Perchance to Dream

Is it weird that I have a man crush on an old-school animator who passed away nearly four decades ago?  Well, maybe not for me, as I am werid.*  I'll admit it.  Or maybe I'm no weirder than anyone else; but I'll talk about my weirdness...up to a certain point.  Some things are just too weird to admit out loud.  You know; the kind of things that if people knew they'd never look at you quite the same way, like, ever again.  But I think a retro-"para-social"-man crush, although weird; is not quite weird enough for me to be ostracized on some subliminal level.  The man in question is one Mr. Tom Oreb, who worked for Dizzney while the OG Diz was still walking the planet.  There appear to be two pictures of Mr. Oreb in existence (in the public realm, anyways) from around the time of Mary Poppins (1963ish, maybe?).  Here they are:

Actually, maybe these were taken during the making of 101 Dalmatians, so somewhere between 1959 and 1961...which is not super important here.  And Mr. Oreb is somewhat tangential to what I'm going to be writing about.  Huh, can you actually start something on a tangent?  I guess you can!
Now, I guess this is going to deal with dreams and dreaming in some way...let's just go where it takes us, I say; as I'm between Tina Fey Razzings at the moment.  Mr. Oreb fits into this, I suppose, as he was a creator of dreams: movies, that is; which I feel are sort of dream states captured.  Yes, still; but even more so when movies were all about celluloid: capturing light on film and then projecting that light by shining light back through it again.  I think that that is the unceasing miracle of film.  Like, say, you think of the original negative of something like, Gone With the Wind.  Light was bounced off of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, went through a lens and then was burned onto a piece of plastic.  Their shadows are there, on that celluloid.  I don't know, I find it kind of mind blowing.  Anyways, when Mr. Oreb popped into my mind, which he is wont to do every now and again, I recalled that I had done some drawings of him, like five years or so ago.  So I went and found them for this blog:

Five years or so ago.  Ha!  The date on the corner of the first one is 9/06.  I nearly did a spit take.  How?  How!  How could I have done this almost twenty years ago?  Does time really move that fast?  But I quickly saw the silver lining (or silver nitrate): if in my mind this was about five years ago, then nothing in my past is older than five years!  I'm forever five!  Oh, wait.  Isn't that a Tina Fey joint?  Anyways, it made me feel old; but then I looked at the pictures of Mr. Oreb and he's about 50 there.  I'd say he looks pretty great for a 1960 era 50 year-old.  He was a Scorpio.  Do you ever think about things like:  "Gee, what if I'd been born in say, the early 20's and had gone to California and gotten a job at the Disney Studios and met Tom Oreb and he was into dudes and we clicked...if we 'got together, yeah, yeah, yeah'; would it have worked out?  Scorpios are known for their intensity and possessiveness.  Would I, as a Sagittarius have been a good match?  What do you suppose he liked to do "off duty"- wink, wink?" Or, "Wow, I never noticed how many S's the word possessiveness has before!"  But then, how could a man who drew these adorable forest creatures have a dark side?:

Those are from Sleeping Beauty, which I may have mentioned is my all-time favorite artistic undertaking.  Mr. Oreb designed or had a hand in designing the style and look of most of the characters in the film.  He specialized in that sort of Mid-20th-Century-googie-graphic-style, with lot of dark lines and angularity; which is one of my favorite styles as well.  I found a caricature that Mr. Oreb did of himself.  Let's take a look!

Yeah, so, actually,  one of his co-workers did this.  I think Mr. Kimball clearly picked up on Mr. Oreb's masculine energy.  I don't know about you, but I'm aroused! Oh, and southpaw plus.  I think I just realized who Mr. Oreb reminds me of.  A teacher I had back in high school, Mr. Dakin.  One of the kindest men I ever met.  He went on to become the President of the Massachusetts Board of School Superintendents, kind of a teaching celeb of sorts.  And as he's a public figure, I'll post his picture:

Yeah...I may have had a little bit of a crush on Mr. Dakin; but then, who didn't I have a crush on?  Why can't someone like him be President?  Kind, fair, compassionate, possessed of a radiant integrity...(we can only dream...).
But back to movies and movies about dreaming.  And what goes hand-in-hand with dreaming?  Sleeping!  Another of my very favorite past-times!
I was originally going to write about some of my favorite movies.  And I was thinking about it and I thought, well, yeah, sure...I have tons of favorite movies; but what about the ones that are REALLY the favorites.  The ones you're not neccessarily supposed to like and praise; but those tried and true ones that you NEVER-EVER tire of; the ones you can watch over and over, almost on a loop...and still somehow find something new in it each time.  So here's the list:

