Tag Archives: Movie Stars

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Film & Movies, Libraries, Love & Relationships, Memories & History

READING THE STARS: The Whitman Authorized Editions of the 1940s | Now See Hear! | Library of Congress

By Cary O’Dell, July 20, 2022

–from article

Today, movie stars are easily accessible to us: on TV, by way of streaming services and, of course, via the internet, usually even via that star’s very own Twitter and Instagram.

In fact, celebrities—of every conceivable stripe–are so omnipresent that it seems hard to imagine, or remember, a time when even our most famous film stars were as unattainable to us as the stars in the night sky.

But think of it: if not at the actual movie theater or, occasionally, appearing as themselves on radio broadcasts, how did fans learn about or “interact” with their favorite cinema personality?

This remoteness—and the hunger it generated—helped create the fan-magazine phenomenon that, for decades, put on the neighborhood newsstands an endless array of publications like “Photoplay” and “Modern Screen.”

And though these ‘zines were an important part of the film industry and fan experience, sometimes, to some true devotees, even they were not enough. Hence, in the early 1940s, Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, struck upon a new and innovative way of satisfying the desires of film fans—or at least the young and female ones—to know and even spend more time with their favorite film star.

Source: READING THE STARS: The Whitman Authorized Editions of the 1940s | Now See Hear!

Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Memories & History, Pleasures, Television

James Caan: His 10 Toughest, Funniest and Most Unforgettable Roles – Rolling Stone

From ‘El Dorado’ to ‘Elf’ — the very best of the late, great ‘Godfather’ star

By David Fear & Alan Sepinwall, July 7, 2022

James Caan in a scene from ‘The Godfather.’
Paramount Pictures/CBS/ Getty Images

He was tough, he was sexy, and he was one of the most charismatic movies stars of the 1970s — he was James Caan, your go-to guy when you wanted someone who could be flinty yet charming, smooth yet volatile.

A Bronx-born, Queens-raised actor who claimed he was the “only New York Jewish cowboy,” the former Michigan State football player got bit by the acting bug when he transferred to Hofstra University, and was already making the bit-player rounds on TV shows (Dr. Kildare, Combat!, Route 66, The Alfred Hitchcock Show) in the early ’60s.

After director Howard Hawks cast him in two movies — Red Line 7000 (1965) and El Dorado (1966) — Caan started to attract attention as the next big up-and-comer. It wasn’t until the one-two punch of a TV movie about a gridiron hero and Paramount picture based on a bestseller about gangsters, respectively, that he became a bona fide star.

Even when he showed up in his later years, usually as a crusty old guy for added color or the human embodiment of AARP-age machismo, Caan was still the kind of performer who stopped you dead in your tracks.

Source: James Caan: His 10 Toughest, Funniest and Most Unforgettable Roles – Rolling Stone