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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6082/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Paramount. Anna May Wong in Daughter of the Dragon (Lloyd Corrigan, 1931).
Anna May Wong (1905-1961) will become the first Asian American to be on U.S. currency. She was the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American actress to gain international recognition. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, Wong left for Europe, where she starred in such classics as Piccadilly (1929). The U.S. Mint will begin shipping coins featuring Anna May Wong on Monday 23 October 2022.
Anna May Wong (Chinese: 黃柳霜; pinyin: Huáng Liǔshuāng) was born Wong Liu Tsong (Frosted Yellow Willows) near the Chinatown neighbourhood of Los Angeles in 1905. She was the second of seven children born to Wong Sam Sing, owner of the Sam Kee Laundry in Los Angeles, and his second wife Lee Gon Toy. Wong had a passion for the movies. By the age of 11, she had come up with her stage name of Anna May Wong, formed by joining both her English and family names. Wong was working at Hollywood's Ville de Paris department store when Metro Pictures needed 300 girl extras to appear in The Red Lantern (Albert Capellani, 1919) starring Nazimova as a Eurasian woman who falls in love with an American missionary. The film included scenes shot in Chinatown. Without her father's knowledge, a friend of his with movie connections helped Anna May land an uncredited role as an extra carrying a lantern. In 1921 she dropped out of Los Angeles High School to pursue a full-time acting career. Wong received her first screen credit for Bits of Life (Marshall Neilan, 1921), the first anthology film, in which she played the abused wife of Lon Chaney, playing a Chinaman. At 17, she played her first leading part, Lotus Flower, in The Toll of the Sea (Chester M. Franklin, 1922), the first Technicolor production. The story by Hollywood's most famous scenarist at the time, Frances Marion, was loosely based on the opera Madame Butterfly but moved the action from Japan to China. Wong also played a concubine in Drifting (Tod Browning, 1923) and a scheming but eye-catching Mongol slave girl running around with Douglas Fairbanks Jr in the super-production The Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924). Richard Corliss in Time: “Wong is a luminous presence, fanning her arms in right-angle gestures that seem both Oriental and flapperish. Her best scenes are with Fairbanks, as they connive against each other and radiate contrasting and combined sexiness — a vibrant, erotic star quality.” Wong began cultivating a flapper image and became a fashion icon. in Peter Pan (Herbert Brenon, 1924), shot by her cousin cinematographer James Wong Howe, she played Princess Tiger Lily who shares a long kiss with Betty Bronson as Peter. Peter Pan was the hit of the Christmas season. She appeared again with Lon Chaney in Mr. Wu (William Nigh, 1927) at MGM and with Warner Oland and Dolores Costello in Old San Francisco (Alan Crosland, 1927) at Warner Brothers. Wong starred in The Silk Bouquet/The Dragon Horse (Harry Revier, 1927), one of the first US films to be produced with Chinese backing, provided by San Francisco's Chinese Six Companies. The story was set in China during the Ming Dynasty and featured Asian actors playing the Asian roles. Hollywood studios didn't know what to do with Wong. Her ethnicity prevented US filmmakers from seeing her as a leading lady. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles as the naïve and self-sacrificing ‘Butterfly’ and the evil ‘Dragon Lady’, Wong left for Europe in 1928.”
In Europe, Anna May Wong became a sensation in the German film Schmutziges Geld/Show Life (Richard Eichberg, 1928) with Heinrich George. The New York Times reported that Wong was "acclaimed not only as an actress of transcendent talent but as a great beauty (...) Berlin critics, who were unanimous in praise of both the star and the production, neglect to mention that Anna May is of American birth. They mention only her Chinese origins." Other film parts were a circus artist on the run from a murder charge in Großstadtschmetterling/City Butterfly (Richard Eichberg, 1929), and a dancer in pre-Revolutionary Russia in Hai-Tang (Richard Eichberg, Jean Kemm, 1930). In Vienna, she played the title role in the stage operetta 'Tschun Tschi' in fluent German. Wong became an inseparable friend of the director, Leni Riefenstahl. According to Wikipedia, her close friendships with several women throughout her life, including Marlene Dietrich, led to rumors of lesbianism which damaged her public reputation. London producer Basil Dean bought the play 'A Circle of Chalk' for Wong to appear in with the young Laurence Olivier, her first stage performance in the UK. Her final silent film, Piccadilly (Ewald André Dupont, 1929), caused a sensation in the UK. Gilda Gray was the top-billed actress, but Variety commented that Wong "outshines the star", and that "from the moment Miss Wong dances in the kitchen's rear, she steals 'Piccadilly' from Miss Gray." It would be the first of five English films in which she had a starring role, including her first sound film The Flame of Love (Richard Eichberg, Walter Summers, 1930). American studios were looking for fresh European talent. Ironically, Wong caught their eye and she was offered a contract with Paramount Studios in 1930. She was featured in such films as Daughter of the Dragon (Lloyd Corrigan, 1931) as the vengeful daughter of Fu Manchu (Warner Oland), and with Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932). Wong spent the first half of the 1930s travelling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work. She repeatedly turned to the stage and cabaret for a creative outlet. On Broadway, she starred in the drama 'On the Spot', that ran for 167 performances and which she would later film as Dangerous to Know (Robert Florey, 1938).
