Happy Birthday, Roger Ebert

Two thumbs up for cancer survivor Roger Ebert, who turns 68 today. He also survived shtupping Oprah.

See Monkey 'Do

Designer Valentino as he appeared on arrival to the Taormina Film Festival, and a 3.5" figurine of a Wizard of Oz Flying Monkey.

So alike, and yet only one is wearing a suit designed by Adrian.


Tullio M. Puglia/WireImage

Burlesque on Carmen

Carmen Electra and a pair of interesting spheres... at the A Time For Heroes Celebrity Picnic sponsored by Disney to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation.



John Shearer/Getty Images

Johnny on the Spot

Inscrutable fop ice skater Johnny Weir, and Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers in Hitchcock's "Rebecca."


So alike, and yet only one showed her ass in her reality show this past season.

Chexy's Saturday Matinee

The very young Sassy One... Miss Sarah Vaughan with Perdido.



From a far more innocent time... Woody Allen on "Candid Camera."




Ah, summer. Time for a beer. Thanks, woolydoozer.




June is bustin' out all over. From Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel," 1958.

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Memorial Day Weekend

Remembering the soldiers of WWII -- and one of their favorite pin-ups, Esther Williams. (click pic to enlarge)

It's Raining, So Bring on the Dancing Kids

Child star Jane Withers as she appeared last month at the TCM Film Festival in Hollywood... and below in 1935's "This is the Life."

Chexy's Saturday Matinee

Here's a little gem from the Ed Sullivan Show... with Sammy Davis Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald.



Gnarly, dude!



Your Chexy has been eating a vegetarian diet for two weeks, and I feel great!




Here's Ruby Keeler and Lee Dixon in 1937's "Ready, Willing and Able."



ty Decaying Hollywood Mansions

Gowns by Adrian

Joan Crawford as "Letty Lynton" in 1932 in a gown designed by Adrian (Adrian Greenburg), who was married to Janet Gaynor, with whom he had a son. The film became mired in a copyright dispute.





Here are "The Women" in gowns by Adrian; Norma Shearer, Joan, and Rosalind Russell. (click pic to enlarge)





The "ruby slippers" on the feet of Judy Garland, Adrian designed the costumes for "The Wizard of Oz," and over 200 other films.





He even made a monkey look good. Note the detail in Margaret Hamilton's costume.





And Adrian himself, with the signature that became his label.





Adrian died of a heart attack at age 56 in 1959, while designing costumes for "Camelot" on Broadway, for which he won a posthumous Tony.

A Star is Born

Oh the horror. There's talk of remaking "A Star is Born" yet again, perhaps with Beyoncé and Russell Crowe.

There have been three so far; the 1937 version with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, then Judy Garland's version in 1954 with James Mason, and the ghastly 1976 version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

The Janet Gaynor version has some great dialog and was one of the early color films. Janet walked away from Oscar-winning success in films in 1938, and returned nearly 20 years later for one more, "Bernardine" with Pat Boone, of all people.


In 1978, she appeared on the Oscar telecast, handing Diane Keaton the Best Actress award for "Annie Hall."


Her last acting gig was on "The Love Boat" in 1981.


Janet Gaynor was riding in a taxi in San Francisco in 1982 with her husband and Mary Martin and her manager. A drunk driver in a van ran a red light at Franklin and California Streets, hitting the cab, and Gaynor suffered 11 broken ribs, a ruptured bladder, a broken collar bone, kidney damage and pelvic fractures. The taxi driver and the drunk sustained minor injuries.


She lived for two more years. Martin's manager, Ben Washer, was killed. The van driver, Robert Cato, was convicted of drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to 3 years.



Gaynor is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery next to her second husband, one of filmdom's great fashion designers, Adrian.


In September of '84, Cato was paroled after getting time off for good behavior. Janet died that same month of injuries attributed to the crash. Rather than pursue another charge against Cato, the DA chose not to investigate her death... at the request of Gaynor's family.

Chuck the Dragoon

Prince Charlie, 61, put on his Chaplin drag to visit with some pensioners in his capacity as Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Dragoon Guards.

Chexy's Saturday Matinee

From the Ziegfeld hit show that was turned into 1936's hit film, "Showboat," based on the novel by Edna Ferber. Here's Helen Morgan, Irene Dunne, Hattie McDaniel and Paul Robeson with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man."




