John Constable
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m not quite sure what I do after I finished the third book, the third Sol Nemo book. I’ve got something else in mind that I might like to tackle as a, you know, sort of standalone project, but we’ll see how we go.
Blaine DeSantis
That’s okay. Yeah, that’s wonderful. And that’s the part of the whole creative process, one thing spawns something else and no trouble there at all. That’s great. Now, I have a little question. COVID? How has that affected you as a writer and as disrupted anything?
John Constable
No, not particularly to be quite honest with you. I do, in fact, a lot of voluntary work. And all that’s happened during COVID Is that I was working remotely from here. But then, you know, I work essentially on my boat, anyway. Yeah, I mean it’s obviously been very frustrating from a social standpoint, because we went through these lockdowns and we’ve had all sorts of stuff, just as you have had in the States. But it’s not impacted me too much. Because, you know, as I say, a lot of the work I do is sat behind a computer. I can email people, I can talk to them on the phone. Not really a problem.
Blaine DeSantis
I thought I was in the clear. And then around the Fourth of July this year, my wife got COVID. And then two days later, I got COVID. So I was laid up for around 10 days with the thing, and I didn’t feel lousy, but I just, you felt lethargic. I was coughing a lot and just throws off your whole schedule.
John Constable
No, it does. I in fact, got COVID in South Africa, when we were last there. So we pitched up in mid December. And I got COVID at the beginning of January. But I mean, the symptoms were very, very mild. It’s just this, you know, it’s just this isolation thing so that you don’t pass it to other people. And that’s really yeah, really tedious.
Blaine DeSantis
Let me ask you a little bit about your writing schedule. I ask everybody this. Do you have a set time and pattern or do you write as the spirit moves?
John Constable
You know, I, my view about this is that you have to write, you’ve got to have some discipline about it. Because I think if you work on the basis that, you know, you’ll just do it when the when the Muse hits you, that’s not really a recipe for getting anything very much achieved. So what’s been happening certainly over recent times, is that I tend to do most of my writing at weekends. I don’t work very quickly, because I’m a perfectionist by nature. So if I put something down on paper, I tend to be you know, trying to sort that out and getting it right before I I move on. There are two very different schools of thought about this. The one I think, which often prevails is this feeling you know that you’ve got an idea and a plot sort of vaguely in your mind. And you just start writing reams and reams and reams of stuff, which you then go back and edit. I can’t work like that. It’s a very much more considered process as far as I’m concerned. And yeah, even working like that. I mean, you don’t get it right all the time. Obviously, my starting point each week, when I try to get some, some fresh words down is to look at what I’ve written the previous week, and I go through a process of editing and gradually, you know, you sort of sink back into it. And hopefully you then move forward. And you’ve got some more words at the end of the weekend, then, that you had when you started. But every writer works in different ways, as I’m sure you I’m sure, you know, and yeah, there have been some very quick people. Are you familiar with Georges Simenon and Maigret? The French detective? Georges Simenon wrote an enormous number of books. And he would sit down and write a book in two or three days, literally. I mean, they’re very spare in terms of style. And they’re entirely plot rather than character driven.
Blaine DeSantis
how long are the books? A couple 100 pages?
John Constable
Yeah, it’s a long time since I’ve read one. Yeah, they would lead on the side of brevity, I think, probably a couple of 100 pages. But I mean, he was enormously prolific. So that’s another one you might look into. Try a Maigret, and see how you how you get on with it.
Blaine DeSantis
Wow, that’s interesting. So before you start writing, you have an idea where your characters and where your scenes are all going I’m assuming?
John Constable
It’s not mapped, I mean, from the way in which I work, it would actually be better if I could sit down and just sort out a whole book from start to finish. But I tend to have a starting point. And I’ve probably got that sort of firmly fixed. And I know where I’m gonna go. And I’ve got some idea how it might end up. And then there’s all this stuff in the middle, which takes a lot of sorting out and evolves gradually over, over a period of time.
Blaine DeSantis
Well, I tell you what, I thought you did a wonderful job with this book. And I really, really have been impressed with this. I’ve been telling everybody about this. And we’re recording this interview before John leaves for South Africa, because I’m trying to get it scheduled, that when you hear this, everybody out there, it’s going to come out right before his book hits here in America, and you can run out and buy his book on Amazon and get it and, you know, be be as excited and thrilled about this author as I am because John, you did a great job.
John Constable
That’s very, very kind of you. I’m very gratified. I mean, you know, as I think I said in one of the emails that we exchanged, Blaine. Writing is inevitably is a lonely business. I mean, you know, you just sort of sit here behind a computer and the world goes on all around you. And you’re not quite sure what sort of reaction anything you produce is going to have. So that’s very gratifying. But the the operative date is the 19th of January. That’s the launch for the ebook, and the and the paperback.
Blaine DeSantis
Your interview will be starting the new year with us. And you’ll be in South Africa when it comes out. But I’ll get you a link for that. And you can listen to you and me chat once again. I don’t want to take any more time. But I just want to say John, thank you so very much for coming on. Thank you for writing this book that Sol Nemo great character. I look forward to reading all the rest of your works. And I hope you have a happy holiday and a happy vacation.
John Constable
I extend the same good wishes to you and I hope you have a very happy new year.
