Movies 'Til Dawn BLOG

ANN-MARGRET V. ANN-MARGROCK

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

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ANN MARGROCK–HER FALL AND RISE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXCiS2FpmIc Apropos of yesterday’s ‘Flintstones’ musical moment, here is the hottest cartoon character ever drawn–save for, perhaps, Jessica Rabbit. (Or Petunia Pig, if the BBW world is more your cup of darjeeling). Ann-Margret was square in the middle of her ‘Viva Las Vegas’ fame when this tribute was drawn by

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THE BEDROCK TWITCH–A FRED FLINTSTONE JOINT

I have no idea why I had a dream last night in which Fred Flintstone was singing the immortal ‘Bedrock Twitch’. I also had a dream in which I was conversing with an English Bulldog, my favorite breed of dog. Perhaps ‘Bedrock’ and ‘Bulldog’ conjoined and turned into ‘The Bulldog

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RUDY VALLEE, THE TODAY SHOW AND…ME?

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

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RUDY VALLEE DOES RADIO

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

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BROADWAY IN THE 20s (more or less)

Here’s a neat little four minute clip reel of 1920s New York City footage, most of it focusing on Times Square at night. The clip selection is random and a bit wonky but anything about 1920s New York City is catnip to me so I’d thought I’d share it. (Apparently

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JERRY LEWIS SAYS: ‘YOU’LL NEVER WALK.”

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

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JERRY AND FRANK AND COFFEE!

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,

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‘CHARLIE’–KIND OF FREE, KIND OF WOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usrhAo9KOCUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1WX9znN7CE The commercial campaign for the Revlon fragrance ‘Charlie’, which debuted in 1973, was centered around a very hip little jingle which accompanied model Shelley Hack as she strode confidently through a club, onto a boat, getting out of a nifty 1930s Dusenberg etc. Further hip-ifying the campaign was the

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Tomorrow, August 3rd, would have been my father Frank De Felitta’s 103rd birthday. (He passed away in 2016, age 94). To honor this milestone of not being alive for eight and a half years, I thought I’d post an exceedingly rare and culturally important documentary he made for CBS television

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