In Living Color

(Travalanche)

This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month.

The bulk of our content here has to do with classic show biz, but ya know? In Living Color is now nearly 30 years old — I hear younger people using to hear the word “classic” to describe all sorts of stuff I thought just happened yesterday. That this show was groundbreaking and historic there was never any doubt. Now it has the added cache of being old. 

For decades I’ve carried around a small amount of guilt about knowing next to nothing about the hip hop of the past three decades. But I realized a couple of things the other day that consoled me. For one, I know next to nothing about ALL the music of the same time period! Why should hip hop be any different? And more importantly during this period I was an avid consumer…

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The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

Just one of the greatest movies of all time!

Only a Bloody Blog

“Now the problem is how to divide five Afghans from three mules and have two Englishmen left over” Peachy Carnehan

As I make my way through the film career of Sir Michael Caine there are some of his movies I come to for the first time, there are others that I have seen once or twice before and then there are those that I have seen an enormous amount of times. The Man Who Would Be King very much falls into that final category. It was a staple of bank holiday television schedules (much like Zulu and The Ipcress File) and as a favourite of my Dad’s never one to be missed. It remains not just one of my favourite Michael Caine films, but one of my favourite films full stop. It is an absolute joy from start to finish and even after many repeat viewings I was still excited…

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The Voice of Ida Lupino, A Centennial Radio Tribute

Once upon a screen...

This week marks the 100th anniversary of Ida Lupino‘s birth (February 4, 1918) and – naturally – this means I’ve put together some radio shows to enjoy as I go about daily tasks. I suggest you stop to take a listen too. What you’ll hear is the voice of a compelling actor playing opposite some of the greatest legends of filmdom. And you’ll hear the voice of a pioneer, a woman who broke barriers and in the process became a legend herself. Plus, she was good, darling.

By the time the 1940’s and 1950’s arrived women directors were virtually unheard of in Hollywood.  Those women who had influenced the film industry from its inception, and who were in fact responsible for much of film’s initial popularity, had names no one mentioned, remembered or recognized. Those included such pioneers and artists as Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber, Dorothy Arzner

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Favorite Films: So Proudly We Hail (1943)

via Favorite Films: So Proudly We Hail (1943)

Hang in there: Then Came Bronson captured the spirit of the counterculture

https://tv.avclub.com/hang-in-there-then-came-bronson-captured-the-spirit-of-1798273796

Stephen Boyd and Jennifer Jones, 1965 — Stephen Boyd Blog

Stephen Boyd was linked to many a Hollywood beauty or starlet throughout his career. In mid-1965 he was rumored to be romancing none other than David O. Selznick’s widow, Jennifer Jones. O. Selznick had just passed away in June of 1965 after a long marriage with Jones, and Boyd seems to have been first in […]

via Stephen Boyd and Jennifer Jones, 1965 — Stephen Boyd Blog

HOW ACTOR JOEL MCCREA CREATED HIS OWN STARDOM

https://www.bestmoviesbyfarr.com/articles/joel-mccrea/2017/07

Tall, handsome, and laconic, like his contemporary Cooper he epitomized the All-American male. The characters he played reflected traditional values of self-reliance, decency, and fair play. They were authentic, grounded types, graced with humility and an understated charm.

We Missed The Hedgerows

Northing & Easting

It is Memorial Day and I’m thinking about those that made the ultimate sacrifice, and what might have been done differently that could have ensured many of those we lost instead made it home safe and sound.

One of the key Engineer topographic intelligence failures of WWII took place during the planning phases of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France. This was the failure to properly assess the impact the hedgerows in Normandy would have on our ground movement and tactical operations. This failure to identify and assess the impact of the hedgerows, and then develop tactics and training procedures to deal with them, resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of Allied Soldiers.

The hedgerows in Normandy were used to create small pastures and farm fields, many of them just a few acres in size. In a land without rocks or trees these hedgerows were the fences that kept cattle…

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We Missed The Hedgerows | Northing & Easting

https://oldtopographer.net/2014/05/26/we-missed-the-hedgerows/

This is how hedgerows made the invasion of Normandy a living hell – We Are The Mighty

https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/this-is-how-hedgerows-made-the-invasion-of-normandy-a-living-hell