“You can’t be funny without a funny situation. Give an ordinary player funny lines and a ludicrous situation and he or she will get laughs.” — Gracie Allen Quote: 1939 Photo: College Swing (1937) Dorothy Lamour hanging out with Gracie Allen and Betty Hutton at the Hollywood Brown Derby in 1948.
“All comedians seem to have the same boring old story. They were all very unpopular at school. I was bullied, perhaps because I was wary of kids. I was afraid of them. Finally, I decided to do something about it, and, instinctively, I went towards humor….The coward’s way.” — Dudley Moore Source: Dick Schaap […]
“I’ve been in this game long enough to realize there’s no such thing as a new quip….The object is to make a quip sound fresh by giving it a new turn, or tying it up with modern slang or situations in the news.” — Bob Hope Source: Irving Wallace (1940) Photo: 1939 Marlene Dietrich, Bob […]
“Diction! Say! That’s the thing that’s ruined more stars than made ’em. Diction! That’s what’s wrong with half the old-timers. They started learning how to talk and they flounce around the sets with their ‘cawnts’ and ‘Chewsdays’ and all that stuff. Say, audiences don’t want that sort of stuff, see? Audiences want to hear actors […]
“‘My pappy was a crap-shootin’ fool.’ That don’t rub me too good today.” — Stymie Beard Source: 1981
“My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.” — Woody Allen Photographer: Irving Penn. “‘Take the Money and Run’ and ‘Bananas’ were my first two movies. I was learning, floundering, trying to get by on my sense of humor. When it came to the moment of truth, I felt I […]
“The working class people like to think of us as being a real part of them. The middle class enjoys our work because they don’t dig opera and art and they think they’re better than we are. The few upper class people who watch us like to see what happens on the other side of […]
“When its 100 degrees in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it’s still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and only 72 in Los Angeles.” ― Neil Simon
Silent film comedian Sidney Smith (often billed as Sid Smith) reads the Los Angeles Evening Herald while being groomed in a shabby, run-down bathroom. He died on July 4, 1928, from ingesting poisoned alcohol during a drinking binge that had lasted several days. Apparently, Smith had attended a party at a Santa Monica beach house […]
“I always think of blondes as soft and pliable, ready to cling to the nearest male for support and protection, just waiting to be taken care of, and very sweet and easy to live with because they are so amiable. None of which qualities belong to me. I am a fighter. I have made my […]