Civic Portraiture #30

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

Mai Zetterling, Danny Kaye, Yma Sumac and Julie Wilson confer at the 1954 premiere of Knock on Wood.

Sydney Chaplin and Judy Holliday in the stage production of Bells Are Ringing.

David Hemmings and Gayle Hunnicutt, here seen arriving at London Airport (now Heathrow) in August 1967.

Original Caption:
New York -- After sleeping for three weeks in the subway, the family of arthritis-ridden army veteran Robert Lipsky has taken up quarters in the lobby of the New York Housing Authority on Park Row. Lipsky himself is shown at left sleeping in a chair, while two children sleep on a desk. Mrs. Lipsky and another son, Joel, sleep in telephone booth. Lipsky says he doesn't want charity, "I only want a place so my children can live normally." (1950)

Hugh Hefner and Doris Day show off a homeless pup
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
Artists and Animals,
When Legends Gather

Original Caption:
Hiroshima -- The wrecked framework of the Museum of Science and Industry as it appeared after the blast. City officials recently decided to preserve this building as a memorial, though they had at first planned to rebuild it. (1947)

Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness
(Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper; 1927)
Last week I was interviewed for Film in Focus's ongoing series of film blogger profiles, Behind the Blog (a series that recently featured our own Kimberly Lindbergs). After much internal debate I decided to risk posting a link to it here. Granted, I'm the only member of Team Gunslinger represented, and you could perhaps make a case that posting it at all is horrifically self-indulgent on my part (I certainly won't defend myself against the charge). But the principal subject of the interview is this blog, and it might possibly give our regular visitors some marginal insight into how the thing works (as well as my chronic inability to write a simple, uncongested sentence of english) . . . assuming that's of any conceivable value at all.
So until I rethink the matter and delete this post, dive in.

Francis Ford Coppola shows Akira Kurosawa how to use his new Polaroid camera (1980)
This was posted by Kimberly Lindbergs
for the series:
Artists in Action,
When Legends Gather

Original Caption:
Gross Goes Free
New York -- His face wreathed in a broad smile, Harry Gross walks forth a free man today after serving four years as the mastermind of Brooklyn's $20,000,000 gambling empire. In tears, the one time bookie kingpin promised Kings County Judge Samuel Liebowitz to "live a clean and decent life." He is shown with attorney Michael Kern at federal court to plead for time to pay off a $2,500 income tax fine. He said he was broke. (1955)

The Eddy Duchin Orchestra
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
American Dance Orchestras of the 1920s

Today's Adventure: Welterweight champion Kid Gavilan trains for a title defense against Johnny Saxton by sucking eggs (1954)

Original Caption:
Maryland -- Col. Oran Henderson and his attorney, Henry Rothblatt, give a "thumbs up" sign outside Henderson's residence at Ft. Meade shortly after Henderson was acquitted December 17th of charges he tried to cover up the murder of unarmed South Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. (1971)
In order to insure that it doesn't remain buried, I thought I would give the cinephile sector of our visitors a heads-up on this post, located at another, woefully undernourished blog.

Original Caption:
Los Angeles -- George Jessel, 63 year old Toastmaster General of the United States, was named July 3rd in a paternity suit by an actress claiming he was the father of her unborn child. Jessel, shown here with the plaintiff, Joan Tyler, 27, of Los Angeles, was ordered to appear for a hearing before Superior Judge Roger Alton Pfaff on July 27th. He was first handed notice of the suit when he appeared as master of ceremonies in the swearing in of Los Angeles Mayor Samuel Yorty on June 30th (1961)

The Goons
(This post also gives me the opportunity to link to this never-before seen by this Goon fan video of Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Seacombe, with singer Ray Ellington stepping in for late announcer Wallace Greenslade, recreating a Goon Show taping on Seacombe's 1966 TV series. Considering all I'd had previous was The Last Goon Show of All from 1972 and some random silent clips, this recently posted material is a marvel to behold.)

Will Rogers
No. 39 in a series of 50 from Player's Navy Cut cigarettes
WILL ROGERS, who is noted for his inexhaustible fund of dry, philosophical humour, was born November 4th, 1879, near Claremore, Oklahoma, and christened William Penn Adair Rogers. At seventeen he was a cattle-puncher, and later continued this occupation in the Argentine. When the Boer War broke out he worked his way to Cape Town to join up, but the war had ended by the time he arrived, and he joined a Wild West show. This began his vaudeville career, which lasted for eight years. He has had greater success in talkies than in silent films; his latest include David Harum, Handy Andy and Judge Priest.

Hal Roach entertains his crew with a little tune on the banjolele while on location in Nevada.

Today's Adventure: New York Yankee titan Joe DiMaggio signs autographs without charging so much as a penny (1940)

Navajo Medicine Man (1904)
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
The Native-Americana of Edward S. Curtis

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
Jesters of the Republic,
They Were Collaborators

Billie Holiday scans a chart in a New York recording studio, circa 1958.

