Singer Rosemary Clooney circa 1965-2015 Metal Print

"I think acting is the most thankless profession in the world."

"In the final analysis, it's true that fame is unimportant. No matter how great a man is, the size of his funeral usually depends on the weather."

(on Bing Crosby] "Bing had a brilliant mind and an original wit. That casual delivery combined with an unexpectedly wide vocabulary. It was a great device for comedy -- and also an effective way of communicating with an audience or with a person."

[1978 comment on Bing Crosby] "The best way to get along with Bing was to forget first of all that he was Bing Crosby. It was not always easy." - Rosemary Clooney, 1928-2002

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...