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You know. TCM has had a lot of great programming this month. Thank you so much for the Sherlock Holmes movies. They were great. I still think that would make a great Spotlight sometime. My request should still be there on the Friday Night Spotlight board.

OK here's a few more classic era celebs that were memorable from my Russian Tea Room years (1980's-1990's); Hume Cronyn & Jessica Tandy They were quite nice as customers, and were regulars for awhile. Mr. Cronyn I recall wore turtlenecks and jackets and Ms Tandy sweaters at all times of year (our AC was pretty effective). They were treated with great respect by others in the business. When Mr Cronyn/Ms Tandy were in the restaurant I remember that constantly, present-day actors and stars would visit their table to introduce themselves and offer compliments and tributes. It was my impression that they were both quite admired in the business, especially by other actors. Rex Harrison Was a regular for awhile in 1986 or 87, he may have been in a show on Broadway at that time. What can I say that is positive... not much. I will encapsulate by saying that he was not the most generous person (once tipped me $4 on a $400 tab) and was not a supporter of ethnic or racial diversity (I won't go into details, it was bad). Van Johnson Very nice man, and looked great when we would see him (late 1980's). Tall, ruddy, good drinker.. fun guy. He had a knack for flirting with the staff without acting inappropriately. There's a way to do it right and he never stepped over the line, he was always charming and non-offensive. Unlike certain others.

I love that big hat she wore in the baseball stadium scene in WOMAN OF THE YEAR which caused so much frustration to the men behind her who couldn't see the game. 😄

Rettig, Tommy

Katherine Hepburn wore a memorable stocking cap-thingy in The Philadelphia Story:

Those are very nice anecdotes, Herman. Thank you for sharing them. And welcome to the boards.

I can believe this, since I have read many stories of how rude, nasty and downright abusive he could be with the help at restaurants and hotels. He was not nice to fans either. While appearing in My Fair Lady on Broadway, a woman asked for an autograph and he told her to "sod off". She responded by smacking him on the head and shoulders several times with her playbill. Stanley Holloway (Alfed Doolittle in the show and not fond of Harrison either), saw this and later said it was "an unusual and welcome case of the fan hitting the sh*t."

Oh, I just remembered. I met the Cisco Kid (Duncan Reynaldo) when he came to Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens in the early '60s, I guess. As a Saturday morning viewer of the Kid this was a very big deal to me at the time. I got in a lineup with my Dad and a million other kids and Reynaldo was at the front of the line handing out a photo of himself on his horse, Diablo. The main thing I recall is that when we got to the front of the line my Dad (Mexican born) briefly conversed with Reynaldo in Spanish. Believe me, there weren't too many Spanish speaking people in Toronto in those days.

From March 27-30, 1921, the Poli ran Earthbound, with Wyndham Standing as Richard Desborough, Naomi Childers as Caroline Desborough, Mahlon Hamilton as Jim Rittenshaw, and Flora Revalles as Daisy Rittenshaw. The film was released in August of 1920, at eight reels. A complete copy is held in the MGM library. Plot: Jim Rittenshaw is happily married to Daisy, or so he thinks. Richard Desborough, Jim’s friend from his college days, becomes enamored of Daisy, who leads him on. Desborough lives by the creed “No God. No Sin. No future life.” Desborough neglects his own wife and child. His wife Caroline goes to Rittenshaw and tells him what is going on. Rittenshaw then kills Desborough. However, before his spirit can be at rest, Desborough must make right the things he left wronged. He appears in visions to the various characters, even his dog, and one by one they are guided to perform acts that set conditions right. Eventually Flora confesses that she is the reason Desborough was murdered. When Desborough’s wife recognizes him, she forgives him, and he is able to depart the earth. The still below could not be placed in context, but shows a meeting between Caroline Desborough and Daisy Rittenshaw: The still below also could not be placed in context. However, a 90-foot by 240-foot cathedral was built for one scene, with a seventeen-foot high crucifix. This still was probably taken on that set: Wid’s Daily praised the film, particularly the special effects, writing “T. Hayes Hunter, in his capacity of director, has revealed himself as exceedingly skillful in the main. The technical perfection of the double exposures are doubtless due to his efforts as well as his cameraman’s.” Motion Picture Magazine added “thanks to the consistently good direction of T. Hayes Hunter, the picture’s interest is well maintained, with no instance of flagging, while the photography, which is particularly difficult because of the ghost-like form moving about in the majority of the scenes, is excellent.” The film took seven months to complete. Director Hunter shot 190,000 feet of film, before cutting it down to around 8000 feet. There were 166 scenes using double exposures. In an interview for Motion Picture Classic, Hunter explained some of the technical aspects of the film. To photograph a scene involving the spirit and another person, he first rehearsed the two actors together. Then he timed the action with a metronome. Key times would be when the spirit began speaking, or the other actor “felt” the presence and turned around, or when the spirit materialized, or dissolved, etc. “You can realize that, if we depended upon a human count, an inaccuracy would be bound to occur,” said Hunter. “The metronome kept this in perfect measure, even the cameraman grinding to its beat.” To film the spirit, the entire set was covered in black velvet, which allowed only the ghost’s figure to be photographed with no reflection. Special gauze was placed over the camera lens to add a hazy spirit effect. One difficult scene required a dog to see the spirit. “You cannot rehearse a dog or tell him what to do,” Hunted noted. “So we did the next best thing. On the top of a platform, out of range of the camera, we placed a goat. Now a dog hates a goat, perhaps more than any other animal. In front of the goat we placed a draw curtain. At the moment when the dog sees the spirit, we drew aside the curtain and revealed the goat. Of course, the dog started, bristled and jumped to his feet, revealing all the necessary emotions.” The climax, in which the Desborough character departs from this world, required the most expense, according to Hunter. “An inclined platform two-hundred-and-fifty-feet long was built and covered with velvet,” he explained. “A motor driven car was arranged to run up this platform, carrying powerful lights. Thus, when the spirit apparently walked away over the tree tops, he in reality walked up this velvet covered runway, while the electric light car traveled alongside.” The film was remade in 1940, with Warner Baxter as the murder victim. I’ve seen that version, and found it entertaining but nothing I would rush to see again.

