Month: June 2015
LORETTA YOUNG – A good Catholic girl?
If Olympic medals were given out for hypocrisy, Loretta Young (1913 – 2000) would have won gold many times over. The studio blurb described her thus: ‘Her true beauty lies in her dedication to her family and her faith.’ About the only truthful word in that whole line would […]
Gay/Bisexual Actors in Old TV Shows ( Pt 5 )
Peter Wyngarde (1933 – ) Peter Wyngarde was born in Marseilles, France to an English father and a French mother. For about three years between 1969 and 1972, he portrayed the suave, silky-voiced, woman chasing sleuth Jason King in two series, (Department ‘S’ and Jason King), and seemed to […]
Gay/Bisexual Actors in Old TV Shows ( Pt 4 )
Dick Sargent ( 1930 – 94) Dick Sargent was the original choice to play the male lead in the Bewitched series, but other commitments caused him to surrender the opportunity to Dick York. York was very good as Darrin Stephens, but suffered from a chronic back complaint that resulted […]
Gay/Bisexual Actors in Old TV Shows ( Pt 3 )
Nigel Hawthorne (1929 – 2001) The most surprising fact about the superbly written (and acted) Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister is that only 38 episodes in total were made, 22 in the first show and just 16 in the second. Hawthorne was quite brilliant as Sir Humphrey Appleby […]
Gay/Bisexual Actors in Old TV Shows ( Pt 2 )
Saffron Burrows (1972 – ) in Enigma The statuesque Saffron; she is 6 feet tall (1.83m), played Lorraine Weller in Boston Legal for two seasons (2007-8). She was also Detective Serena Stevens in the 2010 season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She was particularly beautiful in the WW2 spy thriller […]
Gay/Bisexual actors in old TV Series ( Pt 1 )
Wilfrid Brambell (1912 – 1985) Steptoe & Son An Irishman from Belfast, Brambell shot to prominence in the 60s playing the irascible, dirty old Steptoe in this popular British sitcom. He also featured in the Beatles’ first film A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Shortly before filming began he […]
GARY COOPER – The ultimate movie star.
He was born Frank Cooper in Helena, Montana, but his agent was born in Gary, Indiana, so his hometown was chosen for Coops’ Christian name. After all, the name Gary Cooper had a certain masculinity that Helena Cooper seemed to lack. A car accident in his youth broke Coop’s […]
TV RATINGS SINCE 1950 – How tastes have changed.
Below is a list of the top-rated programs since the 1950-51 season, according to Nielsen Media Research. Having inhabited this planet since 1947, I can recall most of these shows, although I must admit that I lost interest in TV when that horrible reality rubbish began to dominate […]
Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle – an innocent victim?
It is easy for us today to lose sight of the staggering amounts of money successful people in the fledgling movie industry were making back in the 1920s. The average person in America could live comfortably on less than a thousand dollars a year, about $20 a week. In […]