Tag: comedy

April 29, 2013 /

Claudette Colbert & The Magic of Cinema There are some actresses whose names you don’t hear much anymore. It’s something to do with the passing of time; some stars are well-remembered, others, though they may have been as good if not better, are relatively little remarked-upon. So, let’s talk about…

March 27, 2013 /

Now, what do you have to say about that? Anybody?

March 20, 2013 /
March 10, 2013 /
March 1, 2013 /

My angels, this has been a whack-a-do year… And, I am going to take a short break from blogging to confer with the publishers of my… ro·man à clef   /rōˌmän ä ˈklā/ Noun A novel in which real people or events appear with invented names. If I were still young…

February 28, 2013 /

This is Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926. I believe she’s covered in grease as insulation against the cold water… Here she is cleaned up and coaching movie stars… “SWIM, GIRL, SWIM.” Record entries in the trans-Derwent swimming races and interest in the picture,…

February 22, 2013 /

Hermes Pan choreographed everything from “Swing Time” in 1936 to Elizabeth Taylor’s “Cleopatra” (including the spectacle – dancers, warriors, witch doctor’s, elephants, and zebras – that was Cleopatra’s procession into Rome). Pictured above with Ginger Rogers, he was a soft-spoken gregarious man who was loved by his dancers. Recently a…

February 21, 2013 /

That’s the director, lurking in the background, with his trademark owl framed spectacles. When I was a tyke my father took me to a retrospective screening at the DGA of SOME LIKE IT HOT – a then elderly Billy Wilder and Tony Curtis presided. The screening was packed and the…

February 14, 2013 /