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Gail Russell was a dark-eyed beauty who starred with some of the most popular leading men in Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, including John Wayne, Joel McCrae and Alan Ladd.
Born in Chicago on September 21, 1924, Russell was a shy child and often hid beneath her parents' piano when they entertained. The family moved to Los Angeles when she was 14. Even though art was Russell’s passion, her mother convinced her to audition at Paramount Studios. Gail was offered a standard seven-year contract at $50 a week. Upon graduating from high school, she signed with Paramount. Russell suffered terribly from stage fright. She made her first film appearance at 19 in Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour. The following year she appeared in Lady in the Dark. Although Russell’s role was minor, the film was nominated for three Oscars, which boosted her career.
Russell's raven hair and enigmatic beauty was particularly suited to the ghost story plot of The Uninvited, her second film of 1944. During filming, Russell’s stage fright was so great that one of her co-stars suggested alcohol as a means to calm her nerves. Russell completed the film, but lost 20 pounds and later suffered a nervous breakdown. This film was also nominated for an Oscar, drawing even more attention to the young starlet.
Russell played Emily Kimbrough in the 1944 comedy Our Hearts Were Young and Gay. The following year she starred as a schoolteacher opposite Alan Ladd in Salty O'Rouke, another Oscar-nominated film, then with Joel McCrae in the supernatural tale The Unseen. In 1946 she starred in Our Hearts Were Growing Up, a sequel with Diana Lynn. Before the year was over she completed yet another movie, The Bachelor’s Daughters, with Adolphe Menjou. Still, Russell continued to experience stage fright, liberally using alcohol to deal with it.
In 1947, Russell performed one of her most famous roles as the innocent Quaker love of John Wayne in The Angel and the Badman. Rumors circulated that Russell and Wayne were having an affair, though they both denied anything more than friendship. In 1949, Russell once again starred as John Wayne's love interest in Wake of the Red Witch. When she learned that her husband had cast Russell in this role, John Wayne’s wife, actress Esperanza (Chata) Bauer, exploded in an alcoholic, jealous rage. When Wayne returned home late from the cast party, Bauer aimed a gun at her husband and pulled the trigger. The bullet barely missed Wayne’s head.
Months later, Russell married her long-time boyfriend, television actor Guy Madison. In 1953, Russell was called to testify in John Wayne’s divorce trial and once again, Russell and Wayne both denied the affair. Two weeks later Russell was arrested for drunk driving, which fueled more rumors about an affair and caused serious damage to her marriage. Her alcoholic reputation so troubled Paramount executives they refused to renew her contract. Then Russell and Madison divorced, adding to her despair. In 1955, Russell left the scene of the crime after rear-ending another vehicle while intoxicated. In 1957 she drove her new convertible through the glass windows of Jan's Restaurant in Beverly Hills, pinning the janitor beneath her vehicle. Russell was picked up by Universal Studios and continued to star with some of the most famous names in Hollywood, including Randolph Scott. However, in August of 1957, when she failed to appear in court, officers were sent to her home and found her drunk and unconscious. The hearing was held at General Hospital where she was bedridden with severe effects from alcoholism. She joined Alcoholics Anonymous and stayed with this organization for a year, to no avail.
In 1961, Russell starred in her last movie, The Silent Call. When filming was completed, she locked herself in her Los Angeles studio apartment, sketching and drinking. On August 27, 1961 Russell died from an alcohol-induced heart attack. She was just 36.
Tags:
actress
Gail
Russell
Added: 18th December 2010
Views: 1284
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |
 
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Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell was a dreadful variety program that ran on ABC from September 1975 to January 1976. It, of course, was hosted by sports announcer Howard Cosell and produced by Roone Arledge of Monday Night Football fame. It was later remembered by its director Don Mischer as 'one of the greatest disasters in the history of television,' largely due to Cosell and Arledge being unfamiliar with comedy and variety programming.
Coincidentally, that same year NBC began airing a late-night comedy show titled Saturday Night. The shows did not directly compete. (Cosell's program aired at 8 p.m. whereas NBC's show aired at 11:30 p.m.) Cosell's show featured Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest as regular comedy performers dubbed 'The Prime Time Players.' In response, the NBC show called its regular performers 'the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players.' Ironically, all three of the original Prime Time Players eventually joined the NBC show.
