I was so sad to read that Anita Page, the very last of the MGM silent stars, has passed away.
I had the chance to meet her back nearly 15 years ago and loved her charm and energy as well as listening to her stories.
She will be missed.
I wrote about her before HERE. RIP Anita.
xx
Vivlish
Silent screen siren Anita Page dies at 98
2 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anita Page, an MGM actress who appeared in films with Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silent movies to talkies, has died. She was 98.
Page died in her sleep early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles, said actor Randal Malone, her longtime friend and companion.
Page's career, which spanned 84 years, began in 1924 when she started as an extra.
Her big break came in 1928 when she won a major role — as the doomed bad girl — in "Our Dancing Daughters," a film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides." Page and Crawford were in all three films.
Page's daughter Linda Sterne said her mother had been good friends with Marion Davies and Jean Harlow, and for about six months in the 1930s lived as a guest in William Hearst's massive castle on the Southern California coast.
"She was the best mother I could have," Sterne said. "She was wonderful. " In 1928, the New York-born Page starred opposite Chaney in "While the City Sleeps. "
The following year, she was co-star of "The Broadway Melody," the 1929 backstage tale of two sisters who love the same man. The film made history as the first talkie to win the best-picture Oscar and was arguably the first true film musical.
In his 1995 book "A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film," author Richard Barrios reserved much of his praise for Bessie Love, the veteran actress who played the other sister. But he called Page "intensely likable — sincere, well-meaning, endearing, in much the same fashion as Ruby Keeler several years later — and, of course, quite beautiful. "
Variety wrote in 1929 that Page "is also apt to bowl the trade over with a contribution that's natural all the way, plus her percentage on appearance. ... She can't dance, (but) the remainder of her performance is easily sufficient to make this impediment distinctly negligible. "
Among Page's other films were two of Keaton's sound films, "Free and Easy" in 1930, and "Sidewalks of New York" in 1931; "Night Court," with Walter Huston in 1932; and "The Easiest Way" in 1931, in which Clark Gable had a small role.
For a short time Page was married to composer Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote songs for "The Broadway Melody," but the marriage was annulled within a year, Sterne said.
Page stopped acting in 1936 when she fell in love with Herschel House, a Navy aviator. The couple married six weeks later and Page happily adapted to life as an officer's wife, hosting many parties at their home in Coronado, a city peninsula in the San Diego Bay, Sterne said.
The couple had two daughters, Linda and Sandra.
After House died in 1991, Page went on to return to films. In 1994, she appeared in the suspense thriller "Sunset After Dark. " Most recently, she had a cameo in the horror film "Frankenstein Rising," due out later this year.
Imagine how excited I was after going to Cinecon last week and having just relayed to my pals Victor and Judson my disappointment over there being no Kay Francis vehicles being shown this year to find out she is TCM's Star of the Month for September!
If you like glamourous 30's films and especially pre-codes, you have to acquaint yourself with Kay. I recommend not missing the campy lurid Mandalay.
Yay! They started this past Thursday night ( and I tivo-ed them all) and will be showing on every Thursday evening over 40 of her films. *sigh* Here is an article on her legacy in case you are unfamiliar... Kay Francis Profile
What?! You’ve never seen a Kay Francis film? That
means you have some terrific treats in store this
month on TCM -- 42, in fact., and that’s more samples
of the work of a single performer than we’ve
ever shown before during one of our “star of the
month” salutes. Kay was, like Garbo, Crawford,
Dietrich, Stanwyck, Carmen Miranda and a very few
others, one of a kind.
For several years (1933-37)
she was also the undisputed queen of Warner Bros.
studio, the one name among the company’s female
contingent which was a guaranteed draw at the boxoffice,
a position she enjoyed until that Massachusetts
girl named Davis began sitting on the throne at that studio in 1938. But unlike Bette D. who fought for
strong dramatic roles and recognition as an actress, Kay was famous for looking gorgeous and elegant while
riddled with angst. There seemed to be an unwritten law that any bonafide Kay Francis movie had to include
four basics: Kay wearing stunning gowns, Kay in love and suffering for it, Kay being gallant and true, Kay doing
the right thing at the film’s wrap, even if it meant her giving up a great love, be it a handsome swain, an adorable
child or a devoted hubby.
