Keep 'Em Flying -- March 31, 2014

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello teamed up in burlesque and went on to Broadway and the radio.  In the 1940s, they made a series of popular comedies for Universal.  Keep 'Em Flying was one of their many service comedies. 

The trade ad is from the 14-November-1941 Moving Picture Daily. 

Mutoscope #1 -- March 30, 2014

The Mutoscope is a hand-cranked entertainment machine that works like a giant flipbook. I tried to build a device like it, but always had trouble getting it to work.

I took the photo at Disneyland in July, 2006.  Disneyland always has a few Mutoscopes set up in the Penny Arcade on Main Street.  I try to take a photo when I visit. 

Clara Bow #14 -- March 28, 2014

Red haired Clara Bow was probably the most popular silent actress after Mary Pickford. In this item from the February, 1921 Cine-Mundial, a Spanish language film magazine produced in the United States, Clara is described as "una de los artistas más  simpáticas y nerviosas de las huestes cinematográficas, que aparece ahor en producciones de marca PARAMOUNT."  I'm sure nervous has a different meaning in this context.  Vibrant?  In the moment?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, it's a nice picture. 

Match Carpentier-Sullivan -- March 27, 2014

Great French boxer Georges Carpentier defeated British fighter Jim Sullivan on 29-February-1912 for the  middleweight championship of Europe.  This ad for the film of the fight is from the 09-March-1912 Cine-Journal. Georges Carpentier, the Orchid Man, had a long career as a boxer, from about 1908 to 1926.    Carpentier later moved up to light heavyweight and then heavyweight.  During the First World War, he served as an observer in the French air service.  After the war, he won the world light heavyweight championship in 1919.  In 1921, Carpentier fought Jack Dempsey for the heavyweight championship of the world.  Carpentier broke his thumb on Dempsey's head in the second and Dempsey knocked him out in the fourth. 

The Zoetrope, or Wheel of Life -- March 26, 2014

From Scientific American / New Series, Volume 19, Issue 4, July 22, 1868

We have already noticed this unique optical instrument, which has afforded so much amusement to old and young, and although an American invention, its sale has already become quite extensive in Europe. Sets of figures are furnished with each wheel, and the changes which its rotation effects are both amusing and instructive. The Zoetrope is manufactured by Milton Bradley & Co., Springfield, Mass.

The image is from The Young Folk's Cyclopædia of Games and Sports by John Denison Champlin and Arthur Elmore Bostwick, 1890. http://bigvriotsquad.blogspot.com/2014/02/zoetrope-27-february-2014.html

A Keystone Every Monday -- March 25, 2014

Last year we marked the 100th anniversary of the Keystone company.  Here is an ad for Keystone's first release, a split reel of "The Water Nymph" and "Cohen Collects a Debt," from the 28-September-1912 Moving Picture World.  Most 1912 film ads did not name the performers, but this one talks about "Four Famous Comedians," Mack Sennett, Mabel Normand, Fred Mace and Ford Sterling. I have seen "The Water Nymph" and it is a good one.  That's a nice photo of Mabel.

Grauman's Chinese #36 -- March 24, 2014

In July, 2012 we paid a return visit to Hollywood and Grauman's Chinese Theater.  Sid Grauman was a San Francisco showman who came to Los Angeles and built three major houses, the Million Dollar, the Egyptian, and the Chinese. The theater has hosted many film premieres, but is most famous for the hand and footprints (and hoofprints and nose prints and other types of prints) in the forecourt.

 Jack Oakie left his hand and footprints in the forecourt on 21-February-1945. I remember him best as Benzino Napolini, a parody of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.  Oakie almost always played loud, over-the-top characters.  Some people can't stand him.  I can stand him.  (31/DSC_0051.JPG)