Cowgirl Jane Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FACEBOOK “LIKES” BENEFIT MPTF.
To launch her Facebook fan page for Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following their Dreams, Making it Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown, Susan Marg pledged a dime for every “like” to the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF). Receiving eleven hundred “likes” in a couple of weeks, Marg sent the fund a check for $110.
Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith, also founders of United Artists, started MPTF, a private, non-profit charity, over 90 years ago to help those in the movie industry who had fallen on hard times. “It hasn’t gotten any easier.” Marg notes. “Today the fund serves more than 150,000 people annually with healthcare and other social services.”
Charlie Chaplin once said, “We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.”
Marg is renewing her pledge and aims to garner another 1000 “likes” by the end of the year. If you love silents, film noir, westerns, or some other genre on the silver or small screen, “like” her Facebook fan page and ask your friends to ask their friends. It will make a difference.
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Susan Marg is the author of Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis, and the Complete Chapel Guide, published by HarperCollins. Since she has moved her field of focus from the City of Lights to the City of Angels, her interest in popular culture has only intensified.
For more information on MPTF, visit: http://www.mptf.com
On Hollywood Boulevard:
Something Old, Something New
Some of the cast of Ocean’s Eleven? No, it’s Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo, and Chico Marx with Sid Grauman – 1933. Photo from: Dennis Amith
Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre was reopened in September after a four-month renovation. Now called TCL, rather than Grauman’s, after a Chinese television manufacturer bought naming rights, the venue now has one of the country’s largest IMAX screens and almost a thousand stadium seats, once again spacious enough to host movie premieres and accommodate the attendant paparazzi.
But the best news for movie fans? The iconic imprints of our favorite superstars are still in place.
In 1927 Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford, the King of Hollywood and America’s Sweetheart, as well as co-owners of the theater with Sid Grauman, were the first to officially step in wet cement. They each had their own square smack dab in front of the entrance.
Many others, by themselves, as a couple, or in a group, have followed.
It must be lonely on the range because singing cowboys signed for themselves and their horse. If you look around, you’ll find Tom Mix and Tony, Gene Autry and Champion, Roy Rogers and Trigger. “Happy trails” to you and your four-legged partner, too.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are co-located, although he got his square in 1938 and she followed, as usual, one year later.
Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy share space, as do Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Harpo, Zeppo, Chico, and Groucho, who also left an imprint of his cigar, fell all over themselves to get their hands dirty.
When Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released in 1953, Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe were memorialized in adjoining areas, writing the movie title above their signatures. Three years later in honor of the movie Giant, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and director George Stevens left their mark on the same day. If this was some sort of stunt to publicize their movies, who cares?
Certainly not Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon fans. A big crowd greeted them and producer Jerry Weintraub of Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen at their signing-in ceremony in 2007. As Clooney said, “If I had to be on my hands and knees with three other guys, I can’t think of three better guys to do it with.”
Do you think the Star Trek cast plus creator Gene Roddenberry were thinking the same thing when they were honored with a square in 1991? After all, together they had gone “where no man has gone before.” They are to the right of the box office. Star Wars stars Darth Vader, R2D2, and C3PO are on the left.
More recently the Twilight Saga‘s Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner celebrated the release of Breaking Dawn — Part 1 by participating in this Hollywood tradition. Stewart summed up the experience exclaiming, “I think this is the coolest thing ever.”
If the past is a guide to the future, as an ancient Chinese proverb divines, the popularity of the Chinese Theatre, regardless of its name, is ensured for a long time to come.
© 2013 Susan Marg – All Rights Reserved
Cowgirl Jane Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FACEBOOK “LIKES” TO BENEFIT MPTF.
Susan Marg is launching a Facebook fan page for Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following their Dreams, Making it Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown.
For every “like”, comments count, too, she is donating a penny to the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF). Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith, also founders of United Artists, started this private, non-profit charity over 90 years ago to help those in the movie industry who had fallen on hard times. It hasn’t gotten any easier. Today the fund serves more than 150,000 people annually with healthcare and other social services.
Charlie Chaplin once said, “We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery.”
If you love silents, film noir, westerns, or some other genre on the silver or small screen, Marg asks you to like her Facebook page and to ask your friends to ask their friends. The pennies will add up.
###
Susan Marg is the author of Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis, and the Complete Chapel Guide, published by HarperCollins. Since she has moved her field of focus from the City of Lights to the City of Angels, her interest in popular culture has only intensified.
For more information on MPTF, visit: http://www.mptf.com
Five Years Ago in Pop Culture:
The Death of a Gentleman
Newman and Woodward 1960
Unflappable, Unbeatable. Unforgettable. Paul Newman, also known as King Cool, died five years ago at the age of 83. Known for his philanthropic generosity and passion racing cars, as well as his stage and screen presence, his career spanned decades.
Newman made his movie debut in 1954 in The Silver Chalice, a historical drama, for which he later apologized for his performance. No matter. By 1958 he was one of the hottest new stars in Hollywood, going tête-à-tête with Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Eva Marie Saint in Exodus (1960).
Newman also went mano a mano with his equally celebrated male costars. In 1961 he appeared on the silver screen in The Hustler with Jackie Gleason. Twenty-five years later he reprised his role as “Fast Eddie” in The Color of Money with Tom Cruise.
Fellow actor Robert Redford and Newman formed a special bond. Their easy-going camaraderie, in evidence in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973), spilled over to life itself.
When asked if he would make a sequel with Redford following Redford’s Indecent Proposal (1993), Newman replied, “”Like a rocket!” Then he added, “I’d shack up with anyone for a million dollars. I’d shack up with a gorilla for a million, plus 10 percent.”
Redford might not have been as pleased to be on a set with Newman again. “He tells the worst jokes. And that wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t keep repeating them over and over.”
