Jan 12 - Footprints etc. in the forecourt of the famous Chinese theatre, "America's New Sweethearts - Marie Dressler - Wallie Beery - "Min and Bill" - Jan. 31 - '31", Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
That theory of social devolution in ‘Idiocracy’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA has been gaining traction since 2006, moreso since the dawn of the age of Trump (although his admin's really the result of rigged electronic voting and semi-scripted theatre). Shakespeare's 17th cent. audience was quicker and had a more fulsome vocabulary than that of just about any anglophone today. And in the 30s and 40s, the age of Film noir, dialogue in films seemed to really matter, with many more quotable quotes than you hear in modern films. (“I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you, you’re 20 minutes.” Ace in the Hole, 1951: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwTMJ3zNqdg Sidney Greenstreet / Kaspar Gutman: youtu.be/Td3aTQXfR9o?si=0dmgpQhCphoNmGJ5 Bogart and Bacall: youtu.be/DwXc4N_10rA?si=j23ECyp3rGqWAs6U youtu.be/LF_chuSy9G4?si=Qqvuh-md0KbY_nIX Barbara Stanwyck: "I said how do you mean Hubert or Herbert?" "They were John's twin cousins." "John?! Who was John?!" The Lady Eve, 1941 [script courtesy of Preston Sturges]: youtu.be/U3nWo59iBg8?si=w5Rz3vlytgLFiLAn Alaistair Sim: "The police force has not a monopoly of fallen arches, Dr. Barnes. Ask any chiropodist." Green for Danger, 1946: youtu.be/VsV6FV8tFdc?si=5y_OEz7ThtfoQrD2 Anything Eric Blore ever said.: youtu.be/q7OZqGR4wXc?si=T-9xm7-p5yqOFIyT ). Could the success of Marie Dressler in Hollywood in the early 30s be another example of a cultural slide of sorts since then? An ample, elderly woman with great comic timing www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNQqwFK-OM www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uuGh1mcPuc , she was “named top box-office draw in 1933 by the Motion Picture Herald”, two yr.s after she and Wallie Beery stepped in the wet pavement here. Ample. In her 60s. Top box-office draw! Would that happen today? But then it could be that producers and co. underestimate their audience and that they’re just too risk-averse in the industry these days. (Btw, I hope I don’t sound P.C., I don’t see anything wrong in enjoying a film in part because the stars are comely and fun to look at. It's just a question of emphasis I think.)
- One reason I know about Dressler is that she was born in Cobourg, a town on the lakeshore not far east of Toronto, and a museum in her childhood home is an attraction there. I knew she'd won an Oscar, but I was surprised to see this here.
Jan 12 - Footprints etc. in the forecourt of the famous Chinese theatre, "America's New Sweethearts - Marie Dressler - Wallie Beery - "Min and Bill" - Jan. 31 - '31", Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
That theory of social devolution in ‘Idiocracy’ www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP2tUW0HDHA has been gaining traction since 2006, moreso since the dawn of the age of Trump (although his admin's really the result of rigged electronic voting and semi-scripted theatre). Shakespeare's 17th cent. audience was quicker and had a more fulsome vocabulary than that of just about any anglophone today. And in the 30s and 40s, the age of Film noir, dialogue in films seemed to really matter, with many more quotable quotes than you hear in modern films. (“I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you, you’re 20 minutes.” Ace in the Hole, 1951: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwTMJ3zNqdg Sidney Greenstreet / Kaspar Gutman: youtu.be/Td3aTQXfR9o?si=0dmgpQhCphoNmGJ5 Bogart and Bacall: youtu.be/DwXc4N_10rA?si=j23ECyp3rGqWAs6U youtu.be/LF_chuSy9G4?si=Qqvuh-md0KbY_nIX Barbara Stanwyck: "I said how do you mean Hubert or Herbert?" "They were John's twin cousins." "John?! Who was John?!" The Lady Eve, 1941 [script courtesy of Preston Sturges]: youtu.be/U3nWo59iBg8?si=w5Rz3vlytgLFiLAn Alaistair Sim: "The police force has not a monopoly of fallen arches, Dr. Barnes. Ask any chiropodist." Green for Danger, 1946: youtu.be/VsV6FV8tFdc?si=5y_OEz7ThtfoQrD2 Anything Eric Blore ever said.: youtu.be/q7OZqGR4wXc?si=T-9xm7-p5yqOFIyT ). Could the success of Marie Dressler in Hollywood in the early 30s be another example of a cultural slide of sorts since then? An ample, elderly woman with great comic timing www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQNQqwFK-OM www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uuGh1mcPuc , she was “named top box-office draw in 1933 by the Motion Picture Herald”, two yr.s after she and Wallie Beery stepped in the wet pavement here. Ample. In her 60s. Top box-office draw! Would that happen today? But then it could be that producers and co. underestimate their audience and that they’re just too risk-averse in the industry these days. (Btw, I hope I don’t sound P.C., I don’t see anything wrong in enjoying a film in part because the stars are comely and fun to look at. It's just a question of emphasis I think.)
- One reason I know about Dressler is that she was born in Cobourg, a town on the lakeshore not far east of Toronto, and a museum in her childhood home is an attraction there. I knew she'd won an Oscar, but I was surprised to see this here.