Blaine DeSantis
All right, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Mr. Constable, John Constable. He’s on his way now down to South America. So have a great vacation and we look forward to the next book and that Sol Nemo series. Anyway, before I get into my look portion today, I just want to again remind you of the website, the blog and that I have it’s called viewsonbooks.com and you can go there and you can read many more book reviews that I have done, author interviews that we have for just specifically for the website, and I think you’re gonna really enjoy it. It’s views on books.com. I also want to talk about the Greenville podcast company, our sponsor, with my chief cook, and bottle washer, my son, my producer, Nathaniel DeSantis, doing great things. And again, as I said before, if you’re interested in having a podcast and Nathaniel can produce it for you, or if you’re interested in just listen to what he’s done his good stuff, you can go to the website. And it’s really, really, really great. You know, you can be a a podcaster also, it’s not that hard. It really isn’t. And with Nathaniel behind you, I’m telling you, it’s gonna be really a fun experience for each and every one of us. So, the Greenville podcast company, where you want to go for all your podcast needs.
Blaine DeSantis
And now we go to the looks portion of the podcast. As I said, we have just past the holiday season. So I want to ask all of you, have you watched Christmas movies this year? Have you watched Christmas movies? Okay, there are three categories I think that you have. Some people love to watch the old the classics, you know, the miracle of 42nd Street and all the other ones. Or are you one who likes those Hallmark and GAC movies, which are nothing more than cozy mysteries, okay? And not for me, but for many people they love those little stories are heartwarming, they all end up pretty good for everybody. But they’re a very huge portion.. when I go into my sling account, and I open it up. I mean, I see the amount of Christmas movies out there. It’s unbelievable how many Christmas movies there are. Or do you like some of the newer classics like the Christmas story, the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, every category that I basically talked about, I didn’t watch Nope, I watch two movies as Christmas, two. That’s it. And some people debate whether this is a Christmas movie, but I consider it to be partly Christmas so that’s why I watched it. And that is Meet me in St. Louis. Oh my god, meet me in St. Louis. Louis, meet me at the fair. Oh, what a wonderful song. What a wonderful movie a musical by MGM. Just an outstanding musical. That is. I’m about to tell you why it’s all wrapped around the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. And it’s filled with seasonal vignettes from around I think it’s beginning in the summer of 1903. And you go by season by season, what’s going on with the family, until the opening of the fair in a 1904. Now this movie case you didn’t know it. This was the second highest grossing movie for 1944. And of all the MGM musicals in the 1940s, and there were a ton of them. This was the number one movie. What makes this important is not only do we have the World’s Fair, but we also have the internal debate of the Father wanting to move from St. Louis to New York City, to further his legal career. Well, the family is not too excited about that, because they think nothing is better than St. Louis. And so we’ve got that going on. We’ve got young love featuring all featuring all the girls in the family. And we’ve got the songs like I said, we’ve gotten meet me in St. Louis, which was done specifically just for this show. Another song written just for this movie. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland sang it for the first time ever on this movie. So that’s there and then there is my favorite. Yes. The trolley song. Do you remember the trolley song? Oh my god. Clang Clang, Clang, went to trollee, Ding ding ding went to Bell. Zing Zing Zing wet my heart strings, from the moment I saw him I fell. Okay, not Judy Garland folks. But as my impersonation on that song. And I tell you what, it is a wonderful song. It’s a simpler time. It’s a lot of fun. I tell you what, you cannot. You cannot get better to me than Meet me in St. Louis. It’s got Judy Garland. It’s got Margaret O’Brien who’s the last living cast member from that movie. Mary Astor is the mother we got Marjorie main, one of my favorite actresses Marjorie maint. She was in Ma and Pa Kettle. Now going back to the old days there, but I love Ma and Pa Kettle movies, and she was Ma Kettle. She’s been in many, many movies. And when you see her you know exactly who I’m talking about. So it’s very wonderful. There are many familiar supporting faces. And this movie and it it was just a wonderful time.
Blaine DeSantis
And from there, I go to my second look, which was the movie Love finds Andy Hardy. Now have you ever watched the Andy Hardy movies? They allege they’re 18 movies. I’m not sure they’re 18 but there are at least a good 10 and that are what I consider the classics and this is the first of the signature ones that has the word Andy Hardy on it. Now Mickey Rooney at this time, this was done in 1938. So Mickey Rooney was on 18 years old. And this was a wonderful performance as the lovestruck Andy Hardy, who has all sorts of problems because he wants to go to the Christmas dance, and his girlfriend is leaving. But that’s not the only problem. He gets a new person visiting next door. And that girl steals his heart away to. That girl, Judy Garland. Oh, yeah, Judy’s in this one also. She was 16 at the time of this filming. This was before she did the Wizard of Oz. So this is almost like her major coming out film here and she sang a couple songs made for this show. We also have the introduction of Lana Turner, this is her first major role also. So she’s in this. And we got characters and character actors that you seen all over and all these older 1940s 50s Black and white movie, they’re all there. It’s fun. Andy Hardy schemed his way into getting a used car for $20. And it’s a simple time. It’s a simple time. That’s all people want to have that and go back to look at that, because by the end of the movie, Andy Hardy has three dates for the big Christmas dance, and how’s he gonna juggle all those problems? I’ll tell you it’s simple, it’s pleasurable. It was just a lot of fun. And those were my two things I was looking at. I’m looking at meet me in St. Louis. And I’m looking at Love finds Andy Hardy, I can’t think of a better way for me to spend the Christmas holiday season. So with that, I’m going to say goodbye for now. We’ll be back in a few weeks again, we have a lot of author interviews lined up, we have a lot of people who want to come in and do an interview for you on the podcast. We even have a lady coming in from Ocean View publishing, a public relations lady to talk about her job. So between authors, readers, like our good friend Dona, who, you know, I thought Donna did a great job last episode. I’m very happy she would come on and be our first guest. And again, that’s what we want to have. Real readers. So these are great books we’re talking about for real readers. Okay. On behalf of the Greenville podcast company, on behalf of viewsonbooks.com This is Blaine DeSantis saying so long from books and looks.
