A night ‘close to heaven’ (From Borehamwood Times)

A night ‘close to heaven’

12:58pm Friday 5th February 2010

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PAUL WELSH finds no comparison between Big Brother housemates and stars of yesteryear.

Well Celebrity Big Brother is over, but perhaps not out, as I hear both Sky and Channel 5 are considering whether to keep the show alive.

They may be spurred on by the fact the opening show attracted an audience of six million.

Personally, I thought the contestants were all a bit too laid-back and nice to each other, which makes boring TV, but I suspect veterans like Stephanie and Vinnie decided to keep their heads down and take the money.

There is no doubt Vinnie was the favourite to win at the outset, especially as the self-appointed “people’s champion” .

However, I think he lost his “common” people fans when he talked about a pair of socks costing £400, remarking: “Well they are made of cashmere,” and turning down three months’ work on a film as it was only offering $200,000.

I had little interest in the eventual winner Alex Reid and runner-up Dane Bowers before the show, thinking them to be Z-list celebrities. I must admit my mind changed and in the end I thought they came across as really nice guys.

It was sad to read we have lost that lovely actress Jean Simmons from lung cancer. In particular, I will always remember Jean in the films Great Expectations in 1946, Guys And Dolls with Marlon Brando in 1955 and Spartacus directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1960. In regard to the latter, Jean found the director a challenge as did many of his stars. She later commented: “Making Spartacus was enough acting to last a lifetime and the filming went on forever. At the end of the first year my co-star Kirk Douglas sent me champagne with an ironic note saying, ‘Let’s hope the second year will be as happy’.”

We have also lost actor Gene Barry, albeit at the age of 90, who had been suffering from senile dementia in recent years. Gene shot to stardom in the Fifties sci-fi classic movie War Of The Worlds and, ironically, his final screen appearance was a non-speaking cameo role in the Tom Cruise remake a few years ago.

Gene made a TV series at Elstree in the Seventies called The Adventurer, but he was not popular with his fellow actors due to his “diva” star personality.

My memory of him was finding myself walking into a London theatre at the same time as Gene about 20 years ago. We were attending a Hollywood-style charity awards show and also in our little crowd was Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson and Forties hearthrob Van Johnson. The problem was the charity used young girls as usherettes who failed to recognise these “old men” and ignored them in favour of the stars of EastEnders, now forgotten, so I ended up showing them to their seats.

That was a night close to heaven for me. Not only did I get to meet stars I already knew like Hayley and John Mills and Doug Fairbanks Jr, but names from Hollywood’s golden past such as Anthony Quinn, Ginger Rogers, Robert Wagner, Roddy McDowall, Esther Williams, Leslie Caron, Angie Dickinson and many more. Elstree’s past was also represented by the likes of Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Michael Denison, Anthony Hopkins and Wendy Hiller, to name but a few.

It was so star-studded that the cabaret was performed by the Four Tops, Michael Bolton, Petula Clark and David Cassidy.

The programme was 100 pages thick and despite the opportunity, I failed to ask for a single autograph, for which I could now kick myself. It’s the kind of event that can no longer be held as so many of the “golden era” stars have since departed. The organiser was David Gest and if I ever meet him, it would be interesting to know whether the occasion was videoed. Happy memories.

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