TURHAN BEY - RIP

Reading the news just today of the passing of Turhan Bey on September 30 caused me to remember how "in love" I was with him when I was just a wee tyke.  So for today's blog I'm republishing one that I wrote shortly after I started blogging.  

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A SUCKER FOR A SMILE

I have always been a attracted to a smile. It didn't necessarily have to be a full-blown grin, but even a teeny-tiny smile was enough to make my heart go pitty-pat. Which brings me to Turhan Bey.

Now I know you young folk have never heard of this fellow before, unless you happened to see him in some spooky films that he had parts in as he aged. But when I was a sweet young thing, I'd say around the age of 8 or 9, Turhan Bey was the lead in such romantic films as A Night in Paradise, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Arabian Nights, to name a few. Now in most of these he appeared bare chested or in some swashbuckling costume -- and I thought he was the most romantic man on the screen. In fact, I belonged to the -- yes, the Turhan Bey Fan Club and I had an autographed picture of him, which I kept for years and which I am sure my mother threw away because she did NOT think he was cute like I did! But oh, that sexy little smile. Even at 8 or 9 I was aware of it.

At some point my "smile" meter left Turhan Bey and moved on to Roy Rogers. (Now how 'bout that for being fickle?!) I never saw a photo of Roy Rogers without his smile. For a few years I thought he was my dream man (I'd say this was in my pre-teen years) and I thought he was a most fantastic and handsome fellow. I was crushed to learn that after the death of his first wife he was going to marry Dale Evans. For some reason I had hopes that I might get my foot in the door, but alas, like many other of my teen-aged dream-boats, the door shut too soon. I followed him from film to TV (which we didn't have when I was a youngster) and many years later even went to his Museum in Apple Valley to take a nostalgic walk through my childhood. Yep, Roy Rogers and his smiling face was IT!

 

 

Then when I was a full grown teenager, I discovered "real" boys and I didn't much look at filmdom for my smiling boyfriends. Though I didn't have many of my very own, I did finally find one who I thought was just perfect and his smile eventually led to marriage. Sixteen years later this same one started smiling at other women, so I simply threw my hands up and forgot all about those handsome men in film and in real life.

Then came the fantasy! Who should appear on screen but Captain Jack Sparrow. What a smile he has. Capt. Sparrow is one major winner! Of course by this time I was mature enough NOT to send for his autograph, but when I shared my "dream" charm bracelet in an earlier blog, I did leave a space for a pirate charm! And so through Depp's slap-dashing pirate adventures I followed this Sparrow fellow, grinning right back at him.

And now we have come to this: We have a wonderful smiler and we'll get to look at him for the next four years. I'm sure that Joe Biden has his serious moments, but it did my heart good to see him on stage with that big grin on his face these last few months. Oh, Obama smiles too, but it is Joe that has the happiest look of the bunch. And how I love to see it.

Now, I have to confess: a smile does not make my heart go pitty-pat any longer. If my heart did that, I'd think I was having premature ventricular palpitations. So I just stare at the smiling picture and smile back at him. (Of course, being a Democrat helps keep the smile on my face.) I'm even willing to let Joe have excess verbiage from time to time if he keeps his smile in place.

And it is awfully nice to see a smile instead of a smirk, isn't it?

 

And just so no one gets their nose out of joint, I need to add that Jerry smilingly approves this message!