MARILYN MONROE AT THE CORNER OF NEWBURY AND HEREFORD STREETS IN BOSTON!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021 Arriving in Boston for the purpose of receiving their COVID-19 vaccines, Marash Boy and Marash Girl received an unexpected surprise when they met Marilyn Monroe at the corner of Newbury and Hereford Streets!

THE LAST INHABITANT

THE LAST INHABITANT.  Okay, so the title was depressing enough, but Marash Girl didn't believe her friend when her friend told Marash Girl that the film was going to be a real downer.  Marash Girl loves film, and couldn't accept the suggestion that the film would be over the top (or rather under the bottom) in the realm of depressing.  Well, it was!  And to make things worse, her friend -- the friend who invited Marash Girl to this depressing film -- admitted at the end of the film that her father had always advised her that "each day that you live, you are one day closer to your death."  Granted, Marash Girl's friend's father had survived the Armenian Genocide and that certainly could have colored his views on life and death. . . but still . . . to say that to his young daughter?  Really?

Going to see THE POST

Went to see the Post at the West Newton Cinema yesterday...Tickets were $10 for Seniors, $12 for Adults, $10 for Children.  Marash Girl asked for a Children's ticket.  She wasn't about to admit that she was a senior, but the idea of being a child rather appealed to her.  

And seeing the wonderful work of Ben Bagdigian  spread across the movie screen appealed to her even more!  It was not until she arrived home and shared her movie experience with Marash Boy that she learned that Ben Bagdigian had been born in Marash, had grown up in Springfield, Massachusetts, Ben's sister a good friend of Marash Boy's mother.  Small world!

La La Land!

Marash Girl had been living in La La Land, as it were, until, in fact, she was invited by her step-granddaughter to go to see "La La Land" at the West Newton Cinema.  Marash Girl accepted the invitation, went to the movies with her daughter and step-granddaughter, bought everybody popcorn and coke,  watched the movie, and went home.

Fast forward several months.  Marash Boy insisted that Marash Girl watch the Oscars last night on their ancient tiny TV in the attic room of their Victorian house.  Why? Still not sure, as they rarely go to the movies and even more rarely watch TV.  But it was important that Marash Girls' step-granddaughter kept Marash Girl up with the times, because, in fact, almost every "best" at the Academy Awards last night went to "La La Land"!  So important that even the MC at the Academy Awards last night, Warren Beatty, read off    "La La Land" as he removed from the envelope in his hand the white card holding the name of the winner of best film. The performers from "La La Land" were on the  stage celebrating before Warren Beatty realized his error!  The name on the card for Best Picture was not "La La Land" but "Moonlight", but we must assume that the excitement regarding all of La La Land's "bests" was so great that when Warren Beatty read from the card in his hand, he was, indeed, in "La La Land".

The Nutcracker?

Yesterday morning, Marash Girl received a phone call.

Young Friend: Guess where we're taking the kids today!  To the n. . .

Marash Girl (breaking in):  To the Nutcracker?

Young Friend:  To the new Star Wars movie!

"How Christmases have changed!" Marash Girl thought, but to herself only!

Grandma Jennie & Arlene Francis

Recently Marash Girl sold Arlene Francis's ARLENE FRANCIS, A MEMOIR. (You know that Marash Girl sells out-of-print books on the internet, right?)  Why should that sale call to mind her mother Jennie?  Because Arlene Francis was a household word when Marash Girl was growing up.

Marash Girl's mother Jennie (born Lucille Mae Vartanian) always spoke of Arlene Francis with great pride. Yes, Arlene Francis was a well-known actress and popular television personality in the 1940's and 1950's.  But that was not all.  Arlene Francis was born Arlene Francis Kazanjian on Oct. 20, 1907, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Her father, Aram Kazanjian, was studying art in Paris at the age of 16 when he learned that both his parents had been massacred  by the Turks   during the 1894-1896 Armenian massacres. The same massacre that murdered both of Marash Girl's  great grandparents --  her father's mother's parents -- and her mother's mother's fiancee!) Arlene Francis' dad Aram Kazanjian  became a painter and portrait photographer, an Armenian immigrant to the United States  who married Leah Davis (daughter of actor Alfred Davis).

