EVERYTHING'S COMING UP GYPSY

In the end, Gypsy Rose Lee's bottomless energy was overcome by cancer of the lungs (yes, she smoked.) In his vividly written memoir, GYPSY AND ME, her son, Erik Lee Preminger, recalls how even at the end her indomitable sense of self-appreciation never let up:

"When I think of her last days...I usually remember one of her first visits to the radiation clinic. The night before we had celebrated her fifty-sixth birthday. She was taken the moment she arrived, and we were walking past all the patients who were waiting in line for their turn.
'You know, Erik' she said quietly, 'when I look at all these people I can't bring myself to berate God for giving me this horrible disease. I've had three wonderful lives, and these poor sons-a-bitches haven't even lived once.'"

Yes, she toured with AUNTIE MAME several times.

JOAN CRAWFORD ON CHARM

"Too many of us "turn on the charm" only on special occasions, taking our families and close friends for granted. Nobody is fooled -- neither your mother, for instance, who pressed your new nylon blouse so exquisitely and was understandably hurt when you "forgot" to thank here. Or the new boy friend on whom you lavish all the saved-up smiles and thoughtfulness. Self-conscious "this-will-get-him" charm -- the only kind you possibly can have when you put it on like a new formal or your best hat -- isn't charm at all. It's affectation -- and like last year's slip, it shows!"
-- Photoplay magazine, 1951.

TESTING, MISS CRAWFORD, TESTING!

J.C. is actually very good in STRAIT-JACKET. But the jewel of the film comes at the end, when they wrap it up with the familiar Columbia logo, except the lady with the torch is DECAPITATED and her head is laying at her feet!

OH, LA PUBLICITE, LA PUBLICITE!

MOM, I'D LIKE YOU TO MEET MY ROOMMATE

RANDOLPH SCOTT AND CARY GRANT

SANTO VS THE VAMPIRE WOMEN (Las Mujeres Vampiro) trailer

The wrestler/horror film. One concept Todd Browning missed out on.

BM (Before Multiplexes)

A tip of the hat to Greg Ferrara!

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: RITA HAYWORTH AND HARRY BELAFONTE

TAKE THAT, AVA GARDNER!

Anne Bancroft paying her dues in "Gorilla At Large", 1954.

A commanding talent, to say the least. But half-way through, for the second chorus, she morphs into Betty Hutton, which is startling, but not without its wacky charm.