"Norman, pretend you're a man." - Jack Wolf, "It's Your Move"
I had never found Thora Birch all that attractive based on her roles in the few movies I had seen in which she starred: Now and Then, Ghost World, and the Academy Award winner American Beauty. But when she emerged from backstage for a press photo op after her performance in the star-studded reading of Casablanca that I saw on my birthday in 2005, I couldn’t believe how good she looked. Read the rest of this entry »
For years, Laurel and Hardy’s films from the 1940’s have been picked on, put down, and shunned by most Laurel and Hardy fans. In recent days, the films have seen new life by getting very nice DVD reissues and have been re-evaluated by many fans who now consider them small masterpieces in their own right. I typically try to stay out of any discussion on the merits (or lack of them) of the 1940’s films. Mostly because I simply don’t care. The films are what they are and they now more than sixty years old…so what does it really matter? Some are crap, some have their moments, and some I completely enjoy – all while recognizing that none of them live up to the standards set in the 1930’s films made at the Hal Roach Studios. Read the rest of this entry »
William Janney was the dramatic leading man in Laurel and Hardy’s 1934 feature film Bonnie Scotland. Never mind that his scenes as the romatic interest to starlet June Lang were more-or-less distractions to the boys’ comedy in the picture – that’s not his fault. He was there working alongside the boys and that’s enough to thrill any film buff including me. Other than his work with Laurel and Hardy, his film career mostly entailed bit parts and b-pictures, but I am still thrilled to say that I once was able to meet William Janney. Read the rest of this entry »
I wasn’t particularly busy with autograph collecting in March of 1986, but I did manage to send out three requests on March 10. One (of several) to Ray Bolger, which was returned on May 21, one to Shirley Temple who returned her second batch of photos on March 17, and one to Noel Neill who returned a signed photo on March 29. All of these autographs can seen in previous postings by clicking on the celeb’s name. Read the rest of this entry »
Rolfe Sedan had an extremely distiguished career as a character actor playing more than 250 different roles from the early 1920’s to the late 1970’s in both film and telelvision. Among his most notable roles was his role as Mr. Beasley the postman on The George Burns – Gracie Allen Show, but what really piqued my interest was his role as a hotel desk clerk in the Laurel and Hardy classic Double Whoopee in 1929. Read the rest of this entry »