December 31, 2007

Seminal Image #771

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Operación Ogro
(Gillo Pontecorvo; 1979)

Artists in Action #310

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Wilson Pickett

My thanks to Jeff Duncanson for this image.

They Were Collaborators #416

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Saint Etienne

Adventures in American Filmmaking #94


Today's Adventure: Busby Berkeley checks out the talent.

Great Moments in Moxie #14


Carnivale
(Black Blizzard; Peter Medak; 2003)

They Were An Item #31


Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge ... and friend.

Collect 'Em All #42


Jack Hulbert
No. 27 in a series of 50 from Player's Navy Cut Cigarettes

Jack Hulbert was born in Ely on April 24th, 1892. He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, where he joined the amateur theatrical group, and decided that as he had a natural talent for entertaining others, he might as well earn his living by it. In 1913 he made his professional debut in The Pearl Girl, in which a leading role was taken by Cicely Courtneidge, who was destined to become famous with him and to be his wife. After the War, he returned to a successful career, and later took up film work with even greater success, his best-known pictures including Falling for You and The Camels Are Coming.

The Heretofore Unmentioned #1


Lorraine Hansberry

Sex Education #94


Laura Antonelli

The Present Day Composer #53


Paul Bowles (1910-1999)

The Art of Cinema #273


Western Union
(Fritz Lang; 1941)

This Week's Weegee #35

Artists in Action #309


Iris Murdoch contemplates a bust

They Were Collaborators #415


Hugh Paddick, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Horne and Betty Marsden

Adventures in the Fight Racket #11


Today's Adventure: Referee Mushy Callahan counts Carl 'Bobo' Olson out in the
Fourth, thereby ending his Middleweight title shot against Sugar Ray Robinson (1956)

When Legends Gather #335


Miles Davis and Steve McQueen

An Illustrated History of Vice #5


John Sumner, President of The Society for the Suppression of Vice and Martin H.
Meany, New York City Deputy Police Commissioner, supervise the destruction of
forbidden books (1935)

December 30, 2007

Artists in Action #308

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Mickey Dolenz has fun around the King's Road in London in 1968

a short series of Rousseau #3

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River Bank (1896-8)

When Legends Gather #334


Dirk Bogarde and Serge Gainsbourg

Where the Boys Are #5


Tab Hunter (1954)

The Art of Cinema #272


Drunken Angel
(Akira Kurosawa; 1948)

December 29, 2007

Miniseries #5: Carry on, Tallulah

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The demure, stage-bound ingenue; sometime in the 1920s

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What Cecil Beaton saw (1931)

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Tallulah in Hollywood; accompanied by her, uh, secretary (1932)

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On a Rail: A departing Tallulah gazes back at Hollywood from a pullman car on the
Santa Fe Chief
(1932)

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Lower Your Eyebrows: Tallulah and a, um, friend exit Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)

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La Ronde '40: As Helen Hayes gazes longingly at Herbert Hoover, Tallulah and the former President turn on the charm to a much-amused Katherine Hepburn (1940)

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See What the Boys in the Back Room Will . . . : Tallulah raises a glass, to and
for the gentlemen of the press (1950)

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Carnal intentions?: Tallulah clinks glasses with a distressed Louis Armstrong (1951)

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Servant trouble: As her former maid goes up on a forgery/grand larceny
beef, a mink-clad and world-weary Tallulah makes her witness before the
bar of justice (1951)

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Old Shep: Tallulah demonstrates the boundlessness of her affection (1951)

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All the Way with Adlai: Tallulah gives Gov. Adlai Stevenson her rapt attention (1952)

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Been There, Done . . . THAT??: Tallulah sells her story (1952)

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What a Little Moonlight Can Do: As Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Montgomery Clift and Marlene Dietrich sit ringside, Tallulah opens at The Sands (1953)

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Exhausted: Tallulah takes a much-needed break at a CBS recording session (1953)

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Another decade, another secretary (1954)

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Party Girl: Tallulah celebrates . . . something at New York's Hotel Ambassador (1954)

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She Will Lead You, And Then: Starring in a sorely-needed revival of the Ziegfeld Follies, Tallulah acts as chaperone to some uneasy latter-day Ziegfeld Girls (1956)

