Bicoastal Jack Cole cross-fertilizes crazy hair Broadway-to-Hollywood
Actress Joan Diener, featured on Broadway in Kismet (1953 – 1955) shares a crazy-hair & headress look with Betty Grable, pictured below in “Down Boy” from Three for the Show (1955, Columbia Pictures). Jack Cole, who choreographed (first) Kismet then Three for the Show, took great care with the appearance of the women with whom ...
Fred, seriously
Hollywood’s great dancing man, always jolly and carefree, here displays a different aspect. Fred Astaire in a somber mode, in Stanley Kramer’s ON THE BEACH (1959). Photo credit: theroadshowversion.com
Girlz n the hood hang out with Misty Copeland
It was a real girl’s night out — a few righteous gents joined in — as Dance Camera West and The American Cinematheque joined forces, Tuesday evening, to host a sneak preview screening at the Aero Theatre of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” the new documentary about our first African-American principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre, Misty ...
Thank you, Gene Allen
Saddened to learn today that the great Hollywood art director Gene Allen, the man who converted director George Cukor’s vision to rich mise-en-scene, died October 7 of natural causes in Newport Beach. Allen, who lived a long life, perished at 97. Yes, Gene Allen, the much hallowed Academy Award-winning art director of MY FAIR LADY ...
Los Angeles talent highlighted in “A Ballerina’s Tale”
Misty Copeland grew up in Los Angeles. So did Robyn Gardenhire. Both are beautiful black ballerinas, Misty, of course, is the first African-American principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre. And in the 1990s, Robyn danced in the company’s corps de ballet. Robyn, a very active, admired and even beloved member of the Los Angeles dance ...
Great movies meet great graphic design: Saul Bass
An illustrated lecture by Jan-Christopher Horak, director, UCLA Film & Television Archive, presents a selection of film titles, shorts and commercials by Academy Award–winning filmmaker Saul Bass (1920–1996). Best known as the designer behind the iconic, era-defining title sequences for such films as The Man with the Golden Arm (dir. Otto Preminger, 1955), Vertigo (dir. ...
Rick Prelinger’s visual anthropology @ REDCAT
Oct
13
2015
Rick Prelinger draws on his vast archive to offer a cultural history of greater Los Angeles in pictures. The archivist, writer, filmmaker and UC Santa Cruz professor combines excerpts from long-dated “ephemeral” sources — home movies, newsreels, educational, industrial and amateur films, even studio “process plates” — into a detailed socio-topographical study of L.A.’s bygone ...
“A Ballerina’s Tale” special screening, arts•meme to host q & a
Just announced by Dance Camera West and The American Cinematheque, a special screening on Tuesday, October 20, at the Aero Cinema in Santa Monica, of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” which will open Friday Oct 23 at Laemmle Theaters. Following the free screening of the documentary, a Q & A film discussion will be conducted by arts•meme‘s ...
Jack Cole choreography for GILDA set to sizzle on UCLA Film Archive big screen 1
Do you enjoy this classic image of Rita Hayworth as GILDA? It’s a capture from Hayworth’s iconic high-end striptease, “Put the Blame on Mame,” choreographed by Jack Cole, the brilliant dance maker who rocked Hayworth’s world at Columbia Pictures in the 1940s. Cole’s dance numbers (“Put the Blame on Mame,” “Amado Mio“), taken together, raise ...
Julie Christie, in message, remembers Omar Sharif, David Lean
Aug
21
2015
A highlight of Wednesday night’s wonderful Laemmle Theatres “Anniversary Classics” series screening of DR. ZHIVAGO (1964) had host Stephen Farber delivering a personal message from actress Julie Christie sent especially for the occasion. The note concerned her dashing leading man, Omar Sharif, whose death on July 10, 2015 the screening was dedicated to memorializing. Sharif ...