Robert Douglas Spedden’s grave is located in his family plot, usually surrounded by freshly cut grass. The headstone is incredibly small and stub-like, so no matter how many times you’ve been to Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, you’ve probably never noticed it before. You were maybe there to visit Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Samuel Morse, or any of the other 600,000 graves.
Spedden was a child who survived the sinking of the Titanic, famously depicted in Francis Browne’s photograph, where he’s standing on the ship’s deck playing with a spinning top.
Spedden was a child who survived the sinking of the Titanic, famously depicted in Francis Browne’s photograph, where he’s standing on the ship’s deck playing with a spinning top.
- 6/26/2023
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
(To celebrate "Titanic" and its impending 25th-anniversary re-release, we've put together a week of explorations, inquires, and deep dives into James Cameron's box office-smashing disaster epic.)
In 1912, the Titanic -- a ship that was called "unsinkable" -- hit an iceberg and sank, killing over 1,500 of the souls onboard. Some of those people were well-known business magnates, authors, and company owners. Many of those celebrities (some of whom survived) appeared as on-screen characters in James Cameron's 1997 epic film "Titanic." Some of them include Molly Brown (called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"), played by Kathy Bates, business tycoon John Jacob Astor IV (Eric Braeden), Colonel Archibald Gracie IV (Bernard Fox), a writer who penned a book about the disaster, Benjamin Guggenheim (Michael Ensign) the mining titan, Isidor Straus (Lew Palter) and his wife Ida (Elsa Raven), the former owner of R.H. Macy and Company, among many others.
When the film came out,...
In 1912, the Titanic -- a ship that was called "unsinkable" -- hit an iceberg and sank, killing over 1,500 of the souls onboard. Some of those people were well-known business magnates, authors, and company owners. Many of those celebrities (some of whom survived) appeared as on-screen characters in James Cameron's 1997 epic film "Titanic." Some of them include Molly Brown (called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown"), played by Kathy Bates, business tycoon John Jacob Astor IV (Eric Braeden), Colonel Archibald Gracie IV (Bernard Fox), a writer who penned a book about the disaster, Benjamin Guggenheim (Michael Ensign) the mining titan, Isidor Straus (Lew Palter) and his wife Ida (Elsa Raven), the former owner of R.H. Macy and Company, among many others.
When the film came out,...
- 2/9/2023
- by Jenna Busch
- Slash Film
The late Aretha Franklin was one of The Young and the Restless’ biggest fans, which is ironic since Eric Braeden, who has played Victor Newman on the CBS soap opera since 1980, feels that the daytime serial genre hasn’t always gotten the R-e-s-p-e-c-t it deserves! Y&r debuted on March 26, 1973 so the show’s golden anniversary is still over five months away; however, the long-running soap opera is already starting to celebrate the big event. Braeden sat down with TV Insider for this exclusive interview in which he talks about what actor first convinced him to read for Y&r producers, his thoughts on other genres, and how he almost ended up not appearing as John Jacob Astor in the James Cameron blockbuster film Titanic. Edward Scott, former Y&R producer, now supervising producer at The Bold and the Beautiful, said in The Young and Restless Life of William J. Bell...
- 9/30/2022
- TV Insider
TV’s 1979 Titanic movie comes to Blu in two versions. We liked it when new but didn’t care for the cut-down theatrical version that hit DVD in 2002. Kino’s disc completes a set of various film versions of the infamous 1912 disaster, and allows us the chance for a Titanic ‘battle of the bands’ — we’ll rate them from several criteria. The filmed-in-England production has a nicely-chosen soap opera cast: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews.
S.O.S. Titanic
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1979 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 102 + 144 min. / Street Date October 13, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Timothy Spall, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews, Ed Bishop, Jerry Hauser, Aubrey Morris, Norman Rossington, Catherine Byrne, Warren Clarke, Madge Ryan.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Rusty Coppleman
Original Music: Howard Blake
Special effects: Wally Veevers,...
S.O.S. Titanic
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1979 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 102 + 144 min. / Street Date October 13, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Timothy Spall, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews, Ed Bishop, Jerry Hauser, Aubrey Morris, Norman Rossington, Catherine Byrne, Warren Clarke, Madge Ryan.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Rusty Coppleman
Original Music: Howard Blake
Special effects: Wally Veevers,...
- 10/6/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As the "Titanic" leaves port for its four-hour minicruise on CBS, it's loaded with the usual baggage for our television disasters.
Oddly enough, considering that 800 people lived and 1,500 died, it's not a very eventful journey.
This isn't a special effects bonanza -- as we expect from director James Cameron's big-screen interpretation of the same events now being shot. There are enough effects to make the point but, essentially, this version is packed with stock characters from writers Ross LaManna and Joyce Eliason and jam-packed with the ironies of the unsinkable ship unthinkably sinking the night of April 12, 1912.
