[from My Photo a Day Adventure blog]
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 … Lawrence of Arabia, 1962 … my absolute, life-changing favorite … first saw it in 1964 …
And I thought I was the only one … my twin! …
“First love between a person and a film can be as intoxicating as first love between two people. It can mean just as much crazy behavior, just as many sleepless nights. As a young adolescent, I became so desperately obsessed with a certain film that I saw it over and over, spent years studying the life of its hero, regarding him as a kind of role model and even dragged my family on a long, dusty pilgrimage to a place where he had lived. If one measure of a film’s greatness is its power to affect the lives of those who see it, then Lawrence of Arabia must be the best film I know.”
– New York Times film critic, Janet Maslin
August 16, 2009 — repost … on T.E. Lawrence’s birthday:
Amazing to realize that while the summer of 1964 was full of the colorful afternoon movie fun of The Moon-Spinners with my cousins, it also introduced me to the most profoundly life-changing film, Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
A rare occasion … Mom and I went to an evening showing in downtown Olympia. Why she chose it … ? We walked in late, through the heavy velvet aisle curtains and I was instantly enthralled … Lawrence and his Bedu guide, Tafas, talking under the uncountable desert stars … “I’m … different …”
On the dark drive home I was transfixed, staring out the front passenger door window. I HAD to see Lawrence again! And I HAD to find out more … An old 1920s/1930s maroon-covered encyclopedia set was waiting at home (left behind by the previous owners of our Beaver Creek farm, Tillamook, OR). In those welcoming pages was my first glimpse … the real Lawrence … the photo above.
So, happy birthday, T.E.L. / T.E.S.! 121 years old! … August 16, 1888-May 19, 1935 …
And we’ll also take a moment for a tip o’ the hat to another milestone … 1964-2009 … 45 years (45?!!) since that first Lawrencian encounter! Your trail has led to a degree in Arabic, an Egyptian ex-husband, camels and an oasis in the Sahara, Saudis, England (Oxford, Moreton cemetery, Clouds Hill) … and the most intense labor of obsession, making a surreptitious reel-to-reel audio recording at the Roseway Theater, Portland, Oregon, 1971. Transcribed, then typed on a manual typewriter. Those glory days before computers, VCRs and DVDs!
Remembered reading this at Grandma & Grandpa Ahola’s in 1963, a year before I saw Lawrence. By 1964 it had been moved to the upstairs storage room in the old chicken house. The quest was on! After an hour of dusty rummaging, voila! Saturday Evening Post, March 9, 1963.
To end with a flourish … my very own, autographed photo of Peter O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia … February 1966 … Actually, wrote two letters to Peter around the same time. Received the same note and signed photo … Remember comparing the signatures. Definitely handwritten. Whether by a secretary or Peter, ‘imself, glad to have it! …
Rest in Peace … Peter O’Toole … 1932-2013 …
Movies, Of Course! 