Late comers

A few replies to requests for the year-end wrap (see Christmas Soundtrack) were received after deadline. Among them were those from Arlene Rosenstein, Samantha Stenzel, Doug Gallowayand Mel Tobias. The photo that Doug sent us of his wife and himself at the Musso & Frank restaurant in L.A. is posted below.

Here are the blurbs received from Sam and Mel:

SAMANTHA STENZEL (Chicago)

Happy New Year, So sorry I missed seeing this until now. I will look at the website soon. I have not been doing tours recently (editing and writing) but am putting together a tour for Cuba in March. I am not online very often since I moved to another apartment in my house. I will be soon.Lots of cheer, health and happiness in 2012!

MEL TOBIAS (Vancouver)

Still happily recovering from a fabulous New York trip. Saw 7 shows in 8 days plus culinary delights and shopping for books at the Strand. I am not much into computer and e-mail.

At the moment I am editor of a lifestyle magazine and columnist to a Manila newspaper and own a collectible store (store is for baby boomers with money and lots of memories). In other words, I am selling nostalgia and enjoying real interaction, not the Facebook variety.

I have fond memories of you (Peter) and of Gene Moskowitz, who “discovered” me in Hong Kong.

end

Doug Galloway celebrates

Doug Galloway just sent us this recent photo of him celebrating his wife’s birthday at the Musso & Frank restaurant in Hollywood. Doug has changed his e-mail address, which is why we couldn’t include him in the year-end roundup.

dgalloway-bday

Christmas soundtrack

Madrid, December 22, 2011

Heading into the Yuletide season, we figured it would be nice to touch base with the muggs all over the world. A good many have responded (some only after a bit of nudging) and we here post their replies, in the order that they were received.

We wish one and all Happy Holidays and especially good health in the coming year.

Ian Watkins & Peter Besas
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The missing

Should anyone know the whereabouts or have contacts for any of the following, please let me know since I get my e-mails to all of them bounced.

BROWN, Les
BUTLER, Bob
COHN, Larry
DAWES, Amy
DESIMIO, John
GALLOWAY, Doug
JENSEN, Elizabeth
KING, Bob
LIEB, Rebecca
PEARCE, Jacqueline
POLLACK, Dale
ROSOVSKY, Paul
SEMINARA, Vito
YERKOVICH, Sasha
YOUNG, Deborah

Thankee,

Peter

E-mail: pbesas@hotmail.com

NOTE: On December 22, 2011 we’ll be posting a year’s end survey of all the muggs we’ve been able to contact and that have replied to our query in which each gives a short run-down of his or her current activities, albeit geriatric ones.

Gerald Pratley, long-time Canadian stringer, dies in Ontario

pratley2

Simesite has learned from the son-in-law of longtime Canadian stringer for Variety in Canada of the death of Gerald Pratley, who passed away in a hospital in Belleville, Ontario, on March 14 at age 87.

The last time most of us saw Pratley was at the party thrown in Sardi’s restaurant in New York in 2005 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Variety by Sime Silverman, an event hosted by Sime’s grandson Syd Silverman, his wife and children. Pratley was one of those contributed news stories in Canada back in the 1970s and filed copy under the aegis of Toronto bureau chief, the late Sid Adilman. He was a regular at many of the yearly Variety receptions thrown by Syd during the Cannes Film Festival.

Pratley’s death has been well covered by the Canadian news media. We here quote the story posted on the Web by Northernstars.ca, the Canadian Movie Database. The photo is courtesy of former Variety stringer Antonia Zerbisias.

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