Princess of Tap

The most renown primary resource book for the history of silent movies is Kevin Brownlow's The Parade's Gone By..., 1968. Brownlow was able to connect with many of these silent film veterans before their death. So the book is an invaluable primary source for these kinds of interviews. He also has worked to restore and preserve many of these silent movies. He was a key figure in the restoration and preservation of Abel Gance's Napoleon. He was the first film preservationist to receive an honorary Academy Award. Brownlow has also created a number of documentaries about the history of silent movies.

Feyda-- you're absolutely right. People laugh at those old Ross Hunter movies - - but they had a lot of realism in them. Back to Prince - - it'll be interesting to see how his family handles a Memorial.

A silent movie star from Kansas-- Buster Keaton

CMR-- Leslie Howard is my first favorite actor. I prefer him in these films - - The Scarlet Pimpernel Of Human Bondage The Petrified Forest Intermezzo Pimpernel Smith CMR-- The thing is he was a war hero and he didn't come back. So he's just forgotten. He was the only real movie star who was killed in World War II and nobody ever honors him for that.

CF-- Stevie Wonder started performing on television and in concerts when he was only 12 or 13 years old. A professional and he does perform on command. I saw him on the morning CBS show the day after Prince died and he did sing quite well. Also he talked a long time about his relationship with Prince, Prince's music, and how Prince felt about racism in American society. Professionals sing no matter what. I can remember at Bobby Kennedy's funeral, Andy Williams sang the Battle Hymn Republic. Andy Williams had been a professional singer since he was about 10 years old. I'm not saying it was easy for him to sing at his best friend's funeral, but of course he could do it and he was great. That's whay he's a professional singer. And for the most heartbreaking of all - - I watched the great Jermaine Jackson sing Smile at his brother Michael Jackson's publicly televised memorial service. I'm sure that wasn't easy for him either, but like all the other people I mentioned, he'd been a professional singer since he was about 10 years old. Perhaps, by the time Stevie got to your show he was just really tired.

Cave Girl-- Many thanks for bringing up Ross. She's so Dreadful I can't bring myself to call her Miss Ross - - with us it's always just been Ross. She didn't kind of do Flo Ballard in-- she dug her into that gravesite,along with Berry Gordy. Florence Ballard had the most beautiful voice in The Supremes. And she wasn't going to be allowed to sing any leads anymore. And they were going to feature Ross. And of course you and the whole world knows that Ross can barely sing. Reportedly Smokey Robinson used to work with her for hours to try to get her to the place that you could listen to her. They actually took a solo away from Florence in the middle of the recording session, per mr. Gordy. That was the beginning of the end for Flo. Then Gordy planted a lot of negative stuff about her in the Press and she started to go downhill. The official reason they gave for firing her was that she was fat and that she was missing appointments, or she was always late. The whole thing came to a head in Spring of 2000 when they had planned a Supremes reunion. Ross refused to give Mary Wilson a fair amount of the gate and treated Mary Wilson as if she was one of the replacement Supremes. Mary Wilson had always been reticent on the subject but not this time. She appeared on 2020 and Spilled the whole thing on Ross. About how she treated Flo and what kind of person she really was. There was a retaliatory interview with Ross and her little friend Barbara Walters. But the public got the message and lost interest. So there was no reunion. The only thing nice I can say about Ross is that she gave the young Michael Jackson someplace to live when he was just starting out doing solos because he was afraid to live at home on account of his dad.

Feyda-- you got me confused with someone else. I don't talk about the yellow press.

The Top Films of 1941 1) Citizen Kane-- Orson Welles 2) The Maltese Falcon-- John Huston 3) Meet John Doe-- Frank Capra 4) The Wolfman-- George Waggner 5) Suspicion-- Alfred Hitchcock 6) The Lady Eve-- Preston Sturges 7) Sullivan's Travels-- Preston Sturges 8) High Sierra-- Raoul Walsh 9) The Great Lie-- Edmund Goulding 10) The Little Foxes - - William Wyler--Tie 10) I Wake Up Screaming - - H. Bruce Humberstone--Tie

An American in Paris

The only movie star inventor I ever heard of -- and this sound so incredulous ---is the completely glamorous Hedy Lamarr.

I was not pointing out examples of people who did not die of natural causes. I simply was stating a fact, in order to clarify the discussion. The issue of how people mourn people who died was not in my posting, at all.

Let me clarify what I wrote but I think it's quite clear - - I simply referenced that those two actors had committed suicide. We're not talking about suicide here. What I was talking about had to do with the use of pharmaceuticals in today's society and in particular the issue with Prince being at Walgreens. I was really using Judy Garland and Elvis Presley as an example of people who habitually relied upon for barbiturates for whatever reasons mix them with alcohol or other things and then had accidental deaths. This also apparently happened to the actress singer Dorothy Dandridge. At this point it's sheer speculation if that had happened to Prince. So let me make it clear one more time I'm not-- I wasn't talking about suicide or pre-existing medical conditions that have to do with physical disabilities. I was talking about pharmaceutical misuse in American society today-- and take me back to Prince--the last time people saw him in public was at Walgreens. I hope I have made myself clear.

