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‘Antenna’ 1995
WILL JULIA MARRY MASON?
Author: Elena Serova
For the second time in the last two years the legendary Mason Capwell has visited Russia. And every time
he has skipped Moscow. Last summer he came to St. Petersburg for the festival ‘White Nights.’ This year he’
s visited Belarus. This year “Mason” has come to fulfill the request of the FIDOF chairperson Armando
Moreno to greet the participants of the Slavyansky Bazar (Slav Market) Festival in Vitebsk. Lane Davies who
on screen was the rebellious Capwell is a personal friend of Prof. Moreno and a representative of the FIDOF
headquarters. So he fulfilled the task with pleasure.
THE ‘LUBE’ MUSICIANS ARE CRAZY ABOUT LANE
A sleeping car ticket to Vitebsk had been reserved for the actor. However, receiving the Belarus visa took
more time than the festival organizers had planned. The actor well known all over the world appeared to be a
modest and unpretentious man. He agreed to take a bus ride with pleasure. Actually he had to share the bus
with the musicians from the (Russian) ‘Lube’ band: the bus had been reserved for them. During the trip the
musicians grew quite fond of the overseas star.
The first time the journalists had a chance to see Lane Davies was at a round table conference organized on
occasion of the FIDOF celebrating 30 years of existence. The actor in a dark-blue shirt and a light-grey
jacket was smiling to the people present heartily. All the female ‘pen acrobats’ never took their eyes off him,
and each of the ladies was sure it was her he was smiling at, exclusively. The girls found that in real life he
looked younger and more attractive than on screen.
The chairman of the ‘round table,’ the president of the Slavyansky Bazar corporation Serguey Vinnikov was
also influenced by the screen image’s charms, so he introduced not Lane Davies but “Mr. Mason,” much to
the journalists’ delight. Lane said he was used to such slips. Davies was asked why he had come to Vitebsk,
if he was familiar with Slav culture. Lane said frankly he was familiar only with Slav music and that he’d come
because he liked to travel, generally. Then the Vitebsk journalists started fishing for compliments to their
native town. Mason was not greedy with them. Almost all the journalists wanted to ask whether Mason would
marry Julia or not, but none of them dared to: the atmosphere of the round table did not presuppose such
questions.
HAMLET? CAN DO
After the conference was over the correspondents surrounded the actor. Each of them asked for a specific
time for an interview. There were so many requests that it was decided to organize a press conference. To
add to this, they tried to intercept ‘Mason’ in the ‘Vitebsk’ hotel he was staying at. (By the way, not all
Russian stars agree to stay here. Igor Nikolaev, Philipp Kirkorov, Oleg Gazmanov and many others prefer
the elite hotel ‘Eridan.’ Davies was quite satisfied with the de luxe suite at ‘Vitebsk.’) At the elevators ‘Mason’
was met by the nimble Ukrainian journalists who managed to learn the answer to the great mystery of the
actor’s gastronomic preferences.
‘Mason’ was just about to have a cup of coffee, so he told the girls. In Vitebsk Davies appeared to be too shy
to order any special food for himself, though it was hard for him as a vegetarian to choose the dishes to his
taste. At first he had to live on bread and coffee; later a vegetable table was organized for him and so he
managed to taste the famous Belarus “deruns” (a national Belarus dish).
In the evening, at the press conference the conference hall was packed full. The first question, naturally, was
how much in common Lane had with Mason. “Mason and I have the same sense of humor,” Davies said. He
added Mason was ambitious like himself but smarter. “On the other hand, I have a higher self-esteem, and
also I drink less,” the actor stated. “But on the whole, when you have played a role for five years, willy-nilly
you become more and more like your character.”
Lane Davies is a graduate of New York University theatre dept. He started his acting career with a number of
soap operas after which he was invited to play Mason in ‘Santa Barbara’. Davies says they were shooting
SB in the mornings five days a week, and in the evenings he was to play in his own Santa Susana Repertory
Theatre – “now Hamlet, now Macbeth”. After a while, combining these activities was too much for Lane and
he had to bid farewell to Mason. After they had completed their work in “SB”, several actors, including Lane
Davies, made a world tour to promote the show in the countries where it was on. (Today it is being aired in
36 countries.) During the trip he made friends with the actors who played the roles of Ted, Sophia and Julia,
and they still are in touch.
LANE MAKES NO SLIPSHOD WORKER
After the tour Lane married and now lives quite happily with his wife and two sons who are 3 and 4. “We
have only boys in our family,” Davies says. “My brothers and I have all in all 9 sons and not a single
daughter.” By the way, the actor refused to give the names of his wife and sons. He was even too
superstitious to write them down on paper. (I cannot but say that the same newspaper had mentioned their
names more than once before; another newspaper proudly announced Lane named one of his sons
“Mason”: they must have misheard ‘Nathan’ – Olga) When asked what his wife was, Lane said that being his
wife was a hard enough job; to add to this, she’s a producer at his theatre.
Davies has no ideas about his sons’ future. “The main thing for them is to grow up good, decent people,” he
says, “and what they become – politicians or actors – is not that important. I can say one thing: I am not
going to waste my energy trying to interfere in case they want to become actors, the way it was once done
with me.”
