My Halloween tradition

Starting off, if this goddamn computer doesn't stop fucking with me, I'll scream. Ok, on with business.

Just a few days until I watch The Exorcist TVYNS (2000). It pains me greatly to have never seen the original 1973 theatrical release. I beg of Warner Brothers to re release it. Please. I'll buy it. Promise. What about a Boxing day event...? 34th anniversary spectacular. I can dream.

I've watched TVYNS every Halloween for the last 2 years. (Only 2 years??? It feels like that film has been with me my whole life.) This year will make it 3. I've seen it about 11 times. I know it doesn't seem like much to some; may seem like a lot to others. It's all relative. It's the most times I've seen a film. I never tire of it. I'll write something here after I watch for the 12th time. It won't be a full review, just what comes to me. Cross your fingers.

And here I draw a blank. How ridiculous I feel to get writer's block on a blog.

UPDATE: I see I didn't write antything about Exorcist like I said I would... But cool things are coming up for this site. Keep checking back!

Very huge high quality pics from Justin

Miller’s Tale article

Filmmaker, vocalist earn community support through F. Lammot Belin Scholarship
Christopher J. Hughes Abington Journal Reporter

WAVERLY – In a field full of talented individuals, artists regularly find themselves spending time not only producing their works but seeking ways to finance them.

• Actor Martin Sheen, left, talks with Scranton native Rebecca Marshall Ferris about Jason Miller in Santa Monica in May 2007. Sheen was an interview subject for her documentary “Miller’s Tale.”PHOTO COURTESY REBECCA MARSHALL FERRIS
  

Thanks to the F. Lammot Belin Arts Scholarship, distributed annually since 1964 by the Waverly Community House, two artists with ties to the area are receiving a little help. Filmmaker Rebecca Marshall Ferris and Marywood University student �lan Royster have been named the 2007 F. Lammot Belin Traditional and Student Arts Scholarship winners, respectively.

Raised in Ocean City, MD, Royster said, “I was born to perform. I know it.” She began private study at age 12 through Catholic University and the Curtis Institute of Music. She is a former regional champion in the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition and has been featured on National Public Radio and at Boston’s Jordan Hall.

She recently transferred to Marywood University, having started her baccalaureate studies in vocal performance for opera at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, MD. “My mom (Maria Womer) is originally from Scranton, and she was the one who told me about Marywood,” Royster said. “I’m performing right now as a soprano. I have a very full voice according to my teachers. It’s not small by any means.”

Royster said she was told of her scholarship award the same day performed for the Selection Committee. “I had basically just gotten back from a break when they told me. I was just elated,” she said.

Set to graduate from Marywood in May of 2008, Royster said the $10,000 grant will help pay for her education and fund her travels to workshops and competitions. After graduation, she said she plans to continue her studies privately before beginning to perform.

“My dream has always been to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan. That would be phenomenal,” she said. “Being a performer is a tough road to go down, but I’m ready for it.”

Scranton native Marshall Ferris, who now resides in New York City, said she splits her time between the Big Apple and the Electric City, completing work on her project, “Miller’s Tale.” The project is a documentary on the life and cultural impact of Scranton playwright Jason Miller.

She admits that documentary work wasn’t her initial dream. As a student at the School of Visual Arts, she said she was drawn to fiction films and screenwriting. While working on a script about a jazz musician, she was introduced to legendary trumpet player Jonah Jones.

“We became really good friends, and his stories were just captivating,” Marshall Ferris said. The tales produced the documentary “Jonah and the Wail,” which was broadcast on the Independent Film Channel and earned her the 1999 F. Lammot Belin Scholarship.

“Once I got into documentaries, I couldn’t get out,” she said. “For me right now, I’m in love with dealing with real people and telling their stories.”

She was drawn to the idea of creating “Miller’s Tale” through her work and knowledge of his impact on the area. Miller acted in her first student film, she said. “Even after he’s gone, people are still talking about him. He’s still very much alive in this community,” Marshall Ferris said.

Just as her own film aspirations changed, Marshall Ferris said “Miller’s Tale” began as the story of a bust of the playwright to be created by actor Paul Sorvino. As more stories about him came through, the film took on a life of its own. “Not everyone in Scranton loves Jason, so this is a very honest piece,” she said.