Lupino Lane
This was posted by swac
for the series:
Jesters of the Empire,
Jesters of the Republic

Today's Adventure: On the set of La Città delle donne (City of Women), Federico Fellini harangues a Cinecittà full of extras as Marcello Mastroianni looks on (1979)

Original Caption:
Three Murder Syndicate Men at Police Station
Brooklyn -- Three of the 12 men arrested as suspects in an alleged murder syndicate which, according to Brooklyn District Attorney William O'Dwyer, is responsible for at least 12 recent slayings and may be linked to 21 other murders. Trigger men Harry Straus, Harry Malone, and Frank Abbadando may face the electric chair for their participation in the killings. The arrests began when a small-time gangster, fearful for his own life, "sang" to the District Attorney's office. (1940)

Original Caption:
Hollywood -- Joan Crawford helps her adopted son Christopher cut the cake
at his birthday party (1945)

"Just listen to `I Never Loved a Man.' Aretha was the only black
person in the room. Yet there never was a funkier record made. That
confounds every theory of racial purity in the book." – Jerry Wexler
Thanks to Testify, who found the above image and quote and notified me of his passing. The Independent's obituary is here.

Lauren Bacall and Harry Truman.
Thanks to Jeff Duncanson of Filmscreed for this image.

Original Caption:
Turtleneck's Just a Little Stiff.
New York -- Actor Peter Lawford says "I love the whole change in men's clothes; the concept, I mean." In other words, Peter has gone mod, but he insists he's "Conservative Mod." Lawford is shown here in a recent photo, wearing an ultra-orange sweater with orange and yellow love beads. (1968)

Original Caption:
Miami -- A group of nuns arrive at Miami International Airport following their deportation from Cuba by Premier Fidel Castro, who deported all foreign-born priests and nuns from the country. (1961)

Original Caption:
Fort Myers -- Gary Steven Krist sits dejectedly in an FBI car after being brought out of Lee Memorial Hospital where he stayed since his capture in a marsh late Dec. 21 near Punta Gorda. Krist is being charged with the kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle in Atlanta, GA, on Dec. 17. Krist was put under $500,000 bond, the same amount he allegedly demanded and got from the parents of Barbara Jane. (1968)

Rupert Brooke

Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra
This was posted by Tom Sutpen
for the series:
American Dance Orchestras of the 1920s

Our presentation of the Hitchcock/Truffaut tapes concludes with Part Twenty-Five

Original Caption:
Toledo -- A two year flood of bogus one and five dollar bills, a flow totalling perhaps millions of "dollars" was believed stopped with the arrest of a 21 year old Toledo, Ohio youth and four others as accomplices. Midwest states had been flooded with the bogus notes of high quality. They were sold wholesale, cost at $15 for each $100 worth. Photo shows Patrolman Charles Whitmer of Toledo, as he stood guard over the plant uncovered by the federal agents. Its 21 year old operator Clarence Brown, took his arrest philosophically. (1935)
This was posted by Richard Gibson
for the series:
Adventures in American Filmmaking

Hanbury Buildings; 1939
Mr Izaat, the caretaker (left) had an impossible job. He is seen here inspecting a hole in the gutter of the roof which was causing the wall of the flat below to become water-logged.
This was posted by Richard Gibson
for the series:
Through the Lens of Cyril Arapoff

Original Caption:
Thirty Years of 'Singin' in the Rain'.
Hollywood -- Cliff Edwards ("Ukulele Ike") soared to stardom at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1929 when he sang 'Singin' in the Rain' in The Hollywood Revue. Cliff has returned to MGM for a role in Platinum High School and does his old song for co-stars Terry Moore and Mickey Rooney (1959)

Original Caption:
Body of Gangster Walter Sage
Brooklyn -- Detectives in Brooklyn and state troopers in Sullivan County went on the hunt for the associates of Walter Sage, ex-hitman of the Abe Reles mob known as Murder, Inc., after Sage's body was found in Swan Lake in the Catskills. Later it was discovered that Sage was killed for skimming money from the mob's slot machine profits in Sullivan County (1937)

Sheila Hancock, Albert Finney, Robert Morley, Kenneth Haigh and Kenneth Williams (who seems stuck in perpetual performance mode)

Ginger Rogers
No. 38 in a series of 50 from Player's Navy Cut Cigarettes
Born in Independence, Missouri, on July 16th, 1911, Ginger Rogers (whose real Christian name is Virginia), began her stage career in local shows when only twelve years of age. She was a natural dancer, and two years later was winning cups and medals, one contest giving her the reward of a month's tour in vaudeville. She remained on the stage, and gained great popularity in musical comedy, eventually winning stardom. Young Man of Manhattan made in New York, was her first film; later came a Hollywood contract. Recent films are Flying Down to Rio, Change of Heart, Upperworld and The Gay Divorce (sic).

Today's Adventure: Sound technician Douglas Shearer helps John Gilbert get acquainted with the scapegoat for his career's demise on the set of His Glorious Night (Lionel Barrymore; 1929).

In Part Twenty-Four . . . the penultimate edition of The Hitchcock/Truffaut Tapes . . . we
fly into the everlasting mystery of The Birds (1963)

Original Caption:
Wyoming -- Caril Fugate, 14, girlfriend of alleged "mad dog" killer Charles Starkweather, leaves her cell to be fingerprinted. Wyoming officials have waived jurisdiction of the pair and agreed to return them to Nebraska where they will face charges in the killings of ten people. (1958)

Today's Adventure: New York Giants Centerfield maestro Willie Mays moves
to San Francisco (1958)

Harper
(Jack Smight; 1966)
(immense thanks to a brilliant writer, Shawn Levy, for this image)