Harold & Sid

Here are two nice looking men in the 1920s or 30s. (They don't look like they're posing at all.) The one on the left, Harold, is pretty famous in those funny glasses. Recognize him? (No, he's not Tom Daschle.) The one on the right, Sidney, was fairly famous at the time. Now, only a handful of people would know who he is. Don't feel bad if you don't recognize him. Many of you won't even know the one on the left, though you should.

Sidney was a prominent astrologer in the '20s, '30s and '40s, had a column in the New York Daily News, and published Wynn's Astrology Magazine, including astrological charts of Hollywood stars, such as the chap on the left. Sidney developed a system that is still used by astrologers based on the solar return (the sun's return to its position in a birth chart, which occurs every seven years), which he called the "Key Cycle."

His birthday is February 10 (1892). I should know him personally, because he is my grandfather, Sidney Bennett, aka "Wynn," but I never met him, and neither did any of my family except my mom. She only saw him a few times after he and her mom (Grandma Olive) divorced when she was six. He went on to marry and divorce several more times, had children by his other wives, had a show for a while in Las Vegas, ended up living a strange life in New Zealand (they say he lived in caves) and died in the 1970s. I remember being a teenager answering that phone call from NZ for my mom from someone who had news about her dad when he died.

I don't follow astrology, although it's fun to read what Rob Brezsny has to say because he's smart and funny. Sidney predicted the future. I've seen some of his columns in the NY Daily News that were torn apart by readers when they didn't come to pass. These days astrologers talk more about trends, tendencies - like you might feel energetic for work today, or you might feel unsocial and need time to be quiet, or whatever. A bit safer than predicting what will happen next week or next year.

Maybe we've evolved in the last 7 or 8 decades. We're not quite as gullible as folks were then. In old movies you recognize the naïveté that existed. We no longer believe everything we're told, and with changes happening more rapidly, we know that anything that comes to pass will likely transform into something better or worse in the near future.

It's interesting to think that when my grandfather was a teller of fortunes, times were tough. It was the Great Depression. People cared about movie stars and their star charts. Doesn't it astonish you when you see a glam 1930s movie of tuxedoes and ball gowns, to know that some people in the movie theaters then were scratching to make a living, lucky to have food to eat, let alone a job? They longed to escape their misery and fantasize in long, deep mink stoles and automobiles.

How fake actors in the 1930s sound! Like they're feigning a British accent but it sounds like stupid American-Eastern-Snob-talk. (Still, I love me some Katharine Hepburn in "Philadelphia Story.") Today, we demand honest talk from politicians and film stars. As much as we complain about not getting straight answers from our government and the like, if you look back at popular culture, you'll see that we are a bit more wise. But I hope we'll get wiser, and quickly, in the days ahead.

Happy Birthday, Sid. Hope that's not disrespectful, but I can't bring myself to call you "Grandpa" since I never met you.

Here's a short clip of Harold.