Tag Archives: hollywood

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Tsuru Aoki, Lotus Flower of the Cinema

Tsuru Aoki, in Sunset magazine. Note: This is an encore post from 2017. Though long in the shadow of her more well known husband, Tsuru Aoki achieved just as great a fame as Sessue Hayakawa, with a life story as … Continue reading

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Clare West, Early Hollywood Costume Queen

With a background as mystifying as any Hollywood whodunit, modiste Clare West exploded on the scene as a film costume designer in the mid-1910s, the first person credited as a movie costume designer. Working with film greats for just over … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1944 Twentieth Century-Fox film “Tampico,” with Edward G. Robinson, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen, Robert Bailey, Marc Lawrence, E.J. Ballantine, Mona Maris and Tonio Selwart. Screenplay by Kenneth Gamet, Fred Niblo Jr. and Richard Macaulay. … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 49 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1915 film “Hypocrites,” written and produced by Lois Weber, photography by Dal Clawson and George W. Hill. With Courtenay Foote as Gabriel, the Ascetic; Myrtle Stedman as the Woman; Herbert Standing as the Abbot; … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1935 film “The Ghost Goes West” with Robert Donat, Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette, Elsa Lanchester, Ralph Bunker, Patricia Hilliard, Everley Gregg, Morton Selten, Chili Bouchier, Mark Daly, Herbert Lomas, Elliot Mason, Hay Petrie and … Continue reading

Posted in 1935, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 68 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights — Constantin Bakaleinikoff

Note: This is an encore post from 2011. Most people today probably haven’t heard of motion picture musical conductor Constantin Bakaleinikoff, but he was instrumental in setting up theatre orchestras around Los Angeles in the 1920s, before he became music … Continue reading

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Native Son’ Indicts Society

Richard Wright as Bigger Thomas in “Native Son.” Black writer Richard Wright chronicled racial and class prejudice in his intense, best-selling novel “Native Son” in 1940. The work remains a lightning rod, still timely and confrontational as well as profane, … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1953 MGM picture “Confidentially Connie,” with Van Johnson, Janet Leigh, Louis Calhern, Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart, Hayden Rorke, Robert Burton, Barbara Ruick and Marilyn Erskine. Screenplay by Max Shulman, from a story by Max … Continue reading

Posted in 1953, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 51 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1951 Paramount picture “The Mating Season,” a Mitchell Leisen production, with Gene Tierney, John Lund, Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling, Larry Keating, James Lorimer, Gladys Hurlbut, Cora Witherspoon, Malcolm Keen, Ellen Corby, Billie … Continue reading

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Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Noble Johnson Emancipates African Americans With Lincoln Film Co.

Note: This is an encore post from 2019. Recognized for playing Native Americans, Pacific Islanders and Latinos in “King Kong,” “The Mummy,” “The Ten Commandments” and many others throughout his long film career, African American Noble Johnson achieved greater renown … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1950 Paramount film “The File on Thelma Jordon,” with Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel, Stanley Ridges, Richard Rober, Minor Watson, Barry Kelley and Laura Elliot. Screenplay by Ketti Frings from a … Continue reading

Posted in 1950, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 52 Comments

Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1945 Universal film “The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry,” with George Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines, Sara Allgood, Moyna MacGill, Samuel S. Hinds, Harry Von Zell, Judy Clark, Coulter F. Irwin and Craig Reynolds. … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 49 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Valentino Statue Aspires to Greatness

Silent film lover and superstar Rudolph Valentino commanded the screen with his intense magnetism and sensuality. His untimely, tragic death in 1926 at the age of 31 gave him instant immortality, with thousands descending on the funeral home, church, procession, … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s movie was the 1951 Twentieth Century-Fox film “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain,” with Susan Hayward, William Lundigan, Rory Calhoun, Barbara Bates, Gene Lockhart, Lynn Bari, Ruth Donnelly, Kathleen Lockhart and Alexander Knox. Screenplay by Lamar Trotti from a … Continue reading

Posted in 1951, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 41 Comments

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: ‘Story of Dr. Jenner’ Promotes Vaccination

Matthew Boulton as the physician who develops a cure for smallpox in MGM’s 1939 “The Story of Dr. Jenner.” For centuries, smallpox infestations caused massive deaths and disfigurings to civilizations. First appearing in agricultural communities around 10,000 BC, the disease … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1951 film “The Enforcer,” with Humphrey Bogart, Zero Mostel, Ted de Corsia, Everett Sloane, Roy Roberts, Lawrence Tolan, King Donovan, Robert Steele, Adelaide Klein, Don Beddoe, Tito Vuolo, John Kellogg and Jack Lambert. Written … Continue reading

Posted in Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , | 37 Comments

Black Dahlia: Purported Movie of Elizabeth Short on V-J Day in Hollywood – FALSE!

Every so often, this clip shows up on social media, purporting to be Elizabeth Short on Hollywood Boulevard during V-J Day celebrations in August 1945. False. Elizabeth Short was in Medford, Mass., on V-J Day and didn’t arrive in Los … Continue reading

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Movieland Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

This week’s mystery movie was the 1941 film “Cheers for Miss Bishop,” with Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edwin Gwenn, Sidney Blackmer, Dorothy Peterson, Sterling Holloway, Donald Douglas, Marsha Hunt, Lois Ranson and Mary Anderson. From the novel “Miss Bishop” by … Continue reading

Posted in 1941, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , , | 53 Comments

Black Dahlia: My Annual Donation in Memory of Elizabeth Short

As longtime readers know, I always begin a new year with an annual donation in memory of Elizabeth Short to Heading Home, which works with the homeless in the Boston area. Partly because of my research on Elizabeth Short, I … Continue reading

Posted in 1947, Black Dahlia, Hollywood | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Mystery Movies 2020 in Review

Roy D’Arcy in “The Temptress,” one of 2020’s mystery movies. I used a different method in selecting last year’s mystery movies, relying on the trade papers available on Lantern in a systematic fashion. The films might seem iffy now, but … Continue reading

Posted in 2019, 2020, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments