HARRY JAMES (1916-83) Harry James was a very good trumpet-player and a successful bandleader. He was also a bona fide skirt-chaser all his life and wound up marrying America’s number one pin-up girl of the entire Second World War – Betty Grable. Harry carried around an ego the size of […]
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 […]
The Quigley Publications Poll determined the top box-office stars each year. Here are the winners for each year from 1915 until 2013 – Part 1 (1915-43). 1915 William S. Hart 1916 William S. Hart Hart hailed from New York where he became famous for his 1899 portrayal of Messala […]
At the zenith of their power the ‘Seven Sisters’ (MGM, Warners, Paramount, Universal, Columbia, Fox and RKO) did much as they pleased. Few outsiders had any influence over their decisions or their conduct. Few, that is, with the exception of the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD). They were a […]
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 […]
COLMAN, Ronald HUME, Benita 1938 – 58 (his death) Ronald Colman was very nearly one of the millions of fatalities of World War One. He had only been in France for two months when he was seriously gassed at the battle of Messines and invalided out of […]
The 1934 picture Bolero teamed Carole Lombard and George Raft for the first time. True to Hollywood form they were soon embroiled in a steamy affair. Raft was renowned in Tinsel Town for being a ‘sexual technician’. When asked by a reporter to name Hollywood’s greatest lover, Carole […]
From 1939 until 1984 Victor Mature appeared in 55 movies and one TV series, The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1966). He wasn’t very good in many of them, and no-one was more aware of that than him. My Darling Clementine (1946) and Kiss of Death […]
Betty Grable (1916-73): Betty appeared as a Goldwyn Girl three times, beginning with Whoopee! in 1930. Of course, her fame would ultimately stretch world-wide, mainly because of her staggeringly successful World War Two pin-up (above) and her highly publicized ‘million dollar legs’. In 1947 the United States Treasury Department […]
Only recently have details begun to emerge about Ronald Reagan’s off-screen activities in Tinsel Town prior to his political career kicking off. In yet another new book, this one titled Love Triangle, by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, the writers say they have interviewed persons connected with Ronnie and […]
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