The Pagan Articles

Movie Star Ramon Novarro Brutally Killed Halloween Eve 1968 Paul Ferguson, in a letter he wrote me at the time I was working on Beyond Paradise, blamed his Catholic background for Ramon Novarro's death: "When [Novarro] kissed me, I reacted like a Catholic, what they call homosexual panic. Some old guy in the desert says, 'Kill homosexuals.' It's inbred. . . . I was too [...]

Howard Keel on TCM: SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, SHOW BOAT, KISS ME KATE Callaway Went Thataway is a pleasant comedy in which Keel has two roles: that of a cowboy star who spends most of his time wasted and a naive hick hired to impersonate said cowboy star. Keel is fine in both comedic roles, and so is Dorothy McGuire as the Hollywood slicker [...]

Jeanette MacDonald, Ramon Novarro, The Cat and the Fiddle Beyond Paradise: The Life of Ramon Novarro is a film star biography I wrote several years ago. The book tells the story of the first Latin American performer to become a major Hollywood star, Ramon Novarro. Born Ramón Samaniego to a prominent Mexican family, Novarro arrived in Hollywood in 1916, a refugee from the civil wars [...]

Dorothy Janis Dorothy Janis, aka Dorothy King, was one of the last living adult performers to have had at least one major role in silent feature films. Janis died on March 10 at the age of 98. I posted an obit on that date, explaining that Janis, the widow of bandleader Wayne King, was featured in a handful of movies right at the time when [...]