James by John Singer Sargent (1913), National Portrait Gallery London Henry James was born on this day in 1843 in New York City to an imminent, intellectual American family. He grew up and went to school in Europe and New England. James's writing career was long and … [Read more...]
#OnThisDay: April 15, 1912 – SOS, The Dogs of The Titanic
April 15, 1912 - That famous luxury liner hit that damn iceberg 106 years ago, spawning: Atlantik (1929), a British early talking film starring Madeleine Carroll; a 1943 German propaganda film titled Titanic (1943), commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Leonardo da Vinci
April 15, 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci "Art is never finished, only abandoned." Self Portrait, 1512 Leonardo da Vinci was denied an education and a profession because he was born out of wedlock in 1452. One of the few professions available for the bastard son of a … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Acting Great, John Gielgud
Photo BBC via YouTube April 14, 1904– John Gielgud Most people probably remember him for his Academy Award-winning performance as Hobson, Dudley Moore's acid-tongued butler in the film Arthur (1981), but he was so much more than … [Read more...]
#OnThisDay63: 58 Years Ago, Sidney Poitier Becomes the First Black Man to Win an Acting Oscar
Screenshot via YouTube Sidney Poitier will always be noted for being the first Black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, winning for the nun flick Lilies Of The Field (1963). When Poitier went on stage to collect his Oscar, Ann Bancroft, presenting him the award, gave … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Playwright, Lanford Wilson
April 13, 1937, Lanford Wilson: "Nobody's safe around a writer." I spent a certain amount of time and energy in the late 1970s attempting to get a production of the beautiful, soulful play, Fifth Of July, off the ground, one of those artistic endeavors that somehow … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Photography Pioneer, Imogen Cunningham
Self Portrait via Wikimedia Commons April 12, 1883 - Imogen Cunningham: "I was invited to photograph Hollywood. They asked me what I would like to photograph. I said, Ugly men." Regular readers know that this writer holds Photography as one of the greatest of arts. … [Read more...]
#FlashBack1972: Joel Grey Wasn’t Director Bob Fosse’s First Choice to Play the Emcee in “Cabaret”, Guess Who Was?!?
Joel Grey won an Academy Award for his performance as the Emcee in the film version of the musical Cabaret (1972). Grey also won a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, National Board of Review and a National Society of Film Critics Award; all for a role he had already won a Tony Award … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Actor, Louise Lasser
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, via YouTube screen-shot April 11, 1939 – Louise Lasser: "I can't believe it. Loretta's never gonna walk again. Tom and Mae and Mary all have venereal disease, not to mention Frank Garth, who I don't even know. And we don't have any … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Political Pioneer, Frances Perkins
1938, photo from MSNBC via YouTube April 10, 1880– Frances Perkins: "The accusation that I am a woman is incontrovertible." When you think about a New Yorker addressed as Madam Secretary, someone else's name might pop in your head. History seems to have forgotten … [Read more...]