That's a bonnet? Looks more like she slept on a marshmallow pillow & never cleaned it off! Or maybe she's recovering from brain surgery? I did notice a lot of crashed birds on the hats shown on this thread...what is that obsession? Why not spring birds nesting for Easter hats like this little girl?

For fans of the Universal Holmes films, the late Michael Hoey - son of Dennis "Inspector Lestrade" Hoey - wrote a wonderful book about the Sherlock Holmes stock company (Sherlock Holmes & the Fabulous Faces - The Universal Pictures Repertory Company ). He reviews the cast members of all 12 films (and touches on the 2 Fox pictures as well) and gives well-researched bios of the supporting cast members.

Well, since Norman was inspired by Ed Gein, who actually did heinous dress things with his female victims (which I won't even write about,) it seems almost a new can of worms to even infer this might be an offensive portrayal. People who have never noted it as such might start thinking of it in terms of a gay maladjustment. I agree with TopBilled and others who seems to be boiling it down to the whole thing being essentially a bit pompous and suspiciously commercial. It never even occurred to me or my friends (I've asked now) that it was intended as a distortion of homosexuality, or any other "sexuality." It's about a sick individual. As a denizen of West Hollywood since 1985, I have a bit of knowledge about gay life (okay, A LOT) and appreciate when people from the Community discuss their opinions about older films. But we're not a monolith and no one speaks for any one group. If anything, I would hate to foster the perception that gay men might be overly-sensitive to something that they never connected negatively in any way until the trend to frame things got so strong. Hollywood has formed millions of solitary gay men in positive ways in their youth, even if it didn't intend to. For 25 years I worked in West Hollywood video stores and I know. Off topic: I knew Perkins and Berenson a bit (and still tear up when I think of their tragic endings.) Berry was, in particular, one of the kindest people you could meet.

WHEELS next- Tony Shalhoub, Ted Levine, Bitty Schram

THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE:

Gaslight Next: roulette

HALE next: Dickinson, Everhart and Harmon

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy (born on the Fourth of July) Next: "Angel" in Title

Lilli Palmer

No, they stopped screaming and were clearly disappointed. I would have been more interested in meeting Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal, who were the stars of the play.

Dumpity Dump Dump Dump Obligatory hat in a movie to justify post: The answer to birds on hats: Dapper Kitty: Hat not actually shown: What is it with men and cheese? This is Jason Momoa who has starred in several movies but it is sad to say that none might be called classic: Not truly in a movie but of the style. Jean Patchett:

Finally. Thank you for that succinct statement.

These are in essence the same hat just Bette's is molded wool, the man's is sewn fur. I have several of hats in this style, it must have been a popular shape. (I erroneously call them Russian Pillbox for easy ID) But look how different they appear by how they are fitted & worn. The very best thing about this style hat is you can easily embellish them with a brooch or cockade to match whatever you're wearing.

SOLID GOLD CADILLAC NEWHART (inn) HUDSUCKER PROXY

Will Next: Alan, Lucy, Jonathan

I just concluded my 12th watch of Bogdanovich's "Noises Off" (1992)... I have no words to defend my actions, other than this movie cheers me up and is a good distraction. Plus, what a cast: Michael Caine, Carol Burnett, Julie Hagerty, Christopher Reeve, Marilu Henner, John Ritter, Nicollete Sheridan...

