ValeskaSuratt
-
Posts
458 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by ValeskaSuratt
-
-
> {quote:title=musicalnovelty wrote:}{quote}Comedian Ted Healy (founder of The Three Stooges) died in 1937 at age 41.
Ted Healy's death was especially sad -- his wife had given birth to a son just days prior and his latest film, Hollywood Hotel, was just being released -- and it's also one of Hollywood's intriguing if lesser known mystery deaths.
An ardent 3 Stooges fan I met once claimed that Healy was a violent man who actually thought it was fun to start bar fights. Whether that's true or not, it helps explain why he refused to say who beat him up before he died -- he may not have known the person(s)' name(s).
MYSTERY SEEN AS TED HEALY DIES SUDDENLY
(Special To The News)
Hollywood, Dec. 21 -- The sudden death today of Ted Healy, bald and glowering comedian famous for his stooges, assumed aspects of mystery tonight with reports that he had been severely beaten, a little more than twenty four hours before he died, at the Trocadero Restaurant, Hollywood's premier night spot.
Coroner Frank Nance announced he would perform an inquest after Dr. Wyland Lamont, Healy's physician, refused to sign a certificate of death, Early reports said the comic had died of "a stroke."
From a group of fellow actors came the story tonight of Healy's mysterious beating.
Bobby Burns Berman, New York and Hollywood cafe man, said that Healy sobbing and with tears streaming down his face, approached him early Monday morning as he stood in Vine St. with comedian Joe Frisco and Man-Mountain Dean, motion picture actor and wrestler.
SLUGGED, HE SAYS
"I was slugged out at the Trocadero," Healy told them, Berman said, and exhibited a huge welt on his head.
But he refused to tell who had beaten him or why.
He said he was going for treatment to Dr. Sidney L. Weinberg, who could not be reached at his office tonight.
Reportedly stricken at 3 A. M., Healy died at 11:30 A. M. (3:30 P. M. New York) after oxygen had been administered in a vain attempt to save his life.
Mrs. Healy, the former Betty Hickman, who gave birth to a son on Friday, had not been informed of his death. Her husband had remained at her bedside until only a few hours before he was reportedly stricken.
His latest film, "Hollywood Hotel," was previewed last night.
h/t to The Fedora Lounge
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?31537-On-This-Day-In-History..../page17
-
GREAT pix, gagman66.
I found a better clip of her than the one I posted earlier. It's from Peg O' the Mounted (1924)
"I have a dog that looks exactly like you" is my favorite silent movie title card for this week.
-
On the set of a Mabel Normand picture.
Based on the body language, it looks like she's explaining why she was late (again).
-
Lillian Gish ?
-
lzcutter,
Thanks much for that link ! I LOVE Bengston's work so much that my copy of Silent
Echoes is practically rag-worn.
And having attempted a few of my own "Hollywood Before n' Afters," he must have
the patience of a saint ... and the fuel costs of a municipal bus line.
I mean, well-known landmarks are easy . . .
But when all you've got to go on is a lousy fountain in a niche, it can take quite a while . . .
-
> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}Here's an interesting article about Sennett's Keystone Studios in Edendale (located near Glendale):
>
> http://jerre.com/then&now/public/studio/keystone/
GREAT site ... thank you.
-
Good idea ... I think I'll put on a record, too ... I mean, a CD ... an mp3 ? ...
-
That's very weird -- when I copy and paste the web address from the address bar to here, it still won't work ??? ?:|
Looks like the only way to get there is via Google images as you described.
Well ... glad we put out that fire ...
-
Sorry, I was wrong -- the link still isn't working.
I should have just followed your instructions.
Here's the site :
http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDHelen'sBabies.htm
-
> {quote:title=hamradio wrote:}{quote}I hate those broken links.
>
This is intended only as a helpful suggestion: if you edit your post and delete the apostrophe, it'll be fixed.
-
Great links, hamradio, thanks.
(Just FYI, the first one doesn't work because of the apostrophe in "MDHelen'sBabies.htm")
-
Verging on genius is one thing, Bildwasser, but making it look so effortless ...
That's the hardest I've laughed since Pola claimed Rudy proposed to her before he died.
-
When Monty Clift emerged from a week in a monastery in preparation for Hitchcock's I Confess (1953), he commented about the monks: *"Their passion for saints is like ours for movie stars."*
His comment stuck with me because I think the reverse is also true.
Some of us really DO have a passion for our favorite movie stars that's the equal of any Catholic for a patron saint ...
Some of mine are:
St. Marilyn, patron saint of innocent sexuality and showing up late to the set.
St. Tallulah who watches out for big mouths and those who smoke.
St. Barbra who watches over aspiring performers who learn breath control while singing along witih her (even the goyem ). St. Francis of Sinatra does this, too.
I think that if I worked with a Catholic woman who mentioned St. Anthony with some regularity until it kinda got to me, I'd look for a way to say, "Boy, you sure do loooove St. Anthony ! Seems like you mention him just about every day!" and hope like heck she'd take the hint.
