14 Tuesday May 2019
Posted in Film, Marilyn Monroe
≈ Comments Off on Sunshine Blondes: Marilyn and Doris Day
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Clark Gable, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Howard Keel, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Move Over Darling, Pillow Talk, Rock Hudson, Something's Got To Give, The Graduate, The Prince And The Showgirl, Thelma Ritter
“You take the grey skies out of my way
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day…”
– Wham!, ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ (1984) Continue reading
30 Tuesday Apr 2019
Posted in Art and Photography, Books, Fiction, Film, Marilyn Monroe
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn’s Monsters
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Betty Boop, Bus Stop, Comic Book, Fairy Tale, Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Graphic Novel, Humanoids, Life Drawn, Love Happy, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn's Monsters, Sugar Kane, The Seven Year Itch, Tommy Redolfi
Marilyn Monroe has long been an inspiration to artists and writers. Among the many books devoted to her life and image are a number of comics and graphic novels. Kathryn Hyatt’s Marilyn: The Story of a Woman (1996) and Dana Gachman’s recent contribution to the Tribute series both opt for fairly conventional, if sympathetic narratives. It is from outside the USA that more imaginative retellings have emerged, such as Sergio Toppi’s 16-page comic, plus two full-length books: Jean-Francois Charles’ Shooting Star (2006) and Jose Correa’s Dreams of a Butterfly (2012.)
Tommy Redolfi’s Holy Wood was first published in France in 2016, and is now available in English as Marilyn’s Monsters, published by Life Drawn, a literary imprint from comic book publisher Humanoids. The French-born Redolfi now lives in Los Angeles, and has made several films as well as other graphic novels, including a 2007 tome about one of Marilyn’s idols, Mae West. Marilyn’s Monsters comes with an endorsement from cult filmmaker David Cronenberg: “A brilliant, hallucinatory meditation on the phenomenon of Marilyn Monroe. It will alter your understanding of both Hollywood and Marilyn.” Continue reading
04 Monday Feb 2019
Posted in Marilyn Monroe, Television
≈ Comments Off on Artists in Love: Marilyn and Arthur Miller
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Arthur Miller, Artists in Love, Documentaries, Documentary, Marilyn Monroe, Samantha Morton, Sky Arts
This article was first published at Immortal Marilyn in October 2017
Artists in Love is a ten-part documentary series, produced in Italy for the satellite channel Sky Arts, and first broadcast in 2016. Among the famous couples profiled are the Mexican artists, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; opera singer Maria Callas’s tortured relationship with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; plus singers Johnny Cash and June Carter, and filmmaker Federico Fellini and his actress wife, Giulietta Masina. Continue reading
20 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in Books, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on The Ladies of Rockhaven
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Agnes Richards, California, Crescenta Valley, Elisa Jordan, Feminism, Gladys Monroe, Glendale, Marilyn Monroe, Rockhaven Sanitarium
Nestled among the hills and mountain ranges just beyond Los Angeles, Crescenta Valley was home to the indigenous Tongva people for thousands of years. During the Spanish colonial period it became part of the San Gabriel Mission. By the late 1800s, its warm, dry climate was attracting both tourists and health seekers, and after his wife’s death from tuberculosis, Dr. Benjamin Briggs moved there to build a sanitarium for those suffering from lung ailments. His success encouraged others to follow suit, including Merritt Kimball who founded a sanitarium for psychiatric patients. Perhaps the most unique of these pioneering establishments was Rockhaven, a sanctuary for vulnerable women opened by Agnes Richards in the 1920s. Continue reading
13 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in Film, Lana Del Rey, Magazines, Television, Updates, Writing
≈ Comments Off on From ‘Soledad’ to Hope, With Lynch and Lana
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Aaron Darc, David Lynch, Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have - But I Have It, Jeremy Richey, Lana Del Rey, Marilyn Monroe, Remix, Soledad, Twin Peaks
SOLEDAD is a new journal from my good friend Jeremy Richey, the maestro behind ART DECADES. Soledad is (of course) the Spanish word for solitude, which is one of my favourite things. It can be sad, but also beautiful – a state of mind reflected in the magazine’s black and white imagery. I’m proud to have contributed a sixteen-page article about David Lynch’s return to Twin Peaks for the first volume. It’s the opening instalment in a two-part series, and while I can’t promise to unlock all of its mysteries, I hope fans of the show will enjoy my personal impressions. Continue reading
