Catwalk
"In 1967"
Both wr. (created by) Clu Gulager, Excalibur Music, BMI
Prod. by B. Williams, R. Woods
Tanqueray 20101
9808 Wilshire blvd. , Beverly Hills
1966
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| Cash Box, review, November 19, 1966 |
Miriam [Gulager] also recorded previously with her husband Clu Gulager on DeVille Records in 1964, she can be (furtively) heard on one side only "Tennessee Waltz" (DeVille 116).
In 1971, there was "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh" with the Benny Carter's Orchestra recorded for Decca which was featured on the "Red Sky At Morning" soundtrack (Decca DL7-9180). And that was the end of her recording career.
She copyrighted several songs in 1972 : Child Of My Own;, Don't Know Where I Am Anymore ; Goin' Home; and Windin' Me Down, all published by Denim Music, a publisher just as obscure as Excalibur Music, the publisher of the Tanqueray 45.
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| Clu, Miriam and son John (1962) |
From Office Naps (article no longer available) :
“Catwalk” is the handiwork of the Hollywood actress Miriam Byrd-Nethery and her husband Clu Gulager, an actor, too, and later an aspiring filmmaker.
Miriam Byrd-Nethery (born 1929 in Arkansas) and Clu Gulager (born a year earlier in Oklahoma) met in the theater department at Baylor University, married and found their first professional theater and television work in New York City. Relocating to Hollywood in the late ‘50s, Gulager would go on to distinguish himself as a prolific genre actor in both movies and television, including deputy sheriff Emmett Ryker in TV’s The Virginian, rig-hand-and-ladies-man Abilene in The Last Picture Show and contract killer Lee in The Killers. Starting with 1985’s Return of the Living Dead, Gulager’s work as horror movie stock character revived an acting career that continues today, albeit at a subdued pace.
Miriam, too, managed her own small-time acting career in Hollywood, but if it was Gulager who enjoyed the spotlight, theirs would first be a marriage, then family, energized above all by a spirit of collaboration and the noblest of artistic endeavors: filmmaking. Their obsession with producing films - including the family’s eight years in Tulsa trying unsuccessfully to realize their grisly serial killer horror noir Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! (its saga detailed in an engrossing 1997 LA Weekly article) - put them on the brink of starvation.
None of this does anything but increase the charm of this maverick and quintessentially American couple, whose lust for creative, budget-minded expression reached early fruition on “Catwalk,” a slice of pure Sunset Strip eccentricity from 1967 [1966 actually]. Ever wonder what really goes inside the actors studio? This is it.
Miriam Byrd-Nethery passed away in 2003.
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| Miriam (directed by her husband in his unfinished masterpiece) |
Regarding the movie Clu Gullager tried to realize [I quote from Beautiful Dreamers, the LA Weekly article linked above :
At its end, a young serial killer named Jake, played by Tom Gulager, enters an old lady's home at night. He falls asleep watching TV while she slumbers in her room. When she awakens the next morning, a now naked Jake orders her to strip and shoots her in the stomach, then in the face. As she lies on the floor gurgling blood, the killer urinates along her nude body and into her mouth.
and
Addressing complaints about the scene in which Tom urinates on Miriam, Clu says, "To be perfectly candid, I think penises are pretty good to put on film. An artist's compulsion is [what's] really pornographic - not the penis pissing on the old lady, or forcing the child into sexual abuse. What's pornographic is the artist's nature to gamble everything - everything - to destroy everything to get the art. The work is the important thing."
That's it. I think it's enough to give you a good idea of the Clu Gulager's artistry. If not, you can also watch this interview which includes "new found footage". A legend, they say.
Further reading :
Into The Night With Clu Gulager
From Shakespeare to Shoot-em-Ups: The Remarkable 70-Year Career of Clu Gulager
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