The Screen Actors Guild has been presenting its annual life achievement award for many decades. The most recent recipient for 2024 was double Oscar winner Barbra Streisand.
For the 2023 event, Sally Field was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until...
For the 2023 event, Sally Field was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Helen Mirren, Robert De Niro, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until...
- 2/14/2024
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Palm Springs is where one goes to be seen; neighboring Rancho Mirage, well, not so much. That’s why many A-List Hollywood stars pulled up sticks in the mid-20th century, moving from Palm Springs — and L.A. — to the more discreet Rancho Mirage, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a city this year.
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, at least one Marx brother, Bing Crosby, and even the guy who played the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, MGM contracted character actor Frank Morgan, lived there. All were seeking the country club lifestyle away from the party scene and camera flashbulbs.
Lawrence Welk, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore and Barbara Sinatra at the 1972 Dinah Shore Colgate Winner’s Circle in 1972 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.
Rancho Mirage also has long been known as the “Playground of the Presidents,” especially...
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, at least one Marx brother, Bing Crosby, and even the guy who played the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, MGM contracted character actor Frank Morgan, lived there. All were seeking the country club lifestyle away from the party scene and camera flashbulbs.
Lawrence Welk, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Shore and Barbara Sinatra at the 1972 Dinah Shore Colgate Winner’s Circle in 1972 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.
Rancho Mirage also has long been known as the “Playground of the Presidents,” especially...
- 12/1/2023
- by Linda Laban
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It was five decades ago long distance swimmer Diana Nyad became part of the cultural landscape with her feats including a recording-setting circling of Manhattan and a 102-mile swim from the Bahamas to Florida she accomplished that in 27 hours. In 1978, Nyad made her first attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida but ended the quest after 40 hours. After segueing to a successful career as a sports journalist on ABC’s “Wild World of Sports” for over two decades, she decided at 60 to try again. She made three attempts felled by asthma, muscle fatigue, jellyfish and a tropical storm.
Nyad’s attempts at the swim were the subject of the 2013 documentary “The Other Shore.” When I talked to her for the L.A. Times a decade ago the then 64-year-old was preparing for her final attempt. “When I first started this in my 20s and when I started again when I turned...
Nyad’s attempts at the swim were the subject of the 2013 documentary “The Other Shore.” When I talked to her for the L.A. Times a decade ago the then 64-year-old was preparing for her final attempt. “When I first started this in my 20s and when I started again when I turned...
- 11/11/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Friends star Matthew Perry was laid to rest during a ceremony attended by family, his costars, and close pals. The actor died on Oct. 28 at his Los Angeles home. He is interred alongside a galaxy of Hollywood stars at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Here’s what we know about the ceremony and the celebrity-packed final resting place of the beloved actor.
Matthew Perry’s funeral occurred on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023
Entertainment Tonight reported that Matthew Perry’s funeral occurred less than a week after the Friends star was found unresponsive at his LA home. He was 54.
Perry was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The cemetery is located in the near vicinity of the Warner Bros. Studios lot where the actor filmed Friends from 1994 through 2004.
The ceremony was held Friday afternoon per Et. It was attended by Perry’s parents, family, and friends, including his former cast members Jennifer Aniston,...
Matthew Perry’s funeral occurred on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023
Entertainment Tonight reported that Matthew Perry’s funeral occurred less than a week after the Friends star was found unresponsive at his LA home. He was 54.
Perry was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The cemetery is located in the near vicinity of the Warner Bros. Studios lot where the actor filmed Friends from 1994 through 2004.
The ceremony was held Friday afternoon per Et. It was attended by Perry’s parents, family, and friends, including his former cast members Jennifer Aniston,...
- 11/6/2023
- by Lucille Barilla
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
To understand just how long the TV Academy has struggled to define “comedy series,” look no further than the first decade or so of the category’s life: Between 1952, when Red Skelton’s titular variety show claimed Emmy’s first-ever comedy prize, and 1964, when The Dick Van Dyke Show scored its second win, the category had no fewer than six name changes, ranging from the terse “best comedy show” to the rather unwieldy “outstanding program achievement in the field of comedy.”
And it only grew more complicated from there. Unlike in the drama series category, whose contenders have been consistently hourlong and usually serialized, comedy competitors also started to assume widely different formats: multicam sitcom (All in the Family, Friends); single-camera, half-hour dramedy (The Wonder Years, Sex and the City); single-camera mockumentary (The Office, Modern Family); and hourlong ensemble dramedy (Orange Is the New Black, Shameless), to name a few.
And it only grew more complicated from there. Unlike in the drama series category, whose contenders have been consistently hourlong and usually serialized, comedy competitors also started to assume widely different formats: multicam sitcom (All in the Family, Friends); single-camera, half-hour dramedy (The Wonder Years, Sex and the City); single-camera mockumentary (The Office, Modern Family); and hourlong ensemble dramedy (Orange Is the New Black, Shameless), to name a few.
- 8/9/2023
- by Stacey Wilson Hunt
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jackie Gleason never won an Emmy. Neither did Ed Sullivan. Or Andy Griffith. Or Fred Rogers. Or “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. Or “Rocky & Bullwinkle” genius Jay Ward. Bob Newhart’s sole Emmy win was as a guest actor on “The Big Bang Theory” in 2013.
Yes, the 74 years of Emmy history are chock full of surprises spanning both winners and non-winners. That extends to the Emmy’s Governors Award as well. The TV academy describes that Governors Award – bestowed generally but not always annually since 1978 – as follows: “The Board of Governors of the Television Academy may, when warranted, recognize an individual, company or organization that has made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television by presenting them with the Governors Award.”
SEE2023 Emmy Predictions: Gold Derby Predicts the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards
The first Governors Award in ’78 went to CBS founder William Paley.
Yes, the 74 years of Emmy history are chock full of surprises spanning both winners and non-winners. That extends to the Emmy’s Governors Award as well. The TV academy describes that Governors Award – bestowed generally but not always annually since 1978 – as follows: “The Board of Governors of the Television Academy may, when warranted, recognize an individual, company or organization that has made a profound, transformational and long-lasting contribution to the arts and/or science of television by presenting them with the Governors Award.”
SEE2023 Emmy Predictions: Gold Derby Predicts the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards
The first Governors Award in ’78 went to CBS founder William Paley.
- 3/31/2023
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Comedian and actress Pat Carroll, a television pioneer and an Emmy, Drama Desk and Grammy winner, died at her home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts on July 30, while recovering from pnuemonia.
A frequent film actress and television guest star and series regular starting in the late 1940s, her work was seen on the Jimmy Durante Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Laverne & Shirley, ER and many other shows. She voiced Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and voiced several cartoon series.
Patricia Ann Carroll was born May 5, 1927 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was five years old, and she soon began acting in local productions. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High Schol and then attended Catholic University of America after enlisting in the US Army.
Carroll’s acting career started in 1947 with the film Hometown Girl. In 1956, Carroll won an Emmy Award for her work on Sid Caesar’s House,...
A frequent film actress and television guest star and series regular starting in the late 1940s, her work was seen on the Jimmy Durante Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Laverne & Shirley, ER and many other shows. She voiced Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and voiced several cartoon series.
