Category Archives: Silent Movies

The Tragedy of Hollywood Star Lupe Velez

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 5, 2018

The lives of Hollywood stars are too frequently tragic tales of absent fathers, cruelly ambitious mothers, and madly dysfunctional families. Mexican-American actress, Lupe Velez (July 18, 1908 – December 13, 1944) “The Mexican Spitfire” was a beautiful, passionate, emotionally fragile woman best known for a series of 1930’s B movies in which she plays a […]

Also posted in Esther Ralston, Hollywood, Lupe Velez | Tagged Abortion, Douglas Fairbanks, Esther Ralston, Gary Cooper, Hollywood, Johnny Weissmuller, Lupe Velez, Mexican Spitfire, The Gaucho, Victor Fleming | 2 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Madge Bellamy’s Acting Workshop

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: September 6, 2017

Madge Bellamy was huge Hollywood star in the early 20’s. Unfortunately, most of Bellamy’s silent films have been lost. But you can still see her in starring roles in John Ford’s Iron Horse (1924) and Maurice Tourneur’s Lorna Doon (1922). In the sound era, Madge’s most famous role is as Madeleine Parker, in White Zombie, […]

Also posted in Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Madge Bellamy | Tagged Alan Dwan, Iron Horse, L.B. Mayer, Lorna Doon, Madge Bellamy | 10 Responses

Tearing Down Confederate Monuments

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: August 21, 2017

I have no love for the Confederacy. Slavery was evil. The cause of Southern secession was unjust and deserved to be defeated. However, this abrupt cultural paroxysm in which monuments honoring rebel leaders and soldiers are torn down or removed in the dead of night is not a healthy development. Decisions like this should be […]

Also posted in America, Confederate Monuments, Hollywood, Islam Denial, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazis, Jew-hatred, Movies | Tagged Birth of a Nation, Cottage Grove, Gone With the Wind, Mao, Oregon, Scarlett O'Hara, Southern Monuments, The General | 29 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Mary Nolan

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 13, 2017

Also posted in Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Mary Nolan, Photography | Tagged Frank Tinney, Mary Nolan, Silent Movies, Ziegfeld Girl | 2 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Colleen Moore’s Not So Romantic Wedding Night

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 14, 2017

Flaming Youth was a huge hit and propelled Colleen Moore (1899 – 1988) to international stardom. Colleen was smart about her career, carefully choosing her roles and propelling herself to stardom. However, like so many young, inexperienced Hollywood actresses, she was not wise in her choice of men. Her notions of love were gauzy images based […]

Also posted in Colleen Moore, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography | Tagged Colleen Moore, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flaming Youth, John McCormick, Marriage, Silent Star | 3 Responses

Hitchcock: The Purest Form of Cinema

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: January 19, 2017

“The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema; the only thing they lacked was the sound of people talking and the noises. But this slight imperfection did not warrant the major changes that sound brought in… In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I […]

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Great Movies, Hollywood, Quotes, Screenwriting | Tagged Helen G. Scott, Hitchcock, The Lodger, Truffaut | 4 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: September 9, 2016

Also posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Painting, Screenwriting, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Billy Al Bengston, Boris Karloff, Charles Sheeler, Edgar Degas, Fan Ho, Gary Cooper, Gerard Castello Lopes, Gleb Derujinsky, Jean Arthur, Katherine Hepburn, Lillian Gish, Mary Obering, Ori Resheff, Otto Dix, Peter Paul Rubens, Saul Bass | 8 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: August 26, 2016

Also posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Movies, Painting, Touch of Evil, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Albrecht Durer, Bartolomeo Veneto, Black Narcissus, Democrat Fascism, Edgar Degas, Edward Boubat, Exodus, Garbo, Goya, Jay DeFeo, Joanne Woodward, Joseph Cornell, Mabel Normand, Manny Farber, Marlene Dietrich, Melvyn Douglas, Mina Avrech Collection, Ninotchka, Orson Welles, Paul Delaroche, Paul Newman, Paul Sample, Ralston Crawford, Repulsion, Robert Motherwell, Roman Polanski, Roman Vishniac, Tim Walker, Touch of Evil, Vilhelm Hammershøi, William John Leech, Yeshiva University Museum | 7 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Terry Trippany | Published: August 19, 2016

Also posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Brigitte Bardot, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, John Wayne, Photography, Quotes, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Clarence John Laughlin, Clark Gable, Ed Ruscha, Eyal Gever, George Dambier, Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Mary Cassatt, Mary Pickford, Psycho, Rebecca, Suzy Parker, The Quiet Man, Tim Walker | 3 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Rudolph Valentino and the Rabbi’s Beautiful Daughter

