The enduring legacy of William Randolph Hearst’s influence on media is on display at the Billy Ireland Library and Cartoon Museum.
Jane Pauley, wife of cartoonist Gary Trudeau, introduces coverage of the Bill Blackbeard exhibit at the museum. My recollection is that Blackbeard suffered a stroke that led to him needing to find a buyer for his massive collection of newspaper comic strips.
A very sympathetic 1-hour biography of Marion Davies, with comments from noted silent film historian Kevin Brownlow. It was financed by Hugh Hefner, who was revealed in last year’s Secrets of Playboy to have been a monster.
How about that swell toe-tapper of a tune, heard a couple of times in the documentary? “There Ain’t No Maybe in My Baby’s Eyes” is what Robert Crumb would call sweet music.
As pointed out in the documentary, Marion had a stutter. She wanted to quit the movies when sound came in, but then her stutter disappeared once the cameras were rolling.
In 1933 Marion, age 36, was teamed with the somewhat younger Bing Crosby in Going Hollywood. Being a pre-code movie, several disclaimers need to be made. First, Marion does a number in black face. Second, Bing implies that Sterling Holloway was gay. Third, Ned Sparks makes fun of Pratts!
Before watching Going Hollywood, I suggest reading this extremely negative review.
http://pre-code.com/going-hollywood-1933-review-marion-davies-bing-crosby/
With all of that background to go on, you can now decide for yourself if Marion Davies was a no-talent hack whose career was entirely thanks to the influence of William Randolph Hearst. I’m leaning towards the side that says, “Gosh, she was a peach of a girl.”
I thought the Delgados had broken up, but here they are, performing live a few months ago. Anyone who likes ELO has to appreciate this.
Kudos to Salon and/or Getty Images for getting Prue’s name right, but shame on them, because as presented at this link, the ladies have lost their pretty heads!
There, that’s better!
Y’know, Getty Images doesn’t really own the rights to many of the pictures they claim belong to them. They just slap on their name and call it their own. Getty didn’t specify the location where the photo was taken, but it was Twickenham Studios.
There’s controversy in fandom over the new Blu-ray release of the 1940’s Superman cartoons.
One pre-release review says the remastering is awful…
https://thedigitalbits.com/item/max-fleischers-superman-bd-2023
… and another says it’s even worse than awful…
https://bluray.highdefdigest.com/115440/maxfleischerssuperman.html
… while another praises the image quality.
https://13thdimension.com/sneak-peek-behold-the-majesty-of-the-remastered-fleischer-superman/
The pre-release listing on Amazon has been pulled…
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BXQM8FTK/
… but Superman isn’t missing, because my copy should be here on Wednesday. I’m going to assume Amazon deleted the listing because they can’t fill any more pre-release orders.
Something that can’t be debated is the Blu-ray is not part of the Warner Archive Collection, which has a reputation for absolutely impeccable quality. Color is corrected, and blemishes are cleaned, but they prefer to leave film grain intact, out of concern that removing it will result in a softer image.
Animation expert and historian Jerry Beck has been involved with many video releases, going back to VHS and LD. On Facebook, Beck seemed to imply the Archive Collection team would have done a better job of mastering the Superman Blu-ray.
For 25 bucks, I will decide for myself whether the cartoons look fantastic or if they suck royally.
Tom Hanks is scheduled to return to the Boss Radio 66 mic on May 23 at 1 PM ET. From this picture I expect we’ll be hearing some — yay! — summer Surf music.
Tom’s latest side hustle is novel writing. Following the old adage “write what you know about,” Hanks certainly knows the movie business. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was released a couple of days ago, and it’s on my Kindle Paperwhite. Here’s a sneak peek.