Patricia Ann Carroll was born May 5, 1927 in Shreveport, Louisiana. Her family moved to Los Angeles when she was five years old, and she soon began acting in local productions. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High Schol and then attended Catholic University of America after enlisting in the US Army.
Carroll’s acting career started in 1947 with the film Hometown Girl. In 1956, Carroll won an Emmy Award for her work on Sid Caesar’s House,...
- 7/31/2022
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
With the high-profile, starry revival of his American Buffalo opening Thursday on Broadway, playwright David Mamet seems to be doing his best — or worst — to make headlines. The latest: The conservative Mamet told Fox News’ Mark Levin on Sunday night that “teachers are inclined, particularly men because men are predators, to pedophilia.”
The offensive take comes just a few days after Mamet’s appearance on HBO’s Real Time iith Bill Maher, in which the playwright offered a muddled retraction of a claim made in his new book Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch. When asked by Maher about his statement in the book that the left attempted a coup during the last presidential election, Mamet conceded that he “misspoke.”
But his appearance on Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin — again, to promote the book, not the play — wasn’t so conciliatory.
Speaking on...
The offensive take comes just a few days after Mamet’s appearance on HBO’s Real Time iith Bill Maher, in which the playwright offered a muddled retraction of a claim made in his new book Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch. When asked by Maher about his statement in the book that the left attempted a coup during the last presidential election, Mamet conceded that he “misspoke.”
But his appearance on Fox News’ Life, Liberty & Levin — again, to promote the book, not the play — wasn’t so conciliatory.
Speaking on...
- 4/11/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Bill Maher used a pointer to illustrate his lecture Friday night on HBO’s Real Time, as he gave a “Zapruder-ized” analysis of the Oscars moment that everyone can’t let go.
Maher called the segment, “Explaining Jokes to Idiots” and said he would break down jokes for the humor-impaired (a Will Smith shot accompanying).
“Comedians have been under attack for some time,” Maher said. “So I must defend my tribe. This war on jokes must end.” He contended that the infamous “G.I. Jane 2” quip from Chris Rock “wasn’t an alopecia joke, any more than the chicken crossing the road is about bird flu.”
Maher pointed out an earlier joke on Oscars night where Timothée Chalamet was teased for looking a little run-down, with the cameras quickly cutting to J.K. Simmons in the Oscar audience. “That’s where it ended,” Maher said. “It’s called being a good sport.
Maher called the segment, “Explaining Jokes to Idiots” and said he would break down jokes for the humor-impaired (a Will Smith shot accompanying).
“Comedians have been under attack for some time,” Maher said. “So I must defend my tribe. This war on jokes must end.” He contended that the infamous “G.I. Jane 2” quip from Chris Rock “wasn’t an alopecia joke, any more than the chicken crossing the road is about bird flu.”
Maher pointed out an earlier joke on Oscars night where Timothée Chalamet was teased for looking a little run-down, with the cameras quickly cutting to J.K. Simmons in the Oscar audience. “That’s where it ended,” Maher said. “It’s called being a good sport.
- 4/9/2022
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Tim Considine, one of the most popular young Disney actors of the 1950s before originating the role of the eldest brother on the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons, died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.
His death was announced by his son Christopher, and shared on Facebook by My Three Sons co-star Stanley Livingston, who played Chip Douglas to Considine’s Mike. “Tim and I have been friends for more than 70 years,” Livingston wrote, adding “He will be missed by all those who knew him. I love you Bro.”
Considine was already known to television audiences — particularly youngsters — by the time he was cast for the 1960 debut on ABC of My Three Sons. He had played Spin Evans on the mid-’50s Mickey Mouse Club serial “The Adventures of Spin and Marty,” and, later in the decade, Frank Hardy (to Tommy Kirk’s Joe Hardy) on the...
His death was announced by his son Christopher, and shared on Facebook by My Three Sons co-star Stanley Livingston, who played Chip Douglas to Considine’s Mike. “Tim and I have been friends for more than 70 years,” Livingston wrote, adding “He will be missed by all those who knew him. I love you Bro.”
Considine was already known to television audiences — particularly youngsters — by the time he was cast for the 1960 debut on ABC of My Three Sons. He had played Spin Evans on the mid-’50s Mickey Mouse Club serial “The Adventures of Spin and Marty,” and, later in the decade, Frank Hardy (to Tommy Kirk’s Joe Hardy) on the...
- 3/4/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
After skipping the virtual ceremony in 2021, the Screen Actors Guild once again presents its annual life achievement award in 2022. Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Dame Helen Mirren receives the honorary SAG trophy.
For the 2020 event, Robert De Niro was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEHelen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark...
For the 2020 event, Robert De Niro was the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEHelen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark...
- 2/26/2022
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Years in the making! The glory of MGM on parade! Enough studio resources to film twenty pictures were expended on this paean to showman Florenz Ziegfeld. It’s really Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s Technicolor valentine to itself, showing off the studio’s enormous stable of musical talent, along with various of its comic performers. Arthur Freed and Louis B. Mayer’s notion of ‘something for everyone’ results in weird stack of grandiose musical numbers and mostly weak comedy. The biggest draw is the incredible color cinematography that peeks through in three or four jaw-droppingly elaborate musical spectacles. The picture is a workout to find the artistic limits of the Technicolor system.
Ziegfeld Follies
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...
Ziegfeld Follies
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 117 110 min. / Street Date June 15, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: (alphabetically): Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Lucille Bremer, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, Victor Moore, Red Skelton, Esther Williams. Also...
- 7/20/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Ted Lasso,” “The Mandalorian,” “Hacks,” “The Flight Attendant,” “The Crown” and “The Queen’s Gambit” are among the top nominees for the 73rd annual Primetime Awards, which are set for Sept.19 on CBS with Cedric the Entertainer, who stars on the network’s sitcom “The Neighborhood,” set to host. But this is now, but what about the Emmys 60 years ago.
Dick Powell hosted the 13th Emmy Awards which took place at the famed Moulin Rouge Nightclub in Los Angeles on May 16, 1961. There were just three broadcast networks as well as local channels and National Education Television, now known as PBS.
History was made when The Flintstones” became the first animated series to be nominated in a main category: program achievement in the field of humor. It would be nearly 50 years before another animated series, “The Family Guy,” contended for a top award.
Veterans such as Jack Benny and Red Skelton were among the winners,...
Dick Powell hosted the 13th Emmy Awards which took place at the famed Moulin Rouge Nightclub in Los Angeles on May 16, 1961. There were just three broadcast networks as well as local channels and National Education Television, now known as PBS.
History was made when The Flintstones” became the first animated series to be nominated in a main category: program achievement in the field of humor. It would be nearly 50 years before another animated series, “The Family Guy,” contended for a top award.
Veterans such as Jack Benny and Red Skelton were among the winners,...
- 7/15/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: SAG-AFTRA won’t be handing out a SAG Life Achievement Award this year for the first time in 40 years. It’s not that no one was deserving – this year of all years – but because of the pandemic and a shortened TV timeslot for its awards show, the union decided that it would be better to skip a year and present the award live and in-person next year.
