Closeups and Canvases – By Michael G. Ankerich

Closeups and Canvases:

A blog for sharing my literary and artistic adventures.

Thanks for taking a look at my site, known previously as Close-ups and Long-shots. I’m broadening the scope to include my artwork. All artwork in My Gallery is for sale. If you see something that calls to you, get in touch.

You are still able to access my previous entries in the archives.

Latest posts

Moonlight and Valentino

Have been in a Valentino mood of late. Rudy is giving that intense gaze that only he can give. 8×10 oil on wood panel.
Read more: Moonlight and Valentino Read more: Moonlight and Valentino Read more: Moonlight and Valentino
February 4, 2023
At the Corner of Guilt and Delight

I have long been intrigued by writer Jeffrey Carrier, who worked with silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller on her memoir, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young, in the 1980s. The book stands out among film historians as one of the best to come out of the last remaining silent film players in the…
Read more: At the Corner of Guilt and Delight Read more: At the Corner of Guilt and Delight Read more: At the Corner of Guilt and Delight
January 24, 2023
Conversations with Loretta

By Michael G. Ankerich Loretta Lynn’s death on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, stunned me, caught me off guard. I was working at home when my phone beeped. I looked down at the text message from The Washington Post. “Loretta Lynn dead at 90.” I got up from my desk, walked into the den and told…
Read more: Conversations with Loretta Read more: Conversations with Loretta Read more: Conversations with Loretta
October 19, 2022

My gallery

Ethlyne Clair – Black and white charcoal on black Canson paper

Ethlyne Clair – Black and white charcoal on black Canson paper

Latest posts

Moonlight and Valentino

Have been in a Valentino mood of late. Rudy is giving that intense gaze that only he can give. 8×10 oil on wood panel.

February 4, 2023
At the Corner of Guilt and Delight

I have long been intrigued by writer Jeffrey Carrier, who worked with silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller on her memoir, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young, in the 1980s. The book stands out among film historians as one of the best to come out of the last remaining silent film players in the…

January 24, 2023
Conversations with Loretta

By Michael G. Ankerich Loretta Lynn’s death on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, stunned me, caught me off guard. I was working at home when my phone beeped. I looked down at the text message from The Washington Post. “Loretta Lynn dead at 90.” I got up from my desk, walked into the den and told…

October 19, 2022

Moonlight and Valentino

Have been in a Valentino mood of late. Rudy is giving that intense gaze that only he can give. 8×10 oil on wood panel.
Read more: Moonlight and Valentino
At the Corner of Guilt and Delight

I have long been intrigued by writer Jeffrey Carrier, who worked with silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller on her memoir, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young, in the 1980s. The book stands out among film historians as one of the best to come out of the last remaining silent film players in the…
Read more: At the Corner of Guilt and Delight
Conversations with Loretta

By Michael G. Ankerich Loretta Lynn’s death on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, stunned me, caught me off guard. I was working at home when my phone beeped. I looked down at the text message from The Washington Post. “Loretta Lynn dead at 90.” I got up from my desk, walked into the den and told…
Read more: Conversations with Loretta

At the Corner of Guilt and Delight

I have long been intrigued by writer Jeffrey Carrier, who worked with silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller on her memoir, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young, in the 1980s. The book stands out among film historians as one of the best to come out of the last remaining silent film players in the…
Read more

January 24, 2023
Conversations with Loretta

By Michael G. Ankerich Loretta Lynn’s death on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, stunned me, caught me off guard. I was working at home when my phone beeped. I looked down at the text message from The Washington Post. “Loretta Lynn dead at 90.” I got up from my desk, walked into the den and told…
Read more

October 19, 2022
A fauvism style portrait of Lottie Pickford

Just finished a portrait in the fauvism style of Lottie Pickford, the sister of Mary and Jack. You can read about Lottie’s tragic life in my book, Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Perilous Journeys of 25 Actresses Through Early Hollywood. What symbolism do you see in the painting? 9×12 oil on wood
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October 12, 2022
Happy Birthday, Mr. Jimmy!

