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Showing posts with the label Judy Garland

Seasonal Pictorials: Happy Halloween from Old Hollywood

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Clara Bow in her Hollywood costume (1920s).   Here she is again in a different outfit (1930s). Esther Williams is ready to dive into Halloween. Jerry Lewis is right in the Halloween spirit, but Dean Martin doesn't look too pleased. Maybe he's more of a Christmas kind of guy. Betty Grable reading spooky stories. Judy Garland also likes to read scary stories. Look how cute her little furry friend is. Black cats are my favourites. Cyd Charisse makes for a very classy witch. Also, is it me or do the pumpkins look like villains from a swashbuckling film? Janet Leigh also choose to go as a sexy witch. Yet another witch, this time in the form of Colleen Moore. I think Veronica Lake wins on the witch department. She even has cauldrons! Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies, Constance Bennett and Jean Harlow at a costume party hosted by Davies (early 1930s). Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Mervyn LeRoy and William Randolph Hearst at another of Davies' lavish cost...

Film Friday: «Babes in Arms» (1939)

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In honor of Mickey Rooney's 96th birthday, which happens to be today, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you what remains one of his most famous pictures. This is also the film that made him the first teenager to be nominated for an Academy Award.   Directed by Busby Berkley, Babes in Arms (1939) begins in 1921 with the birth of Mickey Moran (Mickey Rooney), the son of popular vaudeville entertainers Joe and Florrie Moran (Charles Winninger and Grace Hayes). Years later, when vaudeville is eclipsed by the movie industry, Joe and Florrie, along with their former colleagues, decide to resurrect their careers by financing a travelling show of their own. Their children want to be a part of it, but their parents refuse to let them go. Undaunted, Mickey resolves to write a show to be presented by himself and the kids, which include his sister Molly (Betty Jaynes), his sweetheart Patsy Barton (Judy Garland) and their friend Don Brice (Douglas MacPhail), in his hometown of Seaport, Long...

Film Friday: «A Star Is Born» (1954)

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In honor of Judy Garland's 94th birthday, which is today, this week on "Film Friday" I bring you one of her most iconic pictures , one that should have given her the Oscar for Best Actress. Groucho Marx was right; it was "the biggest robbery since Brinks."  Original release poster Directed by George Cukor, A Star Is Born (1954) tells the s tory of E sther Blodgett (Judy Garland), a band singer who saves screen legend Norman Maine (James Mason) from complete h umilia tion when he arrives drunk at a benefit show at t he Shr ine Auditorium . Once sober, No rman goes looking for Es ther and finds her pe rforming in an a fter-hours club. Impressed by her talent, he convinces her to leave her band and pur s ue a career in motion pictures , prom ising to introduce her to studio head O liver N iles (Charles Bickford). Just as Esther ar rives in Hollywood, Norman is called away to filming on location and is unable to reach her. Assuming that he was bein ...