I was just thinking about it. On most people's blogs, a post with the single purpose of displaying photos of an (unfairly) obscure '60s actor and his dog would be tagged with "off-topic" or "random."
Not here.
On-topic doesn't exist.
I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THE TOPIC IS.
Anyway, here's Gardner McKay and his awesome dog, Pussycat.
"Michael had a 185 IQ and was a college graduate. He was one of the most brilliant people you'd ever meet in your life. Very incongruous, that little body and this vast, brilliant mind. He would read three books a day. He wanted to be a doctor, and people would carry on about wanting him to be an opera singer --people who had heard him sing in college and everywhere. Michael was like this little genius. This strange little genius, but this genius!"
My dear friend, Emm (also a co-blogger at Stupendously Amazingly Cool World of Old TV), sent me a link to this episode of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater on Twitter this morning -- and I IMMEDIATELY had to go watch it!
IT WAS BRILLIANT. The Stanwyck is so perfect -- sometimes I can't even HANDLE IT!
In this episode, titled "Trail to Nowhere," she plays a female out for the killer of her husband. But, really, the plot is unimportant. What is important is that The Stanwyck single-handedly takes down every single bad guy. LITERALLY. She gets in fist-fights, gun-fights, mud-fights -- and she always wins.
Oh, and did I also mention that her co-star is DAVID JANSSEN + HIS "TWITCHY, LITTLE SMIRK." I CAN'T EVEN.
I was unprepared for this much coolness. I do believe it is the first time Dick Powell was involved in the creation of something awesome in his entire life. ;-D
^I need a bigger copy of this photo. It's The Stanwyck and Dr. Richard Kimble relaxing on the set together! :-O
Anyway, the episode was quite brilliant. And I can't imagine any other '50s actress realistically playing such a kick-awesome female. And of course, she was 51 when it was made. She looks like she was 30. I mean, they had 27 year-old David Janssen in love with her -- and it didn't seem odd at all. The Stanwyck doesn't ever fit into any genre or category, either as an actress or person. That's why she was such a stupendously amazingly cool genius.
My family is a bit of boarding family. My younger brothers long-board. My 19 year-old brother is a super-amazing skateboarder who has toured around the country many times since he was 15 (he has visited almost every single state doing demos with his team). My 22 year-old brother is also an excellent skater. He has his own board company, used to own a skate shop, and now works for Zumiez.
I do not board, as I have no balance at all. I'm always afraid that when I'm driving I'll get stopped by the Police and made to walk a straight line and they'll think I'm drunk -- EVEN THOUGH I'M NOT. It's quite the problem. ;-D
Anyway, this long introductory section was merely to say that I have been saturated in skating since I was quite young -- and that Patti McGee is seriously awesome.
Patti McGee was the first pro female skater, the first to win the national female championships, and the first female inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. She's just cool.
I would say that she was basically just Gidget as a skateboarder, but Patti was a brilliant surfer YEARS before she even started skating. aka SHE IS A NEW AND IMPROVED GIDGET. (I'm just gonna stop here before I talk about her scary skiing skills. Suffice to say, she is an accomplished athelete -- at everything. I mean, she is probably the world champion pogo-stick jumper. ;-D)
Check out Patti doing a few tricks on TV in 1965:
Also, Patti being waaay too cool in a commercial for The Southern New England Telephone Company:
And now, the top image again (because I love it so much) from its original source: Patti as the first female cover of Skateboarder Magazine.
This is just a little bit of the awesome, talented, genius, and utterly adorable Patti McGee. And at the age of nearly 66, she still loves to skateboard. I LOVE HER.
P.S. I absolutely adored my Lost Weekend blog header, but I also thought it would be fun to have a summery one. However, have no fear, The Magnificent Mr. Milland shall return! ;-D
Deanna Durbin has long been one of my favorite actresses -- LONG, as in basically always.
She never made a bad film, is a wonderful person off-screen, and was almost FRIGHTENINGLY popular in the '30s and '40s -- yet she is strangely underrated and under appreciated today.
Plus, she was not just a gorgeous actress, but also a trained opera singer. I MEAN WHAT?!
