Tinseltown Talks

"I felt like a wonderful sandwich, a slice of white bread between two slices of ham."
- Dorothy Lamour on Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, whom Lamour co-starred with in six "Road To" films throughout the 1940's and early 1950's.

Photographic Faves

Joseph Cotten and Loretta Young enjoy a snack on the set of their radio broadcast of The Farmer's Daughter, January, 1948.

Tinseltown Talks

"About a week before (my) wedding was planned, I got a call from the casting director: 'Let your hair and your beard grow. You're going to be in a western.' So in the society column of the Santa Monica paper there was a picture of (my new wife and I), me with this beard, and it said, 'Mr. Andrews is an actor. Note the beard.'"
- Dana Andrews

Oppy New Year

The new year, it is upon us. A new year, a fresh decade, a month just beginning - and yet, here at HCC, marking the passage of time as such simply reiterates how very long it's been since the Hollywood we know and love was in its heyday.

2010 draws us close to the centennial anniversary of landmark films like D.W. Griffith's Birth of A Nation. Eighty-three years ago, sound burst into cinemas, thereby rendering the medium of movies a format of limitless potential. Seventy years have gone by since David O. Selznick unveiled his epic Gone With The Wind and Judy Garland's Dorothy Gale became a childhood film staple; best-loved musicals and milestone dramas, richly reflective of the audiences they sought to satiate with their songs and their subject matter, now near fifty, sixty, seventy-five years old.

Decades have indeed passed since our favorite films held box office sway, but their appeal has not receded with the years; their poignancy remains, redoubtable and enduring. So let's relish them all the more. Rather than sighing over the absence of studio system musicals or lamenting that lack of Lana Turner on the marquee, let us be grateful for the many ways in which 2010 allows us to revel in those flicks of yesteryear, our film libraries replete with our favorite gems, our Netflix queues and DVRs full of undiscovered classics. This year, may you continue to uncover innumerable heretofore unfamiliar stars in the cinema firmament - and may they dazzle you, each and every one.

Now make a martini like you're partying at The Charles' apartment tonight. Happy New Year from HCC!