Tag Archives: Entertainment

Classic Hollywood #83 – “Catwoman” Julie Newmar

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Batman’s Catwoman – Julie Newmar

Julie Newmar with Blonde hair

This undated, uncredited photo shows a young Julie Newmar with blonde hair. Newmar did have a film career before and after her turn as one of the sexiest TV villains ever. This is what she looked like years before appearing on Batman.

Julie Newmar was indisputably the best Catwoman on the Batman TV series. Eartha Kitt also played Catwoman, while Lee Meriwether played the part in the 1966 Batman movie.

The leggy Newmar had wickedly delicious lines she would trade with Adam West (Batman). Catwoman’s best piece of dialogue I believe was this exchange with Batman while he is trying to convince Catwoman to surrender:

Batman: I’ll do everything I can to rehabilitate you.

Catwoman: [overcome by happiness]  Marry me.

Batman: Everything except that. A wife, no matter how beauteous, or affectionate would severely impair my crime-fighting.

Catwoman: But I could help you in your work. As a former criminal, I’d be invaluable. I can reform, honestly I can.

Batman: What about Robin?

Catwoman: [pulls a disgusted face]  Robin? Oh, I’ve got it: we’ll kill him.

Batman: I see you’re not really ready to assume a life in society.

Batman has been off the air over 50 years and it’s hard to believe that Julie Newmar (born Newmayer August 16, 1933) will be 86-years-old this year. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #82 – Judy Garland- What Hollywood Said The Day After She Died June 22, 1969

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Judy Garland Died 50 Years Ago Today – How Hollywood Reacted

Mickey Rooney director George Seitz Judy Garland on the set of Andy Hardy Meets Debutante May 18, 1940

Mickey Rooney, director George Seitz and Judy Garland discuss a camera angle on the set of Andy Hardy Meets Debutante May 18, 1940 photo: MGM

Judy Garland’s third husband, Sid Luft claimed that Judy tried to kill herself at least 20 times in their 13 years of marriage.

The public knew of Judy’s ups and downs and her problems with pills and alcohol. What they didn’t realize was just how unhappy the star had been for most of her life and her multiple attempts at suicide. And few people, some close friends and her doctor, realized how ill Judy had been during the last few years of her life.

Judy’s self-destructive path culminated when she was found dead in her London apartment June 22, 1969 of a drug overdose. She was only 47-years-old.

In 1961, Judy’s London physician, Dr. Philip Lebon had diagnosed her with cirrhosis of the liver and insisted she stop drinking. Dr. Lebon warned Judy that she only had five years to live at most.

After her death, eight years after making that prognosis, Dr. Lebon said, “Death could have come at any time. How she lived this long I don’t know.” Continue reading →

Gloria Vanderbilt Dead At 95 – Rare News Photos Of When She Was Young

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Young Gloria Vanderbilt –  Rare Press Photos

Bruce Cabot and Gloria Vanderbilt attend a theater in Hollywood November 29, 1941 photo Acme

Actor Bruce Cabot with 17-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt at the Music Box Theater in Hollywood for the premiere of “They Can’t Get You Down” October 27, 1941 photo: Acme

Being a rich child with a large trust fund did not define Gloria Vanderbilt. Neither did a sensational tug of war child custody battle between her mother Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.  When Gloria Vanderbilt died of stomach cancer in New York on June 17, 2019 at the age of 95, she had achieved prominence in many facets of life. Continue reading →

Mafia Kingpin Frank Costello About To Appear On Television – 1951

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Frank Costello On His Way To Testify Before Senate, To Be Broadcast On National Television

Mafia lord Frank Costello on his way to Senate Investigation on Organized crime 1951

If there was one thing mob boss Frank Costello (1891-1973) didn’t like it was publicity. So appearing before nationally televised Senate hearings on organized crime was especially disturbing to Costello. On the other hand, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver who organized the hearings reveled in the publicity,

The caption for this photo reads:

Doesn’t Care For TV

New York: Frank Costello reputed overlord of the U.S. underworld, arrives at Federal Court, March 13, to testify before the Senate Crime Investigation Committee. After Costello was sworn in, his attorney, George Wolf, objected to the televising of Costello’s appearance. 3/13/1951 credit photo: Acme

An estimated 30 million viewers watching Costello’s testimony live and were riveted to their TV sets. This was the man who controlled organized crime? Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #81 – Clark Gable & Hedy Lamarr

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Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr In Comrade X – 1940

Hedy Lamarr Clark Gable in Comrade X 1940 photo Bull MGMComrade X released in 1940 has a pretty convoluted plot involving Gable smuggling news out of communist Russia. He also ends up aiding Lamarr get out of the country.

Here is the copy from the rear of the  MGM promotional photo: Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #80 – Lee Van Cleef

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The Man With A Name, The Menacing Lee Van Cleef

Lee Van Cleef in Return of Sabata

For nearly 40 years Lee Van Cleef was typecast. He made a living at playing villains. But as he observed, “I didn’t much care if I got out of that bad guy role. I fell in love with the characters. I could do things I couldn’t do in real life, and generally a bad guy is a more colorful part. It’s always more fun to be nasty.”

