Home | Stamp | Marcus | Father | Apes | Bio | Bible | Man | Courage | Moses | Nepal | Khan | DvD

HESTfest [a marcus guide to the Planet of the Heston]

My First Heston Impression, or Some Early Monkey Business

pota_heston_as_taylor_with_gun_standing_on_the_beach.jpg

By Marcus Matthew Bocchino

     I was just eight when I first caught the "Chuck bug."  My two older brothers were clamoring for permission from our rather strict parents to stay up late (On a school night!) to watch something on TV that sounded--to my then-innocent ears--like "Play It Without Grapes."  I added my loyal, if little, voice to the brotherly protest.  Our parents resisted, as usual, our passionate pleas, but, they (like some weather-beaten dike) eventually relented to our tidal wave of entreaty.
 
     It was the "Tuesday Night Movie" and I was there, for once.  Wow!  (Hey, I was only eight.)  As this strange yet utterly fascinating "Play It Without Grapes" began, so too did my movie-watching life.  I was whisked away (most willingly) on a fantastic trip to an upside-down world.  When I heard the opening monologue soken so dramatically and capivatingly by an astronaut with such a unique presence, I was hooked.
 
     I felt like a fifth (unseen) traveler tagging along with a quartet of space adventurers on an amazing celestial trek.  By the time the (my) hero was down on his knees, beaten there by a rusting relic of his own distant past, I knew I had discovered an Actor and a Movie.  The Actor was Charlton Heston and the Movie was "Planet of the Apes."

UNUSED PoTA SCENE: click here to download file

Link to 1959 Christian Science Monitor Interview