Going into this awards season, SAG-AFTRA had planned for its 27th annual SAG Awards to be a two-hour show, as it had been in years past. The home page for the Screen Actors Guild Awards noted initially that it would be a “fast moving two-hour show.” This year’s pre-taped, one-hour show, featuring 13 awards presentations, will air April 4 on TNT and TBS.
The SAG Life Achievement Award is the union’s most prestigious honor, presented for “outstanding achievement in fostering...
Going into this awards season, SAG-AFTRA had planned for its 27th annual SAG Awards to be a two-hour show, as it had been in years past. The home page for the Screen Actors Guild Awards noted initially that it would be a “fast moving two-hour show.” This year’s pre-taped, one-hour show, featuring 13 awards presentations, will air April 4 on TNT and TBS.
The SAG Life Achievement Award is the union’s most prestigious honor, presented for “outstanding achievement in fostering...
- 3/24/2021
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
Tyler Perry and his Perry Foundation will be honored by the Television Academy as the recipient of this year’s Governors Award, which will be handed out during the Primetime Emmys televised event on Sunday, Sept. 20.
Perry is the first individual to receive the Governors Award since 2014; last year, the Academy opted not to give out the honor at all. The Governors Award, first handed out in 1978, goes to individuals, projects or organizations ” for outstanding achievement in the arts and sciences or management of television which is either of a cumulative nature or so extraordinary and universal in nature as to go beyond the scope of the Emmy Awards presented in the categories and areas of the competition.”
According to the org, Perry was chosen “for his unprecedented achievements in television and his commitment to offering opportunities to marginalized communities through personal and The Perry Foundation programs of inclusion, engagement,...
Perry is the first individual to receive the Governors Award since 2014; last year, the Academy opted not to give out the honor at all. The Governors Award, first handed out in 1978, goes to individuals, projects or organizations ” for outstanding achievement in the arts and sciences or management of television which is either of a cumulative nature or so extraordinary and universal in nature as to go beyond the scope of the Emmy Awards presented in the categories and areas of the competition.”
According to the org, Perry was chosen “for his unprecedented achievements in television and his commitment to offering opportunities to marginalized communities through personal and The Perry Foundation programs of inclusion, engagement,...
- 8/18/2020
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: The hot movie package du jour is Scandalous! This is a drama that has Jeremy Pope — freshly minted Emmy nominee for the Netflix series Hollywood — to play Sammy Davis Jr and Janet Mock (Hollywood and Pose) to direct a drama about the interracial love affair between the entertainer and actress Kim Novak, who at the time was the top box office draw in Hollywood.
Pic will be produced by Jonathan Glickman, who is producing the upcoming Aretha Franklin film Respect, and Jon Levin. Glickman has an MGM deal and Mock one at Netflix, but they are shopping this one wide and the plan is to shoot this fall in Los Angeles and set it up with a distributor as they are locking an actress to play Novak. Mock, who is writer, director and EP on both Hollywood and Pose, will polish the script by Matthew Fantaci.
The drama is...
Pic will be produced by Jonathan Glickman, who is producing the upcoming Aretha Franklin film Respect, and Jon Levin. Glickman has an MGM deal and Mock one at Netflix, but they are shopping this one wide and the plan is to shoot this fall in Los Angeles and set it up with a distributor as they are locking an actress to play Novak. Mock, who is writer, director and EP on both Hollywood and Pose, will polish the script by Matthew Fantaci.
The drama is...
- 7/30/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Maximilian B. Bryer, who directed episodes of the soap operas As the World Turns and The Edge of Night, died June 16 at his home in Las Vegas, his family announced. He was 98.
A onetime vice president at advertising agency Benton & Bowles, where he oversaw West Coast television production, Bryer also directed and produced commercials for such products as Charmin (featuring the character Mr. Whipple), Pampers and Canada Dry and other spots featuring the likes of Red Skelton, Angie Dickinson, Ron Howard, Don Knotts, Richard Burton and Joan Collins.
After leaving Benton & Bowles in the late 1970s, he ...
A onetime vice president at advertising agency Benton & Bowles, where he oversaw West Coast television production, Bryer also directed and produced commercials for such products as Charmin (featuring the character Mr. Whipple), Pampers and Canada Dry and other spots featuring the likes of Red Skelton, Angie Dickinson, Ron Howard, Don Knotts, Richard Burton and Joan Collins.
After leaving Benton & Bowles in the late 1970s, he ...
- 6/29/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro is the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild life achievement award at this weekend’s 2020 ceremony. While not nominated individually, he is also competing for the top film ensemble prize as part of “The Irishman” cast alongside Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano and more.
SEE2020 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees
Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEAlan Alda Interview: ‘Marriage Story’
SAG began handing...
SEE2020 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees
Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of De Niro’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEAlan Alda Interview: ‘Marriage Story’
SAG began handing...
- 1/17/2020
- by Chris Beachum and Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
Red Skelton Whistling Collection
DVD
Warner Archive
1941, 42, 43 / 1:33:1 / 78, 74, 87 Min.
Starring Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford
Written by Robert MacGunigle, Nat Perrin
Cinematography by Sidney Wagner, Clyde De Vinnam, Lester White
Directed by S. Sylvan Simon
One night in 1950 during an especially frenetic episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour, Jerry Lewis stepped away from Dean Martin to address the camera point blank – “You get the idea – I’m supposed to be a 9-year-old kid.” Hardly a revelation – especially to Red Skelton, the reigning king of prepubescent horseplay.
That reign was begun in 1923 and fueled by broadly played gags that were both leering and infantile – like a burlesque version of The Bad Seed. One of Skelton’s most grating characters was a wisecracking brat called the “mean widdle kid” – wearing short pants and lace collar while delivering grown-up one-liners in baby talk he was a less feral version of Joe Besser’s...
DVD
Warner Archive
1941, 42, 43 / 1:33:1 / 78, 74, 87 Min.
Starring Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford
Written by Robert MacGunigle, Nat Perrin
Cinematography by Sidney Wagner, Clyde De Vinnam, Lester White
Directed by S. Sylvan Simon
One night in 1950 during an especially frenetic episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour, Jerry Lewis stepped away from Dean Martin to address the camera point blank – “You get the idea – I’m supposed to be a 9-year-old kid.” Hardly a revelation – especially to Red Skelton, the reigning king of prepubescent horseplay.
That reign was begun in 1923 and fueled by broadly played gags that were both leering and infantile – like a burlesque version of The Bad Seed. One of Skelton’s most grating characters was a wisecracking brat called the “mean widdle kid” – wearing short pants and lace collar while delivering grown-up one-liners in baby talk he was a less feral version of Joe Besser’s...
- 4/27/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The auteurists have been quiet too long about S. Sylvan Simon, the producer-director of Red Skelton and Abbout & Costello movies, and I'm not even kidding. His first claim to prominence is probably Grand Central Murder (1942), an absolute masterclass in camera blocking with large-ish groups of people, and his Skelton trilogy of Whistling in the Dark, Whistling in Dixie, and Whistling in Brooklyn would be Exhibit 2, maybe, but Lust for Gold (1949), which he was working on when he died is really strong too, and it's a noir disguised as a western with a crazy structure and you should see it.We start with a fervid voiceover read by an overheated William Prince, who's playing the author of the original book this is based on, and he's telling us about the famous Lost Dutchman Mine (so named because it was started by Spaniards then rediscovered by a German) at Superstition Mountain, and...
