Sex Education #102

Barbara Steele
An Ongoing Series of Cultural and Personal Observations;
by Tom Sutpen, Stephen Cooke, Richard Gibson, Kimberly Lindbergs and Greg Ferrara

Gary Cooper drops by the set of Union Pacific to chat with Cecil B. DeMille while Joel McCrea looks slightly incredulous.

Today's Adventure: British mystery maven Edgar Wallace takes a stab at directing Red Aces in 1929.

Original Caption:
Hollywood -- Liberace, piano-playing idol of women television audiences, revealed that he hopes to marry Joanne Rio, 24, the "Girl of his Dreams", in a year. In an exclusive United Press interview, Liberace confided he had proposed and hoped to marry Joanne within the year "if she really loves me and wants to wait for me." He said concert, television and film commitments would keep him from marrying for a year. Here, the two are shown during a recent date at a Hollywood supper club. (1954)

Lancelot du Lac
(Robert Bresson; 1974)
(vast and Arthurian thanks to John Macdonald for this image)

Original Caption:
Police are shown carrying out the body of Serge Rubinstein from his Fifth Avenue home where he was found slain today in an upstairs bedroom. Authorities said that the Russian born millionaire appeared to have been strangled. His body was found with hands and feet tied and the mouth taped. It is believed that he died after a "terrific struggle" with an intruder. According to police, "it could have been robbery" but the theory of planned attack was not ruled out. The 46 year old international financier was the central figure of a World War II 'draft dodger' case, and prior to his death had been fighting a deportation order. (1955)

Original Caption:
New York -- Gambler Frank Costello, head bandaged and blood on his coat, is escorted by detectives from Roosevelt Hospital. Costello, returning to his swank apartment after an evening out, was shot and wounded by an unknown assailant who apparently lay in ambush for him. According to the superintendent, who witnessed the shooting, the gunman waited in a car. (1957)

Jack Oakie
No. 34 in a series of 50 from Player's Navy Cut Cigarettes
Jack Oakie, whose real name is Lewis Offield, was born on November 14th, 1903, in Sedalia, Missouri, and educated at La Salle High School, New York. Leaving school, he became a clerk in the the office of a Wall Street broker, but chiefly occupied himself in entertaining the other clerks and devoting much more attention to his activities in amateur theatricals. Later he was offered a job as partner to a well-known vaudeville star, and then received a small part in a Laura La Plante comedy Finders Keepers. His latest successes include Murder at the Vanities, Looking for Trouble and Shoot the Works.

The Hitchcock/Truffaut Tapes make a tranquil return to this blog.
Under discussion in Part Fourteen are Notorious (1946) and The Paradine Case (1947)

Charles Chaplin, Sid Grauman and Buster Keaton in Mickey's Gala Premiere.
(Burt Gillett; Disney; 1933)

Stephen Glass
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
Great Con Artists of the 20th Century

Robert Creeley

Six sixguns are pointed at James Stewart in this publicity still for the Columbia Pictures release, The Man from Laramie (1955)

Today's Adventure: His arm in a sling, Charles 'Sonny' Liston faces the press the morning after the first Clay-Liston tankout. (1964)

John Phillip Law takes aim in Mario Bava's delirious Danger: Diabolik.
A dependable and charismatic staple of Europop cinema in the '60s and '70s, and a busy actor up until he was recently sidelined by an undisclosed illness, John Phillip Law passed away in Los Angeles this week.
Read the AP obituary here.
And as you might expect, Tim Lucas's Video Watchblog has some fond parting words for Pygar here.

David Tudor, John Cage, Yoko Ono and Mayuzumi Toshiro
(titanic thanks to David Manning for this image of avant-garde reserve)

As this blog undergoes a semi-drastic change in design, we pause to remember Robert Rauschenberg, the Texas-born radical colorist, master of form and good friend of Jasper Johns who passed from this mortal sphere on Monday evening at the age of 82.
Here, as usual, are three accounts of both life and work:
The Los Angeles Times
The Guardian
Dallas Morning News

Original Caption:
Los Angeles -- The body of singer Sam Cooke lies slumped in the doorway of a Motel manager's apartment. According to police, he kicked in the manager's door looking for another woman when he was shot (1964)

Please Don't Feed Us (1968)
A camper at Camp Lakecrest for overweight girls in Dutchess County, NY.

Santo Trafficante greets the Press outside Kew Gardens Criminal Court in Queens (1966)

Robert Frost

Today's Adventure: Before a murderous throng in Reno, Jack Johnson beats the once-mighty Jim Jeffries like a redheaded stepchild; securing, at long last, the undisputed Heavyweight title (1910)

Massachusetts State Police troopers march into Boston to replace striking city Police (1919)
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
An Illustrated History of American Labor

Original Caption:
Joan Crawford, the lovely Metro Goldwyn Mayer player, has at last found a very handy device for carrying one's lipstick and perfume vial without losing or breaking them. The handle of her purse is a hollow tube into one end of which the lipstick is held and in the other the perfume vial. (1929)

This tenament, situated near Poplar High Street, was one of the worst slums in East London. It had previously been derelict, but was 'tarted-up' and relet without proper repairs being made, a fact which the new tenants soon became all too aware of.
This was posted by Richard Gibson
for the series:
Through the Lens of Cyril Arapoff

Original Caption:
Chicago -- Salvatore 'Momo' Giancana, alleged Chicago underworld boss, leaves the Federal Building after appearing before a Federal Grand Jury. The government is seeking to indict Giancana for crossing state lines while engaging in underworld activities, a violation of Federal law. (1965)

John Huston is distracted by a model in this incredibly strange publicity still
for Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (1963)

Jackie Gleason Presents Velvet Brass
(The Jackie Gleason Orchestra)
(Capitol Records; 1957)

Original Caption:
Death Watch
New York -- This was the grim scene outside an amusement arcade in downtown Brooklyn after Tony LaVanchino, 17, had been shot to death in a teen gang feud. His friend John Lombardi, 17, wounded in the hand, turns his face away as police surround the body. Four youths were captured. (1959)

Two Bear Woman - Piegan (1908)
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
The Native-Americana of Edward S. Curtis

Original Caption:
Ready To Testify.
Indianapolis -- Zeppo Marx, one time straight man for the Marx Brothers comedy team, waits to testify before the Federal Grand Jury here, on Aug. 22nd. The Grand Jury is investigating the activities of a gambling ring based in Terre Haute, Indiana. Marx promised to cooperate with the jury and tell what he knows about the case. (1958)