Henry Fonda

Like a scene from an old western, the wagon train rumbles into this town on the banks of the Platte River. Here, as in every town we've come to, children run alongside us on the sidewalks. Men shout with excitement when we round the corner into town. We really put on a show for them today, with the teamsters running the horses into the park, flags flying. The outriders came trotting in, and they all pulled up in a circle and stopped at the same time. Not bad.

Raymond Massey The lanky Canadian actor scored on Broadway in Robert E. Sherwood's historical drama "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" and earned an Oscar nomination for lead actor in the 1940 film version. Henry Fonda The Nebraska native perfectly captured Honest Abe's early years as struggling attorney in John Ford's 1939 drama "Young Mr. Lincoln," which earned an Oscar screenplay nomination for Lamar Trotti. Walter Huston The father of director John Huston and grandfather of Anjelica is the best thing about D.W. Griffith's first talkie, 1930's "Abraham Lincoln," which chronicles the 16th president's life from his early years to his assassination.

My 12-year-old son recently informed me that he didn't much see the point of black-and-white movies, and I realized this horrifying state of affairs could be blamed only on television. The fact that there's so much good television, that is. My son and his 10-year old sister can now intelligently debate the relative merits of the three modern Doctors of "Dr. Who," but they do not (choked sob and how did I fail them?) know who Abbott and Costello are. Why would they? Even in the dog days of summer, once considered a TV wasteland, new shows are stacked up in our DVR queue like so many accusatory back issues of the New Yorker.

Re "Shape up, poor people," Opinion, April 30 Joe Queenan's piece on the dignified poor: brilliant. But it seems to me there's one thing he chose not to mention. In the time of John Steinbeck he writes about, the prototypical impoverished American could be illustrated by Henry Fonda. Give this guy a little money and he'd be indistinguishable from someone you run into at a country club. Is that true anymore? Could the prototypical impoverished American of 2007 be played by Tom Cruise?

"Saturday Night With Connie Chung" which emulated Walter Cronkite's "You Are There" with a re-creation of history in its CBS debut last Saturday night, will be leaning more toward Barbara Walters this Saturday with an interview of Jane Fonda. Fonda will discuss her separation from husband Tom Hayden, concerns about growing older, and feelings about the death of her father, Henry Fonda. . . .

Like a scene from an old western, the wagon train roars into this town on the banks of the Platte River. Here as in every town we've come to, children run alongside us on the sidewalks. Men shout with excitement when we round the corner into town. We really put on a show for them today, with the teamsters running the horses into the park, flags flying. The outriders came trotting in, and they all pulled up in a circle and stopped at the same time. Not bad.

After reading the letter (Letters, April 16) from Charlton Heston wherein he credits "the grace of God" for his loyal, professional and efficient personal assistant, I felt compelled to relate this story. In the early 1980s I was helping John C. Mahoney, then-president of the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle, with an annual awards banquet. Heston was to narrate the slide show and introduce Henry Fonda. Heston arrived early, got his script and went off to familiarize himself with it. As the time approached to begin, I saw John looking for him. We walked through the banquet room and lobby and finally found him in the kitchen, dressed in his tux, perched atop the closed lid of a garbage can. Heston explained that he wound up in this spot because "I kept getting in the way of the busboys."

Family Affair: It was a family reunion for the Fondas and the Bergens on Saturday when both Hollywood clans were honored for carrying the entertainment tradition from generation to generation with the fifth annual Hollywood Legacy Awards. The Fondas were recognized by the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, the award's sponsors, at the Hollywood Palladium for their contributions to the movie industry.

Harold ARLEN was responsible for the music for the Oscar-winning tune "Over the Rainbow" as well as such standards as "Let's Fall in Love," "Get Happy," "Stormy Weather," "One for My Baby" and "The Man That Got Away." Oscar winner Henry Fonda was one of cinema's most beloved "everymen." Like his peers Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper, he was adept at both dramas and comedies and possessed an earnestness, quiet strength and likability that endeared him to audiences for nearly half a century.