A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, a trio of “spaghetti westerns” made by Italian director Sergio Leone from 1964-1967 established Clint Eastwood “the man with no name” as a major film star.

The second and third films of the Eastwood- Leone films, also brought Lee Van Cleef from mid-level billing status to international stardom.

For 15 years with hawk-like looks, penetrating gaze and low voice, the lean six foot two Lee Van Cleef toiled in films and television, almost always cast as a bad guy. He struggled to make ends meet.

The Breakthrough Role

But on April 10, 1965 Lee signed a contract for 30 percent more than he had ever previously made to co-star as bounty hunter Colonel Mortimer in For A Few Dollars More.

Up until the signing, Lee and his wife Joan had been living on residuals from television appearances, unemployment checks and her salary as a secretary. Prior to committing to the film Lee had not appeared in a film since 1962. Continue reading →

If You Think Amazon’s Alexa Is Ruining The World, You’ll Love This Song

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Alexa (Can You Hear Me?) – Beans On Toast’s Brilliant Song

Beans on Toast, a British musician came up with what I think is the best song (at least lyrically) in the last year.

Here is the video for Alexa —

In late 2014 a scandal emerged when Samsung’s Smart TV voice command recorded and shared everything within earshot, when the feature was activated. Samsung’s privacy policy (which almost no one read) warned, “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party,”  Some people were outraged.

Yet soon after, millions of people began to voluntarily install a true digital spy in their home, Amazon’s Alexa. It is sheer madness that people are willing to be monitored, quantified and algorithimed, but are not alarmed by the ultimate repercussions of the loss of privacy.

About Beans On Toast

Beans’ real name is Jay McAllister who hails from Braintree, Essex.  Since 2009 McAllister has annually released an album on his birthday, December 1.  Alexa is off of McAllister’s tenth  studio album, 2018’s, “A Bird In The Hand.”  Continue reading →

Hope For Rock N’ Roll? Amazing Kids Playing Deep Purple’s “Burn”

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There Are Kids Who Are Learning What Music Really Is

Maybe There’s Hope For The Appreciation of Rock n’ Roll

Believe it or not I’m not that old. But I have lived long enough to have witnessed the virtual death of rock ‘n roll and the talent that is necessary to compose and perform it. To clarify, perform on an actual instrument, not a computer. An instrument that requires thousands s of hours of practice to not just have competence but to excel and display true talent.

Yet, when you go into almost any store like Sephora, Pac Sun or Hollister, in any mall in America you are bombarded by some loud sounds emanating from the store’s sound system. It’s the popular music of today.

It’s an assault on any adult entering with kids but that is why they are playing; A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Bebe Rexha, Rich The Kid, Lil Dicky, or Nipsey Hussle.

The stores play the Billboard Hot 100 pop dreck, hip-hop, or heavily computerized, synthesized autotune junk that appeals to kids and teens. Stores want them to shop there and that is what kids listen to and have grown up on for the last three decades. These kids and many of their elders know no other form of what they think passes for music. They like the instrument-less, undifferentiated ear candy which has permeated the minds of malleable Millennials  and Generation Z for over 30 years.

But not all kids.

Here is the evidence. In Easton, PA in 2017 Houseband, apparently from the local School of Rock comprised of teens, playing Deep Purple’s “Burn.”

Realize, throughout history every adult generally despises music that is popular with their kids. Continue reading →

Classic Hollywood #78 – Marilyn Monroe and Alan Ladd

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Marilyn Monroe’s First Public Appearance In Hollywood After Her Marriage To Joe DiMaggio – 1954

Alan Ladd Marilyn Monroe

Hollywood – March 9 – Marilyn Wows Movie Crowd – Marilyn Monroe made her first public appearance in Hollywood last night since her marriage to Joe DiMaggio and her trip to Japan and Korea, and promptly stole the show. She showed up with a new platinum-blonde hairdo and wearing a low-cut white satin sheath gown. The occasion was Photoplay magazine’s annual awards dinner at which she and Alan Ladd, with whom she’s pictured, were named Hollywood’s most popular actress and actor. (AP wirephoto 1954)

Marilyn Monroe and Alan Ladd may have been Hollywood’s most popular actress and actor, yet neither was ever nominated for an Academy Award. Continue reading →

The Beatles Leave London To Invade The U.S.A. – February 7, 1964

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It Was 55 Years Ago Today – The Beatles Came to The USA

beatles feb 7 1964

Feb 7, 1964 – The Beatles Leave London For New York – The Beatles singing group is shown at London airport this morning prior to departing for appearances in New York. From left are Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. AP wirephoto via cable from London

Our headline (thank you, Sgt. Pepper) points out that remarkably it has been 55 years, not 20 years ago today that the Beatles left London for New York City. The British Invasion was underway. The world would never be the same, not just musically, but in fashion and pop culture.

If you want to get a sense of what Beatlemania was like when the Fab Four first arrived in New York, there is a forgotten little film Continue reading →