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Rare it is that a Japanese actor, no matter how big a name back home, makes it as a star in Hollywood. Only two names that have accomplished this spring immediately to mind: Sessue Hayakawa, the mostly silent-era actor who became the first Japanese to find stardom in America; and Toshiro Mifune, director Akira Kurosawa’s go-to […]
Well, of course, there are dozens of films set on or around Thanksgiving Day, but are any of them classic, or even good? A few come to mind. Scent of a Woman, an Al Pacino, Chris Connelly starrer, and Nobody’s Fool, one of Paul Newman and Jessica Tandy’s later efforts are worth watching. Two […]
What would we do without our readers? As recounted in our Nov. 21 blog (Mystery Cowboy — Named At Last) we were at a loss to visually identify cowboy pioneer Ken Maynard in an old photo, until reader Robert Velez clued us in. We then profiled Maynard’s impressive back round, mentioning that he appeared in nearly 100 […]
So how much did you know about one of our favorite stars, Van Johnson? By the way the above photo is an original snapshot of Van taken by our pal Donald Gordon back in the early 1940s. The actor looks blissfully boyish here (he called himself “cheery Van”). Let’s get right to our answers. (To […]
One of the first star profiles in the infancy of our esteemed site — operational since April 4, 2011 — covered Van Johnson. Was he gay?, we provocatively asked. The response was both loud and voluminous. Over the ensuing thee-plus years, our Van Johnson blogs have proved to be the most read and commented upon […]
On Oct. 9, struggling us published this picture in our blog, and asked if any of you out there could identify this hombre. We’d said that a faithful Texas-reared reader informed us that the photo above is of an “old western star” very much prized by a relative’s dad, who is no longer with us. […]
Time to dip into our email bag and catch up on the latest reader correspondence. Rita Gold illustrates the tried and true practice of accidentally discovering something you are really looking for while you are searching for something else. In responding to our July 31 blog, Strange Bedfellows — which features photos of odd celebrity couples, none […]
Imagine yourself falling in love with Peter Lorre? Yes, we admire this great character actor as much as most anyone. But falling in love? Well, consider this exchange between us and reader Cheryl Morris, who recently answered our query posed earlier when she contributed some welcome comments our latest Peter Lorre Quiz. Here’s the earlier […]
She never played the innocent coquette. Neither was she the sophisticated beauty. With her distinctive platinum blond hair, flagrant sashaying and randy quips, she conquered vaudeville, Broadway stage (eg. Sex and The Drag), and blazingly emerged as one of 1930s Hollywood’s biggest box office draws. She reeked of pure sexual attitude. La sulfureuse, as the […]
Has there ever been a sexier Hollywood star than the subject of our Monday Quiz — Brooklyn born Mary Jane West? Sure Mae West, as she became to be known, had been around the block a few times by 1932 when she arrived in Hollywood. Fortyish, full figured and a fully-formed show biz veteran, she never quite […]