Homes of Classic Hollywood Stars: Four Vintage Postcards

Here's Cary Grant's beach home in Santa Monica, California. The postcard was manufactured by Western Publishing & Novelty Co. of Los Angeles. The house was originally built for Norma Talmadge in 1929, but Grant lived there from 1939 to 1942 with housemate Randolph Scott. According to Wikimapia, lots of stars spent some time in this house, including Merle Oberon and David Niven. You can read all about the neighborhood and its classic stars in this article from Curbed Los Angeles.

This postcard shows Bing Crosby's Toluca Lake home in North Hollywood. Longshaw Card Co. of Los Angeles produced the card. The original house on the site burned in 1943, and the home seen above was built to replace it. Later owners included Andy Griffith and Jerry Van Dyke. According to the LA Times, the home sold in 2009 for $10 million.

Another postcard from Longshaw shows the Beverly Hills home of Hollywood bad boy, Errol Flynn. Like the three other cards, this one includes a picture of the star resident. It's hard to imagine Flynn getting up to his usual mischief in such a stately manor! The Errol Flynn Blog has a great list of places associated with the actor; as you might expect, he got around.

This last card is the only one that lacks a photo of the star, which is a shame, since it's also the only one depicting the home of an actress. This is Irene Dunne's Holmby Hills residence; Tichnor Art Company produced the postcard. Dunne lived in the home for more than 40 years, but it was demolished after her death and replaced (such a pity!). The Irene Dune Site has a nice collection of photos showing Dunne in the home in March 1950.

Personal Notes -

I found these while sorting through some of my late mother-in-law's belongings. They lay in a heap of vintage postcards that she probably inherited from her mother or grandmother, given that many were addressed to her grandmother and were from her uncle; I don't know if she actually knew that these were among the lot. You can imagine my delight at finding them! Scans of the postcards are already available online thanks to copies for sale on Amazon and Ebay, but I thought many of my classic movie friends might not know about them and would enjoy seeing them. I think I'm going to get them framed and put them up in my study.

My Christmas Movies

Every film buff has a favorite Christmas movie, a picture that is such a part of the holiday that it just isn't Christmas without it. Plenty of us even have lists of such movies, and I'm no exception. As we head into the holidays, these are the movies - both classic and more recent - that I'll be watching to get into the holiday spirit.


IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

Sure, it's the obvious choice, but for me the Jimmy Stewart classic is a holiday necessity because I often feel down during the Christmas season, and George Bailey's story reminds me that Christmas is a hard time for a lot of people. Besides, it has such a fantastic cast, and every year as I watch more classic movies I appreciate the actors more, from Lionel Barrymore and Thomas Mitchell to Beulah Bondi and Gloria Grahame. 

WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)

I love pretty much everything about this musical, but I'm especially fond of Danny Kaye and the movie's depiction of soldiers' lives after the war. "Snow" is a beautiful tune (they should play it on the holiday radio stations more often), and Mary Wickes is such a hoot as the nosy housekeeper. The drag performance of "Sisters" by Crosby and Kaye cracks me up, and the finale's salute to Dean Jagger's character always gets me right in the old ticker.


SCROOGED (1988)

My taste in Christmas Carol adaptations tends toward the bizarre, and this is certainly one of the weirdest and funniest versions. I just can't resist Carol Kane's sadistic sugar plum Ghost of Christmas Present or David Johansen's hilarious cab driver Ghost of Christmas Past - "Niagara Falls!" It even has Robert Mitchum in it! I don't love everything Bill Murray has done, but this picture and Groundhog Day are right up there with Ghostbusters in the comedian's canon. I laugh, I cry; it's better than Cats.


THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992)

As the co-editor of two books about Jim Henson, I'm definitely a Muppet fan, and this twist on Dickens is such a fun outing for the familiar cast of characters. Gonzo, my favorite Muppet, gets an especially good part as Charles Dickens himself, and the Ghost puppets represent some of the Henson group's most beautiful creative designs. Michael Caine is a delight as Scrooge, even if he experiences his essential change of heart rather too quickly to be as mean as he's supposed to be. When I saw this movie in the theater after its original release, it made me sad because Jim Henson had died in 1990, and this picture was the first to appear after his passing. Today, its bittersweet quality has softened, but like the original story it remains a sentimental experience.

What movies make your Christmas holiday complete? Let me know in the comments!


 

Classic Films in Focus: THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! (1974)

One of the highlights of the new Best of Warner Bros. Musicals Collection is the 1974 montage picture, That's Entertainment!, which showcases some of the greatest moments in movie musical history, although admittedly with an MGM slant. For fans of the genre, the picture is a welcome chance to revisit favorite songs and stars and also catch a few more obscure moments from classic musicals. It's a sentimental and satisfying trip down memory lane, made even more nostalgic by the presence of many now departed stars as the hosts and hostesses of our journey.