The public loved the Kay Francis formula so much, ironically, it also doomed her.
The more her fans crowded into the local Bijous to see the latest Francis film, the fatter her paycheck became
until she was making far more moola than the Brothers themselves. They didn’t like that idea and decided to
give Kay the heave-ho and, instead, put their muscle behind a newer actress who’d cost them much less, such
as hat new girl named Davis. They did not, however, fire Kay as that would have required them to pay her a
fortune in compensation fees - so they plotted instead to embarrass her into quitting. Thus, the studio started
casting her in third rate movies, lowering her billing even on those films in which she played the lead and, the
unkindest cut of all, riddling her scripts with words such as “ridiculous,” “really,” “resounding” and “Roger,”
because she had trouble pronouncing her “Rs.” But it didn’t work. Kay stayed and stayed and stayed. She kept
pocketing those weekly checks until the contract expired, winning the battle but, unfortunately, losing her
standing in the movie industry, and ultimately also diluting her legacy. But knowing what was going on in her
career during those latter days at Warner Bros. does make even the weaker Kay Francis films great fun to watch
today.
Meanwhile, looking at the four-star Kay movies she made which we’ll be showing this month, such
as Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise, Tay Garnett’s One Way Passage and King Vidor’s Cynara, give a chance
to see Kay at her finest. Never fear, there are also myriad examples of the kind of
Kay Francis films that moviegoers loved best, one of them Mandalay, in which she
is miraculously able to jump on a steamer in Burma carrying only a purse, yet for
days after she’s on board the small boat wearing a succession of lavish gowns,
complete with headdresses, which have appeared from out of nowhere and would
seem to require a closet the size of Versailles to hold them. That was the magic of
movies. It was also the kind of magic moviegoers always
expected, and got, from Kay Francis. Welcome to her
unique world every Thursday this month.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is certainly not a blog, but it is most definitely a server-busting web hit.
The big question is what comes next for this musical superhero web series. Now available online in its entirety at drhorrible.com – until the end of today, so go if you haven't seen it – this three-part web series is the brainchild of Joss Whedon and stars Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion as the titular supervillain and his arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer, respectively. Oh, and it's a musical.
The web series debuted last Tuesday and the response was so great the servers started melting as if Superman himself gave them a blast of his heat vision. "It was nuts. We underestimated how many people would be watching," says Joss's brother Zack Whedon, who helped write the series. They've since upgraded their server, and fans have been flocking to the 40-minute tale. In the end it's a love triangle involving a well-meaning Penny (Felicia Day), a nebbish supervillain (Harris) and the pompous hero who keeps foiling/beating him up, Captain Hammer (Fillion).
Make no mistake, this isn't your usual YouTube-quality video.
"Initially when Joss said he wanted to do this thing, we were like, oh great, we've got a buddy with a video camera that's pretty nice. And he was like, `Yeah, I think we might be slightly higher scale than that'," Zack Whedon says.
Fillion, the Albertan who starred in Whedon's Firefly, also didn't need much convincing to join.
"You know, it's always a great thing when a director looks at you and says, `Even cheesier,'" Fillion says of the experience. "It's like I'd say, if I have to give you a 60-per cent cheese factor, what would you like to see? `87 per cent!' No problem, I can do it."
Fillion also says singing didn't frighten him: "I can carry a tune in a bucket. I was a karaoke host back in Edmonton, Alta. It was one of my part-time jobs working my way through university."
Fillion, the rest of the cast and the creators are heading to the San Diego Comic-Con next week, and while there's no release date for the DVD yet, the plan is to create an elaborate set of extras, including a musical commentary track. Monetizing web video is something that many people have been trying to crack – many without much luck. But Dr. Horrible could be different because of the big names involved. Of course, according to Zack Whedon, whatever happens next is gravy.
"This wasn't ever really about money, it was about doing something with complete creative freedom," he says.