The journalists really wanted to know who Davies would give his heart to if he were Mason. It appeared
Mason’s tastes were not too different from the actor’s: “From the human point of view Mary’s closer to me,
from the emotional point of view it’s Julia.” Lane was reproached that he had given five years of his life to the
soap. “Wouldn’t it be better to devote all this time to Shakespeare?” an exalted journalist exclaimed.
“Shakespeare is very good,” Davies said, “but I wanted to play a contemporary man. To work at such a
complicated character as Mason was interesting to me.”
As to other facts from Lane Davies’ biography, we managed to find out that he lives in Los Angeles and at
leisure likes fishing. When asked how big the biggest fish he’d ever caught was, he gaily threw his arms very
wide so that the fish he was showing seemed just a little smaller than a shark. But the main question all the
mass media people were interested in, that is would Julia marry Mason, Lane did not answer. A commercial
secret.
THE STAR RELAXING
In Vitebsk Davies had no chance to go fishing though there are enough fish in the local rivers. The cinema
star was being entertained with the ‘high society’ parties. At the banquet dedicated to the 25th anniversary of
the Russkaya Pesnya (Russian Song) band, the actor drank mineral water. But later the atmosphere of the
Russian feast produced a relaxing effect on ‘Mason’, and he tasted vodka, after which he let a well-known
journalist Galina Kmit sit for a while in his lap.
The actor was generous in receiving his fans’ love. The autographs he gave in Vitebsk are countless. The
journalists were the luckiest. After the press conference they had a chance to take pictures with the beloved
character. He was holding the girls round the waist with an overseas tenderness.
Lane spent little time indoors. He went for walks in Vitebsk, always surrounded by crowds of natives, visited
receptions and the art-café where the festival people were drinking spirits and discussing the news. He
seldom changed out of the jeans and the jacket into a suit. Only once Lane really looked solemn: at the
festival closing concert. In a black tux the actor went out to the stage and sang a simple song. He was
greeted with an ovation that many pop stars can only dream of. As Davies admitted he had never studied
singing professionally and he sang only in musicals. However, it was unimportant. He could do without
singing at all. It was enough for him to enter the stage to delight the many thousands audience. The public
were looking at Lane with loving eyes; but what they really were interested in was whether Julia would marry
Mason or not…
*
Having read this you probably have smiled a bit; but you also must have understood why I do not use
Russian articles on my site too much; the information is controversial and often many things are just wrong.
Lane’s own interviews are the same kind: something must be ‘lost in translation
WILL JULIA MARRY MASON?
Author: Elena Serova
For the second time in the last two years the legendary Mason Capwell has visited Russia. And every time
he has skipped Moscow. Last summer he came to St. Petersburg for the festival ‘White Nights.’ This year he’
s visited Belarus. This year “Mason” has come to fulfill the request of the FIDOF chairperson Armando
Moreno to greet the participants of the Slavyansky Bazar (Slav Market) Festival in Vitebsk. Lane Davies who
on screen was the rebellious Capwell is a personal friend of Prof. Moreno and a representative of the FIDOF
headquarters. So he fulfilled the task with pleasure.
THE ‘LUBE’ MUSICIANS ARE CRAZY ABOUT LANE
A sleeping car ticket to Vitebsk had been reserved for the actor. However, receiving the Belarus visa took
more time than the festival organizers had planned. The actor well known all over the world appeared to be a
modest and unpretentious man. He agreed to take a bus ride with pleasure. Actually he had to share the bus
with the musicians from the (Russian) ‘Lube’ band: the bus had been reserved for them. During the trip the
musicians grew quite fond of the overseas star.
The first time the journalists had a chance to see Lane Davies was at a round table conference organized on
occasion of the FIDOF celebrating 30 years of existence. The actor in a dark-blue shirt and a light-grey
jacket was smiling to the people present heartily. All the female ‘pen acrobats’ never took their eyes off him,
and each of the ladies was sure it was her he was smiling at, exclusively. The girls found that in real life he
looked younger and more attractive than on screen.
The chairman of the ‘round table,’ the president of the Slavyansky Bazar corporation Serguey Vinnikov was
also influenced by the screen image’s charms, so he introduced not Lane Davies but “Mr. Mason,” much to
the journalists’ delight. Lane said he was used to such slips. Davies was asked why he had come to Vitebsk,
if he was familiar with Slav culture. Lane said frankly he was familiar only with Slav music and that he’d come
because he liked to travel, generally. Then the Vitebsk journalists started fishing for compliments to their
native town. Mason was not greedy with them. Almost all the journalists wanted to ask whether Mason would
marry Julia or not, but none of them dared to: the atmosphere of the round table did not presuppose such
questions.
HAMLET? CAN DO
After the conference was over the correspondents surrounded the actor. Each of them asked for a specific
time for an interview. There were so many requests that it was decided to organize a press conference. To
add to this, they tried to intercept ‘Mason’ in the ‘Vitebsk’ hotel he was staying at. (By the way, not all
Russian stars agree to stay here. Igor Nikolaev, Philipp Kirkorov, Oleg Gazmanov and many others prefer
the elite hotel ‘Eridan.’ Davies was quite satisfied with the de luxe suite at ‘Vitebsk.’) At the elevators ‘Mason’
was met by the nimble Ukrainian journalists who managed to learn the answer to the great mystery of the
actor’s gastronomic preferences.
