Arthur Askey: For decades, the British comedian was a vaudeville, radio, and television celebrity in his home country. Never an international name, Askey was also featured in a handful of…
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Michael Llewelyn Davies dressed up as Peter Pan. J.M. Barrie’s favorite Llewelyn Davies boy, Michael was the most important source of inspiration for Peter Pan, “the boy who wouldn’t grow…
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Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland ends on a sentimental note: Barrie (Johnny Depp) reminds the orphaned Peter (Freddie Highmore) that the power of imagination can be…
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Author Allan R. Ellenberger discusses Miriam Hopkins in the interview further below – and in his Hopkins biography Life and Films of a Hollywood Rebel. From pre-Code antiheroine to matronly…
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Magnificent Obsession book by Anthony Slide. Whereas Lloyd C. Douglas’ 1929 Magnificent Obsession book dealt with a playboy’s urge to restore the eyesight of the woman he had accidentally blinded,…
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Valentino with Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips. Ken Russell’s 1977 Rudolph Valentino biopic Valentino is based on the dubious 1966 bio (“Was he a great lover – or a sham?”)…
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Crime novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. While her husband is away during World War II, housewife Lucia Holley – the sort of “Everywoman” who looks great in…
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How to be a Latin Lover: Ricardo Cortez, formerly known as Jacob Krantz from a working-class family of Austrian/Hungarian immigrants that had settled in New York City, succeeded in restyling…
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“Latin Lover” Ricardo Cortez, who went on to play a series of all-American scoundrels and criminals, in addition to similar unsavory types of other nationalities. Although never as big a…
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Ricardo Cortez biography The Magnificent Heel: The Life and Films of Ricardo Cortez. Dan Van Neste’s book covers the life and career of Paramount’s “Latin Lover” threat to a recalcitrant…
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One of cinema’s early comediennes, Dorothy Devore: between 1918 and 1930, the Ft. Worth-born actress was seen in nearly 100 movies, both features and shorts. Among them were Salvation Sue,…
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Comedy actress Alice Howell on the cover of film historian Anthony Slide’s latest book: Pioneering funky-haired performer “could have been Chaplin” – or at the very least another Louise Fazenda.…
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Male impersonator Kitty Doner: Vaudeville Theatre History. Vaudeville theatre history: ‘The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville’ Vaudeville history in Anthony Slide’s The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Vaudeville is now extinct – at least…
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Andrew Sarris, auteur theory proponent in the U.S., died earlier today at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, apparently of complications caused by a stomach virus. Sarris, who was 83, was…
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Ann Dvorak and Rudy Vallee in Sweet Music. See previous post: Ann Dvorak: Hollywood Rebel. Ann Dvorak’s best-remembered film is probably the 1932 Scarface, starring Paul Muni, directed by Howard…