Showbiz History: The Children's Hour, Little Shop, and a Gyllenhalic holiday

6 random things that happened on this day, December 19th, in showbiz history...

1915 Edith Giovanna Gassion born in Paris and immediately abandoned by her mother. She would be raised by prostitutes and would become the famous songbird Edith Piaf, her last name slang for "sparrow", and eventually an international icon. Her life was dramatized (in excruciatingly non-linear fashion as was the fad in the mid Aughts) in 2007's La Vie En Rose which won Marion Cotillard the Best Actress Oscar. Like her contemporary Judy Garland she would struggle with addiction and die at age 47 years in the 1960s. 

1961 The now infamous drama The Children's Hour opens in theaters on its way to 5 Oscar nominations...

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Showbiz History: Skeksis & Mystics... and Judy Garland & the Supremes?

7 random things that happened on this day, December 17th, in showbiz history

1943 Now forgotten Universal B franchise "The Inner Sanctum" begins with Calling Dr Death featuring Lon Chaney Jr. Intended as a series that would be carried by Chaney and Oscar winner Gale Soondergard, only Chaney actually made it to the screen. There were six films in all. 

1965 Judy Garland and the Supremes perform at Houston's then brand new 60,000 seat Astrodome Theater. Wait, what? Judy Garland AND Diana Ross and you could attend for a single dollar...

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Mickey @ 100: From "National Velvet" to "The Black Stallion"

Here's Baby Clyde to conclude our brief Mickey Rooney Centennial celebration

Many years ago, as a Golden Age Hollywood obsessed tween, I dragged my poor brother up to London with me so we could stand outside the stage door of the Savoy Theatre. The West End debut of the smash hit Broadway revue Sugar Babies was playing and it starred the legendary Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller ...from actual HOLLYWOOD!!!

As a little kid from a decidedly un-glamourous council estate, who spent all his spare time poring over books about old movies stars, this was too good an opportunity to miss. It didn’t turn out quite as I’d planned. We arrived at the stage door with plenty of time before the show began to find a handful of like minded saddos also waiting. They informed us that Miss Miller was already inside which was of course unfortunate, but Mickey was still to arrive. A little while later he did...

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Almost There: John Cazale in "Dog Day Afternoon"

by Cláudio Alves

On March 13th, 1978, John Cazale died of lung cancer at the age of 42. Before his untimely end, the Massachusetts-born actor had amassed an impressive list of credits, both on stage and onscreen. His filmography, as far as features are concerned, is of particular interest and amazement. He appeared in five films, six if you count The Godfather Part III, all of which were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (a record!). Not only that, but his quintet from the 70s (The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter) represents a list of era-defining classics.

Of them, 1975's Dog Day Afternoon was surely the closest the actor ever came to a much-deserved Oscar nomination…

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Shelley Winters @ 100: Bloody Mama (1970)

We're celebrating the centennial of Shelley Winters. Here's Cláudio Alves…

In October 1966, less than six months after her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar win, Shelley Winters appeared in two episodes of the Batman TV show. Winters once again played a villainous mother. Unlike most Batman villains though, Winters' Ma Parker wasn't based on a comic book character but a historical figure. Kate Barker, commonly known as Ma Barker, was the matriarch of a criminal family who terrorized Arizona during the first decades of the 20th century. Boisterous, vicious, merciless, and bad to the bone, this monster mother was, in many ways, a perfect role for Shelley Winters in this period of her career.

It's no wonder then, that four years after the Batman episodes had aired, Winters returned to the iconic part. This time, however, there were no euphemisms or layers of superhero camp between the actress and the character. Roger Corman's Bloody Mama is a biopic of Ma Barker that, more or less, follows the historical narrative. That being said, if you think this is any sort of stuffy Oscar baity prestige picture, you are terribly mistaken...

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