Adventures in European Filmmaking #40
Today's Adventure: Serge Gainsbourg shows Jane Birkin how to seduce Joe Dallesandro
on the set of Je t'aime moi non plus (1976)
for the series:
Adventures in European Filmmaking
April 30, 2008
Great Moments in Marketing #15
Brigitte Bardot for Aziza Cosmetics
for the series:
Great Moments in Marketing
April 29, 2008
Adventures in American Filmmaking #101
Today's Adventure: Busby Berkeley keeps Joan Blondell and Dick Powell in sharp
focus on the set of Gold Diggers of 1937 (1937)
for the series:
Adventures in American Filmmaking
Collect 'Em All #48
Anna Neagle
No. 33 in a series of 50 from Player's Navy Cut Cigarettes
Anna Neagle was born in Forest Gale on October 20th, 1908, and christened Margorie Robertson. Educated at St. Albans High School, she began her career as a teacher of gymnastics and ballroom dancing, and after being a finalist in the World's Ballroom Championship, she turned to the stage and made her debut in Charlot's 1926 Revue. While she was still in the chorus, Jack Buchanan noticed her and she leapt to fame overnight as his leading lady in Stand Up and Sing, repeating her success with him on the screen in Goodnight Vienna. Bitter Sweet, The Queen's Affair and Nell Gwynn are her later pictures.
for the series:
Collect 'em All
They Were An Item #42
They Were Collaborators #449
Charles Chaplin and Edna Purviance
for the series:
They Were an Item,
They Were Collaborators
The Ink & Paint Set #32
Mickey Rooney in The Autograph Hound
(Jack King; Disney; 1939)
for the series:
The Ink and Paint Set
Annals of Crime #16
Original Caption:
Wires Ready for Hauptmann Trial
Flemington, NJ -- The Press is ready for the Hauptmann murder trial. Here is a view of the press set up in the Flemington Court house where Bruno Hauptmann of the Bronx will be tried for the murder of baby Lindbergh. The grand jury indicted him for the crime on October 8th. (1934)
for the series:
Annals of Crime
April 28, 2008
Miniseries Addendum #1:
More Stars Than There Are in HUAC #21
Bertolt Brecht
(massive thanks to John Walter for this Brechtian image)
for the series:
miniseries addenda
When Legends Gather #386
Mick Jones, Joe Strummer and Jello Biafra
for the series:
When Legends Gather
The Art of Jazz #56
Roy and Diz, Vol. 2
(Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie)
(Clef Records; 1955)
for the series:
Art of Jazz
April 25, 2008
Intervista #4
In August of 1968, Chicago's WFMT-FM broadcast this edition of Studs Terkel's Wax Museum featuring composer, guitarist and full-time anarchist Frank Zappa. In between LP cuts by The Mothers of Invention (which have been edited out of this recording . . . not by me, I hasten to add), Zappa and Terkel discuss the psychology of audiences; Zappa's formative years in the California desert; the true meaning of such compositions as Who Are the Brain Police? and Brown Shoes Don't Make It; the genesis and hidden wonders of Zappa's first solo LP, Lumpy Gravy, as well as the uncertainties inherent to the life of an American composer with no commercial potential.
Frank Zappa sounds understandably depressed throughout.
for the series:
Intervista
They Were Collaborators #447
Benny Goodman and Frank Sinatra
for the series:
They Were Collaborators
April 24, 2008
When Legends Gather #385
Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and Kenneth Anger; hanging out at the Abbey of Thelema
for the series:
When Legends Gather
Artists in Action #355
Pedro Almodovar helps his mom tend to her knitting
for the series:
Artists in Action
They Were Collaborators #446
Jean-Pierre Leaud and Julien Duvivier
for the series:
They Were Collaborators
April 23, 2008
Adventures in American Filmmaking #100
Today's Adventure: Director Cecil B. DeMille explains the dynamics of a romantic scene to Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature on the set of Samson and Delilah (1949).
