Obituary: Ralph (artist) Sept 11,1934- March 31, 2025

Ralph and Vivian Liegh of "Gone with the Wind" fame

Ralph was an artist and like most artists he drew his entire life. He made it into a profession as an illustrator of cards, posters, etc. until his 50s, when he started to work for me at Box Office Video on Newbury Street in Boston. To be honest, Ralph had a lot of issues as an employee. He had trouble understanding the phones and was a little scatterbrained, always rushing about keeping himself busy but not always in the most efficient way. He was also one of the best employees the store ever had at the same time. His knowledge of films, old-time movie stars and polite genial manner was a big reason people come in to rent movies with us over the other 2 videos stores on the same street. 

Tobias Allen, me, Ralph and Paul at the premier of our film "50 Years" 

One of Ralph’s passions was paper doll books and up until his death he sold them at conventions. His books were amazing, detailed and hand painted in a way you could almost feel the cloth of the costumes. Another passion of his was "Gone with the Wind". He wrote and illustrated a sequel with100s of drawings and it took him about a decade. His story followed directly after the film and he integrated period actors who he thought might have been used if this was actually made at that time. Again, the work is amazing. 

A sample of Ralph's paper doll art

He and his husband Paul MacMahon (1933-2011) lived a couple blocks from me in Dorchester, Massachusetts so I would often visit for supper and talk about films and look at their (mostly Paul’s) frankly ridiculous collection of memorabilia. They were together for about 57 years and married the last 7 after that became possible in 2004. Ralph kept Paul’s ashes in his old chair with his teddy bear, something he had his whole life, next to it. Their story inspired me to make the documentary film "50 Years", which they both spoke of their lives separately and together up to just after getting married. 

Paul and Ralph at the spot they met in New York City in the 50s

After Paul’s death, Ralph and I became even closer as friends and I visited him when I could. Having moved to Montréal, Québec made it a little difficult but we managed to talk on the phone, exchange letters and have our visits that would take all day as we caught up on each other’s artwork and projects and personal lives. I don’t know many artists or "creatives" and my talks with Ralph are precious memories for me and likely won’t happen with anyone else. His passing is a loss for me on many levels. 

It’s a loss for more than myself, though. Ralph was a piece of gay history who guarded that history by telling his story and guarding the photos Paul had taken as a journalist over the years, a legend in the paper doll world and a good friend to everyone in his life. This is a hole in the world that can’t be filled.

Good bye my longtime friend. The last 40 years were not enough. 

Ralph as a child

Obituary: David Lynch (1946-2025)

 

With great sadness the Slammer mourns the passing of David Lynch whose work both inspired and sometimes frustrated us with its ambiguity over the years. 

(From wikipedia)

His first feature-length film was Eraserhead (1977), which found success as a midnight movie. Lynch was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for the biographical drama The Elephant Man (1980), the mystery Blue Velvet (1986) and the neo-noir Mulholland Drive (2001). His romantic crime drama Wild at Heart (1990) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His other credits include the space opera Dune (1984), the neo-noir Lost Highway (1997), the road movie The Straight Story (1999) and Inland Empire (2006).

Lynch and Mark Frost created the ABC series Twin Peaks (1990–91), for which he received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Lynch co-wrote and directed its film prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), and a third season in 2017. He acted in Twin Peaks, Lucky (2017) and Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022). He also guest-starred in TV series such as The Cleveland Show (2010–13) and Louie (2012). He directed music videos for artists such as X Japan, Moby, Interpol, Nine Inch Nails and Donovan, and commercials for Dior, YSL, Gucci and the New York City Department of Sanitation.

Lynch also worked as a musician, releasing solo albums and a variety of collaborations; a visual artist, including painting, furniture design, and photography; and author, publishing the books Images (1994), Catching the Big Fish (2006) and Room to Dream (2018). A practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, he founded the David Lynch Foundation to fund meditation lessons for students, veterans, and other "at-risk" populations. A lifelong smoker, he was diagnosed with emphysema in 2020, and died in January 2025 after being evacuated from his home due to the Southern California wildfires. The adjective Lynchian came into use to describe works or situations reminiscent of his art,[2] with the Oxford English Dictionary noting his penchant for "juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace".

Personally, my first Lynch film was Eraserhead I saw at a midnight show and I loved it, followed by The Elephant Man which one of the best films ever made in my opinion. I did love most of his films and projects over the years but not all. Wild at Heart did not interest me, it seemed violently excessive and his last full length film Inland Empire I really disliked thinking it showed he needed to have some restraints put on him to keep his ideas in focus. I was obsessed like everyone else with Twin Peaks and like the new more recent series of that quite a bit as well. If nothing else, Lynch was always challenging us to see things in his odd, often disturbing way. 

Obituary: Douglas Trumbull 1942-1922

 

One of the greats of movie effects has died. he was one of my greatest inspirations, just after Ray Harryhausen. Neither of them had super extensive filmographies but what they did changed effects in cinema. 

Trumbull worked on some of the most iconic and visually stunning films of all time. 2001: A space odyssey, Close encounters and Blade runner among them. He pushed the technology of watching movies as well as a long time proponent and researcher into higher frame rates and larger film formats. He never stopped moving ahead and his talents made everything he worked on better than they could have ever been without him.