25 Tuesday Apr 2017
Posted in Anniversaries, Marilyn Monroe, Music
≈ Comments Off on Ella Fitzgerald at 100
Ella Fitzgerald in Cannes by Jean-Pierre LeLoir, 1958
Ella Fitzgerald was born a century ago today, on April 25, 1917. Her voice was like sunshine, or a glass of champagne. As a woman, she had great warmth and dignity. She was also a friend to Marilyn Monroe, who had been introduced to her work by jazz pianist and arranger Hal Schaefer in 1953. Continue reading
24 Monday Apr 2017
Posted in Marilyn Monroe, Television
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime
Tags
Channel 4, David Gainsborough Roberts, Documentaries, Elizabeth Winder, Frieda Hull, Immortal Marilyn, Julien's Auctions, Lee Strasberg, Lois Banner, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime, Sarah Churchwell
These rare stills are taken from amateur footage filmed in July 1960 by Frieda Hull, one of the fabled ‘Monroe Six’, as Marilyn arrived in New York to make test shots for The Misfits. Miss Hull’s vast archive of candid images went under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions last November, alongside never-seen items from the Lee Strasberg estate and movie costumes collected by David Gainsborough Roberts, in the largest dedicated sale since the Christie’s auction of 1999. This one-off event – raising $11 million in total bids – was the subject of a recent Channel 4 documentary, Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime, which I’ve reviewed at Immortal Marilyn.
At the time of writing, the programme is still available to watch online. And if you’re looking for a more detailed view of the sale, I also wrote a series of reports on my Marilyn-only blog, ES Updates.
01 Thursday Sep 2016
Posted in Books, Marilyn Monroe, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on Marilyn Monroe: A Day in the Life
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April VeVea, Goodnight Marilyn, Immortal Marilyn, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Monroe: A Day in the Life
April VeVea is a 26 year-old ‘Marilynista.’ “My knowledge of her started in 1993, when I was three, and saw a life size cut-out in an antique store,” she recalls. “Marilyn had her dress blowing over her head in the iconic Seven Year Itch dress. As her smile radiated through me all I could think about were two things: her beauty and that she would look better with longer hair.” Continue reading
19 Thursday May 2016
Posted in Anniversaries, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Theatre
≈ Comments Off on Born On This Day: Anthony Bushell 1904-1997
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Anthony Bushell, Barry O'Neill, Colin Clark, Disraeli, Fredric March, George Arliss, Her Cardboard Lover, Jealousy, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Marilyn Monroe, The Prince And The Showgirl
Anthony Arnatt Bushell was born in Westerham, Kent on May 19, 1904. He was educated at Magdalen College School, and later Hertford College in Oxford. He was a champion boxer, rower, and member of the Hypocrites Club, infamous for its wild parties. After graduating, Bushell trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made his theatrical debut in Diplomacy (1924), opposite Gerald Du Maurier. Continue reading
31 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in Anniversaries, Books, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Magazines, Marilyn Monroe, Music, The Mmm Girl, Updates, Writing
≈ Comments Off on Happy New Year to All My Readers!
Tags
2015, 2016, Art Decades, Fan Phenomena, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Marilyn Monroe, The Mmm Girl
As 2015 draws to a close – and this blog approaches her eighth birthday – I’ve been reflecting on a milestone year: from the reissue of The Mmm Girl and my inclusion in Fan Phenomena: Marilyn Monroe, to the publication of Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, and my continuing association with Art Decades magazine.
But before I head back to the salt mines, I’d like to thank all my readers for supporting me. Wishing you all a wonderful 2016: and don’t forget to check out my annual picks in music, books, movies and TV.
16 Wednesday Dec 2015
Posted in Books, Fiction, Film, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, Music, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on 2015: A Year in Books
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A Manual for Cleaning Women, 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, 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
17 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Anniversaries, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Marilyn Monroe
Tags
Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, John Kobal, Marilyn Monroe, Rain, Rita Hayworth, Ruth Chatterton, Sadie Thompson
One of my favourite Hollywood stars, Rita Hayworth, was born on this day in 1918. Continue reading
31 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Anniversaries, Film
Tags
Arthur Miller, Fredric March, Jealousy, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Marilyn Monroe, Rain
Next up in the series profiling key figures in Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed is Fredric March. One of Hollywood’s versatile actors, his career spanned six decades. Continue reading
04 Saturday Jul 2015
Posted in Film, Marilyn Monroe
Tags
Arthur Miller, BFI, British Film Institute, Clark Gable, John Huston, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, The Misfits
The Misfits (1961) was reissued in the UK and Ireland in June, and also headlined a major retrospective, ‘Marilyn’, at the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank. The month-long season featured all but one of the sixteen films Marilyn Monroe made from 1952-62, of which The Misfits would be her last. Continue reading
