Preston Sturges had one of the greatest winning streaks in screen history. Over a five-year period in the 1940s, he wrote and directed seven hit comedies. What’s more, he won an Oscar for scripting the pic that kicked off that incredible run (The Great McGinty), and scored two of the five Original Screenplay nominations in 1944. Yet like a comet, he burned hot, fast and bright before burning out and dying at age 60 in 1959.Read More
Read More
In the 1940s and ‘50s, Hollywood had an unofficial “caste” system of casting, with the plum parts going to a select few, like Bogie, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Bill Holden.Read More
Read More
Haberdashery’s loss was Hollywood’s gain. Had William Wyler followed his father into the family business, Europeans might have looked stylish for generations, but the film business would have suffered greatly. Fortunately for us, Wyler was miserable selling suits and pocket squares in Paris, so his mother reached out to her first cousin Carl Laemmle in America. Carl ran a little operation called Universal Pictures. Would he be willing to hire her 18-year-old son “Willi”?Read More
Read More
Like us mere mortals, actors form close friendships, too. Myrna Loy and William Powell shared a tight bond, on screen and off. Before they were legends, James Stewart and Henry Fonda were roommates and lifelong BFFs. But when it comes to bromances – and tragic coincidences – few tales top the 25-year friendship of Clark Gable and David Niven.Read More
Read More
In the 1930s, two of the most powerful antidotes to the Great Depression were a racehorse named Seabiscuit and a little girl named Shirley Temple. Both were overnight sensations. Both lifted the sagging hopes of a weary nation.Read More
Read More
In 1927, the Roaring Twenties became the Soaring Twenties. The year was an inflection point in history, when the Model T ceased production five days after being upstaged by a 25-year-old pilot’s epic solo flight.Read More
Read More
I once got an email from an 88-year-old man named George, praising an essay I’d written for the Washington Post. Coincidentally, I had read a piece George wrote for the Post, about living in post-war New York. I joked about being reincarnated from the ‘30s and ‘40s, citing my passion for classic films. To which George replied, “Then you’ve probably heard of my brother Fred.”Read More
Read More
His “Goldwynisms” are notorious, but his films are legendary. The driving force behind three studios, Samuel L. Goldwyn’s story is Hollywood’s story, and his rise from penniless to powerful would have made a swell picture of its own.Read More
Read More