The premiere episode featured celebrity guests Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Paul Anka, Siegfried and Roy, the cast of the Broadway version of The Wiz, Jimmy Connors, John Denver and the Bay City Rollers (whom Cosell dubbed 'the next British phenomenon').
The show was often hectic and unprepared. In one instance, Arledge learned that Lionel Hampton was in New York City and invited the musician to appear just an hour before airtime. The show fared poorly among critics and audiences alike, with TV Guide calling it 'dead on arrival, with a cringingly awkward host.' Alan King, the show's 'executive in charge of comedy,' admitted it was difficult to turn Cosell into a variety show host, saying Cosell 'made Ed Sullivan look like Buster Keaton.'
Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell was canceled on January 17, 1976, after only 18 episodes. A year later, in 1977, NBC's Saturday Night was renamed Saturday Night Live.
Tags:
Saturday
Night
Live
Howard
Cosell
variety
TV
Added: 17th December 2010
Views: 1302
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru and tireless television exercise-show host who demonstrated jumping jacks and push-ups while touting low-sugar diets and weight training long before they were fashionable, has died. He was 96.
LaLanne died of pneumonia today at his home in Morro Bay, California, the Associated Press reported, citing his agent, Rick Hersh.
LaLanne, who sometimes referred to himself as the Godfather of Fitness, was a TV pioneer in 1951 when he hosted one of the first exercise programs. His following grew when “The Jack LaLanne Show” was syndicated nationally from 1956 to 1970. The muscular host demonstrated calisthenics while amusing the home audience with his patter: “Ten seconds on the lips and a lifetime on the hips” and “Your waistline is your lifeline.”
Tags:
Jack
Lalanne
Passes
Today
At
Age
96
exercise
guru
fingertip
pushups
health
Added: 24th January 2011
Views: 511
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Posted By: Old Fart |
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In 1993, Judith Grad, a kitchen-table Scrabble enthusiast was horrified to discover that the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD) contained racial, religious, and ethnic slurs along with common vulgarities and obscenities. She wrote letters of complaint to Hasbro (the company that owns Scrabble) and Merriam-Webster, the publisher of OSPD. The general response was that although some words were certainly offensive, they were still words that could be found in any collegiate-level dictionary. Moreover, their meanings were irrelevant to the game. Unsatisfied, Grad contacted the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai Brith, the NAACP, and the Zionist Organization of America. That, combined with a letter-writing campaign organized by the National Council of Jewish Women, brought the 'offensive word issue' some mainstream publicity. Without consulting Merriam-Webster or the National Scrabble Association (NSA), Hasbro chairman Alan Hassenfeld, in a knee-jerk reaction, announced that '50 to 100 words' would be expunged when the next edition of OSPD was published. Predictably, serious tournament Scrabble players went nuts, accusing Hasbro of caving into censorship, political correctness and the 'language police.' A petition bearing the signatures of more than 800 tournament players was presented to Hasbro demanding Hassenfeld's decision be reversed. At the 1994 U.S. National Scrabble Championship in Los Angeles, an angry mob of more than 200 players vociferously declared their opposition to any expurgation and vowed to quit the game or even sue the NSA if any words were removed from the lists because of political correctness. An acceptable compromise was reached: Starting in 1996 a separate Official Word List (OWL)--without definitions--would be made available to tournament players through the NSA, while a sanitized OSPD would be sold to the general public. OSPD would contain no offensive words and a not-too-prominent disclaimer that it was only 'official' for school and recreational play. Since offensiveness is highly subjective, determining the words that were eventually expunged from OSPD was itself controversial. Brace yourself: Among the 303 'naughty' words you'll no longer see in OSPD are FATSO, LIBBERS, REDSKIN, GRINGO, BAZOOMS, COMSYMP, POONTANG, WETBACK, PAPIST, BADASS, REDNECK, BULLDYKE and STIFFIE.
