12/20/09

Birthday Girl Mala Powers

Mala Powers
December 20th is Mala Powers' birthday.

Lean and Mean


I've been watching Lee Marvin in M Squad, the half-hour 1957-60 TV Chicago crime show. The complete series, 117 episodes, is now out on DVD. There are lots of second unit shots of Lee Marvin wandering around The Loop. (The 1982 comedy series Police Squad borrowed a lot from M Squad.) Marvin plays a weary police detective named Frank Ballinger. He narrates the stories, somewhat like Joe Friday did in Dragnet, but with a lot less moralizing. The characters in M Squad tacitly acknowledge the presence of organized crime and police corruption in the city. This apparently upset Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who banned almost all filming of TV and movies in the city for 20 years. Of course, the Chicago Outfit was then and is now active in the city. Anyway, M Squad is entertaining, and I love the lean and mean half-hour format. Oh...and it has a jazzy score. Below are some Life magazine photos of the real CPD from that era.



12/19/09

Slippin' Into Darkness










Pulchritudinous Pamela Duncan

Pamela Duncan
Wasp-waisted actress Pamela Duncan was in Seven Men From Now (1956), Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), The Undead (1957), Girls, Girls, Girls (1962), and a lot of television. There are very few decent pictures of her online or on eBay. This is the best I could do.
Pamela Duncan
Pamela Duncan
Pamela Duncan
Pamela Duncan
Pamela Duncan
Pamela Duncan
(Yeah, I know "pulchritudinous" was a bit of a stretch.)

12/18/09

12/15/09

Keeping an Eye on Elsa

Elsa Martinelli
Here's a groovy photo of Elsa Martinelli that you can Tumblr and Re-Blog and Wordpress and Flickr and Heart and StumbleUpon and LiveJournal all over the Internet, if you've a mind to.