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Bette Davis

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Bette Davis

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

June 25, 2021 by Robert J. Avrech 8 Comments

“I was a self-made man: my father made me one.”
—Bette Davis (born Ruth Elizabeth Davis; 1908 – 1989)

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

April 23, 2021 by Robert J. Avrech 9 Comments

“Some young Hollywood starlets remind me of my grandmother’s old farmhouse—all painted up nice on the front, a big swing on the back side, and nothing whatsoever in the attic.” —Bette Davis

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Thanksgiving 2020: The Children of the Children of Israel

November 26, 2020 by Robert J. Avrech 7 Comments

Studio photographers shot millions of still photos of their actors, often with holiday themes. This is the one of the few religiously inclined Thanksgiving stills I have come across. The actress is Barbara Kent, a minor star in the silent ear best known for starring opposite Harold Lloyd in “Welcome Danger” 1929. But her very best role was in a little known but quite wonderful silent film “Lonesome,” 1928. — Studio photographers shot mountains of photographs of contract actors, often with holiday themes. This is a charming Thanksgiving photo. The actress is Barbara Kent, (b. Barbara Cloutman, 1907- 2011) a popular star in the silent era best known for twice starring opposite Harold Lloyd, “Welcome Danger” (1929), and then “Feet First,” (1930). But her very best role was in a little known but quite wonderful silent film “Lonesome,” (1928). Seraphic Secret wrote a memoriam for this lovely actress when she passed away. You can find it here.

As far as I know, there are only two countries in the world that were founded on the idea of hope.

America and Israel.

And what was the nature of this hope?

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

October 9, 2020 by Robert J. Avrech 11 Comments

peggy — [on being fired from Forever Amber (1947) and replaced by Linda Darnell] “Say it was my lack of experience, say it was the color of my eyes, say it was a lot of little things, but please don’t say I don’t have enough sex.” —Peggy Cummins

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

September 18, 2020 by Robert J. Avrech 13 Comments

“Becoming a sex symbol overnight shocked me. I didn’t know how to handle it and I kept all the unopened fan mail in the boot of my car because I didn’t know how to respond and thought it was rude to throw it away. Then my mother became my secretary and replied to the really inappropriate ones saying: ‘My daughter’s far too old for you. Go take a cold shower!’”
Diana Rigg, 1938 – 2020 RIP

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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.

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

Sixteenth: August 25, 2019
“Torah Dedication in Memory of Ariel Chaim Avrech Z’L”

Blog Post | Audio: TBD

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)