https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Godu_t3BUjwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHRwrF8DniI Apropos of yesterdays post about Kay Francis, I did some snooping around on YT for early pre-code Kay moments and ran across a couple of clips from a 1931 comedy called ‘Girls About Town‘, directed by a young George Cukor. I’ve known the title over the years but have
Today is Kay Francis’ 120th birthday–or would have been had she not died in 1968 at the age of 63. When I was a kid in the early 1970s, the Marx Brothers revival was in full swing and theaters around L.A. often did all-day showings of the Paramount Marx output
Above are two marvelously elaborate one-minute TV spots for Shasta Colas. Both are period pieces that reference silent comedy filmmaking –and both are elaborately conceived (especially the first) and beautifully executed. Which is quite the opposite of the product they’re shilling for. Shasta was (and still is) a quite dreadful
Over the past couple of days we’ve discussed the iconic Burger King jingle ‘Hold The Pickle Hold The Lettuce’. Having beaten that dead horse to death again, let’s move onto another iconic advertising jingle for a crappy product. Above is the ‘Wouldn’t You Like To Be A Pepper Too’ ear
Yesterday we explored two versions of Burger King’s most famous jingle (indeed one of the most famous jingles in TV history) ‘Hold The Pickle, Hold the Lettuce…’ But before that ad got into the collective consciousness, the hamburger chain tried any number of different advertising approaches. Above is a reel
One of the greatest of all ear worm TV commercial jingles was the 1970s masterpiece “Hold The Pickles, Hold The Lettuce” written for the fast food giant ‘Burger King’. Why this particular jingle has stuck in the collective minds of those old enough to remember it is a bit of
‘Angora Love’ (1929) was Laurel and Hardy’s last silent film and, was, in fact, the last silent film released by MGM. (Garbo’s ‘The Kiss’ was the last silent feature the studio released, one month prior to this film). Shot in March of 1929, the release was inexplicably delayed until all
The Finishing Touch was filmed in November and December 1927 in an area undergoing real estate development ; its wide open spaces provide a sense of a more pastoral Los Angeles that would soon vanish as more structures filled it in. We are on location in the neighborhood of Cheviot Hills, Los
There are certain movie sets of the past that I yearn to be a visitor on. ‘Kane’, of course. ‘Casablanca’, most definitely. But if I were to choose a silent film to watch being filmed it would without a doubt be ‘Big Business’. The film is probably L&H’s most famous
How I love ‘lost films’. Especially when they resurface! There’s something so ghostly, so other-worldly, about a vanished movie that is, in fact, waiting patiently somewhere bizarre to be rediscovered. Many lost films turn up in New Zealand of all places. That’s because that was the last stop for prints