It is, of course, one of the hideous stories of the century, the historic ship five blocks long carrying its own library and 75,000 pounds of meat and not all those unnecessary lifeboats that it wouldn't need anyway.
Director Robert Lieberman shuffles about a dozen stories of fact and fiction, some interesting, some not, ranging from rape and pillaging to love and tenderness. And don't forget stupidity and then panic and pathos.
Among the characters: wise old Capt. Smith (George C. Scott), evilly arrogant shipline director Ismay (Roger Rees), star-crossed lovers Wynn (Peter Gallagher) and Isabella (Catherine Zeta Jones), devious ship attendant Doonan (Tim Curry), reforming petty thief Jamie (Mike Doyle), boisterous Molly Brown (Marilu Henner), snooty Mrs. Foley Eva Marie Saint), zillionaire John Jacob Astor (Scott Hylands) and, well, enough of a cast to populate the Titanic.
It's a curious enough trip, just by the size of the calamity, but there's nothing much to recommend the performances here, with some brief exceptions by some lesser cast members. And, in a zany way, the Titanic survives; this wasn't the first re-enactment -- and won't be the last.
TITANIC
CBS
Konigsberg/Sanitsky Co. in association with
American Zoetrope and Hallmark Entertainment
Executive producers:Fred Fuchs, Frank Konigsberg, Larry Sanitsky
Producers:Rocky Lang, Harold Tichenor
Director:Robert Lieberman
Writers:Ross LaManna, Joyce Eliason
Director of photography:David Hennings
Visual effects supervisor:Janet Muswell
Production designer:Christiaan Wagener
Editor:Tod Feuerman
Music:Lennie Niehaus
Cast: Peter Gallagher, George C. Scott, Catherine Zeta Jones, Eva Marie Saint, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, Harley Jane Kozad, Marilu Henner, Mike Doyle, Sonsee Ahray, Felicity Waterman, Scott Hylands, Janne Mortil, Malcolm Stewart, Kevin McNulty, Matthew Walker.
Airdates: Sunday, Nov. 17, 9-11 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 19, 9-11 p.m.
Oddly enough, considering that 800 people lived and 1,500 died, it's not a very eventful journey.
This isn't a special effects bonanza -- as we expect from director James Cameron's big-screen interpretation of the same events now being shot. There are enough effects to make the point but, essentially, this version is packed with stock characters from writers Ross LaManna and Joyce Eliason and jam-packed with the ironies of the unsinkable ship unthinkably sinking the night of April 12, 1912.
It is, of course, one of the hideous stories of the century, the historic ship five blocks long carrying its own library and 75,000 pounds of meat and not all those unnecessary lifeboats that it wouldn't need anyway.
Director Robert Lieberman shuffles about a dozen stories of fact and fiction, some interesting, some not, ranging from rape and pillaging to love and tenderness. And don't forget stupidity and then panic and pathos.
Among the characters: wise old Capt. Smith (George C. Scott), evilly arrogant shipline director Ismay (Roger Rees), star-crossed lovers Wynn (Peter Gallagher) and Isabella (Catherine Zeta Jones), devious ship attendant Doonan (Tim Curry), reforming petty thief Jamie (Mike Doyle), boisterous Molly Brown (Marilu Henner), snooty Mrs. Foley Eva Marie Saint), zillionaire John Jacob Astor (Scott Hylands) and, well, enough of a cast to populate the Titanic.
It's a curious enough trip, just by the size of the calamity, but there's nothing much to recommend the performances here, with some brief exceptions by some lesser cast members. And, in a zany way, the Titanic survives; this wasn't the first re-enactment -- and won't be the last.
TITANIC
CBS
Konigsberg/Sanitsky Co. in association with
American Zoetrope and Hallmark Entertainment
Executive producers:Fred Fuchs, Frank Konigsberg, Larry Sanitsky
Producers:Rocky Lang, Harold Tichenor
Director:Robert Lieberman
Writers:Ross LaManna, Joyce Eliason
Director of photography:David Hennings
Visual effects supervisor:Janet Muswell
Production designer:Christiaan Wagener
Editor:Tod Feuerman
Music:Lennie Niehaus
Cast: Peter Gallagher, George C. Scott, Catherine Zeta Jones, Eva Marie Saint, Tim Curry, Roger Rees, Harley Jane Kozad, Marilu Henner, Mike Doyle, Sonsee Ahray, Felicity Waterman, Scott Hylands, Janne Mortil, Malcolm Stewart, Kevin McNulty, Matthew Walker.
Airdates: Sunday, Nov. 17, 9-11 p.m., and Tuesday, Nov. 19, 9-11 p.m.
- 11/14/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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