Despite the fact that Arlene Francis had changed her last name, all Armenians in the United States knew and took pride in the fact that Arlene Francis was of Armenian descent.  Arlene Francis was Armenian (at least half) and was a world famous actress.  Jennie identified with Arlene.  Jennie loved to sing, play the piano by ear as she sang the popular songs of the day, dance (despite the fact that Grandpa Peter had promised his mother that he would never dance -- and always kept that promise). Jennie laughed and loved life and people.   Never a cross word; never a negative comment.  She was the happiest woman Marash Girl has ever known.  

Arlene Francis became known for her aphorism, "Life is the best party I've ever been  invited to."

Jennie could have written that line!  She actually may have!

Interview with Filmmaker Roger Hagopian on his film, Memories of Marash

M.G. I hear that you were asked to submit your Special 2015 Edition Memories of Marash to a Film Festival in Providence.

R.H. Yes.  I’m so pleased. Dorothy Martiesian of The Daughters of Vartan arranged for my film, Memories of Marash, to be shown at the Southeast New England Arts and Film Festival in Providence, Rhode Island, as this year is the 100th year commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

M.G. Where and when will that festival be held?

R.H. The Southeast New England Arts and Film Festival will be held at the  Columbus Theatre at 270 Broadway in Providence, R.I., on Monday, April 20 at 7 PM.  Their contact #  is 401-203-7363.

I will be attending the SENE Film Festival in order to speak after the showing of my film, Memories of Marash: The Legacy of a Lost Armenian Community (2015).  This documentary film traces the ancient history of the city of Marash,  the massacres of  the late 1800’s, and the final expulsion and genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks between 1915-1923; the film tells the story of the lost Armenian community of Marash. Interviews with survivors and their descendants supported by historical film and photographs combine  to portray the tale of the vibrant Armenian community that once existed in Marash and is now forever a memory. In 2015, I remastered  

MEMORIES OF MARASH to wide screen with high resolution photography and animated maps.  

M.G. When did you first begin making documentaries?

R.H. My first film, Journey along the Middlesex Canal, was completed in 1996.  (As I’ve always been interested in railroads, I became fascinated by canals because in America, canals were the predecessor to railroads. You may not realize that the Middlesex Canal was  the first major artificial waterway — completed in 1803 — in the United States.)   This film has been shown at the Lowell National Park Visitor Center, on local TV stations, at public libraries, and can currently be seen on the Middlesex Canal Association website.  The Canal That Bisected Boston, a film I made in 2010, has been shown at various historical societies as well as the West End Museum in Boston, the Middlesex Canal Museum, and the Charlestown Historical Society, to name a few. 

M.G. You’re a history buff, are you?  

R.H. Yes, I’m especially interested in early transportation and American history.  The Armenian focus came later.  My father was a survivor of the Armenian genocide; I’ve known that since I was a teenager, but I did not seriously research  family history until I was about 49 years old. 

M.G. How old are you now?  

R.H. 66. Ironically, what turned out to be the first action of the Armenian Genocide by the Ottomans occurred in Zeitoun on April 10, 1915 — that is the month and day of my birthday.  

M.G.  That’s tough. On a happier note, how were you introduced to filmmaking?

R. H. My wife Linda cut out an ad in the newspaper which announced that Lexington Cable TV was offering film-making courses for free.  I took my video camera, and began volunteer work there and I was able to sign up for editing time in the studio.  I could produce my own film on any subject I wished.  That’s when I made a video of my father’s story: Journey of an Armenian Family (1999)  It took about a year to put that together. I showed that in many Armenian and non-Armenian venues.  (Senior Centers, Newton Public Library, NAASR)  The film begins in my dad's fishing village Avantz (outside of the City of Van) in historic Armenia (which was at that time a part of Ottoman Turkey).   I can remember being down the Cape, putting a microphone in front of my father as we sat by the lake.

