Talking Movies: Remembering Barry – Episode 7
Welcome to Talking Movies, I’m Spling. This week we embark on episode 7 of Remembering Barry, a heartfelt tribute to the beloved entertainment journalist and film critic Barry Ronge. A rare privilege, I stepped into Barry’s tranquil Johannesburg home and conversed with his partner of 47 years, Albertus van Dyk. Their starry-eyed story unfolds beautifully, a love that blossomed against their shared passion for the silver screen.
…even just like that bumblebee arriving out of the blue.
That is my world, this world of serendipity, of mystic experiences. I’ve lived in this house for so long, in this garden, Barry and I. I can’t remember a bumblebee flying into the house. And as we sat and we began our conversation, bee flew into the home, a bumblebee, because I called him bee. That is so lovely, so auspicious.
You know, the public saw one version of Barry. How close was this to the Barry you know and love?
Authentic, absolutely real, yes. Barry shared, you know, I almost think it’s like Oprah Winfrey. The trials through fat and being obese and losing weight and eating too much ice cream and just being too big. Barry shared all that. His Spit and Polish was also a fabrication, because he would take many, many stories and weave them into a column every week and create another world and people read it.
And that’s what I said, Spling, when you talk to people on the radio, you speak to them in their bedroom, in their lounge, in their privacy, and it gives them the license to be more familiar. And the Spit and Polish was exactly that. Okay, it was biting, it was catty, it was sarcastic, it was critical, but it was also sharing a part of his life. But it was not always the truth. It doesn’t mean he lied. It was some fabrication or creation put together to create a whole story, because after all, he was still a storyteller.
‘Raconteur’ is that lovely word they use on Wikipedia. Yes. Which is so important, because he’s not a comedian. A raconteur tells a story to entertain, to enthrall, to educate. Why do people like reading his stories? Because he was foremost an educator.
He also had that accessibility, because he was able to not take himself too seriously that he didn’t feel approachable. There was a warmth to him that I think shone through. Yes. And he also managed to just sparkle with exuberance in his writing and broadcasting. And I think that really just set him apart from other broadcasters. It wasn’t just pure hype. It was just this wellspring of…
Authenticity.
Yes. And just getting excited about the minutiae of life that just came through so clearly, and it was infectious. And I think people gravitated towards that and just wanted to find out what was fueling all of that. So would you say this magical outpouring was an extension of who he was? Or, what was the secret to his success?
That was the secret. And it’s not a secret really, because it’s authentic. And if we go back to Barry as the lecturer at WITS, it’s legendary about Barry’s lectures and how he communicated and how he entertained and informed. So yes, it’s natural. It’s who Barry was… that’s why we were together. We actually both like that. Enthusiastic about life. Curious about life.
And also like wanting to create a real connection, I think. There was that feeling of love that came through. And that he was trying to communicate an idea because he cared so much about whoever was listening.
Yes.
So that made it really special.
Thank you.
Many people seem to recall the exact moment they met Barry or a personal quip. You know, my parents bumped into him at the Grahamstown Festival… I’m not too sure what they call it now. Makhanda Festival. Arts Festival. But I remember them. It was after some theatre production. And I think Barry was chatting to them afterwards. But they remember that moment. And I think most people actually have got a very strong visual recall on the moment they meet Barry. Did he have any favourite sayings?
Yes. There are many scenes from movies. It was our private jokes, you know. What watch? From The Third Man (Casablanca). What watch? Liebschen. Such watch? And then he’d say, three o’clock. And I said, ah… such watch. So these are little things that we have. And we would joke about things. I wonder who Barry loved more… Charlize Theron or Marilyn Monroe. I think Marilyn Monroe for her entertainment value.
We were in New York on a Christmas day one year. And of course, it’s in the winter snow. Barry loved Christmas. We loved going overseas in the Northern Hemisphere Christmas. And we spent the whole Christmas watching Marilyn Monroe movies. And it was the first time we were in Barry’s world of what Barry really loved about film. Interacting, seeing.
But then people started talking back to the screen and applauding to Marilyn Monroe when she enters. Or Joan Crawford when she enters. And you think, wow, what a strange world this is. That gave us another dimension. Until, yeah, we started the film festivals here. Barry ran the Joburg Film Festival with the French cultural people. The Jewish Board of Deputies. And he just learned about movies in a different way.
Barry was never a snob. There are many movie snobs who thought he was too common for them. But Barry could be very serious in a different way. Or else he wouldn’t have been able to interview all these movie directors and actors and be in their world and let them open. He had a keen sense of intuition. And he would find something that opens that moment.