{Many of you are possibly wondering at this point why you are not already crazily-devoted fans of Deanna Durbin.}
I have seen all but one of Deanna's films (most for the first time before the age of 10). However, some of the films I have not seen for many years (blasted library getting rid of its entire VHS collection!).
For me, this series will be a re-watching of an actress I have loved for longer than I can remember. Her movies were a huge part of my childhood. Her films are inextricable from actual, tangible memories.
It should be fun. Some of the movies are completely imprinted on my brain forever, others I have only a faint recollection.
Hopefully, I'll be able to show just a little bit WHY Deanna Durbin is so completely Wowzie Kazam awesome!
The absolutely wonderful Bob Hope was born 108 years ago today.
Bob Hope is one of my favorite people to ever exist. He brought so much joy to the world.
I don't remember the first time I watched a Bob Hope movie or what it was, but I was already a life-long fan when his 100th birthday came around. I remember watching the special (I had just turned nine) and jumping up and down whenever I saw a clip from a movie I had seen!
I have seen so many Bob Hope movies... (I would normally finish this sentence with "It's not even funny," but that doesn't exactly sound right. ;-D)
Bob Hope is just the best. I believe his greatest work came out of the '40s (although I love stuff from other decades as well). His hugely famous, frighteningly fast delivery was always there -- but in the '40s he was just so brilliant. He had an ability to be completely dead-pan while stating the most absurd things; he was perfect at parody. He mocked everything and everyone (including himself). And, he basically made a film career out of breaking the fourth wall. For some reason, many people associate Bob Hope with slapstick humor. NOT AT ALL. I mean, he was easily great at physical humor. But, most of his humor was simply words -- and he was brilliant.
This is why his work is still utterly hysterical today -- it was topical, but so completely right. His absurdity almost always had quite a bit of truth in it.
I am quite pleased to say that I passed on my Bob Hope adoration to my youngest brother. And in fact we are having a loverly Bob Hope party tonight (we are the only ones invited. ;-D). The films on the schedule are:
Caught In the Draft
Monsieur Beaucaire
Never Say Die
The Ghost Breakers
This brings me to the Bob Hope 108th Birthday DVD Giveaway Extravaganza (not really). A couple of years ago, Amazon accidentally sent me two copies ofThe Princess and the Pirate (1944) and told me to just keep the extra one. I've kept it around as sort of an emergency present, when I finally realized... I HAVE NO BOB HOPE FAN FRIENDS. Sheesh. ;-D
Instead, it is being offered up for you! haha
The Princess and the Pirate is utterly hysterical. It's a parody of swashbuckling pirate movies and I almost die laughing every time I watch it! Bob plays his usual cowardly character and Virginia Mayo is awesome. But, even more awesome: the supporting cast is Walter Slezak, Victor McLaglen, and Walter Brennan.
The greatest parts: the old hotel-owner lady who doesn't know WHY all the other hotels in the area randomly burn down (while she's lighting a pipe); Walter Brennan's psycho laugh, and THAT ending (not gonna ruin its brilliance).
ANYWAY.
If you would like to win this DVD, post a comment (it would also be awesome if you followed, but its not required. ;-D) with your favorite Bob Hope scene/line! You can enter until next Sunday, June 5th. I'll then choose a winner at random.Oh, and could I ask that only U.S. residents enter the contest, please! I AM VERY POOR....haha
Well...
I always think it is so completely fitting that Bob Hope's birthday is always during Memorial Day week and so, I'm just going to end with this; he was a true hero:
May 27, 1911. That was a cool day. Vincent Price was born. And mind-smushing entertainment was NEVER the same.
Actually, basically all entertainment was never the same -- because Mr. Price acted in every genre imaginable and was BRILLIANT in every genre imaginable. Unlike some actors who wait around until a film "worthy" enough for them comes along, Vincent Price took crazy films and MADE them worthy. I would watch him in anything and everything -- exactly because of this skill.
His voice is one of my favorite things ever and instantly recognizable. He tried to disguise it on What's My Line? by singing badly in French, but it didn't quite work. ;-D
He was a contradiction: a oft-performer in low-budget AIP films, but also a gourmet who spoke many languages and owned a world-renowned art collection. He could be understated in many brilliant dramas and film noirs, but he was equally brilliant playing a psycho in Brady Bunch. VERY FEW CAN OWN THAT ACCOMPLISHMENT.