It can be difficult to raise funds for a project, especially films, Marshall Ferris said. “Financial support is huge, but the biggest benefit is knowing that the community is behind you,” she said. “My life now is finding a way to support my art, and grant funding is crucial to documentary work.”

The $10,000 grant could buy her a piece of Miller’s history in film. One minute of archival footage of “The Exorcist” from Warner Bros. Entertainment would cost $10,000. “You can’t make the film without that footage,” Marshall Ferris said.

Upon completion, “Miller’s Tale” is scheduled to be broadcast nationally on PBS in the fall of 2008.

Marshall Ferris has also started Cottage Films, an independent, non-fiction film company, from her home office with fellow Scranton native Stephen Scalese and her husband, Jason Ferris, behind the cameras.

Want to go?

What: F. Lammot Belin Scholarship reception

When: Friday, Oct. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Waverly Community House, 1115 N. Abington Rd., Waverly

Info: Reception is free to the public. Event includes performance by Arts Scholarship recipient �lan Royster and sneak preview of Scholarship recipient Rebecca Marshall Ferris’ documentary “Miller’s Tale.”

Want to apply?

Application deadline for 2008 is December 15, 2007. Registration fee is $15. Award increased to $15,000 for 2008 grant cycle. For details, call 586-8191, ext. 2, or visit www.waverlycomm.org.

What'd I tell ya?!

I knew I had a few more pics coming to me, but I didn't expect anything as good as this. RAH RAH, Justin!

That Championship Season photo

Hold tight all. More pics are coming. Here is one from That Championship Season. I can't be sure if he is actually in this photo (if so, I'm going with the man facing away.) but it's a good one.

Jason Miller, Playwright and Actor, Dies at 62

By ROBIN POGREBIN

Published: May 15, 2001

Jason Miller, the playwright and actor who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for ''That Championship Season,'' died on Sunday in Scranton, Pa. He was 62 and lived in Scranton.

The cause was a heart attack, said Joseph Brennan, the Lackawanna County coroner.

Mr. Miller also won a Tony Award for ''That Championship Season'' and in the same year was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Father Damien Karras in the horror movie ''The Exorcist.''

''That Championship Season,'' about a reunion of members of a winning basketball team with their coach, set in the Lackawanna Valley, was based on Mr. Miller's experience as a member of the St. Patrick's High School basketball team in the 1950's. The play, directed by A. J. Antoon, who also won a Tony Award for his work, originated at Joseph Papp's Public Theater in 1972 and then moved to the Booth on Broadway. The cast included Charles Durning and Paul Sorvino, who was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance.

Writing in The New York Times, Walter Kerr called ''That Championship Season'' ''rock solid, bitterly funny, painfully shaming.'' Mr. Miller adapted the play into a film, which he also directed. Released in 1982, it featured Robert Mitchum as the coach, Bruce Dern as the mayor and Stacy Keach, Martin Sheen and Mr. Sorvino as members of the team. The play was revived in 1999 at the Second Stage Theater.

Born in Long Island City, Queens, Mr. Miller grew up in Scranton and graduated from St. Patrick's and the Jesuit-run University of Scranton, where he studied English and philosophy, acted and won first prize in the Jesuit Eastern Play Contest. According to The Associated Press, Mr. Miller later earned a master's degree from Catholic University in Washington.

But in a 1974 interview in The Times, Mr. Miller said he was asked to leave the speech and drama department at Catholic University ''for never attending classes, never taking tests and never getting the girls back to their dormitory by 10 o'clock.''

At Catholic University, Mr. Miller met his wife, Linda, Jackie Gleason's daughter, with whom he had three children. Mr. Miller had a fourth child with a girlfriend, Susan Bernard.

To earn money, Mr. Miller worked as a welfare investigator, waiter, truck driver and messenger boy. Along the way he wrote plays, among them ''The Circus Lady,'' ''Perfect Son'' and ''Lou Gehrig Did Not Die of Cancer.'' One of them, ''Nobody Hears a Broken Drum,'' was produced off Broadway in 1970.

Just weeks before ''That Championship Season'' opened in May 1972 at the Public Theater, Mr. Miller was drawing unemployment checks. Mr. Papp knew Mr. Miller from his performance in ''Subject to Fits,'' a Public Theater production.

