Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 11, 2013

In my endless quest to broaden your horizons,* you Philistines you, and remind you that there's a great wide world out there beyond Hollywood hegemony, I happened this morning across a name and face new to me. Instantly, I knew he was someone you, too, would want to know more...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 9, 2013

...to say goodbye. When I was a child (and the shows were in reruns - it was the late sixties, mind you, not the show's late-fifties heyday) this song used to make me cry. Watching it again last night, it came close to doing so again. Can you imagine any...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 9, 2013

...to say goodbye. When I was a child (and the shows were in reruns - it was the late sixties, mind you, not the show's late-fifties heyday) this song used to make me cry. Watching it again last night, it came close to doing so again. Can you imagine any...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 5, 2013

Today marks what would have been the 115th birthday of the "benevolent volcano," Miss Bette Davis. In the process of thinking about this august anniversary, I believe there's a chance I may have uncovered a little bit of a mystery, which I've found rather amusing. In 1950, Miss Davis's birthday...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 5, 2013

Today marks what would have been the 115th birthday of the "benevolent volcano," Miss Bette Davis. In the process of thinking about this august anniversary, I believe there's a chance I may have uncovered a little bit of a mystery, which I've found rather amusing. In 1950, Miss Davis's birthday...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 4, 2013

This being a ridiculous week, I've only just seen the obituary for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who went off in search of a room with a better view yesterday at the fine age of 85. Jhabvala was the silent partner in the magical film duo-really-a-triad known as Merchant/Ivory, the writer whose...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 4, 2013

This being a ridiculous week, I've only just seen the obituary for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who went off in search of a room with a better view yesterday at the fine age of 85. Jhabvala was the silent partner in the magical film duo-really-a-triad known as Merchant/Ivory, the writer whose...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 1, 2013

Something like 119 years ago today (there is a little discreet confusion over the actual year of her birth), the world was made a little richer with the arrival in it of the baby who grew up to become notorious silent-film vamp Nita Naldi. We catch her here in full...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on April 1, 2013

Something like 119 years ago today (there is a little discreet confusion over the actual year of her birth), the world was made a little richer with the arrival in it of the baby who grew up to become notorious silent-film vamp Nita Naldi. We catch her here in full...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 29, 2013

I love the Internet, and the random things it lets you discover. This afternoon, for no good reason except procrastination (I know, at a rational level, that those cupboards aren't going to clean themselves out. But I live in hope.), I was aimlessly surfing and somehow ended up doing an...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 29, 2013

I love the Internet, and the random things it lets you discover. This afternoon, for no good reason except procrastination (I know, at a rational level, that those cupboards aren't going to clean themselves out. But I live in hope.), I was aimlessly surfing and somehow ended up doing an...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 26, 2013

In 1958, this was Oscar night in Hollywood, and the hit of the evening was a duet between this somewhat singular couple, Miss Mae West and Mr. Rock Hudson. We catch them here in rehearsal, and I think it's as close to an actual candid of Mae as ever I've...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 26, 2013

In 1958, this was Oscar night in Hollywood, and the hit of the evening was a duet between this somewhat singular couple, Miss Mae West and Mr. Rock Hudson. We catch them here in rehearsal, and I think it's as close to an actual candid of Mae as ever I've...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 17, 2013

Best wishes for the day, from me and from that slightly South-of-Celtic cutie, the vivacious Miss Olga San Juan. The "Puerto Rican Pepperpot" may seem one of the odder choices one can think of to pose high atop Fox's prop leprechaun hat (one wonders whether it did double duty for...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 17, 2013

Best wishes for the day, from me and from that slightly South-of-Celtic cutie, the vivacious Miss Olga San Juan. The "Puerto Rican Pepperpot" may seem one of the odder choices one can think of to pose high atop Fox's prop leprechaun hat (one wonders whether it did double duty for...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 12, 2013

Playwright as Hot Clone The Broadway Baby Goes Burlesque It has to mean something that these two share a birthday - it just has to. They are the polar opposites of American showbiz - and yet I can't help but thinking there would be few more amazing nights out than...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 12, 2013

Playwright as Hot Clone The Broadway Baby Goes Burlesque It has to mean something that these two share a birthday - it just has to. They are the polar opposites of American showbiz - and yet I can't help but thinking there would be few more amazing nights out than...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 9, 2013

Camp is the glorification of "character." - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" Miss Susan Hayward works her way through "Sing, You Sinners" in I'll Cry Tomorrow, her biopic of early Talkies casualty Lillian Roth. It's a number that it works perfectly well on its own - not least in regard...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 9, 2013

Camp is the glorification of "character." - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" Miss Susan Hayward works her way through "Sing, You Sinners" in I'll Cry Tomorrow, her biopic of early Talkies casualty Lillian Roth. It's a number that it works perfectly well on its own - not least in regard...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on March 8, 2013

Because it's her birthday today (she's 77, and still I'm sure a spritely presence), let's spend a moment thinking about Sue Ane Langdon. Who? Exactly. I'm always interested in the kind of performer who can work for years, and steadily, and even in high-profile vehicles (she made two Elvis pictures   read more