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Hat’s Off to Kevin Brownlow
Today we salute one of the key figures in the silent movie Renaissance of the last several decades: author, collector, preservationist, director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor...
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Ten Questions Answered for the Marx Brothers Newbie
I am in the midst of a very mushy “soft roll-out” of my latest book. The Marx Brothers Miscellany became available to purchase about six weeks ago, and I certainly hawked it at the just-closed...
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Breaking Down Bruce Dern
Have no fear, I have no intention of taking down or running down the idiosyncratic genius of Bruce MacLeish Dern (b. 1936). The title refers to the fact that this post will divide aspects of his life...
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This Friday! Catch “The Spy Who Went Into Rehab”
Today we venture outside our wheelhouse a smidge, but not TOO far, for the post concerns the coming together of two previous subjects: Cyndy Fujikawa, who wrote this wonderful six part series for us...
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Few Went as Low…as Skip E. Lowe
Someone who watches vintage celebrity interviews as often as I do was bound to discover Skip E. Lowe (Sammy Labella, 1929-2014) sooner or later. I’d heard of him long before I ever saw him. The source...
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The Dolores Gray Centennial
Born 100 years ago today, the great Broadway actress and nightclub performer Dolores Gray (Sylvia Dolores Finkelstein, 1924-2002). Not to be confused with the similar looking Dolores Fuller, whose...
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More Marxfest Mop-Up!
That’s right! There’s more! In fact there’ll be even more than THIS post over the next few weeks, truth to tell. The wonderful news for folks who couldn’t attend Marxfest is that it was extremely well...
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Edwin S. Votey: Invented the Player Piano
Votey (right) shows his new invention June 8 was the birthday of Edwin S. Votey (1856-1931), inventor of, among other things, the player piano. Votey grew up in Ovid, New York, then moved to West...
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A Bit About Bessie Barriscale
June 9 was the birthday of stage and screen actress Bessie Barriscale (Elizabeth Barry Scale, 1884-1965). Barriscale was the older cousin of Mabel and Edith Taliaferro; of the three, Mabel Taliaferro...
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The Circus Comes to Socrates
Friday evening occurred a wonderful convergence of catchings-up: hanging out with old friends Michele Carlo and Last Up Larry…to see the current production of Circus Amok (one of my favorite companies...
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If You Knew Suzy (Knickerbocker)
The ghost of Suzy Knickerbocker (Aileen Mehle, 1918-2016) seems to hover over this cultural moment, especially for those who love to binge streaming TV series. There are echoes of her life and work in...
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Some Items of Coney Island Clown News
Once upon a time, contemporary variety arts and theatre information was a prominent content stream on this blog…but frankly few people read those posts, so I took them (and there were hundreds of...
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30 Years Ago Today: The Juice Runneth Over
O.J. Simpson (1947-2024) died two months ago. Having had cause to mention him over 15 times on this blog, O.J. rates a post here, yet I wasn’t about to eulogize him, and I certainly don’t celebrate...
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Losing Lois Weber
Today we finally shine a spotlight on female cinema pioneer Lois Weber (1879-1939). We do this in the interest of completeness, having long since done squibs on women like Alice Guy, Frances Marion,...
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20 Years Ago: Failed Real Estate Feeb Seeks An “Apprentice”
The Apprentice debuted in 2004. I never watched this damn show in real time, so I was rather shocked at the impact it wound up having on this planet. “New York is my town,” host Donald Trump brays in...
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This Sunday: That Slapstick Show Presents The Animated Marx Brothers
If you missed Nelson Hughes’ presentation at Marxfest, here’s your chance to catch it, with enhancements. This Sunday at 4:30pm at QED in Queens, That Slapstick Show dives into the world of the...
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Charles Gemora: Have Ape Suit, Will Travel
The story of Charles Gemora (Carlos Cruz Gemora, 1903-1961) represents a confluence between two of our previous content streams: gorilla suit movies and animal impersonation (see posts on Fred...
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Harry Langdon in the Talkies
This piece was originally cooked up for Tim Greer’s “Feet of Mud” website a few years ago, but it now seems to be offline, so I place it here. The Langdon Thing This is strictly anecdotal of course,...
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A Harry Langdon Finding Aid
There’s not a ton of middle ground on silent screen comedian Harry Langdon (1884-1944). The few who know him either love or hate him, and those who love him are vastly outnumbered. I’m among the...
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The Ford Shows
The Ford Motor Company was founded on this day in 1903. As we posted earlier, our enthusiasm for the contributions to the world by Henry Ford are muted, to put it mildly, by his Anti-Semitism. At the...
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