31 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in Anniversaries, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Theatre
≈ Comments Off on Born on This Day: John Colton 1887-1946
Tags
Clemence Randolph, Dorothy Parker, H.L. Mencken, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, John Colton, John D. Willams, Man Woman and Sin, Rain, Sadie Thompson, Saint Wench, Sam H. Harris, The Exciters, The Sainted Wench, W. Somerset Maugham
John Colton was born in Minneapolis on December 31, 1887. He spent his first fourteen years in Japan, where his English father was a diplomat. This early experience of colonial life in the Far East would inspire his writing. Continue reading
16 Wednesday Dec 2015
Posted in Books, Fiction, Film, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Music, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on 2015: A Year in Books
Tags
A Manual for Cleaning Women, A Year in Books, Alberto Moravia, Backlands, Before Marilyn, Bobbie Gentry, C. Joseph Greaves, Caryl Phillips, Cathi Unsworth, Clarice Lispector, David L. Jones, David Wills, Eileen, Elena Ferrante, Encyclopedia Madonnica 20, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fires in the Dark, Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, Louise Doughty, Lucia Berlin, Madonna, Marilyn in the Flash, Marilyn Monroe, Matthew Rettenmund, Michelle Morgan, Ode to Billie Jo, Otessa Moshfegh, Rebecca Wait, Stewart O'Nan, Tara Murtha, The Followers, The Ipswich Witch, The Lost Child, The Story of the Lost Child, The Time of Indifference, Tom & Lucky (and George & Cokey Flo), Victoria Shorr, West of Sunset, Without the Moon, Wuthering Heights
Reading Clarice Lispector for the first time is like falling in love. Each of her stories is a rare jewel. Shocking, funny and wildly imaginative, this collection is a landmark, reclaiming her as one of the underrated voices of the twentieth century.
The final volume in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series rages like a cyclone. No happy endings here, only the transcendence of real art.
Lucia Berlin was a wonderful American writer, whose stories are warm, yet unflinching. She led an eventful life, and while there are strong autobiographical elements in her work, she was also richly imaginative. Continue reading
14 Monday Dec 2015
Posted in Film, Television
≈ Comments Off on 2015: A Year in Film
Tags
A Most Violent Year, A Year in Films and TV, Amy, Amy Winehouse, By the Sea, Carol, Catch Me Daddy, Doctor Zhivago, Dulcima, Girlfriends, Inherent Vice, Low Down, Macbeth, Mad Men, Marilyn Monroe, Oscar Isaac, Show Me a Hero, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Hateful Eight, The Keeping Room, The Misfits, The Witch, This is England, Wanda, You Made Me Love You
After his great performances in W.E., Inside Llewyn Davis and The Two Faces of January, Oscar Isaac is fast becoming my favourite contemporary actor. He has gone from strength to strength in 2015, with big and small-screen gems set in 1980s New York: A Most Violent Year, about an ambitious businessman trying to stay on the right side of the law; and Show Me a Hero, an HBO mini-series telling the true story of Nick Wasicsko, who became mayor of Yonkers during a bitterly divisive public housing crisis. Continue reading
07 Monday Dec 2015
Posted in Anniversaries, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Theatre
≈ Comments Off on Born on This Day: Fay Bainter 1893-1968
Tags
David Belasco, Fay Bainter, Jealousy, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Reginald Venable, Ted Coy
Fay Okell Bainter was born in Los Angeles on December 7, 1893. Encouraged by her mother, Fay first went on the stage aged six, and joined Oliver Morosco’s travelling stock company before making her Broadway debut at seventeen. Continue reading
26 Thursday Nov 2015
Posted in Books, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Non-Fiction, Theatre
≈ Comments Off on ‘Life Revealed’ a Reading Highlight of 2015
Tags
Best Film Books of 2015, Huffington Post, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Thomas Gladysz
Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed – the first biography of the legendary actress to be published in 85 years, which tells ‘the tragic story of the beautiful, Academy Award-nominated film and Broadway star’ – has been named among the Best Film Books of 2015 by historian Thomas Gladysz, in his annual round-up for the Huffington Post.
Tara Hanks 
You must be logged in to post a comment.