Early in cinematic history, when filmmakers and audiences clamored for color movies, scientists and innovators behind the scenes were working on a way to make movies in living color. The answer came in the catchy, modern-sounding new filming process called Technicolor. Technicolor was the first color motion picture process that was extensively used in Hollywood….
Sandra Dee: From the Giggling Gidget to Battling Personal Demons
Sandra Dee, whose birth name was Alexandra Zuck, was an actress and teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Most of her movie roles catered to the teenage audience of the time and capitalized on her youthful charm, innocent image, and blonde ‘girl next door’ beauty. But in an effort to hold on…
The Star-Studded Cast of “The Greatest Show on Earth”
During the Golden Age of Hollywood, director Cecil B. DeMille had a reputation for large-scale film productions with grand sets, elaborate costumes, impressive visual effects, and massive casts. For his 1952 film, The Greatest Show on Earth, DeMille pulled out all the stops to bring the dazzling and eye-popping spectacle of the traveling circus to…
How Clark Gable Almost Killed the Men’s Undershirt Industry
Prior to 1934, men in the United States wore white cotton undershirts beneath their shirts. Always. Since all men were socially obligated to wear undershirts, the industry thrived. That is, until Clark Gable almost put an end to the men’s undergarment industry after one scene in the 1934 romantic comedy, It Happened One Night. The…
Brains and Beauty Battle It Out in 1957’s “Funny Face”
Funny Face, the 1957 romantic musical comedy written by Leonard Gershe and Stanley Donen, stars the unlikely couple of Audrey Hepburn, a 28-year-old fresh-faced beauty, opposite Fred Astaire, a 58-year-old former Vaudeville dancer. An age gap like this might seem creepy today, but in the Golden Age of Hollywood, moviegoers were used to seeing on-screen…