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"Ready when you are, @TheosTrek, C.B.!", Camera, Cecil B. DeMille, change of seasons, Hollywood legends, Original Photography, Original Poetry
Even if you’ve heard or read this story before, it’s still a great one:
Cecil B. DeMille (1881 – 1959), the famous Hollywood film director and producer, is the subject of many legends. According to one famous story, DeMille once directed a film that required a huge, expensive battle scene. Filming on location in a California valley, the director set up multiple cameras to capture the action from every angle. It was a sequence that could only be done once. When DeMille yelled “Action!,” thousands of extras playing soldiers stormed across the field, firing their guns. Riders on horseback galloped over the hills. Cannons fired, pyrotechnic explosives were blown up, and battle towers loaded with soldiers came toppling down. The whole sequence went off perfectly. At the end of the scene, DeMille yelled “Cut!” He was then informed, to his horror, that three of the four cameras recording the battle sequence had failed. In Camera #1, the film had broken. Camera #2 had missed shooting the sequence when a dirt clod was kicked into the lens by a horse’s hoof. Camera #3 had been destroyed when a battle tower had fallen on it. DeMille was at his wit’s end when he suddenly remembered that he still had Camera #4, which he had placed along with a cameraman on a nearby hill to get a long shot of the battle sequence. DeMille grabbed his megaphone and called up to the cameraman, “Did you get all that?” The cameraman on the hill waved and shouted back, “Ready when you are, C.B.!”.
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Even when I think I’m ready for it, the change of seasons almost always takes me by surprise. Each comes and goes before I’ve had the chance to take it all in, to enjoy it fully. The poem’s title came to me after it was written, and I recalled the story. Each year it seems I’m caught standing ready for what has already gone by. I hope you enjoy the poem and the slide show of some of the colors that have graced us here in North Carolina, this Autumn of 2011.
Ready when you are, C.B.!
© 2011 Paula Tohline Calhoun
The lamps were not yet lit,
But the curtains drawn across
The proscenium of the landscape,
Showed signs of activity backstage.
I had waited through the heat of summer for
Cooler air to settle down, cool rain to fall
And bring with it all the bolts
Of the new season’s fabric.
While heat waves still shimmered on the road
I purchased my ticket, took my place
On the grandstand, drumming my fingers
Tapping my foot, waiting waiting.
Even the patient ones sighed –
At last the curtains rose,
Footlights sparked on.
The gala opening of the season began.
Is it as bright as last year’s work?
“Much brighter”, was heard from some,
Others in the audience murmured contradictions –
“No, last year was more brilliant. Or
Was that the year before?”
How odd we cannot remember.
Year after year, we share photographs,
Commenting on the snapshots,
that “Never show the colors as they were.”
What I had waited so long for
Comes and goes too fast.
The latest styles walk the runway
Strike a pose, then step aside.
The Designer moves on to other projects,
before the show is finished. Once done,
Winds do their clean-up work,
Wiping off the makeup of color
From the pale-faced models.
Swatches from the latest styles
Are gathered and burned.
There will be nothing left
But the photos we took to remind us,
But never prove,
If this was the loveliest season.
*****
May you all be blessed with the abundance of enough. . .
(wc 607)
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BY THE WAY: READ MY REVIEW OF “WIRED” AND VOTE (FOR ME, OF COURSE!)!!! PLEASE??? If you are having trouble at the voting site, please let me know – as Nancy did. I am working on getting the situation fixed! You can vote only once, but the “polls” are open until the end of the tour on or around October 25. The sooner the better! Thank you!
Sarah Johnston said:
amazing poem and yes photos will be there to remind you that this was the loveliest season great job and excellent penned
http://gatelesspassage.com/2011/10/20/taken-from-me-on-halloween-night/
The Cello Strings said:
amazing composition.
have fun in the rally.
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
I’m glad you liked it – thank you!
Bupinder Singh said:
nicely written
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
Thank you!
