GOLDIE HAWN (1945- ) – a self-made star.

August 31, 2017 Alan Royle 0

  GOLDIE HAWN (1945 – )                           Goldie Hawn is a direct descendent of the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, one William Rutledge. If you have seen the musical 1776, Rutledge is the southern gentleman whose […]

Barbara Stanwyck (1907-90).

August 27, 2017 Alan Royle 8

  BARBARA STANWYCK                        Barbara Stanwyck was one of those actresses whose performances ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. From brilliant to lousy. Admittedly, most performers have roles they are extremely proud of and others that make them cringe, […]

What happened to Glenn Miller?

August 25, 2017 Alan Royle 7

  Major Glenn Miller 1944 Bernie Woods was the Music Editor of Variety during the Big Band Era. In that capacity he got to know all the bandleaders, singers and musicians. His 1994 memoir titled ‘When the Music Stopped’ pulls no punches when he discusses individuals, and he had little […]

The Divine Dinah Shore (1916-94).

August 23, 2017 Alan Royle 8

  DINAH SHORE                                     She was born Frances Rose Shore in Winchester, Tennessee in 1916. Friends called her ‘Fanny’, but to the music-loving world she was known as Dinah Shore. She altered her […]

SNAPSHOTS

August 21, 2017 Alan Royle 6

           PIPER LAURIE (1932 – )                with Ronald Reagan in Louisa (1950)   with Paul Newman in The Hustler My favourite Piper Laurie performance was in The Hustler (1961), where she played Paul Newman’s lame girlfriend Sarah Packard. In her highly readable […]

PETER O’TOOLE – the actor and the man.

August 19, 2017 Alan Royle 4

  PETER O’TOOLE   (1932 – 2013)                                      Peter O’Toole hailed from Leeds in Yorkshire. He always maintained he was born in Ireland, but there are simply no records indicating that. As a teenager he started out as a newspaper copy boy, showed promise as a reporter, but was drawn to the […]

No Image

STEVE MCQUEEN – Not a nice guy.

August 17, 2017 Alan Royle 71

  Steve McQueen’s mother was a prostitute, his father a circus stuntman and neither cared a fig about their boy. He lost his virginity at 13 to an obese teenaged hooker who accepted candy for sex. At 16 he was a towel boy in a brothel and encouraged to sample […]

The Many Loves of Bette Davis (1908-89).

August 15, 2017 Alan Royle 4

  Bette Davis was never a raving beauty. Indeed, when Jack Warner sent a representative to the railway station to greet her on her arrival in Tinsel Town, the man returned empty-handed, declaring that nobody even remotely looking like a movie star got off the train. Be that as it […]

The Hollywood Canteen – a unique experience.

August 13, 2017 Alan Royle 6

  Between 1941 and 1944 over 6,000 Hollywood workers entered the services, 1,500 of whom were registered actors and actresses. The ‘Hollywood Unit’ made training and recruitment films (and newsreels). One recruitment film starring Jimmy Stewart was said to have been responsible for 100,000 men joining the air force. Hundreds […]