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Post by *~Mrs. Cooper ~* on Dec 20, 2006 18:53:15 GMT -5
I've enjoyed the photos and comments in this thread enormously. Thanks for posting them here. I've just finished reading the memoir by Maria* Cooper Janis called Gary Cooper Off Camera. The photos, mostly candids, are exceptional. I don't think that the man ever took a poor photo when he was relaxed.
One of the most charming is the image that TCM has incorporated into the spot on Cooper featuring Maria's voice talking about her father. That picture shows a shyly smiling Cooper next to his radiant daughter. He holds a bouquet in his hands. According to this book, on each of her birthdays, Maria was presented with a nosegay from her parents, usually with lilies of the valley and sweetheart roses in the bouquet. There are two pics included in this book marking the occasions, one when Maria was little and one on the brink of adulthood, as shown on TCM. Given the range of places and activities documented in his daughter's affectionate book, one has the impression that he didn't miss alot in his brief time on this earth, either!
One of the main themes that jumps out of you in the book's photos and text is Gary Cooper's love of nature and the values that he tried to give Maria as she grew up. In his own words, when asked about what he valued most in his glamorous, well-paid life, Cooper once said,
"I can only speak for myself, and not for other people, but for me, free, for nothing. Ever go out in the fall and do a little hunting? See the frost on the grass and the leaves turning? Spend a day in the hills alone, or with good companions? Watch a sunset and a moonrise? Notice a bird in the wind? A stream in the woods, a storm at sea, cross the country by train, and catch a glimpse of something beautiful in the desert or the farmlands? Free to everybody, such things as these, if you have kept your appreciation of them. They give you something."
Maybe it's Gary Cooper's deep appreciation for things such as these that continues to touch those of us who find his seeming simplicity and grace to be a continuing joy on film.
Perhaps the most touching page in the book is the photo of the handwritten copy by Mr. Cooper of John Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, no. 17 (Meditation), better known as the sonnet, "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Very ill, and frustrated by the effect of painkillers on his cognitive abilities in the last months of his own life, Cooper asked his wife to bring him a pen and paper quickly, so that he could write the words down before they left him again.
--Thanks to moirafinnie6 from the TCM boards.
One of the most charming is the image that TCM has incorporated into the spot on Cooper featuring Maria's voice talking about her father. That picture shows a shyly smiling Cooper next to his radiant daughter. He holds a bouquet in his hands. According to this book, on each of her birthdays, Maria was presented with a nosegay from her parents, usually with lilies of the valley and sweetheart roses in the bouquet. There are two pics included in this book marking the occasions, one when Maria was little and one on the brink of adulthood, as shown on TCM. Given the range of places and activities documented in his daughter's affectionate book, one has the impression that he didn't miss alot in his brief time on this earth, either!
One of the main themes that jumps out of you in the book's photos and text is Gary Cooper's love of nature and the values that he tried to give Maria as she grew up. In his own words, when asked about what he valued most in his glamorous, well-paid life, Cooper once said,
"I can only speak for myself, and not for other people, but for me, free, for nothing. Ever go out in the fall and do a little hunting? See the frost on the grass and the leaves turning? Spend a day in the hills alone, or with good companions? Watch a sunset and a moonrise? Notice a bird in the wind? A stream in the woods, a storm at sea, cross the country by train, and catch a glimpse of something beautiful in the desert or the farmlands? Free to everybody, such things as these, if you have kept your appreciation of them. They give you something."
Maybe it's Gary Cooper's deep appreciation for things such as these that continues to touch those of us who find his seeming simplicity and grace to be a continuing joy on film.
Perhaps the most touching page in the book is the photo of the handwritten copy by Mr. Cooper of John Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, no. 17 (Meditation), better known as the sonnet, "For Whom the Bell Tolls". Very ill, and frustrated by the effect of painkillers on his cognitive abilities in the last months of his own life, Cooper asked his wife to bring him a pen and paper quickly, so that he could write the words down before they left him again.
--Thanks to moirafinnie6 from the TCM boards.
