Today I want to hear from YOU!

Helen Kane ponders.

What kind of things would you like to see on FF&SS? 

Shut Up and Dance!

Anyone else watch the Grammys Sunday night?  I was blown out of my seat by Bruno Mars. Damn, that boy can dance!



His electricity is contagious.  I love watching performers like that--they take you out of yourself and into the music.  You can't keep still, it's impossible!

Ann Pennington always does that to me, too.  This is short, but then again, so was she:



What a little firecracker!  Her style of dancing might seem clunky to our modern eyes but back then it was the bees'  knees.  To some of us, it still is!

And then you have the great Josephine Baker.  Skip ahead to 1:45 and gaze on perfection:



I dare anyone to stay in their seat during that.

Who are some of your favorite dancers, then and now?

Words With Flappers

Back in 1913, the New York World was looking for a new puzzle for their fun page.  They asked journalist Arthur Wynne to come up with something, and drawing on his knowledge of word squares, he whipped up a little game he called a "word-cross":

It was an immediate hit, and over the next ten years these puzzles, eventually called "crosswords", became insanely popular.  By the end of the 20s they were featured in almost every American newspaper.  People really went crazy over them!  There were crossword parties, published collections (came complete with pencil!), even crossword fashions.  Check out these ladies’ legs:

photo courtesy Hoodoo that Voodoo

So why am I telling you this?

Getting ready for work I heard how Zynga's profits rose considerably, thanks to a little game called "Words With Friends". 

Hmm, what's an eight letter word for "everything old is new again"?

Happy John Barrymore Awareness Day!

Oh sure, some people like to call it Valentine’s Day, poor misguided souls. They just need to be educated in the badassery that is “The Great Profile” – and you can be the one to do it! ! Show them this handy checklist to convince them to ditch the chubby kid with the arrows, and give flowers and candy in Jack’s name instead:

1. Best. Hamlet. Ever.

During the 1920s, Jack was regarded as the finest Shakespearean actor of his time, perhaps of all time. His performances of Hamlet and Richard III were religious experiences; the critic John Corbin marveled that “[t]he atmosphere of historic happening surrounded John Barrymore's appearance last night as the Prince of Denmark; it was unmistakable as it was indefinable. It sprang from the quality and intensity of the applause, from the hushed murmurs that swept the audience at the most unexpected moments, from the silent crowds that all evening long swarmed about the theatre entrance. It was nowhere-and everywhere. In all likelihood we have a new and lasting Hamlet.” (NYT, Nov 17 1922)

The only footage we have of Jack performing Hamlet is a two-strip Technicolor screen test made for a 1933 screen version, eventually aborted:

2. Rooftop Romance

Jack and brother Lionel (left) in 1917



October 1917 saw Jack occupying the top floor of an old four-story building in Greenwich Village. After he fixed up the apartment to his bohemian liking, he turned his attention to the roof. From Gene Fowler’s wonderful Good Night, Sweet Prince:

[He] planted cedars eight feet tall…[he] also installed white wisterias, arbor vitae, cherry trees, and grapevines…Mrs Nicholls [Jack’s landlady] returned to find a horticultural frenzy atop her house. She was somewhat amazed, but did not complain…for there was a startling yet weird beauty to Barrymore’s creation, and the man himself seemed so childishly content as he fed the birds on his “estate”.

3. Love, Love, Love

Jack & Dolores

Jack’s intelligence and charisma were legendary. Combined with darkly handsome good looks and an athlete’s build, he was the epitome of Lady Caroline Lamb’s “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”. He was married four times – one of those to the actress Dolores Costello – and had liaisons with Mary Astor, Jeanne Eagels, and Evelyn Nesbit, among others.

4. Ahoy There!

Captain Jack

Jack adored sailing more than anything in this world, and was quite accomplished at it.  When he wasn’t on board The Mariner, he lovingly furnished his home with model ships, navigation charts, even pieces of wrecks.  He would take to the sea for months at a time, keeping a detailed captain's log of his adventures and exploits.

