Bizarre Los Angeles

“I wouldn’t live in California. All that sun makes you sterile.” — Alan Alda

“People have always loved our pictures. I guess that’s because they saw how much love we put into them.” — Stan Laurel “The world is full of Laurel and Hardys. I saw them all the time as a boy at my mother’s hotel. There’s always the dumb, dumb guy, who never has anything bad happen […]

“I try never to get involved in a role in which I cannot wholeheartedly believe.” — Paul Newman  Source: 1957   An Italian poster for The Left Handed Gun (1958)   “Men experience many passions in a lifetime. One passion drives away the one before it.” — Paul Newman

“Hollywood is a chain gang and we lose the will to escape. The links of the chain are not forged with cruelties but with luxuries.” — Clive Brook   Year: 1930. Artist: Lill Tschudi (1911-2004). Linocut. 255 x 170 mm.

“I seldom get very far away from crime. I’ve found it pays . . . I tried non-crime films like Another Part of the Forest . . . good picture, good cast, but no good at the box office . . . But you just put a gun in your hands and run through the […]

“Give me any two pages of the Bible and I’ll give you a picture.” — Cecil B. DeMille   “I will never let my children go to the movies. With producers and stars getting as much as $200,000 a year and little knowledge of what to do with it, what can be the result except […]

“Fame is as much about luck as it is about talent, perhaps more.” — Kirk Douglas   “It took forever to get Kirk up on that cross, and when he was up there the assistant director called lunch and we all trooped off. We left Kirk alone up there for 20 minutes – but not […]

“If you’re looking for rewards in this business, baby, they’re not going to be there. You have to do what you think is right and let the chips fall.” — Burt Lancaster Source: Kenneth Turan (1976) Photo: Bud Fraker for Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)   “The Italian press was very hostile to me, and even [Luccino] […]

“Somebody once approached Kirk Douglas and said they had enjoyed his performance in Ben-Hur. So he said, ‘That wasn’t me, that was another fellow.’ And the man said, ‘Well, if you aren’t Burt Lancaster, who the hell are you?’” — Charlton Heston Photo: Ben-Hur (1959)   “I think being brought up in a remote place […]

“A habitual slot-machine gambler, also a drunk, staggered into the Automat. He walked up to the sandwich section and deposited some nickels. A ham sandwich popped out. He deposited more coins, collecting more and more sandwiches. The manager walked over to him and said, ‘Pardon me, sir, but why don’t you stop? Haven’t you got […]