President Carter celebrated 98 years this weekend. I have said before that he is one of the most decent, inspiring, and giving human beings I have ever known. I offer this little anecdote. One Sunday at church, I was sitting a row being Mr. Jimmy. He was sitting by himself. I’m not sure where Ms.…
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October 2, 2022
Hairpins and Dead Ends: A review by Diane MacIntyre

Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Perilous Journeys of 25 Actresses Through Early Hollywood By Michael G. Ankerich Reviewed by Diane MacIntyre. This is companion book to his Dangerous Curves ‘a top Hollywood Heels– The Lives and Careers and Misfortunes of 14 Hard-Luck Girls of the Silent Screen. It’s not hard to imagine Hollywood as a treacherous…
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November 4, 2017
Fontaine La Rue: Her story told in Hairpins and Dead Ends

Fontaine La Rue fascinated me for years, but she was elusive. I wanted to know what became of her and what her life was like before and after she left films. She was Dora Rogers, the Keystone Vamp, in the 1910s, and Fontaine La Rue in the 1920s. That I knew, but what became of…
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November 3, 2017
Hairpins and Dead Ends — Barbara La Marr’s Early Years

I featured Barbara La Marr’s life and career in Dangerous Curves. I came away convinced that her teen years were more interesting than any film she made in Hollywood in the 1920s. At least, those troubled years set Barbara on a course of self-destruction that would end her life in 1926. When I began working…
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October 26, 2017
Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Dedication

When it came time to dedicate Hairpins and Dead Ends, I couldn’t settle on one, so I chose two important ladies in my life, two larger-than-life characters who had perilous journeys of their own: silent film actress Lina Basquette and Carol Ankerich, my mother. My mom has been gone over two years and the wound…
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October 20, 2017
The Hairpins and Dead Ends Address Book

Old Hollywood still exists, but you have to look for it. While researching Hairpins and Dead Ends, I spent a lot of time in the rat race that is Los Angeles 2017 trying to understand what it was like in, say, 1912 or 1926. As a biographer, it is important for me to visit the…
Read more

October 17, 2017

Moonlight and Valentino

Have been in a Valentino mood of late. Rudy is giving that intense gaze that only he can give. 8×10 oil on wood panel.

February 4, 2023
At the Corner of Guilt and Delight

I have long been intrigued by writer Jeffrey Carrier, who worked with silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller on her memoir, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young, in the 1980s. The book stands out among film historians as one of the best to come out of the last remaining silent film players in the…

January 24, 2023
Conversations with Loretta

By Michael G. Ankerich Loretta Lynn’s death on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, stunned me, caught me off guard. I was working at home when my phone beeped. I looked down at the text message from The Washington Post. “Loretta Lynn dead at 90.” I got up from my desk, walked into the den and told…

October 19, 2022

Latest posts

Moonlight and Valentino

Have been in a Valentino mood of late. Rudy is giving that intense gaze that only he can give. 8×10 oil on wood panel.

February 4, 2023
At the Corner of Guilt and Delight

I have long been intrigued by writer Jeffrey Carrier, who worked with silent film actress Patsy Ruth Miller on her memoir, My Hollywood: When Both of Us Were Young, in the 1980s. The book stands out among film historians as one of the best to come out of the last remaining silent film players in the…

January 24, 2023
Conversations with Loretta

By Michael G. Ankerich Loretta Lynn’s death on Tuesday, October 4, 2022, stunned me, caught me off guard. I was working at home when my phone beeped. I looked down at the text message from The Washington Post. “Loretta Lynn dead at 90.” I got up from my desk, walked into the den and told…

October 19, 2022

Stella Stevens, Hollywood Bombshell Who Yearned for More, Dies at 84 – Chay Time News on From Hookers to Grannies: An Interview with Stella StevensFebruary 18, 2023
[…] wanted to be a writer-director,” she told the film scholar Michael G. Ankerich in 1994. “All of a sudden…
Stella Stevens, the actress who wanted to be more than a blonde, dies | Movie theater – NewsWep on From Hookers to Grannies: An Interview with Stella StevensFebruary 18, 2023
[…] and the sexism of the industry — “I wish I had been an author-director”, she said in 1994 to…
Stella Stevens, ‘The Nutty Professor’ Actress, Lifeless at 84 – Endelivered on From Hookers to Grannies: An Interview with Stella StevensFebruary 18, 2023
[…] to be a director. Though she did direct a pair movies through the course of her profession, she advised…
Stella Stevens, skuespillerinde fra The Nutty Professor, er død i en alder af 84 – Too fits on From Hookers to Grannies: An Interview with Stella StevensFebruary 18, 2023
[…] dog også efter at blive instruktør. Selvom hun har instrueret flere film gennem sin karriere, ja han sagde filmforsker…
Stella Stevens, actrice de "The Nutty Professor", est décédée à l'âge de 84 ans – Effie Ai on From Hookers to Grannies: An Interview with Stella StevensFebruary 18, 2023
[…] réalisatrice. Bien qu’elle ait réalisé quelques films au cours de sa carrière, elle dit le spécialiste du cinéma Michael…