- 4/11/2019
- MUBI
Over the decades, the presenters and performers on the Academy Awards have become more diverse. And this year is no exception with Awkwafina, Whoopi Goldberg, Maya Rudolph, Amandla Stenberg, Tessa Thompson and Constance Wu already announced as presenting on the 91st annual Oscars, as well as Jennifer Hudson performing the Oscar-nominated tune “I’ll Fight” from “Rbg.”
But it was a long time coming. Let’s look back at the milestone first appearances of minority performers and presenters at Hollywood’s biggest night.
Though he was not a presenter per se, New Jersey native Cesar Romero of Cuban and Spanish heritage was featured with several writer/directors including Robert Riskin and John Huston who reminisced about their experiences in World War II at the 18th annual Academy Awards in 1946.
Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer, who earned a supporting actor nomination for 1948’s “Joan of Arc” appeared on the March 23, 1950 ceremony from...
But it was a long time coming. Let’s look back at the milestone first appearances of minority performers and presenters at Hollywood’s biggest night.
Though he was not a presenter per se, New Jersey native Cesar Romero of Cuban and Spanish heritage was featured with several writer/directors including Robert Riskin and John Huston who reminisced about their experiences in World War II at the 18th annual Academy Awards in 1946.
Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer, who earned a supporting actor nomination for 1948’s “Joan of Arc” appeared on the March 23, 1950 ceremony from...
- 2/11/2019
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Alan Alda is the latest veteran performer to receive the Screen Actor’s Guild Life Achievement Award. Starting in 1995, audiences around the world have been able to enjoy this celebration of a beloved thespian’s work, crammed right in the middle of a nail-biting awards telecast. In honor of Alda’s accomplishment, let’s take a look back at every person to be given this prize since the event was first televised. Our gallery includes Morgan Freeman, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, Betty White, Shirley Temple and more.
SEEAlan Alda receiving 2019 Screen Actors Guild life achievement award
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until the inaugural awards ceremony in 1995 (for the film year 1994) that they began televising the event. The 31 people rewarded prior to that (and not featured in our gallery above...
SEEAlan Alda receiving 2019 Screen Actors Guild life achievement award
SAG began handing out a career achievement prize to actors who left their mark on both the big screen and small in 1962. It wasn’t until the inaugural awards ceremony in 1995 (for the film year 1994) that they began televising the event. The 31 people rewarded prior to that (and not featured in our gallery above...
- 1/25/2019
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
The banning of the holiday classic “Baby It’s Cold Outside” because critics suggest it alludes to date rape is ruffling the songwriter’s daughter, who blames the turn of events on Bill Cosby.
“Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody,” Susan Loesser — whose father is legendary songwriter Frank Loesser — told NBC News on Thursday.
“Way before #MeToo, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.”
Also Read: Radio Station Yanks 'Baby It's Cold Outside' in Support of #MeToo Movement
Cleveland’s Star 102.1 radio station pulled the song last week as show of support for the #MeToo movement, with disc jockey Glenn Anderson calling the lyrics...
“Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody,” Susan Loesser — whose father is legendary songwriter Frank Loesser — told NBC News on Thursday.
“Way before #MeToo, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.”
Also Read: Radio Station Yanks 'Baby It's Cold Outside' in Support of #MeToo Movement
Cleveland’s Star 102.1 radio station pulled the song last week as show of support for the #MeToo movement, with disc jockey Glenn Anderson calling the lyrics...
- 12/10/2018
- by Rosemary Rossi
- The Wrap
This story about Amy Sedaris first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.
Amy Sedaris has long reigned in the cult comedy space, thanks to oddball characters in straightforward rom-coms (“Maid in Manhattan”) or delirious streaming work (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”). And, of course, her star-making turn in the Comedy Central deep cut “Strangers With Candy.”
But, in recent years, Sedaris has been pumping out work that borders on performance art by playing a domestic guru by way of the “The Twilight Zone.” This is manifested in two books (“Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People” and “I Like You: Entertaining Under the Influence”), and has now earned the comedian an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series for her TruTV series, “At Home With Amy Sedaris.”
Working with her co-writer and longtime collaborator Paul Dinello, Sedaris plays a heightened version of herself and numerous other...
Amy Sedaris has long reigned in the cult comedy space, thanks to oddball characters in straightforward rom-coms (“Maid in Manhattan”) or delirious streaming work (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”). And, of course, her star-making turn in the Comedy Central deep cut “Strangers With Candy.”
But, in recent years, Sedaris has been pumping out work that borders on performance art by playing a domestic guru by way of the “The Twilight Zone.” This is manifested in two books (“Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People” and “I Like You: Entertaining Under the Influence”), and has now earned the comedian an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series for her TruTV series, “At Home With Amy Sedaris.”
Working with her co-writer and longtime collaborator Paul Dinello, Sedaris plays a heightened version of herself and numerous other...
- 8/21/2018
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
MGM wasn’t the most current studio in 1957, as can be seen by this throwback to another era, a semi-screwball romantic comedy with big stars and directed in high style by Vincente Minnelli. Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall party like it’s 1939, and with the musical-comedy help of the irrepressible Dolores Gray, almost pull it off.
Designing Woman
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date June 19, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray, Sam Levene, Tom Helmore, Mickey Shaughnessy, Jesse White, Chuck Connors, Alvy Moore.
Cinematography: John Alton
Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan
Art Direction: E. Preston Ames, William A. Horning
Original Music: André Previn
Written by George Wells
Produced by Dore Schary, George Wells
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
1957 was definitely the end of an era at MGM. With next to nobody on the payroll, it could no longer claim to possess All the Stars in Heaven.
Designing Woman
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date June 19, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Gregory Peck, Lauren Bacall, Dolores Gray, Sam Levene, Tom Helmore, Mickey Shaughnessy, Jesse White, Chuck Connors, Alvy Moore.
Cinematography: John Alton
Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan
Art Direction: E. Preston Ames, William A. Horning
Original Music: André Previn
Written by George Wells
Produced by Dore Schary, George Wells
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
1957 was definitely the end of an era at MGM. With next to nobody on the payroll, it could no longer claim to possess All the Stars in Heaven.
- 6/5/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Talent manager George Shapiro helped put Jerry Seinfeld and Andy Kaufman on the map. But that’s only a sliver of his showbiz accomplishments, which include packaging such TV fare as “The Steve Allen Show,” “That Girl,” “Gomer Pyle, Usmc” and specials for Carol Channing, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. These days, Shapiro, 86, is busier than ever, serving as the producer of the Seinfeld Netflix series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” and serving as manager to his 96-year-old uncle, Carl Reiner; he was also executive producer on last year’s HBO documentary about people over 90, “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.” A decade after launching his career as a William Morris Agency mail clerk in New York in 1955, Shapiro received his first mention in Variety on April 22, 1965, an item in Army Archerd’s column, saying “Melody and George Shapiro (Wm. Morrisman) were expecting a baby.
- 5/25/2018
- by Tripp Whetsell
- Variety Film + TV
Michael Anderson, the British director who was nominated for an Academy Award for his direction on “Around the World in 80 Days,” died in Vancouver Wednesday. He was 98.