Ahhh---the end of a long holiday weekend. Color me exhausted. We had a great time though. FRIDAY Started with a jaunt out to Malibu mid afternoon with Matt and Carrie who we scooped on the way out to Zuma Beach. We spread out blankets and ate a supper, relaxed; Matt swam while I did yoga- I will not be sharing any photo ops of that hahaa- and Carrie read.
Its funny how cautionary people are re. going to Malibu beach on the 4th- I have always been told you will have to sit in horrible traffic and its overcrowded. Not the case at all.
We breezed right up the 101 to Kanan Dune and found a free spot just beyond where we laid our blankets. No traffic coming or going. Only traffic jams were in my own neighborhood when we got back and close to the park.
The barges you see off in the distance are the ships that the fireworks are launched from for the Malibu display.
SATURDAY Since the ocean water was sorta chilly to swim in and the next day was a cooker in the 90's, we decided to drive up the 5 to Ventura County and hit up a lake for some swim time.
As we left the building, we saw this bizarre "art" display of stuffed animals nailed- yes nailed- to a palm tree. Sorta annoying to see that a wooden telephone pole was only a few feet away but whoever did this, thought nothing of plopping a bunch o long nails into a tree. Go figure...
Here is the newly redone front of the building next door to us- apartments have all been vacant for about a year when they booted the people out who were probably paying around $300-$400 a pop- while they have completely changed its facade and waited the minimum legal time to be able to rerent all of the rent control 20's apartments at "market value" aka an arm and a leg for sure (probably $1300 minimum).
I can't wait to see who will be moving in. At least, they spared no detail- the doors are lovely- and when replacing the original 20's windows and frames, they replaced them with nice wooden framed ones rather than cheaping out with aluminum/tin sliding ones and the coral color is a nice step up from its former dullish lavender grey...
But I digress...back to the lake folks!
Check out the views as we drove down into the lake area...
Here is my belly at nearly 25 weeks- yes Wombat can hear and respond to outside noises now & he is around 2 pounds...oh yes, it was windy ("hold on to yer hat" windy) up at the lake but it felt good in the heat...
Finally, we hit the beach and spread out...ah!
Did I mention it was windy? haha
It did feel amazing and the water so refreshing. No in-lake photo ops of swimming due to the lake bottom being slippery in spots and the waves too choppy to handle a camera but it felt GREAT.
If you are ever in the area, Los Padre National Forest- Lake Piru-ish and need to rent an animal for a movie or somethin', Phil is the guy to see...
We spied these lonely mules on our way home...
We headed back to Echo Park and straight to El Compadre's for a fix of their amazing salsa, guac and salty fresh chips combo along with carne asada and chicken fried burritos and a margie for Matt. Mmmm...didn't matter nor did we care that we were still in our swimsuits and everyone else in the booths around us were on 1st dates (looked like it) and wearing their hipster best as it was around 9 pm by then on a Saturday night. hahaa- made me remember how awkward dating can be- going to dinner with someone you didn't really know and wondering if it would be too much if you ate the whole basket of chips? Luckily, we don't have that problem anymore. Wow- I just remembered something kinda cool! El Compadre's is where Matt and I met for our first ever official date...I think I remember I was guarded in my chip intake just to be sure. It was February 16, 2007. My how time flies! And for the record, I know we finished our chip basket and then got a 2nd one with more salsa this time. Wheee!
We went home and watched a German movie that has been recommended to me more than a few times but I hesitated as I knew it was about a serial killer. I am glad I finally saw it b/c the style of it is very fable-like and metaphorical. The reason people thought of me? Well the title should say it all... PERFUME: story of a murdurer.
Since I am obsessed with scent and think myself to have a first rate sniffer and love to blend oils, this was definitely up my alley. The protagonist is a scent obsessed guy who yearns to be able to make the best perfume imaginable composed of the usual 3 chord/12 components- 3 top notes, 3 middle and 3 end ones. Only problem is he needs the "essence" of the ladies he sniffs randomly on the street to be able to bottle it. He uses the old technique of "enfleuraging" which is allowing blossoms to slowly die in animal fat which releases their oils into the fat which is then emulsified and distilled into a liquid. This movie is far from realistic and is more fantastical and reminded me why I love fragrance so so much.