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: August 8, 2016

The great pioneering director D.W. Griffith hired Rabbi Isadore Myers as the Jewish technical consultant on his great epic, Intolerance, 1916. Griffith was so happy with Rabbi Myer’s expert advice and attention to detail that he said to the good Rabbi: “How can I ever repay you?” Replied Rabbi Myers: “I have a daughter who would […]

Also posted in Carmel Myers, Hidden Hollywood, History, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaism, Patsy Ruth Miller, Photography, Rudolph Valentino | Tagged Ben Hur, Carmel Myers, Colleen Moore, D.W. Griffith, Dark Lover, Emily W. Leider, Intolerance, Iras, Mary Pickford, Patsy Ruth Miller, Rabbi Isadore Myers, The Shiek, Valentino | 7 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Broncho Billy, Son of a Jewish Gun

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 25, 2016

In 1965, a frail old man in a wheelchair appeared in the no-budget western, The Bounty Killer. For those of us who love movies, especially westerns, this is a bittersweet moment. Because the man who invented the western movie hero makes his last appearance on the silver screen. That man was Broncho Billy Anderson. But Broncho […]

Also posted in Broncho Billy, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jewish Hollywood, John Wayne, Movie Posters, Movies | Tagged Charlie Chaplin, Essany, Francis X. Bushman, Marguerite Clayton, Max Aaronson, Mollie Louise Schabbleman, Westerns | 8 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Hebrew Hottie Risks Life for American Troops

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 20, 2016

In 1918 Theda Bara was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Leading in popularity and box office appeal was Mary Pickford. Charlie Chaplin came second. And not far behind these two giants of the silver screen, Theda Bara. She was the hottest sex symbol to hit the motion picture screen since, well, since the […]

Also posted in Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jewish Hollywood, Photography, Theda Bara | Tagged A Fool There Was, Fort Sill, May Allison, Oklahoma, Theda Bara, Theodosia Burr Goodman, Vamp, Victor Benoit, War Bonds, World War I | 7 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 8, 2016

Also posted in Actors, Art, Edith Head, Errol Flynn, Family, Friday Fotos, Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Joan Fontaine, Lielle Meital, Maayan Ariel, Marlon Brando, Movie Posters, Movies, Olivia De Havilland, Painting, Photography, Quotes, They Died With Their Boots On, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charlie Chaplin, Deborah Kerr, Dinner at Eight, Edith Head, Edvard Munch, Edward Hopper, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Joan Fontaine, Lenore Coffee, Leon Berkowitz, Marie Dressler, Marlon Brando, Noel Neill, Olivia de Havilland, Sabine Weiss, Sari Srulovitch, Smith & Wesson, They Died, Tiffany and Co., To Each His Own, W. Eugene Smith, Wally Kline, Æneas MacKenzie | 19 Responses

Hidden Hollywood: Latin Lover Ricardo Cortez is Kosher Butcher’s Son

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 6, 2016

Ricardo Cortez (1900-1977) was a handsome and talented leading man whose image, in the silent era, was that of a hot-blooded Latin lover. In truth, his name was Jacob Krantz, the son of a kosher butcher, born and raised in the mean streets of New York’s Lower East Side.

Also posted in Alma Rubens, Glamour, Greta Garbo, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Irene Dunne, Jewish Hollywood, Judaism, Movie Posters, Movies, Photography, Ricardo Cortez | Tagged Alma Rubens, Bebe Daniels, D.W. Griffith, Greta Garbo, Irene Dunne, L.B. Mayer, Mae Clarke, Maltese Falcon, Pidyon Ha-Ben, Ricardo Cortez, Stanley Cortez, Symphony of Six Million, The Torrent, This Bright World Again | 3 Responses

Friday Photos, True Hollywood Secrets: How to be Beautiful

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: March 25, 2016

Also posted in Audrey Hepburn, Colleen Moore, Family, Friday Fotos, Grace Kelly, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Ingrid Bergman, Movie Posters, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Alice White, Audrey Hepburn, Bert Stern, Betty Blythe, Florence Vandamm, Frederick Hammersley, Gary Cooper, Gerrit Dou, Grace Kelly, Harald Slott-Moller, Henry Clarke, Hollywood Beauty Tips, Ingrid Bergman, Irving Penn, Katherine Hepburn, Lisa Fonssagrives, She, Spitfire | 6 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions, Self-Portraits, Early Selfies

