03 Friday Sep 2010
Posted in Books, Marilyn Monroe, Periodicals
≈ Comments Off on ‘Maf the Dog’ Review Goes to Print
My review of Andrew O’Hagan’s comic novel, The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog and of His Friend Marilyn Monroe, is featured in the Issue 15 of the UK fan-club magazine, Mad About Marilyn, as well as coverage of the summer auctions, a profile of photographer Bob Beerman and a 1961 article by Louella Parsons.
26 Thursday Aug 2010
Posted in Music
≈ Comments Off on The Fame
As recently as 2008, Lady Gaga was a little-known songwriter and burlesque artist from New York. Her debut single, ‘Just Dance’, was released in the US that spring and spent five months in the Billboard Top 100, peaking at No 2 that summer. An album, The Fame, was released that autumn, finally reaching the UK in January 2009.
Since then, Lady Gaga’s rise to global stardom has proceeded at breakneck pace. The Fame is one of the most successful pop releases in years, winning a Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album and spawning an extended deluxe edition (The Fame Monster), the Fame Ball and Monster Ball tours, and a remix collection.
‘The Fame is about how anyone can feel famous,’ Gaga explains on her website. ‘Pop culture is art. It doesn’t make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it’s a shareable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle.’ Continue reading
25 Wednesday Aug 2010
Tags
Branwell Bronte, Brontë Parsonage, Bronte, Brontё, Charlotte Bronte, Charlotte Bronte's Corset, Emily Bronte, Haworth, Katrina Naomi, Patrick Bronte, Yorkshire
Earlier this month I took a holiday in the North-West of England, where I first lived as a student nearly twenty years ago. The trip was partly a sentimental journey, and partly for research as the novel I’m currently writing is set in the area. One of the places I always wanted to visit while at university was the Brontё Parsonage Museum, but I never got round to it.
Over the last year I’ve been digging out all my Brontё novels and re-reading the biographies, so finally decided it was time to make the journey to Haworth, the Yorkshire village where this extraordinarily gifted family created some of the masterpieces of English literature.
Among the treasures I picked up was Charlotte Brontё’s Corset, a pamphlet from the parsonage’s current (actually, first) writer in residence, the poet Katrina Naomi. Continue reading
16 Monday Aug 2010
Posted in Film, Marilyn Monroe, Television
David L. Wolper was born in New York City, 1928. After studying cinema and journalism at University of South California, Wolper set up a television distribution company in 1949, selling old movie serials to the small screen, then in its infancy. In 1955, Wolper moved into production with his documentary, The Race for Space, featuring unseen Russian footage. It was finally broadcast in 1960, earning an Oscar nomination.
By 1963, Wolper had been dubbed ‘Mr Documentary’ by Time, and had produced many more programs, including the Emmy award-winning Making of the President 1960. When Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, Wolper sent a team of cameramen to her funeral. He was one of the first to propose a documentary about her life, though initially most networks were uninterested.
The Legend of Marilyn Monroe, produced in 1964, is still available on DVD today and remains one of the pioneering biographical works on the actress. Speaking in the 1990s, Wolper said that he believed the authentic quality of the documentary came from it having been made so soon after Monroe’s death, when the people close to her were still alive and their memories fresh. Continue reading
05 Thursday Aug 2010
Posted in History, Marilyn Monroe
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn and the Lawfords
Tags
Cal-Neva Lodge, Frank Sinatra, Immortal Marilyn, Kennedys, Lake Tahoe, Marilyn Monroe, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Peter Lawford, Rat Pack
Say Goodbye to the President: Marilyn Monroe and the Lawfords, a new article by me for the ‘Twilight’ section at Immortal Marilyn, has been posted to mark the 48th anniversary of her passing.
(The picture above shows Marilyn with Peter Lawford at Frank Sinatra’s Cal-Neva Lodge, a week before her death. It is one of the last photographs ever taken of the actress.)
Tara Hanks 
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