Anderson’s career began in the ’40s as an assistant director before he joined the Royal Signal Corps during the war. After Anderson was discharged, he signed a contract with Associated British Picture Corporation, for whom he directed five films.
The third film, 1955’s “The Dam Busters,” starring Richard Todd, which was the biggest film of the year for Britain at the box office. The film will be presented at the Royal Albert Hall in London and simulcast into 400 theatres throughout the UK on May 17 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Royal Air Force’s most daring operation of World War II.
Anderson was asked to direct “Around the World in 80 Days” after the original director John Farrow had a falling out with producer Mike Todd.
Anderson’s career began in the ’40s as an assistant director before he joined the Royal Signal Corps during the war. After Anderson was discharged, he signed a contract with Associated British Picture Corporation, for whom he directed five films.
The third film, 1955’s “The Dam Busters,” starring Richard Todd, which was the biggest film of the year for Britain at the box office. The film will be presented at the Royal Albert Hall in London and simulcast into 400 theatres throughout the UK on May 17 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Royal Air Force’s most daring operation of World War II.
Anderson was asked to direct “Around the World in 80 Days” after the original director John Farrow had a falling out with producer Mike Todd.
- 4/28/2018
- by Erin Nyren
- Variety Film + TV
Director Michael Anderson, who was Oscar-nominated for his role in the epic film Around The World in 80 Days and later was behind the cameras for the sci-fi classic Logan’s Run, has died. He was 98 and passed away Wednesday in Vancouver of unspecified causes.
Anderson had a long film career, directing such war movies as The Dam Busters, The Yangtse Incident, Operation Crossbow, and also such staples as The Wreck of the Mary Deare, The Quiller Memorandum, Chase a Crooked Shadow, and The Shoes of the Fisherman.
But the defining film of his career was Around the World In 80 Days, a three-hour film based on the Jules Verne adventure novel. The film was as much about logistics as it was the narrative, setting records for camera set-ups, sets, costumes, participants and locations.
The storyline has Phileas Fogg (David Niven) and his valet, Passepartout (Cantinflas), as they try to win...
Anderson had a long film career, directing such war movies as The Dam Busters, The Yangtse Incident, Operation Crossbow, and also such staples as The Wreck of the Mary Deare, The Quiller Memorandum, Chase a Crooked Shadow, and The Shoes of the Fisherman.
But the defining film of his career was Around the World In 80 Days, a three-hour film based on the Jules Verne adventure novel. The film was as much about logistics as it was the narrative, setting records for camera set-ups, sets, costumes, participants and locations.
The storyline has Phileas Fogg (David Niven) and his valet, Passepartout (Cantinflas), as they try to win...
- 4/28/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Always exciting and always affordable, Circus Flora is the best circus in America and the best show in town. Circus Flora’s new production Time Flies takes place under the air-conditioned red-and-white Big Top tent in Grand Center next to Powell Symphony Hall (corner of Grand Boulevard and Samuel Shepard Drive.) Time Flies runs June 1st through June 25th and ticket information can be found Here.
Since 1966, every student to study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting program has studied circus techniques with Hovey Burgess. He also taught in the Drama Division of The Juilliard School (1968-1972). Hovey created, directed and performed with the Circo Dell’Arte (1969-1970), which included Cecil MacKinnon, Larry Pisoni, Judy Finelli, and Jim Jansen. He taught at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (1973 – 1975, 1995), and at the Ultimate Clown School (since 1999) with Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley. His instructional...
Since 1966, every student to study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting program has studied circus techniques with Hovey Burgess. He also taught in the Drama Division of The Juilliard School (1968-1972). Hovey created, directed and performed with the Circo Dell’Arte (1969-1970), which included Cecil MacKinnon, Larry Pisoni, Judy Finelli, and Jim Jansen. He taught at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College (1973 – 1975, 1995), and at the Ultimate Clown School (since 1999) with Dick Monday and Tiffany Riley. His instructional...
- 5/30/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Battleground
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1949 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Don Taylor, James Whitmore, Douglas Fowley, Leon Ames, Guy Anderson, Denise Darcel, Richard Jaeckel, James Arness
Cinematography: Paul Vogel
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters
Film Editor: John D. Dunning
Original Music: Lennie Hayton
Written by: Robert Pirosh
Produced by: Dore Schary
Directed by William A. Wellman
“The Guts, Gags and Glory of a Lot of Wonderful Guys!”
— say, what kind of movie is this, anyway?
Action movies about combat are now mostly about soldiers that fight like killing machines, or stories of battle with a strong political axe to grind. WW2 changed perceptions completely, when a mostly civilian army did the fighting. With the cessation of hostilities combat pictures tapered off quickly, and Hollywood gave the subject a break for several years.
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1949 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 118 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Van Johnson, John Hodiak, Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marshall Thompson, Don Taylor, James Whitmore, Douglas Fowley, Leon Ames, Guy Anderson, Denise Darcel, Richard Jaeckel, James Arness
Cinematography: Paul Vogel
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters
Film Editor: John D. Dunning
Original Music: Lennie Hayton
Written by: Robert Pirosh
Produced by: Dore Schary
Directed by William A. Wellman
“The Guts, Gags and Glory of a Lot of Wonderful Guys!”
— say, what kind of movie is this, anyway?
Action movies about combat are now mostly about soldiers that fight like killing machines, or stories of battle with a strong political axe to grind. WW2 changed perceptions completely, when a mostly civilian army did the fighting. With the cessation of hostilities combat pictures tapered off quickly, and Hollywood gave the subject a break for several years.
- 1/6/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Debbie Reynolds sang and danced her way into film history “Three Little Words” (1950) Fresh out of high school, Debbie Reynolds was given a small role in this Fred Astaire, Red Skelton and Carleton Carpenter MGM musical, sang an old standard (“I Wanna Be Loved By You”) and shot to fame. “Two Weeks With Love” (1950) Reynolds reunited with Carleton Carpenter to sing the 1914 song “Aba Daba Honeymoon.” The song became such a hit that MGM sent the duo touring the country to promote it and the film. “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952) The movie that made Reynolds a star and is still considered.
- 12/29/2016
- by Rosemary Rossi
- The Wrap
Zsa Zsa Gabor, one of the brightest stars of Hollywood's golden age, died on Sunday, Et can confirm. She was 99.
Her husband, Frederic Prinz Von Anhalt, tells Et that Gabor was home with him by her side, and "her heart just stopped."
Photos: Stars We've Lost
In February of this year, the ailing star was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after she reportedly had difficulty breathing.
The film actress and socialite, perhaps best known for her roles in films such as 1952's Moulin Rouge and 1991's The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, was born in Budapest, Hungary, to father Vilmos Gabor, a soldier, and mother Jolie Gabor, the heiress to a European jewelry business.
In 1941, Gabor headed to the U.S. with her mother and made her first film appearance in 1952's Lovely to Look At, co-starring Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton.
As her name grew in Hollywood, Gabor became...
Her husband, Frederic Prinz Von Anhalt, tells Et that Gabor was home with him by her side, and "her heart just stopped."
