Archives for April 24, 2017

Charles Lane is interviewed on Late Night With David Letterman. He played character roles in more than 250 films, including Ball of Fire, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Nothing Sacred, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, as well as on such TV series as The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, Dennis the Menace, I Love Lucy, and Petticoat Junction. This episode, which is thought to be the only surviving TV interview with Lane, was originally telecast on July 15, 1982, when he was seventy-seven years old. He gave his last performance in 2006 and died the following year at the age of 102:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

“The Art Snob can be recognized in the home by the quick look he gives the pictures on your walls, quick but penetrating, as though he were undressing them. This is followed either by complete and pained silence or a comment such as ‘That’s really a very pleasant little water color you have there.’”

Russell Lynes, Snobs: A Guidebook to Your Friends, Your Enemies, Your Colleagues and Yourself