Thanksgiving, Popcorn and a little bit of Patience

So I haven't blogged for a few weeks and I thought I better fill you in on what has been going on...

Firstly a belated Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate in the US, I hope you had a wonderful time and I am pretty sure most of you watched the wonderful Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which has become a huge tradition for so many at this time of year. I recently got to read the original script for PTA and I learnt why Dell has a black eye in the scene after they get pulled over by the State Trooper. In the original script the duo actually get arrested too, on leaving the station Neil proclaims that at least the car is the rental company's problem, Del then has to confess that he was trying to save Neil money and didn't take out any insurance, hence Del getting slugged by Neil. 

Myself, well I'm thankful for a lot of things, for John, for you guys reading my blog, for the people who have taken time to help me and for the friends I have made along the way. 

Two new friends include these amazing brothers, Octopus/Caveman and Peter, who have recently started a podcast called Popcorn With Candy. They are going through the films of John Candy in chronological order and it's a great listen. So far they have covered Class of '44, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, Tunnelvision, The Clown Murders and have just put up an interview they did with me. Please go and support them, they are funny, entertaining and big John Candy fans, follow this link Popcorn With Candy. My apologies to them both as I was nervous as hell and got total verbal diarrhea - the last thing I want to be remembered as is an annoying Blabbermouth! I'm not that used to being interviewed but they put me right at ease and I even gave away some of the stories in the book. They have since had me back on for their episode about The Silent Partner which should be up soon. 

Well today is the day the book was originally due to come out and if you didn't know already it has been put back a couple of months. I could have rushed but it wouldn't have done it justice. I am also due for surgery any day now so I thought I would wait in case I was releasing the book whilst also being cut open (it would have made things pretty hard). I hope you guys don't mind and I'm so sorry it will take a little longer, patience is not a virtue I have but I am trying to work on that. In a way I think it will work out for the best, some interviews are still coming in. My good friend Joe Shooman (biographer/writer extraordinaire - check out his work Joe Shoo), has advised me that the book will never really be finished, it is a living entity in its own right - there will always be new information, new people to interview, so another couple of months it will be with us and then I have no doubts a second edition will be due over the years to come. 

Well I hope you are all really well, I would love to hear what you have been up to! 

Much love and thanks for all the support

Tracey xx

PS Chris, John's son, is one of the leads in Bar America, an independent film that has just been released on Amazon. It will make you laugh and cry and is a must watch, especially for all the creative types doing it for themselves. Chris is wonderful in it, occasionally he will do something on screen and you will see John in front of you, however Chris also stands up in his own right as a brilliant actor. More on this soon xx 

Watch Bar America

Happy 65th Birthday John

John, today you should be 65, instead you are 43 forever. Happy Birthday, I wish you could see how your fans have swamped the internet with memories of you, you would be so proud.

Wherever you are thank you, you have helped me more than you will ever know.

I wrote something for Huffpost that can be read here Happy Birthday John, We Miss You x

Much love to you and all those that miss you, peace be the journey

Tracey xx

R.I.P Maureen O'Hara

I never got to interview Maureen O'Hara, she gracefully declined through her manager John Nicoletti. Maureen felt she had made her feelings about John clear in her autobiography, 'Tis Herself, and she was right. 

In every interview, before and after Candy's passing, Maureen oozed nothing but love, respect and admiration for John. Until working on Only the Lonely Maureen had retired from her acting career twenty years previous and was determined she would not go back to it. However Chris Columbus had written the role of Rose Muldoon especially for her. It took a while for Chris to track her down and convince Maureen she should read it, luckily for us she eventually did. She agreed to do the shoot if she met and liked Chris as a Director and John who would be playing her son. It took her only a few minutes of meeting them in Chicago to decide, she loved them both straight away and she turned to John and said "All right, I will be your Mother". 

"The depth of John Candy's talent did surprise me. I didn't expect it to be so great. It didn't take long for me to see that his reservoir of emotion was deep, and that he was not only a comedic genius but an actor with extraordinary dramatic talent. I'm sure that even he didn't fully understand how good he really was. He reminded me a great deal of Charles Laughton." 

The love and respect was mutual, John was thrilled to be working with such a huge Hollywood star and they remained good friends for the rest of John's life. 

I didn't get to speak to Maureen, but I did get to speak to two wonderful Chicago cops who were security on the filming of Only the Lonely. Marie and Patty, who, like Maureen are wonderful strong women, feisty and warm, gave me their time to tell me their story. I am pleased to now call them my friends. Maureen complemented them both, saying it was great to see women in jobs like theirs, she knew they were cops as their guns were always showing. 

Only the Lonely is one of my favourite Candy films and the rapport between him and Maureen was just so sweet and funny. John's friend from school, Jonathan O'Mara (whose Dad coincidentally went to school with Maureen) always tells me that Danny Muldoon was the closest character John ever played to himself, a sweet, shy, considerate man who loved his family. 

