“A director must be pretty bad if he can’t get a thrill out of war, murder, robbery.” — James Whale “He influenced every director that came after him in the genre, and his films aren’t relics…That’s quite an achievement.” — biographer James Curtis With director Boris Karloff. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). With […]
Frederick Ko’Vert (also spelled Frederic Ko Vert and Kovert) (1901-1949) was a female impersonator, male dancer/instructor, costume designer and silent movie player. In 1921, he got his big break after he wowed Fox Studio producers with his peacock costume and accompanying dance. He was then hired to cast, train and choreograph 36 dancers for the […]
“Like Garbo I have been given many labels by the newspapers. ‘Very nearly as handsome as Valentino‘… ‘the masculine version of that mysterious fascination that is Garbo‘s.’ I am tired of being just a screen lover, and I hope some day to get a chance to be myself. I am rather like Greta in that […]
“I am the luckiest guy in the world. All my dreams came true. I was in a wonderful business, and I met great people all over the world.” — Van Johnson
“I can’t knock my pictures. They have tremendous box-office appeal.” — Vincent Price Source: Kevin Thomas (1970) Photo: The Masque of the Red Death (1964) “I played so many gentle men at the beginning of my career that I certainly wanted to play some villains and so I got kind of stuck in villains.” […]
“People will just take you, chew you up, spit you out, dump you on the side and go one to the next, and it’s kind of tragic.” — Tab Hunter Source: William L. Hamilton (2005) “The star thing is over. I’ve knocked around quite a bit in the past few years and now I’m […]
“The secret of ‘charm’ is ‘bullshit.’” — Tyrone Power, Jr. “Tyrone Power was my ideal man.” — Sophia Loren The Razor’s Edge (1946). Artwork by Norman Rockwell. Co-stars Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb and Herbert Marshall.
“It was the night of the Titanic all over again, with women grabbing the wrong children and Louis B. Mayer singing ‘Nearer My God to Thee.’” — William Haines talking about the arrival of talking pictures. If you don’t recognize the Ambassador Hotel offhand, it is the French room redecorated to resemble a Parisian […]
“When we talk of commercialism, most of us think of the sort of photoplays that people are enthusiastic about, and it means to most of us that we are going to forget all about art.” — Edwin August in 1915 “There are no friends like the old friends after all. I honestly believe that […]
Newsflash from the Past: Five Accused of Impersonating Females in Cafe LOS ANGELES TIMES (November 2, 1954) — Five men, one of them a Pasadena High School mathematics teacher, were arrested in an Altadena cafe early yesterday on charges of impersonating females. They identified themselves as Thomas Evans Tuites [far left], 36, the teacher, and […]