Anna May Wong became more outspoken in her advocacy for Chinese American causes and for better film roles. Because of the Hays Code's anti-miscegenation rules, she was passed over for the leading female role in The Son-Daughter (Clarence Brown, 1932) in favour of Helen Hayes. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer deemed her ‘too Chinese to play a Chinese’ in the film, and the Hays Office would not have allowed her to perform romantic scenes since the film's male lead, Ramón Novarro, was not Asian. Wong was scheduled to play the role of a mistress to a corrupt Chinese general in The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Frank Capra, 1933), but the role went instead to Toshia Mori. Her British film Java Head (Thorold Dickinson, J. Walter Ruben, 1934), was the only film in which Wong kissed the lead male character, her white husband in the film. In 1935 she was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role of the Chinese character O-Lan in the film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth (Sidney Franklin, 1937). Paul Muni, an actor of European descent, was to play O-lan's husband, Wang Lung, and MGM chose German actress Luise Rainer for the leading role. Rainer won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her father and her younger brothers and sister in her family's ancestral village Taishan and studying Chinese culture. To complete her contract with Paramount Pictures, she starred in several B movies, including Daughter of Shanghai (Robert Florey, 1937), Dangerous to Know (Robert Florey, 1938), and King of Chinatown (Nick Grinde, 1939) with Akim Tamiroff. These smaller-budgeted films could be bolder than the higher-profile releases, and Wong used this to her advantage to portray successful, professional, Chinese-American characters. Wong's cabaret act, which included songs in Cantonese, French, English, German, Danish, Swedish, and other languages, took her from the U.S. to Europe and Australia through the 1930s and 1940s. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II but devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong starred in Lady from Chungking (William Nigh, 1942) and Bombs over Burma (Joseph H. Lewis, 1943), both anti-Japanese propaganda made by the poverty row studio Producers Releasing Corporation. She donated her salary for both films to United China Relief. She invested in real estate and owned a number of properties in Hollywood.
Anna May Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own detective series The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951-1952), the first US television show starring an Asian-American series lead. After the completion of the series, Wong's health began to deteriorate. In late 1953 she suffered an internal hemorrhage, which her brother attributed to the onset of menopause, her continued heavy drinking, and financial worries. In the following years, she did guest spots on television series. In 1960, she returned to film playing housekeeper to Lana Turner in the thriller Portrait in Black (Michael Gordon, 1960). She was scheduled to play the role of Madame Liang in the film production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song (Henry Koster, 1961) when she died of a heart attack at home in Santa Monica in 1961. Anna May Wong was 56. For decades after her death, Wong was remembered principally for the stereotypical sly ‘Dragon Lady’ and demure ‘Butterfly’ roles that she was often given. Matthew Sweet in The Guardian: “And this is the trouble with Anna May Wong. We disapprove of the stereotypes she fleshed out - the treacherous, tragic daughters of the dragon - but her performances still seduce, for the same reason they did in the 1920s and 30s.” Her life and career were re-evaluated by three new biographies, a meticulous filmography, and a British documentary about her life called Frosted Yellow Willows. Wikipedia: “Through her films, public appearances, and prominent magazine features, she helped to ‘humanize’ Asian Americans to white audiences during a period of overt racism and discrimination. Asian Americans, especially the Chinese, had been viewed as perpetually foreign in U.S. society but Wong's films and public image established her as an Asian-American citizen at a time when laws discriminated against Asian immigration and citizenship.” Anna May Wong never married, but over the years, she was the rumored mistress of several prominent film men: Marshall Neilan (14 years older, supposedly Wong's lover when she was 15), director Tod Browning (23 years older, when she was 16) and Charles Rosher (Mary Pickford's favorite cinematographer, who was nearly 20 years older, when Wong was 20). But no biographer can say for sure that any of the affairs occurred.
Sources: Richard Corliss (Time), Matthew Sweet (The Guardian), Jon C. Hopwood (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Schwinn Paramount 75th Anniversary Edition - air-hardening steel main tubes with stainless stays, with vintage 60's styling in Waterford's take on Schwinn Coppertone.
Paramount Miami Worldcenter is a 60-story condominium tower in the Miami Worldcenter complex. It sits above the Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores in the complex.
Architects Elkus / Manfredi
"Elkus / Manfredi Architects is an architectural firm based in Boston, Massachusetts that includes Howard F. Elkus and David Manfredi, both fellows of the American Institute of Architects, as a principal. The firm was established in 1988." Wikipedia
Official site: Paramount Miami Worldcenter
Richmond, BC Canada
Steveston Harbour - the largest commercial fishing harbour in Canada under the DFO - SCH Harbour Authority Program.
Steveston Harbour is located on the south arm of the Fraser River at the south end of Richmond, BC and is composed of two main sites: Paramount and Gulf.
The Paramount site extends from the south foot of No. 2 Road to the Britannia Shipyard National Historic Site and is the main industrial area of the harbour, offering a plethora of on site services through Harbour Authority staff and our upland tenants, a list of which can be found here.
