Jane calling from Schwab's

You won't believe it, but there is a problem with this morning's breakfast order

It all turned to shit Six years ago today

For Milton Berle, the "King of Comedy", that is. Have you ever seen this episode of "What's my line?" from October of 1965? It features a soon to be mysteriously dead three weeks later Dorothy KillgallenWho could forget Milton and the chief's magic:
Milton is now appearing at Hillside Memorial Park. He loves an audience, go see him if you are near the 405 and Jefferson

Today is William Goetz' birthday!!!!

this is the controversial "Study by Candlelight"Mother always says, "cigarettes are good for BOTH fine draperies and treasured art pieces- hack hack hack"

I'm busy, so I'm gonna let Wiki tell you: William Goetz (March 24, 1903 – August 15, 1969) was an American Hollywood film producer and studio executive.
Born to a Jewish working class family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Goetz was the youngest of eight children. His mother died when he was ten years old and shortly thereafter his father abandoned the family. Raised by older brothers, at the age of twenty-one he followed some of his brothers to Hollywood where he found work as a crew hand at one of the large studios. After a few years, he began doing production work and in 1930 was made an associate producer at Fox Films. That same year he married Edith Mayer, daughter of MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer – who at first was less than enthusiastic at the idea. Nevertheless, the marriage worked and they remained together for life.

In 1932, Goetz received the financial support necessary from his new father-in-law to become a minor partner with Joseph Schenck, the former president of United Artists, and Darryl F. Zanuck from Warner Brothers to create Twentieth Century Pictures. Zanuck was named president and Goetz served as vice-president. Successful from the very beginning, their 1934 film The House of Rothschild was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1935, they bought out the financially strapped Fox Films to create 20th Century Fox.
Goetz served as vice president of the new 20th Century Fox, but in 1942 he took charge of the studio temporarily when Zanuck, a World War I veteran, joined the United States military effort in the Second World War. Goetz liked the top role in the company and after Zanuck returned, relationships became strained and Goetz resigned to form his own independent company with Leo Spitz, a former lawyer who worked as a movie company advisor. Their partnership, under the name "International Pictures," ended its short-lived existence when they made a deal in July of 1946 to merge with the British Rank Organization's distribution arm and Universal Pictures. Goetz was made president and placed in charge of production for the newly merged "Universal-International" studio.
Although one of the studio executives who formulated the 1947 Waldorf Statement, Goetz later softened his stand on the issue. In 1949, Goetz called upon his close friendship with MCA head Lew Wasserman, one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood. They revolutionized the motion picture industry when they agreed to a deal whereby James Stewart was signed to a profit participation deal to act in a Universal film. In lieu of a salary for his performance, Stewart was guaranteed half of the film's profits, and the concept was soon negotiated for other stars who recognized the value of their own box office drawing power. Universal-International was acquired by Decca Records in late 1951, and the following year Goetz was let go by the new owners. After that, Goetz became an independent producer, making films such as 1957's Sayonara, which was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
A very wealthy man, Goetz raised thoroughbred racehorses . His horse Your Host won the 1950 Santa Anita Derby and subsequently sired Kelso, a Hall of Fame inductee and one of the greatest horses in racing history.
Goetz and his wife also were major investors in art, acquiring a significant collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works. They owned paintings and sculptures by great artists such as Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, and Henri Fantin-Latour. In 1949, a controversy erupted over a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait called "Study by Candlelight" that Goetz had purchased two years earlier. The painting was declared a fake by art expert Willem Sandberg and the artist's nephew, V. W. van Gogh, resulting in an international debate amongst art experts. The painting remained controversial and was not put up for auction with the rest of the Goetz collection following Mrs. Goetz's death in 1987.

Today is Joan Crawford's birthday!!!!

Yes folks, Mother, who never liked the former Lucille LeSeuer, tells us that she was born on this date in 1705. I asked the obvious "is that a typo" and she hurled a five-sixths empty Bugs Bunny glass at me and told me never to correct her again. Ouch. love that DanoramaHow about that Torch Song? That sure as hell isn't her singing

This is as close to church as I am getting today

Cobina wishes you the best Easter ever!!!! Be sure to compliment her on her Easter bonnet.

Mother got new art for Good Friday

Mother sips holy wine while contemplating the Stations of the cross. From the nimble fingers of the greatest organist who ever lived, David Britton, please go buy his music.
Thanks to the Louvre for loaning us El Greco's Christ on the Cross Adored by Donors. We had been leasing this piecebut it was recently "collected" by the gallery. The El Greco (who it turns out is NO relation to Buddy Greco) really does look lovely hanging in Cobina's private chapel, ok, you can see the chapel, you've mentioned it enough:
I have no idea what to do with this lawn statue she bought, although for now I put it here

It's the first day of Spring!!!!

Get out here (and clean the pool)
Clifton dutifully thanks gardenofallah.com for giving us so very much inspiration.

Mother made me bring some of this home from the studio

She thinks it might be a companion beveridge with 'buienow Mother is outside giving Vitameatavegamin the "flamability test"- she has learned from that last unpleasant episode

Today is Lotus Quinoa Goldberg's birthday!!!

