Working Actors

"I don't need an education: I'm going to be an actor!"
-- Pinocchio, to J. Cricket

"What's an actor need a conscience for, anyway?"
-- J. Cricket, to himself

James Lileks' Bleat for this past Monday [May 24] was a typically wide-ranging affair, but I was stopped cold by this photo that appears midway through:

This is a still from the 1935 Gable/Laughton version of Mutiny on the Bounty, and I know I have one reader [Hi, Bridget!] who will recognize immediately that this photograph depicts the actress Mamo in the role of Maimiti, Fletcher Christian's Tahitian beloved.

Mamo gets only one name in the Bounty credits, but she appears elsewhere in the late 30's -- always it seems as an Island Girl or Native Maiden or such -- under the name of Mamo Clark. The reason to tell you all this, however, is that I knew her some 40 years after Bounty as Mamo Rawley, the wife of James Rawley, better known to those of us who attended Granada Hills High School in the mid- to late 70's as "Mr. Rawley" or "J.R.," the drama teacher.

J.R. had an interesting history himself: he studied acting with the first wave of Moscow Art Theatre veterans to come to the U.S. bearing the "Method" of Stanislavski but had a distinctly spotty film and television career. His largest film role, I believe, is as "Dr. Johnson," part of the surgical team that allows the Creature from the Black Lagoon to breathe with lungs instead of gills in the 1956 sequel The Creature Walks Among Us; he can be seen very briefly cowering as a fearful elevator operator during the heist at the beginning of the original Steve McQueen version of The Thomas Crown Affair, etc. He had a recurring role on Bonanza as the telegraph operator in Carson City. Unfortunately, over the long course of that series only two telegrams ever needed to be delivered.

J.R.'s acting career serves as a reminder of what a challenge it is actually to make a living in that line of work. He was a fine and enthusiastic teacher, though. Under his influence, I was bitten by the acting bug for several years: I wound up playing the title roles in high school productions of Julius Caesar and The Man Who Came to Dinner and the Mayor in Gogol's The Inspector General and, when I went on to college, spent at least as much time hanging around the Dramatic Art department at Berkeley [Hi, Rick!] as I did in pursuing my English major. I had figured out by that point that the law pays rather more regularly than acting, but the hammy impulse remains with me still. This occasionally makes me the despair of our eldest son (age 16), but his brother (13) is usually amused. *Sigh*

So, Mamo it seems has served as a sort of Proustian madeleine carrying me back down the carefree paths of the past. [Hums quietly: Mem'ries light the corners of my mind/Misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were . . . . (Fade out.)]

Comments

[David Giacalone]

Hamo sights Mamo!!
Thanks for sharing your enjoyable memories, G.W.

[Rick]

All I can say is, "when Stacy was here..."

[David]

I loved being in Mr. Rawley's class in 1964-1965, another member of which was Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund. JR was a fine and feisty teacher, never afraid to bombastically and theatrically lambast our "blackout" sketches and raunchy humor. And of course we knew Mamo. JR, the lucky guy.

[Jeanne]

I was in JR's classes, too from 1965 to 1968. Thanks for the memories.

Jeanne

[Jeanne]

I was in JR's classes, too from 1965 to 1968. Thanks for the memories.

Jeanne

[Jeanne]

Woops, didn't mean to post the same message twice.

Jeanne

[Vince]

Stumbled across this doing a search on JR. Remember you, although I graduated from Granada Hills in '63. You were one of JR's favorites. Another former actor of his was Steve English, who went to Harvard Law. Mamo was an amazing woman. I was close to both of them for many years after graduation. They both read about a book a day and I can still remember their garage being floor-to-ceiling books all the time. She also was actually a real Hawaiin princess, and was raised by Japanese tutors. She was expert in Kabuki Theatre Acting Techniques and 100% pagan. They were both remarkable people to know. I wonder if that reader you refer to is Bridgette Rippinger - always wondered how she was doing - I recall she was living in Europe. Anyway, this is a great blog and it's good to see you are still getting your exercising your creative chops here. Yes, Robert Englund and an actor/songwriter named Gary Tigerman is on the alumnae list too.

[Jef Scott]

If it wasn't for Mr. Rawley, I wouldn't be in show business.
Granada Hills 1975

[Gary Tigerman]

What a treat to find your site and these memories of JR. HIgh school is basically hell for most kids, and it was for me. Rawley's class was the one refuge that consistently made a difference. I've thought about JR often over the years and regret losing touch with him. Our prodcutions of Dracula were memorable and particularly pie-fight plus parfait. Vince Tankina, Bobby Englund, Tony Bonataux, Ron Fisher, Chuck, Pat, Bridget, Marty and Rob being all there at the same time was kind of a sketch comedy golden era. I'll always feel blessed to have had that time with those people under the James Rawley umbrella. There was Method to the madness and vice versa. Love to all...

Gary Tigerman

[Jeanne]

Hey, gang! I haven't been publicizing it so don't have much particiaption yet, but I've set up a forum for GHHS alums on Delphi. If you'd like to visit me there, maybe we can reminisce (sp?) and get the forum going. The URL is:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/goGHHS/messages

Aloha from Honolulu,

Jeanne