lzcutter
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Posts posted by lzcutter
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If the top of the filmmaker pyramid is John Ford, my second tier is made up of Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, William Wellman, Billy Wilder, George Stevens and some days, Michael Curtiz.
Of all those, Walsh and Wellman are probably the two least known today. Yet, both filmmakers made films that filled with electricity and dynamo performances.
It seems Walsh probably had the more exciting life (and what a life it seems to have been!) beginning his career in films in front of the camera in "Birth of a Nation". Wellman came into movies after having been with the Lafayette Escadrille in France during WW1.
Some of Walsh's escapades have been immortalized on film in "SOB" (stealing the dead body as a prank) and the HBO film "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself".
Both made some wonderful films in their day,
Walsh with "Roaring Twenties", "Strawberry Blonde", "White Heat" "They Died with Their Boots On", "High Sierra" and "They Drive By Night" to name a few.
Wellman helmed the wonderful "Ox Bow Incident", "Wings" "Track of the Cat", "High and the Mighty", "The Story of GI Joe" and "A Star is Born" (37).
Anybody else feel these two directors deserve to be better known?
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I would have loved to have seen Sinatra as Sky and Ava as Sarah Brown.
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TCMWeb,
No, I wasn't thinking of FAQ about the films that are shown (see my post and Mark's below) but a couple of stickies. However, a FAQ would work as well. The important thing is that it would always be at the top of the General Forum threads.
Also, it would have to have some sort of title besides FAQ so that old and new posters alike would read it before posting.
As for the info that should be part of the FAQ, I think the two posts with the info from Mark and myself below is a good place to start.
The most important thing being getting the information posted so that it is always available. That was why I think having it permanently posted at the top of the General Forum (at least) is a good idea. Otherwise, the specific threads for this information gets lost in the daily churn of the board.
I'm not sure how Anne's questions would fit into a FAQ as they are usually film or actor specific. Perhaps an explanation on the types of questions each forum is for is what Anne had in mind?
As for the ability to move questions to another category or forum, I think that may end up confusing a number of people here.
I can't speak for Mark but I would be happy to put the info I have into questions and answers for the info I have and send it to you if it would help speed things up!
Message was edited by:
lzcutter
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Sandy Sturgis, the widow of Preston Sturgis, passed away. According to her obit, she met Sturgis when she was walking home from work and noticed that the neon sign in front of The Players restaurant was shooting sparks. She knocked on the door. A gentleman answered and she thought he was the work foreman. Turned out to be Sturgis, himself, the owner The Players.
The Players was located on La Brea, just east of the Blvd as I recall. An old sign, no longer neon, stood next to the building for many years. Then one day the building was razed and all that was left was the sign.
Broadway Hollywood was a great department store on the Blvd. It was still a Broadway when I first got here. Great neon sign on the roof of the building that has recently been relit. Beautiful yellow and blue, looks great at night.
This wonderful, multifloor department store catered to those who lived in Hollywood and those who worked in "Hollywood". Not as fashionable as the Bullocks Wilshire (nothing has come close to be that fashionable) but still a wonderful beaux arts building. When the department store company was bought, the new owners closed the Hollywood store.
It was leased out as office space for a number of years, then sat empty. Now it is be converted into lofts. Can be seen in Spielberg's "1941".
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Larry,
I have a thread on Hollywood Landmarks in the Information Please forum. Would love for you to stop by and share your stories about some of them if you have the time!
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Yes, that is what I was doing.
Eagerly awaiting book 7 ...>>
You are not alone there. I am as well. Order of the Phoenix, the next movie coming this May, from the First Looks I have seen, looks great!
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Larry, Sandy and everyone else,
There was a special section in the Los Angeles Times yesterday (the Times is celebrating its 125 birthday).
I was reading the article about film noir and who was there a picture of (besides Robert Mitchum)?
Ned Doheny and his parents. Further into the article as a brief summary of the incident.
