SullivansTravels

nytimes.com is reporting that actor Ben Gazzara (THE STRANGE ONE, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, "Run For Your Life") died this afternoon of pancreatic cancer at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City. He was 81 years old.

variety.com is reporting that actor James Farentino died today at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 73. No other details yet. "I've got a resume that could choke a horse. I'm impressed by it. Producers who are casting people, they're all in their 20s now. You show it to somebody in the motion picture industry or television, they don't know and they don't care." - James Farentino

The Sacramento Bee website (sacbee.com) is reporting that screenwriter Frederica Sagor Maas (THE PLASTIC AGE, FLESH AND THE DEVIL) died last night in La Mesa, California. She was 111. Wikipedia concurs; I can't find anything else yet.

The ambient "rock 'n' roll" in the old movies when the teenager turns on her transistor radio will invariably be a hookless, saxophone-honking instrumental.

Some kind soul has posted it on YouTube in ten chapters!

Michael Pollak at nytimes.com is reporting that actor Harry Morgan died this morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96.

Elaine Woo in latimes.com is reporting that psychotherapist and former actress Judy Lewis has died of cancer at 76. Conceived by Clark Gable and Loretta Young during the filming of THE CALL OF THE WILD, Miss Lewis was told she was Loretta's adopted daughter, not being told the truth until well into adulthood. She only met Gable once, when she was 15. RIP.

Joseph Schildkraut did a second Twilight Zone episode, "The Trade-Ins", where an aged couple enter into a deal to regain their youthful bodies. He was also Gaylord Ravenal in the 1929 part-talkie version of SHOW BOAT, he and Magnolia having a bittersweet reunion toward the ending.

A heads-up for Now Playing readers: Silent Sunday Nights presentation for the night of November 27-28 will be Greta Garbo in THE MYSTERIOUS LADY, rather than Sergei Eisenstein's STRIKE, as had been scheduled when NP went to press in September. At least the similarly titled STRIKE ME PINK is still on for 10:15 p.m. EST that night ...

Young male sophisticates address their mothers as "darling". Young female sophisticates address both parents as "darling". Laurel and Hardy can sleep in the same bed. Two shopgirls in a NYC walk-up flat can sleep in the same bed. A married couple must always be shown sleeping in twin beds. Immediately after her first puff on a cigarette, a lady must demurely pluck a stray bud of tobacco from the end of her tongue. Before lighting a cigarette you must give it a couple of taps on your left middle fingernail. Your idea of propositioning your secretary is to suggest that the two of you "go away together". You allocate part of your annual budget to "buying back love letters", "heart balm" and "alienation of affections".

They're discussing GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (1935).

Bruce Weber at nytimes.com reports that actress Barbara Kent died this past Thursday in Palm Desert, California. Her death was confirmed today by a spokesman for the Marrakesh Country Club, where she had lived. She was 103 years old and had not worked in films for the past 76 years. Among her better known films were Clarence Brown's "Flesh and the Devil" and Harold Lloyd's first talkie, "Welcome Danger." Is Carla Laemmle now the last surviving actress (excluding juveniles) who acted in a US silent?

CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (1932) might please them, or maybe THE MUSIC BOX short with Laurel and Hardy.

Isn't Universal the studio that burned all of their silents in 1948?

latimes.com is reporting that he died today in a Long Island, N.Y. hospital, one day after his 88th birthday. A courageous man in a cowardly industry. RIP

1932: Mary Carlisle from GRAND HOTEL 1935: Movita from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY 1936: Luise Rainer from THE GREAT ZIEGFELD 1939: Olivia de Havilland, Ann Rutherford and Alicia Rhett from GONE WITH THE WIND 1940: Joan Fontaine from REBECCA 1941: Maureen O'Hara from HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY 1944: Rise Stevens from GOING MY WAY

Yes! Lee Tracy and I co-starred in BETRAYAL FROM THE EAST; I repeated my Broadway role in THE BAD SEED, my last movie; and my brother Jack Kelly co-starred in "Maverick." Your turn, Finance.

I have the same last name as a Best Actress Oscar winner who moved to Europe and gave up acting.

I had played my Academy Award-nominated role on Broadway, winning a Tony Award. My brother co-starred in a long-running TV Western series.

I'm not Lee! But we did co-star in a movie where both our characters died. It would be among the last films for both of us. Our Academy noms were still far into the future.

Thanks. Some 30 years after my film debut, I was nominated for an Academy Award in one of the acting categories. It was my 33rd movie. It was also my last. 69 years after that first movie, I passed away. Who am I?

Are you Leo G. Carroll?

Actor/producer/director Norman Lloyd (SABOTEUR, "St. Elsewhere", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"), 96, and his wife Peggy, 97, celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on June 29th. Is this a cinema first?

Wonder what the oldest film is with the leading man and leading lady still alive? LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948) with Joan Fontaine and Louis Jourdan? Wait, there's KILLER MCCOY (1947) with Mickey Rooney and Ann Blyth.

TCM is showing ALI BABA GOES TO TOWN next month as part of the Race & Hollywood: Arab Images on Film festival. July 14 is Arabs as a Subject of Ridicule night; ABGTT shares the evening with ROAD TO MOROCCO, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MUMMY and THE SAD SACK, along with the Stooges short MUMMY'S DUMMIES and the cartoons POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES, SAHARA HARE, LITTLE BEAU PORKY and HARE-ABIAN NIGHTS, as well as the Charley Chase short ARABIAN TIGHTS. I believe these are the first cartoons TCM has shown since '08 or so.