Martha My Dear

Martha Hyer

Our Miss Brooks 2

Cigarettes, cats, and a brunette in bed. Yeah, I know it's a fire hazard, but life doesn't get much better than this. Here's Hazel Brooks photographed by Life magazine's Peter Stackpole.

Our Miss Brooks 1

Ballinger's Ride

I have finally finished watching like 117 episodes of M Squad with Detective Lt. Frank Ballinger (Lee Marvin) driving his Ford around the late 1950s streets of Chicago. Most of it is second unit insert stuff, but you can tell Marvin is driving a lot of it. There are even a few examples of in-car process shots where Ballinger is driving and yet his own car can be seen through the rear window in the background. Sort of like Ballinger tailing Ballinger (which would be a whole other sci-fi plot, of course). There are winter shots filled with snow and slush, which I as a Rust Belter appreciate immensely. And Chi-Town looks like I remember it. If you're a native of Chicago, you might want to check out the TV series. Even if you're not as old as I am.

I especially like these two shots of the old Randolph Street Greyhound station. Spent a little time there. Back in the day.
(Also see Chuckman's Collection of Chicago postcards and What Makes The Pie Shops Tick flickr photostream.)

Marie Doro Eyes

Marie Doro

Barney's Whore

BARNEY (to Linda): This is Jim Allen, a pal of mine from the chain gang. He's just escaped.

JIM (to Barney): Listen, never mind the advertising.

BARNEY (to Jim): It's all right with Linda. (To Linda) Take good care of him, babe. He's my personal guest. (To Jim) So long, Jim. Hope you make it. (Barney leaves the room.)

LINDA (to Jim): You've got plenty of what it takes to pull an escape from that place.

JIM: I'm not safe yet, not until I'm out of the state.

LINDA: If there's anything I can do to help you, just say the word.

JIM: Thanks...there's nothing you can do.

LINDA: How 'bout a drink?

JIM: No.

LINDA: Don't mind if I take one, do you?

JIM: No, go right ahead.

(Linda crosses the room and pours a drink. Jim looks her over from head to toe.)

LINDA (raising her glass): Here's to you. A guy with your nerves has got the breaks coming to him.

(Jim gazes at her with a look she seems to recognize. She crosses the room to him. She sits on the arm of his chair.)

LINDA: I know what you're thinking. (She pauses.) I understand. (Linda touches his shirt, whispering now.) You're among friends.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) with Allen Jenkins (Barney), Noel Francis (Linda), and Paul Muni (Jim). Here is a very nice piece about Noel from Allure.

Furthermore, she's a Texas girl. Go figure.
More photos here.

(Boy, I love pre-Code movies.)

Good God

Been looking for this for YEARS!
Good God
extremely rare Philly one-shot band
1972 jazz fusion
Zeno Sparkles aka Larry Cardarelli/guitar
Cotton Kent/keyboards,saxophone,vocals
Greg Scott/saxophone
John Ransome/bass
Hank Ransome/drums,vocals
also see Mahavishnu Orchestra
John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa
King Crimson, Yes, ELP
jazz-rock fusion

A Murder of Crows

Dragon Song

Fish Eye

YesterDoll

It's always nice to check back with the Vintage Vixen.

Dancing Days

Mary Ellen Terry danced on television in the 1950s. She was also in one episode of Sea Hunt. These, of course, are pictures from Life magazine. (They have a lot more of her, too.)

Dancing days are here again as the summer evening grows
You are my flower, you are my power
You are my woman who knows

- L.Z.

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

I've been bouncing back and forth between reading history and biography recently. I finished Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends by Allen Barra. And, continuing on sort of a Great Plains theme, I read Timothy Egan's excellent book about the dustbowl, The Worst Hard Time. And since I was in an Oklahoma Panhandle and Texas sort of mood, I read the relentlessly grim Candy Barr: The Small-Town Texas Runaway Who Became a Darling of the Mob and the Queen of Las Vegas Burlesque by Ted Schwartz and Mardi Rustam. (That's NSFW Candy in the cowboy hat above.) Brushing all that dust off my jeans, I decided to read something completely different with Just One More Thing by Peter Falk, a fast and funny book which should entertain both the fans of John Cassavetes and the fans of the television show Columbo. I was hoping for more about Natalie Wood, who starred in both The Great Race (1965) and Penelope (1966) with Peter Falk, but that was not to be. Falk's book has a lot of photos, including one of Peter with Inger Stevens in an episode of The Dick Powell Show called "The Price of Tomatoes." Anyway, I raced through those 281 pages in three and a half hours, and got started on Gus Russo's The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld on the Shaping of Modern America, which is much, much thicker and might take me three and a half weeks. We'll see.

So what are you reading?
Go ahead, tell me.
I'd like to know.