for the series:
Adventures in American Filmmaking
April 22, 2008
The Art of the Courtroom #1
Norman Mailer testifies in the murder trial of Jack Henry Abbott (1982)
for the series:
Art of the Courtroom
Adventures in the National Pastime #2
Today's Adventure: New York Yankees Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto play a mean game of Cribbage (1950)
for the series:
Adventures in the National Pastime
The Art of Jazz #55
Indestructible
(Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers)
(Blue Note Records; 1964)
for the series:
Art of Jazz
April 20, 2008
The Art of Wellness #10
(immense thanks to Tommie Hicks for this here image)
for the series:
Art of Wellness
They Were Collaborators #445
Roger Vadim, Rock Hudson and Gene Roddenberry
for the series:
They Were Collaborators
April 19, 2008
Friends and Family #26
Carlo Gambino's coffin negotiates traffic on its way to a final resting place (1976)
for the series:
Friends and Family
April 18, 2008
When Legends Gather #382
Maurice Chevalier, Judy Garland, Anthony Perkins and Eddie Constantine
for the series:
When Legends Gather
Seminal Image #805
Abismos de pasión
(Wuthering Heights)
(Luis Buñuel; 1954)
for the series:
Seminal Images
Adventures in the Fight Racket #15
Today's Adventure: The Bronx Bull, Jake LaMotta, receives a congratulatory smooch from his loving wife Vicki after his successful Middleweight title defense against Laurent Dauthille (1950)
for the series:
Adventures in the Fight Racket
Annals of Crime #15
Original Caption:
Brooklyn -- A teenage "gang-war" was averted Wednesday night when Brooklyn Police rounded up forty-six youths in the Borough Park area. Thirty two were held on charges of conspiracy to commit felonious assault and fourteen others were released in custody of parents on juvenile delinquency charges. Here the youths, backs to camera, are shown huddled together after the roundup. (1954)
for the series:
Annals of Crime
April 17, 2008
They Were an Item #41
When Legends Gather #381
Sonja Henie with Marcel Cerdan and Edith Piaf
for the series:
They Were an Item,
When Legends Gather
W is for Winogrand #9
Couple at Zoo Looking at Each Other, Wolf in Cage
(New York; 1962)
for the series:
W is for Winogrand
Before and After #121: Edgar Allan Poe
Before
After
(vast and all-conquering thanks to Tommie Hicks for these images)
for the series:
Before and After
April 16, 2008
The Art of Jazz #54
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
(Charles Mingus)
(Impulse! Records; 1963)
for the series:
Art of Jazz
When Legends Gather #380
Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton
for the series:
When Legends Gather
April 15, 2008
Ollie Johnston dies at 95
Heroes of Animated Cinema #3
Ollie Johnston gets into his work animating Johnny Appleseed in 1948.
The last of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, animator Ollie Johnston, has passed away at the age of 95.
Often working with lifelong friend Frank Thomas, Johnston helped raise the art of character animation to new heights, first in shorts and soon after in features like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio and Fantasia. His personal stamp remained on Disney animation right up until The Fox and the Hound in 1981 (oddly enough, right around the same time that Disney animated films entered a severe creative drought).
Naturally, Jerry Beck's Cartoon Brew has access to all the details and tributes.
for the series:
Heroes of Animated Cinema,
Obits
Belated Happy 80th Birthday, Tom Lehrer
Musical satirist Tom Lehrer turned 80 years old last week, an event he presaged in this particular ditty (one of several recorded for European TV in the '60s, all available in links to the right).
for the series:
Birthdays
Adventures in American Filmmaking #99
Cecil B. DeMille is trapped between two cameras; a modern Technicolor unit and the more portable model used on his first feature, The Squaw Man.
for the series:
Adventures in American Filmmaking
Collect 'Em All #47
Douglass Montgomery
No. 32 in a series of 50 from Players Navy Cut cigarettes
Born in Los Angeles on October 29th, 1907, Robert Douglass Montgomery was a prominent member of the Pasadena Community Playhouse while still at a High School. Before he was seventeen, he had won his way to Broadway, subsequently becoming a member of the famous New York Theatre Guild. In 1930 he made his film debut in Waterloo Bridge, under the name of Kent Douglass. After four pictures, he returned to Broadway, but is now back at Hollywood again. Recent successes include Little Women, Eight Girls in a Boat, Little Man, What Now? and Music in the Air.