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Their Hearts Were Young and Gay: Tallulah is mauled in public by former
President Harry S. Truman (1958)

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Her Greatest Challenge: Tallulah acts as chaperone to Rock Hudson at the
premiere of Otto Preminger's Porgy and Bess (1959)

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The demure, stage-bound ingenue; sometime in the late 1950s

December 27, 2007

Seminal Image #770

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To Kill a Mockingbird
(Robert Mulligan; 1962)

When Legends Gather #333

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Elvis Presley and Lee Majors

Artists in Action #307

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Marlene Dietrich

Newspaper(wo)men #21


Hilde Marchant, chronicler of the Battle of Britain for England's Daily Express, gnaws
on the finger of NBC Today's J. Fred Muggs

They Were Collaborators #414


Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar

Seminal Image #769


The Naked Venus
(Edgar G. Ulmer; 1958)

When Legends Gather #332


Jean-Paul Sartre and Daniel Cohn-Bendit

Annals of Crime #2


Original Caption:

New York -- Nine women and five hundred men were herded into scores of police wagons and transported to Police Headquarters in the largest roundup of suspicious characters that New York City has yet known. The drive is believed to have been prompted by the State Public Enemy Law which forbids assembling of known criminals for illegal purposes. Authorities believe they will have to release most of the suspects, as there is no way of proving illegality in connection with their meetings. Photo shows some of the suspects crowded in an ante-room, before appearing in the line up. (1935)

Artists in Action #306


Adolphe Menjou testifies in Open Session

Joints #7


El Morocco

The Art of Cinema #271


The Thief of Bagdad
(Raoul Walsh; 1924)

Men of the West #16


Chuck Connors

December 26, 2007

Great Canadians of the 20th Century #13
Oscar Peterson dies at 82


Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)

Not just Canada's greatest jazz musician, but one of the most talented players the music ever produced, whether swinging hard with his trio (the Ray Brown/Herb Ellis years are hard to beat) in the '50s or matching melodic wits with a variety of fellow geniuses, from Count Basie to Dizzy Gillespie, on a series of duet LPs for Pablo in the '60s. Peterson was a gifted and generous artist, an accomplished composer, and by all accounts a humble and unassuming man who came to life the moment skin touched ivory.

Listening to a live recording of Peterson with bassist Brown and guitarist Ellis from 1958, I can hear a joy and enthusiasm for playing that never gets in the way of delicate, finely measured finger work. Perhaps not a maverick like Art Tatum or Thelonious Monk, Peterson nevertheless brought a new level of sophistication and a higher standard of musicianship to his instrument that many have learned from, but few have mastered.

The Globe and Mail obituary can be found here

Sex Education #93


Clara Bow in Ladies of the Mob (1928)

Adventures in American Filmmaking #93


Today's Adventure: Richard Arlen and Louise Brooks go over a scene with writer Jim Tully on the set of Beggars of Life (1928).

The Friends of Milt Hinton #9


Cab Calloway in a New York studio circa 1970.

December 25, 2007

Happy 100th Birthday Cab Calloway


Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (1907-1994)

MIniseries #4:
Christmas in Vietnam

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An effigy of Saint Nick, and a festive greeting rendered in shaving cream, ornament an armored vehicle some 40 miles West of Saigon (1969)

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With a dash of Yuletide cheer, members of the 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry help to create a convoy road to Bu Dop Special Forces Camp, located three miles east of the Cambodian border (1970)

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Francis Cardinal Spellman does a guest shot at the Ordinance Depot outside of Long Binh; celebrating Christmas mass before 5,000 troops (1966)

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Two USAF Lieutenants prepare Christmas dinner for their comrades at a P.O.W. Camp located somewhere in the North of Vietnam (1968)

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A group of Montagnards in Pleiku brandish toys distributed to them by US Armed Forces (1966)

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In Cu Chi, troops of the 25th Infantry Division's mechanized unit conduct services during the Christmas cease-fire (1969)

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Surrounded by seasonal decor, U.S. Soldiers at the Special Forces base in Quan Loi catch up on their mail (1969)

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The hustle and bustle of pre-Tet commerce grips downtown Saigon (1970)

