Criticism (Quick Magazine, 1952)
During the Summer of 1952, an unhappy Christian cleric in far away Scotland weighed in on Jane Russell – provoking the Hollywood beauty to weigh right back.
Criticism (Quick Magazine, 1952) Read More »
Hollywood History
Shirley MacLaine at 22 (Modern Screen, 1956)
Arriving in Hollywood by way of The Trouble with Harry in 1955, and cute as buttons – Shirley MacLaine (b. 1934) was the adopted little sister of the Rat Pack, that odd movie star whose sensitive skin burned too easily in the California sun and one of the few starlets who was actually capable of sewing her own clothes.
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The Story Factory (Rob Wagner’s Script, 1935)
Motion picture studios manufacture motion pictures. Motion pictures are shot from scripts. Scripts are developed from stories. Stories are written and sent to studios by undertakers, gamekeepers, chocolate dippers, steamfitters, pretzel-makers, judges, dentists, trapeze artists, carpet layers, parachute jumpers, nurses, tea tasters and amateur winders. It is a platitude that everyone owning a pencil fancies themselves a writer.
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‘The Strange Story Behind GONE WITH THE WIND” (Coronet Magazine, 1961)
What was the real origin of Gone with the Wind? Margaret Mitchell (1900 – 1949) referred to a simple incident in her childhood. One afternoon, her mother took her on a buggy ride through the countryside around Atlanta, showing her all the once proud plantation homes that stood in crumbling shame from the Civil War, and others that were symbols of revival and progress. The impression never left her. Gone with the Wind, she said, was the story of Georgians who survived and those who didn’t.
In this article a book reviewer questions why anyone thought the novel was so great.
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The James Agee Review of It’s a Wonderful Life (The Nation, 1947)
James Agee, the film reviewer for The Nation (1942 – 1948), was charmed by the warmth of It’s a Wonderful Life
and believed that it was an admirable and well-crafted piece of film making; he nonetheless came away feeling like he’d been sold a bill of goods and rejected the movie primarily because he believed that films created in the Atomic Age should reflect the pessimism that created the era.
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‘I Remember William Powell” (Photoplay Magazine, 1930)
A magazine article by Leonora Ross in which she recalled her high school days with one of Kansas City’s most famous sons, actor William Powell (1892 – 1984). At the time this article appeared, Powell had some forty-two films to his credit (37 of them silent) with his best work yet to come.
If you would like to read more articles from Photoplay Magazine, click here.
CLICK HERE to read about Powell’s most famous film: The Thin Man…
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‘The Grapes of Wrath” (Click Magazine, 1940)
The attached article is illustrated with three color photos from the set of the movie, this short article details why The Grapes of Wrath (Twentieth Century Fox, 1940) was such a different movie to come out of Hollywood and explains how thoroughly both the art and costume departments were in their research in depicting the migrant Okies in their Westward flight:
Realism, keynote of the book, was the keynote of the picture. Henry Fonda, who plays Tom Joad, lived for weeks among the Okie farmers from Oklahoma to understand their problems…
As a result of Steinbeck’s literary efforts, medical aid was offered to California’s migrants – Click here to read about it
Click here to read a 1935 article about the real Okies.
Perhaps Steinbeck saw this 1938 photo-essay while writing his novel?
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Humphrey Bogart and his Feud with the Hollywood Press (Pageant Magazine, 1956)
There was a time, Humphrey Bogart maintains, when he saw all interviewers and tried to answer all questions put to him…
But I can’t take it anymore, I’ve had to cut the fan magazines off my list entirely. Just the sheer smell of them drives me crazy. They smell of milk. The interviewers themselves treat you like a two-year-old child with their will-Debbie-marry-Eddie and can-Lance-Fuller-live-without-a-wife kind of idiocy. You know the whole sorry groove of the thing.
You can read about David Niven HERE
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Walt Disney’s Artists and the Making of ‘Bambi’ (Collier’s Magazine, 1942)
For the production of Snow White (1938), the Disney artists had gone to great lengths in order to properly portray the manner in which young women move; these efforts were rewarded at the box-office to such a high degree that the same devotion was applied to the study of deer anatomy in their efforts to create Bambi (1942).
We had to remember, that Disney has a ruthless fidelity to the physical scene, to the truth of nature, even when he may seem to be distorting nature.
Click here to read more articles about Disney animation.
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Enter, Esther Williams (Collier’s Magazine, 1942)
There is a new girl out at MGM in Culver City named Esther Williams (1921 – 2013), who is a cross between Lana Turner and a seal…Miss Williams happens to be that fortunate thing known as ‘a knockout’ – in looks and one of the greatest swimmers in the world.
Click here to read about Marilyn Monroe and watch a terrific documentary about her life.
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