SLEEPING BEAUTY (DISNEY) 1959
COMA - 1978
LOGAN'S RUN - 1976
TOOTSIE - 1982
MANHATTAN - 1979
INTERIORS - 1978
DRESSED TO KILL - 1980
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS - 1967

Why these films?  Well, I think there's a theme here; and that theme, is SLEEP; and by extention: DREAMING.  So let's break it down, in that order.  We'll look at the original trailers first and then I'll comment:
SLEEPING BEAUTY

The library in my elementary school had a copy of Disney's Fantasyland, and Sleeping Beauty was in there.  I was transfixed by the illustrations.  Here's a sample:

I wasn't really responding to the story so much as to the imagery.  The artwork.  And this artwork is not stills from the finished film.  It seems to be a combination of concept art, altered film frames, background art and original art done for the book.  The raven in the movie never turns pink (or blue), which he really should have.  But he does here.  In any event, my little seven year-old self was responding to the STYLE.  The GRAPHIC DESIGN.  Of course, back then, you couldn't just rent the movie and watch it.  You had to wait for it to be rereleased by Disney.  In the meantime, I bought a View-Master just so I could buy the Sleeping Beauty reel packet.  Not quite the same thing; but it did tide me over until it finally came out again in 1979 and, somewhat embarrassed, I dragged my little brother and my friend Scott to see it.  There was no way I was going to miss it on the Big Screen!
So, I suppose this film opened up some dreams for me: art, cinema, animation, graphic design, mid-century Modernism.  And, come on: the film is literally about a girl who wakes up to her womanhood after having a lovely nap and some sweet dreams.  She even sings a song about it!

All imagery above Copyright: Disney Co.

COMA - 1978

The original draw with this one was my hometown city of Boston, Mass.  The book had been like one of those phenomenal best-sellers that everbody and their uncle read.  The author, Robin Cook lived in Boston; so, if you were from the Boston area, COMA was even more of a thing.  I read it.  It was one of the first "adult" novels I read.  The movie came out a few years later.
So, this one deals with people going to sleep, permanently.  Either through irreversible coma or death.  Apparently, when you're in a coma, it's kind of like being in an ongoing dream state.  And I suppose the scenario of  COMA is truly nightmarish, if you really think about it.  But if you've got the feisty Dr. Susan Wheeler, as essayed by the delightfully dry and scrappy Ms. Genevieve Bujold, in glowing white, no less, fighting for your life; well, no wonder the film lives on.  Particularly for gay men, who seem to universally adore Elizabeeth Ashley's 'Mrs. Emerson," the Evil Nurse who makes a great foil to Ms. Bujold.  Gay men love their Ice-Queen-Uber-Bitch-goddesses, don't they?  Let's see Liz in action.

This movie also had amazing photography courtesy of Victor Kemper, the amazing entertainment instincts of the underrated Michael Crichton (aside: he came into the Polo store once, where I worked: very nice, very tall and very handsome in a 50's kind of way...I'll have to write a blog about that!); and one of--what I think--is the best movie scores ever produced, from Jerry Goldsmith.  Let's take a listen. I particularly love when the tempo starts picking up around the 2.22 mark from the opening:

Yeah, so like, everything about that movie, for me (right down to the font of the logo) checks all my boxes!

LOGAN'S RUN - 1976

Interestingly, this one also has a score by Jerry Goldsmith.  And sleep comes in here as a theme pretty immediately.  Logan is a "Sandman," as in the character who comes while you sleep and puts sand in your eyes.  More officially he's a "DS" officer, which stands for "Death Sleep," wherein the people of the society in the story must face him if they don't willingly report to a "Sleep Shop" ("Carousel" in the movie).  But it's not only about going to sleep: Logan's Run is about waking up to the truth, which is what Logan's journey is all about.  That it's all couched in gorgeously takcy but wonderfully beautiful imagery is a plus.  And he really only truly "runs" once, in the movie:

Can they just remake this already?  Like, what's the problem?  We get ten DUNEs but no Logan?  And please, don't make Logan female.  Logan is a guy.  Jessica is the girl.  There, I said it.

