The future of this site

It is my intention to keep the Franklin Scale up and running. If nothing else it's a place where people will be able to find some of Gary's last pieces of writing about films, history, politics, and society.

Sharing his opinions and ideas was very important to him. He always had some idea or thought he wanted to communicate.

Also, shortly before his passing Gary finished up a draft of his memoirs, "The Jew from Christian Street". In recent months Gary was seeking interested buyers or publishers, even for a limited edition. He envisioned the book as an illustrated autobiography as it would include hundreds of his best photographs.

The manuscript still needs some editing and organizational work, but my idea was that it would make an excellent large format coffee table book showcasing his achievements in photography.

Perhaps I will post up excerpts from his book, so everyone can get a look at what he was working on. The telling of his life story, especially the story of his childhood escape from Nazi Germany with his parents is a harrowing tale.

I may also scan some of his photographs as well.

Those of you who remember garyfraklin.com from some years ago, will remember that Gary updated that site almost everyday with a new commentary usually enhanced with some of his favorite photos.

When Gary quit updating garyfranklin.com I coaxed him into blogging. Since he didn't want to deal with the technical details, he would email me his commentaries and then I'd post them here. He had a wide ranging intellect. He was concerned about the future of humanity. He called himself a "law and order Democrat". He had ideas about how the all news radio stations could fix up their programming. He felt local TV news and network news also needed a great deal of reforming and new ideas. And so he shared his ideas here on this site, and the L.A. Radio website.

But, he also continued to write about film, and rate them on his famous Franklin Scale. He also had a deep love for classical music, and swing era jazz.

If you read through this site you will find recent films he enjoyed such as Sicko, An Inconvenient Truth, The Lives of Others, and so many more.

If you want to see Gary in a film, check out his short scene playing a radio reporter at the end of the 1977 film Rollercoaster. Gary shows up right at the end to interview George Segal who's just saved the roller coaster.

Thinking back of films Gary talked about often, he really admired John Frankenheimer's The Train from 1964, staring Burt Lancaster. But, I think his favorite film was On The Beach, staring Gregory Peck, Eva Gardner, Anthony Perkins, and Fred Astaire in his most dramatic role.

Gary Franklin had good taste. And if you are able to think about films, theatre, television, music and culture through the prism of his higher standards, you'll find yourself developing a more refined sense of good taste in art and culture yourself.