WAMPAS Baby Stars 1932

April 7, 2017 Alan Royle 0

  LONA ANDRE (1915 – 92) Tennessee-born Lona Andre landed a few leads in minor movies and a number of mostly uncredited bit parts in more important features, but overall her career never amounted to much. Her 1935 marriage to leading man Edward Norris probably set some kind of record […]

Stars we lost in 2016 – Pt 2.

January 25, 2017 Alan Royle 0

  In the previous post I looked at the passing of Carrie Fisher, Michael Massee, Jon Polito, Florence Henderson, David Bowie, Patty Duke, Alan Rickman, Alan Thicke, Charmian Carr, Dan Haggerty, Kenny Baker, Robert Vaughn, Gene Wilder and Ronnie Corbett. Here are some more unique individuals who failed to see […]

Did you know? – Garson, Darnell, Eastwood & Boyle

October 5, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Greer Garson Mr & Mrs Richard Ney 1943 Teresa Wrioght & Richard Ney in Mrs Miniver (1942) The first of Greer Garson’s three marriages did not last past the honeymoon in Austria in 1933. Her possessive husband virtually held her hostage the whole time. On their return to England she moved […]

Robert Wagner – matinee idol of the fifties.

January 19, 2016 admin 2

  RJ & Natalie, marriage #1 ‘RJ’, as Robert Wagner is known to most of his friends, was always destined to end up acting. As a boy he attended schools and Military Colleges with the offspring of movie stars and other celebrities. These included Charlie Chaplin’s son Sydney, Irving Thalberg […]

Leonardo DiCaprio – sensible superstar.

November 13, 2015 admin 4

  I wonder if any of the non-entities who comprised the cast of the woeful 1991 low budget horror feature Critters 3 entertained any suspicions that the 17 year-old who made his movie debut playing the part of Josh in it would go on to become an icon in the […]

Stolen Oscars? Pt. 2

September 22, 2015 admin 6

  The second part of ‘Stolen Oscars?’ commences with 1981. In part one I looked at 10 Oscar-winning movies that, in my opinion, were unworthy. Here are eight more: 1981    Chariots of Fire Chariots of Fire was not a bad movie, but it was a long way from a great […]

Stanwyck & Taylor – a Lavender Marriage?

July 6, 2015 admin 52

When it came to questions about her sexuality, Barbara Stanwyck was the old studio days’ equivalent of today’s Tom Cruise. Any mention of her sexual preferences would immediately bring forth veiled threats of litigation should the subject be pursued. Cruise does the same thing today. Mention his name in connection […]

TV RATINGS SINCE 1950 – How tastes have changed.

June 11, 2015 admin 0

    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 […]

The Best Movie Music?

May 4, 2015 admin 0

  Brief Note: At last, the day has arrived! After years of research, and months of hard work from my son Peter setting up this site and connecting with Amazon and Kindle, today we launch book two, ‘Movies Based on True Stories’. It is 626 pages in length (on Kindle), covers […]

River Phoenix – a foolish waste?

February 19, 2015 admin 1

      River boasted of losing his virginity to an eighteen year-old girl he met while making Stand by Me in early 1985. He told his parents and siblings of his intention to seduce her, so they erected a psychedelically painted tent in their back yard for the occasion. […]