BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'

Subject: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 12:39 AM

Bobert mentioned Edvard Munch in his Your Favorite Visual Artist thread and I was going to post the following message to that thread:

Edvard Munch was sort of the artistic equivalent of a "one-hit-wonder". His "Scream" is one of the most recognized pieces of 20th Century art, but what else did he do?

Then it occured to me that there have been several "one-hit-wonders" in the the non-musical arts fields. Here are a few more:

Harper Lee - Wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" and apparently never got the urge to write again. That's okay though. What could she possibly have done for an encore?

Ken Kesey - Scored a big hit with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" but "Sometimes a Great Notion" was forgettable. Did he even write anything else or just do the Merry Prankster thing?

Joseph Heller - Wrote several books after "Catch 22", but never really found the handle again. I think the one after "Catch 22" was called "We Bombed in New Haven". It did.

Robert Altman - Yeh, I know he's made lots of films and critics and film buffs think he's the man, but his only film to achieve hit status among the unwashed masses was "MASH".

Mark Hammill - Did he ever even have another movie role besides Luke Skywalker?

Any others? Gotta be lots more from the film world. I don't see many movies so I'm only semi-literate when it comes to cinema.

Bruce

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 10:22 AM

Margaret Mitchell--Gone With the Wind

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Bagpuss
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 10:29 AM

Munch was hardly a one hit wonder - ok so he only had one painting turned into a poster with a spliff added, but I know several other paintings of his apart from The Scream - eg Anxiety and Girl on Shore (which I have a print of). Go to http://www.edvard-munch.com/ to see more of his stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 10:55 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 11:23 AM

Whatever happened to Ted Neeley, who played Jesus in the 70's movie "Jesus Christ Superstar"? Or Yvonne Elliman, who played Mary Magdalene?
Never heard of either of them since.

I always wondered if playing roles like these satisfied their urge to act for life. Or if they were chosen for the parts on the basis of their looks alone. As I recall, neither of them were outstanding singers, although Andrew Lloyd Webber's music and Tim Rice's lyrics more than compensated for that IMO.

Oops, I just realized this is supposed to be a non-music thread. Sorry!

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Bagpuss
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 11:26 AM

What about Mark Hamill. Not quite as ubiquitous as Harrison Ford, is he?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: alanabit
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 11:43 AM

Yvonne Elliman had a hit with "If I Can't Have You" and went on to sing back ups (with Marcy Levy) in the Eric Clapton band in the seventies. I always liked that band - they did "Lay Down Sally", "I Shot The Sheriff" and "Promises" amongst other things. Clapton was effectively the rhythm guitarist in that band, as most of the lead guitar was played by an American - George Terry. I'll shut up now before I become guilty of more thread drift!

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 11:56 AM

On record, you could add Andy Griffith, who had one hit, "What It Was, Was Football."

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 12:20 PM

Thanks, alana! So I've been listening to Yvonne all these years and didn't know it! I've always liked Eric Clapton - one of the world's finest guitarists in my opinion ...

Still looking for Ted Neeley, in spite of the drift ...

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 02 - 12:22 PM

Mention of Mark Hamil twice.

Star Wars was his first big picture. After that (the 1st or 4th one, depending on your take) he made "Corvette Summer", an eminently forgettable piece of kife, except for the fact that he got his face pretty badly burned during filming. The resultant scarring pretty much ended his career outside of Lucas' films after that.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 10:42 AM

Munch has some other big pieces--he had "hit" woodcuts too. His one-hitness as a painter, for me, is more in his expressive use of smearing. Robert Indiana's "Love" sculpture.

   Mark Hamill turned up in Jay and Silent Bob, but had to be identified by subtitle.

Ken Kesey has published some weak stories, and some stuff for kids. His students had a collaborative book published. I don't know if he's seen the movie of Cukoo's Nest yet.

(At a gallery where I worked they sold inflatable "scream" figures one year, near Xmastime, and people kept asking if it was the kid from Home Alone. Eventually I started saying yes, but from the older German Silent Film version, Das Kinder Ist in der Zimmer Mit Kein Alte Leute--or whatever ridiculously long semi-German title I could throw together.)

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 12:27 PM

Even one hit is better than no hits.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 12:40 PM

Kesey refused to ever see "Cuckoos Nest". The main point of contention was the movie's changing Chief Broom from the story's narrator to a rather minor character. Being mute, the Chief has little to say in the movie, whereas much of the content of the book occurs within his mind. Chief Broom's "combine", the schizophrenic's oft-felt concept of the world as a machine, is central to the book, but was omitted from the movie. Actually, I've often thought that some of the scenes from David Lynch's "Eraserhead" come as close as possible to cinematically portraying the "combine".

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Firecat
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 12:54 PM

What about Shani Wallis (Nancy in the film "Oliver!") Did she ever do anything else?

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 01:08 PM

Yeah, Firecat, Shani Wallis's spectacular voice surely must have been heard since, and I'd like to know where.

Her song "As Long as He Still Needs Me" (from "Oliver!")seems so dated in it's sentiments today, thank God(dess)! It still gives me a 'pain' when I hear it. Women are beginning to 'see the light', refusing to stay in abusive relationships that can turn fatal. And men are changing too. It's hard to believe those attitudes were so commonplace as recently as the 60's.

Ted Neeley still hasn't surfaced? Must we wait till Christmas? Jesus, where are you? ;-)

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: TIA
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 01:14 PM

Einstein was a bit of a one hit wonder (although the theory of relativity sure was one helluva hit). His career as a physicist peaked at that in his early 20's.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: Grab
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 01:52 PM

Re Mark Hamill, his "acting" in Star Wars doesn't exactly surprise you that he didn't get much further.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: alanabit
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 02:09 PM

Interesting comment about Einstein. I think that is true of most major mathematicians - they have one big idea early on in life and then spend the rest of their career having to explain it. No doubt there is an erudite Mudcatter who can enlighten us further.

Subject: RE: BS: Non-Musical 'One-Hit-Wonders'
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 12 Dec 02 - 02:12 PM

I really liked Cuckoo's Nest better as a novel, because you did find out why the Chief never spoke. He said because he was a half-breed, everyone ignored him, so he just quit talking. I thought that was very important to the story and was shocked that it was left out of the movie.

Whatever happened to Louise Lasser, of the late-night adult soap opera, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman?