Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

JOEY HEATHERTON MEETS MAJOR LANCE?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlZZgPxR3Bkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBc4AHxnHOc I thought it might be a nice way to kick off the week with a little Joey Heatherton number from the mid-1960s dance show ‘Hullabaloo’. In this clip she sings a new song celebrating the new dance known as–what else?–the ‘Huallabaloo’. But wait. Is this really a new song

Read More »

‘PEANUTS’ NIGHT: A VINCE GUARALDI JOINT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHOmBV4js_Ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EMfA5_tm8Y My go-to cartoon characters as a kid were Bugs/Daffy/Porgy (Warner Brothers) and Charlie Brown/Lucy/Snoopy/Linus Charles M. Schultz). Everything else was the bunk. I’ve written before–rather recently in fact–about my loathing for all things Disney. Ditto Hanna-Barbara and their cheap, flat animation which did nothing to enhance their cheap, flat

Read More »

EZ LISTENING; MUSIC FOR A FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Here’s two hours of unidentified, unknown and un-listened to music from the 60s/70s that I urge you to put on in the background. It will gradually bring peace and a smile to your face and you’ll find your worries disappearing and your work habits improving. Indeed, it serves the same

Read More »

RADIO TRANSMISSION FOR PRE-WAR DUMMIES

I always enjoy discovering period industrial films explaining then cutting-edge technologies–how to process Technicolor film, how to record and press 78 RPM records etc. Above I’ve posted a 1937 mini-doc explaining the process by which a radio show transmits from the studio to homes across the country. It’s quite niftily

Read More »

PIANO ROLLS

When I was a kid I taught myself to play piano by using the odd, ancient first-digital-music-delivery-system- ever thing known as a piano roll. Simply put, piano rolls are a rolled sheet of paper with cuts in it representing individual notes which, when run through what is known as a

Read More »

DICK RICH, FAT FAIRY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxYSVO78Edchttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAFLS-jyti4 Yesterday I posted about pre-code portrayals of gay men in the movies and cartoons of the era. The usual characterization was of what was commonly known as a ‘sissy’ or ‘pansy’. Which brings us to the once popular and now utterly obscure bandleader Dick Rich. Above I’ve posted two

Read More »

CHARLES LINDBERGH DANCE PARTY

Recorded on May 26, 1927,  just five days after Lindbergh’s arrival in Paris, ‘Lucky Lindy’ (posted below) was a major hit record and one that Lindbergh apparently loathed. He was more than a little surprised at the world-wide hoopla that greeted him upon landing and regarded much of it with

Read More »

PAUL ANKA; A–HOLE

Last night we watched the HBO Paul Anka doc and I knew from the very beginning, which featured 85 year-old Anka on board his private jet with his sixteen year old wife, that he was a prick. Not that he said or did anything obviously prick-ish. He wouldn’t have let

Read More »

PUBLIC DOMAIN THEATER: THE DISNEY EFFECT

Celebrate the season of the arrival of public domain with Springtime (1929)! This early Walt Disney Silly Symphonies animated short film is a exploration of nature set entirely to classical music. The cartoon features flora and fauna, including charming flowers, busy ladybugs, crawling centipedes, soaring birds, and hopping frogs. Without

Read More »

PUBLIC DOMAIN THEATER; ‘MOANIN’ LOW’

This year a slew of entertainment from 1929 has entered the public domain and can now be reused, re-recorded, re-edited and re-enjoyed for free. Songs, movies, books–the world is  now awash in uncopyrighted cultural riches, and the family members of the creators of those works are now shit out of

Read More »

Subscribe for updates

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