From: Frank Imbragulio [mailto:
Sent: Sunday, June 09, 2013 4:53 PM
To: 'Bill Webb';
Subject: FF XVI, 11
Frank’s Fax Facts and Reviews
Vol.. XIV No. 12
Sunday, June 16, 2013
The Advent of Ginger
A Sicilian in
My arrival in the beautiful (albeit Filthy)
I got side tracked while talking about
Back to
There was the opera house: It was an impressive building, reminding me of La Scala! I could scarcely wait to see inside. The opera for that evening, was one I was not at all familiar with at all. But it did have a baritone that I had heard in many broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.
Cat Facts
“There stands before you, like all the other grays but one whom you won’t confuse, having seen her once, with any other gray cat, she who rejects the names of queens…and is called, as if she were the only one in the world-Cat.”
Colette
Movie Review
This film was one of two films that were all about making everybody happy, in spite of the war: the other was better (at least I liked it a lot better. The lame excuse for a story was just too stupefying for this old realist!) I cannot find the young solders name, but I saw him in countless WB movies of the period. He is the leading character, and it is only too easy to understand that the reason he was not put in the record book was that he simply was not important enough); although most of the stars who were on stage here were listed. The list included Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Jack Carson, Dane Clark, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, the Andrews Sisters, Roy Rogers (even “Trigger”) The Sons of the Pioneers, Barbara Stanwyck, Jack Benny (who is very funny as he tries to outplay Josef Szigeti on violin) and the young GI, back home from the war, but still very much a soldier. They stage a ridiculous love affair between this boy and Joan Leslie. Just for starters: he gets to meet and dance with her; then he just happens to be the Millionth GI to enter the Canteen. Still later, he wins the prize in a contest, and gets to spend the weekend with her! Plus getting a brand new car to drive all weekend. But the music and dancing make it worth while; at least it did for me. I’ll admit to not liking Joan Leslie, so when he picked her over all of the gorgeous gals on hand, I felt sick! It was especially good to see (and hear) the remarkable Andrews Sisters: my all-time favorite singing trios!
Thank Your Lucky Stars (WB) 1943
This musical came a year earlier than Hollywood Canteen, and there is a certain feeling of overlapping. But this has more entertainment value than its successor; Just hearing Bette Davis’s rendition of “They’re Either too Young, or too Old” is worth watching the film; plus several songs sung by
` Each of Hollywood’s Major film studios made some similar sort of Morale-boasting movie demonstrating that everybody needed cheering up in a crucial time. MGM had As Thousands Cheer;
Movie Trivia Quiz \
1. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, remade from RKO’s version (with Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard) What actual
2. Ma and Pa Kettle were played by whom?
3. What two great actors were Mr. Skeffington (and the missus)?
4. Goodbye, Mr. Chips, was made into a musical with Petula Clark. What British Couple were the originals?
5. Who was Miss Sadie Thompson?
6. Good Morning Miss Dove had which lovely film star?
7. In Mr. Blanding Builds his Dream House
8. To what did the title, Miss Susie Slagle’s refer?
9. 1940’s All This and Heaven Too starred Charles Boyer as the Nobleman, who falls in love with his children’s Governess. Who played this role?
10. Who were the couple who had a pooch named Asta, and made several sequels to the original murder mystery? (Their movie names, Please)
Answers to Last Week’s Quiz
1. Wm. Powell played Flo Ziegfeld in MGM’s block-buster musical, The Great Ziegfeld.
2. Luise Rainer won an Oscar as his first wife? She won a second Oscar with her second
3. Billy Burke portrayed wife No. 2. She was also “Glenda” The Wizard of Oz’s good witch.
4. Dennis Morgan was the male singer, who sang, “A Pretty Girl is like a Melody” in The Great Ziegfeld. His name was, at that time not the same.
5. Ziegfeld Girl starred Lana Turner, Judy Garland and Hedy Lamar
6. Fanny Brice was Barbra Streisand’s role in Funny Girl. that was that of “Baby Snooks” was the Radio Persona created by this gifted comedian.
7. Meredith Wilson, the composer of The Music Man musical and film, was also the orchestra conductor on this radio show on which Fanny Bryce often appeared.
8. Ziegfeld Girl, Ziegfeld Follies, and There is no fourth, that I can find
9. Wm. Powell played Flo Ziegfeld in the first film.
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