The Silver Screen Oasis

It has been a while since I've heard them, but I remember Ava's recordings as touching in their non-perfection, and quite emotional. And I don't think she was ever more gorgeous than she is singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man." Whoosh.

Isn't he wonderful? When TCM made him SOTM a few years back, I made an effort to see all his works. I especially love HIDE-OUT; as good as Bob is at being aristocratic, he makes a marvelous Damon Runyon type as well. As for THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, it is apparently virtually autobiographical (given tha...

Gosh, that's such a shock to read! I am glad everyone was OK. My husband works at the Library of Congress and has had some communication about this with a colleague who hasn't firsthand knowledge about the fire, but is familiar with the Stanford Theater projection room. He indicated that it has a ni...

This is going to sound silly but even when Fred had a hairpiece, he looked like he was balding. Surely if you are going to have a hairpiece it's better to look like you have a good thick head of hair? or perhaps the thinking is reversed perhaps the viewer wouldn't think it was a hairpiece because t...

With Joe's blessing, I'll be posting some candid photos of Fred Astaire. Here are a couple more of him sans toupee, just to show that he didn't always look as awkward as in that one earlier photo. First, one of him and Ginger in the early 1940s: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r280/Ayres_album/Mo...

Hee hee. Dumb question, I guess!

WAIT--when was the Buster Keaton/Tara Reid photo taken? Is that Photoshop?

mongoII wrote:Klondike, the lovely actress is Sally Blane, the sister of Loretta Young. The guy leaning on the bar is actor Russell Gleason, the son of the wonderful James Gleason. The photo was taken c1938.

If I may, Mongo, the photo was taken October 11, 1935, the day Joan married Franchot Tone.

Ava told some great stories about her father at the conference we put on at Oxford (more on this at http://www.faconference.org). One that tickled the audience: FA did not often lose his temper, but if anyone were mean to Ava, that was IT. Once she complained in passing to Fred that a drug store emp...

Yup, one thing you can say for the English under William & Mary . . they were definitely down with their pepys . 'Specially 'round Easter time! 8)! Speaking of William & Mary, when I was there one of the most mystifying names was the residence hall with a sign out front that said "Tali...

I think Dewey and Moira have summed up MacMurray really well here. Like many, it was "My Three Sons" and Disney flicks that brought him into my life, and he was a likeable sort in those. I smile to think of all the times that Steven Douglas mentioned his young days of playing the saxophone...

Yeah, Tim Satchell's biography of Astaire alleges that, too. That is the only place I'd ever read it before Epstein.

The one coming out in the fall that you mention--do you mean Peter Levinson's? I understand that Alvin Yudkoff (who wrote a biography of Gene Kelly) also has one in the works.

also, there are 2 astaire/ rogers dance numbers i question....."the piccolino" in 'top hat' ends with the two spinning up to and sitting at their dinner table, ginger's dress rides up although she tries to fix it and finish the routine but is unable to...why use that take? would not gentl...

Ayres, are these quotes from Ginger's autobiography? I wasn't quoting her, but if you'd like me to, here goes: From "Ginger: My Story" Pages 80-81 The Casino in the Park was a magical place. The atmosphere was dreamy with soft lights and floral and spice aromas in the air. The circular sa...