I just found this interview with the then 66 year old Gloria Swanson, made for French television in 1965. In many ways its real value is to show what a truly deep character actress she was. I say this because the real Swanson could not be less like Norma Desmond,
Compare and contrast the animated Ann-Margaret as shown in yesterday’s Flinstone’s clip with the real deal. Above is the opening pre-credit A-M number from ‘The Swinger’ (1966), a film that delivers so much less than its title (and title sequence) promises that, if it were a vaudeville show, it would
Continuing our little remembrance of the world’s first official crooner, above is a nice profile of Rudy Vallee done for the Today Show by Boyd Matson in the early 80s. Bryant Gumble was then the host and appears—pre-face lift–at the end of the segment. There’s nothing terribly fresh in this
A couple of days ago I posted an interview with Rudy Vallee from 1984 on Skip E. Lowe’s local Los Angeles public access television show. It was the 83 year old Vallee’s last televised appearance–he died two years later after a long illness. Let’s do a little comparing and contrasting
If you’ve ever wondered where Martin Short got his inspiration for his great talk-show host character Jiminy Glick, look no further than Skip E. Lowe, a public-access legend for years in Los Angeles. Lowe was a cut-rate comic, impressionist and MC who loved Hollywood lore and entertainers. His interview show
Let’s close our reconstruction of the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon with the ever popular Jerry anthem, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Above are two videos–one of Jerry singing it on the 1987 telethon and one of Jerry rehearsing it two years later. Jerry in rehearsal is
Here’s a terrific sampling of the 1975 Jerry Lewis MDA telethon, featuring a good deal of Sinatra, some Totie Fields, a little Harry James and some of Jerry’s greasiest, most self-serving moments. This extended highlights reel is best played in the background while you do something better with your time,
To those of us of a certain age, Labor Day weekend will always belong to the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon. Jerry was at his most Buddy Love-ish when hosting the show, strutting around in a tux, his hair heavily pomaded, a cigarette clutched between his fingers. He often dressed down
Apropos of our focus on John Cassavetes this week, above is the trailer for his 1968 film ‘Faces’. I have no idea if he cut or approved this trailer but it does an excellent job of whetting the appetite for seeing the film. Removing the audio and playing the images
Here’s a ten minute excerpt reel of John Cassavetes speaking culled from half a dozen different interviews. When he’s younger he looks like Roy Scheider and when he speaks with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips he is the quintessence of New York-Actors Lab-Beatnik-Mingus-Jazz Clubs-New Wave-Greenwich Village-Paris sidewalk cafe-Sartre