Dear Old Dad (Part 1) by Richard Sale

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2015/05/the-first-impression-of-my-father-that-i-can-still-vividly-recall-occurred-when-i-was-a-little-boy-living-with-my-sister-and.html

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Comments

[BabelFish]

My goodness, Richard, what a piece of time travel that was!! Pat, thank you for posting it on SST.

Range Rider! I never thought I would see a reference to that again. Ditto Yancey Derringer! Range Rider, Captain Midnight and the Cisco Kid where Saturday mornings before we had the first of the cartoons. The small world kicks in to know about Richard's connection with Yancey Derringer!

Many thanks, Richard, for giving of yourself in this piece.

[Richard Sale]

It's a pleasure. Thank you for taking time to read it.

Richard Sale

[LeaNder]

i loved it too Richard, some things will haunt us all our life, especially if for whatever reason some new information becomes available that somehow trigger them.

I was a bit puzzled, but also fascinated in hindsight by the sentence in which you connect the "no drugs = meaning no medicine" with milk. I struggled a bit at that point and was quite relieved about the following sentence.

[Jack Nix]

Mr. Sale: It is a pleasure to read your work. The honesty and accuracy you bring to your essays inspires me in my own writings. It takes courage to view those so close without the prism of sentimentality.

I very much look forward to reading more of your work. Perhaps a book is in the future?

[The Twisted Genius]

Richard,

This is the most vivid portrait of the Hollywood celebrity scene I have ever read. I don't know how you do it, but your stark honesty and directness has a way of drilling into my mind. Each piece brings an epiphany of deep understanding. And please excuse my gushing praise. You certainly don't strike me as a man who needs it or cares for it. This was just a damned good read.

[Richard Sale]

Well, you are very generous with your praise, and it encourage me. I simply want to bear witness. My purpose is not to glorify myself, but to write truthfully about what I have seen.

I am working on a book.

Again, thanks

Richard Sale

[Richard Sale]

You are generous to praise my writing. I am obsessed with "directness and stark honesty," which you said so well.

I have had an interesting life, and I am grateful for living every day.

Richard

[optimax]

Richard, Thank you for sharing your interesting life with us.

I see your father wrote the screenplay for the original film Suddenly, starring Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden. It's a tightly written and suspencefull thriller that I consider a classic. For those who haven't seen it, it's open domain and on the internet for free. Skip the remake. In fact, why do they remake classics that fall short of the original? The Cohen brothers' True Grit is the exception in that it is better than the John Wayne version.

[Richard Sale]

Yes, I think it is one of my father's best scripts. The FBI told me that Lee Harvey Oswald often viewed it, the last time before the Kennedy assassination.

I cannot prove this accurate, but it did come from the feds.

Richard Sale

[optimax]

Richard, Thank you for your response. I read that the theme for Condon's book The Manchurian Candidate was stolen from Suddenly. TMC's release was delayed because of Kennedy's assassination. Oswald would have either had a 16mm copy of the movie or viewed it at a movie theater. The story about the FBI is interesting.

[Richard Sale]

It was two agents in Hawaii who told me this in 1995.

Condon and my father were friends.

Richard

[optimax]

A google search shows Oswald saw the movie on tv. Makes sense.