Tags:
Scrabble
words
censorship
political
correctness
Added: 8th March 2011
Views: 1145
Rating:
Posted By: Lava1964 |
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Some still considered it a big mess of needless complications due to a long slog of details and perfection. Now, just thinking about it, it may even bring back a few thoughts about where you were at the time. Does it? The long-story is set with a struggling, unreasonable dispute that involved a cattle baron, with wandering immigrants from the roots of Europe's past; now settled in a remote part of the American West. So what happened to it? It was cited for the unbelievable implications it brought on. Ah, those were the compilations. Yeah, they were deplorable. One that definitely stood out, the fact of a quick-gained reputation for being a control freak, all added with the second fact, the costs were averaging a much larger amount than first anticipated. To be precise, it becoming best-known as front-page news for a longer time than it should of been. And an embarrassment of bad communications to all parties involved. How can you communicate to someone if there is a locked door involved? Just trying to balance it all was the most difficult part of it. At the same time, things really shifted for those involved behind the scenes - in a bad, bad way. As one of the most pressing conflicts about it was the survival for the financing involved. It didn't turn out well. Everything floundered as months went on. A real turning point had begun because of that. The entire system that was developed then dramatically changed to more controlling interventions from behind anxious doors. A manic mentality with a desperate sense to complete it had been hard to let go from their end. It was clear early on that, it was impossible to recover the shameful display of waste; all which contributed to the fussy onset of remaining true to a vision with different interpretations being suggested in taking it over with a backlash against the one man responsible. It eventually saw the projected light, but this was many months later. Though shown at just under 150 minutes, not the intended run of just over five slow-moving hours. However, much of the feedback regarding it has changed for the picture that was judged too fast then. Soon after, Michael's efforts were acknowledged as better than what was said about it then when the incomplete story was inappropriately played under much pressure. From then on, the entire spoken context of it had been transferred back intact for positive judgements by other means. I'm referring to the home market that was quickly moving in. This paved the way at proving that it was distinctly different without his hard work being incoherently marred-up by pressures. On the other end, unfortunately, all things were not good as a new element had begun by barring future developments for its company. It had runned itself way down. This due to the critical position that others were put in at that time because of the original shot-lived perpetrator. A real ridiculous mess of upsets. Do you know of another example that may of been inferior to what it really could of been? It hasn't really been compared to anything much since. Or has it? After some time, Michael continued to be restricted on further projects, with being handed a few second chances at. *E*
Tags:
Heavens
Gate
United
Artists
Sunk
Added: 12th May 2011
Views: 461
Rating:
Posted By: Electricland |
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Some still considered it a big mess of needless complications, due to a long slog of details and perfection. Now, just thinking about it, it may even bring back a few thoughts about where you were at the time. Does it? The long-story is set with a struggling, unreasonable dispute that involved a cattle baron, with wandering immigrants from the roots of Europe's past; now settled in a remote part of the American West. So what happened to it? It was cited for the unbelievable implications it brought on. Ah, those were the compilations. Yeah, they were deplorable. One that definitely stood out, the fact of a quick-gained reputation for being a control freak, all added with the second fact, the costs were averaging a much larger amount than first anticipated. To be precise, it becoming best-known as front-page news for a longer time than it should of been. And an embarrassment of bad communications to all parties involved. How can you communicate to someone if there is a locked door involved? Just trying to balance it all was the most difficult part of it. At the same time, things really shifted for those involved behind the scenes - in a bad, bad way. As one of the most pressing conflicts about it was the survival for the financing involved. It didn't turn out well. Everything floundered as months went on. A real turning point had begun because of that. The entire system that was developed then dramatically changed to more controlling interventions from behind anxious doors. A manic mentality with a desperate sense to complete it had been hard to let go from their end. It was clear early on that, it was impossible to recover the shameful display of waste; all which contributed to the fussy onset of remaining true to a vision with different interpretations being suggested in taking it over with a backlash against the one man responsible. It eventually saw the projected light, but this was many months later. Though shown at just under 150 minutes, not the intended run of just over five slow-moving hours. However, much of the feedback regarding it has changed for the picture that was judged too fast then. Soon after, Michael's efforts were acknowledged as better than what was said about it then when the incomplete story was inappropriately played under much pressure. From then on, the entire spoken context of it had been transferred back intact for positive judgments by other means. I'm referring to the home market that was quickly moving in. This paved the way at proving that it was distinctly different without his hard work being incoherently marred-up by pressures. On the other end, unfortunately, all things were not good as a new element had begun by barring future developments for its company. It had runned itself way down. This due to the critical position that others were put in at that time because of the original shot-lived perpetrator. A real ridiculous mess of upsets. Do you know of another example that may of been inferior to what it really could of been? It hasn't really been compared to anything much since. Or has it? After some time, Michael continued to be restricted on further projects, with being handed a few second chances at.