Although I am saddened to hear about Maureen passing today, 95 is a wonderful age, she has left a huge legacy and led one hell of a life, may we all live so long and full. 

Thank you Maureen, give the big man a kiss from me, he'll be thrilled to see you x

Things you may, or may not know about John Candy: Part 3

Sorry I promised this a couple of weeks ago! Better late than never eh?

So seeing as Part 1 and 2 went down quite well, I thought I would write a part 3.

1. John was a very loyal friend, if you worked well with him and he liked you, then you had a job for life. Frankie Hernandez who was known as John's driver and personal assistant, helped John early in his career and stayed with him until the end. Other members of Team Candy included; Ben Nye Jr (Make Up Designer), Silvio Scarano (Costumer and Dresser) and later, Robert Crane (PR). Frankie referred to John's team as "The Chango's" which is Spanish for "The Monkey's".

2. Whilst filming Uncle Buck, Jean Louisa Kelly (Tia Russell) turned 17. John brought her gifts and
ordered in a large birthday cake which had "She was just 17, you know what I mean" iced on it.

3. Although we would all love to believe that John's favorite drink would have been an Orange Whip, it was actually a rum and coke.

4. John loved music, according to his agent Catherine McCartney if you didn't leave an event with John before the band started, you didn't leave. John had a fantastic sense of rhythm and was very light on his feet!

5. One of his favorite TV series according to Dave Thomas was Victory at Sea, John would always want to watch a few episodes after a night out. Victory at Sea was a series filmed in the 1950's about the US Navy in World War 2.

6. John had so much integrity and huge love for his wife and kids. In the early days of his career John worked with Walter Olkewicz whilst filming 1941 (in fact he and Walter were in every scene together). During filming there were a lot of beautiful women on set and some of the actors were cheating on their girlfriends and wives. Not John though. Walter told me John had said why would he want a hamburger when he had steak at home? "Rosie was his bride, she would always be his bride". He never wanted anyone else and couldn't understand anyone cheating.

I hope you are all doing really well! The book's release is still on course for the end of November.

Much love to you all and thanks for all the support
Tracey xxx

PS If you missed Part One you can find it here Things you may, or may not know about John Candy
and Part Two here Things you may or may not know about John Candy: Part Two

Hold the Front Page...

I am sorry for not blogging more regularly, I promise to post a proper entry soon! I just wanted to share this with you, if you haven't seen it already, here is the front cover of the book. It has been lovingly created by Gary McGarvey at http://youresomehorse.com/ and I love it - thank you Gary!

I am still on track for a November release, if you would like to pre-order a printed copy you can do so at www.igg.me/at/johncandy. Because I am self publishing I will only be ordering enough printed copies for those who have pre-ordered (or I have promised a copy to), however the book will also be available via KDP if you prefer an e-book.

I hope you are all really well, I would love to hear what you think of the cover? I hope John would like it.

Many thanks as always
Tracey xx

Writing about John is an education

I am not sure I realised how much I would have to learn when I started this book about John. Sure I needed to hone my research techniques, my grammar (always working on that one), to learn so much about John and his world, but I didn't realise how much I would learn about so many others. Whilst researching a person, you have to research the people around them, their career and how on earth you can possibly get in touch with them.

Did you know Jay Underwood who played Bug in Uncle Buck is now a Pastor? That Lonette McKee, Angela Drake in Brewster's Millions, is big on animal rights and is writing a book on her love for birds? One fact, one piece of research and one person always leads to another and it is fascinating.

I have been asked a lot of questions about John since the start of this process, one of the most common ones is about John being rumored to play Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle in a film about Roscoe's life story. Well it was true it was offered to John, however he declined. Personally from my research I believed John passed because he was worried about misrepresenting Arbuckle, John was always very respectful of people.

A few months ago I spoke to Rob Salem who is an old friend of John's, as well as being a renowned writer and journalist. Rob told me "I wanted him to do the Fatty Arbuckle story. I think he was afraid of it. I think he was afraid of where it would take him, out of all the Second City people he got the furthest and the fastest and the most so he didn’t really have the comfort zone that they have of his precedence before them. So that whole fame trap, he was aware of that and very wary of that, and that is what killed Fatty Arbuckle. He told me he was afraid to go there."

Although I knew about Arbuckle, I didn't know his story in full. To understand what John was afraid of I am now reading and researching Arbuckle and I am finding it heartbreaking. A naive and sweet man, made and ruined by Hollywood. The problem is people love scandal, whether it is true or not is irrelevant to most and although it is seen as tomorrow's chip paper, it ruins lives and breaks hearts. So I get it John, but I am with Rob and I think you would have done Arbuckle justice with a phenomenal performance.

I have also learnt you have to earn people's trust and that the kindness of strangers picks me up daily. I am more confident than I thought  but possibly not as confident as I need to be (again working on this one). That if you don't ask you don't get (sometimes you can ask and not get but at least it stops you from wondering what if) and that I couldn't have picked a better role model and moral man to write about.