M.G. What inspired you to make the film Memories of Marash? 

R.H. I wanted to cover my mother’s family’s experiences in historic Armenia;  during the Armenian Genocide, my great grandparents were beheaded in front of their children. I wanted the world to know the truth. 

M.G. Oh, no.  Just like my great grandparents! Let’s move on . . . Have any of your films ever been entered into a film festival in the past? 

R.H. Yes.  Destination Watertown:  The Armenians of Hood Rubber was shown at the ARPA International Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California, in 2010.  This film describes employment at the Hood Rubber Factory as being the draw for  Armenian immigrants to settle in Watertown.

M.G.  Switching gears a bit here, I wonder when you first became aware of the fact that you were Armenian?  What was it like being an Armenian growing up in the diverse community of the Dorchester section of Boston?  

R.H. I was just another ethnic kid with friends who were Jewish, Greek, Syrian, Lebanese, Irish, Italians . . .

M.G. Have you ever met any Turks?  

R.H. I didn’t start meeting Turks until I got involved in activities regarding Armenian history and the Armenian genocide.  

M.G. How did you meet them then?  

R.H. It began with Professor Taner Akcam, Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at Clark University . . . probably the first Turk that I ever talked to about the Armenian genocide.  

M.G. Has your film been shown in Turkey?  

R.H. Harry Parsekian brought a copy of "Memories of Marash" to the Hrant Dink Foundation in Istanbul and Osman Koker, editor of the book ARMENIANS IN TURKEY 100 YEARS AGO purchased a copy of "Memories of Marash" when he was in Watertown several years ago; he recently told  Marash Girl that he just loved the film!

M.G. What are your plans, if any, for future films?  

R.H. I want to record the story of the destruction of four Massachusetts towns: when the Quabbin Reservoir was constructed in the 1930’s, the folks living in the communities in Massachusetts’ Swift River Valley  were forced to leave — their homes and their land were taken by eminent domain in order for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to  create  the reservoir which provides drinking water for Metropolitan Boston.  Being an Armenian, I could identify with their experience of loss and displacement.

M.G. How can we purchase a copy of the Special 2015 Edition DVD of Memories of Marash?  

R.H. Just call me, Roger Hagopian. at 781-861-7868 or, for further information, email  RogerHagop@aol.com.

Peter Bilezikian (1912-2010), a survivor of the Armenian genocide, whips it up with filmmaker Roger Hagopian (at right) on Feb. 10, 2008, during the  yearly gathering of the Watertown Chapter of the Union of Marash Armenians. Peter Bilezikian is featured in the film MEMORIES OF MARASH.  Photo by Marash Girl

MEMORIES OF MARASH: Roger Hagopian airs latest version of his documentary at ALMA, Watertown, Massachusetts; New England Patriots Win Super Bowl

New England Patriots Win Super Bowl In perhaps the most dramatic Super Bowl ending ever, the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 28-24, in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday. . . Wall Street Journal Massachusetts native Roger Hagopian airs latest version of MEMORIES OF MARASH at ALMA (Armenian Museum of America, Watertown, Massachusetts.)  In perhaps the most dramatic version ever made so far of  "Memories of Marash",  filmmaker Roger Hagopian defeated the denialists on Super Bowl Sunday with his latest version of the tragic story of how the Marash Armenians, those who survived the genocide, were forced out of their ancestral homeland.  To see an earlier version of this film, go to Youtube and type in Memories of Marash: The Legacy of a Lost Armenian Community (2002). The latest version of MEMORIES OF MARASH is for sale on DVD; just email Roger Hagopian to order:  RogerHagop@aol.com

Maureen Dowd and Robert Redford Chat at Boston's JFK Library

Marash Girl dreamed that she stood in line at the JFK auditorium waiting to get Robert Redford's autograph, but by the time she got to the front of the line, neither she nor Robert Redford had paper to write on.  It was so disappointing!  But surprise of surprises, when she got home, there he was at her home, socializing with the family.  But that was only a dream . . . a dream that she had after attending the conversation between Maureen Dowd and Robert Redford at Boston's JFK Library.  Here's what happened.

