I Want To Go, To There

Pound Sign Sugarbakers!

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

I was sad to read this article in the paper a few months back - why, oh why, must the Liberace Museum close its doors before I ever get to go?

Thankfully, Google Images will not close its doors anytime soon, at least not until world domination is achieved. Here's some of my favorites of Mr. Showmanship.

I mean, I'd have a piano-shaped pool if I could.

I'd also be friends with Phyllis Diller if I could.

Maybe not with the Walken. Stay off the boat, Liberace!


And one more Diller for good luck:


In conclusion, here he is on the Smothers Brothers - kinda long but fun.

Some Days I Just Play on Google Image Search

Bears AND Boobs.
A dame and a pistol, WITH a pistol.
(remember how great this song is?

Debbie Reynolds Victorious

When I was born, my mother was given anaesthesia because in those days they didn't have epidurals (I always thought that they would make an epidural that would work from the neck up, which was a condition I aspired to for most of what I laughingly referred to as my adult life). Anyway, so my mother was unconscious. Now, my mother is a beautiful woman -- she's beautiful today in her 70s so at 24 she looked like a Christmas morning. So all the doctors were all buzzing around her pretty head, saying "Oh, Look at Debbie Reynolds asleep - how pretty." And my father, upon seeing me start to come through - crown with all the placenta and everything else (ugh) - my father fainted dead away. So now all the nurses ran over to him, saying "Oh look, there's Eddie Fisher, the crooner, on the ground! Let's go look at him!" So when I arrived, I was virtually unattended! And I've been trying to make up for that fact ever since.

- from Wishful Drinking (my copy is signed!)

of all these characters, who'd a thought Debbie, Liz, and Carrie would outlive Eddie Fisher, the Crooner?

Rest in Peace, sir.

Winters' Tales

How do you celebrate what would be the 90th Birthday of a Two Time Academy Award Winner (four time nominee?).
Do you celebrate by doing your impression of her? Buy buying a doll of her? By writing this weird pretty song that talks about all her movie deaths?

Not this year, my friends! You dig and you dig in the youtube and you find this clip from a 1970s TV special featuring one time Academy Award Winner Cher (two time nominee). Marvel, as they take us through a romp through cinema's Golden Age. Cheers to the marginal Kate Bush reference too.



God Bless, us all.

Discipline.

I always like this blog. Today, more than ever.

"She's disciplined, like all those ballet dames."

- Humphrey Bogart on Audrey Hepburn (1954)

A Lady, A Dame, and a Sir Go On A Journey

Check out the royalty assembled! The quality of this clip ain't so great, but that's Dame Shirley Bassey, Sir Elton John, and Lady GaGa covering Journey. I mean, what else?



Go Rain Forest!

Department Of The Obvious, Minnelli-Style

"Some have labeled me as a gay icon. Well no shit, Sherlock." —Liza Minnelli

Today's a long day. This was nice.

Fair Maid Redgrave

Heaven just got another Redgrave.

While I will perhaps always remember her for the made-for-TV remake of Whatever Happened To Baby Jane that she starred in with her sister, I will choose today to honor Lynn's memory with this lovely duet.

That's (Hairy) Montgomery Clift, Honey!

God Bless you, Google Books. You complete me.

"Stuffed Ukeleles In My Shoes"

If I were Sir Stephen Sondheim, what would I want for my 80th birthday?

Elaine Stritch doing an Eartha Kitt impersonation about flubbed lyrics from "I'm Still Here."



Happy 80th, Steve-o.

An Irish Carol

I feel like the best way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day is to enjoy this clip of Carol Channing in Alice in Wonderland.

Hope you're wearing green! Otherwise I might pinch you.

Who's The Boss, Indeed?

God Bless, Katherine Helmond. The things you find when you google image search Kenn Duncan.

Farley & Crisises, of Marie's

So the other night I watched Side Street, a sort of companion movie to They Live By Night. Companion movie in that both star Farley Granger & Cathy O'Donnell, both are tragic noir love stories, and both are made by directors I adore - TLbN by Nicholas Ray (Johnny Guitar) and Side Street by Anthony Mann (Winchester '73).

In his memoir Farley talks about being excited to make Side Street because he got to reunite with O'Donnell, and the location shoot in New York gave him a reason to leave LA for a while, where he was smarting over Shelley Winters cheating on him with Burt Lancaster.

I appreciated the usual film noir things in Side Street; shadows, femme fatale (Jean Hagen, singing here but not in the rain). I also appreciated all the location shots - many of which were apparently filmed around the Third Avenue El, which doesn't exist so much anymore. It also features one of the best of the early car chase scenes, impressive overall and certainly in light of the limitations in cinematography at the time.

I liked knowing, also from Farley's book, that during the filming he was rebounding from Shelley by having an affair with Leonard Bernstein. Excellent.

Anyway, this quick scene caught my eye towards the end. He's hunting down Jean Hagen, a cabaret singer, and goes in and out of a bunch of dive bars in the village. This one still stands, and sure is popular with the gays who like to sing around a piano.

God Bless you, Farley Granger. You are the gift that keeps on giving.

Two More Things

Not so long ago, a chum and I watched Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. I hadn't seen it in a few years, and it knocked me out, of course. Who doesn't like to play Hump The Hostess, or Get The Guests? Also, I had forgotten it was a Mike Nichols movie, and his first one at that.

Anyway, I thought the movie poster & tagline was pretty clever:

And then? I thought this OTHER Mike Nichols movie poster & tagline was pretty clever too. Who wouldn't want to see this?

I only wish that one also starred Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Richard Burton.

Also? Mildred Pap

Is This A Question For Wardrobe, Hairstyle, or Rhoda Morgenstern?

Wait, really?

This is like adding chocolate to peanut butter, CRD style.

Here's some more facts -

All I know is, I think I have to see this. In the meantime, I'm going to brush up on this big Tallulah bio I picked up a few years back.


And now, I'm off to preorder tickets.

Photoriffic Friday

Sometimes on the internet you stumble across different things.

For example, this website of "rare" celebrity photos. Some are definitely rare, some I've seen before, but either way I enjoyed scrolling through as I sipped my coffee.

Here's a nice one of Miss Marilyn Monroe.

And here's a mother daughter pair everyone seems to like.

Like most of the snaps, this one here is undated and uncredited, but purports to be JFK & Monroe.
Hee hee. I love this one. What a pair of old broads!
Bonnie & Clyde:

And then there are some with animal friends.

Mr. Brando & a puss cat:

Dame Elizabeth Taylor and an apron puss:
Senor Salvador Dali y un rinoceronte:
And of course, Tab Hunter's boyfriend, Mr. Anthony Perkins with Audrey Hepburn and what I think might be a deer, I'm never sure.
Anyway, those are some nice pictures I choose to share with you.

God Bless Us, Everyone

This is my New Year's wish for everyone. I can't imagine anything grander.

A Nicks In Time

My friend Brian pointed this out to me. I'm not a big Rufus Wainwright fan, he kinda makes me itch, but I sure liked this quote about Stevie Nicks:

Certain intellectual gay men obsess over Stevie. She is a dinner party conversation in herself, served up as a kind of hors d’oeuvre before a conversation about the Pre-Raphaelites, or something. She separates interesting homosexuals from uninteresting ones.

Kinda surprised he has nothing to say about Dame Bassey, since he just wrote a boring song for her new album, but oh well. He & I are neighbors now, we can discuss at Billy's over Red Velvet.