But that's just me.
Pax Vobiscope,
Sister Valeska Suratt
* goyem is Yiddish for gentiles
-
How to market a four-year-old movie star in 1923 ... little has changed.
It's really uncanny how good she was in this clip from Carmen Jr. (1923) :
This promo for the Pordenone Silent Movie Festival has a quick segment about her memories of acting in silent films:
And here's a trailer for a documentary about the personal costs of her career called Baby Peggy, The Elephant in the Room
-
> {quote:title=thomasterryjr wrote:}{quote}I really enjoyed Mack Sennett night on TCM. It was educational and remarkable to see what Fort Lee, New Jersey and Los Angeles looked like in the early 1900s.
The glimpses of Hollywood in Tillie's Punctured Romance are SO cool because
they show some of the long-lost landmarks of silent movie-era Hollywood.
The house Tillie's uncle lives in and which she "inherits" . . .
. . . was actually "Castle Sans Souci," a 23-room Tudor-Gothic mansion built
by one of Hollywood's pioneering real estate moguls, the very colorful Dr. A.G.
Schloesser.
Typical of moguls, he tore down his exquisite castle in 1928 to make way
for an apartment building.
It looks like Charlie and Mabel may have done some of their conspiring . . .
. . . on Hollywood Blvd.
And it's hard to tell, but the "restaurant" they exited after snatching Tillie's purse . . .
. . . looks an awful lot like the veranda of the old Hollywood Hotel.
By the time Sennett shot Tillie, the hotel had been open for a decade and had
become a popular resort for east coast tourists who came for the warm winter
climate, exotic indigenous plants and, some perhaps, Hollywood's prohibition
of alcohol.
Where that gentleman is sitting and enjoying the dusty view of Hollywood Blvd. is
just about where the Dolby Theater, home of the Oscar broadcasts, stands today.
-
One of my favorite parts about watching these shorts is seeing what Los Angeles looked like 100 years ago !
In those early days before shooting permits, Sennett was notorious for taking his productions to the streets.
Supposedly, he once interrupted a military parade by handing Mabel Normand a "baby" and telling her to go find the "father" while the camera cranked.
-
> {quote:title=Capuchin wrote:}{quote}What about Peter Pan? It's a male role, but a lot of women have done it. The earliest I can find is Betty Bronson in 1924. Mary Martin did it on Broadway and on tv. The men who've played the role have been on the effeminate side.
Hmmm ... sexual identity and Peter Pan ...
There's a joke in there somewhere but it's probably too blue.
-
> {quote:title=TomJH wrote:}{quote}Valeska, thanks for re-sizing that photo. Great shot, isn't it? But your knowledge in that respect is greater than mine because I didn't even know how to do that, until I recently started using Photobucket a bit.
>
> I just breeze around the internet for the pictures but the easiest way to start I find is to simply use Google Images.
I use Photobucket too and would be more than happy to re-size or crop any pix for you, or share what little I know about their photo-shopping tool ... whatever will help to keep 'em comin' !
-
P.S. re: the group photo ...
I love studying photos like this for clues as to the year, the event, the unidentified people and any other ridiculously trivial details, such as:
1. Based on the sumptuous surroundings and the presence of Marion Davies, might this party have been held at one of her and W.R.'s homes ... maybe their beach house ?
2. Most of the men appear to be wearing ribbons pinned to their lapels but it's impossible to read what's written on them.
3. Carole Lombard, the woman with her arms around Clifton Webb, and the maybe-Virginia Bruce are all wearing sashes that seem similar to the men's ribbons.
4. From her lipstick and pencilled eyebrows (not to mention the way she's clutching Gable from behind), it seems safe to say: that nun ain't no nun.
5. Lombard does not appear to be wearing a wedding ring. (She and Gable were married March 29, 1939.)
6. The gal clutching her drink and the bannister sure loves jewelry -- she seems to be wearing a jewelled necklace and brooch, at least 5 bracelets, at least 2 rings and a tiara. She must have made a lot of noise when she passed out.
7. Interesting that both Doug Fairbanks Sr. AND Gable wound up marrying Sylvia Ashley. Funny that she's not in the photo -- she was married to Fairbanks from March 7, 1936 until his death on December 12, 1939. (Or maybe she's the one takin' the pitchur ?)
-
TomJH,
Sorry if you're asked this question all the time but WHERE do you find all these
wonderful and rare pix ??
Also, I hope you won't mind but I cropped and re-sized the one with the incredible
grouping of stars to make it easier to see everybody.
> TomJH wrote: Now here's a collection. Clifton Webb's in the middle.
> The others, from what I can see: Marion Davies, Doug Fairbanks Jr. and
> Carole Lombard at the front; Doug Fairbanks Sr just behind. I'm assuming
> that's not a real nun behind Gable because, quite frankly my dear, it doesn't
> really look like a nun's kind of crowd. I'm not quite certain if that's Virginia
> Bruce towards the top of the stairs.
