And Hail The Old Years, Lads and Lasses Too

"That's the way the old year passes (fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!)…Hail the new ye lads and lasses." And yet , my eyes and heart turn toward yesteryear, with the considerable encouragement of a mini-marathon on cable t.v. this New Year's Eve of Rock 'n Roll exploitation films of the late '50s. One is entitled "Go, Johnny Go!" It was released in 1959 and it starred Jimmy Clanton and Sandy Stewart.  Clanton was a twenty year old heartthrob from New Orleans, a dimpled, jelly rolled and blonde haired Adonis with soaring vocals and just the right plaintive sob in his instrument, sure to cause coming-of-age teen gals to swoon and spend on his vinyl discs, both in reel and real life. His character's love interest is an old friend and a career minded singer as well, portrayed by Miss Stewart. I only had eyes for her.  She epitomized what society's merchants of entertainment envisioned were its audiences' hopes, dreams and aspirations of and for a young American woman.  She was kind, sweeet, breezy, properly if conditionally platonic, with an indomitable upbeatness and sophisticated sense of humor that was a perfect match for her glorious smile and big, ever so pretty eyes.  Where is Miss Stewart today?  Common sense and mathematics tell us that she would be an old woman now. Happily, cyberspace sources report that she is still with us.  Her singing career was short lived and she chose a traditional path of marriage and children within five years of this film's release. There is not much more to remark upon, except to say that her smile seems to defy time and the mortality that presses down upon us and that some of us are made more mindful of as another year slips away.  Sandy, not unlike Miss Derrington (see blog entry of today also), soothes us in ways sometimes unfathomable as we begin no longer think of "angel" as a worn out term of endearment or a casual kind of "thank you" for a kindness.