Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.
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 hope?
[Read more…] about Thanksgiving 2018: The Children of the Children of Israel
Jorjett Strumme had a fascinating life and career in Hollywood. I first met Jorjett when I discovered that she worked as an assistant to the great costume designer Helen Rose from 1981-1985, which I wrote about here.
Jorjett went on to work with costume designer Nolan Miller from 1982-1985. And then, Jorjett was Personal Assistant and Stylist to Elizabeth Taylor for ten years.
Over the past few months Jorjett has kindly responded to my questions about her years working for Elizabeth Taylor.
Midway through the interview Jorjett made it clear that she would not reveal any details of Taylor’s multiple marriages. So, if you’re looking for juicy Elizabeth Taylor gossip, this is not the place to find it.
We admire Jorjett’s insistence on respecting Elizabeth Taylor’s life and memory. In a world in which privacy is almost completely unknown, Jorjett’s loyalty is a rare and enviable quality.
This interview was conducted via email.
[Read more…] about Hidden Hollywood: Jorjett Strumme, Ten Years With Elizabeth Taylor
A long time ago, in a universe far far away, in a place called Hollywood, the movie studios and the actors who flourished in those dream factories, celebrated their love of America and enthusiastically indulged in overt displays of patriotism.
L.B. Mayer (b. Lazar Meir) the powerful head of MGM, was a pioneer of the motion-picture industry, and the man who invented the star system. Mayer adopted July 4th as his birthday. Scores of Hollywood historians get all snarky about Mayer’s birthday, claiming that he conveniently changed his birthday in order to cash in on a public identification with America.
What these historians fail to recognize is that Mayer probably did not know the date of his birth.
[Read more…] about Independence Day: Once Upon A Time Hollywood Loved America
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 delightfully scatter-brained character who speaks broken English punctuated by rapid fire bursts of Spanish.
Walt Disney was the twentieth century’s prime example of American ingenuity. How did he do it? In this video, Glenn Beck, best-selling author and host of The Glenn Beck Program, explains how Disney became a household name, and how he proved that in America, the only limit to your ambition is your own imagination.