The Gulf site is located between No. 1 Road and Garry Point Park and consists of a combination of working docks, shops and restaurants, and gear storage facilities.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4274/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Josephine Dunn (1906-1983) was an American film actress of the 1920s and 1930s.
Mary Josephine Dunn was born in New York City, in 1906. She grew up in her native New York and attended Holy Cross Convent, a Catholic girls' school there. At the age of 14, she became a chorus girl at the Winter Garden Theatre in 'Good Morning, Dearie'. After her first successes, Dunn dropped out of school and from then on devoted herself exclusively to the theatre. She was briefly in the Ziegfeld Follies and, in 1924, had a walk-on in 'Dear Sir' on Broadway. Two years later, she was picked by a talent scout to join the Paramount acting school for hopeful young debutantes. She began her Hollywood career with a small role alongside Thelma Todd in Fascinating Youth (Sam Wood, 1926). She graduated from the Paramount Pictures School, which was set up by Paramount Pictures for their young actors without a high school diploma. A ravishing blue-eyed blonde, she made an impression in D.W. Griffith's The Sorrows of Satan (1926). In 1927 Dunn got her first leading role opposite Evelyn Brent in Love's Greatest Mistake (A. Edward Sutherland, 1927). In 1927, she played the female lead alongside Al Jolson in the Warner Brothers-produced The Singing Fool (1927), a sequel to the hugely successful The Jazz Singer of the same year, but which failed to match the success of its predecessor. After another leading role opposite Wallace Beery in Fireman, Save My Child (A. Edward Sutherland, 1927), she took a nine-month break. Then she joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and acted in Our Modern Maidens (Jack Conway, 1929) with Joan Crawford and Anita Page. She married Clyde Greathouse during the mid-1920s, divorcing him shortly thereafter. In 1925 she married William P. Cameron, whom she also divorced in 1928. She would star in a total of twenty-three silent films, and in 1929 she was one of thirteen WAMPAS Baby Stars, which that year also included actress Jean Arthur.
In 1930 Josephine Dunn made a successful transition, unlike many silent stars, to sound films. She starred in Safety in Numbers (Victor Schertzinger, 1930) alongside Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Kathryn Crawford. She had good reviews in the Ernst Lubitsch-directed operetta One Hour with You (1932) as Mademoiselle Martel. She starred in sixteen films through 1932, and at the peak of her career in 1933 she played vamps and mercenary wives. That same year, she married Eugene J. Lewis, whom she divorced in 1935 to marry Carroll Case, whose father Frank Case owned the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, which housed the now-famous Algonquin Round Table. In the 1920s, Dunn had already become associated with the Algonquin Round Table, a meeting place for a group of actors, critics, wits, and writers, between 1919 and 1929. Dunn retired from acting in 1938 and remained with Case for the remainder of his life. She made sporadic appearances in summer stock during the 1940s. Her husband died in 1978 and Josephine Dunn died 6 years later in 1983, in Thousand Oaks, California, aged 76. The actress was buried alongside her husband in a columbarium at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Sources: I.S.Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Greendale: Day 11 of the Misfits' Undercover Operation
With the rest of the Misfits still enrolled in the college, Drury had left Rigger, Reardon and Gar to browse the nearby mall. With them distracted, and in good enough spirits, he was able to enter the Ballroom, a small bar in Greendale's town center without arousing their suspicions. As he opened the door, he was met with a large, suited guard, standing between him and his contact.
"You're late," the guard noted.
"Couldn't find a parking space I liked," Drury lied, placing his cocoon gun and the accompanying cartridge of white pellets onto the cork crate beside him: holding his arms out so that the guard could pat him down, pausing as their hands reached the large stuffed rabbit Drury had forced halfway down his back jacket pocket.
"It's for my son," Drury blushed. "He'll be 20 this month."
The guard raised a judgemental eyebrow, but gave way nonetheless, allowing Drury access into the private booth. The seated occupant rose to his feet and offered his hand out to greet him.
"Mr Walker. We haven't been formally introduced yet. My name is David Li, but you can call me-" he began, only for Drury to cut him off.
"-Bookworm, yeah, yeah, Roman's right hand, I know. Chuck's mentioned you. Said you were an honourable sort. Or at least as honourable as a mob accountant gets, I suppose... He's also said that he wished you'd find more... eh, 'ethically sound' employment."
"Oh, I'm quite satisfied in Mr Sionis' employ, thank you," Li smiled politely. "Although we have been... challenged, as of late. Perhaps it's better to show you: Here."
Li reached into his briefcase and handed Drury the first of many photos, as Walker tried his very best not to throw up.
"Lucio Moxxom. October 31st. Halloween. Head decapitated and mailed to the Sionis penthouse," Li explained, before moving onto the next victim:
"Marco Viti. November 5th. Bonfire Night. Thrown into a Steel Mill furnace. Headfirst."
And the next:
"Angelo Mirti. November 16th. Thanksgiving. Drugged and strung up outside the East End Warehouses. A pound of C4 placed... Well, in a place best left unsaid. And since then, there have been three other murders just like them. Remind you of someone?"
