CelluloidKid

_Star Wars_ (1977) ... I was born in 1972 on Ramstein Air Base in Germany...& I remember seeing _Star Wars_ (1977) dubbed into German W./English subtitles with both of my parents!

*Robert Cushman dies at 62; photograph curator for film industry's library* The director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Margaret Herrick Library says he had 'an encyclopedic knowledge of movies that could not be matched. By Susan King Los Angeles Times July 17, 2009 *Robert Cushman, photograph curator for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, has died. He was 62.* Cushman died Monday at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Edgewood, Ky. He had been visiting his high school alma mater in Fort Wayne, Ind., and attending a wedding in Kentucky when he became ill. Though no cause of death was disclosed, Cushman had had health problems over the years. "There were signs that he was not well the last month," said library director Linda Mehr, adding that Cushman never discussed his health issues. The Margaret Herrick Library staff was in shock at the news of his death. "There was no equal," Mehr said. "He was a unique individual with an encyclopedic knowledge of movies that could not be matched. And it wasn't limited to any one time period. You could bring him a still and he would tell you who was in it. He was just phenomenal. It was one-stop shopping. He had all the answers." And he was always expanding his knowledge of the cinema. "He was taking home books every night," Mehr said. "He wanted to be up to date. In some ways he was an old-fashioned guy, but he took to new tools. What truly was outstanding is that even though we have over 10 million photographs, he knew we weremissing things. . . . It is the end of an era." Born Nov. 7, 1946, in Indianapolis, Cushman fell in love with movies in 1950 when he saw a reissue of the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz" at the Rialto Theater in Fort Wayne. Cushman earned his bachelor's degree at UCLA, where he also completed some graduate work. He was a research fellow at the American Film Institute and wrote program notes for film series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art before joining the Academy staff in 1972. During his 37-year tenure, Cushman was credited with developing and expanding the library's photographic collection, obtaining major studio archival collections as well as those from individuals such as George Cukor, Douglas Fairbanks, Katharine Hepburn, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. "He also developed the protocols of organizing the material so it was accessible," Mehr said. Cushman also was methodical in his preservation methods and created a cleaning process that enabled the removal of photographs glued into still books. "This cleaning process not only removed them from that paper but also got rid of the residual chemicals, so you could keep them in better shape," Mehr said. Among his published works are " Hollywood At Your Feet: The Story of the World-Famous Chinese Theatre" (with Stacy Endres), " Mary Pickford: Rediscovered: Rare Pictures of a Hollywood Legend" (introduction and photograph selection) and "Douglas Fairbanks" (photographic editor). Cushman had interests beyond the movies, including his 1895 Queen Anne Victorian residence he restored, which was declared a Historical Cultural Monument in Los Angeles in 1979, as well as his English bulldog, Dude. He left no known survivors.

soda ..... _The Outsiders_ (1983) ..A character was named Sodapop Curtis! *NEW WORD: Marijuana!*

*Kamen, Stan* - Joan Crawford's agent at William Morris in the late '60s and early '70s, who suggested to Lucille Ball that Joan appear on her show (which Joan did in '68).

Novarro, Ramon

_Mannequin_ (1938) Spencer Tracy & Joan Crawford!

Peter Fonda WAS IN: Futureworld (1976) DIRECTED BY: Richard T. Heffron! *NEW DIRECTOR: Richard T. Heffron!*

*Bangor, Maine: Area Events* Pickering Square (207) 992-4200 Broad St., Bangor, ME 04401 www.downtownbangor.com

Louis Vuitton ... _Pr?t-?-Porter_ (1994) *NEW WORD: supernova!*

_Goodbye My Fancy_ (1951)

Joan Crawford was in _Johnny Guitar_ (1954) directed by Nicholas Ray! *NEW DIRECTOR: Nicholas Ray!*

Rivers, Monica - Joan Crawford - _Berserk_ (1967)

