A few Hollywood substance abusers PT 2.

November 4, 2016 Alan Royle 17

    Anthony Hopkins Anthony Hopkins opted to join Alcoholics Anonymous after he awoke in another state without having any idea how he got there. Until then he had struggled with alcoholism since the beginning of his acting career. It turned him into a loner and destroyed several relationships.   […]

Actors marrying other actors – PT 16.

October 11, 2016 Alan Royle 0

    CRAIG, Yvonne                                BOYD, Jimmy                                   1960 – 63 (div.)   If things had worked out differently Yvonne might have spent her days dancing instead of acting. As a teenager she showed enormous promise, enough to be chosen as one of the youngest ever dancers by the Denham’s Ballet […]

PAST OSCAR WINNERS – Some Observations – PT 1.

September 29, 2016 Alan Royle 0

                I have been looking through the history of the Academy Awards and, like most people interested in such things, I have found myself disagreeing with many of the choices and agreeing wholeheartedly with others. Here are a few of my thoughts on […]

Jean Harlow – quite a woman.

June 21, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1911, 16 year-old Harlean Carpenter ran away from home to marry a 21 year-old businessman named Charles McGrew in 1927. The couple lived off his rather large inheritance for a couple of years, but it is believed that his drinking led to an […]

Sara Shane aka Elaine Hollingsworth.

May 16, 2016 Alan Royle 15

  I recently watched a 1956 Clark Gable western titled The King and Four Queens and was struck by the beauty of one of the leading ladies, an actress named Sara Shane. Indeed, she was not the only beauty in the picture for it featured one of my all-time favourite […]

The exquisite Grace Kelly.

March 13, 2016 admin 19

  Fans of Grace Kelly (and I am one of them, believe it or not) are probably going to jump up and down if they read this, and accuse me of ‘muck-raking’ or, at best, sensationalising her track record (or should I say ‘sack’ record) with members of the opposite […]

Leslie Howard – hero or just unlucky?

March 3, 2016 admin 13

  Even fans of Gone With The Wind do not think much of British actor Leslie Howard’s insipid performance in the picture. I certainly felt he was a much over-rated actor whose casting as Ashley Wilkes (a pivotal role) in GWTW almost ruined the movie. In my opinion, it turned […]

Censorship – The Production Code & the C.L.O.D.

November 21, 2015 admin 2

  The major studios realized as early as 1922 that they had better start policing themselves before the government decided to move in and curb the questionable morality of the industry themselves. Scandals such as the murder of director William Desmond Taylor and the alleged rape of Virginia Rappe at […]

Did you know? Points of interest Pt. 21.

November 5, 2015 admin 2

  The 1955 Rodgers & Hammerstein hit musical Oklahoma! was actually shot in Arizona! The songs are every bit as good as those in South Pacific, in my opinion, but the movie contains an overlong dance sequence that is, frankly, boring in the extreme. Surprisingly, Rod Steiger does his own […]

CLARK GABLE – Skeletons in the closet.

September 5, 2015 admin 14

  A lady named Franz Dorfler was responsible for getting Clark Gable his first acting job, but he soon ditched her for acting teacher Josephine Dillon. Jo was 41, plain and matronly, but she took the 23 year-old aspiring young actor to Hollywood, and in 1924 they married. It was […]