#27
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by britcom68 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 4:38 am
I admit that I am a little biased when discussing Some Like it Hot. The now-retired pastor at the church I attended in my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa for several decades is one of the few surviving cast members. She was cast as the second violinist, partially as she had been a trained violinist since childhood, including performing in a real-life all-girls band. Although she had no speaking lines in the film, she still fondly discusses her experiences filming. And after I visited San Diego myself and stayed at the Del Cornado Hotel, I can’t say I blame her. Of course, Pastor Kay was always quick to say that almost all of the scenes she was in which involved Monroe were when the band was performing, which seemed to be far easier on Monroe than the much-documented trouble she had with Wilder on the rest of the film. Before her retirement from the ministry, once a year she would host a talk in the nave or narthex of the church discussing her career in Hollywood as a studio musician and extra. She always would laugh at the fact that she was one of the few Lutheran ministers who can legitimately make claim she was banned in Kansas and censored in Memphis. Since the church she served at was part of the ELCA, there was never any hesitancy to try to gloss over the drag/camp aspect of the film when discussing with the congregation. Appropriately enough, the last acting role she had was in a promotional short for the church where she parodied “the Penguin” from The Blues Brothers (complete with a vintage 50s cop car loaned from the County Sheriff, who was also a fellow member of the congregation). Although I am disappointed that she was not asked to contribute any interviews, then again, neither was Nehemiah Persoff. Although Pastor Kay no longer regularly gives her discussions on her Hollywood days, she still to this day is a wonderful violin player and has made a tradition of always performing “Ava Maria” at the late-night candlelit Christmas Eve services. I have tried to see if any of her many past talks were ever uploaded to Youtube but appears not. I know that at least one was recorded on the church’s old VHS-tape camcorder but as the church is currently going thru a multi-million dollar renovation project, good luck finding anything there these days.