This blog covers all aspects of the rich history of rowing, as a sport, culture phenomena, a life style, and a necessary element to keep your wit and stay sane.
Photograph: Werner Schmidt
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tony Curtis: The Viking And Playboy
The newspapers and media report today that American actor Tony Curtis died yesterday, 85 years old.
He was in many memorable movies, but here at HTBS, Curtis will be especially remembered for two roles, the American playboy Danny Wilde in the TV-series The Persuaders (1971) and Erik in The Vikings (1958). In The Persuaders Curtis played against British actor Roger Moore, who was the British playboy Lord Brett Sinclair. The show was not successful in the USA, but very popular in some European countries, among them, Sweden. Although, Wilde and Sinclair did not row in the series, every episode began with a ‘presentation’ of the characters Wilde and Sinclair. The latter, being an aristocrat, of course rowed in a Blue Boat at Oxford, which the viewers quickly see flashing by. To watch the opening, click here.
The Vikings, with Curtis and Kirk Douglas, is maybe not the best of Viking movies, but they do row in this film. My old coach, Tore Persson, at my rowing club in Malmö was an extra in this movie which was filmed in Norway. To read an article I wrote about Persson and The Vikings, please click here. To watch the first minutes of the movie, click below,
‘Hear the Boat Sing’ (HTBS) was founded in 2009 by Göran R Buckhorn, a Swede living in Connecticut, a magazine editor, culture scribe and a rowing historian. In 1990, Göran co-founded the Swedish rowing magazine, “Svensk Rodd”, for which he is now a contributing editor. He has written numerous articles on rowing, and is one of the Directors of Friends of Rowing History and a member of BARJ, the British Association of Rowing Journalists. Regular contributors to HTBS are: rowing historians Tim Koch and Greg Denieffe, both in England; Hélène Rémond, France; and Philip Kuepper, Connecticut. Besides writing articles on The Boat Race, the Henley Royal Regatta, the Wingfield Sculls, and the Doggett’s Coat and Badge Race, Tim has made some rowing documentaries. He is also a Director of the Friends of Rowing History and a member of BARJ. Greg is an Irishman who specializes on Irish rowing. Some of his finest pieces are on HTBS. Hélène, who wrote her thesis on British rowing, has covered The Boat Race and the Henley Regatta for French papers and HTBS, also shooting beautiful photos for this blog. Philip’s poems on rowing have topics about everything between the daily life and the divine.
He was in many memorable movies, but here at HTBS, Curtis will be especially remembered for two roles, the American playboy Danny Wilde in the TV-series The Persuaders (1971) and Erik in The Vikings (1958). In The Persuaders Curtis played against British actor Roger Moore, who was the British playboy Lord Brett Sinclair. The show was not successful in the USA, but very popular in some European countries, among them, Sweden. Although, Wilde and Sinclair did not row in the series, every episode began with a ‘presentation’ of the characters Wilde and Sinclair. The latter, being an aristocrat, of course rowed in a Blue Boat at Oxford, which the viewers quickly see flashing by. To watch the opening, click here.
The Vikings, with Curtis and Kirk Douglas, is maybe not the best of Viking movies, but they do row in this film. My old coach, Tore Persson, at my rowing club in Malmö was an extra in this movie which was filmed in Norway. To read an article I wrote about Persson and The Vikings, please click here. To watch the first minutes of the movie, click below,
Love it. Nothing like pure organic cornball washed down with hokum for breakfast.
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