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Ralph Rexford Bellamy, June 17, 1904 Memoir When the Smoke Hit the Fan,By Ralph Bellamy, Doubleday, 1979 Amiable Soon-to-Lose-the-Girl Rebound Guy Ralph Bellamy began acting as soon as he was able, running away from his Chicago home to join a repertory company right read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day Eight) June 17, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante Hi. I am a disclaimer. Massive OTP Jeanette/Gene love ahoy because… HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MACRAYMONDS! Negativity will not be permitted, unless it is directed toward Gene̵ read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day Seven) June 16, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante Your neighborhood Dilettante would like to take this Father’s Day to give a shout out to Daniel MacDonald… …the man responsible for this… …this&# read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day Six) June 15, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante Oh, dear reader, it has been one full day since my last post, and I have grown so much as a human worm baby, since then. Meh, I’m just joshin’ you. I spent 9 hours reha read more

Happy Birthday, Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards! (June 14, 1895) 6/14/2014 2 Comments   Wowsa!  This has been a month of birthdays here on Phantom Empires!  Basil Rathbone,  William Boyd, read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day 5) June 14, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante Dear Reader, I have a confession to make. When I ran the Jeanette MacDonald Blog, I had a hard time being inclusive of Nelson because I’ve been in this game long enough to know read more

Happy Birthday, Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards! (June 14, 1895) 6/14/2014 2 Comments   Wowsa!  This has been a month of birthdays here on Phantom Empires!  Basil Rathbone,  William Boyd, Pol Plançon (HERE), Ar read more

Happy Birthday, Basil Rathbone!  (June 13, 1892) ~ The Mad Doctor (1941) 6/13/2014 2 Comments   Well,  it's both Basil Rathbone's b-day AND Friday the 13th,  so I thought I'd pick a spooky-type pict read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day Four) June 13, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante After the movies pretty much gave up on Jeanette and Gene, they did their best to find projects in which they could work together. One of those came in the form of the TV broadca read more

Happy Birthday, Basil Rathbone!  (June 13, 1892) ~ The Mad Doctor (1941) 6/13/2014 2 Comments   Well,  it's both Basil Rathbone's b-day AND Friday the 13th,  so I thought I'd pick a spooky-type picture for this special occa read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day Three) June 12, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante Spolier Alert! Jeanette MacDonald had a sense of humor. Jeanette was a punk, to be honest. From being banned from Constance Bennett’s parties for making boobs out of lemon read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute (Day Two) June 11, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante I will be totally upfront with you, dear reader. There are multiple websites, blogs, web forums, yahoo groups, facebook pages, etc. where you can immerse yourself in the version o read more

Born Paul Edward Lynde, June 13, 1926, Died January 10, 1982 Biography Paul Lynde: A Biography - His Life, His Love(s) & His LaughterBy Cathy Rudolph, Bear Manor Media, 2013 Center Square, Open Closet You know when somebody asks you what kind of superpower you' read more

Jeanette MacDonald Birthday Salute June 9, 2014 / The Cinema Dilettante As a tribute to one of my personal favorite human beings that ever walked the face of the earth, your friendly neighborhood Dilettante is doing a countdown to Jeanette Anna MacDonald’s read more

Born Pauline Marion Goddard Levy, or a disputed combination thereof. June 3, 1910 - April 23, 1990 The Only General Biography Paulette: The Adventurous Life of Paulette GoddardBy Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein, St. Martin's Press, 1985 A Sweet and Savory Dish I'm read more

Happy birthday,Marilyn Monroe movie watch-fest https://www.facebook.com/Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest Yesterday was Marilyn Monroe’s birthday.Happy birthday to Marilyn Monroe.    I watched a  movie watch fest of gems yesterday for her birthday,I started it off with There’s No Business read more

Happy birthday,Marilyn Monroe movie watch-fest https://www.facebook.com/Wolffianclassicmoviesdigest Yesterday was Marilyn Monroe’s birthday.Happy birthday to Marilyn Monroe.    I watched a  movie watch fest of gems yesterday for her birthday,I started it off with There’s No Business read more

She’s not the first person who comes to mind when you think of film noir femmes, but Marilyn Monroe earned a solid place in the film noir world. On the occasion of what would’ve been her 88th birthday, we’re raising our glasses to remember Marilyn and salute her performances in Cla read more

Born Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blank, May 30, 1908 - July 10, 1989 Autobiography That's Not All Folks!By Mel Blanc and Philip Bashe, Warner Books, 1989 Okay, Now That's All Folks.But how cool is that? That Left Turn at Albuquerque It's quite possible tha read more

Born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall May 23, 1890 - January 22, 1966 An Actual and Virtual Hero One of the most sought-after leading men of the 1930s, Herbert Marshall began his acting career as a stage actor and didn't turn to film until he was nearly 40. Marshall was born in London read more