If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

When Legends Gather #642

2012-03-07T23:58:00.001-05:00

Orson Welles takes a break from playing Rochester in Jane Eyre to jam with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on the set of Jitterbugs, on the 20th Century Fox lot.

Artists and Animals #84

2012-03-07T23:56:00.002-05:00

Audrey Hepburn awaits a train with her Yorkshire Terrier, Famous.

The Ink & Paint Set #43

2012-03-07T23:53:00.002-05:00

Charles Lindbergh
from Cubby's World Flight
(Hugh Harman & Rudolph Ising; Van Beuren Studios; 1933)

The Friends of Flagg #7

2012-03-07T23:48:00.003-05:00

G.K. Chesterton

"The genial manatee had a debate in a theatre on 'Divorce' with Cosmo Hamilton and 'Cossie' came out second best. G.K.C. was famous for the character 'Father Brown' in his detective stories; but I remember him as one of the men that stood up to Shaw, without ducking!"

The Art of the Double Feature #5

2012-03-06T17:08:00.000-05:00

War of the Gargantuas (Ishirô Honda, 1968) ~ plus! ~ Monster Zero (Ishirô Honda, 1965)

Son of a Preacherman #8

2012-03-06T02:30:00.001-05:00

Ingmar Bergman

Son of a Preacherman #7

2012-03-05T14:48:00.001-05:00

George Stephanopoulos

Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #3

2012-03-05T12:13:00.001-05:00

Cuckolded and driven to murder by Marie Windsor in The Killing
(Stanley Kubrick; 1956)

The Frame Within the Frame #41

2012-03-04T17:17:00.001-05:00

The Best Years of Our Lives
(William Wyler; 1946)

They Were Collaborators #708

2012-03-02T12:37:00.004-05:00

Terence Stamp and Federico Fellini

The Art of Cinema #489

2012-03-01T17:11:00.003-05:00

Promo poster for Head (Bob Rafelson, 1968). The fact that The Monkees aren’t even mentioned in the ad shows how quickly their popularity sank. The Monkees TV show premiered in September, 1966, Monkeemania running neck-and-neck with Batmania. When Head came out in November 1968, those and the other pop manias of the 60s (Beatlemania, Bondmania) began to dissolve under the weight of civil rights, student unrest, the hippie movement, drugs, Nixon vs. Humphrey, the sexual revolution, women’s lib, the generation gap, Vietnam, you name it. It was a weird time. A fan of the Monkees living on Long Island, I vividly recall the opening weekend of Head: it played in a very small handful of theaters, but only for late shows on Friday and Saturday nights. By the following Monday, it was gone. Outside of articles concerning Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, I never saw mention of it again until it came out on VHS some twenty years later. (H/t: JonCow)

Sex Education #165

2012-03-01T16:26:00.001-05:00

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot

The Art of Jazz #129

2012-03-01T14:08:00.001-05:00

Bumpin'
(Wes Montgomery)
(Verve Records 1965)

Davy Jones Dead at 66

2012-02-29T14:06:00.005-05:00

Davy Jones.

Rolling Stone has a selection of photographs of Jones throughout the years.

Before and After #253: Jonathan Frid

2012-02-28T10:49:00.001-05:00

Before:

After:

Seminal Image #1030

2012-02-26T09:21:00.000-05:00

Signore Carunchio (Giancarlo Giannini) teaching lessons in Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August; Lina Wertmüller, 1974)

The Cool Hall of Fame #208

2012-02-26T09:08:00.000-05:00

Debbie Harry

The Art of Cinema #488

2012-02-26T08:59:00.000-05:00

Steelyard Blues (Alan Myerson, 1973)

The Cool Hall Of Fame #207

2012-02-26T03:28:00.001-05:00

Heinz Drache

Girls of the Golden West #6

2012-02-25T09:34:00.003-05:00

Ida Lupino in Lust for Gold (S. Sylvan Simon; 1949)

Seminal Image #1029

2012-02-24T21:35:00.002-05:00

Gert Fröbe and Sean Connery in Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964). “Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?” “No, Mr. Bond! I expect you to die!”

The Cool Hall of Fame #206

2012-02-24T17:00:00.001-05:00

Theodore Mann

The Art of Cinema #487

2012-02-21T11:05:00.002-05:00

Kelly's Heroes
(Brian G. Hutton, 1970)

The Art of Baseball #6The Art of Cinema #486

2012-02-20T09:11:00.002-05:00

Safe at Home! (Walter Doniger, 1962)

When Legends Gather #641The Gunslinger Guide to Julie Christie #40The Gunslinger Guide to Catherine Deneuve #13

2012-02-19T15:09:00.008-05:00

Julie Christie and Catherine Deneuve check out Ursula Andress's purse. You had to be there.

