My dear friend Peter Bogdanovich passed away the other day, age 82. I saw him last October in L.A. and he was, as always, funny and charming and dry-witted. While we were waiting for our table in the restaurant somebody noticed him and approached us (not an uncommon occurance–he was
I’ve been working on a documentary about the great Burt Young on and off for the past five or so years. I’m honored to count Burt as a good friend and artistic collaborator and am delighted to be able to say that a cut of the film is finally finished.
What the hell are Bette Davis, Dick Powell, Warren William, Joan Blondell, Ruth Donnely and Preston Foster doing in an informercial for General Electric products shot in 1933? The answer is: I haven’t the foggiest idea. I never heard of this little weirdie until stumbling upon it this afternoon, deep
Here’s Don Rickles doing three minutes of ‘Sinatra Is A Gangster And We All Know It’ jokes for Frank’s 80th birthday concert. I can’t tell if Frank is really amused or if he’s out of it but knows he’s supposed to be smiling and laughing. Probably the latter as Frank
What do we know about Ricky Ricardo’s career? Chiefly that he came to New York via Cuba sometime in the pre-war years (just as Desi Arnaz did) but that the similarities between the two mens CV’s ends there. Desi hit it big on Broadway in 1939 in Rodgers and Hart’s
Not only was Desi Arnaz seriously underrated as the mind behind the building of Desilu Studios (see last weeks posts) but he was criminally underrated as a performer. In this 1951 clip from ‘I Love Lucy’ he and Lucille Ball perform a specialty number called ‘Cuban Pete’. It’s a frigging
Take a trip to the dark side of yesterday’s humor with ‘Hollywood Night Court’, a 1930 ‘blue’ record meant for private consumption only at parties. The three minute sketch traffics in stereotypes of gay men and female prostitutes, using low-down double entendre to garner its laughs…if indeed anyone laughed at
Dig this 1957 appearance of Tyrone Power on ‘Person To Person’, Edward R. Murrow’s fluff entertainment show which featured interviews via coast-to-coast hook-up with various and sundry celebs. For me these shows are of real scholarly value. Not because of the content of the interviews but because we get to
I first met Burt Young (aka ‘Paulie’) in 2012 when I convinced him to do a small but vital role in my movie ‘Rob The Mob’. I won’t go into the whole adventure of meeting this extraordinary man and the friendship that developed and has evolved over the years. That
Ever wonder what James Finlayson looked like off-screen, sans mustache? No? Well, so what? Part of the wonderful few minutes of home movie footage from the early 30s (posted above) is taken at Stan Laurel’s daughter Lois’s second birthday party. Both Finlayson and Ollie were present and it’s quite charming