Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on September 5, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “The Vagabond...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 29, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: Willy Wonka...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 22, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “The Cat...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 21, 2016

During the past two weeks, Comet Over Hollywood has looked at Olympic athletes who found Hollywood fame after exhibiting their athletic prowess. Some Olympians were scouted for Hollywood but their stars didn’t rise has high as others. Eleanor Holm Eleanor Holm was an Olympic swimmer who compe   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 19, 2016

Harold Sakata in the 1948 Olympics You probably know him best as a James Bond henchman with a lethal bowler hat. But Harold Sakata’s career started as an Olympian. Born in Hawaii, Sakata competed on the United States team in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England. Sakata won a...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 17, 2016

What do you do when you’re an athlete and the Olympics are canceled? Become one of Hollywood’s top stars. At least, that’s what Esther Williams did. 17-year-old Esther Williams (third from left) with the Los Angeles Athletic Swim Club team in 1939. In 1939, 17-year-old Esther Williams was the Unite   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 16, 2016

You may know him as actor Bruce Bennett who played Joan Crawford’s ex-husband in Mildred Pierce (1945) or perhaps as yet another actor who played Tarzan. Others know him by his birth name Herman Brix, which he was using when he won an Olympic silver medalist. Before the Olympics and Hollywood,...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 15, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “Holiday in...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 12, 2016

Johnny Weissmuller wasn’t the only swimming Olympian to play Tarzan. There was also Clarence “Buster” Crabbe. Crabbe and Weissmuller knew each other before their Hollywood days and were competitive. Crabbe developed as his swimming (and surfing) prowess while growing up on a pineapple plantation in   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 10, 2016

Today, most Olympic fans in the United States are proud of Michael Phelps, who has broken records for both swimming and amount of gold medals won in one Olympic game. But in the 1920s, the same pride and idolization was for another swimmer: Johnny Weissmuller, one of the first international...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 8, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: Dangerous When...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 5, 2016

Never have I stumbled over a more delightful film. While searching for films about sports, the 1955 British film “Geordie,” released in the U.S. as “Wee Geordie,” came up in the results. I hadn’t heard of this film or several of the stars, but I decided to give it a go...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on August 1, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “Sing Your...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 29, 2016

At 14, loving both classic films and fashion, I always kept my eyes peeled for the film’s costume designer. With 293 credits to his name from 1932 to 1963, Orry-Kelly was a name I often spotted. Dark Victory (1939), Now Voyager (1940), Casablanca (1940), American in Paris (1951), Auntie Mame...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 27, 2016

From 1959 to 1986, there were nine versions of “Gidget” on TV and film, live action and animated. I’ve refrained from calling versions made from 1959 to 1972 “the worst” of the Gidget series, because they aren’t. “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” isn’t great but it has some bright spots and is...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 25, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “Step Lively”...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 22, 2016

Gidget and Moondoggie’s romance started onscreen in 1959 on the beaches of Malibu. Though the real Gidget didn’t marry “Moondoggie,” the fictional one tied the knot in a 1972 TV movie, “Gidget Gets Married.” At the end of the TV movie “Gidget Grows Up” (1969), Gidget and Jeff get engaged....   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 18, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “Top Banana”...   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 15, 2016

The world was changing in the late-1960s. The anti-authority, anti-capitalism, anti-war and free-love movements brought a shift in popular culture. The surf culture that erupted after Fredrick Kohner’s book “Gidget” hit the shelves was starting to fade with dissatisfaction of establishment. This ca   read more

Comet Over Hollywood Posted by on July 11, 2016

It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals. In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals. This week’s musical: “Music in...   read more