Where ever they come from, THANK YOU for posting them !
-
What's so far-fetched ?
I can't count the number of cab drivers who've tried to hook me up with a "de-frocked" plastic surgeon.
As I recall, only four or five of them were any good.
-
Interesting site:
"Religious Affiliation of Famous Actors and Actresses"
http://www.adherents.com/movies/adh_actors.html
I never knew Gary Cooper converted to Catholicism ...
*Coop with Pope Pius XII*
And Burt Lancaster's religion is listed as "Church of
the Son of Man -- 'non-denominational' Protestant" and
also "ACLU" ...
-
Scouting New York is a fascinating blog in which a long-time New York motion picture location
scout chronicles the amazing buildings he comes across.
The above picture of "Dirty Mary" is a detail of a building in the heart of Times Square which,
back in the 1920s, was a showroom for I. Miller shoes, famous for supplying footwear to those
in show biz.
Along the top of the building, their slogan still remains: “The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated
to Beauty in Footwear.”
When the building was under construction, Miller held a contest to see who the public thought
should be the actresses depicted as statues in the four gold-mosaicked niches on the front of the
building which Miller christened "The Four Niches of Fame" -- one each for Cinema, Musical
Comedy, Drama and Opera.
In the early 20s, Mary Pickford WAS cinema so she was, naturally, chosen for that niche
(depicted in her costume from Little Lord Fauntleroy). She was joined by Marilyn Miller for
Musical Comedy, Ethel Barrymore for Drama and Rosa Ponselle for Opera.
In addition to documenting interesting historical sites, Scout also works for their preservation
and care. The pictures shown here accompany his open letter to the building's newest tenants,
encouraging them to help bring back some of Times Square's luster by removing the years of
soot and grime from this wonderful building's facade, in part because MARY NEEDS A BATH !
huge h/t to scoutingny.com ( http://tinyurl.com/8dg5onx )
-
Silent star *Robert (Bobby) Harron* made 220 films in 13 years !
He's remembered these days as D.W. Griffith's top male star but
also because of the mysterious circumstances of his death
(yesterday was its 92nd anniversary).
From Filmbug:
Robert Harron's film career continued to flourish throughout the 1910s and he was occasionally paired with leading actresses Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish with romantic plots, often in roles that cemented his sensitive boy image.
By 1920 however, it was reported that film director D. W. Griffith's interest in the young actor had waned and when Griffith hired film actor Barthelmess to star in his 1920 film Way Down East, Harron was inconsolable.
On September 5, 1920, while in New York City to attend the film premiere of Way Down East, Harron fatally shot himself in the left lung in his hotel room with a revolver that he had placed in a jacket.
Supposedly the weapon was purchased during the afternoon from a street begger ... [W]hile changing jackets for the evening's event, the gun fell out of the pocket and when it struck the floor the bullet was released.
Although the death was officially ruled accidental, many historians believe that Harron committed suicide. However, many of those closest to the actor vehemently refuted that Harron, a devout Catholic, would ever have considered suicide. While on his deathbed, Harron reportedly confided to his boyhood priest that his gunshot wound was the result of an accident.
Nevertheless, in preparation for a 1993 film festival scheduled in honor Harron's birth centennial at MOMA, Joseph P. Fanning (the organizer and main lecturer) researched and obtained copies of the death certificate/medical records.
*These documents showed, that despite the public record, the angle of the wound and the width of the powder burns associated could not be the result of a mere accident. Thus, despite the lack of any witnesses, the evidence clearly indicated that Harron's death was a result of suicide.*
The main hypothesis for the action was determined to be the result of disappointment due to the fact that Griffith, a substitute father, had passed Mr. Harron over for stardom in Way Down East.
Robert Harron was 27 years old at the time of his death and had never married. His film career spanned nearly fifteen years and Harron had appeared in over two hundred films.
Harron was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York City.
Dick Cavett visits Stan Laurel
in General Discussions
Posted
Thank you, hlywdkjk, for the heads up.
Cavett's NY Times pieces come infrequently but they're SO worth the wait. The comments are also often worth reading.
(Just for general FYI: the NY Times website allows only 10 free visits per month and it's easy to "squander" them as I always manage to do.)
Back to Cavett ... IMHO, he rates with Johnny Carson for his mastery of the art of sparkling conversation and proves the old adage: "Repartee is what the other person said."
There are a fair number of interviews he's done with all sorts of celebrities on YouTube, including his amazing talk with Katharine Hepburn, for whom interviews were as rare as hens' teeth.
Unfortunately, his hysterically funny conversation with the just-knighted Sir Noel Coward in 1970 hasn't been posted ... (yet).
His chat with Mae West for an ABC TV special is also fascinating -- while he dutifully plays "straight man" and sets up the Legend's quips, he also manages to get her to go past the schtick for a few moments of candor, especially when she talks about the death of her mother:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsL7AHCM7PU