Darryl Davis said:
A well-focused poem clearly crafted with care.While I enjoyed it, I kept thinking throughout that the reader seemed excluded from it, their role limited to that of a spectator. Perhaps this is something to consider in future drafts.
Cheers 🙂
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
Thanks very much for that comment! This poem is essentially the first draft, and will be part of a collection. You are right. It needs a bit of trimming, plus a little more “involvement,” which is something that I didn’t notice until you pointed it out. THANK YOU!
Pingback: The Changing Colors of Fall « Spirit Lights The Way
johnell74 said:
I loved the poem, Paula.
My 80 year old neighbour told me “never cut down the rowan trees in your garden. I watch the seasons passing with them.” That was ten years ago.
Now I am beginning to feel the same!
John
jeanne said:
Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close up.
Karen said:
Beautiful photography…your camera works well…but is only as good as the photographer. YOU are top notch! Thanks for sharing. We enjoyed the Smokies and being in TN for a few days. We were probably in your backyard and didn’t know it. However, driving thru the National Park in an RV, towing a car, 35 mph on curvy roads made our brakes smoke. Is that why they call them the Smokies? LOL.
nrhatch said:
That would be disappointing, indeed.
What are the odds of getting 0 for 4?
Reverse synchronicity.
Bad karma.
Bad juju.
No mojo.
Time to change professions.
Not you, him! Your photos are resplendant. 😀
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
He was known for being a rather difficult man to work with – at leat at times, and a true task-master! There is another story I like, because it shows an actress with chutzpah!
DeMille was on a movie set one day, about to film an important scene. He was giving a set of complicated instructions to a huge crowd of extras, when he suddenly noticed one female extra talking to another. Enraged, DeMille shouted at the extra, “Will you kindly tell everyone here what you are talking about that is so important?!” The extra replied, “I was just saying to my friend, ‘I wonder when that bald-headed son of a bitch is going to call lunch.'” DeMille glared at the extra for a moment, then yelled, “Lunch!”
There are others I ‘ve heard. They are all reflective of a very interesting man!
Tilly Bud said:
That’s a great story!
SidevieW said:
making movies can be very fraught!
I also seem to get caught out. I’,m still working on what should have been spring garden, but now will only be summer garden
souldipper said:
Poor ol’ C.B. must have crumbled in massive disappointment. Can you imagine?! What a story.
A photographer recently explained that the edge that film has over digital is that film gives us truer colors. Ah, I sighed, it’s not just me aging!
I agree with the Hubs, Paula, that was a clever weaving and a creative exit.
souldipper said:
p.s. – Did I use enough “thats”?! 😀
Alice Lynn said:
Beautiful photos and poem but the story about Cecil B. made me laugh out loud! Love having a good chuckle at day’s end. Thank you.
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
It is one of my favorite stories of all time! I’m so glad you had a good laugh! There’s nothing better – any time of day!
Ashley Calhoun said:
Beautiful photos as the introduction serving to paint the scenery for the stage..And I love the way you weave together the fabric of the Fall season used by the coutouriere to create fashions with the latest designs from the Designer and the aftermath as the “Designer moves on to other projects”.
Hubs
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
Thanks, Hon! And I thought I was the run-on sentence champion!
J. P. Cabit said:
Love the ending to that poem. Such melancholy echoes.
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
Hubs and I have that conversation almost every year. It seems like we can never agree as to whether the current autumn is more or less beautiful than the last. And, like I said, photos really don’t do the job of reproducing the actual.
J. P. Cabit said:
When do they ever?! 😉
danniehill said:
Beautiful poem, Paula. It brought back the waiting, build up and sometimes the let down. Perhaps we should, on occasion, live in the here and now and let the past remain silent.
Beautiful pictures of Autumn.
Paula Tohline Calhoun said:
Thanks, Dannie! It’s nice to hear a positive comment. I’ve been working at a different forum – most willingly – with some poetry critics there, and have been taking a beating. It is helping tremendously in my editing process, and I am very pleased and grateful for the amount of time they are spending to help, but, really, occasionally it is nice to hear a good word or two!