Cobina's best friend (other than Drambuie and Rage and Poppers and Tareytons) is glamorous Hollywood agent Lotus Quinoa Gonhxa Goldberg, who celebrates her natal day today. Her villa is known for it's fourteen thousand square foot wardrobe closet. She is occasionally mistaken for the help. She usually will get you that clean blanket or dry martini, she's that kind of girl. We love you, Lotus. (and you too, Beatrice Lillie)

It all turned to shit Thirty-five years ago today

For opera star Lauritz Melchior, who passed away in 1973 at the age of 82. I never heard of this guy, but Mother apparently "knew" him in the late 50'sapparently rehearsing on the set of "Rear Window"

Jane calling from Schwab's

There is a problem. Mother and Rage are the problem.

The Pinnacle of Funny to the French

Today is Jerry Lewis' Eighty-third birthday. Here is some awfully good Dean and Jerryyou'll like this from 1986 even if his audience wasn't smart enough to get his geniusPlease note that he is wearing the same outfit in the picture above and while performing in the youtube below, though assuredly not the same outfit

Today is Lew Wasserman's birthday

No, that is not Clark Gable nor Robert Taylor; this handsome buck is Lew R. Wasserman, founding father (with Jules Stein) of MCA, the biggest talent agency ever. His business became so large that he was forced by the government to divest himself of the agency business. He had already made the decision to go full time into telvision and film production. He bought (from Decca Records, using Decca's own money) Universal Pictures and its 432 acre lot in Universal City for $10 Million Dollars. Admired and feared, his actions shaped the business for decades. Labor Strikes were resolved because he said so: and he said so usually in a fair and just manner. In addition to his sixty plus year marriage to Edie Beckerman ,his intimate friendships crossed every boundary (real, moral, economic, legal) and his friends largely showed him passionate and undying loyalty. He resisted selling his business to corporate interests until well into his 80. He is one of my real-life heroes and role models.

Happy birthday Mr. Wasserman, I hope I see you again in the commissary corner booth having that awful chicken burger. I am completely positive you will be preoccupied today while Suzanne Pleshette tells you and Sidney some filthy jokes. If she says any wordcombos that are especially difficult, I'm here for you.

Love,


Cliff



you should wiki him if you don't know about the motion picture country home

It all turned to shit Thirty-three years ago today

June 30, 1917 – March 14, 1975
We really like Edythe Marrener around herefrom "The Lusty Men" which is not a video of Mr. Tolson's

Holy shit it is Liza's birthday!!!!

Sheilah Graham guided Mr. Fitzgerald out of our villa this morning after an all night (and 7 cases of buie and cdm lighter) game of charades. She thinks the above is Liza Minnelli's seminal ('nother quarter in your "can", Loretta Young) work. Me, I think this is it:another one of those things in which your kid is gay should he show any interest in this.

It all turned to shit Sixteen years ago today

For Screenwriter and Director Richard Brooks, that is. In the 1940s he wrote the screenplays for the critically acclaimed Key Largo and Brute Force, both suspenseful examples of film noir. In 1950 he directed his film Crisis, which gave a much darker role to the actor Cary Grant than he had previously attempted. He won his only Oscar in 1960 for his screenplay for Elmer Gantry, although he was nominated for the films Blackboard Jungle (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Professionals (1966), and In Cold Blood (1967). For those of you living under a rock: Mr. Brooks currently resides in Hillside Memorial Park: Mother has added ANOTHER new slideshow at the bottom of the page, Westwood Memorial park (yes, Marilyn's burial place) if you like that kind of thing.

Jane calling from Schwab's

There is a problem with Mother's delivery order.
down about 16 inches

Mother is at Mass; Bob is Blacked out

Turnabout is fair play. This belongs to Mr. Benchley. He can have it back as soon as there are full bottles of Drambuie and Creme de Menthe in the liquor cabinet, no questions asked.

Today is Louise Beavers' birthday!!!!!

(Updated image thanks to Miss Irene Allen's maid Diptheria for correcting the earlier mistake- blame the internet.)

