Let Us Remember

[Johnny]

Today June 7th would have been Dean Martin's 99th birthday.
Dean died on December 25th. 1995.


Tomorrow, June 8th would have been Joan Rivers' 83rd birthday. Joan died on September 4-2014.

[Jas1]

Dean was a great talent.

[Johnny]

Today, June 30th would have been the very beautiful, talented and brave Susan Hayward's 98th birthday.
Susan was nominated five times for best actress. She won the Academy Award in 1958 for I Want To Live.

[Johnny]

Today, July 1-2016 is Olivia De Havilland's 100th birthday. She now resides in Paris. Gone With The Wind is on TCM at 9:15 p.m..
Happy Birthday Olivia!

Today would have been lovely Princess Dianna's 55th birthday.

[Musiclover]

Joan Fontaine was 96 when she passed away. There seems to be genetic longevity in those siblings!

[webmaster]

In addition to Oliva, God bless her, yesterday was also the centenary of the end of World War One in Europe. It's been all over the TV - shocking that a million men died. You can feel it more easily if it's one person but when it's a million it's difficult to comprehend or understand.

[Ania]

Great actor, with a wonderful voice

There is no longer such great actors...

Ania

[Jas1]

Happy birthday Olivia, what a fabulous achievement - and yes Bryan, WW1 was just tragic.

[Johnny]

Today, November 2nd was Burt Lancaster's birthday. He was born in 1913 and died October 20, 1994.
Two of his most famous films are From Here To Eternity and Birdman of Alcatraz. He won an Academy Award in 1960 for Elmer Gantry.

[Johnny]

Three November 5th birthdays well worth remembering are:

Vivian Leigh
Roy Rogers
Tilda Swinton

[webmaster]

Happy birthday to them all! (Who is Tilda Swinton?)

Guy Fawkes Night in London - fireworks going off everywhere.

(Guy Fawkes tried to blow-up the House of Commons a few centuries ago and we still remember, or celebrate, the event to this day - don't ask me why!)

[Johnny]

Hi Bryan,

Tilda Swinton is a wonderful British actress who starred in many films, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Bigger Splash and the upcoming Dr. Strange with Benedict Cumberbatch. She won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Michael Clayton with George Clooney.

[Johnny]

November 6th, 2016 is the 25th anniversary of Gene Tierney's death. She died in 1991, thirteen days before her 71st. birthday.

Gene Tierney was a strikingly beautiful actress that has a legacy of great films for us to appreciate and enjoy. Some of them are:

Laura
Leave Her To Heaven (nominated for Best Actress)
The Razor's Edge
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

A special note must be said about Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power. They made three films together and are remembered as a beautiful and unforgettable romantic team. The films they made are:
Son of Fury -1942
The Razor's -1946
That Wonderful Urge - 1948

A personal note: I think Tyrone Power would have been perfect for the male lead in Leave Her To Heaven. He and Gene Tierney have extraordinary chemistry in all their films.

[Johnny]

Today, November 15th is the 58th anniversary of Tyrone Power's death. He was 44. He was born on May 5-1914.
He is best remembered as a leading man for Gene Tierney.
Loretta Young once remarked that Tyrone and Gene looked so beautiful on the screen together that it almost distracted from the story.

[Jas1]

Gene Tierney was indeed a gorgeous looking lady and she seemed really nice in a rare TV interview [youtube] from the early 1980s although she had aged due to years of illness and heavy smoking. Gene helped the cause of mental illness having suffered a serious mental breakdown at the height of her fame and having been able to return to films thereafter [due to the kindness of others who she acknowledges in the interview] and she was plagued on an off through the years with mental illness, I really like what I know of this lady.

[Johnny]

Jas,

I read Gene Tierney's autobiography called Gene Tierney- Self Portrait. It is a fascinating and touching read that covers her relationship with John F. Kennedy,family betrayals, and the heartbreak of having a handicapped child. I found her book at the library. She is described by many as a truly kind person.

[Jas1]

Thanks Johnny, I didn't know she wrote a book, must look out for that.

[Johnny]

Today, November 17th is Rock Hudson's birthday. He would have been 91.
It is interesting to note that both Rock and Doris Day made their film debutes in 1948. Rock made 69 films.
In 1980, Rock made a fun film, an Agatha Christie mystery, The Mirror Crack'd, with Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, and Tony Curtis. Elizabeth and Kim play actresses portraying Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth 1st.
Elizabeth Taylor has a funny scene in front of a mirror where she refers to Doris Day. Rock does a double-take. If you get a chance to see this film, it is a wondrrful time.
There is a TCM tribute to Rock today. Send Me No Flowers is showing at 6 p.m. eastern time.

[Jas1]

Yes Johnny, hard to believe Rock would have been 91 - too bad.

Yes that film is memorable for that one line- something like "double chins [or wrinkles or eye bags] - go away and come right back on Doris Day" - said by Elizabeth as an aging actress.

[Johnny]

Today, November 22-2016 is the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas in 1963.

This event begs the question about what would world history look like if this assassination had not happened, particularly in America.

The Kennedy era brought sophistication, youth, fashion and social change to the forefront in America.

Doris Day was the #1 box-office star in the world in 1963. Move Over Darling was released on Christmas Day.

[Johnny]

Today, November 29th is the anniversary of the deaths of two great Hollywood legends.

The extraordinarily beautiful and talented Natalie Wood died tragically by drowning in 1981 at age 43. She is unforgettable in Miracle On 34th Street, Rebel Without A Cause, and West Side Story.

The charismatic Cary Grant died at age 86 in 1986. Among his many outstanding films are His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell, Penny Serenade with Irene Dunne, Alfred Hitchcock's North By North West with Eva Marie Saint, That Touch of Mink with Doris Day and Charade with Audrey Hepburn.

Music legend, George Harrison died in 2001 at age 58.

[Jas1]

Yes, Natalie Wood died so young, and under such strange circumstances.

Re- His Girl Friday- I've often thought that would have been ripe for a remake with Doris and Rock in the 1960s - although I just love Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant in the 1940s version.

[Johnny]

Jas,

What a great idea! I agree with you that Doris and Rock would have been really great in a His Girl Friday remake.
Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant were perfect but Doris and Rock would have done the film justice.

Rosalind Russell commented in her autobiography, Life Is A Banquet (and most poor suckers are starving to death) that, " The career women she played would not be acceptable today, (1977). Doris Day came along and made the same kind of picture, but by then they were able to put in more sex, more bedroom stuff. We sometimes indicated a bed, but the camera would go over it very fast (one post, a part of a headboard) and we seldom got into one. If we did get into one, we had on more clothes than you'd need for the North Pole".

My absolute favouite Rosalind Russell performance is the hysterically funny Sylvia Fowler in The Women. It is brilliant.

[Jas1]

Thanks for that quote from Rosalind's book - I really like her performances. I agree about the Woman- I couldn't even bear to watch the remake- but this 1939 Classic- all woman, even the books in a library scene I read were all female authors, apart from Cukor, no man was involved, and yes Rosalind was amazing in this film - in addition, to the Women and His Girl Friday, I love her in Auntie Mame and Picnic in particular, oh, and Gypsy.

[Musiclover]

And how about "A Majority of One"? -- another fine performance by Roz. I think it was one of her 4 Oscar nominations (or, as she quipped, "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride").