Category: Hollywood Collectibles

  • “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 […]

  • Mae Murray: Through the Eyes of Artists

    Artists and illustrators over the years have tried to capture the essence and beauty of silent film actress Mae Murray.  In anticipation of the release of my new book, Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips, in the fall, I wanted to share with you some of the best examples of Mae Murray in […]

  • Consulting the Stars — Madge Kennedy

    Michael’s note: From time to time, I will dig through my archives and share some photos and correspondence I received many years ago.  When I was leaving my teens and going into my twenties, a few years before I started interviewing the remaining silent film stars, I frequently wrote to various personalities and asked them […]

  • Cinecon Film Festival on the Horizon

    RARE AND RESTORED EARLY FILMS RETURN TO THE BIG SCREEN AT HOLLYWOOD’S EGYPTIAN THEATER LABOR DAY WEEKEND American Movies Unseen for Decades Highlight the 48th Annual Cinecon Classic Film Festival   HOLLYWOOD – July 16, 2012 – Film fans, archivists, and researchers from around the world will gather in Hollywood, California, to attend the 48th […]

  • Lucille Ricksen — Sacrificed to Hollywood

    By Michael G. Ankerich Of all the actresses I researched and wrote about in Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels, none have stuck with me more than Lucille Ricksen. Her death in 1925, at the age of 14, still troubles me. I grieve for the loss of a teenager who became one of the first causalities of Hollywood. If […]

  • Mary MacLaren’s Twisted Heart

    By Michael G. Ankerich For several weeks, I’ve been trying to twist my mind around The Twisted Heart, a novel by silent film actress Mary MacLaren. Mary is one of the actresses I am including in my new book, Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Perilous Journeys of 20 Actresses Through Early Hollywood. As part of […]

  • Who’s That Girl?

    One of the questions I get most often has to do with the cover of Dangerous Curves atop Hollywood Heels.  Who’s that girl? I selected this photograph of actress Gladys Walton for the cover of Dangerous Curves. My publisher agreed. It was the perfect image to represent a group of actresses whose lives and careers […]

  • The Artwork of Joyce Compton

    After Joyce Compton’s contact with First National ended in 1927, she freelanced for a variety of studios. Freelancing meant sticking close to home and waiting for the phone to ring. During those lean times, the Comptons began breeding and selling Belgian Griffons. “I also discovered I had some art talent, and while being home bound […]

  • Discovering Old Hollywood Among the New – My 2012 Tinseltown Adventure

    Almost 30 years since I made my first to Tinseltown, Hollywood still has a pull over me. There’s a line in an Eagles song that goes something like, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” Although I’ve come and gone countless times over the past three decades, flying in […]

  • Flying Towards Hollywood: Books, Autographs, and Patsy Ruth Miller

    This time tomorrow morning, I will be on my way to sunny Los Angeles for a week of research and interviews for my new book, Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Perilous Journeys of 20 Actresses Through Early Hollywood.  I’ll also be doing a bit of publicity for Mae Murray: The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips, […]