Was flipping through the cable television stations the other night and found a Robert Mitchum movie. Recalled that Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, CT (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000053/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm) and spent some of his youth in Connecticut. His history and haunts in the Bridgeport area are not well documented. I am a fan of Hollywood and film history and I admit that Robert Mitchum has not been at the top of my list of favorite Hollywood people. However, there was one movie he starred-in, " Track of the Cat", which I thought was really great. The movie has not been on television in many years and only received a
3 Start rating. As an outdoors woman, "Track of the Cat" (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/93751/Track-of-the-Cat/) appealed to me since Robert Mitchum's character went crazy by the end of the movie trying to hunt the "panther" that was eluding him in the snowy mountains of the western United States. He followed the panther's track's in the snow and ultimately fell off a cliff. Nature conquered the hunter in the end!
I know how to hunt deer, elk, and wild game birds. I also know how to fish and set fish traps. This is for food, not for trophies. I do not and will not hunt carnivore predators. North American carnivores such as wolves and mountain lions naturally regulate deer populations and are symbols of freedom in North America. In many areas, citizens complain and whine about "all the deer everywhere". Well, the North American carnivore population that prey on deer for food have been reducted to small areas of the United States and are represented by only 10% of the same carnivore populations from the year 1850 so what do the complainers and whiners expect?
I did see a movie Robert Mitchum starred-in with Marylin Monroe (River of No Return). Apparently, he knew her before she became a Hollywood starlet. I thought the movie, River of No Return, was so-so (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZKUtW-aDHM). Both aforementioned movies were filmed in 1954.
Although Robert Mitchum was a staunch Republican, President and General Eisenhower did not allow his movies shown at the White House because bad boy Mitchum had an arrest for marajuana on his record. After World War II, General Eisenhower became the President of Columbia University in the City of New York (I am proud to say that I am a graduate of Columbia University, although not everyone agrees on political topics). Subsequently, General Eisenhower, was eleected President of the United States. Coincidentally, Bridgeporters have the old Eisenhower Center on Golden Hill Street in downtown Bridgeport. What a town, Bridgeport is............
Robert Mitchum's Hollywood career did survive the 1950's and he continued starring in films for more than 2 decades after the 1950's. His early history in Bridgeport, CT is something that would be interesting to delve into for my "Lost History of Bridgeport - Missing Pieces" blog.