Anyways, here is the link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/history/la-et-125noir3dec03,0,1678791.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Also, there is the picture of Robert Mitchum but if you click on the word photo gallery it will open another window. Click on 2 and that should be the picture of Ned Doheny and parents!
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Relax pintorini, I said I Thought . . .>>
Anne,
I believe Pintorini was letting you know that they are a Harry Potter fan, too. Pintorini seems to have a collection of well-read Potter books.
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"Lest we forget"
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W/ Harry Dean Stanton / Alien>>
W/Tom Skerrit/MASH
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W/ David Caruso / An Officer and a Gentlemen>>
W/Grace Zabriski/Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
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Never Say Never Again w Kim Basinger>>
w/James Cromwell/LA Confidential
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moira,
Don't forget "The Lion in Winter" with Peter O'Toole and Kate.
"Of course we're barbarians!"
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Donald Henderson wrote, directed, produced and starred (as Billy Jack) in Billy Jack.>>
Bhfan,
Donald Henderson is an alias of Tom Laughlin's. Laughlin, under the pseudoname of TC Frank (with his wife and co-star, Delores Taylor) wrote Billy Jack. He directed the film as well, under his own name as well as produced it.
So basically, Donald Henderson is Tom Laughlin and Donald Henderson does not appear any credits for Billy Jack that I can find.
Laughlin and the other producers basically self financed the film. Warner Brothers released it and it didn't do well at the box office. The story goes that Laughlin bought the film and released it slowly on the drive in circuit and with an ad campaign aimed at teenagers.
The film built on word of mouth became a box office bonanza. This allowed Laughlin and his wife to write, produce, direct and star in "The Trial of Billy Jack" which then led to "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" with Laughlin cribbing from Capra and playing the Jimmy Stewart role. The film was premiered at the old Filmex Film Festival in Los Angeles and then was locked up in a vault for the next twenty years. Rumor was the movie was so bad it just shouldn't be shown but I suspect some rights issues kept it under lock and key as well.
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Hey Bartlett,
I'm curious. What role did Donald Henderson play in Billy Jack? I'm not familar with the actor and Billy Jack is a big guilty pleasure of mine. Has not aged well but made Laughlin a boatload of money.
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Larry,
We have a thread in the Information Please forum about Los Angeles landmarks that are not there anymore. TCM Originals: Hollywood Landmarks.
Drop in and join our conversation there if you'd like. I bet you have some stories we would all love to hear and feel free to post about more Landmarks that are and aren't there anymore.
We have to get you to Los Angeles one of these days.
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W / Kenneth Tobey / Airplane!>>
W/Tom Laughlin/Billy Jack
Message was edited by:
lzcutter
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Jack,
Thanks for liking the thread. It's kind of sad how much history we have lost here in Southern California in terms of buildings and social history.
The Ambassador is all but gone. The LA Unified School District (with the help of Bobby Kennedy's family) fought to turn the property into a school. They said that they were going to keep the coffee shop and the Grove as reminders of what the Ambassador had been but now, it looks like, those will be destroyed as well. The Coffee shop was designed by Paul Revere Williams, one of the first African American architects.
They shot "Bobby" while the hotel was being destroyed and they recreated the parts that had already fallen to the wrecking ball. It is supposed to be quite magical to see in the film.
For The Aviator, Scorcese recreated the Cocoanut Grove on a soundstage. The attention to detail given the recreation of the room was one of the high points of the film for me.
Cross streets would be Wilshire and Alexandria (I believe). Right across the street is a wonderful bar The HMS Bounty and a great old hotel that is still in use.
Preservationists fought tooth and nail to save the Ambassador. Next month will be a year since a wake was held for the old girl at, appropriately enough, the Bounty. People came out and many of them talked about staying at the Ambassador, going to the Grove for dancing and dinner and such. I wish someone had been recording the stories that evening because there were some great memories.