"Julian..." Drury realised, as his heart sank.
"Yes. There was a note attached to the first victim's... ah, head, which matches the handwriting we have on record... Here's the copy I made," Li handed Drury a small sheet of paper, and he read it aloud:
"'Roman Sionis... should've stayed in Italy... blah blah... day of reckoning...' bit pretentious... 'Before this year is through, we will see you burn.'" Drury read. "How come I didn't hear about this sooner? Why didn't you go to the cops?"
"Because the last thing Mr Sionis wants is the GCPD intruding on his businesses. He gets enough bother from the Bats: Something we have in common, I hear. We can help you with that," Li lowered his glasses. "Mr Sionis, believes there's a connection between Day, and this man: The White Mask. And, on Halloween, a recent blood test confirmed his suspicions that White Mask, real name: David Franco, is the son of Richard Sionis. His father. This revelation has Mr Sionis reeling, as he's now certain that Franco, has joined forces with Day to remove him from power."
Though he had only been half listening, Drury suddenly perked up. "Sorry, Dave Franco-?"
"Yes, believe me, we all know what it sounds like... Might we skip the jokes and focus, please?" Li sighed.
"Oh, no, we can not just gloss over that. I've got so much material to work with!" Drury joked.
"If you could concentrate please-" Li restated, as he motioned to his bodyguard, the burly man who had patted Drury down earlier with firm enthusiasm.
"Right, yes, sorry," Drury gulped. "Continue."
"In the weeks since he first received those blood tests, Mr Sionis has turned to Henry Ferris: Iron-Hat, a vile man really. Ferris, believes that to catch Day, we must first lure him out into the open. And what better way is there, than with a holiday party? I believe you're familiar with the annual Janus Cosmetics Christmas ball."
"I am, yeah," Drury reminisced. "But you could wrap Roman in tissue paper and a big red bow, and Jules would probably still show up. Doubt it matters to him, but it would limit casualties."
"You're being sarcastic, I take it," Li noticed. "Believe me, you have every reason to distrust my employer, hate him even, but if you do nothing, if The Calendar Man kills Roman Sionis... Well, you have no idea the kinds of monsters he's kept at bay. Or the evils that will rise up in his place..." Li stopped himself from elaborating further and instead, took a pen from his breast pocket, and scrawled a few digits onto the napkin beneath his soda. "The offer stands. We can grant you safe passage into Gotham, however many guns you require, and in exchange, we request your expertise in dealing with Calendar Man. I'll be staying in the hotel on Rhodes Street; visit me there when you have an answer."
==Greendale: Day 17==
"You didn't tell me you were working with Sionis," Kuttler frowned.
"No, I didn't..." Chuck murmured, just as confused as he was.
Drury approached the False Facers and shook hands with Li. "You remembered my terms, yeah?" he asked.
"Yes," Li spoke. "We already have people bringing Mr Sharpe to the rendezvous point," he confirmed. "We are, however, still struggling to locate Mr Fiasco. We've not heard from him since he was released from GCPD custody."
"Forget it, Len knows how to disappear: he'll be deep underground by now," Drury reasoned. "He's never really liked the spotlight."
"Quite," Li agreed. "We have a small smelting plant in one of the neighbouring towns. I've arranged to have your truck moved there, where it can be quietly decommissioned."
"But not before you 'quietly' scavenge whatever Bat-Tech you can get a hold of, right?" Drury questioned him, hesitantly reaching into his back pocket, and placing the keys into Li's expectant palm.
"Perhaps," Li said coolly.
"Oh, mind you, I quite like the hood ornament," White remarked, as he ran his fingers along the grill of the truck. "Might have to keep that for myself."
"Uh, Drury?" Chuck interrupted, speaking on the group's behalf. "Could we maybe talk about this for a minute?"
Drury, looked back over to Li. "Five minutes," the Bookworm relented. Walker nodded gratefully, and rejoined the rest of the Misfits.
"How exactly did you arrange an escort from the Great White Shark of all people? Did you subscribe to the Iceberg Lounge's loyalty scheme?" Kuttler inquired, a note of sarcasm in his voice.
"They do that?" an oblivious Mayo asked. "What a gip!"
"Dru?" Rigger asked expectantly, electing to ignore Mayo.
"Well, you remember those couple of days we spent in the city center? Blake had his teaching gig, you got your sword, Gar got that nifty new lighter and we all had a brief pint in that place on L-Street?"
"Sure, that was the happiest I've ever been," he replied.
'Really?' Gar thought.
"Well, while you were browsing through shops, I actually had a meeting with Li there: The guy with the hat. We'd been texting for a couple of days prior; think Sharpe maybe gave him my mobile... Doesn't matter. Well, matters a little... But, what's important is, Li told me that Sionis' people are being taken out one by one. On holidays," he stated, pausing for dramatic effect.
'Julian...' Chuck gasped.
"Jules?" Blake wondered. "But that'd mean..."
"Exactly. I think we've found our mastermind," Drury concluded.
Ten placed his head in his hands. "God, Drury, I thought we moved past this," he sighed wearily.
