''I'm a straight lady, the best in Hollywood.'' I am just going to admit it to you youngins; The Marx Brothers are a major thing for me. I have played one of them in two different stage productions. I have seen all their films, 13 with the brothers and 13 with Groucho Marx on his … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Poet, Arthur Rimbaud
October 20, 1854– Arthur Rimbaud Rimbaud is familiar to me only because I had a single semester of 19th Century French Poetry, a class I took only because I had a crush on the professor. He was exactly as you would picture a teacher who specialized in European poetry: … [Read more...]
#QueerQuote: ”The Opposite of Love Isn’t Hate, It’s Apathy.” – John le Carré
BBC via YouTube Born as David John Moore Cornwell in 1931, with 24 novels, le Carré is a prolific chronicler of wretchedness, betrayal and damaged faith. I have only read a few, but I love the film and televisions adaptations of his work: The Spy Who Came In From The … [Read more...]
#ArtDept: Peter Max
Photo via YouTube "Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Dead, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles; I Paint to This Music All the Time and It Feels Good." Peter Max He has painted popes, presidents, The Beatles and American heroes. His color-blasted, kinetic images have been expanded to 40,000 … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Glenn Milstead
October 19, 1945- Harris Glenn Milstead: "'Divine' and 'Glenn Milstead' are both just names. Glenn is the name I was brought up with, Divine is the name I've been using for the past 23 years. I guess it's always Glenn and it's always Divine. Do you mean the character Divine or … [Read more...]
#BlackLivesMatter: Juniata Moore in 1958’s “Imitation Of Life”
Photo via Wikimedia Commons Juanita Moore (1914-2014): ”How do you tell a child that she was born to be hurt?”Juanita Moore as Annie in Imitation Of Life Douglas Sirk (1897 – 1987) has only one Hollywood screenwriting credit, but there is a thematic thread and … [Read more...]
#WomenWeLove: Singer / Songwriter, Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro (1947 -1997): "They say a woman's place is to wait and serve under the veil, submissive and dear. But I think my place is in a ship from space to carry me the hell out of here…" It would never have happened to me when I was young. I was a fearless performer as a … [Read more...]
#BornThisDay: Golden Age Star, Miriam Hopkins
The Lady With The Red Hair, 1940, Warner Bros. via YouTube October 18, 1902 – Miriam Hopkins: "They give me feeble-minded parts. I don't object, you understand, but when the writers tell me they wrote the part with me in mind, I begin to wonder." Hopkins was one of the … [Read more...]
#QueerQuote: “The Two Most Common Elements in the World Are Hydrogen and Stupidity.” – Arthur Miller
Monroe and Miller, 1960, photographer unknown, via Wikimedia Commons Arthur Miller (1915–2005) is one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century. He penned some of America's most memorable plays in a career that lasted seven decades. His Death Of A Salesman won the 1949 … [Read more...]
#MustSee: 1948’s “The More The Merrier” & the Insecurities & Stage Fright of Star, Jean Arthur
The More The Merrier (1943), Columbia Studios via YouTube "I am not an adult, that’s my explanation of myself. Except when I am working on a set, I have all the inhibitions and shyness of the bashful, backward child, unless I have something very much in common with a person, … [Read more...]
