Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

MAESTRO LENNY B. VERSUS DIVA KRISTA LUDWIG

Last Friday I posted a short clip of Leonard Bernstein calling out a student conductor. This of course led YouTube to generate a number of Lenny B. arguments with orchestra personnel all of which are quite delightful (and short). Here’s Lenny tussling with alto Krista Ludwig during a rehearsal for

Read More »

LENNY B. CALLS YOU OUT

Here’s a short but pungent one minute clip of Leonard Bernstein teaching/supervising an orchestra master class with a student conductor who tries to put one over on the band. Lenny’s having none of it and calls the guy out. Rather than hanging his head in shame the poor student conductor

Read More »

MY DINNER WITH SONDHEIM

Let’s not be coy. I didn’t have dinner with Stephen. (Lunch once, yes, but that’s a story for another time). (And there were eight of us at the table, though I was seated next to him). But last night while eating leftovers I watched the terrific video posted above which

Read More »

RECORDING ‘COMPANY’

I saw the superb Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ this past Sunday which of course led to a deep Stephen dive on YouTube. Of primary importance in the canon of filmed Stephen stuff is D.A. Pennebaker’s remarkable documentation of the marathon recording session of the original

Read More »

HOLLYWOOD A-GO GO!

Above dig ‘The Olympics’ doing their hit song ‘The Hully Gully’ on a Los Angeles based TV show called ‘Hollywood A-Go Go’ which aired in syndication in 1965–1966. The song entered Billboard’s Hot Top 100 chart at position #98–three weeks later it would peak at #72 {for 1 week} and

Read More »

RAFT & LOMBARD CUT A RUG

Tough guy actor George Raft began his career in the cabarets of Times Square in the 1920s as a ‘hoofer’, period slang for a male dancer who didn’t specialize in formal dance. Hoofers were a breed unto themselves, generally self-taught street-wise kids whose athleticism and panache could land them in

Read More »

MAX RAABE–PART ZWEI

Yesterday I posted about German Singer/Bandleader/Performance Artist Max Raabe. One of the things that Raabe and his Palast Orchestra does that distinguishes them from ‘nostalgia’ acts is create a compelling visual experience in their shows, using different color schemes, shadows and mood lighting and other techniques to bring you into

Read More »

MAX RAABE–GERMAN DANCE BAND GENIUS OF THE 20s?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiaNQG7HPpc When I was at the Deauville Film Festival in 2010 I was invited to see a live performance of a German orchestra that specialized in playing music of the 1920s and 30s. With great enthusiasm the person who invited me explained that the front man/singer was a perfect replica

Read More »

EVEN MARLENE DIETRICH HAD TO AUDITION

CLICK HERE TO WATCH the three-and-a-half minute screen test that Marlene Dietrich made for ‘The Blue Angel’ in 1929. This is presumably the first time a camera fully captured the multi-faceted genius of this ground-breaking performer. The film’s director, Josef Von Sternberg, also directed the test and used two angles;

Read More »

NEW YORK 1956 (IN THE COMPANY OF BACH)

See that top video of New York City in 1956? See the video below it of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book 2? Roll them both simultaneously (the NYC footage has no sound) and spend a few minutes of your Friday taking a poignant time travel trip to a New York

Read More »

Subscribe for updates

And get a free copy of my book:
"City Island" & "Two Family House" Two Screenplays