A singles event for under 40 aged angels, promoted by the Big Apple’s Public Radio , accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s“Patheque” ,(6th, B flat) the semantics “drinks” “mingling” “hors d’oeuvres” was singularly consumed by the fairer sex, leaving the alleged stronger sex , searching the market till the last minute.
II
A tee vee and film director by the name of Delbert Mann identified with the scenario. First on Playhouse 90 Second in tinsel town with “Marty”. ,
An ex swaby out of World War2 , Ernest Borgnine, auditioned for the director and in that moment of encapsulated time, Delbert made the judgment...
”Borgnine is Marty”
III
“What ya wanna do tonight, Marty?”asked his kimosabi as they were hanging out on the stoops of the City that never sleeps.
Once a New Haven sailor, Marty (Borgnine out of Studio City, Ca) into the loop, seized the moment’s moment (“I’m ready for my closeup, Mister Mann”)
IV
Buying hundreds of taxi dancer tickets, Marty auditioned for the batch’s role, dancing away his nights with Betsy Blair, the formidable actress who was once married to Free Astair’s “double” Gene Kelly.
Immersed into the Main Street second floor gym like floor, Marty got out of his Borgnine skin, his soul metamorphosing into his Oscar winning performance.
“Losing himself to find himself” he discarded those bell bottom trousers and his wife from the Connecticut green pastures, relishing acclaim if not notoriety, his larger than life grin out of Jack and the beanstalk, his three cornered cap worn at a cockeyed angle.
He and Ethel Merman, a Broadway songstress with even a higher but not wider octave range, married , sharing his Studio City digs. For how long they kept house and “Marty” patter, while beating time to Johnny Mercer’s “ Blues in the night” one of the coupon stub tunes he rehearsed those “I’m ready for my closeup” scenes on the Main Street dime a dance floor.
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May the singles event for the under 40 year old angels be as fortuitous as “Marty” was for Ernest Borgnine.
The City that never sleeps, March 27, 2012