Photos: Stars We've Lost
In February of this year, the ailing star was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after she reportedly had difficulty breathing.
The film actress and socialite, perhaps best known for her roles in films such as 1952's Moulin Rouge and 1991's The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, was born in Budapest, Hungary, to father Vilmos Gabor, a soldier, and mother Jolie Gabor, the heiress to a European jewelry business.
In 1941, Gabor headed to the U.S. with her mother and made her first film appearance in 1952's Lovely to Look At, co-starring Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton.
As her name grew in Hollywood, Gabor became...
- 12/18/2016
- Entertainment Tonight
The recent box office success of The Boss firmly establishes Melissa McCarthy as the current queen of movie comedies (Amy Schumer could be a new contender after an impressive debut last Summer with Trainwreck), but let us think back about those other funny ladies of filmdom. So while we’re enjoying the female reboot/re-imagining of Ghostbusters and those Bad Moms, here’s a top ten list that will hopefully inspire lots of laughter and cause you to search out some classic comedies. It’s tough to narrow them down to ten, but we’ll do our best, beginning with… 10. Eve Arden The droll Ms. Arden represents the comic sidekicks who will attempt to puncture the pomposity of the leading ladies with a well-placed wisecrack (see also the great Thelma Ritter in Rear Window). Her career began in the early 1930’s with great bit roles in Stage Door and Dancing Lady.
- 8/8/2016
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This is one of Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor's best, written and directed by the classy MGM team of director Vincente Minnelli and writers Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett. It inspired a decade's worth of TV family sitcoms and set the benchmark for weddings for generations. Great fun and solid sentiment without mugging or exaggeration. Father of the Bride Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1950 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 93 min. / Street Date May 10, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Bennett, Don Taylor, Billie Burke, Moroni Olsen, Melville Cooper, Leo G. Carroll, Rusty Tamblyn, Tom Irish, Frank Cady, Carleton Carpenter. Cinematography John Alton Film Editor Ferris Webster Original Music Adolph Deutsch Written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett from the novel by Edward Streeter Produced by Pandro S. Berman Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
There's almost no point in reviewing Father of the Bride, as one doesn't need insights,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
There's almost no point in reviewing Father of the Bride, as one doesn't need insights,...
- 4/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
All hail Frank Tashlin! America's subversive secret weapon of the 1950s made incredible adult live-action cartoon movies that satirized all the sex and vulgarity denied by the mainstream. In Technicolor! Political incorrectness meets lollypop-sweet sentimentality in a farce that transcends good taste. Susan Slept Here Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Alvy Moore, Glenda Farrell, Horace McMahon, Herb Vigran, Les Tremayne, Mara Lane, Maidie Norman, Rita Johnson, Ellen Corby, Red Skelton. Cinematography Nicholas Musuraca Film Editor Harry Marker Original Music Leigh Harline Choreographer Robert Sidney Written by Alex Gottlieb from a play by Gottlieb and Steve Fisher Produced by Harriet Parsons Directed by Frank Tashlin
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Director Frank Tashlin has finally found an appreciative audience with adventurous film fans, but the charms of his glorious style of filmmaking are unknown to...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Director Frank Tashlin has finally found an appreciative audience with adventurous film fans, but the charms of his glorious style of filmmaking are unknown to...
- 3/29/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
William Cameron Menzies. William Cameron Menzies movies on TCM: Murderous Joan Fontaine, deadly Nazi Communists Best known as an art director/production designer, William Cameron Menzies was a jack-of-all-trades. It seems like the only things Menzies didn't do was act and tap dance in front of the camera. He designed and/or wrote, directed, produced, etc., dozens of films – titles ranged from The Thief of Bagdad to Invaders from Mars – from the late 1910s all the way to the mid-1950s. Among Menzies' most notable efforts as an art director/production designer are: Ernst Lubitsch's first Hollywood movie, the Mary Pickford star vehicle Rosita (1923). Herbert Brenon's British-set father-son drama Sorrell and Son (1927). David O. Selznick's mammoth production of Gone with the Wind, which earned Menzies an Honorary Oscar. The Sam Wood movies Our Town (1940), Kings Row (1942), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). H.C. Potter's Mr. Lucky...
- 1/28/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The renowned publicist who represented the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, has died of pancreatic cancer surrounded by family at his Studio City home. He was 90.
Weissman was born in Brooklyn in 1925 and after a stint as a Navy radio operator during World War II he embarked on a publicity career that spanned nearly seven decades.
He began as a publicity executive with the ABC and CBS television networks where he worked with Sinatra, Garland, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Dick Van Dyke and the Smothers Brothers, among others.
In 1966 he moved to Universal Pictures where he spent 10 years as chief of the motion picture publicity department and oversaw the campaign for Spielberg’s Jaws.
In 1981, after stints at Lorimar Productions – now part of Warner Bros Television – and Columbia Pictures, overseeing marketing on Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Weissman formed his own marketing and PR company.
He became...
Weissman was born in Brooklyn in 1925 and after a stint as a Navy radio operator during World War II he embarked on a publicity career that spanned nearly seven decades.
He began as a publicity executive with the ABC and CBS television networks where he worked with Sinatra, Garland, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Dick Van Dyke and the Smothers Brothers, among others.
In 1966 he moved to Universal Pictures where he spent 10 years as chief of the motion picture publicity department and oversaw the campaign for Spielberg’s Jaws.
In 1981, after stints at Lorimar Productions – now part of Warner Bros Television – and Columbia Pictures, overseeing marketing on Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Weissman formed his own marketing and PR company.
He became...
- 12/28/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The renowned publicist who represented the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg, has died of pancreatic cancer surrounded by family at his Studio City home. He was 90.
Weissman was born in Brooklyn in 1925 and after a stint as a Navy radio operator during World War II he embarked on a publicity career that spanned nearly seven decades.
He began as a publicity executive with the ABC and CBS television networks where he worked with Sinatra, Garland, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Dick Van Dyke and the Smothers Brothers, among others.
In 1966 he moved to Universal Pictures where he spent 10 years as chief of the motion picture publicity department and oversaw the campaign for Spielberg’s Jaws.
In 1981, after stints at Lorimar Productions – now part of Warner Bros Television – and Columbia Pictures, overseeing marketing on Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Weissman formed his own marketing and PR company.
He became...
Weissman was born in Brooklyn in 1925 and after a stint as a Navy radio operator during World War II he embarked on a publicity career that spanned nearly seven decades.
He began as a publicity executive with the ABC and CBS television networks where he worked with Sinatra, Garland, Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Dick Van Dyke and the Smothers Brothers, among others.
In 1966 he moved to Universal Pictures where he spent 10 years as chief of the motion picture publicity department and oversaw the campaign for Spielberg’s Jaws.
In 1981, after stints at Lorimar Productions – now part of Warner Bros Television – and Columbia Pictures, overseeing marketing on Spielberg’s Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Weissman formed his own marketing and PR company.
He became...
- 12/28/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
By Todd Garbarini
Robert Z. Leonard’s 1940 film Pride and Predjudice, which stars Lawrence Olivier, Edmund Gwenn, Marsha Hunt, Greer Garson, and Maureen O’Sullivan, will be screened at the The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles. Based upon the novel by Jane Austen, the 118-minute film will be screened on Tuesday, December 8th, 2015 at 7:00 pm.