5. King of the Retorts

Hepburn's debut film

The sheer number of brilliant quips and quotes from Jack is staggering.  He rivaled Oscar Wilde in pithiness and was sharp as a razor.  So many anecdotes are attributed to him that it’s hard to determine which ones are apocryphal, but this has always been one of my favorites (courtesy Anecdotage.com):

During the production of A Bill of Divorcement, Katharine Hepburn frequently quarreled with John Barrymore. When filming wrapped, she turned to her co-star and screamed, "Thank God I don't have to act with you anymore!" "I wasn't aware," Barrymore tartly replied, "that you ever had, darling."

---

There you have it.  Five great reasons why February 14^th should be all about Jack!

How are you celebrating today?  

Whitney, Jeanne Eagels, and Junior High

In the soundtrack of my formative years, Whitney held a pretty big place.  Anyone who grew up in the 80s and early 90s remembers her songs constantly on the radio.  When I was in 7^th grade, we had to do a project on all the things that made us who we are.  I can’t recall for the life of me the other things I brought in, aside from one: my newly-acquired “Whitney” cassette. 

 

Some of the kids laughed – they were the ones too cool for pop – but as far as I was concerned they were stupid.  How could they not want to listen to “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and ask their mom to curl their hair and tie a big scarf in it just like hers and generally think she was the most wicked thing to come out of the 80s since Cyndi Lauper?  She was so fresh, so new, so perfectly 1987.  What was wrong with them?

(They just needed a little time, was all.  Five short years later those same kids were bombarding Z100 with votes to make “I Will Always Love You” the #1 song of the day yet again.  And attempting to sing it themselves during choir finals, but that’s a whole other ear-bleeding story.)

This whole tragic situation got me thinking about Jeanne Eagels.  She was a brilliant stage actress of the 1910s and 20s, remembered best for originating the role of Sadie Thompson in Rain.  Like Whitney, she was discovered early, and her extreme talent caused all who witnessed it to catch their breath.  Unfortunately, also like Whitney, she suffered from substance abuse problems, and although indirectly, they were the cause of her untimely death at age 39.  You can learn more about her here, if you like:  Jeanne Eagels

Ladies with so much magic still left in them to share with the world.  Completely unnecessary deaths.  It's sad, too, knowing that this is going to happen again and again, and that it will be only too soon that we'll be shaking our heads and mourning yet another heartbreaking loss.

The Miracle Woman (1931)

"When do they bring out the elephants?"

When we first meet Florence Fallon (Barbara Stanwyck), she is angry.  Her father, the well-loved town preacher, has just died...and she is positive his untimely death was brought on by being unceremoniously dumped from the pulpit for someone younger. She stands before the congregation and spits fire, letting them know exactly what she thinks of them.  She is rage personified, down to her flashing eyes.  Afterwards, disgusted by both human nature and God, she joins up with a charlatan and channels her disillusionment into a stage show -- "preaching" in revivals whose miracles are finely crafted circus acts designed to strip the masses of their dollars.  That is, until one night, when a blind pilot named John (David Manners) accidentally steps into her act, and into her life.  Suddenly an existence of bitterness and deception gives way to something she hasn't felt for years: hope...

Stanwyck is terrific in everything I've ever seen her in, but this movie elevated her for me from great actress to one of my all-time favorites.  The camera loves her; I've seen precious few other performers who melt into the celluloid like she does.  Every emotion, every movement is pitch-perfect.  She sings a silly song in John's apartment and it's pure vulnerability; you see the wounded soul in Florence starving for nourishment, fighting to get out into the sunlight again. 

This is one of Frank Capra's earlier efforts, and he demonstrates a knack that would cement his role in Hollywood later on.  Rain pours when Florence and John first become friends...a baptism, perhaps, for both of them?  A pivotal scene towards the end involves an inferno -- purification by fire.  And speaking of fire, when Florence is seated by John's fireplace, Capra lets the light caress her like a lover.  Surely she has never been softer or more beautiful.

One final note:  Florence's stage performances are directly influenced by Aimee Semple MacPherson, an evangelist who reached her peak of popularity in the 1920s and 30s.  She was a fascinating person and definitely worth learning about -- especially if you do so before watching this movie. 

I give this one: 

*rubs eyes*

"What's that?" I hear you saying.  "It can't be!  It looks like...

...Flapper Flickers & Silent Stanzas is UPDATING?!"

Fear not, dear readers, you aren't myopic --
stay tuned for more posts on our favorite topic!