There is a kind of courtship that goes on between producer and director, a kind of wooing. The producer holds the means of movie making (money) and the director, if they’re any good, provides the vision. There’s a honeymoon period, and often an inevitable falling out. It was a form…
Category: Audio
There are definitely seasons in California, whatever anyone says to the contrary. In the winter the smog lifts. The daytime skies are a blue that delights my New England soul. At night the lights that sprawl from the San Gabriel Mountains to the sea glow against a heavenly dome of…
“You know my mom and dad came out to visit me when I was on that first movie. I took them to set, Grauman’s Chinese, Max Factor’s. We looked at every little bitty star on Hollywood Boulevard and had hot fudge sundaes at C.C. Brown’s. The day they came to…
Shooting began. Patsy Morris, checking in one afternoon as the crew broke for lunch cautioned me. “Remember, movies are like high school with a paycheck. The same juvenile behavior and more cliques than you can keep track of.” Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Oasis: The bookshop on Fifty-second Street and Fifth Avenue in New York which stays open till midnight. Dietrich: In the German language: the name for a key that opens all locks. Not a magic key. A very real object, necessitating great skill in the making. The actress Marlene Dietrich spent…
Crawford, for example, could be her unabashedly eccentric self when telling readers to entertain while wearing a lovely gown (she often had her dressmaker fashion a matching turban and shoes). Or that hard chairs were perfectly fine for guests (“soft ones spread the hips”). Or that one should not serve…
Dive into a romantic Hollywood mystery for Valentine’s: “Did they know about The Buccaneers?” “It’s a sex club, Ms. Brown.” “You said it was an after-hours club.” “Good, you’re paying attention.” He made a pyramid of his hands, tapped his fingertips against his lips, thought for a moment, then pushed…
Feel like dancing? James Johnson loved Manhattan. He loved Juilliard. Most of all he loved shedding all the tiresome, uncool parental pressure, but not his monthly allowance, which he supplemented with a hefty income dealing pot and coke to his like-minded artistic classmates. His best customers tended to be kids…
Friends and family to the east, stay warm, stay safe, and let us entertain you with a Hollywood novel, served up weird, witty, and with a twist…