They Were an Item #124

2012-02-19T15:08:00.001-05:00

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein

L Is for Lange #12

2012-02-19T15:06:00.001-05:00

Funeral Cortege, End of an Era in a Small Valley Town, California (1938)

The Art of Cinema #485

2012-02-17T16:51:00.000-05:00

-30- (Starring, produced and directed by Jack Webb, 1959)

When Legends Gather #640

2012-02-16T15:56:00.004-05:00

Judy Garland and husband, Sid Luft, pose with Frank Sinatra after viewing his performance as a narcotic-addict hero in The Man With The Golden Arm.

When Legends Gather #639

2012-02-16T08:10:00.000-05:00

Salvador Dali and Raquel Welch

The Art of the Panel: EC #21Comics artist John Severin dies at 90

2012-02-15T19:01:00.006-05:00

from Dien Bien Phu
(by John Putnam and John Severin)
(Two Fisted Tales #40; Dec. 1954-Jan. 1955)

Obit for the EC, Marvel and Cracked great here.

Adventures in the National Pastime #15

2012-02-15T16:45:00.003-05:00

Leo Durocher, then-bench-coach of the Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles, gives a tryout to an aspiring power hitter (Herman the Rookie, original broadcast April 8, 1965).

When Legends Gather #638

2012-02-13T23:13:00.001-05:00

Martin Scorsese gets emphatic with Michael Powell.

Sex Education #164

2012-02-13T10:59:00.003-05:00

Carol Cleveland

Signs and Meaning in Cinema #54

2012-02-12T23:11:00.001-05:00

Signs and Meaning: Frank Sinatra makes a hasty escape from an inside joke in The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Ben Gazzarra dead at 81

2012-02-12T18:55:00.002-05:00

New York Times obituary here.

The Gunslinger Guide to Natalie Wood #22

2012-02-11T08:59:00.002-05:00

Natalie settles for silver.

The Friends of Flagg #6

2012-02-11T08:55:00.002-05:00

Booth Tarkington

"I once called him the foremost novelist of his time -- this was at one of the Dutch Treat luncheons at Keene's in the early days when I was the Czar of the Club. Rupert Hughes indignantly replied, 'There can't be any one foremost novelist!' Very few people knew that Tark wanted to be an artist. In my portfolio I have a couple of his drawings, and they are terrible! Very good thing he learned to do something he should do. In his last years, I understand, he became a collector of 'art'! I only hope he could still see well enough to know what he was buying."

Treading the Boards #48

2012-02-11T08:53:00.003-05:00

Julie Harris (Josefa Lantenay), William Shatner (Paul Sevigne) and Walter Matthau (Benjamin Beaurevers) star in A Shot in the Dark (a.k.a. L'Idiote) at Broadway's Booth Theatre in 1961.

The Art of Cinema #484

2012-02-10T20:22:00.000-05:00

Zachariah (George Englund, 1971)

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #5

2012-02-10T20:16:00.001-05:00

Invasion of the Star Creatures (Bruno VeSota, 1962)

It Was The Beat Generation #1

2012-02-09T21:31:00.001-05:00

The Fugs plus Allen Ginsberg Santa Monica Civic 1967
The Fugs, first underground rock band of the 1960s with beat poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg

The Cool Hall of Fame #211

2012-02-09T12:25:00.004-05:00

Marlon Brando

The Frame Within the Frame #40

2012-02-08T23:02:00.000-05:00

The Las Vegas Story
(Robert Stevenson; 1952)

Mop Tops in Action #50

2012-02-08T23:01:00.001-05:00

The Mop Tops prepare to cross the road.

The Art of War #65

2012-02-08T23:00:00.001-05:00

Destroy This Mad Brute
(H.R. Hopps; ca. 1917)

The Art of Animation #4

2012-02-08T17:22:00.000-05:00

Ограбление по-итальянски (Robbery: The Italian Job) From the 1978 four part Soviet film Ograblenie po… (The Robbery Like…) by Yefim Gamburg. The Italian Job parodies colorful Italian mafia, the characters are based on Marcelo Mastroianni and Sophia Loren. Fantastico!

Art of the Double Feature #4

2012-02-08T14:43:00.001-05:00

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965) ~PLUS!~ Curse of the Voodoo (aka Voodoo Blood Death; Lindsay Shonteff, 1965). The former stars future Pathmark spokesmodel James Karen; the latter stars Bryant Haliday, co-founder of both Janus Films and the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Before and After (redux) #252: Buster Keaton

2012-02-08T13:46:00.001-05:00

Before:

After:

They Were Collaborators #707

2012-02-08T08:32:00.003-05:00

Diahann Carroll, Richard Rodgers and Richard Kiley in 1962

The Art of Animation #3

2012-02-07T23:46:00.000-05:00

The Fuccons aka OH! Mikey: Mikey And Milk
In this bizarre Japanese TV show the fashionably hip Fuccons are played by mannequins with perpetually frozen facial expressions, like the mannequins in the French photographer Bernard Faucon’s pictures.

