Marilyn could play comedy, or drama, according to her directors
Dec
10
2018
Henry Hathaway, on MM and high drama: I think her whole life might have changed in Darryl Zanuck would have let her … I wanted to do Of Human Bondage with Marilyn and Jimmy Dean way back then … because after I did that picture with her [Niagra] I found her marvelous to work with, ...
Do look now at Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Don’t Look Now’
Dec
10
2018
A fitting tribute to British director Nicolas Roeg, the man who just fell from Earth passing away on November 23, 2018, at age 90 is a screening of his eerie, atmospheric thriller from 1973, ‘Don’t Look Now.’ The New Yorker recommends the film. But, in Los Angeles, we have a big-screen viewing of it, with ...
A thoughtful, joyous Kurt Elling Christmas at Segerstrom
Two years ago, jazz singer Kurt Elling released The Beautiful Day: Kurt Elling Sings Christmas. As he’s a vocalist who likes to have his way with a song to the point of redesigning it, that CD was a bit of a surprise. But for anyone familiar with Elling’s background, it made perfect sense. The son ...
By day or night, ice or ammo: a tale told in imagery
Osceola Refetoff, “Stop-Liquor Jr Market, Mojave, California Los Angeles-based photographer Osceola Refetoff was named Photo Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club in noting Refetoff’s work with KCET’s arts and culture series Artbound. Refetoff also took top honors in the Photo Essay category for the Artbound story in collaboration with Christopher Langley, ...
‘When I say freedom, you say jazz’: JazzAntiqua @ 25
Folk flooding toward the theater half an hour before showtime gave the first indication that something special was on tap at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center on Saturday night. In Los Angeles, traffic-frazzled late arrivals are the norm. The faithful flocked to a special, nearly familial, celebration: JazzAntiqua Dance & Music Ensemble‘s big 25th ...
‘Eloise’ to reign over new home after Bonhams auction
Toting a history as lively as its inspiration, this portrait of the mischievous overlord of the Plaza Hotel, Eloise, was painted as a birthday gift by Hilary Knight for his Eloise co-creator, Kay Thompson, in 1956. After displaying the work during her appearance on Edward R. Murrow’s “Person to Person” on CBS, Thompson then loaned ...
A cantor’s son travels over the rainbow … Harold Arlen
ed. note: arts·meme reprints with permission Kirk Silsbee’s profile of Harold Arlen originally published by the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts. ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠ Search any photographic archive for images of composer Harold Arlen (1905-1986), and it’s the rare picture that he’s not seen in a jacket and tie, his pocket filled with a ...
Torturing Rock Hudson
Ed. note: Can a writer and her editors truly be so clueless? Or was this ‘hetero-normative’ article, excerpted below, part of the Hollywood cabal to cover up Hudson’s gayness? Whatever was the case, writer Jane Wilkie by-lined the following interview with Rock Hudson in ‘Modern Screen’ magazine, December 1954. Excerpted here. BY JANE WILKIE ■ ...
‘Gigi,’ at 60. Bring on the champagne!
Nov
27
2018
At 60, she’s still charming the gents. You’ll soon see why. As played by the winsome Leslie Caron in one of the most beloved and acclaimed musicals of all time, Laemmle Anniversary Classics is throwing her a birthday party. Since they already invented champagne, that should be the drink of choice at the Dec 8 ...
What was so ‘faux’ about Miss Ruth?
Nov
26
2018
For years I have read critiques that Ruth St. Denis, by all reckoning along with Isadora Duncan the matriarch of modern dance, staged ‘faux,’ or non-authentic, ethnic choreography. Her lack of performative integrity caused her artistic offspring — Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and Jack Cole — to rebel. But what does that mean? ...