From: Sandra Maliga (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Dec 23 2006 - 15:13:56 PST
In December 2005 I went to an evening of Joseph Cornell films at
FilmForum in LA and when Jeanne Liotta screened Cinderella's Dream I
was quite astonished to see several shots of me and my friend Vicky
walking around in the village in around 1956-7. They were short shots
but I recognized my goofy glasses and Vicky's limp (She had polio in
the mid-fifties.)
I spoke to Jeanne about arranging a screening at Anthology for Vicky,
who lives in NY. Jeanne was interested in dating the film; we were
able to help with that since Vicky had moved away from NY and we
could recall the date of her visit. It is interesting that both Vicky
and I are filmmakers - we were teenagers when Cornell filmed us.
The screening was arranged and here's what Vicky wrote:
"I saw the Cinderella film last night at Anthology with Jeanne and
Andrew and what a delight it was - they were thrilled to meet a
living part of Cornell's work and I was so happy to see us, in 1957
I think? I don't think I was 14 yet, but we look older than 12
or perhaps it was even later? The big issue was what was the street?
We looked at the film many times, back and forth it looks a bit
like the roof of Cooper Union and there was a famous music store on
Astor Place but there is the cross bridge walk with the clock on it
which has since been torn down which looks very mid-town amazingly,
I remember the Lanz dress I was wearing we looked pretty cute. I
realized that I came out of the store twice once carrying your
guitar and the second time only books and my purse I looked at
Cornell and Burkhardt clearly, so I wonder if we talked to them. If
only I could remember the event! Do you know who or where your guitar
teacher was? Jeanne said that Cornell was very much involved in
Christian Science and since it was so near the polio epidemic that
might have been the Cinderella-glass slipper-limping virgin subject
matter however, it might have all been put together later or not, we
will never know. ... Well it was a wonderful experience to be able
to see us, and to see the film many times with Jeanne and Andrew. It
certainly must have been a shock for you to see it in an audience.
Thank you so much for putting me in contact with it."
And I replied: think it had to be 1957-- when I was 14. I took guitar
with the wonderful and exotic Geena Goodwin on MacDougal Street near
Bleecker. I didn't do the lessons for very long. Perhaps we were
taking the guitar to the shop for new strings.
In any case it was great to see us through Cornell's eyes.
--Sandy
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