*E*
Tags:
Moscow
Nicholson
Hackman
Beatty
Added: 6th June 2011
Views: 533
Rating:
Posted By: Electricland |
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[Note: This is a redo of an earlier post--with a photo that is undoubtedly Marisa Tomei this time!] One of the strangest Academy Awards stories ever focuses on Marisa Tomei's 1992 win for best supporting actress. She was awarded the Oscar for her portrayal of Mona Lisa Vito in the comedy My Cousin Vinny. Immediately after the ceremony, film critic Rex Reed made the stunning claim that presenter Jack Palance had read the wrong nominee's name as the winner. This was an incredible assertion considering that Price Waterhouse (the accounting firm that tabulates the voters' ballots) has two reps stationed near the stage who are empowered to interrupt the ceremony if such a mistake were to occur. (They've never yet had to intervene in the more than half a century of their presence.) Film critic Roger Ebert believes Reed owes Tomei an apology. Tomei herself says the ongoing rumor of her being the wrong winner has tarnished her lone Oscar victory.
Tags:
Marisa
Tomei
Oscar
controversy
Added: 19th August 2011
Views: 2007
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Alan Sues, a flamboyant and zany regular on the 1960s hit television show "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," has died.
Michael Gregg Michaud, a close friend for decades, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Sues died of cardiac arrest at his home in West Hollywood on Thursday. He was 85.
Tags:
Alan
Sues,
Rowan
and
Martins
Laugh
In,
Laugh
In,
Zany,
actor,
Added: 5th December 2011
Views: 431
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Posted By: Old Fart |
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Remember December of '76? The 17th? Chances are, you couldn't open a newspaper without seeing the excessive print advertising in numerous papers.
Want to get exceptionally technical? How can I document the era without? Well, the attempt of over-expressed hype with a contemporary 40 foot high simian was put to the test with a challenging expedition. Remember, everyone came out to see him fall down. Too many! It sort of got dangerous with the crowd. As mentioned already, remember the advertising. It never matched the pose of the beastly gorilla. What happened? Did you have an experience then in NYC with it then? Remember the huge publicity that had started a year prior to it? Did you know it was taken in on a Hawaiian island. Remember the puzzles and Seven-Eleven cups, or the recreated posters that were synonymous with outlandish hype. Helicopters appeared instead of jets?! They had lost the jets in the long process. Totally disappeared from sight? Though, it was still brought together with a huge scale with the updated story. The hype, it was hard to avoid then. Magazines, newspapers, bubblegum. Anything possible was printed up. Most of the hype consisted of sixty-one tons of metal in total weight. Sure, it could of gone wrong with the animosity being created by someone behind the lens and the publicity that was connected to it. Mean and occasional confrontational towards others were the rumors. So many personalities were being protected by Dino then. Mister D. could express himself easily with the vivid project. So, how do you create a trans-formative idea into an event for Christmas, while under pressure for a specific date? Holding to patience and budget and keeping the name in the news. Perceptions were made strong for the life-like beast with the constant push of hype. We all knew the errors that were made with whispers in the cinema. It just didn't match-up. What happened? But with most of the kids, they don't care what they saw. Then, there were many big inconsistencies along the way. Especially during the months leading up to the day. Drawings, sculpture's were far-fetched from its final visual presentation that cost over a million, all constructed by an Italian for Mr. D. He would later work again for the man, but this time with another white animal. With the work put in weekly then, 31,000 in hydraulic hose and 4,500 in electrical wires looked like it did cost a lot of money. The workshop must've been busy for months. It was. Did you know the beast had an arm span of 20 feet! His arms and hands were able to move in 16 positions. Remember the waterfall part? A real high-tech deal then. It was urgent that they hurried on it for the coming December. The date had already been placed - an entire year away in newspapers. Did you know, the huge furry creation was created to walk and turn - but we all know how that turned out. Fabricated lies. The motion was not good. Too mechanical. His still eyes and open mouth were supposed to be close-to-life as the complex hydraulic valves were pressed and pulled. It is funny, little was said of who was actually being shot for closeups and long shots. A secret kept for months. Nobody really knew what to expect, when actually it was an innovative electrical-wired-mask that was made for