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It Is As It Was: Phyllis Diller and a club-wielding Bob Hope entertain a multitude of servicemen on the Carrier USS Ticonderoga (1965)

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A soldier from Australia buys remnants of Christmas cheer from an outdoor market in Saigon (1966)

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A small Christmas tree adorns this bunker on Hill 875 in Dak To (1967)

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In Bear Cat, a US Infantry Machine-gunner takes time out to read a Chrismas
card, sent to him all the way from home (1967)

December 24, 2007

Before and After #108: Angela Davis

Before


After

Friends and Family #18


The Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant at Coney Island plays host to the most eventful game of Pinochle in history, as New York Organized Crime kingpin Giuseppe 'Joe the Boss' Masseria ends his reign. (1931)

When Legends Gather #331


F. Scott Fitzgerald and Cornelius Vanderbilt

Artists in Action #305


Upton Sinclair runs for Governor of California

The Cool Hall of Fame #106


Hubert Selby, Jr.

They Were Collaborators #413


Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden

This Week's Weegee #34

Seminal Image #768


Double Wedding
(Richard Thorpe; 1937)

The New Yorkers #5


Carmine DeSapio

Great War Art #9

December 23, 2007

Seminal Image #767


A Farewell to Arms
(Charles Vidor; 1957)

They Were Collaborators # 412


John Wayne and Lee Marvin

When Legends Gather #330


Sonny, Cher and Twiggy on the latter's first trip to Los Angeles in 1967.

December 22, 2007

Artists in Action #304


Mary Pickford looks back

Tricky: Scenes from a Life #46


Tricky le fou (1960)

Ziegfeld Girls #8


Marjorie Whittington and Dolores Rouse

Seminal Image #766


City Streets
(Rouben Mamoulian; 1931)

They Were an Item #30


Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson

When Legends Gather #329


Charles Chaplin and John Phillip Sousa

The Golden Age of Prurience #44


Girls That Do
(Sidney Knight; 1967)

A Who's Who of The Cold War #2


David Greenglass

When Santa Sold #4

They Were Collaborators #411

December 21, 2007

Miniseries #3: Summer of '32

The Prrrologue:

In the year of Our Lord, 1924, a bill passed by the United States Congress, then signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge, granted veterans of the First World War 'Adjusted Service Certificates'. It was thought a good idea. The certificates were, essentially, souvenirs; warrants of recognition for honorable duty in the defense of these United States that could, if the bearer so chose, be redeemed for a fistful of cold, hard cash after a maturation period of twenty years. It was a bonus, in other words; the kind one always receives in grateful tribute from one's employer for any job worth doing done well. In less than a decade, however, the unfiltered reality of Capitalism, American Style, soon dawned on everyone, and as a result the country found itself plunged into the sort of full-scale economic depression no one makes movies about anymore.

In June of 1932, some 15,000 veterans from across the nation -- carrying with them their wives, their children and greater or lesser degrees of desperation -- gathered as one in Washington, D.C. to petition that same United States Congress to enact legislation that would in effect force the War Department to do away with the maturation cycle and cough up the bonuses . . . now. Sponsored enthusiastically by the great Texas populist Wright Patman (who, some 40 years thereafter, would conduct the earliest Congressional inquiries into the abyss of mendacity that was Richard Nixon's 1972 Presidential campaign), the bill sailed through the House, then struck a reef in the Senate where, by its very nature, it was pronounced Dead On Arrival. In the meantime the petitioners, assuming style and title of The Bonus Expeditionary Forces, dug themselves in along the banks of the Anacostia River for the long haul, constructing a vast encampment of makeshift housing that announced to everyone with eyesight that The Bonus Marchers had no intention of leaving the nation's capitol without seeing their grievances redressed; just like it says in the Constitution. In honor of Washington's Chief Executive, they called these do-it-yourself cities Hoovervilles.

Within a month's time, President Herbert Hoover, unflattered by the honor and recognizing that the "depleted federal treasury" line really wasn't fooling anybody, asked the marchers to please go back where they came from. Congress suddenly snapped into action and kicked loose just enough money for carfare, and some of the marchers did take flight. But when the sweeping generosity of Washington's gesture failed to enchant the majority, the always-relaible D.C. Police were sent in to break some heads, while newspapers began the standard cycle of dark speculation on the presence of Anarchists, Communists and other "foreign radicals" in sinister control of Bonus Marcher ranks. The protest, despite the weight of this harassment, endured. On July 28, requesting that "all humanity consistent with the due execution of this order" be used, President Hoover asked Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Douglas MacArthur to clear out the Hoovervilles and send everybody home. And, with all consistent humanity, that's what he did.