18 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction, Television
≈ Comments Off on 2018: A Year in Film and TV
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Amanda Seyfried, Amy Adams, Andrew Norman, BlackKKlansman, Carnival of Souls, Carnivale, Charles Casillo, Charlize Theron, Claire Trevor, Diana Dors, Elisa Jordan, Elizabeth Debicki, First Reformed, Frances McDormand, Greta Gerwig, Harry Dean Stanton, Howard Hughes, I Am Not A Witch, Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Garner, Karina Longworth, Lady Bird, Lean On Pete, Leave No Trace, Louise Brooks, Lucky, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Morgan, Netflix, Ozark, Peterloo, Private Life, River's Edge, Saoirse Ronan, Sharp Objects, Shoplifters, Spike Lee, Sweet Country, Tamara Jenkins, The Florida Project, The Rape of Recy Taylor, The Rider, The Ruth Ellis Files, Thomas Gladysz, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Tommy Redolfi, Tully, Widows, You Were Never Really Here
I’m lucky enough to live just around the corner from the Duke of York’s, England’s oldest independent cinema; and so this year I made the most of my Picturehouse membership. I like movies that blend a touch of realism with a sense of style: Sean Baker’s The Florida Project, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Shoplifters satisfied those needs. Continue reading
05 Wednesday Dec 2018
Posted in Books, Film, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn: A Public Icon, in Private
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Charles Casillo, J. Randy Taraborrelli, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon
Charles Casillo is a multi-talented author, actor and screenwriter. His books include the novel, The Marilyn Diaries – a reimagining of Monroe’s final years – and a biography of the novelist and gay icon, John Rechy. Casillo was also a consultant and researcher for J. Randy Taraborrelli’s The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe. In an appendix, Taraborrelli acknowledged Casillo as one of the “true experts” on Marilyn’s life, an “’ultimate’ Marilyn Monroe fan who understands her character and personality so well.” Now almost a decade later, with Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon finally published, Taraborrelli hails it as “the book he was always meant to write.” Continue reading
24 Saturday Nov 2018
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Barney Ruditsky, Bobby kennedy, Celebrity, Clark Gable, Confidential, Dan Dailey, Dick Powell, Dorothy Dandridge, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Gossip, Hollywood Research Incorporated, Howard Rushmore, Jeanne Carmen, Jerry Giesler, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Schenck, Johnnie Ray, Marilyn Monroe, Milton Greene, Nicholas Ray, Robert F. Kennedy, Robert Harrison, Robert Mitchum, Robert Slatzer, Rory Calhoun, Samantha Barbas, Scandal, Sonny Tufts, Tabloid, Wrong Door Raid
Samantha Barbas is a professor of law at the University of Buffalo, specialising in the history of America’s mass media. Her previous publications include Movie Crazy: Fans, Stars, and the Cult of Celebrity (2001), and The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons (2005.) In her latest book, Confidential Confidential: The Inside Story of Hollywood’s Notorious Scandal Magazine, she explores the lurid history and aftermath of a 1950s publishing phenomenon. Continue reading
29 Wednesday Aug 2018
Posted in Books, History, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on Murder Orthodoxies: Sex, Lies and Marilyn
This article can also be read at Immortal Marilyn.
Murder Orthodoxies: Sex, Lies and Marilyn
Among the thousand or more books about Marilyn Monroe, there are certain strands – from coffee-table monographs to cultural criticism. One theme is so persistent, however, that it has become a sub-genre in its own right. Armed with dubious confessions and conspiracy theories, their authors argue that Marilyn’s untimely death was the result of foul play in high (and low) places, and these allegations have been seized upon by readers, as well as journalists and documentarians. Continue reading
16 Thursday Aug 2018
Posted in Anniversaries, Fashion and Beauty, Film, Madonna, Music
≈ Comments Off on ‘You May Be My Lucky Star…’
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Beautiful Stranger, Catholicism, Confessions on a Dancefloor, Desperately Seeking Susan, Evita, Ghosttown, Into the Groove, Jump, Like A Prayer, Live Aid, Live to Tell, Living for Love, Lucky Star, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Marvin Gaye, Material Girl, Ray of Light, Secret, Smash Hits, Wembley, Who's That Girl, William Orbit
From the age of eleven, my Saturdays would often include a trip to the record department at Boots to buy a 7-inch single. One of these was ‘Lucky Star’ by Madonna. Along with ‘Holiday’, it was one of her earliest songs played on the radio. Each weekend I stopped to gaze at her gorgeous album cover, but my savings rarely stretched to LPs. When I finally bought it, it had a different cover and my best friend (who wasn’t a fan) borrowed and never returned it. Continue reading