There is a perpetual argument on WHO is the greatest Shakespearean actor of all time, but there is NO argument on who is the greatest Poe actor of all time. Vincent Price will always own that. (And, if I was wanting to lose half my followers I might say that Edgar Allan Poe is five times more awesome than [the admittedly very awesome] William Shakespeare. Because he is.)
This post is quite disjointed and rambling because I am finding it difficult to put into words who exactly Vincent Price was -- and why he was SO BLOODY COOL!
I think that Vincent was extremely talented and awesome and cool. And also, I feel like if I was a cool, awesome, genius, 6' 4" man born in 1911 -- I would be Vincent Price. I mean, he was known by all his friends to get into full-blown, over-the-top dramatic debates when he talked about his favorite things... like cooking. And he used to pop up at random screenings of his films wearing costumes, in order to mess with the audience. I want to be him.
"I sometimes feel that I'm impersonating the dark unconscious of the whole human race. I know this sounds sick, but I love it."
For Vincent's birthday, I wanted to list my favorite performance from each decade: 1930s - 1990s. So yeah. Here we go...
1930s: The Invisible Man Returns. Vincent may have played in dramas and film noirs for much of his early career, but everyone knew right away that he played deranged madmen the best of all. ;-D
1940s: Dragonwyck. My favorite Vincent Price performance of all time. He is utterly brilliant. He employs all his different acting traits: he first charms everyone into thinking he's clearly the coolest person ever, then he gets all sinister, and then he makes everyone realize he's a psycho. I JUST LOVE IT!
Honorable mention: Laura. Shelby Carpenter, you weakling. You're awesome though.
1950s: House of Wax. This one is another role so indicative of Vincent's unique persona. Mr. Price once said, "I don't play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge." This is why even when he is at his most frighteningly sinister -- we don't want him CAUGHT! He can't control his genius for evil. He was born that way, he was forced to become that way, its more fun that way (we can't deny him the funnest way! ;-D)....
Honorable mention: House on Haunted Hill. My 14 year-old brother jumped up in the middle of watching this movie in order to go lock all the doors. (This is the same brother who fell asleep watching Batman Begins). Vincent's ability to create extreme fear will never end.
1960s: Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. Always. Always. Always. Always.
Honorable mention: More Dead Than Alive
Less, but still honorable mention: his cameo in Beach Party ("Bring me my pendulum, kiddies! I feel like swinging!")
1970s: The Brady Bunch: the random Hawaii vacation episodes. Only Vincent...
Honorable mention: Columbo: "Lovely But Lethal"
Less, but still honorable mention: THE DATING GAME! I mean, he's wearing a toga and totally mocking everyone.
1980s: Vincent. A lovely Tim Burton-created, Vincent Price-narrated short film about a boy who wants TO BE Vincent Price (this may or may not be the story of my life as an animated boy). Vincent Price always talked about how he enjoyed this and it really is just beautiful! :')
1990s: Edward Scissorhands. I actually watched this solely for Mr. Price. And he was so perfect.
And this is where I turn into a bawling fan-girl because there are no more decades to list. So I suppose I could just throw out a photo of Vincent Price raising his eyebrow sinisterly and continue on....
So, according to IMDb: "In the 1960s, Price and Peter Lorre starred as crimefighting antique dealers in the unsold pilot, 'Collector's Item'."
^I would -- NO JOKE -- give three semi-vital organs in order to see this. I can't even comprehend this. Vincent Price. Peter Lorre. CRIMEFIGHTING ANTIQUE DEALERS. Who decided that another ten years of Green Acres would be preferable to this?! WHO?! I would like to sic the ghost of Vincent Price upon them. ;-D
I really, really, really enjoyed the following tribute:
I'm going to try and wrap this up a bit, but there is so much more to say about the brilliance of Vincent Price. He was a genius, he had a Yale degree in art, he was a world traveler, he was a successful author of novels and...um... gourmet cookbooks, he had career that lasted for nearly 60 years, and he was greatest actor of low-budget, horribly made films in the '60s and the '70s. He was perfect.
"The horror thriller offers the serious actor unique opportunities to test his ability to make the unbelievable believable."