It was funny b/c his two main victims/obsessions who had the best essence were both red heads and I put Matt on notice that if he stepped out of line, I would be forced to enfleurage his pretty little russet head...yuk yuk yuk.
Based on the bestselling novel by Patrick Süskind, "Perfume" is a story of murder and obsession set in 18th-century France starring Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman directed by "Run Lola Run" director Tom Twyker.
Jean-Baptiste
Grenouille has used his unique talent for discerning the scents and
smells that swirl around him to create the world's finest perfumes, but
his talent masks his burden. An orphan from birth, Grenouille has
always felt alone in the world and different from any other person.
Determined to connect with others, Grenouille tries to capture the
irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood, traveling far and
delving deeper into the intricate science of perfume-making. As he
becomes increasingly -- and recklessly -- passionate about his art, his
obsession to create the world's most powerful fragrance takes a deadly
turn.
Here is the original movie trailer...
SUNDAY Finally, yesterday, we made a tasty organic sausage, onion and roasted pepper pie with our yummy handmade dough
Then we packed an early supper and donned our swimsuits again as we headed north east to Monrovia Canyon Falls for a hike n dip in the waterfall.
Saw some adorable deer in the neighborhood as we walked up to the entrance...
But alas...the park was closed off for the duration of the weekend due to fireworks deterrence. *sigh*
We made the best of it, drove down into a local park in Pasadena and had our picnic.
It was nice except I had the eeriest feeling of someone watching my every move. We looked around...A-ha!
Visions of Monty Python and attacking bunnies danced in my head as this little guy didn't let up on us. He was all-seeing.
I love it when you think your guy has no tricks up his sleeve and no surprises. Matt surprised me last week with tickets- 3rd row- to see the World Premiere of a play about my favorite person Tallulah Bankhead on its opening weekend at the awesome Pasadena Playhouse! I hadn't even heard about the play- tsk tsk- so had no idea. He thankfully listens to NPR every morning and they did a piece on it. I was so thrilled and touched that he would remember my geeky love for all things Tallu. As you may know, the name of this blog Tarnished Lady is from the title of a 30's Tallulah flick. We really should be pinching our every last penny right now for Wombat's arrival but this was a must-see for us. And of course Wombat's first theatre excursion would fittingly be a smoky toned Tallulah expletive-filled ranty venture. She did grow up coincidentally in Jasper Alabama which is Wombat's name- the Jasper part not the Alabama- and he did move around and give me some love taps during the show. I think he rather enjoyed himself. Here's me before we left- check out the burgeoning belly- as I am hitting the 6 month mark with our Bebe Wombat.
Here is Tallu sipping from her shoe of course. The name of the play is LOOPED and it is cleverly based on a true incident from the late 60's when Tallulah was needed to come in and loop one line of dialogue from her just finished film "Die Die My Darling!" and in true Tallulah fashion, it took over 8 hours. Valerie Harper of Mary Tyler Moore (Rhoda) fame plays Tallulah and she does it well. I am certainly picky about my special people and how they are portrayed but she got the deep husky bourbon-tinged, ciggie infused voice just right. Even her strange Southern meets British accented way of speaking way pretty dead on. Tallulah was from Alabama of course but spent considerable time in the UK and this coupled with her theatrical affectations made for her special way of talking. They had a photo exhibit next to the theatre with original photos and portraits of Tallulah when she was young. I was in heaven.
If you didn't know, Tallulah is known for her bon mots. Here are some of her classic ones:
Cocaine isn't habit forming. I should know - I've been using it for years.
I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education.
I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.
I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late start without me.
If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
If you really want to help the American theater, don't be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.
I've been called many things, but never an intellectual.
Nobody can be exactly like me. Even I have trouble doing it.
It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.
(On seeing a former lover for the first time in years) I thought I told you to wait in the car.
They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.
The less I behave like Whistler's mother the night before, the more I look like her the morning after.
It was a really fun play, snappy dialogue of course, good acting and hey, its about Tallulah! So if you want to catch it here before it likely goes onward to Broadway check it out now...tickets here.
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