7/17/09 *'Johnny Guitar' plays like an absurdist's dream* By Christopher Smith Bangor Daily News Special to the NEWS *At Pickering Square* *_Johnny Guitar_ (1954), directed by Nicholas Ray, written by Philip Yordan, 105 minutes, unrated. Tonight only, free at sundown, Bangor?s Pickering Square. Lawn chairs are recommended.* The fourth film in the River City Cinema Society?s popular ?Summer Camp? series is Nicholas Ray?s great camp movie, ?Johnny Guitar.? It stars Joan Crawford as Vienna, a swanky saloon-casino owner in the Old West who knows the value of cutting cards, employing men to spin her roulette wheel, and who at one point is called ?a railroad tramp not fit to live among decent people.? Sounds harsh, but Vienna can take it. Crawford plays Vienna as nobody?s fool. Back straight, hair pulled into a vice grip of brown curls, lips as red as a stop sign, gun at the ready, she?s a force, this one. As one of her employees remarks, ?Never seen a woman who was more a man. She thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me feel like I?m not one.? And yet Vienna has a softer, more feminine side, such as when she closes the bar, puts on an elaborate white gown, and plays the piano with festive pluck. Philip Yordan wrote the script (under the influence?) and what he conceived is a story that involves how a mean, ferocious woman named Emma (Mercedes McCambridge, unforgettable) is determined to see Vienna hang because she believes that Vienna was involved in her brother?s murder. When Vienna?s long-ago lover, Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden), rides back into her life, the movie heaves and sighs as the Dancin? Kid (Scott Brady) and his gang (including Ernest Borgnine) also storm the saloon and start to cause trouble. Were they also involved in the death of Emma?s brother? Since Emma is certain of it ? and because she wields absolute control over the men in this movie ? soon the kid gloves are off, guns are drawn, and accusations are hurled. About those accusations ? the dialogue in this movie is beyond comprehension. Consider, for example, this exchange between a gun-wielding Vienna, the law men who have come to get her, and Emma, who wants her dead. Vienna: ?Get out! Get out all of you!? Emma, in a low voice: ?That?s big talk for a little gun. You can?t shoot all of us.? Vienna, bemused: ?Two of you will do.? Emma, challenging: ?You don?t have the nerve.? Vienna: ?Try me.? The men around them: ?Put down that gun, Vienna. Put down the gun.? Vienna: ?Down there I sell whiskey and cards. All you can buy up these stairs is a bullet in the head.? She swaggers. She smirks. ?Now?which do you want?? As the men scramble away, Emma approaches like a pint-sized version of the Black Death in a green elf?s uniform: ?I?m going to kill you.? Vienna, towering over her: ?I know ? if I don?t kill you first.? Here?s what?s certain ? the movie will kill audiences, but in the best way. Just watching the sparring between Crawford and McCambridge is enough to send you over the moon. As for the movie, it?s an absurdist?s dream ? in one scene in which guns are drawn and tensions are high, the strapping Hayden enters the bar with a delicate tea cup in his hand. You watch the scene thinking, ?Oh, no he didn?t.? But he did. And that?s just the start of it in what?s easily the best film in the ?Summer Camp? series. Grade: A

The entire script to the remake of the _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ (2008) ..Thank God for Redbox...I finally bit the bullet and rented it for $1.00 and laughed!!!

Hmm ...I love the "Ma and Pa Kettle" films......The listing of films is as follows: *Masses of movie audiences once knew Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as "Ma and Pa Kettle" (TCM, 8 p.m.), a leading comedic duo of their day, who went on to make "Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town" (TCM, 9:30 p.m.), "Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm" (TCM, 11 p.m.) and of course "Ma and Pa Kettle at the County Fair" (TCM, 12:30 a.m.)* Please next time include the schedule! I do wish TCM had shown: _Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki_ (1955) . Ben Chapman who played the title character in "Creature from the Black Lagoon" has a small roll. The eight Kettle films have been released on DVD, as part of Universal's Franchise Collection series. Volume 1 contains The Egg and I, The Further Adventures of Ma and Pa Kettle, Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town and Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm, while Volume 2 contains Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair, Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation, Ma and Pa Kettle at Home, Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki.

*Why is TCM Showing Modern Movies??? ...because they are called: "Modern Classic Films? Or a "Contemporary Classic film"!?.* *Ask yourself this question: Which movies will be the "Gone With the Wind" and "Citizen Kane" of our generation?*

*I'm still wondering what a person would do with Marilyn Monroe's bra and stockings! It's a creepy thought if U ask me!!??.*

smaller ... _Alice in Wonderland_ (1951) *NEW WORD: Heat Wave!*

Xanthopoulos, Yannis

Thelma Ritter WAS IN: _The Second Time Around_ (1961) with Debbie Reynolds & directed by Vincent Sherman! *NEW DIRECTOR: Vincent Sherman!*

_Caretakers, The_ (1963)

Drew, Margaret J. 'M.J.' - Joan Crawford - _They All Kissed the Bride_ (1942)

