Latest news with #BobGreene
Wall Street Journal
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Am I Getting a Bit Too Old For Bazooka Bubble Gum?
Like Bob Greene, I too could succumb to Proustian nostalgia by reacquainting my jaws with bubble gum after going decades without it ('Bazooka Joe, We Meet Again,' op-ed, July 31). But if you're of a certain age, you'll have trouble reading the miniature comic strip inside the wrapper, and, worse, keeping dental work inside your head.
Wall Street Journal
14-04-2025
- Health
- Wall Street Journal
A Souvenir From Dr. Jonas Salk, Circa 1955
In 'When Salvation Rode the Rails' (op-ed, April 2), Bob Greene uses a polio patient's harrowing cross-country train ride with a malfunctioning chest respirator to pay tribute to those who stepped forward to help save the woman's life. Of them and myriad other Americans, Mr. Greene writes: 'They are able to accomplish something quietly profound: to give people they have never met a chance to breathe another day.' This sentiment applies to an untold number of Americans but also to Dr. Jonas Salk, the virologist whose injectable polio vaccine Mr. Greene also mentions. I contracted polio in August 1955 after receiving two of the three then-prescribed Salk polio-vaccine doses. After undergoing two weeks of hospital treatment and two months of bed rest, I learned I was the only patient in that hospital's polio ward not developing any paralysis. The vaccine allowed me a life of physical activity, including in high-school and college sports and other forms of recreation.
Wall Street Journal
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
The Morning That Gene Hackman Said Hello
Bob Greene's March 3 op-ed 'The Night I Left Gene Hackman Alone' is a touching tribute to a great actor and an even kinder man. I know from experience. I was in San Francisco in January 1973, walking with a friend in the early morning. Rounding a corner, we saw a camera crew set up for a scene. Gene Hackman was standing to one side in a rumpled trench coat, suit and glasses. We stopped, watched him wait and, on cue, he slowly walked past a janitor mopping the floor, glancing at him uneasily. The whole scene took 15 seconds, but they shot it several times. We observed in breathless silence. The director called 'cut,' and Hackman looked up at us, gave a big smile and asked, 'How did I do?' We stammered that it was great, later discovering that this was a scene in 'The Conversation.' Hackman didn't need to acknowledge us, but he did. He made us feel like we were friends, and his including us in this obscure moment on the set of one of his several movies forever changed the way I thought about him. Many will remember him as a brilliant actor. I'm glad to have learned that he was a lovely person, too.
