Let’s close this weeks Sinatra-bashing extravaganza with another goofy clip from his shaggy television variety series of the early 1950s, the boringly named ‘The Frank Sinatra Show’. In this clip he introduces the singer/comedienne Dagmar–somebody once said car bumpers were styled after Dagmar’s figure. Sinatra’s intro is embarrassing. He was
On March 7, 1994, Frank Sinatra was performing in Richmond, Virginia to an adoring crowd. Unfortunately in the middle of ‘My Way’ he collapsed on the stage, dehydrated from a combination of a diuretic he was taking and late night drinking in the hotel bar. Here’s local news coverage of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMGASlOu028 Continuing our shallow dive into the slump years of Frank Sinatra’s career (roughly 1949-53) here’s a clip from Sinatra’s TV show that he somehow maintained during the period, the daringly titled ‘The Frank Sinatra Show’. Frank sings ‘These Foolish Things’, one of the loveliest ballads of the era accompanied
In the late 1940s both Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx were in their slump years–the Marx Brothers were essentially over and Groucho’s attempts at movie-star solo work were met mostly with a shrug. He made two movies–‘Copacabana’ and ‘A Girl In Every Port’–that were disappointments and the final Marx Brothers
The word on the street (not my street but somebody’s street) is that the Scorcese/DiCaprio Sinatra biopic now in the planning stages is set during the legendary singer/actor/prick’s slump years–basically 1948-53. This is when he deserted his family for Ava Gardner, pissed off most of the world’s press and melted
It’s not uncommon for yesteryears raciest things to be described in the current day as ‘tame’ or ‘now innocent’. But the 1920s had a lurid, highly sexually charged nature that was far ahead of its time, though it was soon to be quashed by much tamer subsequent decades. Nowhere is
Here’s an immensely enjoyable short film starring Cab Calloway, his orchestra and the great and unsung black actress Fredi Washington called ‘Hi De Ho’. Directed by Fred Waller (who also directed the pioneering Duke Ellington short ‘Symphony in Black’ and was–get this–responsible for the development of the Cinerama process) the
At the University of South Carolina there is a collection of Fox Movietone Newsreels. It contains seven million feet of nitrate motion picture film and four million feet of safety motion picture film documenting the national and global politics and culture from 1919 through 1934 and from September 1942 through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1DTKhVlUMYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-z4L1-lEtU When exactly did James Cagney first appear on screen? According to IMDB, he plays the ‘handsy patron at Blackie Joe’s’ in the Al Jolson vehicle ‘The Singing Fool’, made in 1928 as the follow-up to the enormously successful ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927) and shot at the Warner Brothers Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm2wRqrOttU Continuing our exploration of the dancing technique of James Cagney (click here, here and here for other magnificent examples) behold the full ‘Give My Regards To Broadway’ routine from George M. Cohan’s show ‘Little Johnny Jones’ (1904) as recreated in Warner Brothers Cohan biopic ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (1942). It’s