Saturday, June 16, 2007

What A Scoop!

Tad Lincoln in James Prideaux's The Last of Mrs. Lincoln with Julie Harris, at the Kennedy Center Opera House and the ANTA Theater on Broadway (1972-3)
I do believe I missed my calling as a journalist. Of course, this one was thrown into my lap by the subject himself. Once I had the first bit of information, all it took was a little stalking on the internet to find the picture above.

Here I was thinking, "What on earth will be the subject of my next post? I have nothing. Is my life as a blogger finished, done?" I wasn't in the mood to post about the feast day of Joseph Butler, the sermon-writer and refuter of Deism. We had so many feast days this week, that I was worn out with dealing with saints.

Then I find this in my comments:
In the shameless past-self-promotion vein... in my former life as an actor I performed ages ago (1972) before our nearest thing to royalty: Pat Nixon and Julie Eisenhower, who sat in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center opera house in DC. The play, in its pre-Broadway run, was about another First Lady: The Last of Mrs. Lincoln, with Julie Harris in the titular role. I was Tad Lincoln, the youngest surviving son, who died towards the end of act one. In any case, after the performance, Miss Harris was whisked away by the Secret Service to meet the "royalty" and had her picture taken with them (they both towered over her). When the framed photo arrived some weeks later at the theater in NY, I happened to be present as Julie unwrapped it. She smiled and said, "This will prove to my mother that I've finally made it!"
Thanks for evoking these off-topic memories, and I hope you don't mind the sharing... and glad to hear the other Julie is perhaps having a change of heart about the direction taken by the GOP -- the party of Lincoln!
My friends, the picture is of Tobias Haller, with none other than the great actress, Julie Harris, Yes, the Tobias whom many of us know and love, exercising another of his many gifts. As I told him one day in the comments at his blog, In A Godward Direction, God had chosen to give him an unfair share of gifts. He's a parish priest, a theologian, an artist, a poet, a musician and composer of music, and, his learning notwithstanding, he preaches lovely, accessible sermons. And he's nice to old ladies. I'm sure I'm leaving out a gift or two.

Now we learn that in another life, Tobias was an actor and got to associate with celebrities. It's just too much. Life is surely not fair. However, Jesus had no patience with his followers who complained about the lack of fairness. Remember the parables of the prodigal son and the laborers in the vineyard?

Also, as I said when I complained to him about unfairness, Tobias gives his gifts freely, which is the very reason that God gives each of us gifts.

Tobias, I didn't ask you about this first, because I wanted to surprise you, or shock you, or something. If you don't like it, I will take it down

28 comments:

  1. My dear, I must call for my salts or at least my fan.... pardon my blushes.
    It is sweet of you to look into my scrapbook from earlier days; even if it all grew out of comments on the state of the Republican party!

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  2. Tobias, what a delight. You were a heartthrob! And the reminiscence about working with the magnificent Julie Harris really touched me. I saw her in 'The Belle of Amherst' on Broadway back in the seventies and it left an indelible impression.

    Thanks for this diversion from politics, war, schism, and other depressing topics.

    Now lie back on your fainting couch, honey, and let us fan you while your adoring public look on admiringly. . .

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  3. Oh geez, and he was gorgeous too. Tobias, Mimi is right, is there no end to these gifts? I know, Soli Deo Gloria! :-)

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  4. I can only say one thing....

    "What a Hottie!"

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  5. Hey, Harry Potter has nothing on Tobias.

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  6. Well now, Tobias, here's proof positive that you've got a virtual fan club for your other life.

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  7. Mercy, mercy, mercy me!

    Brother Tobias, I do believe you were once a stone cold fox!

    If we're both at GC 2009, I'll buy you a drink and you can regale me with stories of your days with Julie.

    Mercy, mercy, mercy me!

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  8. Tobias, you are outed as a delight, a heartthrob, gorgeous, a hottie, better than Harry Potter, wow, and a stone cold fox.

    You owe me, my friend. Big time.

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  9. What a service you've rendered, Grandmère!

    But, my friends, what is this "were a heartthrob" and "was gorgeous"? You know good and well that Brother Tobias is still the Hunk of the Episcopal Church! With all this, plus his astute blogging and his fine preaching, I'm pretty sure that he could and should be an Instrument of Unity in the WWAC.

    BTW ... how come all the comments so far have come from women -- and at least a couple of us lesbians?

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  10. Yeah, where ARE the boys??

    This attention from the women in all our diversity could be a sign of how fine an instrument of unity Tobias is ;-). But we all knew about his catholicity, didn't we?

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  11. I am so not surprised!

    (((Tobias)))

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  12. Lisa, sad to say, some of us have not met Br. Tobias or seen a more recent likeness of him, hence (at least in my case) the use of the past tense (which was also intended to avoid embarrassing the already blushing gentleman). I have no doubt, however, that he would be a most suitable Instrument of Unity for our Communion.

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  13. Oooo, Br. Tobias: sweet!

    And, Grandmere, the charm of your post is sufficient to any need likely to arise, nor are you ever likely to lack defenders.

    Boys? Do we know any?

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  14. Well, now that the women have shown their true colors, maybe the boys will have a chance to express their admiration as well! All I can say is I'm delighted that Mimi has joined the eye candy bandwagon...

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  15. Enter the boys - finally - late to the party.

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  16. We were attempting to be polite out of respect of your sensitive guest of honor.

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  17. What I should have said: "Enter the boys stage left - missed cue."

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  18. We can't help being male; God made us this way.

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  19. Ed, yes. And the devil made you do it anyway, right?

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  20. No, no, it wasn't the devil, it was that lavender-colored spritzer at the hairdresser's when he was a little boy.

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  21. It was the nickel for the coke machine my Grannie gave me.

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  22. The spritzer bottle, the nickel - temptation is everywhere. What were we talking about? I've lost the subject of the conversation.

    Oh, right. Where the boys are, or were.

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  23. Mary Clara, I haven't met him either. But until very recently, he had a photograph of himself on his site ... and -- trust this dyke -- he is a brooding, intense, handsome "hottie."

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  24. After this series of encomiums, if Tobias gets the miter, it's going to have to be three sizes larger.

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  25. Mimi said "encomiums" - sexay word of the day award!

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  26. Eileen, is it sexy? Well, I never knew.

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  27. My oh my. I see I must get around to updating my "scrapbook" of theatrical memorabilia -- there's a whole decade of other intriguing stuff.
    I'm very flatter'd by all the kind words and attributions of foxiness, hunkitude, and Potterism -- and those years on the boards were fun, if a bit unnerving at times.
    I'm doing my level best to keep the hat size down; and I have the daily reminder, as Jane R noted, of that motto from J.S.Bach: soli Deo gloria.

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