Because Marash Boy had worked with Redford at Sundance many years ago,  because Marash Boy often reads Maureen Dowd's columns in the New York Times, because Marash Boy has always been interested (and sometimes involved) in politics, Marash Girl thought he might enjoy the conversation that was to take place between Maureen Dowd and Robert Redford at the J.F.K. Library.  Marash Boy, not accustomed to arriving early -- ever -- was not in a hurry, and when Marash Girl suggested that the lunchroom would close at 4:30, he agreed to leave the house at 4.  But when they arrived at 4:30, the parking lot was full, and the doors to the auditorium had opened to accommodate the crowds that were attending the event -- at 4:30 there were only 2 empty seats left, and those seats were in the last row at the back.  Marash Girl grabbed Marash Boy's jacket as he sat at a table nibbling on his salad while overlooking Boston Harbor; she ran back to the auditorium to protect the two seats that were left.  The only problem was that the two seats were too far back to see the stage or to snap a believable photo of the two stars (see photo below).  Visible, however, was the fact that not a person under 50 years old was in the room, and that included the presenters.

Maureen Dowd and Robert Redford: two redheads face off on stage!

At the heart of Robert Redford's message was T.S. Eliot's dictum in his "Four Quartets: "For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”  Using the Sundance Festival as an example, Robert Redford said, "The Festival is not as much fun as at the beginning . . . It's the work that's fun . . . awards have never meant that much to me."

Robert Redford spent his formative years in a lower working class Mexican community in Los Angeles, California.  Growing up, his friends were all Mexican, but, he noted, "After World War II, we were no longer friends.  It was something about the 'American' thing," he said.   "This is a country that's all about winning . . . " he continued.  Growing up, Redford was always great in sports, the Red Sox his favorite team, and Ted Williams his hero. His film THE NATURAL was "a homage to the baseball that I loved," Redford commented.  "I don't know what's happened to sports now, with the money and violence . . . maybe it's television that did it . . ." 

Redford admitted that he draws, though he doesn't paint, that he writes poetry, though he can't recite . . . and that his favorite poet is William Butler Yeats.

"I never look back, but I keep trying . . . , " he said.  "Once I complete a film, I never view it again. . . I'm not comfortable seeing myself on film . . . I finish a film and move on!"  When concluding his films, he admitted, he likes to leave the audience with a question.  

He talked a lot about the fun times he had in his friendship with Paul Newman.

"Filmmaking in Hollywood," he said, "is a business which cannot afford to take chances. . . the fact which made it so important to support independent films . . .  and the reason I built Sundance."  After 6 years, though, he realized the Sundance films were going nowhere, which is why he started the Sundance Festival.  "It's the climb up that's really exciting . . . success itself is not as much fun."

On politics, Redford said of Obama, "I think he's a good man with a good mind who is over his head. . it took him too long to figure out 'how it works'", said Redford.  "There's sufficient debate about Isis and whether we should take immediate action . . . it all started in the prior administration -- Obama inherited a rotten deal with a lot of costs  . . . it makes me sad."  

Redford referred to the Republicans as the "Looney Tunes without the Merry Melodies".

Through the eyes of an adult . . . JERSEY BOYS - a must see . . .

