Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 18, 2013

Well, I'm glad to see that Alice Faye, at least has finished her Christmas shopping... ...'cause I sure as hell haven't. In fact, I'm finding the whole season something of a trial. The good people of Golden Handcuffs go in for office parties in a big way, and so the...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 15, 2013

Last night I dreamed she went to Manderley again... And so it ends - one of the great Hollywood careers, another of the ever-fewer links to the great days, and, not least, one of the great feuds of the twentieth century. I wonder if Olivia knows or cares... Good night,...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 15, 2013

Last night I dreamed she went to Manderley again... And so it ends - one of the great Hollywood careers, another of the ever-fewer links to the great days, and, not least, one of the great feuds of the twentieth century. I wonder if Olivia knows or cares... Good night,...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 14, 2013

"...the Camp sensibility is one that is alive to a double sense in which some things can be taken." - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" In the recent televisual Sound of Music, Poor Miss Carrie Underwood was given the unenviable task of filling the shoes of the likes of Miss...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 14, 2013

"...the Camp sensibility is one that is alive to a double sense in which some things can be taken." - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" In the recent televisual Sound of Music, Poor Miss Carrie Underwood was given the unenviable task of filling the shoes of the likes of Miss...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 12, 2013

Tiny Gloria Swanson and her great big Christmas tree... This is possibly the only photo of Swanson I've ever seen in which something else in the frame is wearing more bling than she.   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on December 12, 2013

Tiny Gloria Swanson and her great big Christmas tree... This is possibly the only photo of Swanson I've ever seen in which something else in the frame is wearing more bling than she.   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 19, 2013

There's not nearly enough shouting about Mary Astor. Her career places her in an uneasy, in-between sort of place - not one of the great Top Ten or so (Garbo, Crawford, Gish, Davis, Hepburn, Pickford, Swanson, Dietrich... you fill in the rest), but somewhere in with the best of the...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 19, 2013

There's not nearly enough shouting about Mary Astor. Her career places her in an uneasy, in-between sort of place - not one of the great Top Ten or so (Garbo, Crawford, Gish, Davis, Hepburn, Pickford, Swanson, Dietrich... you fill in the rest), but somewhere in with the best of the...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 16, 2013

One is drawn to Camp when one realizes that "sincerity" is not enough. - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" Hollywood and Haight-Ashbury collide over Olde Baghdad in this clip. Dietrich wasn't much of a dancer (although the gams, in their celebrated four coats of gold paint, do look terrific), but...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 16, 2013

One is drawn to Camp when one realizes that "sincerity" is not enough. - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" Hollywood and Haight-Ashbury collide over Olde Baghdad in this clip. Dietrich wasn't much of a dancer (although the gams, in their celebrated four coats of gold paint, do look terrific), but...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 14, 2013

Many happy returns today to two of the Café's favorite (for very different reasons) ladies... Mrs. Eisenhower, without question the coziest first lady in living memory (if not ever - could Grace Coolidge match her? Mrs. Washington?), came into this world in Boone, Iowa, in 1896. Ten years late   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 14, 2013

Many happy returns today to two of the Café's favorite (for very different reasons) ladies... Mrs. Eisenhower, without question the coziest first lady in living memory (if not ever - could Grace Coolidge match her? Mrs. Washington?), came into this world in Boone, Iowa, in 1896. Ten years late   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 12, 2013

It doesn't surprise me a bit that they were terrier gals... Miss Lillian and Miss Dorothy Gish have a spot of breakfast at home. I can't decide what I like more - the dainty Etruscan console behind Lillian; the discreet television in the corner; the coordinating-but-not-matching Louis Something ch   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 12, 2013

It doesn't surprise me a bit that they were terrier gals... Miss Lillian and Miss Dorothy Gish have a spot of breakfast at home. I can't decide what I like more - the dainty Etruscan console behind Lillian; the discreet television in the corner; the coordinating-but-not-matching Louis Something ch   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 6, 2013

It can, on an abstract level, be a blessing when the beautiful die young. It's hard to imagine today's birthday boy at 64. It's hard to imagine him, for that matter, outside the very particular milieu in which he shot to fame, for Brad Davis is as pure a product...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on November 6, 2013

It can, on an abstract level, be a blessing when the beautiful die young. It's hard to imagine today's birthday boy at 64. It's hard to imagine him, for that matter, outside the very particular milieu in which he shot to fame, for Brad Davis is as pure a product...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on October 10, 2013

Miss Helen Hayes, First Lady of the American Theatre (seen here as HIM Maria Feodorovna, Dowager Empress of Russia) turns a spry 113 today. That is not in itself remarkable. No, what's remarkable is that this woman, long considered the brightest light on Broadway and no mean slouch, for that...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on October 10, 2013

Miss Helen Hayes, First Lady of the American Theatre (seen here as HIM Maria Feodorovna, Dowager Empress of Russia) turns a spry 113 today. That is not in itself remarkable. No, what's remarkable is that this woman, long considered the brightest light on Broadway and no mean slouch, for that...   read more

Café Muscato Posted by Muscato on September 21, 2013

Camp taste turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. - Susan Sontag, "Notes on Camp" Ladies and gents - the Moranbong Band! These charming ladies, it seems, are the new fave-raves of the moment of the cognoscenti in far-off Pyongyang. Leggy, energetic (and mystifyingly   read more