February 08, 2012
February 07, 2012
The Art Of Animation #1
The Fuccons aka OH! Mikey: The Twins Visit
In this bizarre Japanese TV show the fashionably hip Fuccons are played by mannequins with perpetually frozen facial expressions, like the mannequins in the French photographer Bernard Faucon’s pictures.
Treading the Boards #47
Mary Martin (Nellie Forbush) and Myron McCormick (Luther Billis) in South Pacific, 1949
February 06, 2012
The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #4
Princess Marcuzan and the aptly named Dr. Nadir hatch a cunning plan in Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965)
February 05, 2012
The Art of Cinema #483(Super Bowl Sunday Edition)
Charlton Heston grunts, groans and grits his teeth through the role of fictional New Orleans Saints QB Ron ‘Cat’ Catlan in Number One (Tom Gries, 1969)
February 03, 2012
The First Person You See #11
Jack McGowran, asleep at the wheel, in Cul-de-sac (d. Roman Polanski; 1966)
Politicians in Action #63
Original Caption:
(June 03, 1954) Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr. and his son Al Gore Jr., the latter holding his new bow and arrow, in their room at Washington's Fairfax Hotel.
February 02, 2012
They Were Collaborators #705
Treading the Boards #46
[l to r (standing): George Abbott (direction), Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Robert Alton (choreography) and Jo Mielziner (set design) l to r (seated): Joan McCracken (Betty Loraine), Ray Walston (Mac), Mark Dawson (Bob), Isabel Bigley (Jeanie), Bill Hayes (Larry), Irene Sharaff (costumes) and Jackie Kelk (Herbie)]
February 01, 2012
People Who Died #51
Don Cornelius (1936-2012)
. . . and in parting from this vale of tears, we here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . wish you Love, Peace and Soul.
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
January 29, 2012
The Art of the Opening Credit #3
Seconds (1966) directed by John Frankenheimer - Saul Bass title sequence, OST Jerry Goldsmith
The titles were designed by Saul Bass and shot entirely with reflective mylar.
January 28, 2012
The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #3
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Tabonga the Walking Tree gives a wooden performance in From Hell It Came (Dan Milner,1957)
January 27, 2012
The Art of the Opening Credit #2
Crime Without Passion (Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, 1934), montage designed by Slavko Vorkapich
The Art of the Opening Credit #1
99 44/100% Dead (John Frankenheimer, 1974); titles by Phill Norman, music by Henry Mancini
January 26, 2012
January 25, 2012
Mop Tops in Action #49
Paul McCartney fiddles around with an ancestor of the keytar, The Tubon, backstage at a gig in Germany.
For the curious, here's a clip of the Swedish-built instrument in action, used by Scandinavian musical comedy act Hasse & Tage, on the song What the Hell Are They Doing in the Bank After Three O'Clock?
The Friends of Flagg #5
Woodrow Wilson
"Colonel House got me a seat in a theatre, from which I could make this caricature of Wilson, which I labelled 'teacher'. I got outraged letters from devotees of the President. One in Texas called me a murderer!"
January 24, 2012
The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #2
Mimsy Farmer freaks out on acid (or over that populuxe décor) in Riot on Sunset Strip (Arthur Dreifuss, 1967)
January 23, 2012
A Kovacs Moment #8
To celebrate Ernie Kovacs' 93rd birthday today, here's a rare example of his unique brand of absurdity appearing on the big screen in the trailer for Richard Quine's 1957 service comedy Operation Mad Ball.
January 21, 2012
Adventures in American Filmmaking #148
Julie Adams watches Budd Boetticher direct a punch at a stuntman while filming The Man from the Alamo (1953).
When Legends Gather #636Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers #5
Keith Richards and Levon Helm (photo by Jim Herrington)
January 20, 2012
Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #2
Fed to the lions by Michael Gough in Black Zoo
(Robert Gordon; 1963)
Faces of Science #40
Glenn T. Seaborg
Original Caption:
Prof. Seaborg, co-discoverer of plutonium, shows a container that holds samples of the radioactive, artificially produced elements 94 through 102.
This Sporting Life #34
Original Caption:
June 20, 1963. Pretty As A Pitcher. A figure familiar to basketball fans, Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, stoops to conquer as he prepares to display his skill on the baseball diamond. The pitcher, whose long, lovely legs frame the hoop star, is Carol Hodecker. The cute blonde catcher is Charlotte Kirsten, who came to the U. S., from West Berlin six years ago. Both gals are "Bunnies" (hostesses) from the Playboy Club. Wilt met them as they were warming up in a Central Park field for a game with show girls from a Broadway musical in the Broadway Show League series. Wilt never had such glamorous opponents on the basketball court! He now plays with the San Francisco Warriors.
January 19, 2012
Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #1
Wrongly convicted of murder in Stranger On The Third Floor
(Boris Ingster; 1940)
Adventures in the National Pastime #14
Twenty-six-year-old Eddie Gaedel at bat (for the first and only time) for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951. A dwarf/little person standing 3’ 7”, he wore the number “⅛” on his jersey.
January 18, 2012
Son of a Preacherman #6
Woodrow Wilson, President of Princeton University and later President of the United States of America
Artists and Animals #82
Barbara Stanwyck, astride one lucky horsey, near her home in Hollywood in 1938.
The Art of the Cinema #478
In his autobiography, Luis Buñuel singled out the obscure Polish film, Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie (The Saragossa Manuscript, 1965) as a personal favorite, one of the few pictures he saw more than once (three times, in fact). It was an adaptation of a novel by Polish author Jan Potocki, who left behind the incomplete work upon his suicide in 1815. Directed by Wojciech Has, the 182-minute epic surrealist film was severely edited (up to an hour) and fell out of circulation for decades. An uncut print eventually surfaced in 1999, thanks to Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola, who were following the lead of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, the initial instigator and partial financier of its restoration. (The musician died in 1995, before he could see his favorite movie back in its original condition.) For assistance in solving some of The Saragossa Manuscript’s mysteries, go here.
January 16, 2012
January 15, 2012
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