"We did, I know, I'm sorry, but look at the facts: We know Carson isn't smart enough to play the long game. Julian is. If he's part of- or the leader of the Outcasts, we have to take him down. We could end this all, right here."
"Just like in Nanda Parbat, right?" Reardon asked, standing his ground.
"That was different. Please," Drury pleaded.
"Ok, Drury, let's say that he is behind all this, that he paid Krill and promised Carson revenge: that still doesn't explain that Zolomon ghoul," Chuck addressed it. "What does he get out of this?"
"Guess we'll just have to ask him ourselves," Gar stated, as he stood by Drury's side.
The other Misfits, looked more hesitant to join him.
"There'll be a party," Drury tried to entice them. "Booze. Food. Women," directing each of these at Flannegan, Mayo and Blake in that order.
"I'm in," Blake replied confidently, as Rigger also cheered enthusiastically.
"You know me, boss, I'm just here for the paycheck," Otis agreed.
"And if there's a free buffet-" Mayo licked his lips. "Well, that'd just be swell."
'Swell...' Gar mouthed, looking at Drury and nodding affirmatively.
The next to speak, Chuck sighed. "God, peer pressure is a bitch... Hell yeah, let's do it," he smiled. That just left Ten.
"Hey. You said you trusted me," Drury smirked.
"Eh-" Reardon protested.
"You said, 'Drury, I trust you,' you did," he teased.
"Hey, if you said that, it's on you," Blake shrugged.
"Well, that's- That's not a direct quotation," Reardon responded. "It's not!" he repeated to the skeptical ensemble. "Fine," he said reluctantly. "Fine."
"Does it even matter what I think?" Kuttler asked bitterly.
"I mean, I thought I'd at least give you the illusion of choice," Drury smiled boyishly.
"Good job," he scoffed.
==Gotham City==
The Apartment of the Deceased Jumbo Carson. Now home to his brother Ted, his daughter Bridget and their lackey Roger Hayden
The door creaked open, as Julian Day entered the room, his hands smelling strongly of hand sanitizer: A habit he had taken up since his meeting with The King of Cats. Hayden, was currently sat atop the kitchen stool, watching cartoons with intense delight, while his hands caressed his beloved Medusa mask.
At the side of the room, Bridget was putting up a Christmas tree; with many of the decorations recovered from her childhood home to celebrate the first Christmas she was spending with her father since his return- a gesture gone unnoticed by Carson himself.
"Allow me," Day said softly, as he reached into the cardboard box of mementos and placed the star at the top of the tree. 'No tinsel?' he noted. 'Pity.'
Leaning against the kitchen counter, Carson perked up. "Who'd you kill this time, huh?" he demanded, as he poured himself a cup of black coffee.
Day didn't reply.
"And where the hell's Krill anyway?" Carson continued to press. "Would never have agreed to this arrangement if I'd known you'd be poaching my people for god knows what."
Bridget, was actually quite grateful for Krill's absence. Though responsible for bringing her father home, Krill himself had been both crass and disrespectful to her family, with his constant jokes aggravating Carson's already foul temper. Day, at least, buried his insults in flowery language that often went over her father's head.
"My partners have Krill working on a separate assignment right now," Day spoke. "You, should stay focused on yours."
"Separate assignment- Stay focused? But I'm not doing anything!" Carson disagreed.
"Precisely," Day said coldly. "I can't have you bumbling around Gotham like a drunk Darth Vader."
"I-," Carson stammered. "We should be out there, searching for the putz who killed Jacob!"
Day took the coffee pot out of Carson's hands, and poured the steaming liquid into his festive mug. "No. You really shouldn't," he disagreed. "The matter has already been dealt with. Pass the milk, please, Roger."
Carson intercepted Hayden's hand. "No, 'Roger,' don't pass him the goddamn milk! Dealt with? Dealt with?! You have no right to-"
"Oh, and you do?" Day scoffed. "It was your failure at the hospital that got Ant-Man captured. And your inaction that got him killed."
Bridget arrived at her dad's side and placed her hand on his shoulder, in an attempt to calm him down. "It's not worth it," she urged.
Carson took a deep breath. "That's my point," he told Day. "Listen, if you'd just let me talk to your partners, we could coordinate on this. Let me set the gas mains alight, hit the power station. Something big to draw Walker out of hiding!"
Day paused to process the magnitude of Carson's suggestion, and brow furrowed, turned to Bridget sympathetically.
Dejected, Carson changed direction. "At least I'm trying! While you were out... washing your hands? I, had a talk with the White Mask. Turns out, he's seeing somebody,"
Day rolled his eyes. "Barson, I'm really not interested in tabloid news and idle gossip," he said disinterestedly.
"But you'll like this: His new girlfriend, is none other than Jenna Duffy. Lynns' girl. You know what that means, don't you? They broke up," Carson said gleefully.
Day raised an eyebrow, suddenly invested. "Really?" he wondered.
"Really?" Carson quoted. "Yes, really, why would I lie? It was a big teary eyed thing, Franco said. Apparently, Lynns had to choose between her and his best friend, and he chose Walker. Crazy, right?"
