I must admit to a complete lack of interest in the annoyingly retro-cool game of Poker. For me Poker belongs to the same crowd that reads Cigar Aficionado, professes to like small-batch Bourbon and Scotch and makes a big deal about betting on the Kentucky Derby. Having gotten that off
To commemorate the year of my birth (my 60th b’day is coming up in a fast 27 days) I’m posting a few minutes of excellently restored home movie footage taken from a car driving around Hollywood in that banner year of 1964. In addition to this being particularly high quality
Continuing our Friday Ernie Kovacs posts, here’s Kovacs most famous routine–The Nairobi Trio performing ‘Solfeggio’. Even if you’ve seen this before–and chances are that you have–it remains weirdly delightful and beyond definition. As always with Kovacs, the ‘meta’ of it all is also fascinating–how did he describe this routine to
Here’s the rather original first trailer of ‘The Thin Man’ (1934) starring…well, if you read this blog I’m pretty sure you know who played Nick and Nora Charles. It uses a rather striking ‘book-end’ gimmick–William Powell doubles himself and Nick Charles in a split screen in which Nick stands within
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwk0kwETsYIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlMxXrRCMAI Above are two clips depicting Hollywood premieres of the late 1920s. The first is the ‘real thing’–some marvelous, restored black&white newsreel footage of two different premieres, ‘Broadway Melody’ and ‘The Divine Lady’ (both 1929). The second clip is the opening sequence of ‘Singin’ In The Rain’ (1952), which is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5SbtV6zGpI Apropos of last week’s post about the legendary Hollywood hotel/lodge/bungalow village ‘The Garden Of Allah’, here’s a look at the beautiful model of the place that resided in the Lytton Savings Bank on the site where the GOA stood before being demolished in 1959. I remember seeing this model
‘Uncivil Warbirds’ (1946) is the 90th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Friday, August 24th through Tuesday, August 28th, 1945 and was released on Friday, March 29, 1946 (the 88th day of the Gregorian Calendar). This is ‘late’ Curly–after his first stroke
Last Friday I decided that we would end every work week from now on (and forever and I mean it) with a little Ernie Kovacs material from his various 1950s and 60s TV specials. (See also last Monday and Wednesday as well for a little Kovacs catch-up). This is a
The famous West Hollywood bungalow court ‘The Garden Of Allah’ was on the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights in West Hollywood and was host to all kinds of east coast Hollywood transplants for well over thirty years (specializing in alcoholic self-loathing Broadway playwrights and their ilk). Click here
See yesterday’s post for some excellent home movie coverage of the Times Square of the 1960s. And see today’s for basically the same thing but colorized. Actually the above home movies focus more on buildings than people–and while the buildings were more interesting to tourists then, it’s the people that