The F is for Freaking Cold.
1/31/08
Britt "Mary Goodnight" Ekland
Britt Ekland's real name was Eklund. And
people frequently try the search words
eckland, echland, and ickland to find her.
Britt was a Swede not a Brit. But most of the
famous things she did, like marrying Peter
Sellers, living with Rod Stewart, and becoming
a Bond girl in The Man With the Golden Gun,
were British. So we think of her as part of the
Swinging London Mod Sixties crowd, somewhat
down the British blonde foodchain from a
Julie Christie and somewhere above Hammer
Horror sex kitten Yutte Stensgaard. Her most
famous role may have been a stripper in The
Night They Raided Minksy's (1968) or the
tempting barmaid in The Wicker Man (1973),
but her best movie was Get Carter (1971),
although that's largely due to the presence
of the masterful Michael Caine.
I especially like this last one, where she gets better with age.
1/30/08
Car Girl #5
We're having a blizzard. It was hard driving home from
work tonight, and I grew up in this kind of weather.
(I love a good non sequitur. Nonsense keeps you warm.)
Anyway, for those of you in places like Madrid and Austin
and Fallujah and Compton, this is what a blizzard looks
like. People say that London's famous fog is "as thick as
pea soup." Well, getting around today is like driving through
freaking vanilla ice cream. And if you're walking, well, you're
just dead right there. Yeah, it sucks. But whadda ya gonna do?
We'll look at some warm-looking starlets and their cars.
1/28/08
1/26/08
Half-Naked Woman Sitting in a Piano
I am a big fan of Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller.
He's a real guy, and he sells discount books of
all kinds. I like the histories and biographies.
These newspaper-looking catalogs come in the mail,
and I look through them and mark the ones I want,
and mail Ed a check, and a couple weeks later my
books arrive. The company charges you $3.50 for
shipping if you order one paperback or a whole
tubful of dictionaries. It don't matter. They don't
care; it's still just $3.50. They must have a giant
machine that folds cardboard around your book bundle
and staples the package together with these really
big-A$$ staples that you need a screwdriver or a pair
of pliers to get open. Once you're on their mailing
list, they kindly send you free catalogs for the rest
of your life. I'm sure they will send them even after
I'm dead. Edward R. Hamilton is THAT nice a guy.
So, when I'm browsing their catalog, which I often
do while I'm eating my creamy tomato soup and Ritz
crackers for lunch, I can usually find something
interesting. A couple months ago, I got several
hardcover biographies for $24, big-A$$ staples
included. The whole thing is very casual and very
old-fashioned. There is a certain warm and fuzzy
retro feel to writing your name on a good old order
form and stamping an envelope and all that. It sort
of reminds me of mailing in three Kellogg's Corn Flake
box tops and thirty-five cents in coins for a little blue
toy submarine that you could play with in the bathtub.
Or ordering things from the Bazooka Bubble Gum
Or ordering things from the Bazooka Bubble Gum
wrappers (truly RETRO!).
Edward R. Hamilton only ships books to places with
U.S. Zip Codes, so if you're anywhere but here,
you're basically screwed.
Edward R. Hamilton only ships books to places with
U.S. Zip Codes, so if you're anywhere but here,
you're basically screwed.
If you want to snail mail him, he's at:
Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller
Falls Village, CT 06031-5000
(Here's that half-naked woman I mentioned.)
Hippie Chick
I'm on page 97 of Peggy Lipton's Hollywood memoir, Breathing Out (St. Martin's Press, 2005). I began reading the book, because I knew that Peggy Lipton was close friends with actress Jill Banner. They attended the Hollywood Professional School together and got high together. Right now we're in the middle of the LA swinging Sixties scene, and Peggy is about to join the cast of The Mod Squad television series. For those of you who don't remember The Mod Squad, you might remember the TV show 21 Jump Street, which made Johnny Depp a star. Well, The Mod Squad was the same sort of thing: cool and intense cop kids solving crime and wearing contemporary clothing. For those of you who don't remember 21 Jump Street, Peggy Lipton also appeared in the television show Twin Peaks. For those of you who don't remember Twin Peaks, Peggy has more recently appeared in Wings, Alias, and Rules of Engagement.
Anyway, by page 97, she's already had a weird childhood on Long Island, been molested, done some modeling, moved to LA, slept with Paul McCartney at the height of Beatlemania, smoked weed with rock stars and movie stars, gotten beat up by an alcoholic boyfriend, and so on. I'm sure there are rapes, rehabs, and recriminations coming sometime soon, but I haven't gotten that far. There are certain rhythms in Hollywood biographies that include sex, betrayal, substance abuse (usually alcohol), romance, sex, stardom, insecurity, more sex, eventual death, and a retrospective DVD release. This is not meant as a spoiler. As far as I know, Peggy Lipton is alive and well and surfing the Internet right now for blogs that mention her name. (Hi, Peg.) Her co-authors, David Dalton and Coco Pekelis Dalton, who wrote a book called Everything I Know I Learned on Acid, which is an interesting title, should be commended for moving the story along at a brisk pace (at least thus far). If I think about it, I'll tell you how it comes out.
Girl-Girl #3
These are the Wilde Twins, Marion Lee and Mary Lyn.
They went by their middle names, Lee and Lyn. They
sang in MGM films like Campus Honeymoon, Till the
Clouds Roll By, and Presenting Lily Mars during the
1940s. You can read the Wilde Twins' biography here.
Creamy, no?
1/23/08
1/22/08
Black-Black and White-White
Scrolling back through posts, I've noticed how
very contrasty things have become, which is a
good sign, I think. However, visiting the RSS
feed page, which is on a white background,
I see that the effect is somewhat diluted.
If you like the page (and 5,000 visits says
that someone likes it), just bookmark it and
see the site in all its glorious black-and-whiteness.
Just a thought.