TOOTSIE - 1982

Never saw that before.  That must be a "teaser" trailer.  It doesn't even have the music they actually used in the movie.
How is Tootsie about sleep and dreaming?  Well, I suppose that Michaeel Dorsey has always dreamed about the perfect girl but was too dumb to figure out that being a macho shithead was not the way to find her.  When he becomes "Dorothy Michaels" he wakes up to a whole new way of thinking.  Even the movie's signature songs, speaks (or sings) to this:

MANHATTAN - 1979

Okay, we all know the problems with this movie.  But maybe the biggest problem is the best part of it.  Mariel Hemingway as "Tracy."

If the "adults" in the film are trying to put themselves to sleep, in a way, by diverting themselves with trivial matters, then Tracy is the one who is awake and seeing things clearly.

For me, this movie sort of sums up everything I wanted to be at around the age of 14, when Manhattan came out. (except maybe sleeping with Woody Allen (sleeping with an older man would not have been out of the question (just saying); I didn't; but that doesn't mean I didn't want to...).

INTERIORS - 1978

Woody Allen again.  This movie should be Uber-Camp; and in some ways it is; but in most ways it's not.  Probably because of the unassailable acting from everyone involved.  I guess at it's core, it's about a family waking up to their own sonambulance, only when their narcissist mother goes to sleep.

DRESSED TO KILL - 1980

Another movie fraught with sociological problems and misguided thinking, yes; but an enthralling entertainment from start to finish.  The entire thing plays like a dream.  Much of it set at night.  The Angie Dickinson character is pretty much a sex addict who likes to "cruise."  Cruising is not, I think, something that most women would do; that is, like a gay man might.  Back around this time you could find numerous places in a big city to wander around looking for sex; and yes, it could become addictive.  You might find yourself wandering through a park, engulfed in an erotic fugue only to emerge hours later; almost a kind of "missing time."  I think this movie utterly captures that feeling.  The famous museum scene; but also, well, nearly every scene in the movie has this dreamy quality:

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS - 1967

So, this movie is like literally (and I know I overuse that word) about people taking sleeping pills.  One woman takes them and goes to sleep forever.  One takes them because she's too selfish to quit.  And the third takes them, in a way, so that she can wake up from them.  One of the best scenes in the movie, I think, is also one of it's campiest.  Starts at the 40 second mark:

This scene is so over the top melodramatic, it crosses into comedy...but then (and this is what I love about "camp") it comes full circle back to being emotionally moving; when she throws the pill bottle against the wall.  She's had an epiphany; a literal waking up.  Then she puts on a mink and puts her hair up and it gets campy again.
So, that's the roster of the "go-to" favs for me.
But back to Mr. Oreb and Sleeping Beauty, again.  In what little concrete I can find about his life, I came across this interesting monograph:

What really caught my eye in it, was this paragraph:

I don't think you could find a stronger corollary than alcoholism/sleep. 
There are a lot of non-Disney sketches floating around out there by Mr. Oreb, that seem to have been done on animation paper. So, at work. A lot of self-caricatures.  And it's very interesting to me what you can glean about him from these drawings.  It seems pretty clear he was into the ladies (but who knows, maybe he experimented "in college" (I mean, he was a left-handed artsy type):

And he was maybe a bit of a layabout...(a man after my own heart!):

I think it's pretty clear, like most artists, he knew exactly how attractive or not, he was (and it was NOT, not!):

Here's one he did that might or might not be him...and if it isn't, WHO IS IT!??!

OMG...I'm getting jealous over a deceased, straight man's drawing!  But my he was yar!:

Maybe there was more going on than meets the eye.  Why did he drink so much?  He was handsome, talented, successful, accomplished, employed at a prestigious company.  Ya gotta wonder.  What were those other "personal problems"?
He lived to be 74.  Not young...but not particularly old. 
I wish I could've known yah, but I wasn't even really born yet. But wherever you are now Tom, I hope you're still dreaming...

CFR   2/24/25

*"Werid" is a very weerd way to spell "weird."  But why isn't it "wierd"; you know, 'cuz of "i, before e..."?