The film goes all the way back to the early days of movie musicals and moves back and forth as it considers particular films and stars who have been influential in defining the genre. Not surprisingly, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly get the lion's share of the attention, although Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli also have prominent spots, and non-musical stars like Jimmy Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor also make appearances. Short introductory segments filmed mostly on the now destroyed MGM backlot serve to organize the musical clips, which feature Singin' in the Rain (1952), Royal Wedding (1951), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Harvey Girls (1946), and Good News (1947), among many others.

While the film includes all of the expected hits, the more offbeat segments might well appeal the most to musical fans, since here are numbers both unexpected and seldom seen. Clark Gable croons "Puttin' on the Ritz," and Jimmy Stewart and Joan Crawford both have their musical moments reviewed. Stewart provides some context for these numbers by recalling how eager the MGM studio heads were to try every performer out in a musical or two, regardless of actual talent for song and dance. Luckily, MGM found plenty of real ability in the stars who would become synonymous with the genre.

Most of the films included in the Best of Warner Collection are full-length musical narratives, including The Jazz Singer (1928), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and, naturally, Singin' in the Rain (1952). Even with 20 films in the set, however, there's a lot that has to be left out, and That's Entertainment! helps to fill in the gaps and provide an overview of the musical's history and appeal. The picture was a big enough success to spawn two theatrical sequels and a 1995 direct-to-video release, and you might track those down if you enjoy the original.

For more classic movie musicals, check out the rest of the films included in the Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection, or use That's Entertainment! as a starting point to guide you on to the films of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Esther Williams, and June Allyson. For more Warner musicals, try Footlight Parade (1933) and other Busby Berkeley productions of the 1930s.

See also: "Warner releases lavish musicals collection" on Examiner.com

Disclaimer: Warner Bros. has provided a review copy of this film free of charge to the reviewer. No promise of a positive review is made to the studio in exchange for this product.

Having Myself a Classic Movie Christmas

We're a full week into December, and it's time to get serious about classic Christmas movies. TCM is showing 33 of them this month, including several fan favorites and a lot of less obvious choices, but I'm mostly a traditionalist when it comes to classic holiday films (with a few notable exceptions). Here are six movies I have to watch over the holidays this year, or it just won't be Christmas.

1) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - My father loves this movie, and I grew up watching it several times each holiday season. It still gets to me today, and I love the huge cast of memorable performers, from the big name leads to the veteran character players. This year I actually get to host a screening of the Capra classic at our local library!

2) White Christmas (1954) - I just love everything about this film, from its WWII patriotism and selfless themes to its crazy drag version of "Sisters" and Mary Wickes' nosy housekeeper. The songs are fantastic, the mood is nostalgic and sweet, and the holidays aren't complete without Danny, Bing, Rosemary, and Vera-Ellen.

3) Three Godfathers (1948) - So I've got a well-established thing for classic Westerns, especially those John Ford/John Wayne collaborations, and this one is simply a Yuletide treasure. Yes, it's another iteration of the now familiar "three men and a baby" plot, and not even the first Western to have the title or tell the story, but the Duke, Pedro Armendariz, and Harry Carey, Jr., are just so lovable and rough that I can't resist them. Personal favorites like Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick, and Jane Darwell help to make this one a holiday essential at my house.

4) The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Yes, there are lots of great versions of Charles Dickens'  Christmas tale, but this one is my favorite hands-down, not just for the goofy Muppet humor but for the incredible puppetry work on the Ghosts, especially the Ghost of Christmas Past. Hey, I love the Muppets so much I co-edited two books about them, so nobody can be surprised if I spend time watching Muppet holiday movies every time December rolls around (I watch all of the other Muppet holiday shows, too, but this one is the best). Gonzo as Charles Dickens? Genius! Michael Caine as Scrooge? Fabulous!

5) Scrooged (1988) - Bill Murray's irreverent take on A Christmas Carol is a riot, and it's even got Robert Mitchum! The Ghosts are especially fun, thanks to over-the-top performances from David Johansen and Carol Kane. Bobcat Goldthwait steals his scenes as an ex-employee pushed a little too far by Bill Murray's modern-day Scrooge.

6) Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) - Having grown up a veritable resident of the Island of Misfit Toys, I find Rudolph's outcast protagonist deeply sympathetic in this quirky TV classic. We actually watch all of the Rankin/Bass holiday specials each year, but this one is especially funny and poignant, and full of quotable lines thanks to Larry Mann as Yukon Cornelius. "It's a night not fit for man nor beast! Here's the man... and here's the beast!" - such lines are endlessly repeated in my family this time of year.

Of course, I'll be watching other holiday films this month, including Christmas in Connecticut (1945), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), 101 Dalmatians (1961), A Christmas Story (1983), and even Gremlins (1984), but these six are at the top of my nice list when it comes to Christmas pleasures. Bake some cookies, make a cup of cocoa, and tell me about your favorite Christmas movies in the comments section below!