Today is Kay Francis’ 120th birthday–or would have been had she not died in 1968 at the age of 63. When I was a kid in the early 1970s, the Marx Brothers revival was in full swing and theaters around L.A. often did all-day showings of the Paramount Marx output
I don’t mean to brag (really, I don’t) but I know hundreds–probably thousands–of old songs. It comes from a lifetime of non-stop listening to and playing of the music of the 1920s-50s and watching way too many musicals. So it’s a genuine surprise when I stumble across a song I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDlnp880Lds Harry Warren was an eminent composer of literally dozens of hit tunes written for movies from the early 1930s through the late 1950s. His last big song was the haunting theme from ‘An Affair To Remember’ and his earliest works include depression-era ditties like ‘Jeepers Creepers’, ‘Lullaby Of Broadway’,
This past Saturday we screened ‘House Of Wax’ (1953) at the Directors Guild theater on West 57th street. I did the historical context intro and briefly discussed (i.e. jammed through) a mini-history of 3-D filmmaking. Some often cite ‘House Of Wax’ as the first 3-D movie released at the dawn
Apropos of yesterday’s post featuring the 1926 song hit ‘Yiddishe Charleston’, here’s a clip from a Warner Brothers/First National movie from 1932 called ‘Taxi’. In this famous scene, James Cagney speaks fluent Yiddish with a Jewish man who seems to be in some sort of trouble with an Irish cop.