Hot Town, Summer in the (New York) City

September 5, 2011.Reading time 2 minutes.

I’m a Los Angeleno by birth, a Londoner by heart, and an aspiring New Yorker. Having just returned from another whirlwind trip in the City That Never Sleeps, that honeymoon glow is still warm enough to post some of my favorite street view snaps from the City that I’m falling more, all the more, head […]

Hollywood at Home: 1950 to 1965

July 10, 2011.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Hollywood at Home provides a unique behind-the-scenes look at the crossroads between the last real glamour years and the TV decade. It is a remarkable portrait of mid-century America.” So reads the back cover of Hollywood at Home: A Family Album (1950 – 1965), a slight yet strong volume from Sid Avery‘s lens and Richard […]

A Life in Photographs: Linda McCartney

July 6, 2011.Reading time 7 minutes.

Oh Taschen. Yummy, delectable, I-want-to-devour-you-whole Tahhhh-Shen. So beautiful. So sumptuous. SO expensive. And yet, somehow, worth every blessed cent. Your anthologies agonize me with want. I covet your sweetly binded spines and secretly despise those who have your volumes proudly displayed on their hand-crafted cabinetry. I’m a hater, what can I say? I own one […]

Walking in LA: Photo Blogging by Foot

June 17, 2011.Reading time 3 minutes.

Growing up with an amateur photographer for a father, my love for photography has its roots in his makeshift, homemade dark room. Deep red lights and sour solution are as much a part of my childhood memories as oreos and milk. My father was (and still is) quite gifted and he certainly instilled love of […]

Mirrors of Silent Hollywood

May 7, 2011.Reading time 8 minutes.

Those countless hours spent mining through antique shops are well worth the effort, even when you leave empty handed. And since I do normally leave empty handed, this morning I was rapturous to have discovered an antique slim volume from 1925. The salesman let me have it for a fiver. I would have paid ten […]

The Jean Harlow Blogathon: February 28 – March 6

February 21, 2011.Reading time 2 minutes.

The Jean Harlow Blogathon kicks off February 28 and The Kitty Packard Pictorial is rounding up contributors! The original Platinum Blonde Bombshell’s 100th birthday is March 3rd and the Pictorial is honoring her life and work with a weeklong Blogathon. The event is being held in conjunction with the release of the new book […]

HARLOW’S HOLLYWOOD – AN INTERVIEW WITH DARRELL ROONEY & MARK VIEIRA

February 4, 2011.Reading time 26 minutes.

An MGM crew member once said of Jean Harlow, “We weren’t just workers on her set, we were real to her. If you were sick, she was the first one to notice. The first one to send flowers.” She was also the first one to tell her director ‘Let’s work late tonight so the boys […]

City of Dreadful Joy: Random Ponderings on the Paradoxical Mechanics of a City in Search of Self.

January 3, 2011.Reading time 11 minutes.

Confession: I love Los Angeles. It’s not my favorite city in the world– that crown rests in the heart of my old home across the Pond– but I’ve pretty much reconciled to the fact that I do love Los Angeles. Problem is, I hate L.A. Yes. There is a difference. For me, Los Angeles is […]

The Tournament of Roses Parade – Through the Years

January 1, 2011.Reading time 2 minutes.

Mornings on the first of January are a cuddly affair of cocoa, coffee, cinnamon buns and Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade. Or, at least, for that’s the way it is for Southern Californians. The parade itself is high camp, and network coverage is overinflated cornball… but boy if it doesn’t make me all warm and […]

Pictorial Palette – Marilyn Monroe

December 15, 2010.Reading time 4 minutes.

There is a moment in the 1956 film Bus Stop that is a striking testament to the worth of Marilyn Monroe as a serious actress. It doesn’t last long–a few seconds at most–but like all great screen moments, it seeds itself into your subconscious, rendering it impossible to forget. Having been relentlessly chased down and […]