People Who Died #52

2012-02-07T15:18:00.005-05:00

Rory Storm

Treading the Boards #47

2012-02-07T14:08:00.002-05:00

Mary Martin (Nellie Forbush) and Myron McCormick (Luther Billis) in South Pacific, 1949

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #4

2012-02-06T16:44:00.001-05:00

Princess Marcuzan and the aptly named Dr. Nadir hatch a cunning plan in Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (Robert Gaffney, 1965)

The Art of Cinema #483(Super Bowl Sunday Edition)

2012-02-05T09:39:00.000-05:00

Charlton Heston grunts, groans and grits his teeth through the role of fictional New Orleans Saints QB Ron ‘Cat’ Catlan in Number One (Tom Gries, 1969)

Artists in Action #646

2012-02-05T06:57:00.001-05:00

Michel Legrand smokes and points

They Were Collaborators #706

2012-02-05T06:44:00.000-05:00

Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, circa 1974

The First Person You See #11

2012-02-03T08:38:00.002-05:00

Jack McGowran, asleep at the wheel, in Cul-de-sac (d. Roman Polanski; 1966)

Politicians in Action #63

2012-02-03T08:32:00.004-05:00

Original Caption:
(June 03, 1954) Tennessee Senator Albert Gore Sr. and his son Al Gore Jr., the latter holding his new bow and arrow, in their room at Washington's Fairfax Hotel.

They Were Collaborators #705Treading the Boards #46

2012-02-02T11:57:00.000-05:00

The creative forces behind Rodgers and Hammerstein's Me and Juliet (1953).

[l to r (standing): George Abbott (direction), Richard Rodgers (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Robert Alton (choreography) and Jo Mielziner (set design) l to r (seated): Joan McCracken (Betty Loraine), Ray Walston (Mac), Mark Dawson (Bob), Isabel Bigley (Jeanie), Bill Hayes (Larry), Irene Sharaff (costumes) and Jackie Kelk (Herbie)]

The Art of Cinema #482

2012-02-02T07:42:00.001-05:00

Proctor & Bergman’s J-Men Forever (Richard Patterson, 1979)

The Art of the Panel: Robert Crumb #6

2012-02-01T21:53:00.002-05:00

Underground Comix
(Snatch #3, December 1976)

People Who Died #51

2012-02-01T13:08:00.000-05:00

Don Cornelius (1936-2012)

. . . and in parting from this vale of tears, we here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . wish you Love, Peace and Soul.

Broadcasters #90

2012-01-31T12:51:00.002-05:00

Guglielmo Marconi

The Cool Hall of Fame #210

2012-01-30T22:02:00.000-05:00

The Dictators

Jesters of the Republic #52

2012-01-30T13:52:00.000-05:00

Bob Newhart

When Legends Gather #637

2012-01-30T13:06:00.001-05:00

John Wayne, Barbra Streisand, and Oscar®

The Art of the Opening Credit #3

2012-01-29T20:49:00.000-05:00

Seconds (1966) directed by John Frankenheimer - Saul Bass title sequence, OST Jerry Goldsmith
The titles were designed by Saul Bass and shot entirely with reflective mylar.

They Were Collaborators #704

2012-01-29T15:13:00.001-05:00

James Fox and Mick Jagger

The Art of Cinema #481

2012-01-29T09:54:00.001-05:00

The Mask (aka Eyes of Hell, Julian Roffman, 1961)

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #3

2012-01-28T22:26:00.001-05:00

Tabonga the Walking Tree gives a wooden performance in From Hell It Came (Dan Milner,1957)

The Art of the Opening Credit #2

2012-01-27T16:35:00.002-05:00

Crime Without Passion (Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, 1934), montage designed by Slavko Vorkapich

The Art of the Opening Credit #1

2012-01-27T14:28:00.002-05:00

99 44/100% Dead (John Frankenheimer, 1974); titles by Phill Norman, music by Henry Mancini

The Art of Cinema #480

2012-01-26T17:12:00.000-05:00

World Without End (Edward Bernds, 1956)

They Were Collaborators #703

2012-01-26T11:28:00.004-05:00

Andy Warhol and Nico

Mop Tops in Action #49

2012-01-25T16:02:00.005-05:00

Paul McCartney fiddles around with an ancestor of the keytar, The Tubon, backstage at a gig in Germany.

