The recently deceased actor David McCallum was born into a serious musical family–his father was an accomplished enough violinist to be named first chair (and thus technical leader) of the London Philharmonic. McCallum himself was trained as as Oboe player before stumbling (so it seems) into his career as an
Here is a most peculiar piece of footage (and short–only 28 seconds) showing a garden party at Francis Ford Coppola’s Napa Vally home sometime in the mid 1970s. We see Francis quaffing white wine in a plastic cup, George Lucas picking his teeth, Dennis Hopper bedecked in cowboy duds and
‘Vagabond Loafers’ (1949) is the 118th short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed from Tuesday, January 25 through Friday, January 28 1949 and was released on Thursday, October 6th of that year (the 279th day in the Gregorian calendar). It’s a remake of one
To finish off this weeks Marilyn M. expedition, let’s view this very short but very interesting clip of film from the abortive ‘Somethings Got To Give’ shoot. It’s a brief moment just after the shot’s been slated but before Cukor has said ‘action’ (or ‘camera’ as was his habit) in
Here’s a 1950 screen test of Marilyn for a movie that apparently was never made called ‘Cold Shoulder’. The actor she’s testing with appears to be Richard Conte which leads me to believe the film was a Fox production. When I hear ‘screen test’ I usually think of a one-take
Marilyn Monroe is quicksand. Once you step into the topic it soon controls and consumes you. Witness my mention of her house Monday–meant to be a one-off blog entry–and the weeds into which I wade as I focus on the last months of her life. While living at the Helena
Yesterday we looked at some creepy silent footage shot the morning of Marilyn Monroe’s death at her house in Brentwood. Today we look at some equally creepy footage–but creepy for an entirely different reason. Apparently the house was offered up for sale in 2010 but for whatever reason didn’t sell–it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paXKTN4qoSg ‘Sappy Bullfighters’ (1959) is the 190th and final short comedy made by The Three Stooges for Columbia Pictures. It was photographed on Monday July 4 and Tuesday July 5, 1957 and released on Thursday June 4, 1959 (the 155th day in the Gregorian calendar). It’s a remake of a
The ‘Niagra Falls/Slowly I Turn’ bit–which we’ve been examining this week in excruciating detail–found a variation of sorts in this Abbott and Costello routine from ‘Keep ‘Em Flying’, a 1942 wartime vehicle co-starring Martha Raye as twins. (Click the above link–the person who posted the video declined to share it
My dogged pursuit of the increasingly obnoxious vaudeville routine known as ‘Niagra Falls’ or ‘Slowly I Turn’ continues with a Colgate Comedy Hour version starring Abbott and Costello featuring Errol Flynn. This is the worst version thus far of the routine–Flynn is miscast, unable to convincingly be broad and over