1931

The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)

Paxinou, Katrina

Norma Shearer wore some really stylish hats during her reign:

FOUR JILLS IN A JEEP

This reminded me of something Angela Lansbury wore in The World of Henry Orient: And another with Angela Lansbury

During a Vegas visit in the '80s I wandered to the pool area behind Caesar's Palace and, as a boxing fan, was surprised to sight a familiar face relaxing in a chair, three weight champion Alexis Arguello (in town in preparation for his upcoming rematch with Aaron Pryor). As I approached him the sun was suddenly blocked out by the size of the shadow that his Mount Everest-sized bodyguard cast as he was prepared to block me from approaching the fighter. Arguello, however, waved him away and smiled at me. We talked for a couple of minutes and this boxing legend couldn't have been friendlier or more of a gentleman. In fact he allowed me to take this pix of him posted below. As I aimed the camera at him I remember saying, "Alexis in training" and he gave me the big smile. In the brief time I shared with him he was a complete class act. It saddens me to think of what tragically awaited this man in the future but on this particular day, in July, 1983, Alexis Arguello welcomed me like a gracious host.

On Svengoolie tomorrow, March 27, 2021: I didn't know this film, so I read a little about it. It sounds like a cheap version combining elements of The Most Dangerous Game and And Then There Were None. A superrich man invites a bunch of people to his remote estate, telling them that one of them is a werewolf and must be killed. Here's a quote from Wikipedia: "The only way to determine the identity of the werewolf is for a certain combination of elements to occur all at once, including a full moon and the presence of wolfsbane pollen in the air. When this fails to produce any lycanthropic reactions, Tom makes each of the potential werewolves grab silver objects to provoke allergic reactions, but this too proves unsuccessful." Evidently there are prints without the "Werewolf Break." I wonder which Svengoolie will show? I assume this photo was for publicity, or is there actually a scene where the dinner guests sit around, chatting with the werewolf (played by a big dog, evidently?): I guess this is one dog that's allowed on the couch: Spoiler: Although a few of the reviews online are positive, most are not. Here's a comment from one of the websites: "Now, it turns out that Tom isn’t a victim, of course. He’s the millionaire testing out his new Werewolf Security Defense System, a system that includes a whole bunch of armed dudes, a whole bunch of awkwardly placed cameras, and an honest to God attack helicopter. This isn’t a bad reveal at all, except that it feels like the scene itself goes on for about 80 YEARS. Tom is caught and let go by the guards not once, not twice, but three times. He’s running for his life in weirdly random giant boots, at the kind of pace you might expect from a small child casually frolicking after butterflies. We also zoom in on the “hidden” cameras at least five times. The whole thing is awkward and slow as hell."

I've mentioned this before in a thread a long, long time ago. Met Angela Lansbury, Alexis Smith and Chita Rivera when they were touring in shows. Also Petula Clark after a concert. Nothing exciting to report. Smith and Clark were in autograph lines. Chita (a concert type tour) was backstage. Angela was in her trailer. (I was very nervous to be in such close quarters. I had written to her beforehand and she agreed to meet me). All were nice.

I've met quite a few folks over the years. I had street encounters with Dane Clark (the first was nice, the second very sad as he had lost quite a bit of his awareness), Joseph Wiseman (a wonderful gentleman), George Kennedy (an innoccuous meeting) and several NY actors whom I admired. I hosted a screening of LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN for Joan Fontaine and CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR for Celeste Holm, both at the Players Club in Gramercy Park. Best of all was my visit with Allan Jones. Jones learned I had a print of THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE which he had not seen since 1940. He called me up and asked if I could make him a VHS copy. So I transferred the print and went up to his apartment on Central Park West. He was as nice as could be and, in return for SYRACUSE, he had prepared copies of videos he shot at the Universal Jivin' Jacks and Jills Reunions (2) and Bob Cummings' 80th Birthday Party. I was also privileged to attend the final reunion of the THIS IS THE ARMY Company at Sardi's. The climax of the evening was my screening of a restored 16mm print (long before Warners dug out their original negative).

