On Monday I posted a nifty ‘March Of Time’ newsreel featurette about the nightclubs of the 1940s. Here’s another in the same series, this time tracing the history of the recording industry. It’s got some fun stuff in it–a recreation of an acoustic recording session (where musicians recorded into a
Here’s a very valuable find. It’s a 1946 ‘March Of TIme’ newsreel featurette which does a deep-ish dive into the popular nightclubs of the day. It takes a full two minutes to get to the subject at hand–you might say the filmmakers buried the lead just a tad–but the meat
In a couple of weeks, the Polish filmmaker Pavel Pawlikowski’s new film ‘Fatherland’ will be released, in theaters only. It’s the story of Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika traveling together through Germany in the years immediately after the end of the Second World War. I don’t exactly rush out
Here’s a wonderful appearance by Charlie Callas on Jerry Lewis’s disastrous 1969 attempt at a variety/talk-show. Callas imitations include Rod Steiger–has anyone else even thought of doing Rod Steiger?–Cary Grant singing (one of the Youtube commenters points out that Callas’s Cary Grant impression sounds more like he’s doing Tony Curtis’s
Meet the most influential critics of 1970s cinema as portrayed by the cast of SCTV. John Candy is Andrew Sarris, Dave Thomas is John Simon, Catherine O’Hara is Judith Christ, Eugene Levy is Rex Reed and Andrea Martin is Pauline Kael. The moderator, Geraldo Rivera, is played by Joe Flahrety
This past weekend we had brunch at a splendid little non-towered General Aviation airport called Sky Acres. One of the things that makes this field special is that every seat in the ‘Hangar Cafe’ faces the field. Thus one dines on French Toast or Eggs Benedict or whatever fat-ass breakfast
For our Friday ‘dance-off-the-dirt-of-the week-and-head-into-a hopefully-less-dismal-weekend’ offering, here’s the famous ‘trash can’ dance from ‘It’s Always Fair Weather’, starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey and Michael Kidd. It’s a curious film and not very successful in its day–it was thought to be ‘to cynical’ and perhaps the subject matter hit a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R51rZhEzpxEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBovj0e7kuEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjdHaMeiiQ Above are three commericials of iconic TV car-paint salesman Earl Schieb. As you watch each commercial in sequential order you’ll see prices go up, production quality go down and Earl grow older. Something about the way he growled his pitch-slogan–‘I’m Earl Scheib and I’ll paint any car for only
In the good old pre-1950s ‘Golden Age’ of aviation, the slang word for airplanes was ‘ships’. No matter the size, be they trainer, passenger plane, warbird or dirigible, the ‘ship’ was the commonly used term and I wish it were still in use; something about it conveys a hearty respect
For our end of the week musical enjoyment we have a lovely video of Count Basie and Oscar Peterson sitting at duel Bousendorfers and conversing about piano playing. Basie is as sly and monosyllabic as his playing, while Oscar is as voluble and hyper-articulate as his playing. There are any