An Affirming Film About Death
Posted by under
In the golden days of Hollywood, studio moguls like Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, and Irving Thalberg relied on pure gut instinct to determine if a movie in production was going to be a hit. Cohn bragged that he had a foolproof formula for judging a preview showing: if he was bored, his […]
Continue Reading
The Lingering Menaces: Typhus and Ebola
Posted by under
“Even the company of the mad was better than the company of the dead.” So wrote Stephen King in his apocalyptic magnum opus, The Stand. First published in 1978, and re-released in a complete/uncut version twelve years later, the horror classic about the impact of a killer virus has sold more than 5 million copies. […]
Continue Reading
The Death and Surprising Return of John Dillinger
Posted by under
The woman in red, Ana Sage, was actually wearing orange that night. The lights of the Biograph Theater on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago tinted her dress crimson, a vivid color suitable for gangland folklore. Her real name was Ana Cumpanas and on July 22, 1934, she was on a blood mission designed to net a […]
Continue Reading
The Unsinkable Elaine May
Posted by under
Elaine May, at the age of 87, is still working without a net over unpredictable, hostile territory. After sixty-five years in show business, she continues to break through glass ceilings of chauvinism, ageism and corporate political prejudice. Barriers insuperable to others, but not to the relentlessly determined May. Remember, in 1971, she was only the […]
Continue Reading
Neil Armstrong: The Premature Obituary
Posted by under
Richard Nixon was looking at the speech no President of the United States would ever want to deliver. It was titled, “In the Event of Moon Disaster.” The date was July 22, 1969. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were set to depart from the surface of the moon to join fellow crew member […]
Continue Reading