Actress Marsha Hunt, who played Mary Bennet in the film, is scheduled to appear in-person to discuss the film and answer audience questions.
From the press release:
This lush, Oscar-winning film from the heyday of MGM is the most entertaining of the many screen adaptations of Jane Austen’s best-loved novel. Laurence Olivier plays Mr. Darcy, Greer Garson is Elizabeth Bennet, and they give definitive performances as the archetypal battling lovers who set the model for almost every rom-com of the future. The supporting cast includes Edmund Gwenn, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver,...
Robert Z. Leonard’s 1940 film Pride and Predjudice, which stars Lawrence Olivier, Edmund Gwenn, Marsha Hunt, Greer Garson, and Maureen O’Sullivan, will be screened at the The Royale Laemmle Theater in Los Angeles. Based upon the novel by Jane Austen, the 118-minute film will be screened on Tuesday, December 8th, 2015 at 7:00 pm.
Actress Marsha Hunt, who played Mary Bennet in the film, is scheduled to appear in-person to discuss the film and answer audience questions.
From the press release:
This lush, Oscar-winning film from the heyday of MGM is the most entertaining of the many screen adaptations of Jane Austen’s best-loved novel. Laurence Olivier plays Mr. Darcy, Greer Garson is Elizabeth Bennet, and they give definitive performances as the archetypal battling lovers who set the model for almost every rom-com of the future. The supporting cast includes Edmund Gwenn, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver,...
- 12/1/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
'Tis the season to annoy everyone by using "'tis the season" way too many times when talking about holiday stuff. Halloween hasn't even happened yet, but the Christmas decorations are already taking over drug stores so ABC is just going ahead and announcing its 2015 holiday lineup. It's something to look forward to after the candy is gone, anyway, and since the "Toy Story 20th Anniversary Special" and "It's Your 50th Christmas, Charlie Brown" are involved, you should definitely mark your calendars.
Here's a chronological list of holiday programming highlights, via ABC:
Friday, November 27
"Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" - In the perennial favorite created in 1970 by Rankin-Bass Productions ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman"), Fred Astaire narrates this timeless tale of Kris Kringle (Mickey Rooney), a young boy with an immense desire to do good things for others. The vocal cast features Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle, Keenan Wynn as Winter,...
Here's a chronological list of holiday programming highlights, via ABC:
Friday, November 27
"Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" - In the perennial favorite created in 1970 by Rankin-Bass Productions ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman"), Fred Astaire narrates this timeless tale of Kris Kringle (Mickey Rooney), a young boy with an immense desire to do good things for others. The vocal cast features Mickey Rooney as Kris Kringle, Keenan Wynn as Winter,...
- 10/21/2015
- by Gina Carbone
- Moviefone
Review by Sam Moffitt
Being the first is not always a good thing. Many ground breaking artists who introduce something new into the cultural mix do not always fare well after they have changed the rules and the game. Take, just as one example, Orson Welles who changed forever how movies were made as well as radio drama and stage productions. Although Welles made out better than Maila Nurmi, also known as Vampira, the subject of the incredible and unforgettable documentary Vampira and Me.
H Greene first got to know Maila Nurmi when he interviewed her for a documentary called Schlock! The Secret History of Hollywood, (a good documentary in its own right.) Nurmi had grown distrustful of just about everyone, and with good reason. Yet for reasons Greene doesn’t even speculate on she trusted Greene and gave him almost two hours of interview time and discussed every last moment of her bizarre,...
Being the first is not always a good thing. Many ground breaking artists who introduce something new into the cultural mix do not always fare well after they have changed the rules and the game. Take, just as one example, Orson Welles who changed forever how movies were made as well as radio drama and stage productions. Although Welles made out better than Maila Nurmi, also known as Vampira, the subject of the incredible and unforgettable documentary Vampira and Me.
H Greene first got to know Maila Nurmi when he interviewed her for a documentary called Schlock! The Secret History of Hollywood, (a good documentary in its own right.) Nurmi had grown distrustful of just about everyone, and with good reason. Yet for reasons Greene doesn’t even speculate on she trusted Greene and gave him almost two hours of interview time and discussed every last moment of her bizarre,...
- 9/7/2015
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Lucille Ball: The glamour look. Cate Blanchett to play Lucille Ball: Actress won Oscar for incarnating Ball's fellow Rko contract player Katharine Hepburn Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is reportedly slated to star in a biopic of former Rko and MGM actress and big-time television comedienne Lucille Ball. Aaron Sorkin, Oscar winner for David Fincher's The Social Network, will be responsible for the screenplay. According to Entertainment Weekly, the Lucille Ball film biopic will focus on Ball's two-decade marriage to her I Love Lucy costar Desi Arnaz. In 1960, the couple had an acrimonious divorce that supposedly “shocked” clueless fans unable to tell the difference between TV reality and real-life reality. Their children, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Lucie Arnaz, had modest acting careers in film and on TV in the '70s and '80s. As per the EW.com report, they're both producing the planned Lucille Ball biopic.
- 9/3/2015
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
Rex Ingram in 'The Thief of Bagdad' 1940 with tiny Sabu. Actor Rex Ingram movies on TCM: Early black film performer in 'Cabin in the Sky,' 'Anna Lucasta' It's somewhat unusual for two well-known film celebrities, whether past or present, to share the same name.* One such rarity is – or rather, are – the two movie people known as Rex Ingram;† one an Irish-born white director, the other an Illinois-born black actor. Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” continues today, Aug. 11, '15, with a day dedicated to the latter. Right now, TCM is showing Cabin in the Sky (1943), an all-black musical adaptation of the Faust tale that is notable as the first full-fledged feature film directed by another Illinois-born movie person, Vincente Minnelli. Also worth mentioning, the movie marked Lena Horne's first important appearance in a mainstream motion picture.§ A financial disappointment on the...
- 8/12/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Like his protégé David Letterman, Johnny Carson entertained America every night for decades, but was largely a mystery off camera. "He doesn't trust very many people, so people who don't know him think he's aloof, stiff, snobby," said his third wife Joanna. But he did open up in a 1979 60 Minutes profile, which can be viewed below, when a confrontational Mike Wallace visited Carson's home in Bel Air, California. The journalist and his crew followed the late night host as he prepared for his show that night by reading newspapers and magazines,...
- 6/23/2015
- Rollingstone.com
Allison Schulnik: Eager
ZieherSmith Gallery, NYC
Through February 22, 2014 And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace and a wound that will never heal no prima donna, the perfume is on an old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey and goodnight to the street sweepers, the night watchmen flame keepers and goodnight Mathilda, too.
Tom Waits, "Waltzing Mathilda"
"The Hobo, as a visual trope, represents the last truly transgressive figure in art… kitsch paintings of clown-like characters with bindlestiffs and colorful handkerchiefs camouflage a predatory underclass of thieves, pedophiles, rapists, and murderers."
Dr. Hope Ardizzone, Oblivion and Contingency in Post-Modern Painting
Allison Schulnik's second exhibition at ZieherSmith presents drawings, sculpture, paintings, and installation pieces surrounding and supporting her most recent animated film, Eager (2013). Schulnik, drawing from a variety of sources (Busby Berkeley, Lewis Carroll, her former teachers Jules Engel and Corny Cole, Bob Ross, and Antoine Watteau) choreographs a stop-motion,...
