Steven Marcato
You reader of a Certain Age: Reminisce with me about a long-ago time when the first TV airing of a popular motion picture was a Big Deal. Huge.
I can remember the TV spots in September 1973 for the premier broadcast of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) on ABC—the snippets of that creepy lullaby theme: “La la la la la la”—Lordy, what excitement! Finally, the Big Night came: Calls of “It’s starting!” My brothers and me lined up on our stomachs in front of the tube—not too close (radiation!)—soaking up every image; later tearing to the kitchen for snacks and bevvies during the commercials, then having to “hold it” for fear we’d miss something if we were too long in the bathroom.
It’s funny, the little things that stick with you. There’s a moment toward the end of the film when Rosemary (Mia Farrow), clutching a knife, is making her way through the Castevets’ apartment to find the baby the coven has taken from her, the one she believes they intend to sacrifice. Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer), who we now know is Steven Marcato, son of infamous satanist Adrian Marcato, tries to intercept her.
“Shut up,” Rosemary tells him. “You’re in Dubrovnik. I don’t hear you.”
In an earlier scene, when Roman and Minnie (Ruth Gordon) are preparing to catch a cab to the airport (or so it seems), he mentions the Croatian city as a potential destination. Somehow I missed that. I assumed “You’re in Dubrovnik” was a common expression. Didn’t Bugs Bunny say that?
My brothers and I must have been old enough by then to stay up till the bitter end. A year or two earlier and we would have been sent off to bed before the climax, and too bad for us: “It’s a school night!” This was torture, though I fondly remember Mom at breakfast the next morning supplying the down-and-dirty of what we’d missed. She usually acquitted herself pretty well. As I recall, only the conclusion of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane beggared her storytelling powers.
I can remember the TV spots in September 1973 for the premier broadcast of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) on ABC—the snippets of that creepy lullaby theme: “La la la la la la”—Lordy, what excitement! Finally, the Big Night came: Calls of “It’s starting!” My brothers and me lined up on our stomachs in front of the tube—not too close (radiation!)—soaking up every image; later tearing to the kitchen for snacks and bevvies during the commercials, then having to “hold it” for fear we’d miss something if we were too long in the bathroom.
It’s funny, the little things that stick with you. There’s a moment toward the end of the film when Rosemary (Mia Farrow), clutching a knife, is making her way through the Castevets’ apartment to find the baby the coven has taken from her, the one she believes they intend to sacrifice. Roman Castevet (Sidney Blackmer), who we now know is Steven Marcato, son of infamous satanist Adrian Marcato, tries to intercept her.
“Shut up,” Rosemary tells him. “You’re in Dubrovnik. I don’t hear you.”
In an earlier scene, when Roman and Minnie (Ruth Gordon) are preparing to catch a cab to the airport (or so it seems), he mentions the Croatian city as a potential destination. Somehow I missed that. I assumed “You’re in Dubrovnik” was a common expression. Didn’t Bugs Bunny say that?
My brothers and I must have been old enough by then to stay up till the bitter end. A year or two earlier and we would have been sent off to bed before the climax, and too bad for us: “It’s a school night!” This was torture, though I fondly remember Mom at breakfast the next morning supplying the down-and-dirty of what we’d missed. She usually acquitted herself pretty well. As I recall, only the conclusion of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane beggared her storytelling powers.
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| “Aren’t you his mother?” |
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