When I first got here I lived briefly near the Ambassador before ultimately moving for many years to Hollywood.
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Jane Fonda, Jason Robards and James Caan in a battle over oil rights.
Not as good as one would hope. But the scenery is beautiful.
I prefer A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall.
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West of La Brea, on a street just off Hollywood Blvd:
Errol Flynn's Estate:
Seen briefly in the remake of "Breathless", all that is left is the swimming pool. When I arrived in the mid-1970s, this was still there. A big party hang out place that would now be the site of a rave. Except, it is gone.
The House of Blues:
On Sunset Blvd, near the curve toward the now defunct Tower Records. When I got here, it was a restaurant called Barrymores. You walked down a long set of steps into the restaurant. Called Barrymores because it was said to be the original estate of John B. Destroyed to build the House of Blues.
Central Casting Building:
The southeast corner of Hollywood Blvd and Western. A beautiful moderne building referred to as the Louis B Mayer Building because old Louis had an interest in the building. Back in the studio era, if you wanted to be hired as an extra this was the place to register and hang out. Building still stands with the original architecture intact.
The Brown Derby, Hollywood:
There were numerous Brown Derbys. The one on Wilshire across from the Ambassador Hotel is all about gone. The hat now sits atop a strip mall.
The Hollywood Brown Derby made famous in movies and I Love Lucy episodes was located on Vine Street between Hollywood an Sunset Blvds. Had neon signage atop the building and the signed portraits throughout the restaurant. Preservationists fought to save it but fell victim to a "fire of suspicious origin" and burned.
The Cocoanut Grove:
Seen in films from a Star is Born and more, the Cocoanut Grove was the Nite Club inside the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd. From the beginning, it was where the Hollywood crowd went to see and be seen. Academy Award ceremonies were held there. Movie stars not only played there but stayed there and, on many occasions, performed there. Robert Kennedy was assasinated, in the pantry by Sirhan Sirhan after accepting the California presidential nomination in 1968. Celebrities whose lives were changed in the pantry that evening included Shirley MacLaine, Rafer Johnson and Rosey Grier. The new movie "Bobby" was filmed in the hotel as the hotel was being destroyed. Martin Scorcese took great pains to recreate the Cocoanut Grove for his film " The Aviator"
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My favorite sighting were the original framed characatures of movie personalities from the Hollywood Derby restaurant. The fellow is trying to sell 200 of them as a set, and it saddened me that I didn't have $37,500.00 in my wallet to purchase them on the spot. What a treasure; each characature is autographed by the subject. I nearly drooled on them...>>
Jack,
The tragedy is that the collection should have gone to an archive like the Academy or an University Special Collections.
Instead, the guy is selling the collection and it likely will end up piece meal on Ebay to the highest bidder for individual pieces.
A complete history of an era lost to the next generation because the thinking today is who will pay the most money, not will the collection be preserved properly for the generations that follow.
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Jack Burley and Kyle,
You are not alone. What is that song from Gigi "I Remember It Well".
I hate to think that is us, but it could be......
No offense intended. We are of a certain age and a love of films.
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Dan,
All I can say is "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you and I thank you".
As a classic film fan, I thank you for a wonderfully worded post.
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Charlie Chan, Laurel and Hardy, Universal Horror Movies made in the 30's & 40's & Martin & Lewis movies. >>
Fox owns most of the Charlie Chans and has quietly released a box set. A few years ago the Fox Movie Channel tried to run a Charlie Chan Movie Festival only to hit the PC brick wall and was forced to retreat.
About two or three years ago, TCM was able to run the Universal Horror movies at Halloween.
Many of the Martin and Lewis films were produced by Paramount, enough said.
In April of 2005, TCM ran a month of silent comedy, many of which included Laurel and Hardy.
Favorite Talkfest
in Your Favorites
Posted
One of my favorite all most non-stop talk fests: "His Girl Friday"
One of my favorite post-1960s ones: "The Lion in Winter"