‘Mason’ was just about to have a cup of coffee, so he told the girls. In Vitebsk Davies appeared to be too shy
to order any special food for himself, though it was hard for him as a vegetarian to choose the dishes to his
taste. At first he had to live on bread and coffee; later a vegetable table was organized for him and so he
managed to taste the famous Belarus “deruns” (a national Belarus dish).
In the evening, at the press conference the conference hall was packed full. The first question, naturally, was
how much in common Lane had with Mason. “Mason and I have the same sense of humor,” Davies said. He
added Mason was ambitious like himself but smarter. “On the other hand, I have a higher self-esteem, and
also I drink less,” the actor stated. “But on the whole, when you have played a role for five years, willy-nilly
you become more and more like your character.”
Lane Davies is a graduate of New York University theatre dept. He started his acting career with a number of
soap operas after which he was invited to play Mason in ‘Santa Barbara’. Davies says they were shooting
SB in the mornings five days a week, and in the evenings he was to play in his own Santa Susana Repertory
Theatre – “now Hamlet, now Macbeth”. After a while, combining these activities was too much for Lane and
he had to bid farewell to Mason. After they had completed their work in “SB”, several actors, including Lane
Davies, made a world tour to promote the show in the countries where it was on. (Today it is being aired in
36 countries.) During the trip he made friends with the actors who played the roles of Ted, Sophia and Julia,
and they still are in touch.
LANE MAKES NO SLIPSHOD WORKER
After the tour Lane married and now lives quite happily with his wife and two sons who are 3 and 4. “We
have only boys in our family,” Davies says. “My brothers and I have all in all 9 sons and not a single
daughter.” By the way, the actor refused to give the names of his wife and sons. He was even too
superstitious to write them down on paper. (I cannot but say that the same newspaper had mentioned their
names more than once before; another newspaper proudly announced Lane named one of his sons
“Mason”: they must have misheard ‘Nathan’ – Olga) When asked what his wife was, Lane said that being his
wife was a hard enough job; to add to this, she’s a producer at his theatre.
Davies has no ideas about his sons’ future. “The main thing for them is to grow up good, decent people,” he
says, “and what they become – politicians or actors – is not that important. I can say one thing: I am not
going to waste my energy trying to interfere in case they want to become actors, the way it was once done
with me.”
The journalists really wanted to know who Davies would give his heart to if he were Mason. It appeared
Mason’s tastes were not too different from the actor’s: “From the human point of view Mary’s closer to me,
from the emotional point of view it’s Julia.” Lane was reproached that he had given five years of his life to the
soap. “Wouldn’t it be better to devote all this time to Shakespeare?” an exalted journalist exclaimed.
“Shakespeare is very good,” Davies said, “but I wanted to play a contemporary man. To work at such a
complicated character as Mason was interesting to me.”
As to other facts from Lane Davies’ biography, we managed to find out that he lives in Los Angeles and at
leisure likes fishing. When asked how big the biggest fish he’d ever caught was, he gaily threw his arms very
wide so that the fish he was showing seemed just a little smaller than a shark. But the main question all the
mass media people were interested in, that is would Julia marry Mason, Lane did not answer. A commercial
secret.
THE STAR RELAXING
In Vitebsk Davies had no chance to go fishing though there are enough fish in the local rivers. The cinema
star was being entertained with the ‘high society’ parties. At the banquet dedicated to the 25th anniversary of
the Russkaya Pesnya (Russian Song) band, the actor drank mineral water. But later the atmosphere of the
Russian feast produced a relaxing effect on ‘Mason’, and he tasted vodka, after which he let a well-known
journalist Galina Kmit sit for a while in his lap.
The actor was generous in receiving his fans’ love. The autographs he gave in Vitebsk are countless. The
journalists were the luckiest. After the press conference they had a chance to take pictures with the beloved
character. He was holding the girls round the waist with an overseas tenderness.
Lane spent little time indoors. He went for walks in Vitebsk, always surrounded by crowds of natives, visited
receptions and the art-café where the festival people were drinking spirits and discussing the news. He
seldom changed out of the jeans and the jacket into a suit. Only once Lane really looked solemn: at the
festival closing concert. In a black tux the actor went out to the stage and sang a simple song. He was
greeted with an ovation that many pop stars can only dream of. As Davies admitted he had never studied
singing professionally and he sang only in musicals. However, it was unimportant. He could do without
singing at all. It was enough for him to enter the stage to delight the many thousands audience. The public
were looking at Lane with loving eyes; but what they really were interested in was whether Julia would marry
Mason or not…
*
Having read this you probably have smiled a bit; but you also must have understood why I do not use
Russian articles on my site too much; the information is controversial and often many things are just wrong.
Lane’s own interviews are the same kind: something must be ‘lost in translation
This article was provided and translated by Olga. Thank you!