For the curious, here's a clip of the Swedish-built instrument in action, used by Scandinavian musical comedy act Hasse & Tage, on the song What the Hell Are They Doing in the Bank After Three O'Clock?

Artists and Animals #83

2012-01-25T16:00:00.001-05:00

Harold Lloyd gets in a clinch with a great dane.

The Friends of Flagg #5

2012-01-25T15:57:00.002-05:00

Woodrow Wilson

"Colonel House got me a seat in a theatre, from which I could make this caricature of Wilson, which I labelled 'teacher'. I got outraged letters from devotees of the President. One in Texas called me a murderer!"

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #2

2012-01-24T18:12:00.002-05:00

Mimsy Farmer freaks out on acid (or over that populuxe décor) in Riot on Sunset Strip (Arthur Dreifuss, 1967)

A Kovacs Moment #8

2012-01-23T15:50:00.003-05:00

To celebrate Ernie Kovacs' 93rd birthday today, here's a rare example of his unique brand of absurdity appearing on the big screen in the trailer for Richard Quine's 1957 service comedy Operation Mad Ball.

Artists in Action #645

2012-01-23T15:23:00.001-05:00

James Joyce jams to Johannes Jeep in 1915.

American Logo #4

2012-01-23T10:25:00.004-05:00

The Golden Age of the Anti-Masterpiece #1

2012-01-21T15:19:00.002-05:00

They Saved Hitler’s Brain (David Bradley, 1963/68)

Mop Tops in Action #48

2012-01-21T15:11:00.000-05:00

George and wife Pattie (aka ‘Layla’) tripping in the Haight-Ashbury in 1967

Adventures in American Filmmaking #148

2012-01-21T12:15:00.000-05:00

Julie Adams watches Budd Boetticher direct a punch at a stuntman while filming The Man from the Alamo (1953).

When Legends Gather #636Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers #5

2012-01-21T11:24:00.001-05:00

Keith Richards and Levon Helm (photo by Jim Herrington)

Marilyn in Action #57

2012-01-20T16:35:00.002-05:00

Marilyn snaps.

The Art of Songwriting #24

2012-01-20T16:29:00.003-05:00

The Kodak Girl
(Music & lyrics: William T. Cramer)
(Averill Publishing Co.; 1902)

People Who Died #50

2012-01-20T16:01:00.000-05:00

George Eastman

The Art of Cinema #479

2012-01-20T15:47:00.000-05:00

The Trials of Alger Hiss (John Lowenthal, 1979)

Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #2

2012-01-20T12:39:00.001-05:00

Fed to the lions by Michael Gough in Black Zoo
(Robert Gordon; 1963)

Faces of Science #40

2012-01-20T10:31:00.002-05:00

Glenn T. Seaborg

Original Caption:

Prof. Seaborg, co-discoverer of plutonium, shows a container that holds samples of the radioactive, artificially produced elements 94 through 102.

This Sporting Life #34

2012-01-20T10:21:00.000-05:00

Original Caption:

June 20, 1963. Pretty As A Pitcher. A figure familiar to basketball fans, Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, stoops to conquer as he prepares to display his skill on the baseball diamond. The pitcher, whose long, lovely legs frame the hoop star, is Carol Hodecker. The cute blonde catcher is Charlotte Kirsten, who came to the U. S., from West Berlin six years ago. Both gals are "Bunnies" (hostesses) from the Playboy Club. Wilt met them as they were warming up in a Central Park field for a game with show girls from a Broadway musical in the Broadway Show League series. Wilt never had such glamorous opponents on the basketball court! He now plays with the San Francisco Warriors.

Artists in Action #644

2012-01-19T15:45:00.001-05:00

Cameron Diaz prepares to suds up on a Saturday afternoon.

Elisha Cook Jr. Gets the Shaft Again #1

2012-01-19T15:15:00.001-05:00

Wrongly convicted of murder in Stranger On The Third Floor
(Boris Ingster; 1940)

Too Big to Fail #3

2012-01-19T12:46:00.002-05:00

Eastman Kodak Co., 1892-2012

Adventures in the National Pastime #14

2012-01-19T07:41:00.003-05:00

Twenty-six-year-old Eddie Gaedel at bat (for the first and only time) for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951. A dwarf/little person standing 3’ 7”, he wore the number “⅛” on his jersey.

Son of a Preacherman #6

2012-01-18T14:27:00.000-05:00

Woodrow Wilson, President of Princeton University and later President of the United States of America

Artists and Animals #82

2012-01-18T14:11:00.000-05:00

Barbara Stanwyck, astride one lucky horsey, near her home in Hollywood in 1938.

When Legends Gather #635Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers #4

2012-01-18T13:18:00.002-05:00

Rick Danko and Janis Joplin