"Crazy," Day repeated. "Hn. Congratulations, Barson, perhaps you're not all that useless after all," he concluded.
=The Iceberg Lounge's Private Bar=
Sionis was sat in the backroom, in a makeshift surgery room. Doting over him, was Lazlo Valentin: Professor Pyg. Sionis, had refused anaesthetic, of course: He'd heard all kinds of horror stories about Valentin transforming simple surgical procedures into nightmarish experiments. Presently, Valentin had been put to work adjusting Sionis' face in anticipation of the holiday party: Sandpapering his scalp, varnishing the surface and tracing over his skull-like features with a small scalpel, all to accentuate Sionis' fearsome visage
"Pretty as a picture," he snorted, as he kissed Sionis' bald scalp tenderly.
"Thanks, Porky. Feel better already," Sionis remarked disingenuously, as he unhooked the white bib from his person, and admired himself in the overhead mirror.
"Sir, the Misfits are outside," Li's voice announced through the door.
"Alright, give me a minute," Sionis replied as he swatted Valentin away.
"Look lively, the strippers are here!" White yelled crassly, as he and Li led the Misfits into the parlour. The convoy, had arrived later than scheduled, having first stopped off at Kuttler's home, to allow him to recover various devices and gadgets he believed would be useful against Day and his apparent henchmen.
"Just remember," Drury was warning them, "Roman's not exactly our biggest fan. Because we keep trying to kill each other. So tread carefully." He paused, as he sniffed the air. "Did you just varnish this floor?" he addressed Sionis' bodyguards. "Smells great."
"Lynns!" Sionis greeted them, as he entered through the backdoor, adjusting his red tie as he made his way towards them.
"Mr Sionis, sir," Gar replied a little awkwardly, as the two shook hands firmly.
"Roman, son. Call me Roman. Here, sit down," he offered, pulling a chair out for his former employee, and handing him a crystal glass of whiskey. "You too, Flannegan."
Chuck looked like he was going to throw up. "Otis, he threw me off a building," he muttered in his ear.
"That's business, Brown, you gotta look past things like that," Flannegan responded, as he too accepted a glass from Sionis.
"Aha, Kite-Man," Sionis sneered, finally addressing the rest of the group. "How was your trip?"
"Eventful," Chuck responded.
"Oho, I'll bet," Sionis replied, recalling their last encounter with sadistic pleasure. "Please, as a sign of good faith; your comrade in arms." With the snap of his fingers, the door opened behind them, as Montgomery Sharpe was escorted in by Iron-Hat Ferris, and a rather familiar hooded figure. As Ferris made his way to Sionis' side, his attention was drawn to Gar and Rigger. "Aw, look, they come in different colours now, that's neat," he said mockingly.
As Gar's fist clenched, Joey instead pulled his arm back as if to say 'It's not worth it.'
"Hello everyone, happy holidays to you all," The Dragon King cheered. "Montgomery has told me all about you, of course," he elaborated, placing a hand atop Sharpe's shoulder.
"Love that guy," Sionis said. "Caught him raking through my dumpster for body parts a while back."
"Quite so," Ito said nostalgically. "When Mr Sionis first asked me to tend over Montgomery, I was hesitant, but during our weeks together, I have been most impressed by his growth and maturity."
"That Montgomery?" Reardon asked, noting Sharpe's uncharacteristically quiet composition.
Ito paused, as his reptilian eyes locked onto Drury, and his gaze softened. "Ah, of course, you must be Cliff Walker's boy. You look so very much like your father."
Ito's remark, was intended as a compliment, sure, but Drury had never felt sicker. He put on a fake smile, and thanked him.
"Alas, I'm afraid I cannot stay for the festivities," Ito admitted. "My daughter, Cynthia, is having a sleepover this weekend with her fellow classmates, and it is paramount I remain there to supervise her, to limit any potential ruckus. She gets awfully rebellious when she has too much sugar. But, you should know that I have cookie dough proofing in your fridge downstairs. Once it has been baked, it shall be splendid."
"Thank god," Sharpe whispered under his breath, as he finally exhaled. "He's a nice guy and all, but he eats pizza with a fork and he hides all the alcohol," he confessed to an appalled Blake. "Lost $200 to his fucking swear jar already."
"Montgomery?" Ito inquired in a paternalistic tone.
"I said ducking."
Smiths of Sittingbourne Ward Dalesman C12-640 / Plaxton Paramount 3200 A638LKO is seen in September 1986 at the Claycart Coach Park used for coaches attending the Farnborough Airshow.
Alyssa Milano
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Paramount Studios
Los Angeles, California USA
February 1, 2005
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PSV licensed Plaxton Paramounts are now well down into double figures but this diddy Dennis Javelin continues to operate in its original Somerset home. ANZ 4374 was new to Wakes of Wincanton as F990 FYB, morphing into a South West Coaches vehicle on its tenth birthday. It was seen amongst more modern buses in Yeovil Bus Station this lunchtime, 15th November, 2019.
The blade sign of the Paramount Theater, reflected against the building opposite it on the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Seen in Slack's yard, not long after having it's retro MK1 Paramount grill and headlight surrounds fitted.