Bringing to bear the full might of the US Army's 3rd Cavalry from Fort Myer, Virginia, and the 12th Infantry Regiment out of Fort Howard, Maryland, Gen. MacArthur unleashed an unremitting mandate from the US Capitol in the form of tear gas, unsheathed bayonets and plain, ordinary firepower. When it ended and the fires went out, over 1,000 marchers . . . and their wives . . . and their kids . . . were injured, four were dead, and the Anacostia flats -- once all the Hooverville lumber had been carted away -- resembled nothing less than a battlefield aftermath from that Civil War which suddenly must have seemed a lot closer in time to some Americans than it had just two months prior.

But with Franklin Roosevelt (that radical) in the White House, the Bonus Army returned to Washington one year later. Deploying his more winning charm, Roosevelt managed to buy off the marchers with construction jobs on the Overseas Highway, extending Route 1 to the Florida Keys. It was literally the least he could do. On Labor Day of 1935, some 250 former protesters were killed when a Hurricane demolished the unfinished project. Within a year, perhaps as a way of fending off the ravages of irony, Congress caved in (overriding a Presidential veto) and gave their last full measure of devotion; paying the two dollars to what remained of the Bonus Expeditionary Forces.

So ended the long Bonus March

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December 20, 2007

Annals of Crime #1


Original Caption:

New York: Police remove to station house the bullet riddled chair in which Salvatore Sabbatino, wealthy Vice President of a Stevedoring company and brother of a New York City Court Justice, shot to death Emil Camarda, General Vice President of the Atlantic Coast District of the Longshoremen's Association (AFL) in Sabbatino's private office, October 2, 1941. Sabbatino has not been captured. (1941)

When Legends Gather #328


Robert Altman and Princess Grace of Monaco

Seminal Image #765


Inga
(Joseph W. Sarno; 1968)

C is for Cunningham #11


Blind Sculptor (1952)

The Art of Communism #20

The Cool Hall of Fame #105


Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham

December 19, 2007

The Art of Cinema #270


Rififi
(Jules Dassin; 1954)

Newspapermen #20


Howard Rushmore

They Were an Item #29


Prince Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth

An Illustrated History of Vice #4


Luxury-coated women of trade in midtown are escorted downtown by New York City
Vice Squad detectives after a late-night roust (1943)

Politicians in Action #18


Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) pumps iron

The Children of Lewis Hine #8


Newsies are weighed and measured by City Police
(New York, NY; 1908)

Artists in Action #303


Bob Dylan squats

Seminal Image #764


The Miracle Woman
(Frank Capra; 1932)

They Were Collaborators #410


Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross

The Art of the WPA #11

December 17, 2007

A Who's Who of The Cold War #1


Elizabeth Bentley (aka, The Red Spy Queen)

Artists in Action #302


Freddie Bartholomew examines a club held by a US Justice Department official

When Legends Gather #327


Ingrid Bergman and Kenneth Williams

American Dry Spell #10


After raiding this Chicago speakeasy, Prohibition agents kick back and sample
the cuisine (1924)

When Santa Sold #3

An Illustrated History of American Labor #2


Club wielding police charge a picket line at the Gera Mills in Passaic, New Jersey;
injuring man, woman and child alike (1926)

Broadcasters #30
Before and After #107: Howard Cosell

Before


After

The Art of the Centerfold #37


Linda Gamble (Miss April, 1960)

They Were Collaborators #409


Maxwell Anderson, Rouben Mamoulian and Kurt Weill

The Art of American Fantasy #15

December 16, 2007

B is for Beaton #7


Audrey Hepburn

Artists in Action #301


Mickey Spillane gives the schoolteacher racket a test-drive

They Were Collaborators #408


Truman Capote and Harper Lee

Politicians in Action #17


Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) takes aim

Seminal Image #763


The Scarlet Letter
(Victor Sjƶstrƶm; 1926)