New details about UCLA forward Nikola Dragovic's arrest came to light today, with prosecutors saying he pushed a man into a glass display case, causing injuries, during an altercation at a Hollywood concert venue. The argument began during an Oct. 24 show at the Henry Fonda Theater and escalated into a physical confrontation, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Michelle Dodd said in a news release. The alleged victim suffered a lacerated Achilles tendon when the display case shattered.

Emerging from Seattle's heady, aggressive grunge scene in the early 1990s, Sunny Day Real Estate did the unthinkable. It made punk pretty. It didn't hurt that singer Jeremy Enigk looked like an angel, with wide, innocent eyes and a wounded stare. His voice -- high, lilting and perfectly pitched -- was unexpectedly powerful, and his lyrics were dusted with a deep and pervasive sorrow. So was the rest of the music, with its churning, melodic guitars and heavy, pointed rhythm section.

Frank Liberman, a veteran Hollywood publicist who represented stars such as Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller and Robert Goulet during his more than 50 years in the business, has died. He was 92. Liberman, who had Parkinson's disease, died of pneumonia Sunday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center, said his daughter, Kay Liberman. A former publicist for Warner Bros., Liberman launched his own public relations company, Frank Liberman and Associates, in 1947. Over the decades, he handled dozens of top names, including Henry Fonda, Nat "King" Cole, Tony Bennett, Jack Paar, Harry Belafonte, Steve Allen, David Janssen, Charles Bronson, Joan Blondell, Dorothy Lamour, Joey Bishop, William Shatner, Mike Nichols and the songwriting team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.

"This one is possibly the most misunderstood song in my catalog," Pete Yorn said Thursday night at the Henry Fonda Theater before he and his five-piece band launched into a propulsive version of his song "Burrito." A ruggedly handsome New Jersey native who's "been playing in this town for 15 years," Yorn doesn't really seem like the misunderstood type. He has an undeniable knack for catchy pop-rock tunes full of precise Everydude language -- "Leave out the others, baby / Say I'm the only one," he sang in "Strange Condition" -- but little about his four studio albums suggests the hidden presence of something deeper or more profound.

Over the course of its nearly 20-year career, Green Day has only grown more interested in the power and potential of its pop. During the punkish band's Thursday night performance at the Henry Fonda Theater, the trio repeatedly used rock's oldest tricks -- sock-hop melodies, British Invasion swagger, pep-rally shouts -- to make the counterculture seem more fun than the mainstream.

Re "Shape up, poor people," Opinion, April 30 Joe Queenan's piece on the dignified poor: brilliant. But it seems to me there's one thing he chose not to mention. In the time of John Steinbeck he writes about, the prototypical impoverished American could be illustrated by Henry Fonda. Give this guy a little money and he'd be indistinguishable from someone you run into at a country club. Is that true anymore? Could the prototypical impoverished American of 2007 be played by Tom Cruise?

For the past several hours, Peter Fonda has been trying to explain why he's never cared what anyone thought of him. "I've always lived with being prejudged," he says, working his way through a second carafe of chardonnay. "When I was a kid, I'd go to a party and have no idea who was there--but everyone thought they knew me. I was Henry Fonda's son." He shrugs. "They didn't know he was Col. Thursday."

Troy Garity has a lot of family heritage to live up to. His father, state senator and former antiwar activist Tom Hayden, made history 30 years ago this week by leading demonstrations against the Vietnam War during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. His mother, Jane Fonda, has been a cinematic and political icon for decades. This month, Garity, 25, is furthering the legacy of both sides of his family. He's not only acting in his first feature film--"Abbie!

NEARLY four decades after riding his Captain America chopper to fame, Peter Fonda is still bucking trends. Two-wheeling through Coldwater Canyon during a recent late-morning ride, Hollywood's iconic biker wasn't showboating on the Harley-Davidson cruiser one would expect but zipping around on an MV Agusta F4-1000 sportbike that could smoke pretty much anything else on the road.