Mr. Benchley and Charlie Butterworth stumbled into Cobina's villa early this morning and took all the Drambuie and CdM. It made Mother so mad that she started shooting her .45 into the air demanding that her stolen treasure be returned. Thanks to you, Sgt. Dottie Dagg of the West Hollywood Sheriff's dept for taking that twenty and forgetting all about this incident. That is a lovely crewcut you have, ma'am. Speaking of stolen, the following comes from Wiki:
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 - October 26, 1962) was an American film actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. She was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Among the many films she appeared in were The Gold Diggers (1923), Freaks (1932), She Done Him Wrong (1933), General Spanky (1936), Holiday Inn (1942), Reap the Wild Wind (1942), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), and The Facts of Life (1960). Beavers' most famous and noted role was her portrayal of Delilah Johnson, the housekeeper/cook whose employer transforms her into an Aunt Jemima-like celebrity in the 1934 film Imitation of Life. One of the film's main conflicts was that between Delilah and her light-skinned daughter Peola (played by Fredi Washington), who wanted to pass for white. Imitation of Life was the first time in American cinema history that a black woman's problems were given major emotional weight in a major Hollywood motion picture.Had times been different she might have beaten Halle to the Oscar by some 70 years instead of being relegated to fifth billing.
The vast majority of Beavers' other film roles, however, were not as prestigious. Along with Hattie McDaniel, she became the on-screen personification of the "mammy" stereotype: a large, matronly black woman with a quick temper, a large laugh, and a subservient manner. Beavers' employers had her overeat so that she could maintain her "mammy"-like figure. Although Beavers did not approve of how her characters were scripted, she nonetheless continued appearing in films, because, as her contemporary McDaniel once stated, "it's better to play a maid than be a maid."
Beavers was one of four actresses (including Hattie McDaniel, Ethel Waters, and Amanda Randolph) to portray housekeeper Beulah on the Beulah television show. That show was the first television sitcom to star an African American, even though the role was a somewhat subservient one.
Louise Beavers died of a heart attack in Hollywood, California on October 26, 1962, exactly ten years after the similarly typecasted actress Hattie McDaniel, at the age of 60. She was also a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American sororities. She was inducted posthumously into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1976.

Today is Morton DaCosta's birthday!!!

Man, it doesn't get any better'n' this!!!!!! Ol' Morty was born on this date in 1914, and a piece of his seminal work:title sequence, the Southern stuff belowLove those Upsons

It all turned to shit Forty-three years ago today

for one Daisy Baker, also known as Margaret Dumont- who left us for the Pearly Gates on this date in 1965. Here is some of her iconic work with the Marx Bros.

Jane calling from Schwab's

There's a problem with Rage's charge account application

It all turned to shit Forty-five years ago today

Singer Patsy Cline was killed in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, near Camden, Tennessee. She was 30. Born Virginia Patterson Hensley on September 8, 1932, in Winchester, Virginia, Patsy's family moved around a lot. She was a talented child who enjoyed singing and dancing.

At 13, she became a choir singer in the Baptist church. Fate stepped in when she contracted rheumatic fever. After she recovered, the disease had somehow affected her throat. Cline said she had a booming voice like Kate Smith's. With her newfound voice, Cline began singing on local radio shows and at dances. Four Star Records eventually noticed her in 1954 when she was offered a recording contract.
Now married to Gerald Cline, she changed her name to Patsy. Cline was still doing local events when she met Charlie Dick, fell in love, and married him after divorcing Cline.


Cline had her first hit record in 1956, Walkin' after Midnight. It became a best seller after she sung it on the Arthur Godfrey Show. Several hits followed after that, including I Fall to Pieces, Crazy, and Sweet Dreams (released after her death.)


Cline's last concert was held in Kansas City on March 3, 1963. It was a benefit to raise money for a local family. Her plane, flown by her manager Randy Hughes, made it to Dyersburg, Tennessee. But enroute from Dyersburg to Nashville, the plane crashed and all aboard were killed. Along with Cline and her manager, singers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins were also killed.

(thanks to our friend the Internet, for that. Hey cutting and pasting is hard work!!!)

It all turned to shit Fourteen years ago today

For beloved comedian John Candy, who passed away in Durango, Mexico on the set of WAGONS WEST. A small sampling: Here he lies at Holy Cross, please note his neighbor Evelyn Haver, younger sister of June. She and Fred MacMurray lay beneath Evelyn.

Today is Jean Harlow's birthday!!!!!

Yup, "The Baby" is a spritely Ninety-seven today!!! Mind you, she's been dead for Seventy-one years. Here is a small peek at her short life: first, RED HEADED WOMAN: and a nice slideshow

And sadly, in front of this placeis where Bill Frawley dropped dead around 6pm on this date in 1966, someone better tell the Chiefs. Before he died, he did this promotional film during the second world war:

Not only am I kissing ass

...with my new boss, maybe you will like this too!!!!!Get yourself a cafe de leche con Don Drambuie and watch this:Yes, my brand-new employer, Desi Arnaz was born on this date ninety-one years ago today. Chief, these last five days have been the most meaningful of my life (pardon me while I hide from a bolt of lightning). I can't wait to hear all about your birthday party.

I woke up this morning and Cobina's bed hadn't been slept in- Rusty didn't come over last night because he was working a big party over at Charlie Feldman's, he and Jean Howard had a party for Countess di Frasso- Anyway, Poppers and I are the only two here right now and we are loving the quiet. I have not seen Rage since Friday morning, and all pill containers are currently empty. I just poured myself some coffee with vitamin B (as in 'buie). It's a nice sunny morning, and, Popper's sitting room which looks east across Crescent Heightswould be a very nice place to enjoy the morning, except for that smell. I'm going to open the windows and hope that the marijuana smoke from the Laughton's villa deadens the odor or my senses.

You know how it always turns to shit?

Well, depending on how you look at Jackie Coogan's lifeMaybe he finally got a break when he got to the Pearly Gates on this date in 1984