News, Politics, Religion, Entertainment, Gossip and Opinion for Thinking Folks
From the category archives:
That’s the wonderful Billie Holiday (in turban) chatting with the dashing genius of jazz, Duke Ellington, and handsome jazz composer, critic and pianist Leonard Feather.
Hear Billie singing the Ellington composition “In My Solitude,” written in 1934, with lyrics by Eddie DeLange and Irving Mills.
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in gorgeousness, stuff I like, turban tuesday
A Sikh warrior performs fire breathing during a procession at The Amritsar Heritage Festival taking place this week in India.
It’s a living.
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in turban tuesday
The delightful Sultan of Agrabah from Disney’s “Aladdin.”
And here’s Maria Muldaur singing about a sultan.
And here’s a clip from “Aladdin”… in Swedish.
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in animation, music, stuff I like, turban tuesday
Imagine that you are born in 1924, in the tiny town of Mysore, India, where your father is an elephant driver for the Maharajah… then your father dies when you are just 9, and a location crew discovers you at 12, and they take you to England to star in 1937′s “Elephant Boy,” and by the early 1940s, you are one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood! That’s how it was for Sabu!
He was placed under contract by filmmaker Alexander Korda, with whom he made numerous pictures. He was nearly 20 by the time he became a US citizen, and he enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1944, becoming a tail gunner. He earned a Distinguished Service Cross and other medals.
Sabu married his co-star from “Song of India,” actress Marilyn Cooper, and had two children, Paul and Jasmine. Below is a comic book that is now quite valuable.
His real name was Selar Shaik Sabu. He starred in the memorable “Thief of Baghdad” with its dazzling special effects, and “Jungle Boy.”
Sabu dropped dead of a heart attack at age 39 at his home in Chatsworth, Calif. on December 2, 1963, 11 days after President Kennedy was killed. Sabu’s widow said he underwent a complete physical just a few days before he died. His doctor said, “If all my patients were as healthy as you, I’d be out of business.”
His son, Paul Sabu, became a successful songwriter. His daughter, Jasmine, became a noted horse trainer. She died at age 44 in 2001.
Sabu is resting at Forest Lawn.
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in cinema, kennedys, turban tuesday, wonders
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.
In memory of Ian Abercrombie
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in cinema, little known facts, music, stuff I like, turban tuesday
Mekka lekka hai, mekka hiney ho!
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!
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in fabulosity, stuff I like, turban tuesday
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…
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in disasters, gorgeousness, legends, lovebirds, turban tuesday
Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting, “Frau Mit Turban,” now being endured in someone’s collection somewhere.
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in art, legends, turban tuesday
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.”
for Nina Zivancevic. Happy Birthday!
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in cinema, legends, turban tuesday, unfortunate
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.
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in cinema, little known facts, turban tuesday
"If the phone doesn't ring, it's me.”
--Jimmy Buffett
