KIM NOVAK: ‘The head of publicity at the Hollywood studio where I was first under contract [Columbia] told me, ‘You’re a piece of meat, that’s all’. It wasn’t very nice but I had to take it. When I made my first screen test, the director explained to everyone, ‘Don’t […]
RUSSELL JOHNSON (1924 – 2014) His name may not be immediately familiar but his face certainly would be, especially to the many fans of TV’s iconic series Gilligan’s Island (1964-7). Russell Johnson portrayed Professor Roy Hinckley in all but one of its 99 […]
BRIAN KEITH: [On being diagnosed with lung cancer, shortly before he took his own life with a gun in 1997] ‘I was willing to deal with the emphysema, but now I don’t think there’s much point in trying to live on. Forgive me, but I don’t want to live […]
Marilyn Monroe Sir Laurence Olivier once gave his opinion to Michael Parkinson on Marilyn Monroe, his co-star in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). Olivier said she was unhappy throughout the shoot and very difficult to work with, discomforted and forlorn in front of a movie camera. But then the […]
SEAN CONNERY: [His response regarding co-starring with his then wife, Australian actress Diane Cilento] ‘Diane and I are often asked why we don’t make a film together. Frankly, it would be a bloody disaster. I don’t go along with husband and wife double acts. I […]
Gregory Peck & Ava Gardner in On the Beach (1959) When Ava Gardner came to Australia to make On the Beach (1959), she did not exactly endear herself to the nation when she remarked that Melbourne was the most appropriate place on Earth to make a picture about the end of […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Canadian-born Florence Lawrence became the first movie star to be identified by name. Before that she was simply ‘The Biograph Girl’, and that suited her just fine, as it did all the other featured players in other companies. Nobody wanted to be named because it might jeopardize their stage […]
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