Newman’s relationship with actress Joanne Woodward also began on a movie set. Their marriage, his second, reached the fifty-year mark, one of Hollywood’s longest lasting. Although they briefly separated because Newman had an affair during the filming of Butch Cassidy, he famously paid her the ultimate compliment: “Why fool around with hamburger when you have steak at home?”
If those aren’t the words spoken by a gentleman, what are?
© 2013 Susan Marg – All Rights Reserved
Big Feet. Big Hands. Big Heart.*
Arnold Schwarzenegger wears size 12 boots.
He means it when he says,
“I’ll be back.”
“In this industry, there are only two ways up the ladder.
Rung by rung or claw your way to the top.
It’s sure been tough on my nails.”
— Jack Nicholson
“Everybody, no matter how old you are, is around 24, 25 in their heart.”
— Bruce Willis
* Photos by: Susan Marg. Taken at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre;
Hollywood Boulevard; Hollywood, CA.
Seen and Heard on Hollywood Boulevard:
“Lovely Ladies Waiting for a Bite”*
* From Les Miserables
“My idea of a movie star is Joan Crawford, who can chew up two directors and three producers before lunch.” — Shelley Winters of Joan Crawford (Photo by: George Hurrell)
“I think my mouth just opens, and I spontaneously say things that occur to me.” — Helena Bonham Carter (Photo by: David Torcivia)
“I knew that with a mouth like mind, I just hadda be a star or something.” — Barbra Streisand (Photo by: Allan Warren)
“I have a mouth, and I’m not afraid to use it.” –Megan Fox (Photo by: Nicoles Genim)
“I ate a bug once. It was flying around me. I was trying to get it away. It went right in my mouth.” — Hilary Duff (Photo by: David Shankbone)
Seen and Heard on Hollywood Boulevard:
Big Wigs, Big Hair
Reviewed by John Burroughs for Midwest Book Review
Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following Their Dreams, Making It Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown collects more than 500 quotes, wisecracks, tell-it-like-it-is tips, and words of wisdom from popular stars and directors, including Ben Affleck to Jackie Chan, George Clooney, Carole Burnett, and many more. Grouped by subject, these vignettes offer a condensed glimpse of the trials and tribulations of the showbiz industry, and are just plain fun for a quick browse anytime. Hollywood or Bust also makes an excellent gift book for anyone who loves TV and movies! “I’d say the cut-off point for leading ladies today is thirty-five to forty whereas half the men in Hollywood get their start then. It’s a terrible double standard.” -Kathleen Turner, actress
—————–
Reviewer’s Bookwatch: August 2013
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
Burroughs’ Bookshelf
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/aug_13.htm#burroughs
(To view original review, scroll down 7 bookshelves.)
“I never really thought of myself as a sex goddess,” said the glamorously beautiful Rita Hayworth, as quoted in Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following their Dreams, Making it Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown, “I felt I was more a comedian who could dance.” And dance she did.
Rita as Gilda.
Hayworth performed an erotic Dance of the Seven Veils in Salome (1953), a mesmerizing strip-tease, taking off only her over-the-elbow length black satin evening gloves to “Put the Blame on Mame,” in Gilda (1946), and an equally captivating nightclub act in An Affair in Trinidad (1952).
While some of Hayworth’s well-known handsome leading men included Orson Welles, whom was her second husband, Glenn Ford, who appeared with her in five movies, Cary Grant, Victor Mature, Tyrone Power, Robert Mitchum, and the list goes on, her dancing partners were among Hollywood’s biggest and best musical talents.
She co-starred with Fred Astaire in You’ll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942). She kicked up her heels with newcomer Gene Kelly in Cover Girl (1944) and later took a turn around the dance floor with Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey (1957).
But Rita never danced to the Bee Gees – until now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz3CPzdCDws
Eat your heart out, John Travolta.
© 2013 Susan Marg – All Rights Reserved
Hear Ye Hear Ye:
Talking About the Stars
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of chatting with Betty Jo Tucker, movie critic extraordinaire and the editor/lead critic of ReelTalk Movie Reviews, and her co-host James Colt Harrison, also an author of thousands of reviews and articles about Hollywood, on Betty Jo’s radio program “Movie Addict Headquarters.”
My book Hollywood or Bust was the central point of our conversation, and I was peppered with lots of questions. Where did the idea come from? What was the biggest challenge in writing the book? How did you decide on the themes in the book? What are your favorite quotes in the book?
Oh, there are so many. I like the first quote in the book from Hilary Swank: “I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.” I think that sets the tone of the book because Hollywood and the movies, even life itself, are all about dreams.
On the loss of privacy that comes with fame, I like Jennifer Aniston’s quote: “When someone follows you all the way to the shop and watches you buy a roll of toilet paper, you know your life has changed.” The lesson here is to be careful for what you wish.
Betty Jo had her favorite quotes, too. She pointed out how touched she was by Charlie Chaplin saying, “I was loved by crowds, but I didn’t have a single close friend. I felt like the loneliest man alive,” and she played a few minutes of music Chaplin composed for Modern Times. Afterwards she noted, “There he is making everyone else laugh, but he had such feeling.” And, then we moved on to more amusing topics.
James shared a story relating a chance meeting between Clark Gable and William Faulkner on the MGM lot where they were both working in the 1930s. Clark Gable knew who William Faulkner was, but Faulkner couldn’t return the compliment. Ah, writers. What would the movies be without them?
As screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has noted: “Screenplays are a bitch to write. One man wrote War and Peace. Thirty-five screenwriters wrote The Flintstones.” Ah, Hollywood.
If you want to hear more, here’s the link for your listening pleasure:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/movieaddictheadquarters/2013/07/30/hollywood-or-bust
Hollywood Or Bust! 