At The Beverly Wilshire Hotel
Howard Hughes and Marian Marsh December 12, 1934 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the “Mayfair Ball” (click photo to enlarge)
The Mayfair Ball was the largest social gathering in Los Angeles in the 1930’s. The dashing Howard Hughes was a Hollywood producer at the time. Marian Marsh had appeared Continue reading
Jackie Cooper Dies At 88
Jackie Cooper passed away last week at the age of 88. Cooper who rose to prominence in the Hal Roach produced Our Gang (a.k.a. the Little Rascals) movie shorts, was one of the last remaining movie stars who worked during Hollywood’s golden era of the 1930’s.
Jackie Cooper (left) Love Business 1931
The Our Gang / Little Rascals remaining cast is now down to under a dozen stars. The other living supporting players made brief appearances, many in the later films of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s after creator Hal Roach had sold the franchise to MGM. The most notable living star of those later Our Gang comedies is Robert Blake. I grew up watching Cooper star in Our Gang and his passing is sad, as he was a gifted actor and it is a reminder of how few of the early Hollywood stars remain. Unlike his more popular and well known successors as leads in Our Gang, George “Spanky” McFarland and Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Cooper was cast in several big budget Hollywood productions and was almost always very good in whatever he was in.
Jackie Cooper was a rarity, in that very few Continue reading
Intersection of Canal & Chrystie Street, 1928. Note the humpback street sign and the policeman who is not directing traffic because there is none.
We are looking north along Central Park West then (known as Eighth Avenue), from 81st Street. Continue reading
SBS Should Stand for Stupid Bus System
It has been several months since the Metropolitan Transit Authority replaced Limited Stop Bus Service on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan with Select Bus Service to speed up trips.
Having used it for most weekdays since its inception in October 2010 I’m ready to offer a judgment – it still needs a lot of improvements.
Now remember, this is the MTA. This is the organization that cannot determine if it has a deficit or a surplus in a year. They are the organization that has announcements on the subways that say, “Thank you for riding with MTA New York City Transit!” As if we have any choice but to use this bureaucratic monopoly. If they were a business entity they would be out of business or the board members would have all been fired.
So I should not expect the MTA to do much right, but foolishly I believe they will figure out the shortcomings of the SBS system by observation or complaints and make adjustments.
Apparently they will not.
Narrow Aisles
First the buses themselves. The bus aisles were designed by a groper. The aisles are so narrow that two people cannot pass each other without rubbing into one another. Either that or Nova Bus, a subsidiary of Volvo, hired Japanese transit designers. From what I’ve seen of the Japanese transit system they pack them in like sardines and actually have “pushers” to squeeze everyone into the trains (if someone did this to me I’d freak out.)
The articulated buses can supposedly hold 60 passengers. Providing that they are under 120 pounds each.
Don’t Yell Fire in Here
The buses get so crowded that I have seen people actually Continue reading
Jayne Mansfield Has A Press Conference 1957
Rome – November 8, 1957
Jayne Mansfield certainly knew how to get the media’s attention.
Five classic Films From The 1960’s That Everyone Should See
I asked my friend Roger to give his summation and write reviews of some of the all-time great movies from the 1960’s. For those who are too young to have seen these gems and automatically dismiss classic movies from the sixties, Roger is a big movie buff and is very good at distilling the essence of movies down to five lines (which is what he has done) to give you a concise, compelling summary.
We here at stuffnobodycaresabout.com believe that a handicap should not prevent someone from being given equal opportunities. Roger has always wanted to write and we felt Roger’s attention deficit disorder makes him well-suited to review movies for the younger generation, many of whom have a limited attention span themselves and can’t read a long review. So with that, here are Roger’s reviews.
Five Classic 1960’s Films ReviewedThe Manchurian Candidate – (1962) Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) keeps having a recurring nightmare about his time in a prison camp during the Korean War. After the war all the members of his platoon act strangely, particularly Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) an unlikeable fellow, and this sets Major Marco on a trail to uncover a sinister plot. If I get cremated I won’t need the cemetery plot my family has in Kennebunkport. Why do razor refills cost so much money compared to buying the assembly with the blade? 9 out of 10 stars
To Kill A Mockingbird – (1962) A supposed favorite book of lots of people who probably never really read it, the movie is Continue reading
Who Is This Man?
At my local library there is a used book store. Sometimes they get unusual items donated. This is one of them.
It is a framed, large format photograph of apparently someone famous from the literary world. The staff at the library book store has put a sign above the photo saying “Who is this literary man?” Four years have gone by and still no answer.
I got out my cell phone and took a photograph of the photo (hence the glare from the glass covering it.)
So I pose it to you the readers, is there anyone who recognizes this man? Please feel free to forward, so we can solve this literary mystery.
A Longer Tour Around Old New York
Today we will look at the old hotels of New York. In some cases these buildings still stand. For others the names have changed. Some have been converted to apartments or other uses. And some are just a memory. Working our way from south to north let’s look at a dozen of the lesser known of New York’s hostelry’s.
Hotel Marlton just off of 5th avenue circa 1920. The center of Greenwich Village and now a street of endless cut price shoe stores, 8th Street was once a fashionable residential neighborhood. Many famous literary and artistic figures resided at the Hotel Marlton at one time. Starting in 1987 the Marlton was leased as a residence for students of The New School of Social Research. It is now closed as a hotel and a dormitory, and its future is undecided. Notice on the side of the hotel there is an advertisement for the hotel proclaiming it “absolutely fireproof.” There was a good reason for touting this feature. On St. Patrick’s Continue reading
Somehow or other this story did not make much of an impact in the news when it occurred in December 2010. This was done by a group of vicious, uneducated creeps. The words I would like to use to describe the vermin who did this I will not publish here.
The damage probably amounts to hundred of thousands of dollars. It also looks like more than 200 graves were harmed from the video posted below. With all the evidence Continue reading