ZieherSmith Gallery, NYC
Through February 22, 2014 And it's a battered old suitcase to a hotel someplace and a wound that will never heal no prima donna, the perfume is on an old shirt that is stained with blood and whiskey and goodnight to the street sweepers, the night watchmen flame keepers and goodnight Mathilda, too.
Tom Waits, "Waltzing Mathilda"
"The Hobo, as a visual trope, represents the last truly transgressive figure in art… kitsch paintings of clown-like characters with bindlestiffs and colorful handkerchiefs camouflage a predatory underclass of thieves, pedophiles, rapists, and murderers."
Dr. Hope Ardizzone, Oblivion and Contingency in Post-Modern Painting
Allison Schulnik's second exhibition at ZieherSmith presents drawings, sculpture, paintings, and installation pieces surrounding and supporting her most recent animated film, Eager (2013). Schulnik, drawing from a variety of sources (Busby Berkeley, Lewis Carroll, her former teachers Jules Engel and Corny Cole, Bob Ross, and Antoine Watteau) choreographs a stop-motion,...
- 1/17/2014
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Woody Allen Golden Globes 2014 tribute: Diane Keaton remembers ‘friend’ (photo: Woody Allen directing Cate Blanchett in ‘Blue Jasmine’) Accepting from presenter Emma Stone the 2014 Cecil B. DeMille Award for absentee Woody Allen, Diane Keaton (Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors, Manhattan, Manhattan Murder Mystery) was a likable presence at the January 12, 2014, Golden Globes ceremony, but her reminiscences about Allen were clearly PG-rated, going on about their "friendship" as if the two had always been just pals. Was that lullaby she sang moving or would Woody Allen have been right in yelling, "get the hook and get her off the god damn stage"? You decide. Now, in all fairness, Diane Keaton’s Woody Allen tribute wasn’t all PG-rated treacle, as she was twice bleeped by the censors. Apparently, NBC — and the ludicrous FCC — believe television audiences should be treated as if we were all three-year-olds. (See also: “Golden Globes...
- 1/13/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Shirley Mitchell, who played Lucy Ricardo’s friend Marion Strong on the classic CBS sitcom I Love Lucy, died Monday. She was 94. Remembered as Lucy’s friend with the funny laugh, Mitchell appeared in three episodes of I Love Lucy after joining the cast in 1953. She was believed to be the last recurring adult cast member following the deaths of Doris Singleton in 2012 and Peggy Rea in 2011. Mitchell appeared on numerous TV shows in the 1950s and ’60s including Bachelor Father starring John Forsythe, Please Don’t Eat The Daisies as neighbor Marge Thornton, Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies. She also appeared as Clara Appleby, the wife of henpecked husband George Appleby (Red Skelton) on The Red Skelton Hour. In 1972, she voiced Laurie Holiday on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Roman Holidays and last year voiced Betty White in Betty White & The Huntsman. On the film side, Mitchell appeared...
- 11/14/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
The Wasteland:
Television is a gold goose that lays scrambled eggs;
and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar.
Lee Loevinger
When people argue over the quality of television programming, both sides — it’s addictive crap v. underappreciated populist art — seem to forget one of the essentials about commercial TV. By definition, it is not a public service. It is not commercial TV’s job to enlighten, inform, educate, elevate, inspire, or offer insight. Frankly, it’s not even commercial TV’s job to entertain. Bottom line: its purpose is simply to deliver as many sets of eyes to advertisers as possible. As it happens, it tends to do this by offering various forms of entertainment, and occasionally by offering content that does enlighten, inform, etc., but a cynic would make the point that if TV could do the same job televising fish aimlessly swimming around an aquarium,...
Television is a gold goose that lays scrambled eggs;
and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar.
Lee Loevinger
When people argue over the quality of television programming, both sides — it’s addictive crap v. underappreciated populist art — seem to forget one of the essentials about commercial TV. By definition, it is not a public service. It is not commercial TV’s job to enlighten, inform, educate, elevate, inspire, or offer insight. Frankly, it’s not even commercial TV’s job to entertain. Bottom line: its purpose is simply to deliver as many sets of eyes to advertisers as possible. As it happens, it tends to do this by offering various forms of entertainment, and occasionally by offering content that does enlighten, inform, etc., but a cynic would make the point that if TV could do the same job televising fish aimlessly swimming around an aquarium,...
- 7/22/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Swimmer who found movie fame in a string of MGM musicals
Esther Williams, "Hollywood's Mermaid", who has died aged 91, swam her way through more than a dozen splashy MGM musicals in the 1940s and early 50s. While smiling at the camera, she was able to do a combination of crawl, breast and backstroke, and was forever blowing bubbles under water, seemingly having an inexhaustible supply of air.
Like the starlets Lana Turner, Kathryn Grayson and Donna Reed before her, she started out for MGM in a Hardy Family picture, Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) – though one that allowed her to swim with Mickey Rooney. After being billed 19th in A Guy Named Joe (1943), she shot to stardom in her third film, Bathing Beauty (1944).
It started out as an average Red Skelton vehicle, first called Mr Co-Ed, then Sing and Swim, but Esther's superb figure and pretty features were heightened by Technicolor...
Esther Williams, "Hollywood's Mermaid", who has died aged 91, swam her way through more than a dozen splashy MGM musicals in the 1940s and early 50s. While smiling at the camera, she was able to do a combination of crawl, breast and backstroke, and was forever blowing bubbles under water, seemingly having an inexhaustible supply of air.
Like the starlets Lana Turner, Kathryn Grayson and Donna Reed before her, she started out for MGM in a Hardy Family picture, Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) – though one that allowed her to swim with Mickey Rooney. After being billed 19th in A Guy Named Joe (1943), she shot to stardom in her third film, Bathing Beauty (1944).
It started out as an average Red Skelton vehicle, first called Mr Co-Ed, then Sing and Swim, but Esther's superb figure and pretty features were heightened by Technicolor...
- 6/7/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Esther Williams: ‘Pools and Smiles’ formula grows stale [See previous post: "Esther Williams: Swimwear MGM Musical Star Dies."] By the early ’50s, Louis B. Mayer had been ousted from the studio he had helped to found, having been replaced by Dore Schary. Whether or not a coincidence, with the exception of Million Dollar Mermaid, the Esther Williams movies of the ’50s — e.g., The Duchess of Idaho, Skirts Ahoy! (stolen by Vivian Blaine in a supporting role), Dangerous When Wet, Easy to Love — lacked the luster of those released in the previous decade, despite more prestigious directors (George Sidney, Charles Walters, Robert Z. Leonard) and the usual co-stars (Van Johnson, Red Skelton, Howard Keel). (Photo: Esther Williams in Million Dollar Mermaid.) Not surprisingly, although MGM’s color musicals would remain in vogue a few more years, Esther Williams and the studio parted ways following George Sidney’s tired-looking Jupiter’s Darling (1956), with Williams and Howard Keel (as Hannibal) fooling around in ancient times.
- 6/6/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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