for the series:
Collect 'em All
April 13, 2008
Artists in Action #351
They Were Collaborators #443
Bonnie & Delaney Bramlett and Duane Allman strive to reach their mikes
for the series:
Artists in Action,
They Were Collaborators
The Golden Age of Publicity #10
Original Caption:
Jimmy Cagney Gets "Atmosphere"
Los Angeles -- James Cagney, pugnacious -- although likeable -- screen star is developing a "nose for news." In search of atmosphere and authenticity for the part he is about to play in his next film, Picture Snatcher, a story of newspaper work, Jimmy was instructed in the fundamentals of newspaper work at a Los Angeles daily. Here he is shown in the Linotype room. (1933)
for the series:
The Golden Age of Publicity
April 12, 2008
When Legends Gather #379
Arnold Stang, Fess Parker and Peter Lorre measure up.
for the series:
When Legends Gather
The Golden Age of Prurience #48
Confidential
(Nov., 1955)
for the series:
The Golden Age of Prurience
The Ink & Paint Set #31
Ben Turpin, Ford Sterling, Mack Swain, Harry Langdon and Billy Bevan in Mickey's Gala Premiere
(Burt Gillett; Walt Disney; 1932)
for the series:
The Ink and Paint Set
The Friends of Milt Hinton #12
Tyree Glenn & Chu Berry, Fort Bragg, N.C., circa 1940
for the series:
The Friends of Milt Hinton
April 11, 2008
Adventures in The National Pastime #1
Today's Adventure: Boston Bees Manager Casey Stengel enters into debate with an indifferent Umpire (1938)
for the series:
Adventures in the National Pastime
The Art of Pop #18
The Blues and the Beat
(Henry Mancini)
(RCA-Victor Records; 1960)
for the series:
Art of Pop
April 09, 2008
The Art of Pop #17
Cha Cha!
(Billy May and His Orchestra)
(Capitol Records; 1960)
for the series:
Art of Pop
Friends and Family #25
Original Caption:
Washington, D.C. -- This is the scene in the Senate Caucus Room today as Joseph Valachi testifies before the Senate Investigations Subcommittee. Valachi, who told investigators about his activities in the 'Cosa Nostra' crime syndicate, is also shown on the TV monitor at left. Members of the Committee are shown in background. (1963)
for the series:
Friends and Family
Seminal Image #803
L'Inferno
(Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liguoro; 1911)
for the series:
Seminal Images
April 08, 2008
Annals of Crime #14
Original Caption:
Castaic -- No movie fan is 'Daisy Mae', who swishes her tail willy-nilly in the eyes of handsome actor Robert Mitchum as he begins his chores at the Sheriff's Honor Farm. Mitchum, serving 60 days on a Marijuana charge, was transferred to the Honor Farm after he became a 'Tank Trusty' at the Los Angeles County Jail (1949)
for the series:
Annals of Crime
They Were Collaborators #441
Barbara Bel Geddes and Max Ophuls
for the series:
They Were Collaborators
April 06, 2008
Charlton Heston Dead at 84
Light as we've been in the arena of content lo these past weeks, I thought I should break pattern for but a moment to note that Charlton Heston has passed away this evening at the age of 84.
for the series:
Obits
April 05, 2008
April 04, 2008
April 01, 2008
Jules Dassin dies at 96
Jules Dassin (1911-2008)
First Richard Widmark, now Jules Dassin. It's a sad week for noir fans. At least he got to outlive his HUAC accusers and was married to Melina Mercouri. Now if only I could find a copy of his remake of The Informer, 1968's Up Tight! with Ruby Dee...
Here's his obituary in the New York Times. And, a BBC piece.
for the series:
Obits
Great Moments in Journalism #9
On this day 51 years ago the BBC's Panorama programme broadcast a news item about the annual harvesting of spaghetti.
Rosie Blau of the Financial Times, explains for those unfamiliar; ‘The workers of Ticino, Switzerland, carefully plucked the pasta from the trees before laying it out in the sun to dry. [Richard] Dimbleby’s deadpan voice over explained that each individual strand of spaghetti grew to the same length after generations of cultivation; severe winter frost, however could harm the flavour.
At the time, pasta was rare in the UK – and the BBC was the stalwart source of information about the world. The programme, which we now identify so easily as a hoax, fooled millions when was broadcast…’, ‘An estimated 8 million people watched the programme.
When many phoned in the next day to ask how to grow their own tree, the BBC apparently told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best”.’
for the series:
Great Moments in Journalism
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