Vietnam: Dramatis Personae #10


Lt. William Calley

When Legends Gather #327


Robert Lowell, Richard Ellmann and Philip Roth

The Art of Pop #13


The Sweet and the Swingin'
(Paul Weston)
(Capitol Records; 1960)

The Cool Hall of Fame #104


Bobbie Gentry

The Golden Age of Publicity #7


From the original caption:

Hollywood: Sexy Sextet. These six charmers have just won roles as Lana
Turner's handmaidens in the new movie Diane, set in the 16th century.
The girls are playing appropriate instruments of the period, such as the
viola da gamba, cittern, dulcimer, rebec, clarion, viola d'amore and virginal,
but their brand of beauty is strictly 20th century. They are left to right, standing:
Ann Brendon, Fay Morley and Alicia Ibanez. Seated, left to right: Bunny
Cooper, Barbara Darrow and Ann Staunton. (1955)

December 15, 2007

Friends and Family #17


On the scene at Joe's Restaurant in Cliffside Park, Bergen County Attorney
General Nelson Stamler looks down upon Willie Moretti, recently deceased
gambler and longtime associate of New Jersey rackets overlord Joe Adonis (1951)

When Legends Gather #326


Jacques Feyder, Albert Einstein and Ramon Novarro

The Art of the Gig #13


(I guess this is when ol' George was actually turning up for his gigs)

Camelot: Dramatis personae #8


Theodore Sorensen

Joints #6


Ciro's

Artists in Action #301


Jasper Johns laughs

Men of the West #15


Jack Benny

(Okay, okay . . . I know, but . . . I ask you, who could resist this image?)

They Were Collaborators #407


Edward Kennedy Ellington and Billy Strayhorn

The Cool Hall of Fame #103


Robert Aldrich

Women of the Stage #6


Paula Uhsan

December 14, 2007

Miniseries #2:
An Evening's Diversion in the Neon Wilderness

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December 13, 2007

Ike Turner dies at 76


The Scotsman's obituary.

a short series of Rousseau #2


The Sleeping Gypsy (1897)

When Legends Gather #325

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Graham Fellows, here as John Shuttleworth (aka Jilted John, Brian Appleton, Ken Worthington etc) and Lyndsey de Paul

December 12, 2007

They Were An Item #28


Gerry Mulligan and Judy Holliday

The Were Collaborators #406


Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Harold Prince, Robert E. Griffith, Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Robbins

The Ink & Paint Set #27


Wheeler & Woolsey in I've Got to Sing a Torch Song
(Tom Palmer; Warner Bros.; 1933)

Artists in Action #300


Bela Lugosi imitates Lester Young

Great Con Artists of the 20th Century #16


Charles Ponzi

The Acid Eaters #3


Ken Kesey

They Were Collaborators #405


Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart

Politicians in Action #16


Gov. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D-NY) stands up to a voter (1930)

They Were an Item #27


The Burtons

Hierophants of Hip Hop #2


Afrika Bambaataa

Ben Shahn's American Life #9


Death on the Beach (1945)

Seminal Image #762


Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(Victor Fleming; 1941)

The Art of Cinema #269


Hell's Angels
(Howard Hughes; 1930)

C is for Cunningham #10


Alone (1950)

December 11, 2007

Artists in Action #299


Robert Mitchum steps lightly by the shore

This Week's Weegee #33

They Were Collaborators #404


The Gene Clark Group

Tricky: Scenes from a Life #45


Tricky rides a gas pump for charity (1955)

When Legends Gather #328


Gerard Malanga, Elia Kazan and Nico

Before and After #106: W.C. Fields

Before:


After

From The Black Panther Coloring Book #11


"The Black Panther thinks and loves Black people"

The Art of the Big Top #12

Women of the Stage #5


Gypsy Rose Lee

This Week's Munch #12


Ashes (1894)

December 10, 2007

Artists in Action #298


James Cagney gets some shuteye between setups

Kansas City Confidential #4


Harry S. Truman opens a menswear pit (1919)

They Were Collaborators #403


Rex Ingram and Alice Terry

The Children of Lewis Hine #7


Noon-hour at the Riverside Cotton Mills
(Danville, Virginia; 1911)

