Florence Arto of Houston Texas was born in 1895. Her husband was film director King Vidor, who put her to work in silent films in 1916 as Florence Vidor. They had a daughter, Suzanne. Flo divorced King in 1925 and married famed violinist Jascha Heifetz.
Her career ended with the advent of sound pictures. She died in 1977 at the age of 82.
Here’s a trailer for her lost film, Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Patriot,” the last silent film of the era to be nominated for an Oscar.
And here’s Jascha now with a little Tchaikovsky, ya slobs.
Actor, writer and director John Paragon created and played the hilarious Jambi character in “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” for which he received 5 Emmy nominations for writing and co-directing. He also wrote many of the episodes, and wore this spiffy turban!
He starred in his own special, “The Paragon of Comedy” and in such cult classics as “Eating Raoul” and “Echo Park.” He had a recurring role on “Seinfeld” as one half of a gay couple. Paragon is now a creative consultant for Walt Disney Imagineering and appeared in the recent Broadway resurrection of “Pee Wee’s Playhouse.”
Here’s a clip from a live 1981 performance of the show in Los Angeles. Long live Jambi!
Carole Lombard, the exquisite screwball, died 70 years ago yesterday when the Transcontinental DC-3 in which she and her mother and 15 Army servicemen and five others were traveling from a bond rally, crashed into Double Up Peak near Las Vegas. She was just 33, and the wife of the King of Hollywood, Clark Gable.
Lucille Ball, a close friend, claimed that after Carole’s death, she would visit Lucy and advise on important decisions. Wild!
She also advised me to make her today’s Turban Tuesday, and to add this clip…
Barbara LaMarr (formerly Reatha Watson) was known as “The Girl Who is Too Beautiful,” and you can see why right here with her in this glittery turban.
She wrote at least seven screenplays for UA and Fox, starred with Douglas Fairbanks in 1921′s “The Nut” (that name!), and danced in musical comedies on Broadway, making numerous dance shorts with various partners in NYC, CHI and L.A. She was making $5,000 a week — which would be like making $63,000 a week today.
LaMarr married 5 times and had one child, Marvin Carville LaMarr… all before she was 29, when she died of TB and nephritis (reportedly brought on by drugs and alcohol — possibly the first drug-related death in filmdom).
Her son was adopted by her friends, character actress ZaSu Pitts and her husband, Tom Gallery. Little Marvin became Don Gallery (link is a PDF), an actor who occasionally dated Elizabeth Taylor.
LaMarr’s lovely beach house was blown up for a scene in “Inside Daisy Clover,” starring Natalie Wood. You can see LaMarr’s Hollywood house here.
Her famous quote: “I like my men like I like my roses… by the dozen.”
Today’s Turban Tuesday is the great character actor Frank Morgan as Professor Marvel in “The Wizard of Oz,” seen here advising Dorothy Gale just before the twister.
Morgan also played the gatekeeper of Emerald City, the driver of the carriage drawn by the horse of a different color, and of course, the Wizard of Oz.
The roles were originally to have been played by W.C. Fields, and you can almost hear Fields in the way the dialog is written. MGM got tired of haggling over Fields’ price, and gave the role to Morgan, with whom they had a lifetime contract.
Born Francis Phillip Wupperman in New York City in 1890, he was the only principal of the film who did not live to see its resurgence as a result of television.
Morgan died of a heart attack at 59 while filming “Annie Get Your Gun” in 1949.
Marion Davies, the first lady of Hearst Castle, film star and hostess extraordinaire, as seen in 1936, wearing a Cossack turban and matching coat. Hearst never married Davies because his wife wouldn’t grant him a divorce, or he wouldn’t pay the settlement.
Here’s Marion, doing her own singing, in 1934′s “Operator 13.” The handsome chap is Gary Cooper.
Publisher, movie producer and collector Hearst died at age 88 in 1951, leaving half of what remained of his fortune to Marion. “Citizen Kane” is loosely based on his life, with the Susan Alexander character based on Davies.
Davies died of cancer in 1961, leaving an estate worth $20 or 30 million. She bequeathed millions to UCLA for a children’s hospital, and half of the estate went to her “niece.”
After the 1993 death of Davies’ niece, Patricia Van Cleve Lake, it was revealed by Lake’s family that she was actually the birth daughter of Marion Davies and William Randolph Hearst. Here’s Patricia in a modified turban…
It is said that Hearst told Lake that she was his biological daughter, on her wedding day at the castle, to actor Arthur Lake of “Blondie” fame. She’s entombed, with Arthur and Marion, at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Today’s Turban Tuesday is Daler Mehndi, whose 1998 Bhangra/pop song Tunak Tunak Tun is featured below.
Mehndi released the song and video after critics complained that his music’s popularity was due to the hot babes he used in his videos — so Mehndi became his own hot babe, and the song became an international cult hit and internet meme.
For those of you who play video games, “World of Warcraft” features Mehndi’s dancing in the form of a Draenei.
If you’d like to sing along, the lyrics are below the video player.
refrain: (5x)
Tunak tunak Tun
Tunak tunak Tun
Tunak tunak Tun
Da Da Da
refrain: (5x)
Tunk tunk Tun
Tunk tunk Tun
Tunk tunk Tun
Da Da Da
Dholna, vaje tumbe val taar
soode dil de pukar
Aaja karle ye pyar
(4x)
Dholna…
Sweetheart, the strings of the instrument play
listen to what the heart says
Come and love me
(4x)
Sweetheart…
refrain2: refrain (4x)
The world is a colorful place
it’s not good nor bad
(4x)
Listen friends the iktaara(1) says
Mehndi’s friends refrain (4x)
Dholna Kadeh Mere Nal Hass
Mainu Dil Valli Dass
Nahin Taan Teri Meri Bass
(4x)
Dholna…
Sweetheart, come smile with me sometimes
My heart’s keeper (lover) look
This body is not under your or my control
(4x)
Sweetheart…
refrain2
refrain2
Dholna Tu Chann Mein Chakor
Sadde Varga Na Hor
Rab Hath Saddi Dor
(4x)
Dholna…
Sweetheart, you are moon and I am Chakor(2)
there no one like us
Our threads of life is in the hands of god
(4x)
Sweetheart
refrain2
refrain2
(1): iktaara = Musical instrument with one string
(2): Chakor = A mythical bird that is supposed to look at the moon continuously like it is in love with it
