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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.
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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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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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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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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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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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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…
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Hairpins and Dead Ends: The Girl on the Cover
By Michael G. Ankerich After the title Hairpins and Dead Ends came to me, there was only one photo destined to be the cover. Edwina Booth with her hair in pins. Well, maybe they aren’t supposed to be hairpins, but you get the picture. Edwina survived a mysterious illness she contracted while on location in…
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Billie Dove and the End of a Nagging Question
It was one subject I couldn’t bring up to Billie Dove. What I wanted to ask was, “Billie, how old are you?” Well, I would have never asked it in those exact words. But I wanted to clear up the question of her year of birth. To a researcher determined to set the record straight, asking…
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New Tumblr Adventure — Let’s Go!
Happy New Year, friends! I have spent the weekend putting together a new Tumblr page. The page you’re on will still be my main blog page, but I will post photos and who knows what else on Tumblr more frequently. Please consider following me there? Shall we tumble on Tumblr, okay? Let’s go!
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Closeups and Canvases 