March 31, 2008

The Golden Age of Publicity #9


Original Caption:

Santa Barbara -- Popular actor Rock Hudson is shown with his bride, the former Phyllis Gates, following their surprise wedding on November 9, 1955 in Santa Barbara, California. Rock beams happily as his bride of just a few moments telephones the news of their marriage to friends. Hudson's wedding to the former secretary of his business agent, Henry Willson, took Hollywood by surprise. (1955)

The Cool Hall of Fame #117


Stan Kenton

Seminal Image #801


The Circus
(Charles Chaplin; 1928)

When Legends Gather #378


The Beverly Sisters and The Walker Brothers

The Art of Cinema #299


East Side, West Side
(Allan Dwan; 1927)

March 30, 2008

Seminal Image #800

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Les Quatre Cent Coups (The 400 Blows)
(François Truffaut; 1959)

When Legends Gather # 377
They Were Collaborators #440

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Jean Pierre Leaud, Jeanne Moreau, Bernadette Lafont and Jean Eustache at the Cannes Film Festival to promote 'La Maman Et La Putain' on 18th May 1973.

Adventures in American Filmmaking #98

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John Cassavetes directs A Child Is Waiting

Artists in Action #348

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David Mamet on the set of The Postman Always Rings Twice

March 29, 2008

Seminal Image #799


Wisconsin Death Trip
(James Marsh; 1999)

Cinema Indigo #6


The Lure Of A Woman
(J.M. Simms;1921)

Artists In Action #347


Director Harry Beaumont measures up Virginia Parent for The Broadway Melody.

They Were Collaborators #439


Composer Harold Arlen, lyricist Lew Brown and Eddie Cantor pose for a gag shot on the set of Strike Me Pink.

Tricky: Scenes from a Life #51


Tricky tames a Lion (1953)

When Legends Gather #376


Bobby Short and Jack Lemmon

Artists in Action #346


Elia Kazan generates his own material

(Wo)men of God #3


Kathryn Kuhlman

The Art of Cinema #298


Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler
(Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler)
(Fritz Lang; 1922)

March 28, 2008

Annals of Crime #13

'
Original Caption:

Chicago -- Braving bullets from a trapped safe-blowing gang, policeman Arthur Olsen trades shots with desperadoes as he seeks flimsy shelter behind a car. Olson injured his face when one of the gunmen fired through a plate glass of the currency exchange when he was the first to investigate the call. Olsen immediately called for re-enforcements for the battle, which lasted nearly an hour, in which two yeggs were slain, two captured, one believed to have escaped, and three policemen injured. (1947)

The Cool Hall of Fame #116


Noam Chomsky

The Golden Age of Prurience #47


The Female Animal
(Jerry Gross; 1970)

G is for Gedney #14


Kentucky Tent Revival (1964)

The Art of Science Fiction #9


Startling Stories
(March, 1942)

March 26, 2008

Before and After #119: Julius 'Groucho' Marx

Before


After

The Heretofore Unmentioned #9


Rusty Warren

Artists in Action #345


Cary Grant waits for rain

Seminal Image #798


Les Carabiniers
(Jean-Luc Godard; 1963)

(stupendous thanks to the inimitable Jeff Duncanson of Filmscreed for this image)

They Were Collaborators #438


Bad Brains

March 24, 2008

An Illustrated History of American Labor #6


Original Caption:

Cadillac Salesmen Go On Strike.

New York -- A group of smartly dressed Cadillac salesmen are shown picketing a Cadillac salesroom at 57th and Broadway today in one of New York's strangest strikes. Tthe strikers delivered an angry verbal blast against the Cadillac Division General Managers for allegedly circulating reports that some of them make as much as $40,000 a year. The strikers' major complaints concern such grievances as no fixed hours, no holidays, no paid vacations, no welfare benefits and no pension plans. (1955)

They Were an, um, Item (?) #40


Clyde Tolson and J. Edgar Hoover

Seminal Image #797


Red River
(Howard Hawks; 1948)

