03 Tuesday Oct 2017
Posted in Books, Film, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on Ava Gardner: A Life in Movies
Ava Gardner: the name conjures timeless elegance. She was a North Carolina sharecropper’s daughter whose beauty gave her the regal bearing of a goddess. Beyond the glamorous aura, she is most often recalled for her stormy personal life, and especially her marriage to Frank Sinatra. But this is only a partial vision of one of the greatest female stars of the 1940s and 50s. Even the most devout cinephiles often overlook her unique contribution to post-war American cinema. Continue reading
10 Sunday Jul 2016
Posted in Anniversaries, Film, Jeanne Eagels
≈ Comments Off on Born On This Day: John Gilbert 1897-1936
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Anna Karenina, Greta Garbo, Ina Claire, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, John Gilbert, Louis B. Mayer, Love, Man Woman and Sin, MGM, Monta Bell, Silent Movies, The Fires of Youth
John Cecil Pringle was born on July 10, 1897, in Logan, Utah. His parents were both stock company actors, and after their divorce his mother married Walter Gilbert. After many years on the road, the family settled in California. Jack, as he was nicknamed, began working at Thomas Ince’s studio in 1915, graduating from bit parts to more substantial roles over the next five years. He married Olivia Burwell in 1918, but they separated a year later. Continue reading
05 Friday Feb 2016
Posted in Anniversaries, Film
≈ Comments Off on Born On This Day: Monta Bell 1891-1958
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Greta Garbo, Jealousy, Jean de Limur, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, John Gilbert, Man Woman and Sin, MGM, Monta Bell, Norma Shearer, Paramount, The Laughing Lady, The Letter
Louis Monta Bell was born in Washington D.C. on February 5, 1891. He began his career as a reporter for the Washington Herald during President Taft’s administration. Bell also appeared on the stage, and in a Charlie Chaplin short, The Adventurer (1917.) In 1923, he played another bit part in The Pilgrim, and served as story editor on Chaplin’s first serious feature, A Woman of Paris. Continue reading
03 Sunday Jan 2016
Posted in Anniversaries, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Theatre
≈ Comments Off on Born On This Day: Marion Davies 1897-1961
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Citizen Kane, Her Cardboard Lover, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Marion Davies, MGM, Orson Welles, The Cardboard Lover, William Randolph Hearst
Marion Cecilia Douras was born in Brooklyn on January 3, 1897, the youngest daughter of Judge Bernard Douras. She left school to model for commercial illustrators, and made her Broadway debut as ‘Marion Davies’ in Chin Chin (1914.) Continue reading
18 Thursday Jun 2015
Posted in Books, Film, Jeanne Eagels, Non-Fiction
≈ Comments Off on Jeanne Eagels: A Life On Film
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Bette Davis, Bride of the Sea, D.W. Griffith, Emile Chautard, Frederick Warde, Gloria Swanson, Helen Badgley, Jealousy, Jean de Limur, Jeanne Eagels, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, Joan Crawford, John Gilbert, Judith of Bethulia, Kim Novak, Man Woman and Sin, MGM, Monta Bell, Paramount, Rain, Rita Hayworth, Ruth Chatterton, Sadie Thompson, Thanhouser, The Ace of Hearts, The Cross Bearer, The Fires of Youth, The House of Fear, The Laughing Lady, The Letter, The Madonna of the Slums, The National Red Cross Pageant, The World and the Woman, Under False Colors, Will Hays
Jeanne Eagels photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull during filming of ‘Man, Woman and Sin’ at MGM (1927)
The subject of my new book, Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed, was not just a Broadway legend, but also an important actress in silent film and the early days of talking pictures. I have written an article about Jeanne’s movie career, and an edited version is published today on the Classic Flix website. You can read the full article, illustrated with film stills from the book, right here. Continue reading
Tara Hanks 
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