Mid 1980s to mid 1990s I was a waiter at The Russian Tea Room in NYC. At the time the RTR was a major destination for celebrities and other entertainment biz people. That aspect of the job was really fun and energizing. Because I am a fan of classic movies, my most memorable interactions with celebrities were with the older ones who came to the restaurant and two have always stood out: Robert Stack I think this was about 1990. Mr. Stack and his lovely wife came in for dinner. Mr. Stack greeted everyone he came into contact with (coatcheck girls, busboy, maitre d', bartender, even other customers) like an old friend- with a smile, a hello, some handshakes, friendly pats on the arm. They were seated at Table #20 which was one of the showcase booths, up front facing the rest of the dining room. I was lucky enough to have that table in my section that night. Mr. Stack may have been the kindest celebrity I ever served- every time I was at the table he made eye contact, smiled and made friendly chit chat. I think he may have asked me how I was enjoying my night, more often than I asked them! At one point he stood to go the restroom, which was on the second floor. As he made his way though the packed dining room he had a hello and a smile for every customer, waiter, busboy he came into contact with. Occasionally during dinner, customers passed by his table and tried to get his attention to say hi, and he took time for every single one of them. This was not common for stars (the Terminator for example would never acknowledge people doing this). Towards the end of his dinner, Mr. Stack chatted with me for a minute or two, told me that his meal and experience at the restaurant had been wonderful, and asked me if I could share that with the rest of the staff. I told him of course, I was under orders from a federal agent! He laughed. Later as he and his wife left, again he took a moment to thank everyone on the staff that he encountered. One of them was a Dominican busboy who asked me "quien (who is that)?" I said "Roberto Stack". He sort of mimed "who?" I said "Untouchables!" He pointed his fingers like guns and said "Pow pow pow?" "Si!" Kirk Douglas This was on a Wednesday afternoon (Broadway matinee day!) in the late 1980's. Mr. Douglas and maybe one other person were having lunch with Sam Cohn (mega agent, regular customer) on #40 (Mr. Cohn's booth). Table #31 was semi-adjacent, actually the back of one of its chairs was about 6 feet away from Mr. Douglas' back and right shoulder. At table #31 sat four elderly women (70's I guessed), Jewish (definitely), from Long Island (definitely) who came to the city for lunch at The Russian Tea Room and a 2:00PM show. They were already on their way to a great day. It got better. Kirk Douglas, I should mention may have been the most fit and handsome 70ish year old man that I have ever seen. Strong face and chin, immaculately dressed (well-tailored sportcoat and well-chosen necktie). Still broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip. The four ladies on #31 were in awe, swooning. They never took their eyes off of him, even while eating. They actually rotated chairs periodically so that each could stare directly at him. Mr. Douglas and Mr. Cohn were talking business so they were engrossed and I didn't think that Mr. Douglas noticed the attention he was getting from the four ladies on #31. As their waiter, it was almost difficult to serve the ladies because they were so distracted "My God, he's so handsome!" "He still looks like Spartacus!" "Better!". Mr. Douglas at one point, stands, turns right and walks right past #31 without acknowledging the four ladies swooning at him. He walked through the dining room, towards the stairs to the second floor (restrooms). The four ladies twisted and contorted themselves to watch Mr. Douglas and continued to focus their attention towards the back stairs awaiting his return. Several minutes later, the four ladies are still watching the back stairs... and I see Kirk Douglas coming back from the front stairs. He actually snuck up on the four ladies while they were looking away, stood directly at their table, and said "Hi, how are you?". All four spin their heads back and the shock and awe on their faces was unforgettable. All four were basically speechless and paralyzed with shock. "I'm Kirk, it's nice to meet you. What are your names?" Mr. Douglas then spent a few minutes chatting with them and gave each one a hug. He then returned to his lunch with Mr. Cohn. As I approached #31, the four ladies were delirious (like a post-coital bliss?). I tried to renew their focus so they could have dessert and still make their curtain time, but it was difficult.

A Lost Lady (1934)

Come Fly With Me 1963

Capitol next: Rock Hudson, Lee Remick and Jessica Walter

Coupling

Stone, Emma

KLUTE (1971)

Since old lady Bates was a swinger, I'm surprised she was so upset that Normie had some young lust for women. Maybe the old bag was a whack job without much common sense.

I've seen pictures of Ava when she was in her 60s. She was still a very good looking woman.

I have heard stories of Widmark being "surly" at times with fans. On the old IMDB message boards somebody posted a story of an encounter they had with him. The fan followed Widmark's car right up to pulling into his driveway. Widmark got out and screamed "WHAT DO YOU WANT??" The fan started saying what a big fan he was, etc. He says Widmark narrowed his eyes at him and said (rightfully) "You're invading my privacy". I have a feeling this story may be true, since it makes the fan seem like the jerk here. He even had the gall to say "I wish he had been nicer"

Much has been said about John Gilbert's career ending with the advent of talkies. Some have said that his voice did not match the Great Lover image of his silent movies. Others have claimed the reason is the rather primitive sound equipment of the day. I recently watched "Downstairs", his first talkie that I have seen. I personally did not understand what all the fuss was about. I was not bothered at all by his voice. Any thoughts by you movie experts out there?

Ugh did you mean "segue"? Why not expend a little effort so others can understand you? There is great power in correct grammar & spelling.

I'll take this bedroom eyes glamour: What IS glamour to you? Sparkley dress? Shiny hair & footwear? Or is it an attitude?