Newspapermen #26


Seymour Hersh

Artists in Action #344


Brian Wilson eats a 45

They Were Collaborators #437


Dorothy Sebastian, Joan Crawford and Anita Page

The Cool Hall of Fame #115


Godfrey Cambridge

The Art of the Piano #16


Lily Queen; a Ragtime Two-Step
(by Arthur Marshall and Scott Joplin)
(W.W. Stuart Co.; 1907)

Voices #4


Daws Butler

Friends and Family #24


John Gotti's adoring public registers their displeasure with his conviction on
racketeering charges (1992)

March 23, 2008

Seminal Image #796


King of Kings
(Nicholas Ray; 1961)

W is for Winogrand #8


Untitled (1954)

The Art of Jazz #53


The Sermon!
(Jimmy Smith)
(Blue Note Records; 1957)

Glamour Jungle! #14

Jesters of the Empire #2
Great Scots of the 20th Century #8


Will Fyffe

March 21, 2008

Paul Scofield Dead at 86


Three appreciations of his life and work:

The New York Times

The Telegraph

The Guardian

The Present Day Composer #58


Carl Orff (1895-1982)

They Were Collaborators #436


The New York Mets of 1962

The Art of Civil War #10

When Legends Gather #375


Alan Jay Lerner and Jacqueline Kennedy

March 20, 2008

The Friends of Milt Hinton #11


Ben Webster, Earle Warren, Lester Young and Gerry Mulligan, New York City TV studio, 1957

Sex Education #98


Sophia Loren comes clean.

Artists and Animals #3


Hedy Lamarr meets a monkey.

The Ink & Paint Set #30


George Bernard Shaw in I've Got to Sing a Torch Song
(Tom Palmer; Warner Bros.; 1933)

Jesters of the Empire #1


Norman Wisdom

Annals of Crime #12


Original Caption:

Oakland -- Handcuffed and chained to Sheriff Earl Hollen of Gibson County, Indiana, convicted mass killer Leslie (Mad Dog) Irvin begins his trip from Oakland to Princeton, Indiana and the Indiana prison death chamber. Keeping a close watch are Indiana State Police officers Sgt. W. W. Cornett, and Lt. Willard Walls. The party left by Southern Pacific train after an airline refused to seat Irvin, "out of deference to our other passengers." (1956)

The Cool Hall of Fame #114


Monica Vitti

American Mouthpieces #17


Dudley Field Malone (with his client, John T. Scopes)

When Legends Gather #374


Ray Charles and Pres. Ronald Reagan

March 19, 2008

H is for Hogarth #1


The Denunciation (1729)

Seminal Image #795


Berlin Alexanderplatz
(Rainer Werner Fassbinder; 1980)

Hierophants of Hip Hop #5


The Watts Prophets

Men of God #2


Dr. Gene Scott

The Art of Cinema #297


No Man of Her Own
(Mitchell Leisen; 1950)

Relevant Quote #94


"A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible - indeed, inevitable -
the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally
inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period
will not be equally bloody."
-- Sir Arthur C. Clarke, CBE (1917-2008)

March 17, 2008

World Premiere #1: Hands Across Iraq (2008)


Hands Across Iraq
(Tom Sutpen; 2008)

On March 17, 2003, President George W. Bush interrupted the primetime programming lineups of all major television networks and a handful of Cable outlets, to deliver an ultimatum to the ruler of Iraq.

"All the decades of deceit and cruelty have now reached an end," he stated, with an ominous diminution of his usually well-rehearsed Texas twang. "Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing." Within 72 hours, major combat operations in a campaign whose objective -- the liberation of an otherwise sovereign nation from the once-useful tyranny of its President -- has met with no resistance from anyone in a position to stop it, commenced.

Today it endures . . . as do us all.

We here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . , will now mark the fifth anniversary of Pres. Bush's determined resolve to end decades of deceit and cruelty, through the vehicle of a piece entitled Hands Across Iraq.

It is our hope that you will find it to your liking.

March 14, 2008

Adventures in American Filmmaking #97


Tod Browning and Lionel Barrymore confer on the set of The Devil Doll.