Happy Birthday, Marion! and Reflections

Since 2012, the Santa Monica Conservancy of Santa Monica, CA, has thrown a large Marion Davies birthday party. It is held at the Annenberg Community Beach House, affectionately known as “the Beach House,” of which the Conservancy is the proud steward. The celebration is an opportunity fo... Read full article

Happy Birthday, Marion! and Reflections

Since 2012, the Santa Monica Conservancy of Santa Monica, CA, has thrown a large Marion Davies birthday party. It is held at the Annenberg Community Beach House, affectionately known as “the Beach House,” of which the Conservancy is the proud steward. The celebration is an opportunity fo... Read full article

Day 28 of Noirvember: Happy 100th Birthday, Gloria!

I first met her decades ago as a sassy flirt in the 1946 Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Since then, Gloria Grahame has become one of my favorite noir femmes, turning in standout performances in a spate of shadowy classics. Grahame was born Gloria Grahame Hallward in Los Angeles, 100 yea... Read full article

Happy Birthday, Jeanne Crain

Happy Birthday, Jeanne Crain I’m a huge fan of Jeanne Crain. She was one of the most popular movie stars from the mid-to-late 1940s to the early 1950s.A favorite of studio chief Daryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox, Crain was cast as the girl next door in the mold of Janet Gaynor, several ... Read full article

Noirvember Day 28: Happy Birthday, Gloria!

There was nobody in Hollywood like Gloria Grahame. She could be sweetly naïve, sexy and shrewd, broadly humorous, or just plain deadly. And she was equally adept at each. While I’ve enjoyed her performances in films like It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Oklahoma! (1955), it’s Grahame’s noir... Read full article