The book is coming along nicely and the support I am receiving helps no end, so thank you.

Much love to you all
Tracey x

"Whoever said nothing is impossible obviously hasn't tried nailing Jell-O to a tree."

So Del Griffith was wrong. OK you might not be able to nail Jell-O to a tree but you can stick it up there another way. Glue? Sticky tape? Special Jell-O holder?

I have crowd-funded the money I need to self publish the book! Would you believe it? It was rough going for a while, first campaign didn't make it. However, if at first you don't succeed, reduce the print run, change the paper, lower your budget and try again. Campaign number two has finished today and I am 109% funded!

I need to thank everyone who pledged, shared and supported a million times over, it is like a dream come true and all feels a little surreal.

This has been a work in progress over the last four years but I feel the hard work starts right now, I no longer have to just worry about doing a good job for John,  but now for all of those people who believed in me too. When I interviewed Malik Yoba (Cool Runnings) for the book he said that it should be about more than John Candy, it is about reaching out to people and them helping, being knocked down and getting back up.

John was all about dreams and making them a reality, he did it for himself, he did it for others and now I feel like he is doing if for me.

Much love and thanks go to the following for pledging; 
Ellen Green, Jason Freer, Louise Walford, Kris Abrams, Mike Mangone, Kathryn Rowe, Allen Ward, Kristian Haring, Sarah Hayes, Millie de Leeuw, Rene Riva, Mike Harper Lee, Andy Scott, Michael Beard, Helen Martland, Rebecca Hindle, Amy Tuitt, Sorrell Norfolk, Kerri Jackson, Matt James, Aaron Russell MacKenzie Nagy, Joe Kroger, William Worthern, Sophie Archard, Randy Willett, Laura Miller, Matt Clarke, Martin Gordon, Bob and Liz Morgan, Andrew Daley, Holly and Kris Keogh Jones, Andy Cresswell, Chris Davies, Anonymous, Erica Shaw, Karen Booth, Steve Oliver, Jeanette Lucas, Anonymous, Anonymous, Jon Evans, Harrison Scott, Isac Nordgren, Gareth Jones, Eve Morton,Toni Oliver, Simon Morris, Shaun Tomkiss, Simon Whittaker, Jeff Shelan, David Evans, Claire Thompson, Moneygunn, Philippa Kitchen, Lyons and Tigers, Carole Morgan and Richard Bailey, Mark Corbett, Michele Knight, Neil and Emma Byrne, Alex Hall, Anonymous, Mistermantis7, Lisa Williams, Catherine Williamson, Ben Davies, Max Ludwig, Lynette Howell Taylor, Sue Jones, Colin Creed, Kelly Shackleton, Jo Fisher, Anonymous, James Kelly, Mimusiku, Dave Taylor, Russ Beech, Aidy Spillet, Paul Rafferty, Nellie Saunders, Anonymous, Damian McGarrigle, Marc Jones, Chris L, Deb Bolger, Oran Woody, Jennifer Whitfield, Nicholas Holroyd, Sarah Carr, Ben Ohmart, Charlotte Davies, James Watt, Chris Williams, Rosie Greaves, Anita Cash, Robert Whiteley, Alice Sweeting, Helen Hollingdale, Anonymous, Stu Pickering, Jason Weiss, Jeanette Lucas, Robin Lomas, Darren Taylor, Miriam Sanchi, Jon Raffe, Chris Ball, Juul Haalmeyer, John Brown Jr, Janet Elvidge, Steve Jones, Jame Olines, Rebecca Davies, Allan O'Marra, Ella Steel, Glen Lovelock, Olga Rorke, Anonymous, Tim Aldred, Emma Steele, Rob Salem, Katie Jennings, Sarah Wellstead, Elle and Elliot Howells, Steve Oliver, Will, Becky, Edward and Carolyn Dorrell at Hoo Farm, Steven Andrew, Christopher Taylor, Davey Sloan, Vicky Garvey, Jon Anslow, Laura Gallen, Joe Shooman, Mandy Odandiee, Kenn Stewart, Karin Stryuk, James Fisher, Jo Bloodworth, Maddie Newbury, Ed Cook, Kevin Burgess, Julian Bennett, Donna Meyer, Mark Darbyshire, Richard Teixeira, Joan O'Mara, Sean O'Mara, Jonathan O'Mara, Sim Burton, Justin Evans, Craig McKay, Anonymous, Andrew Pritchard, Kate Hobbs, David Morgan, Christina Kennedy, Al Puente, Shawn Bonning, Sara Edwards, Kathryn Walsh, Steve Swain, Sarah Zacharek, Jodie Foster, Tapemeasureman, Rhys Perry, Mick Perry, Sarah Wilson, Kat Davies and Michelle Partington.

Better get my head down, there is still a lot to do!

Much love to you all 
Tracey xxx

PS Hoping to have some artwork to show you in the next week or two :)