And now, a clip that'll make you glad you're alive. The relentless fabulousness of "The Continental," sung by Erik Rhodes and Lillian Miles, it was the first Oscar-winning Original Song -- from 1934's "The Gay Divorcée." Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Art direction by the outrageously great Van Nest Polglase and Carroll Clark.




Mary Wells on "Shindig!" with "My Guy," circa 1964.

And because it's nearly Mother's Day, here's that "Mommie Dearest" mashup with Abba.

Wild About Harry

Ruddy Prince Harry, 26, and his girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, on the occasion of His Gingership's graduation from Operational Training at Army Air Corps. Next he'll fly Apache helicopters. I don't like it one bit.


Camilla showed up, looking like her hair was styled by a helicopter.

And now, here's Carmen Miranda.



Jamie Wiseman, WPA Pool/Getty Images

Guess My Grampas?

This hotness attended the Independent Filmmaker Project spring gala in NYC yesterday.


That's model and actress Kiera Sunshine Chaplin, 27, granddaughter of Sir Charles Chaplin and Oona O'Neill, and great-granddaughter of Eugene O'Neill.


Bryan Bedder/Getty Images

Real Gone Places: The Sattler Theatre

That's what's left of the terra cotta masterpiece, the Sattler Theatre, at 516 Broadway in Buffalo, New York, built by architect Henry L. Spann, on commission by John G. Sattler, a real estate tycoon who later owned a department store. It cost $35,000 to build it in 1914 (about $760,000 in 2010 dollars).

It later became the Broadway, then Basil's Broadway, and then the Joy Temple (a church), it was then abandoned and fell into disrepair.


In 2008, it was announced that the non-profit Western New York Minority Media Professionals Inc. would spend upwards of $1 million to renovate the vacant property for use as its headquarters and as a performing arts center.

I tried to call them, but their website offers a non-working number. Status of the project: unknown. This is what they proposed.


Click this link for a slideshow by the brilliant photographer, David Torke, of fixBuffalo blog, showing how The Sattler looked circa 2007.

Happy Birthday, Beulah Bondi

Character actress Beulah Bondi was born in Chicago on this day in 1888. You likely know her best as Jimmy Stewart's mother, Ma Bailey, in "It's a Wonderful Life." She's terrifying in the "Life without George" sequence as the operator of a run-down boarding house.

She played Jimmy Stewart's mother in four films. (The other three are: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts, and Vivacious Lady.)

Here she is, singing and dancing in 1948's, "So Dear to My Heart," a Disney country yarn with folksinger Burl Ives.



Beulah made her first Hollywood film "Street Scene" in 1931 -- she was 42, and went on to appear in over 70, with her last role on TV's "The Waltons." She also played Mrs. Greer in "The Snake Pit," who suffered from delusions of grandeur.


Her "Walk of Fame" star is at 1730 N. Vine St. (near Capitol Records).




She died New Year's Day 1981 at age 92 of injuries sustained in her three-story Hollywood Hills home when she fell over her cat.

"What distinguishes the real actor from the pseudo is the passionate desire to know what is going on in the hearts and minds of people."

--Beulah Bondi

Chexy's Saturday Matinee

May Day! May Day!

Here's Mae West with "Willie of the Valley," from "My Little Chickadee."



May you stay "Forever Young." Here's Joan Baez.



The voice of Mae Questel -- Betty Boop sings "Ain't Cha" from 1932.



Watch for Anna May Wong at the end of this 1937 Technicolor masterpiece, "Hollywood Party."

Which is Witch?

Ali Lohan, 16-year-old sister of Lindsay, as she and her eyebrows appeared yesterday at a milkshake shop in West Hollywood, and Wicked Witch portrayer Margaret Hamilton.

So alike, and yet only one has a good sister.

TCM Classic Film Fest Stars!

The stars were out at last night's TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood! Tony Curtis, 84, child star Jane Withers (one of the world's great doll collectors), also 84, and Ernest Borgnine, 93!

Shore Thing

Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty Marie Prevost in Laguna Beach in 1916...


and "Jersey Shore" trashlet Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi in Miami Beach in 2010.

That's entertainment.

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