Friday, July 24, 2009

Plenty of room and air ...

(Today's quote was suggested by my friend Dale ... I appreciated the idea, and want to encourage anyone else with suggestions or requests to let me know!)

Those of you who were big Elvis Presley fans back in the day might know one of the stories of a Montana author named Dan Cushman -- he wrote a book called Stay Away, Joe in 1953 that was later made into a Presley film. Cushman was a busy author who enjoyed some popularity in the middle years of the twentieth century, though his work is now fading into obscurity.

Cushman lived in north-central Montana for most of his life, moving with his family from Minnesota to the tiny town of Box Elder when he was a child. This quote, from Cushman's 1975 autobiography Plenty of Room and Air, describes his father's arrival in Montana as he searched for a new family home:
I don't know why he bought a ticket to such an unlikely place as Box Elder, but as soon as he stepped off the train he knew it was what he was looking for. He had the sense of being set free. Of not being hemmed in. He could see and breathe. And nobody was standing at his elbow, telling him to do this and that.
"I'd finally got out of the woods," he said.

8 comments:

  1. I remember reading Stay Away, Joe...decades ago...but don't think I saw the film. I checked online and found Cushman's bibliography...he was prolific as hell, and he had a fair sense of humor. Looks like a number of his titles might have hit the big screen.

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  2. I've never heard of Cushman or "Stay Away, Joe," but both of the books you mentioned here are on my reading list now. Thanks for the recommendations. Love the quote.

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  3. Thanks, both of you, for your comments ... but before you start adding things to your reading lists I have to confess: I've never actually read Stay Away, Joe. And not being an Elvis fan, I haven't seen the movie either! I guess I'd better rectify that ... :)

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  4. As I recall it was quite funny. 4 For Texas was also a comedy. I remember seeing thr film Timberjack, with Sterling Hayden (a heartthrob at the time) I wonder about The Long Riders, but checking the imdb site, Cushman was not listed as the writer.
    Anyway here's the bib link... http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/dan-cushman/
    He won a few Spur Awards...so couldn't be a bad writer. *S*

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  5. Yep, I'll definitely have to work on that. Stay Away, Joe is now in my Netflix queue, and I'll take it from there. Many thanks for the suggestions!

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  6. My Name Is Wanda J Vieria- Wright . The Book which Dan Cushman wrote about His Home in Box Elder and the Family was about My Family My Grandmother and Great GrandMother and Father Myron B Sprague and My Great Uncles and Aunts and Got most of this info from my Grandmother Iam a bit angry as My GrandMother told me He know truel got premisson to print it She Be friended Dan and Well Ypou be the Judge I now Live in Great falls montana I am ashamed He never gave My Family any thing just took...

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  7. Dan never got permission to write about or of my family W J V-W

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  8. Who were the characters of Stay Away Joe?

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