'Jersey Boys . . . You must see it,' reports Marash Martha. . .  'Any film that Clint Eastwood does is not to be missed! It's about Frankie Valli (who, 37 years ago, at an intersection in Sherman Oaks, asked me how to get to the airport)!'  She writes, 'As I recall, he really wanted to say hi to my three beautiful daughters; then after asking for directions to LAX, he asked, "Don't you know who i am?  I'm Frankie Valli and I am performing in Las Vegas"!  I had no idea who he was, but my three daughters knew exactly who he was and started singing his famous song, SHERIE!'

And more recently, Marash Martha's daughter Ali reports that she often sees Frankie Valli at the supermarket in Sherman Oaks!  What does she say about him?  "He's short!"

Marash Girl must head out to her local movie theatre to see JERSEY BOYS, a film that WBUR's HERE & NOW thought well of . . . well enough to interview Jersey Boys'  star performer, John Lloyd Young (who called Robin Young his "sister") . . . John Lloyd Young, the actor who took Jersey Boys from Broadway to the screen.  Great interview -- listen to it before you head out to see the movie!

Peter and Jennie Bilezikian, Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, John Travolta and Marash Girl

Standing in the family living room and surveying Claflin Park, the cliffs and the meadow directly across the street from the family home, Peter of Marash would say, "I wouldn't go across the street to see the President of the United States."  His wife, Jennie (her ancestors from Aintep) would reply, "I would!"  Of course, Peter didn't have to go across the street to shake the hands of the President of the United States.  Calvin Coolidge, the then President of the United States, and gone across the country and shaken hands with 12 year old Peter at a service in Peter's congregational church in Brighton. (See http://marashgirl.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-not-shaking-hands.html) It was with that philosophical mix that Marash Girl approached the world.  So when she had the opportunity to shake hands with President Ronald Reagan at a fundraiser in Washington, DC, she was thinking, "I wouldn't go across the room to shake hands with the President of the United States!"  That is, until she remembered her mother's response: "I would!"  And so for her mother, Marash Girl walked across the room, and reached her hand over the crowds towards the outstretched hand of Ronald Reagan, the then President of the United States.  He reached over the crowds, grasped Marash Girl's hand, looked in her eyes, and for less than one second, made Marash Girl feel as if she was the only person in the room, standing there, clasping hands with the President of the United States.

And so it was that many years later, not in Washington, DC, but in Nonantum, Newton, Massachusetts, that Marash Girl had the courage to call out to John Travolta, and John Travolta dutifully walked over to Marash Girl, put his arm around her, and posed for the photographer with Marash Girl.  (See yesterday's blog post.) But John Travolta, kind as he was, was not "there" with Marash Girl; unlike Ronald Reagan, John Travolta was already on stage, waiting to deliver his next lines. . . But then John Travolta was not attending his own fund raiser, nor is he President of the United States . . . yet!

John Travolta in movie shoot for THE FORGER: Newton, Massachusetts, Marash Girl's neighborhood!

"This work is all about Hurry up, Hurry up, wait!" commented one of the crew.

Commonplace in Pasadena, California, this film shoot was a rarity for Newton residents as it took place in a house on Churchill Street between Crafts and Broadway Streets in Nonantum, a village of Newton, Massachusetts. Earlier in the week, the crew had filmed at the MFA (see Boston Globe for coverage of that shoot).  Joking around as she is wont to do, Marash Girl asked the crew if they were serving coffee.  Oh, no! they answered.  It might be poisoned! They apparently thought that Marash Girl was asking if the neighborhood was serving them coffee . . . but what did they have to fear? Why would anyone in Newton, Massacnusetts, want to poison a filming crew which included John Travolta, or any other movie star, for that matter?

Groupie from neighborhood waits in hopes of catching a glimpse of John Travolta!

"I'm Dr. Phil," this man announced facetiously to the groupie!
"Take my picture!"

John Travolta's trailer protected by muscle and Newton's finest.

Travolta's trailer on right parked on street in front of Newton home.