American Dry Spell #9


An anti-Prohibition parade float; just before the end (1932)

The Present Day Composer #53


Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)

B is for Beaton #6


Vivien Merchant

The Art of Cinema #268


The Band Wagon
(Vincente Minnelli; 1953)

Poets are both clean and warm
And most are far above the norm
Whether here or on the roam
Have a poet in every home! #26


Langston Hughes

Broadcasters #29


Wally George

December 09, 2007

MIniseries #1:
American Prom Night

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Adventures in American Filmmaking #92


Today's Adventure: Frances Farmer shoots a scene for Border Flight on Malibu Beach.

Collect 'Em All #41


Leslie Howard
No. 26 in a series of 50 by Player's Navy Cut Cigarettes

Leslie Howard was born in London on April 24th, 1893, and on leaving Dulwich College, worked as a bank clerk. He served with the 10th Hussars until he was invalided out of the army in 1917, and then turned to the stage. While appearing in America, he accepted the leading role in the film version of Outward Bound. Later films include Service for Ladies (which he made in England), Smilin' Through, Berkeley Square, Of Human Bondage, British Agent and The Scarlet Pimpernel. His real name is Stainer; he is married and has a son and daughter.

The Friends of Milt Hinton #8


Jonah Jones and Cab's chauffeur Holmes in Little Rock, 1941.

Great Canadians of the 20th Century #12


Wayne and Shuster

December 08, 2007

An Illustrated History of American Labor #1


Five policemen remove a wounded man from the South Chicago plant of Republic
Steel; scene of a vicious battle between workers (four killed; nearly one hundred
injured), local police and hired vigilantes (1937)

Adventures in European Filmmaking #37


Today's Adventure: On the set of La Strada, Federico Fellini wraps a blanket
around Giulietta Masina (1954)

When Legends Gather #327


Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff and Red Foley

They Were an Item #26


Sophia Loren and Cary Grant

Before and After #105: Melvin Van Peebles

Before


After

Friends and Family #16


A sanguine Benny Siegel is brought in for questioning about his involvement in
the Thanksgiving Day slaying of Murder Inc. turncoat, Harry 'Big Greenie'
Greenberg (1940)

Artists in Action #297


Waylon Jennings waits in a corner

Seminal Image #761


Desistfilm
(Stan Brakhage; 1954)

December 07, 2007

The Art of American Amusement #10


Playland
(Wildwood, New Jersey; 1937)

When Legends Gather #326


Günter Grass and Norman Mailer

(gargantuan thanks to Hanan Levin of growabrain for this image of literary winter)

Joints #5


The Apollo Theater

The New Yorkers #4


Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia

Seminal Image #760


Betrayal
(Lewis Milestone; 1929)

Politicians in Action #15


Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (D-NY) humps an LP from his hiding place in Bimini

The Golden Age of Publicity #6


From the original caption:

"If the Brooklyn Dodgers ever make that shift to Los Angeles, the Dodger's
famed catcher Roy Campanella had better look to his laurels. He may have
competition in 'Robby,' Hollywood's mechanical man, who is serving as
battery mate for young Richard Eyer, ardent little leaguer, here. The pair,
incidentally are also co-players in MGM's forthcoming science-fiction
movie, The Invisible Boy." (1957)

Sex Education #92


Barbara Stanwyck

December 06, 2007

Men of the West #14


Bob Steele

Great Mad(wo)men of the 20th Century #27


Valerie Solanas

They Were Collaborators #402


The Warren Commission

When Legends Gather #325


Edith Piaf and Django Reinhardt

Seminal Image #759


The Last Picture Show
(Peter Bogdanovich; 1971)

(immense thanks to Michael Bingaman for this image)

Tricky: Scenes from a Life #44


Tricky wanders around Manhattan (1963)

Artists in Action #296


Phil Ochs defends the American flag

from The Playgoer and Society Illustrated #2


Jimmy's fiancƩe and her father leave the house in disgust
(from Tantalizing Tommy)
(by Paul Gavault and Michael Morton; 1910)

The Art of Travel #13

December 05, 2007

Adventures in European Filmmaking #36


Today's Adventure: Dario Argento directs Catherine Spaak in Il Gatto a nove code
(Cat o' Nine Tails; 1971)

