Category: Hollywood

The slightly creepy side to Cole Porter music

Posted on September 10, 2009September 10, 2009 by Bookworm

I was listening to some Cole Porter the other day, and it occurred to me that some of his songs have a rather creepy quality to them. Stalking love: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuwaE8xTbfo[/youtube] Obsessive love (yucky recording, but you’ll get the point): [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn8civCI0Zo[/youtube] And masochistic love: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ablm52o6DxU[/youtube] And yet they’re all such lovely

Something refreshing

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Bookworm

Many, many years ago, I had the good fortune during the Aspen Music Festival to be present in someone’s living room when some of the guests, musicians all, decided to do some sight reading for their fellow attendees. I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences, although perhaps not

Hollywood’s war on men continues

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Bookworm

Back in 2006, I wrote an optimistic article for American Thinker in which I saw some hope in Hollywood’s approach to manliness. I’m going to quote here at some length from my earlier article, because I want to make the point that I was lauding an enormously successful movie because

On the anniversary of the start of WWII, remembering when Hollywood supported Good Wars

Posted on September 1, 2009September 1, 2009 by Bookworm

Today is the 70th anniversary of Germany’s bombing campaign against Poland, the official start of World War II. I thought, therefore, that this song from 1941’s Babes on Broadway was just right. It is an explicit tribute to beleaguered Britain, which was, at the only time, not only the sole

Hollywood supports the war effort : 1944’s Up in Arms

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Bookworm

Up in Arms, from 1944, was Danny Kaye’s break-out movie. The musical number supporting the war effort starts at 4:30: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujVoqGp7FQ0[/youtube]

Hollywood patriotism circa the 1940s

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Bookworm

Apropos my post about patriotism during Hollywood’s golden age, Bruce Kesler sent me this great video showing both Jimmy Cagney and Mickey Rooney doing their George M. Cohan impressions: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPR97oYOBA[/youtube] Since I’m an avid fan of old musicals, I may, for a few days, scatter throughout my posts video links

Hollywood’s perverted patriotism

Posted on August 30, 2009August 30, 2009 by Bookworm

Hollywood and the media establishment as a whole are inescapable parts of American and, indeed, world culture. It’s fascinating, therefore, to think about the type of patriotism our American media now espouses and that which it embraced in the past. Depending on how one defines patriotism, whether as love of

Bing Crosby in beautiful voice sings “Beautiful Girl”

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Bookworm

From 1933’s Going Hollywood: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3xksap-x2Q[/youtube]

Why pay $10 for Julie & Julia just to suffer gratuitous insults? UPDATED

Posted on August 23, 2009August 27, 2009 by Bookworm

Last night, I went with a friend to see Julie & Julia, a movie that abruptly lost me exactly halfway through. Although it’s a movie that has all the trappings of a good chick-flick, with enough beautifully photographed food to appeal to male foodies too, it contains some calculated insults

About those Hollywood smarties

Posted on August 1, 2009 by Bookworm

I went to NBC’s site looking for something else entirely, and got waylaid by a link to Hollywood brainiacs. I found it somewhat interesting, at least initially. Before I begin, though, let me say that I’m absolutely certain a lot of the actors and actresses profiled are indeed really, really

Coffee Time — old Hollywood style

Posted on July 13, 2009July 13, 2009 by Bookworm

One of the lesser known gems of MGM’s great musical era is a 1945 Fred Astaire movie called Yolanda and the Thief, with Fred as the thief and Lucille Bremer as Yolanda. (Lesser know, probably, because it was a huge box office bust with end-of-the-war audiences.) The plot is paper

Farrah Fawcett, RIP *UPDATED: Michael Jackson, RIP”

Posted on June 25, 2009June 25, 2009 by Bookworm

I came of age in the 1970s, when Farrah Fawcett was probably the most popular pin-up in America. Whether running dashingly around on Charlie’s Angels, or smiling brightly, yet provocatively, in her famous red swimsuit picture, she was everywhere. Those images are so vivid in my mind, it’s hard to

Real men — and the babyish guys in Hollywood movies

Posted on June 24, 2009 by Bookworm

As you all know, over the years I’ve been fascinated by male and female roles in America. As the mother of a very manly little 10 year old, I take male role models in this culture very seriously. I’ve therefore noticed (and commented upon) the way in which our society

Zac Efron

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Bookworm

In my Friday Open Thread, I promised that I’d blog about Zac Efron. First off, let me clear the air here and explain that I haven’t developed some pathetic “middle-aged woman/teenage boy” obsession with him (although he does bear an uncanny resemblance, girlish hair and all, to the teen idols

A charming ditty

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Bookworm

Work calls (sigh) so blogging will have to wait. (Article contributions, anyone?) So that this morning isn’t a big empty space, I thought I’d toss in here one of Irving Berlin’s more charming lyrics. It’s from The Gay Divorcee, and is known to Berlin, Astaire & Rogers devotees, but not