*NASA lost moon footage, but Hollywood restores it* By SETH BORENSTEIN (AP) *WASHINGTON ? NASA could put a man on the moon but didn't have the sense to keep the original video of the live TV transmission.* In an embarrassing acknowledgment, the space agency said Thursday that it must have erased the Apollo 11 moon footage years ago so that it could reuse the videotape. *But now Hollywood is coming to the rescue.* *The studio wizards who restored "Casablanca" are digitally sharpening and cleaning up the ghostly, grainy footage of the moon landing, making it even better than what TV viewers saw on July 20, 1969. They are doing it by working from four copies that NASA scrounged from around the world.* "There's nothing being created; there's nothing being manufactured," said NASA senior engineer Dick Nafzger, who is in charge of the project. "You can now see the detail that's coming out." The first batch of restored footage was released just in time for the 40th anniversary of the "one giant leap for mankind," and some of the details seem new because of their sharpness. Originally, astronaut Neil Armstrong's face visor was too fuzzy to be seen clearly. The upgraded video of Earth's first moonwalker shows the visor and a reflection in it. The $230,000 refurbishing effort is only three weeks into a monthslong project, and only 40 percent of the work has been done. But it does show improvements in four snippets: Armstrong walking down the ladder; Buzz Aldrin following him; the two astronauts reading a plaque they left on the moon; and the planting of the flag on the lunar surface. Nafzger said a huge search that began three years ago for the old moon tapes led to the "inescapable conclusion" that 45 tapes of Apollo 11 video were erased and reused. His report on that will come out in a few weeks. The original videos beamed to Earth were stored on giant reels of tape that each contained 15 minutes of video, along with other data from the moon. In the 1970s and '80s, NASA had a shortage of the tapes, so it erased about 200,000 of them and reused them. How did NASA end up looking like a bumbling husband taping over his wedding video with the Super Bowl? Nafzger, who was in charge of the live TV recordings back in the Apollo years, said they were mostly thought of as data tapes. It wasn't his job to preserve history, he said, just to make sure the footage worked. In retrospect, he said he wished NASA hadn't reused the tapes. Outside historians were aghast. "It's surprising to me that NASA didn't have the common sense to save perhaps the most important historical footage of the 20th century," said Rice University historian and author Douglas Brinkley. He noted that NASA saved all sorts of data and artifacts from Apollo 11, and it is "mind-boggling that the tapes just disappeared." The remastered copies may look good, but "when dealing with historical film footage, you always want the original to study," Brinkley said. Smithsonian Institution space curator Roger Launius, a former NASA chief historian, said the loss of the original video "doesn't surprise me that much." "It was a mistake, no doubt about that," Launius said. "This is a problem inside the entire federal government. ... They don't think that preservation is all that important." Launius said federal warehouses where historical artifacts are saved are "kind of like the last scene of `Raiders of the Lost Ark.' It just goes away in this place with other big boxes." The company that restored all the Indiana Jones movies, including "Raiders," is the one bailing out NASA. Lowry Digital of Burbank, Calif., noted that "Casablanca" had a pixel count 10 times higher than the moon video, meaning the Apollo 11 footage was fuzzier than that vintage movie and more of a challenge in one sense. Of all the video the company has dealt with, "this is by far and away the lowest quality," said Lowry president Mike Inchalik. Nafzger praised Lowry for restoring "crispness" to the Apollo video. Historian Launius wasn't as blown away. "It's certainly a little better than the original," Launius said. "It's not a lot better." The Apollo 11 video remains in black and white. Inchalik said he would never consider colorizing it, as has been done to black-and-white classic films. And the moon is mostly gray anyway. The restoration used four video sources: CBS News originals; kinescopes from the National Archives; a video from Australia that received the transmission of the original moon video; and camera shots of a TV monitor. Both Nafzger and Inchalik acknowledged that digitally remastering the video could further encourage conspiracy theorists who believe NASA faked the entire moon landing on a Hollywood set. But they said they enhanced the video as conservatively as possible. Besides, Inchalik said that if there had been a conspiracy to fake a moon landing, NASA surely would have created higher-quality film. Back in 1969, nearly 40 percent of the picture quality was lost converting from one video format used on the moon ? called slow scan ? to something that could be played on TVs on Earth, Nafzger said. NASA did not lose other Apollo missions' videos because they weren't stored on the type of tape that needed to be reused, Nafzger said. As part of the moon landing's 40th anniversary, the space agency has been trotting out archival material. NASA has a Web site with audio from private conversations in the lunar module and command capsule. The agency is also webcasting radio from Apollo 11 as if the mission were taking place today. The video restoration project did not involve improving the sound. Inchalik said he listened to Armstrong's famous first words from the surface of the moon, trying to hear if he said "one small step for man" or "one small step for A man," but couldn't tell. Through a letter read at a news conference Thursday, Armstrong had the last word about the video from the moon: "I was just amazed that there was any picture at all."

Beragon Pierce Mildred - Joan Crawford in _Mildred Pierce_ (1945)