The Art of Pop #12


On The Way Up
(Ann-Margret)
(RCA; 1962)

A Who's Who of Swinging London #12


Julie Christie

Hierophants of Hip Hop #1


Grandmaster Flash

They Were Collaborators #401


The Teddy Bears

Before and After #104: Clifford Odets

Before


After

Great Canadians of the 20th Century #11


Guy Lombardo

December 04, 2007

Adventures in European Filmmaking #35


Today's Adventure: Metropolis premieres at the UFA Pavillion in
Nollendorfplatz, Berlin (1927)

seminal image #758


Le Silence de la mer
(The Silence of the Sea)
(Jean-Pierre Melville; 1949)

a short series of Rousseau #1

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
View of Ile St Louis: 1888

Artists in Action #295


Grace Slick . . .
. . . uses a gesture whose recent frequency on this blog could be misinterpreted by our visitors

R is for Rogovin #4


Store Front Church (1958)

They Were an Item #25


Jerry Lee and Myra Gale Lewis

The Art of the Centerfold #36


Terre Tucker
(Miss November, 1963)

The Golden Age of Publicity #5


Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich stare languidly in different directions
in this publicity still for the Paramount release, Morocco (1930)

The Art of Cinema #267


Deux hommes dans Manhattan
(Two Men in Manhattan)
(Jean-Pierre Melville; 1959)

They Were Collaborators #400


G. David Schine and Roy Cohn

When Legends Gather #324


Will Hays, Louis B. Mayer and Sid Grauman

Seminal Image #757


Ride the High Country
(Sam Peckinpah; 1962)

The Art of American Fantasy #14



(extravagantly-worded thanks to Lex10 of Glyphjockey for this star-studded image)

Great Moments in Journalism #6


Walter Winchell kicks off a two-week engagement at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas with a sacroiliac-punishing Mambo (1958)

December 03, 2007

Seminal Image #756


Law and Order
(Frederick Wiseman; 1969)

The Art of Communism #19

Adventures in American Filmmaking #91


Today's Adventure: On the set of Carrie, William Wyler dutifully trims Laurence
Olivier's moustache (1952)

Fun at Bohemian Grove #27


Bohemians float (1904)

When Legends Gather #323


Jerry Lewis and Steven Spielberg

Before and After #103: Howard Hughes

Before


After

American Mouthpieces #14


Alan M. Dershowitz

Artists in Action #294


Jacqueline Susann reformulates her theory of The Novel

December 02, 2007

Artifacts #4


On display at the Putnam Museum and IMAX Theater in Davenport,
Iowa is this gold-plated Bach Stradivarius Cornet (serial no. 0620;
bell-mandril #106), purchased in February of 1927 by Leon Bix
Beiderbecke; whose middle name is engraved on its bell.

Update: The webmaster of a Bix Beiderbecke tribute site, under the impression that the above image was knowingly extracted from his corner of the internet, has insisted that we here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . alone among all other sites and blogs who've posted it, provide a link to its presence at his site as well. We are, as always, happy to comply with even the most polite request.

The same image of this gold-plated Bach Stradivarius Cornet can be found . . . here

Adventures in the Fight Racket #10


Today's Adventure: Sonny Liston practices the Field Sobriety Test, while
disguised as Sir Harry Lauder (1963)

Old New York #15


Skating in Central Park (1948)

When Legends Gather #322


Tennessee Williams and Harold Pinter

Broadcasters #28


John B. Gambling

Artists in Action #293


James Durante casts his shadow

The Present Day Composer #52


Ignacy Jan Paderewski, GBE (1860-1941)

December 01, 2007

When Legends Gather #321


Patti Smith and Leonard Bernstein

This Week's Weegee #32

The Art of Pop #11


The Morse Code
(Ella Mae Morse)
(Capitol Records; 1957)

Evel Knievel dead at 69

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Waking up this morning to the news that Evel Knievel has died.
Links to the obituaries:

The Independent

Kansas City Star

Seminal Image #755


Stardust Memories
(Woody Allen; 1980)

This Week's Hopper #11


Office at Night (1940)

They Were Collaborators #399


Elvis Presley and Chips Moman