Heart of pulp: Sam Fuller centenary retrospective @ the Aero
Aug
22
2012
A nice note from our friends at Larry Edmunds Bookshop: August 12 marked what would have been the 100th birthday for one of the most influential and interesting filmmakers out there, Mr. Sam Fuller. His life , so full of adventures before he ever thought of directing, makes his autobiography, “A Third Face” a fantastic, ...
Welcome to Los Angeles, Ido Tadmor
Aug
17
2012
The renowned Israeli choreographer Ido Tadmor will visit Los Angeles next week for performances and workshops.
Not ladies who lunch, but women who write
Aug
15
2012
Two upcoming events celebrate the literary ladies. The first is a reading on Sunday at Alias Books East of a new ebook Anaïs Nin: The Last Days. The author, Barbara Kraft, knew both Anais Nin and Henry Miller in LA at the end of their lives, independently of one another. Anaïs Nin, noted for her ...
An actress & her dance coach
Two utterly amazing human beings, beautiful people, professional collaborators, and personal friends. He wielded enormous influence on her screen persona and on her career. This photo represents, for me, a most delirious encounter between dance and film worlds; nothing from Astaire or Kelly however great, speaks [to me] as powerfully. Here we have Jack Cole, ...
“Yidishe Glik” at the Arbeter Ring/Worksmen’s Circle
Aug
11
2012
In “Yidishe Glik”, Shloyme Mikhoels (1890 – 1948), the great Yiddish actor/orator and head of the Moscow Jewish State Theater, is a master of pantomime and “attains the summit of ethnic Jewish dandyism.” (Osip Mandelstam writing in a Leningrad newspaper, 1925 – as quoted in Bridge of Light by J. Hoberman)
California’s designing women unfurled
Aug
9
2012
There’s a wonderful show, “California’s Designing Women, 1896–1986,” just opening at the Autry National Center; a marvelous retrospective of the artistic women who contributed in design fields from the late-19th century through the end of the Twentieth.
Eulogizing Marvin Hamlisch
Aug
7
2012
Barbra Streisand, who worked closely with Mr. Hamlisch throughout his career and performed many of his songs, said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon: “I’m devastated. He was my dear friend. He’s been in my life ever since the first day I met him in 1963, when he was my rehearsal pianist for ‘Funny Girl.’ ...
The great Mitzi Gaynor recalls Jack Cole, courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive
After a screening on Saturday August 4, 2012, of THE I DON’T CARE GIRL (Twentieth Century Fox, 1953), we enjoyed a fun panel discussion of the film. It all happened at the Billy Wilder Theater of the Hammer Museum under the auspices of UCLA Film & Television Archives, which had a rare print of the ...
Jack Cole’s 3 dance masterpieces from “The I Don’t Care Girl”
We’re watching a rare 35mm print of the film tonight, courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive. Here’s what all the fuss is about, in order of appearance in the film: The Johnson Rag I Don’t Care Beale Street Blues
Mambo!
I enjoyed interviewing Kelly Todd, the choreographer of the vivacious production of West Side Story on now at the Chance Theater in Orange County. Read my piece in the Los Angeles Times. While you are reading … listen up! Like this? Read more … Movie musical talk with George Chakiris Line up the geniuses: West ...