Eve Golden, the author of the recently published “John Gilbert: The Last of the Silent Film Stars” (University of Kentucky Press) will be visiting The Silver Screen Oasis board to answer members’ questions on Sat. May 18th & Sun. May 19th. Please follow the link below to read or participate in the Q & A: http://silverscreenoasis.com/oasis3/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=6212
The Christmas Album: Tom Mix
Day Two of our holiday jaunt takes us into the cinematic sagebrush. Even if you’ve never seen this man before, his theatrical mien makes him memorable. With that immaculately white ten gallon hat, beautifully tailored duster, splendidly decorated boots, and dazzling smile, could this outlandish figure be anyone other than a movie cowboy from a child’s dreams? And wouldn’t Tom Mix be surprised that decades later, his lasting impact restored the blush in the unlikely cheek of someone who had crossed paths with him just once long ago?…
The Christmas Album on The Skeins for 2012 is open again:
The fire is out, the wind is cold. What better time to warm ourselves with the memory of Ava Gardner, as we raise a toast to the actress whose often crowded life began on December 24th, 1922 as a Christmas Eve baby? The youngest of seven children born on a tobacco farm in Grabtown, North Carolina, as she grew up it was a bit of a shock to the girl that it “appeared that there was this whole other person Jesus Christ whose birthday a lot of people tended to confuse with mine. I was personally outraged. It was a long time before I forgave the Lord for that.”…More on The Skeins
From Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews (University Press of Missippippi) by Carl Rollyson:
As a neophyte film actor, one of Dana Andrews first appearances on film was in a small part in director William Wyler’s The Westerner (1940). In The Best Years of Our LIves (1946), the actor told a reporter that he appeared in the picture only at the “insistence of [producer] Sam Goldwyn. ‘William Wyler didn’t want me, [Dana] told an interviewer. But on the first day of shooting, after an early scene with Harold Russell, the director called Dana over to him and said:
‘What happened to you! You’re a very good actor!’ I laughed and said, ‘Willie, thank you very much but I’ve made 20 pictures since I first saw you. Why, if I hadn’t improved somewhat, I’d be a pretty stupid actor.” In [Wyler’s] mind, it was practically yesterday—he’d been in England during the war with the Eighth Air Force.’ Working together on this scene when Fred Derry (Andrews) was alone inside a dissembled bomber, Wyler described what he thought that Andrews’ character was thinking about, and the actor got the faraway look in his eye that later required little editing in terms of performance.
Dana Andrews Biographer Carl Rollyson will be visiting The Silver Screen Oasis on December 8th and 9th for a Q & A with the members. Please click on the image to learn more.
Biographer Lesley L. Coffin, the author of “Lew Ayres: Hollywood’s Conscientious Objector” is visiting The Silver Screen Oasis from Fri., Oct. 26th-Mon. Oct. 29th. Your questions are welcome there all weekend (click on picture to see more).
Denny Miller is an actor whose long career has enabled him to work with such storied talents as George Cukor, Vincente Minnelli, Ward Bond, Bette Davis and many more. Actor, author, and physical fitness advocate Denny Miller, a genial, walking encyclopedia of Hollywood history, is the visiting Guest Author at the Silver Screen Oasis for the weekend of July 27th-29th! If you would like to register to ask him a question or just read the Q & A with this gentleman, you are welcome.
Garth Williams sketch for “Chester Cricket’s Pigeon Ride” by George Selden, first published in 1981.
A random collection of musings and discoveries about the past.
The Tall Book of Make-Believe Selected by Jane Werner ~ illustration by Garth Williams ~ Harper, 1950
As part of Roger Livesey Thursday we watched That Dangerous Age or If This Be Sin (the americans have the much more melodramatic title, which kind...
A letter from Kenneth More to the Times, 1976
Santa and his reindeer on Main Street, 1940s
I’ve always been strangely attracted to Tom Courtenay ;-P
also confession time: I only got about an hour into Zhivago I...
Dingo, interior decorator.
Dad, I know you bought the thing to keep the rug in place, but it looks so much better THIS way!…
shared...
