In yesterday’s post, mention was made of the disastrous life and death of starlet Barbara Payton, a blonde bombshell who drank herself to death after plowing her way through a pile of men–some husbands, some producers, some tricks–consuming drugs and making a public nuisance of herself and in general alienating
Today’s offering is, I’m sorry to say, a major bummer. And yet, like a good train wreck, it’s perversely enjoyable to watch. Bluntly titled “Golden Age Actors and Singers Who Died In Poverty”, this mini-doc covers the sad endings of a number of stars of the…er…Golden Age. The familiar cases
When the Singer Sewing Machine factory decided to build their own office tower in 1907, they chose to do so with a bang. It was the tallest office building ever constructed and the technology involved in running the place was state-of-the-art early 20th century stuff. Alas, it’s life span was
Yesterday I posted a mini-documentary on the demolition of the Savoy-Plaza Hotel, created by a YouTube channel called ‘Old Money Mansions’. Here’s another of their demo docs, this one about the rise and fall of the once magnificent Pennsylvania Station, which met its end in 1963 (though it appears to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C51apJhZX4 The Savoy-Plaza, one of New York City’s most elegant and legendary hotels, stood on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th street, currently the site of the General Motors Building. This fabulously grand Beaux-Arts pile was designed by McKim Meade and White and opened in 1907. Less than 60
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo occupied two different apartments in the brownstone building owned by Fred and Ethel Mertz. The differences are subtle–aside, of course, from the window that the second one has overlooking the street. Above is a lovingly crafted video taking us on a
Behold this nifty behind-the-scenes look at the then-innovative technique used to shoot ‘I Love Lucy’. Desi Arnaz was visionary in his understanding that the shows would eventually have resale value and that simply keeping kinescopes–literally films of the live show as seen on a screen during its transmission–wasn’t going to
I really was going to move onto another female comic this week. But this brilliant Joan Rivers appearance on Johnny Carson from 1979 was calling me from my YouTube offerings this morning and there was simply no way I was not going to share it. I’ve never seen Carson laugh
I hope you like Joan Rivers because I’m posting more of her today. On Friday we saw older Joan on a talk show circa 2005 (Joan 3.0). Yesterday we delved into Joan 1.0 with two appearances on TV in the late 60s. Today we witness Primo Joan in her ‘Tonight
On Friday I posted a wonderful clip of then 71 year-old Joan Rivers doing an appearance on BBC host Michael Parkinson’s show. Today we roll back the clock thirty five or so years from that interview and watch the Joan that first appeared in front of national audiences. Above is