an actual makeup man. The gorilla costumed now actor was actually ignored many times during the days they were working. The man nowadays, he is a big deal in recent years. Know him? Who is he? You should know. It had to be sweaty under all that. Then, at the time, it was very constraining to be dealt in that way. To be ignored, left in a corner - alone. Alienated. There’s more to this thing than you could imagine. Hard to just rip it away. But then, it was all new. Unlike the renowned 30's one. Too different. That was the appeal as it eventually came off more like a homage. The secret to the big and tall balanced figure was - well-made proportionally hydraulic valves, as they were assembled together using wires running to a crane by a control system run by six operators. It looked dangerous when set-up for balancing. Did you know that 4,000 pounds of horse tails from Argentina were added to the exterior of its appearance. Four kinds of netting contributed in months of preparation, all by securing into panels individually; then glued on a plastic mold - entirely covering the frame of the metal underneath meticulously. A lot of patience for the end result. Once organized, a huge cost to build the furry machine. The funny, almost absurd thing is, it didn't look real. Robotic and unnatural. You could see, once put together, it was only seen for a few mere seconds. A glimpse? That was it. Seconds? All that work and money for a $1.7 moment. Of course, the rest was done with award winning, groundbreaking blue screen technology with the fearsome suit added in. But did you know, it recovered its 24 million budget -by three times! True. I assume, some of that came from the wide merchandising too. Remember View-Master? The proof is in the pudding, despite the best efforts then with going to Hawaii and NYC for weeks. Now, just maybe, you have a totally different opinion on it. I can understand. Did you know that Jess, she went off to learn more on her craft on performing, including photography. She wasn't clueless with the unique virtue she had placed then. Also, I thought she had done a great job with the big primate. Then again, I do pay full attention to details with trying to explain it all smoothly. I suppose you realize this now. Did you ever catch the second part to the story in the mid-80s? I walked out of it. Boy, talk about being short-lived. That was one thing that hype could not buy. A dull story.
As usual, there just wasn't enough of it. Too bad.
They had missed the mark on it.
*E*
Tags:
December
17
1976
Opening
Day
Seen
the
longer
version
?
Jessica
Jeff
Charles
Rene
Added: 18th December 2011
Views: 691
Rating: 
Posted By: Electricland |
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One of the most important games in the history of the National Football League was the 1932 NFL Championship Game. It provided many firsts: Most significantly it was the NFL's first championship game--and it was the first NFL game to be played indoors. Prior to 1933 there was no official league championship game. The league title went to the team with the best record--which was often disputed because teams did not play anything resembling a balanced schedule. In 1932, both the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth (OH) Spartans had six wins and a loss. By rule, tie games were ignored in the standings. Portsmouth had four ties and the Bears had six! During the regular season, both games between the Bears and Spartans had ended in ties. With the NFL's blessings, the Bears and Spartans agreed to play a one-game tie-breaker at Chicago's Wrigley Field on December 18. However, a forecast of a blizzard and minus-40-degree temperatures prompted the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, an arena more suited for hockey than football. Dirt from a recent circus was spread on the arena's concrete floor to form somethin akin to a regular gridiron. The cozy confines forced some playing rules to be revised. Because there were only 80 yards between the goal lines, as soon as a team advanced the ball beyond midfield, it was moved back 20 yards! The goalposts were moved from the endline to the goal line (where they stayed until 1974). Also, because the field was ten yards narrower than usual, before every play from scrimmage the ball was placed between hashmarks ten yards from the sideline. Chicago won the game 9-0, all their points coming in the fourth quarter on a controversial forward-pass touchdown and a safety. (The touchdown play caused the NFL's passing rules to be modernized the following season.) Not long afterward the Spartans moved to Detroit and became the Lions. The game was a huge success and inspired the NFL to split itself into two divisions and hold an annual championship game between the divisional champs. That system determined the NFL champion each year until the Super Bowl era began in 1966.
Tags:
football
NFL
1932
Championship
Added: 14th January 2012
Views: 1304
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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