Here’s an extraordinary piece of film. Apparently in December 1929, footage was captured of George Gershwin at rehearsals of his show ‘Strike Up The Band’, complete with chorus girls and a pre-rehearsed patter with star comedians Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough. We see George playing the piano as well as
Yesterday I posted a terrific clip of Fred Astaire dancing with the divine Paulette Goddard from the movie ‘Second Chorus’ (1941). The six-degrees of Paulette Goddard takes us now back four years to 1937 when Goddard met and began an affair with George Gershwin, who was in Hollywood writing the
The 1920s saw a rise in Jewish humor throughout the country, featuring comic strips like Milt Gross’s ‘Nize Baby’ and dialect comedians like Willie Howard and the team of ‘Smith And Dale’ (who were the models for Neil Simon’s vaudeville team in ‘The Sunshine Boys’). The superstar 1920s female Jewish
Here’s a fascinating little fragment of W.C. Fields and director Mitchell Leisen on the set of ‘The Big Broadcast of 1938’. It’s hard to figure out what this was for. The first section is a little mini-routine between Fields and Leisen–they’re wired for sound so clearly this was meant for
This is a real curio. It’s clips and coverage of a concert that the Jackson 5 did in 1971 at–get this–West Side High School in Gary, Indiana. Imagine that? The Jackson’s coming to your auditorium for a little after school concert? (When I went to High School we once had
Given that TCM is showing all the ‘That’s Entertainment’ movies today, I thought I’d post the L&H magician sequence from MGM’s all-star ‘Hollywood Revue of 1929’. The movie is as creaky and wonderful as its title and while this particular L&H routine isn’t one of their high points, it was
I was surprised to read in Randy Skervedt’s excellent book ‘Laurel & Hardy–The Magic Behind The Movies’ that ‘The Finishing Touch’ (1928) was considered something of a disappointment in its day–Stan Laurel, a notoriously discerning craftsman, apparently felt that it could have been much better. Five years later some of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZAzkUL5B0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DunNsrvr51A&t=278s Probably the most famous of L&H’s silent films, ‘Liberty’ is an entry into the ‘thrill comedy’ genre as exemplified by the stuntwork of Harold Lloyd’s famous comedy ‘The Freshman’ as well as any number of death-defying stunts performed by Buster Keaton. Part of the machismo of the knockabout comedian
Today’s tour of Culver City in the 1920s also includes the silent L&H classic ‘Big Business’. Shot in 1929, the classic short gives us charming views of the slow-to-be-built Cheviot Hills/Culver City adjacent area, with many empty lots and a few houses under construction that can be seen in the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkZvopfW85Qhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgeHDOtW75k&t=94s My three-way tie for greatest Laurel and Hardy short is ‘Helpmates’, ‘Brats’, ‘Music Box’ and today’s film, ‘Hog Wild’. Notice that I said THREE way tie and then mentioned FOUR films. Now having said that, picture me saying it to Stan and Stan counting the ‘three’ titles on his