After ''That Championship Season,'' Mr. Miller went on to act in other projects, including ''The Nickel Ride,'' a 1973 film, and ''The Dain Curse,'' a 1978 CBS mini-series based on the Dashiell Hammett novel. But he remained best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play and for his role in ''The Exorcist'' as a priest battling a young girl's demons.

Mr. Miller and his family eventually moved from Queens to New Jersey. In the 1974 Times interview, Mr. Miller said he could never leave the New York area for long. ''When I was growing up in Scranton, Pa., New York was the capital of my imagination, the El Dorado of my mind,'' he said. ''As soon as I was able, I started visiting whenever I could, coming with a little money and selling my blood on Delancey Street for a few dollars more, to sit and drink in the Cedar Bar, hoping that Jackson Pollock, Allen Ginsberg or Norman Mailer would drop in.''

''And now that I've lived there and know all the criticisms, I still have a great affection for the city,'' he continued. ''Its rhythm and vitality suit me. I need this element of risk for survival since perhaps it is the city's dangers that force me to creativity. The point is, I went to New York to do something. And I did it.''

Most recently, Mr. Miller was artistic director of the Scranton Public Theater and its summer theater festival. He was to play Oscar Madison in the theater's forthcoming production of ''The Odd Couple.''

According to the Associated Press, Mr. Miller is survived by three sons: Jason Patric, the actor, and Joshua Miller, both of Los Angeles; and Jordan Miller of New York City. He is also survived by a daughter, Jennifer Miller of Los Angeles.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Miller described his own epitaph last year in an interview with Electric City, a free entertainment weekly, for the Pennsylvania Film Festival: ''On my tombstone I'll put, 'It's all a paper moon.' All the philosophies and all the -isms and all the religions are contained in that. . . . I'd prefer that when I take the bus to another zone, I go further. I'm not interested in coming back.''

Correction: May 16, 2001, Wednesday An obituary of the playwright and actor Jason Miller yesterday referred incompletely to his marriage to Linda Gleason, with whom he had three children. The couple were later divorced.

The New York Times

John Anthony Miller ~ The Stone Step (1969)

A copy of The Stone Step poetry book is for sale. I wanted this since I knew it existed. I can't afford it. I'm miserable as of now. If anyone buys or has a copy, please contact me here. Only 300 copies?! What is wrong with the world?!

Go Irish! The Purgatory Diaries Of Jason Miller

For all those who knew and loved the late great Jason Miller, you must catch the final show of "Go Irish! The Purgatory Diaries of Jason Miller" at TNT, Sunday, 9/16, at 3:00 p.m.. This play is beautifully written by Tom Flannery and superbly acted by Bob Hughes. Hopefully, there will be many more showings of this play, but for now you have one last chance to catch it tomorrow :)

Thanks to Kelly Trygar for the notice! I'm sorry for not mentioning this earlier. All my luck to Tom Flannery, Rodger Jacobs and Bob Hughes!

TICKET INFO HERE

Jason on Karras from Peter Travers' The Story Behind The Exorcist

Sofi's wonderful work again. Thank you!!!

I think Father Karras is a man whose faith is beginning to crumble. He has a great deal of guilt concerning the circumstances of his mother's death since he chose to be a priest instead of supporting his family. I think he is finally on the edge of despair. His foundation is no longer there, the Church has changed. The most difficult part about playing this character, that I can see now, is to remember that he is a human being first and a priest second. You can always play the priest, but it is finding that particular human being who happens to be the priest that is important. Otherwise, you have The Bells of St. Mary's. It's too easy to play priests as perfect. You have to see beyond their broad outlines and find the less appealing qualities that provide humanity.

Excerpt from Peter Travers' The Story Behind the Exorcist

Many thanks to Sofi for taking the time to type this out for me! Hugs and love to you!

