Spotting Talent

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. -

Joseph Campbell

Talent

There is a great deal of truth in the Joseph Campbell quote above Barbra's picture. So much about the movies is myth, constructed by all of us for the silver screen. Some truth, much fiction, but accurate at the core--this business about talent. All of us who heard Streisand, when she was very young in black and white, knew she was different, discovered her gifts. That is the way it is with outstanding entertainers. The talent shines out from beneath with all my favorites:

• Barbra Streisand
• Robert Redford
• Kathy Bates
• Richard Gere
• Julia Roberts
• William Hurt
• Andie McDowell
• Johnny Depp

Since I was a child I have been a movie fan. I have admiration for talent. I followed which actors and actresses were nominated for Academy Awards. I have read about or watched the "Oscars" for over 50 years. I kept a movie star scrapbook, collecting pictures from fan magazines. Some of my prized posessions as a teen were "Autographed Black and Whites" - 8x10 glossies of my favorites;

• June Allyson
• Van Johnson
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Montgomery Clift
• Clark Gable
• Marilyn Monroe
• James Dean
• Paul Newman

The form changes - Art deco theater, stage, TV, DVD, arena - but talent stays the same. We know it when we see or hear it, and we do not know how to explain it. It just IS.

Academy Awards movies movie stars celebrities
My "topical post" today at South by Southwest is about citizen activism.