"Life is lived forward, but understood backward. It is not until we are down the road and we stand on the mountain looking back through the valley that we can appreciate the terrain God has allowed us to scale.” Jill Savage

Monday, April 26, 2010

There is only one you.



"You are unique--there is no one else like you." ~ Marva Collins

Look at what a someone ( a unique some one) put together at Providence St. Vincent Hospital in Oregon.

On November 13, 2009 — Our employees put together this video to generate breast cancer awareness throughout our hospital system. We had a ton of fun putting this together and hope it inspires others to join in the cause of Breast Cancer Awareness.



All of us invent ourselves. Some of us just have more imagination than others. - Cher

Have to say she reinvented herself a few times and had a lot of imagination!



Happy Birthday Carol Burnett - wikipedia

Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Ina Louise, a publicity writer for movie studios, and Joseph Thomas Burnett, a movie theater manager. Both of her parents, particularly her father, suffered from alcoholism, and at a young age she was left with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White. Her parents divorced in the late 1930s, and Burnett and her grandmother moved to an apartment near her mother’s in an impoverished area of Hollywood, California. There, they stayed in a boarding house with her younger half-sister Chrissy.

When Burnett was in the fourth grade she created for a short time an imaginary twin sister named Karen, with Shirley Temple-like dimples. Motivated to further the pretense Burnett recalled fondly that she "fooled the other boarders in the rooming house where we lived by frantically switching clothes and dashing in and out of the house by the fire escape and the front door. Then I became exhausted and Karen mysteriously vanished."

For a while, she worked as an usherette at what is now the Hollywood Pacific Theatre (the forecourt of which is now the location of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; see the section in the theatre's article for more information).

After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1951, Burnett won a scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles where she initially planned on studying journalism. During her first year of college, Burnett switched her focus to theater arts and English, with the goal of becoming a playwright. She found she had to take an acting course to enter the playwright program; "I wasn't really ready to do the acting thing, but I had no choice."[5] She followed a sudden impulse in her first performance; "Don't ask me why, but when we were in front of the audience, I suddenly decided I was going to stretch out all my words and my first line came out 'I'm baaaaaaaack!'" The audience response moved her deeply:

They laughed and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you'll hear a laugh that great again.

During this time, Burnett performed in several university productions, garnering recognition for her comedic and musical abilities. Her mother disapproved of her acting ambitions:

She wanted me to be a writer. She said you can always write, no matter what you look like. When I was growing up she told me to be a little lady, and a couple of times I got a whack for crossing my eyes or making funny faces. Of course, she never, I never, dreamed I would ever perform.

The young Burnett, always insecure about her looks, described her reaction to her mother's advice of "You can always write, no matter what you look like", in her 1986 memoir One More Time: "God, that hurt!"

In 1954, during her junior year, a professor invited Burnett and some other students to perform at a black-tie party. A man and his wife approached her afterwards, as she was putting hors d'oeuvres in her purse to take home to her grandmother. Instead of reprimanding her, the man complimented Burnett's performance and asked about her future plans. When he discovered that she wanted to go try her luck with musical comedy in New York, but did not have enough money, he offered her a $1000 interest-free loan on the spot. The conditions were that it was to be paid back in five years, his name was never to be revealed, and if she became a success, she would help others attain their dreams. Burnett took him up on his offer. She and her boyfriend, Don Saroyan, left college and moved to New York to pursue acting careers. That same year, Burnett's father died of causes related to his alcoholism.

I left it this long to show you how she had to reinvent herself many times as well - and she did a great job. I loved the Carol Burnett Show!

14 comments:

Unknown said...

that had to have been one of my favorite shows! i love her. i'm so glad we had this time together, just have a laugh and sing a song. seems we just get started and before you know it comes the time we have to say so long. good night everybody. (ear tug, ear tug). oh sorry, i was walking down memory lane. thanks for the post!

Susan said...

Oh Sandie....That was a great video. What a super staff at that hospital in Oregon. Even though I try to stay as far away from the medical world as possible, I did enjoy it. Guess it truly is better to prevent than lament! Thanks for a great post, Sandie. You are awesome. Sincerely, Susan

Linda @ A La Carte said...

Love that video. I've seen it several times and it always makes me smile. Carol Burnett a fine comedian! I always think of her Gone With The Wind spoof and how she come out with the 'curtain' gown and she still had the rod across her shoulders...cracks me up every time.

Together We Save said...

I have always loved Carol Burnett!! Sohow that type of comedy and talent seems lost to us now.

Melanie said...

Interesting story about Carol Burnett.
She is so funny! :)

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I've seen that video before, but its still good for a smile!! your comment about Cher was funny! She sure did use her imagination.

Angela said...

Hey Sandie!

I loved Carol Burnett! I remember watching her as a kid. I wish they would show the old shows on tv now. I think her shows are probably a classic and would still be as funny today as they were back then.

The video was great! Some of those people could not dance at all but they gave it their all! It was also funny to see the men wearing the pink gloves! lol Made me wonder if your son the doctor wears pink gloves! My sons dentists office the girls wear the pink gloves but the doctors who are men wear the regular gloves.

Hugs,
Angela

Anonymous said...

Sandie,
I love Carol Burnett! I cannot tell you the hours I spent watching that show! Doesn't seem like they have good ol' shows like that anymore!
(Does that make me sound like an old fart?)
tugging my ear...
Cheryl

Whosyergurl said...

ARGGGHHH! I did it again! Somehow I hit the annonymous button!
CHERYL
SHE WHO DOES NOT WISH TO BE ANNONYMOUS!

Caroline @ The Feminist Housewife said...

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun making the video!! = )

Mollye said...

Love the pink gloved nurses. And thanks for featuring Carol Burnett. She is amazing and so loved. Lots going on here but I will be back to visit more when I slow down:) XXXMollye

betty said...

that video was amazing Sandie! I loved all their dance maneuvers and some of those "old" people could really "shake their booty"

what a clever way to get the message out indeed!

Carol Burnett was always a favorite of mine to watch her show; what a talent she was with Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. I still remember the skit she did pretending to be Scarlett from Gone with the Wind and what she wore as the dress (imitating when Scarlett made the dress out of curtains from Tara) great family show she always put on!

betty

Mimi said...

HI!!!!
My favorite phrase of all times, is BE YOURSELF!!!!!Do NOT be a 2nd rate version of someone else!!!!!
You are truly special and Unique and how sad when someone has to try and be some one else!!!!
Love that
love the nurses!!!!!
hugs,
jamie

ocmist said...

I love Carol Burnett and knew some of this, but not all of it. Thanks for taking the time to let us know more!