“I don’t think there are many other businesses where you can be paid good money and not know what you’re doing.” — Sterling Hayden on acting in Hollywood. Here is how he looked in 1941, the year after he was signed to a movie contract with Paramount Pictures, who billed him as “The Most Beautiful […]
“Offers to come to Hollywood have been many. But I always refused unless I could play an important dramatic role. I did not wish to be just the dancer in a picture.” — Tilly Losch, pictured here in 1929 while in Great Britain.
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 […]
“Well, I am not particularly proud of any of my work, because after viewing it on the screen I can always see where I might have done better….I enjoy seeing my errors in order that I may perfect myself.” — Vedah Bertram in 1912 “I studied at Wellesley four years, and then I went […]
“Sometimes I miss the footlights and applause but on the whole I like the Photoplay best. No, I do not dislike rehearsing – it means success. I try to see all the Photoplays in which I appear, and find every chance for improvement….Anything can be improved!” — Ormi Hawley in 1912 “Well, to […]
“You know, most anybody can be nice, but you’ve got some work ahead of you to make everybody in the audience honestly hate you. The villains generally have the best acting parts in the story. They make the situations for the hero-boys, and make them stand out. If you want to see a leading man lose […]
“I’m an Indifferentist. I don’t care what happens.” — Florence LaBadie Source: George Vaux Bacon (1916) “I like comedy parts best, but I do much better work in sad ones – why is it we always want to the thing we can’t do?” — Florence LaBadie in 1913 “It is all so interesting. […]
This turn of the 20th Century postcard is confusing because it claims that Long Beach, California, had the longest beach on the Pacific Coast. However, Long Beach Peninsula in Washington State is considered the longest beach in the United States (some say the world, though this claim is disputed). If that isn’t confusing enough, several […]
“Hmmph! I’ll get rid of him before he contaminates all the clean-cut youth in our country.” – Hedda Hopper on Elvis Presley A very early example of Elvis merchandising, this is a bookend from around 1956. Jazz pianist, composer and session musician Dudley Brooks working with Elvis Presley at Stan’s Play Room, […]
“I wonder if you realize that every community, from that of a city like London to the very smallest village in saddest Russia, is well acquainted with your mountains, roadways, streets, through the motion picture – and very well acquainted with a large part of your Los Angeles population, the motion picture people.” – D.W. […]