Filming took place inside the house on Churchill Street after darkness settled in.

Day Junior High School boys and Groupie watch in hopes that 
Travolta will emerge from the house.

Neighborhood groupie, laughing out loud, reports to Marash Girl,
"This is the first time a movie star has ever put his arm around me!" [Photo Credit: M. Aytekin]

Newton policeman on detail guards the house in which the filming is being done.  The luck of the draw, he said.  The junior high school boys kept asking him what he would do if they walked up the stairs of the house where the shoot was taking place.  "Nothing," he said.  "I don't have to; there's security right inside that door!"

Although John Travolta did not talk to the Globe reporter when on the set at the MFA, he did hug the woman who asked him for a photo yesterday in Nonantum; he actually posed for the camera with the one admirer who had had the fortitude to wait, and the voice loud enough to call to him as he left his trailer to walk to the shoot.  Apparently the Newton policeman guarding Travolta's trailer had forced the woman to keep her distance, but the woman had had the courage to call to Travolta as he emerged from his hideaway, and Travolta had had the kindness to grant that long awaited photo.  (See above.)  The filming took place several blocks from Marash Girl's alma mater, Frank Ashley Day Junior High School!

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

As Iffar watched THE SOUND OF MUSIC for the very first time, at the scene of the marriage of Maria to Georg Von Trapp, Iffar commented, "Our new Pope should watch this movie!"

A Tale for Taraf

Tervant Dakessian Sanjian, Marash Boy's kermer (his mother's brother's mother, i.e., his maternal grandmother),  was a surivivor of the death march during the Armenian Genocide.  Her mantra:  "Gun bu gun,   zaht, bu zaht."  (Rough translation: Day? The day is Today. Time? The time is now.) She believed in accepting her lot, in living in the present.  And that's no wonder, once we learn of her past.  She was tiny (under 5 feet tall) and fearless, the woman who, during summers on the 20 acres in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, would reach up and grab the ear of the lead cow in a wandering herd, herding it and its family back across the fields to their rightful pasture.  She was a staunch believer in Christ, a woman whose faith had carried her through the worst of times. But she still had nightmares.  Marash Boy, only a young fellow at the time, was sharing a bedroom with his kermer and was asked to calm her during her  nocturnal visits to the past.  His mother, (known in these blogs as Medzmama), also a survivor of the Armenian Genocide,  speaking Armenian, comforted Marash Boy's fears: "Mi vakhnar.  Don't be afraid. When Kermer starts screaming & crying in the night, just hug her and tell her that it's okay, that she's here in the room with you, that she's in Springfield, Massachusetts, not Marash, Turkey, that she's in the United States, not the Ottoman Empire, that the horror is past, that she is safe at home, with her daughter and her grandchildren."
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When Marash Girl and Karoun first attended a viewing of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, they sat in the center front of the West Newton Cinema.  The film should have been named MY BIG FAT ARMENIAN WEDDING, they said to each other. From the overprotective Greek father, the wonderfully enthusiastic Greek aunts, the music played on oud and dumbeg, and yes . . . the plastic covering the couches, the kich and over the top plastic wedding decorations (complete with fiberglass parthenon columns/pillars), the line dancing, the food, the home remedies (if you've seen the film, you must remember the Windex!)  It was all so familiar. . . and so hilarious.  Strangely, THEY were the only ones in the theatre laughing, and they were laughing very loudly!

But part of the film was no laughing matter.  When discussing MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING with their American (read here  'Non-Armenian') friends, Marash Girl and Karoun had to listen to said friends critique the character of the Greek grandmother, all dressed in black, hunched over, with a black shesh over her head, crazily running through the neighborhood screaming.  It didn't fit; it didn't make sense to them because they knew nothing of the atrocities and massacres to the Greek and Armenian populations committed by the Young Turks early in the 20th Century.  What that old grandmother had seen and remembered was more than any one of them could have even imagined, much less lived through.