Category: Autographs

  • Author Joan Craig Shares Her Memories of Theda Bara in New Book

    Author Joan Craig Shares Her Memories of Theda Bara in New Book

    Theda Bara, My Mentor: Under the Wing of Hollywood’s First Femme Fatale by Joan Craig, with Beverly E. Stout, is the book that I have been waiting for. They don’t come along everyday, these intimate and personal recollections of someone who actually knew the silent film greats, but when they do, they have my attention. I…

  • Bob Harned Remembers His Mother, Actress Sally Phipps

    If you ever wondered what became of silent film actress Sally Phipps, you’re in luck.  Bob Harned has written a thorough and revealing biography of one of the cutest flappers to ever grace the silent screen. Bob is not just any writer; he just happens to be her son! A little about Sally and then I will introduce you…

  • Ginger or Mary Ann? I must confess

    “If you could be marooned on Gilligan’s Island, toward which character would your raging teenage hormones point you: Ginger or Mary Ann?”  When I was in high school about 100 years ago, that was the question the guys asked each other. As I recall, most said the wholesome Mary Ann. The sexy and sultry Ginger…

  • Author Stephen Michael Shearer: The Interview

    I’ll  never forget the encouragement that author Stephen Michael Shearer gave me when I was writing my Mae Murray biography several years ago. His Hedy Lamarr biography had just been released in hardcover. Although he was busy doing publicity for the release, he made time to give me a call and talk through some important…

  • “Eh — What’s up Michael?” A note from Mel Blanc

    I knew his voice before I knew the man. Or I should say, I knew is voices! I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, and the Tasmanian Devil every Saturday morning as a kid. I never knew, until I was a teenager, that Mel Blanc was…

  • Joan Bennett’s lips, Barnabus Collins’ teeth

    l was an addict by the time I was six or seven; that is, I was addicted to Dark Shadows, the gothic soap opera from the late 1960s. In fact, it’s a miracle I ever made it out of first grade. During recess, we played a silly game of jump rope while calling out the…

  • Starlight, Starbright: Studying Portraits of the Silent Film Era – 1

    It was the breathtaking images of silent screen stars that first turned my head.  It was way back in the 1970s.  I found a copy of Daniel Blum’s A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning studying these unique and mysterious creatures who beckoned me back…

  • Remembering Kitty Carlisle and the Jewels of a Jewel

    By Michael G. Ankerich Some of the treasures Kitty Carlisle collected over the years were auctioned yesterday through Sothebys.   The auction house reported today that Kitty’s jewels doubled their overall low estimate. Her Art Deco diamond sautoir brought $146,500 (est. $60/80,000). For me, an old fan of Kitty Carlisle, it’s kind of sad to see…

  • Barbara Kent: My Last Silent Film Interview

    Barbara Kent was the last of the silent personalities that I had the pleasure of interviewing. I thought she might the final one, because there was pratically no one else living that I hadn’t already spoken with. Since Barbara never talked to anyone about her career, I had little faith that she would talk to…

  • Miss Lillian and the First Lady Offer Advice

    Yeah, yeah, I know this blog is supposed to be about silent film personalities, but I did warn you in the beginning to expect me to occasionally stray from the path. This is one of those times, the week of the Democratic Convention. In keeping with the festivities going on in Charlotte, North Carolina, I…

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