According to Blatty, the signing of Jason Miller, the Pulitzer Prize- winning playwright, for the role of Father Karras, was another stumble discovery. "We were kicking around names like Gene Hackman. Billy would say - "Well, you're an idiot and too close to your own work!" I also thought Marlon Brando would be perfect, but Billy resisted him from the very beginning. After I saw The Godfather, I knew that Billy was right. We needed a face that hadn't been seen before. Still, every priest thinks he is Karras, and every actor thinks he can play him." Where Jason Miller was concerned , however, Billy Friedkin seemed more than 100 percent: "This guy is going to explode on film! He has one of the strongest screen presences since Garfield, Clift, and James Dean. He also has all the training and background. I would have to send another actor to Catholic school for at least a year for indoctrination. Jason went to Catholic University and studied with the Jesuits. He knows all the ritual work for the part. I'll tell yo, everyone in Hollywood wanted to name him. Instinctively, I felt it had to be an unknown. I didn't want a guy whose personal life would precede the role. So I started looking for unknowns. I would look at movies on TV, go to off-Broadway plays. I would talk to anyone who was recommended to me. While I was in New York conducting this search, I went by accident to see That Championship Season, and the fellow I was with and his wife knew Jason Miller. They said he was a pretty good actor as well as a playwright, and that he was raised a Catholic. That intrigued me, so I asked the casting director to get hold of him. He came to see me at the Sherry Netherland." Billy paused to show a look of disgust before continuing. "It was a terrible meeting! I was sick and had all these vitamin pills around, and I think he was stoned. I looked at him and thought he was a junkie. He came in, saw all the pills, and must have thought I was some kind of pill freak. We had a very tense meeting and I was not all that impressed with him. I didn't even like him much, but I couldn't find anyone else. He kept gnawing away at my consciousness. So I spoke to him again, gave him the script, and we had a very intelligent discussion. I thought OK, I'll shoot a test of the guy just cause I have nothing better to do. He shot a beautiful scene with Ellen in Hollywood, and that's how he got the part. It was almost like it was meant to happen."

Exorcist III: Legion French lobby cards

Ryan has waited an excruciatingly long few weeks for these gems. I'll add the ones with Jason to the gallery soon. Cheers, mate!

Childhood photo

Your first memories

It would be great to hear from you about your first encounter. Be it through a movie screen, stage or in person. Open invite, don't be shy. Justin, you're welcome to post yours as contributer.

New co-blogger, Justin

I'm happy to announce that the infamous Justin is my new co-blogger. Dunno if he'll post much, but I'm grateful for the help. He'll be in charge when I'm unavailable. What with a death in the family and a long-term illness, I'm touched by the support. Thanks to all. You Keep my chin up.

Words from Michael Blatty

Hi. I just stumbled upon this site while looking up something unrelated. I am the eldest son of William Peter Blatty, and I spent some time in the company of Jason Miller while he was with my dad on the set of "The Exorcist" (I was an undergrad at Georgetown U. at the time.) Thought I would share my impressions of him in brief.
First, I think he was a terrific actor and perfect in the role of Karras. (If you haven't seen him in the made for tv film about F. Scott Fitzgerald you have missed another great performance.) I know that my dad had Richard Burton and then Stacey Keach in mind initially, but no one could have been better or more haunted in the role than Mr. Miller.
When I first met him (at lunch with my dad in The Tombs pub in Geogetown) he was in his priest's garb from the film and I thought he was one of the actual priests advising my dad about exorcisms, etc. His language was pretty salty (to say the least), and afterwards I remarked to my dad, "Gee, I never heard a Catholic priest talk that way before!" My dad looked at me, incredulous, and said, "That's Jason Miller, the actor! He's not a priest!" Embarassing. Several weeks later, in New York City, I was with my dad and Mr. Miller at Elaine's where he absolutely mesmerized me with his brilliant conversation even though it was obvious that he had been drinking more than he should. Sometime later I tried to find a copy of his play, "That Championship Season," but none of my local bookstores carried it. When I next saw him, at my dad's house at Malibu Beach, I asked him rather ungraciously if he would send me a copy since I couldn't find it anywhere (not particularly sensitive of me, but he inspired bluntness of speech.) I gave him my address but didn't really expect him to follow through, as busy a man as he then was. A week later a package arrived at my house. It was a first edition of his play in hardback, inscribed to me:
"Michael! Keep the faith!
Jason Miller, S.J."
That's the sort of considerate person he was.
I never saw him in the flesh again, but when I saw him in my dad's film "Exorcist 3" I felt sad because he looked so run down. Then years later, I saw that he had died. I am glad that he will be preserved forever on film for future generatons and that so many of his friends in Scranton and elsewhere will keep the memory of such a beautiful human being alive.
Thanks for letting me share these brief memories with you on these pages.