Did you know?

December 26, 2016 Alan Royle 3

  When the United Artists cast and crew arrived in Prague, Czechoslovakia in June 1968 to shoot this picture, Alexander Dubcek had only recently become the Communist Party Secretary in Czechoslovakia. Unlike his predecessors, he was a man bent on improving the lot of his countrymen by softening the hard-line […]

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Actors marrying other actors – PT 19.

December 20, 2016 Alan Royle 0

      Bobby DARIN                                   Sandra DEE                           (1960 – 67)    divorced Bobby Darin & Sandra Dee   As a struggling songwriter in the legendary Brill Building, Bobby met up and coming singer Connie Francis and fell desperately in love with her. The girl’s strict Italian father refused her permission to […]

The WAMPAS Baby Stars PT4 – 1925.

December 10, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  BETTY (BETTE) ARLEN (1909-66) Of all the WAMPAS Baby Stars down the years, Betty Arlen had one of the least significant acting careers of any. She actually appeared in a total of 24 movies, three of them in the Roaring Twenties and the rest between 1949 and 1956, but […]

The Warner Bros. Story

December 8, 2016 Alan Royle 4

  Warner Brothers was incorporated in 1923 by the four brothers – Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack. They bought a lot on Sunset Boulevard and their first big star was a German shepherd named Rin Tin Tin. In fact, it would be fair to say that the studio would almost […]

Did you know?

December 6, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  RUBY KEELER I recently watched 42nd Street (1933) in its entirety, having only seen excerpts until then. The acting was very ordinary, the sound quality (as expected) was inferior, and the highlighted singers were mostly awful. And that includes Ruby Keeler. In fact, she not only couldn’t sing, she […]

The Silent Movie Era – a few observations.

November 30, 2016 Alan Royle 6

                                                             Here are a few unrelated ‘snippets’ from the good old days of the ‘Silent Era’. Some of them you may already know about; others you may not. But each one contributes to our knowledge and understanding of that long ago […]

Actors marrying other actors – Pt 18

November 24, 2016 Alan Royle 2

             Arlene DAHL                                    Lex BARKER                        (1951 – 52)    divorced                                                                Fernando LAMAS                (1954 – […]

Past Oscars PT 5 – (1961-66)

November 16, 2016 Alan Royle 0

    1961               West Side Story – Best Picture                         Maximilian Schell – Best Actor for Judgment at Nuremberg                         George Chakiris – Best Supporting Actor for West Side Story                                                               Except for Fanny, I have seen each of the nominees – West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, […]

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November 14, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Director Dorothy Arzner & Crawford ‘I like to think that every director I’ve worked with has fallen a little in love with me’, Joan Crawford once confided in an interview none too modestly. ‘I know Dorothy Arzner did’. No surprises there. Given her well-documented sexual orientation Dorothy may well […]

WAMPAS Baby Stars PT2 – 1923

November 12, 2016 Alan Royle 2

  The 13 youngsters deemed to be ‘up and coming’ for 1923 were: BOARDMAN, Eleanor (1898 – 1991). Eleanor always wanted to be an actress. She left her native Philadelphia and headed for the bright lights of New York City, but success did not come there, so she signed up […]