Boyer and Sanders committed suicide. Judy and Elvis were habitual users who probably used those barbiturates with whatever else they were drinking or whatever else they were doing. Habitually it just destroys the body anyway. The real problem in this country is the fact that doctors prescribe pain killer medications like Pop Tarts to unsuspecting patients. Doctors in this country are starting to appear to look like dope pushers. They're turning many of their patients in Junkies. And that's the Walgreens truth. From what I hear, that's the last place anybody saw Prince, when he was at Walgreens. What was a big star like Prince doing at Walgreens? Why didn't he send one of his employees? That really has me puzzled.

Fra-- thanks for telling us that Prince wrote the Glamorous Life for Sheila E. I love the song and the video, but I never knew. I saw her do that years ago when she was an opening act for Lionel Richie. I heard somebody say yesterday that she had been engaged to Prince.

For Prince, I also love Let's Go and Raspberry Beret. I thought that Raspberry Beret was the most beautiful song that he did. I loved it because it could have been a big hit in the British Invasion. He was so talented that he could just write any kind of music. And I just found out that he wrote Manic Monday for The Bangles. Isn't that cool? It was Prince who ended up honoring George Harrison at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with My Guitar Gently Weeps. Either you know rock-and-roll, or you don't-- either you can do rock and roll are you can't--And Prince really did rock and roll!

Henry Mancini started working with Blake Edwards on television for Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky. They did the following movies together: Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Days of Wine and Roses, Experiment in Terror, The Pink Panther (et. al.) 10, the Great Race, the Party and Victor, Victoria. Mancini,also did Victor, Victoria on Broadway with Blake Edwards,whose wife, Julie Andrews was the star in the movie and the Broadway show. Julie also starred in two other Blake Edwards movies: Darling Lili and S.O.B.

The day that John Lennon was murdered, his hit single Starting Over was already number one. He hadn't had a number one song in six years. He went out on top. Imagine that.

Fred Astaire had his pick of the great dancers of the day-- Astaire danced with Rita Hayworth in 2 movies. Astaire danced with Lucille Bremer in 2 movies. Astaire danced with Cyd Charisse in 2 movies. Astaire danced with Vera-Ellen in 2 movies. Astaire danced with the actress Ginger Rogers,who he and his choreographer Hermes Pan taught how to dance, in 10 movies.

William Gillette is the most famous Sherlock Holmes going way back. So I'm just guessing he was the first one to make a movie as Sherlock Holmes.

Prince was a beautiful amazing musician. Though I was not a particular fan because he was younger than my generation of rock and roll artists I really have a lot of respect for him and I feel that he truly understood the relationship between rock and roll and rhythm and blues, equally with Michael Jackson. Prince had the ability to capture the essence The Beatles, While at the same time maintaining a solid foundation in the funky soul of James Brown. And that was no easy feat. He was much criticized when he started out for his theatrical appearance. He and David Bowie were much maligned and got a lot of bad feedback for their style of dressing and their look. The Beatles and Michael Jackson were treated the same way. I think that if you're a genius and you're blazing a trail that's just the way it's going to be. It took a lot of Courage for him to continue and ignore the nasty comments. What I loved about Prince was that he was a consummate professional. The last time I saw him was the Super Bowl performance. He performed in the rain and he was perfection. My two favorite Prince songs are Little Red Corvette and 1999.

Lav, I remember Helen Wood very well in Give a Girl a Break. But I never knew anything about her background. Her story may be one of the oddest and saddest for a professional dancer who actually made it to the big time, like she did. I never saw Deep Throat, but everybody talked about it at the time. Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems became famous. They were all over People magazine. Helen never became famous due to the movie; she called herself Dolly Sharp in the skin flick. I doubt that anyone would have recognized her any way. Despite the fact that she only made a few films she was very big on Broadway and on television. Apparently she couldn't find other work and she went into pornography for the money. Lav, did TCM make any commentary about her later career?

Miles-- for some reason? Patti Page was one of the biggest recording artists of the 1950s. Full disclosure here - - I bought the Patti Page version of the song. And it did okay on the charts. I don't know if Frank had a single version--his was probably on an album somewhere. But I always liked those lyrics - - " Hey there mister build a fence around your sister it's the (bang bang) Boys Night Out-- Miles - - did you actually buy this record?

Miles-- I'm glad to see that you are also well versed on the distaff side of the western for the cowgirls. Gail Davis' Annie Oakley was very special to me. She was the only cowgirl we had, but she was as good as any man. She could really shoot; she really could do the fancy horse work and she really was quite beautiful. She was a protégé of Gene Autry. I read an interview her daughter gave a few years ago. Her daughter said that she still gets letters and communications from her mother's fans. I don't know which Cowboy you dressed up as, but all of us girls dressed up as Gail Davis in Annie Oakley. It never occurred to us that we didn't have as much choice as you boys, because we thought she was the Best Western show on TV, next to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, of course. (And Lav, if you get a chance to read this, I had the Annie Oakley paper dolls too.LOL) Miles, thanks for the memories--your turn!

So, he must be a cinematographer - - and the only cinematographers I really know are the ones from MGM-- he's not one of those. So I was forced to go all the way back to college and we only studied three cinematographers seriously-- Billy Bitzer, Arthur Edson, and Gregg Toland. And the first two would be too old for your photo - - but Gregg Toland looks like Preston Sturges when he takes his glasses off. Since I always thought Gregg Toland wore glasses, you had me fooled. He's the cinematographer of Citizen Kane. And I don't know what he directed by himself. My favorite movies that he shot are-- The Bishop's Wife, Intermezzo and Mad Love. And I still say it's hard to recognize him with his glasses off.LOL