Although a basic coach, to me, it oozes quality.
The work on the Paramount involved doing extensive repairs to the original structure, making new joints and cleaning / re-etching the front dash panel detail. The aluminium panel and headlamps were created from metallic silver decals.
The rear end detail was too badly damaged to 'clean' so a new section was created below the rear window.
Interior refurb involved a repaint and the addition of seat moquette decals in line with the prototype.
Fleetnames and 25th Anniversary crest were drawn in CorelDraw and printed and supplied by John Atwood.
Spanish postcard by Imprime Graficas Torroba. Caption: “Are they real ?” Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
The postcards in this series were produced in the mid-1970s for the Spanish men’s magazine 'Divachistes' and always emphasized the female stars’ sexy side. All of them have one uneven border, which indicates that they were bound to the magazine and that they were tear-off postcards. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to decipher the caricaturist’s name which looks like Mongini or Mancini.
Swedish (but naturalised Italian) film actress Anita Ekberg had a Hollywood career in the 1950s when she was contracted by studio mogul Howard Hughes. However, she got her real breakthrough in Italy. In Rome, she made film history as the sensual, curvaceous film goddess who dances in the Trevi Fountain in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960).
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born in Malmö, Sweden in 1931. She grew up with seven brothers and sisters. Having six brothers around surely developed a fiercely independent spirit. In her teens, she worked as a fashion model, and in 1951 she was elected Miss Sweden. That year she also made her film début in the film journal Terras fönster nr 5/Terra Journal No. 5 (Olle Ekelund, 1951). According to several sources, Ekberg then went to the US for the Miss Universe contest - despite not speaking English - where she didn't win but did get a modelling contract. However, Marlene Pilate of La Collectionneuse recently made extensive research regarding the Miss Universe contests and came to the conclusion that Ekberg was not in a Miss Universe contest. However, Anita Ekberg won second place in the European Miss Casino beauty contest which took place in February 1952 in Amsterdam. The winner was the English contestant, Judy Breen, and the Miss Nederland, Betty van Proosdij, who came in third place. Marlene describes her research in an amusing post on Ekberg. Film mogul Howard Hughes gave her a contract with RKO but it didn't lead anywhere. Anita herself later claimed that Hughes wanted to marry her. Instead the voluptuous, husky-voiced blonde started making films for Universal. Her American début was as a Venusian guard in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (Charles Lamont, 1953). This was soon followed by The Golden Blade (Nathan Juran, 1953) starring Rock Hudson. These were small roles that only required her to look beautiful. She was given the nickname ‘The Iceberg’ - a play on her name as well as her cool, quite mysterious demeanour. While at Universal, Anita Ekberg quickly became one of Hollywood’s hot starlets. She caught the hearts of many famous men including Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Frank Sinatra, and Gary Cooper. Legendary director and photographer Russ Meyer called her 'the most beautiful woman he ever photographed' and said that her 40D bust line was 'the most ample in A list Hollywood history, dwarfing rivals like Jayne Mansfield'. Soon she became a major pin-up girl for the new type of men's magazine such as Playboy that proliferated in the 1950s. Ekberg also knew how to play the Hollywood tabloids and gossip columnists, creating stunts that she hoped would translate into film roles. Famously, she admitted that an incident where her dress burst open in the lobby of London's Berkeley Hotel was pre-arranged with a photographer. Her two marriages also gave her a lot of attention from the press. She married and divorced British actor Anthony Steel (1956-1959) and actor Rik Van Nutter (1963-1975). And she reportedly had a three-year affair with the late Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. The press also loved her saucy quotes, like: “I'm very proud of my breasts, as every woman should be. It's not cellular obesity. It's womanliness.”
Anita Ekberg would get several offers from other studios than Universal. Bob Hope joked that her parents had received the Nobel Prize for architecture when he was touring with her and William Holden to entertain US troops in 1954. The tour led her to a contract with John Wayne's Batjac Productions. Wayne cast her in Blood Alley (William A. Wellman, 1955), a small role where Ekberg's features and appearance were Orientalized to play a Chinese woman. The role earned her a Golden Globe award. Paramount Pictures then cast her in the funny comedies Artists and Models (Frank Tashlin, 1955) and Hollywood or Bust (Frank Tashlin, 1956), both starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. These films showed off her stunning body but also used her as a foil for many of the director's clever sight gags. In 1956, Ekberg went to Rome to make War and Peace (King Vidor, 1956) co-starring Audrey Hepburn. RKO gave Ekberg the female lead in Back from Eternity (John Farrow, 1956), co-starring with Robert Ryan and Rod Steiger. Ekberg was perfectly adequate in her cardboard role, and suggested that with a good director and a worthwhile part, she might have something to offer. In the British production Zarak (Terence Young, 1956) starring Victor Mature and Michael Wilding, her sexy harem-girl dance raised many eyebrows and blood pressures. With Bob Hope, she made two minor comedies, Paris Holiday (Gerd Oswald, 1958) and Call Me Bwana (Gordon Douglas, 1963). One of her better films of this period was the film noir Screaming Mimi (Gerd Oswald, 1958). At IMDb, reviewer Lazarillo calls it one of "the missing link between American film noir and the suspense and horror films that would become so popular in continental Europe over the next two decades (i.e. the German 'Krimis', the Italian 'Gialli', the horror films of Bava and Argento). It's technically a late-period film noir, but rather than having the traditional pessimistic tone and hard-boiled, voice-over narrative, it is completely off-the-wall and chock-full of the suggested depravity and lurid psycho-babble that would characterize the later European films. Interestingly, it was apparently based on the same Fredric Brown novel as Dario Argento's Bird with Crystal Plummage."
