If you have never heard the name of Linda Watkins, you can easily be forgiven. But you might recognize her face with appearances in many television programs and a few movies from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Heralded to become a major star with a very strong performance in her 1931 film debut, Sob Sister, Watkins then made only five more films before taking a 17 year screen hiatus. Continue reading
When Douglas Fairbanks Sr. died on December 12, 1939, newspapers pointed out that he was one of the three biggest moneymakers of Hollywood just 14 years earlier. After 1925 Fairbanks starred in only seven more films, with his final film being 1934’s The Private Life Of Don Juan.
Here is the original news caption: Continue reading
Henry Fonda in The Male Animal (1942)
When one reads or hears about the fear of debate and the airing of opposing viewpoints at colleges, it is indicative of a disheartening and sickening trend towards academic totalitarianism.
The issue is not a new one.
The following dialogue is from the 1942 film The Male Animal and describes exactly the quandary we are facing today. Continue reading
There is nothing extraordinary happening as we look north up Sixth Avenue from 31st Street.
There’s lots of horse manure in the street and there’s some construction and workers beneath the Sixth Avenue El. The bar on the corner has western saloon style doors and advertises Triple X German Liquors on its sign. A high pressure fire hydrant is on the corner, a sight rarely seen today as the city removed most of them almost three decades ago . The tallest building on the left between 32nd and 33rd Streets is Gimbels Department Store.
As much as we’d like to put an exact date on the photo we cannot. It is uncredited and labeled 1911. There is one intriguing clue however. It’s blurry but if you look at the roof of the building on the left you can see a billboard ad for Eva Tanguay (1878-1947) appearing at The Colonial Theatre. Continue reading
Comedian W.C. Fields does not strike me as someone who would have had any passion for baseball. In James Curtis’ comprehensive 2003 biography of Fields, not one page mentions baseball or any player of the National Pastime. So the news caption below for this photograph is pure Hollywood ballyhoo. Continue reading
Caesar and Glamour
Edward G. Robinson sometimes known as “Little Caesar” currently is appearing as a foreman of a tough gang of trouble-shooting power linemen in Warner Bros.’ “Manpower.” Here he chats with the feminine lead in the film Marlene Dietrich. George Raft completes the cast. Credit: Warner Bros. Studio / King Features Syndicate 1941
It seems as though Robinson is intently studying his co-star. So what did Robinson think of Dietrich? Continue reading
Lucille Ball flashes her best smile as her husband, Desi Arnaz fumbles with a corsage as they dine at the Brown Derby. photo: Acme 3-6-48
In 1948 Lucille Ball was starring in the CBS radio program My Favorite Husband. With the success of the show CBS proposed that Lucy develop My Favorite Husband for the growing medium of television. That show would become I Love Lucy starring Lucy and real life husband Desi Arnaz.
Let’s then contemplate that Lucy’s phenomenal success may never have occurred had she gone through with the divorce she filed against Desi Arnaz on September 7, 1944. Continue reading
Did the two “eligible bachelor” movie stars living together have more than a roommate experience?
Here is what Continue reading
Mr. Ed, featuring a talking horse, was a sit-com success from 1961-1966 primarily airing on CBS.
The premise Continue reading
No wonder Charlie Chaplin looks bewildered. Recognize the other person in the photograph? None other than Jackie Coogan, whom Charlie Chaplin made famous fifteen years ago in the famous picture, “The Kid” – Jackie had never seen the film, so the other day he renewed an old friendship with the comedian, Charlie had the picture run for him, and then sat down on a curb and talked things over as this exclusive photo shows. – photo: Acme March 26 ,1935
In an 1934 interview with Grace Kingsley, Coogan states that he incredibly had never seen The Kid. Coogan says he “remembers nothing of his experiences filming with Chaplin, except running away one day and hiding, when everybody thought he had fallen into the pool.”
These were days when once a film had its initial run Continue reading