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: February 19, 2016

Also posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Grace Kelly, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Lillian Gish, Maayan Ariel, Movies, Painting, Photography, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, Photography, Signs, Quotes, Russia, Self-Portrait, Seraphic Secret, Shabbos, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Annabel Carracci, Catharina van Hemessen, Claude Cahun, Edward Hopper, Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun, Elliott Erwitt, Felix Nussbaum, Frédéric Boissonnas, Grace Kelly, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Gustave Courbet, Henri Matisse, Ilse Bing, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Mayan Ariel, Nobuyoshi Araki, Nussbaum Haus, Pablo Picasso, Parmigianino, Pieter Claesz, Self Portraits, Selfies`, Vincent van Gogh, Vivian Maier | 5 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: September 18, 2015

Also posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, Painting, Quotes, The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Alex Timmermans, Alla Nazimova, Arthur Miller, August Sander, Brigitte Bardot, Cooper & Gorfer, Edward Hopper, Harry Callahan, Jerome Lucani, Marlon Brando, Michael Wolf, Myron Stout, Nick Veasey, Orazio Gentileschi, Stanley Kubrick | 22 Responses

Warning: Hollywood’s Coming for Your Home and Children

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: December 3, 2014

Jewish Action magazine has just published another of my articles about Hollywood as leftist propaganda machine. This time I focus on Hollywood and the family.

Also posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood: Then and Now, Screenwriting | Tagged Breaking Bad, Coming Home, Duck Dynasty, Easy Rider, Friday Night Lights, Hollywood as Propaganda Machine, House of Cards, Housewives Franchise, Hungry Hearts, Mad Men, Modern Family, Moral Inversions, Postmodern Hollywood, Radical Hollywood, Television, The Americans, Tony Soprano John Wayne, Vikings | 17 Responses

Silent Star Alma Rubens: “I am a Dope Fiend But Not a Jewess!”

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: September 4, 2014

Many persons who have followed my career on the screen and stage mistake me for a Jewess. This belief perhaps was strengthened when I married Ricardo Cortez, my third husband, the only one I ever really loved, and whom I am now trying to divorce. Although I didn’t find it out until almost a year […]

Also posted in Alma Rubens, Book Reviews, Books, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Movies, Ricardo Cortez | Tagged Adolf Zukor, Alexander Webb, Alma Rubens, Endometriosis, Fanny Hurst, Forgotten Hollywood Stars, Frances Marion, Frank Borzage, Gary D. Rhodes, Hollywood and Drugs, Hollywood Jews, Hollywood True Confessions, Irene Dunne, Show Boat, Silent Snowbird, Symphony of Six Million, The Maltese Falcon, Theda Bara | 12 Responses

Silent Star Esther Ralston: Why Do All My Husbands Want to Kill Me? Part I

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 3, 2014

They called her, the American Venus. She lived in a Hollywood mansion with a staff of servants. Her chauffeur drove a limited edition limousine. But she ended her days in a trailer park in Ventura, California.

Also posted in Book Reviews, Books, Esther Ralston, Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars | Tagged Charlie Chaplin, George Webb, Herbert Brenon, Lon Chaney, Mary Brian, Old Ironsides, Peter Pan, Some Day We'll Laugh, The American Venus, Victor Fleming | 13 Responses

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City
NOTE: Click on video titles inside the thumbnail images, below, to open that video in YouTube

Fifteenth: June 10, 2018
Jackie Danicki: “Confessions of a Convert: A Humbling, Joyful Journey to Judaism.”

Blog Post | Audio: (94 MB)

Fourteenth: June 11, 2017
Daniel Greenfield: “Fighting Anti-Semitism and Defending Israel in the Age of BDS.”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Thirteenth: May 22, 2016Ben Shapiro: “How You Can Save Israel”

Blog Post | Audio: (70 MB)

Twelfth: June 7, 2015
Larry Elder: “The New Black Anti-Semitism”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: “Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do.”

Blog Post | Audio: (97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: “The War Against Judaism on the University Campus.”

Blog Post | Audio: (16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: “The Mainstream Media’s Betrayal of Israel.”

Blog Post | Audio: (15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: “What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me.”

Blog Post | Audio: (18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: “Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion.”

Blog Post | Audio: (80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: “Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?”

Blog Post | Audio: (64MB)

Fifth: June 15, 2008
Rabbi Dr. Gil S. Perl: “What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania.”

Blog Post | Audio: (70MB)
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