In 1960 Anita Ekberg found herself again in Rome for her greatest role. She played the unattainable ‘dream woman’ Sylvia opposite Marcello Mastroianni in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita/The Sweet Life (1960). La Dolce Vita was a sensational success, and Ekberg's uninhibited cavorting in Rome's Trevi Fountain remains one of the most memorable screen images ever captured. Thus began a period when Ekberg would work almost exclusively in Europe. La Dolce Vita was followed by another memorable role for Fellini in his segment La Tentazioni del Dottor Antonio/The Temptation of Doctor Antonio of the anthology film Boccaccio '70 (1962). She plays a gigantic voluptuous lady on a billboard poster, promoting to drink milk and attracting huge crowds. At night she comes to life and pesters the little censor, played by Peppino De Filippo. Fellini would later call her back for two more films: I Pagliacci/I clowns (Federico Fellini, 1972), and Intervista (Federico Fellini, 1987). In 1964 she returned to Sweden to appear in Bo Widerberg's Kärlek 65/Love 65 (1965), but she cancelled her appearance and called the acclaimed director ‘an amateur’. In 1967 she co-starred with Shirley MacLaine in a segment of Vittorio de Sica’s Woman Times Seven (1967). For much of the 1960s though, she was trapped in substandard genre fare and lame comedies. During the 1970s the roles became less frequent. In 1982, at the age of 50 she posed for glamour photos but in 1987, twenty-seven years after La Dolce Vita, she made a marvelous comeback with Fellini's film autobiography, Intervista (Federico Fellini, 1987), where she played herself in a reunion scene with Mastroianni and watched film clips of herself during her heydays. In 1995 Empire magazine chose her as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#98). While she remained active in films into the 1990s, the roles were hardly memorable. Exceptions came with her portrayal of an elderly restaurant owner who is killed in a gas explosion in Bámbola/Doll (Bigas Luna, 1996) featuring Valeria Marini, and her role as an aging, flamboyant opera star who succumbs to the charms of the titular character in Le nain rouge/The Red Dwarf (Yvan Lemoine, 1998). Still blonde, but a bit heavier, Ekberg was able to project the requisite sensuality and diva-like behaviour resulting in a full-bodied performance that ranked among her best. Her last role in a TV series was in Il bello delle donne/The beautiful one of the women (2002) starring Stefania Sandrelli. Anita Ekberg has not lived in Sweden since the early 1950s and rarely visited the country. She has welcomed Swedish journalists in her house outside Rome, and in 2005 appeared in the popular radio program Sommar, talking about her life. She stated in an interview that she would never move back to Sweden until she died when she will be buried there. In 2015, Anita Ekberg died at the clinic San Raffaele in Rocca di Papa, Italy. Her death was caused by complications from a long-time illness. She was 83.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Marlene Pilaete (La Collectionneuse - French), Mattias Thuresson (IMDb), Java’s Bachelor Pad, TCM, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
One of many gates entering on to the Paramount Pictures film studio in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. Seen here in the latter stages of sunset on a November evening of 2016
we see the iconic name plate through the multiple lights of the trees the arch and the sky. this busy scene encapsulates the busy nature of the interior of the studio.
A 1956 Paramount Tourer, photographed at the Queen Square, Bristol, classic car meet in September 2013.
the famous paramount theatre in youngstown, ohio was one of the most opulent theatre's in all of the midwest. originally a vaudeville house which opened its doors in 1908, the theater was purchased by paramount pictures in 1918 and converted into a state of the art movie theater with that held 1,700 people. paramount spent $200,000 renovating the theater and modernizing the audio system. the theater remained a popular attraction until the end of the 1960's, when the steel industry (and general economy) took a turn for the worse.
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Some genuine Paramounts here, but there are two impostors. Pictured in a wet Tredegar, this line up at Park View, taken sometime in 1987, includes Hills B618 CKG; MHB 850P; A775 WHB; RNY 304Y; OWO 906M and C233 HTX. The Paramount impostors are of course MHB and OWO, which carried Supreme III and Elite III bodies respectively. Whilst Hills treated a few Plaxton Elites and Supreme III coaches to the newer style Supreme IV front, these were the only two to receive a Paramount front as part of a mid life refurbishment. B618 CKG was a 1985 12 metre Paramount 3500; A775 WHB was a 1984 12 metre Paramount 3200; RNY 304Y was a 1982 11 metre Paramount 3200 Express (the first Paramount for the company), whilst C233 HTX was a 1986 12 metre Paramount 3200LS.