LOUELLA & HEDDA – The Poisoned Pens.

November 19, 2019 Alan Royle 2

  (L) Hedda Hopper & Louella Parsons Beginning in 1912 with Photoplay, there have always been movie magazines, most of which relied almost entirely on being fed carefully orchestrated morsels of ‘facts’ about their stars by the studios’ publicity departments. The public was so hungry for ‘behind the scenes’ information […]

IT SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY…

August 9, 2019 Alan Royle 10

    Station promo for opening night October 16, 1959 Television came to my home town of Perth, Western Australia at 5.30 pm, Friday, October 16, 1959. I was 12 years old and living with my grand-parents in East Fremantle, about 13 miles south of Perth, at the time. My […]

MOVIE TRIVIA – PT93.

December 26, 2018 Alan Royle 0

    Barbara Hale, William Hopper & Raymond Burr in Perry Mason        Fans of the Perry Mason TV series will no doubt remember William Hopper, son of gossip columnist Hedda, who played Perry’s assistant Paul Drake. During World War Two he served as a frogman with the US […]

FIFTIES MOVIE TRIVIA – PT1.

March 13, 2018 Alan Royle 2

The Moon is Blue (1953) is a pretty tame picture, yet it was the first post-Hayes mainstream Hollywood movie to use the words ‘virgin’, ‘seduce’ and ‘mistress’ (in the sexual partner sense). The mere utterance of these three words was enough to get the picture banned from theatres in Boston, […]

TV Classic – Perry Mason (1957-66)

May 14, 2016 Alan Royle 4

  I doubt very much if there has ever been a more popular courtroom drama series than the legendary CBS show starring Raymond Burr called Perry Mason. It was shot at 20th Century Fox’s studio and ran for a total of 271 episodes between September 1957 and May 1966. The […]

More old TV shows trivia.

December 20, 2015 admin 2

  To baby-boomers the name Honor Blackman conjures up two distinct and memorable images – Cathy Gale in all of the first 43 episodes of the hit TV series The Avengers –  and Pussy Galore in the 1964 James Bond classic Goldfinger. In August 2015, the wonderful Honor Blackman turned ninety […]

Gay/Bisexual actors in old TV Series ( Pt 1 )

June 15, 2015 admin 11

    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 […]