Psychic Songwriter, Alex Tanous

I'm going a little off course with this one. Please remember, I am only using information available to me, I don't create the story from my rather limited imagination.   SO ----  It is July 10 and I am sitting at my computer ------

Alexander Tanous was born in Van Buren, Maine in 1926.  His birth was predicted by Kahil Gibran, who told his father, "You will have a son, a man of exceptional gifts, of great abilities - but also of great sorrows."
Alex was "born with a veil, the mystic cross and a five pointed star on his left hand, the traditional markings of a psychic."   

By the age of 18 months he was displaying unusual talents, and by the age of nine he predicted the death of a wealthy family family friend.
At age 13 he warned a friend not to go around or across the rail road tracks, but the boy was crossing the tracks a short time later and was killed by a train.   (Now, I have to say here, these are possibilities in the ordinary events of mankind.  Nothing here  that gives me shivers.)

By 1960 Alex was fully aware of his unusual senses and submitted himself to The American Society of Psychical for testing.   The results were amazingly positive that he had psychic powers with tests which had probability odds  of 3000:1.  The odds that his test scores could be coincidence were 99.9% against.   

Alex Tanous joined the U. S. Army (and wrote a song called MEN OF THE TEN THIRTEENTH A.S.U.  .  (He had taught himself piano.)  He completed his education at Boston Collegein 1960; his MA in Sacred Sciences and his PHD at Fordham.  He got an M.S. Ed. in Counseling at University of Maine in 1973.  Received a Doctor of Divinity from theCollege of Metaphysics in Indiana in 1965.  He taught Theology at both Manhattan College and St.John's Univ. in New York.And eventually taught classes in Pyschic Phenomena at the University of Southern Maine.  His career included teaching at McGill University in Canada, and Pennsylvania, and  applied his talents in the diagnoses and treatment of psychiatry disorders  disorders.

His powers of astro-projection, faith healing, teleportation, projecting his thoughts onto a screen,  solidifying light and communicating with ghosts are documented by the American Society of Psychical research.  

Alex assisted police in finding the killer of an eight year old boy in Portland by drawing a sketch resembling the man who was convicted.

SO - this is the man who wrote the song which I mentioned above, and also wrote a wedding song for Eddie Fisher and Debbi Reynolds called
BLESS THESE TWO, OH LORD,  and a nostalgia piece,   LET ME BE A BOY AGAIN, .

NOW  the only eerie thing about this for me is that I had no real intention of doing this  piece about Dr. Tanous today.  In fact, I had started a different blog entirely but put it aside and got out Dr. Tanous folder to see if it was worth a blog.   I did not know the date of his death until after I had put the rest of the information together and then realized I did not know when he died.   

It was July 10, 1990 at age 63.  

Was Alex Tanous communicating with me and prompting me to write about him on the anniversary of his death?   Oh, Lord, I hope not.

Respectfully written for entertainment only -

janice major
janice.major@iCloud.com
Scarborugh, Maine

I'VE GOT A FEELIN' YOU'RE FOOLIN'

THE covers of old music, as I have mentioned before, often attract me to the piece.   The title song this week has a "finale line up" picture of the stars in Broadway Melody of 1936, lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Nacio Herb Brown.  MGM produced the picture with the following cast:  Robert Taylor, a smooth producer;  June Knight a beautiful wealthy widow; Jack Benny, a gossip columnist of questionable integrity; 
Eleanor Powell, a beautiful starlet trying to get the producer, a former schoolmate, to give her a chance on Broadway.   Other members of the cast, Una Merkel, Sid Silvers, Buddy Ebsen, Nick Long and Frances Langford.   Got the plot figured out yet?   

Plots in big musical productions are not really important to musicians and dancers.  But in this early musical,  it did bring out that musicians can be actors and actors can be musicians and dancers. 

The movie opens with Harry Stockford, a radio personality playing himself, singing "Broadway Rhythm."  Frances Langford, also playing herself, sings "You Are My Lucky Star."  Another song written for the movie is "On A Sunday Afternoon."   And, of course, 
"I'VE GOT A FEELIN' YOU'RE FOOLIN' ".

An interesting side note is that Buddy Ebsen,  Jed on the Beverly Hillbillies,  was a dancer of some renown, and his younger sister  Vilma  was a dancer also,  and is in the movie, barely acknowledged.    

MGM was on the verge of bankruptcy when Syd Silvers, Moss Hart, Jack McGowan and Harry Conn wrote the story and convinced MGM to take it on.   Eleanor Powell is credited with making movies that put them back on financial solid ground.   BROADWAY MELODY OF 1936'  won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Eleanor Powell, who wants more attention form Robert Taylor who is wooing the widow for her money, sings:

You are a picture an artist could paint
But you're a mixture of devil and saint.
I just sigh and dream and try to figure you out.
Love is in season, 
The moon's up above
Tho, it be treason to question your love ---
Every time I look at you
My heart's in doubt  --

I've Got A Feelin' You're Foolin'
I've got a feel in' you're haven' fun
I'll get a go by when you are done, foolin' with me.

I've Got A Feelin' You're Foolin'
I've got a notion it's make believe
I think you're laughing' right up your sleeve
Foolin' with me.

Life is worth living while you are giving -
Moments of paradise
You're such a stand out
But how you hand out  
That hokus pokus from your eyes.

I've Got A Feelin' You're Foolin'
I've got a feelin' it's all a frame
It's just the well known old army game
Foolin' with you.

I don't want to be a spoiler, but big production musicals always have happy endings.

Hope this brought a smile today.   I welcome suggestions and criticism of the positive kind!   


jan major
janice.major@iCloud.com
Scarborough, Maine  (Where it's absolutely beautiful today!)