Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the internet...

...We had a great evening last Thursday, beginning with a birthday dinner for our oldest daughter at Smoke House in Burbank, which has been around since 1946. It was as good as we've heard, including their famous garlic cheese bread. From there it was on to Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood, where author Lara Gabrielle (seen here) gave a talk on Marion Davies and signed copies of her brand-new book CAPTAIN OF HER SOUL: THE LIFE OF MARION DAVIES. Lara invested years researching this book, and I'm really looking forward to reading it!

...By the way, it's not too late to preorder a signed copy of Nancy Olson Livingston's memoir A FRONT ROW SEAT from the Larry Edmunds online shop! Store owner Jeff Mantor told me he'd be personally driving the books to Nancy's house for signature. I ordered mine, and I encourage anyone interested to support Larry Edmunds while getting a signed, personalized copy of what's sure to be a fascinating book.

...Here's more on fall film books from Maureen Lee Lenker for Entertainment Weekly.

...Coming in January from the Criterion Collection: IMITATION OF LIFE (1934) starring Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers. Extras include an interview with the always-informative Imogen Sara Smith.

...Concerning Criterion news: Last week Criterion laid off 20% of its staff.

...Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre turned 100 last week. While the anniversary was celebrated by the Hollywood Heritage Museum, I find it sad that there was no gala celebration at the theatre itself, due to Netflix's seemingly unending remodeling project.

...Here's a recent book I just learned about: THE CHURCH OF BASEBALL: THE MAKING OF BULL DURHAM by Ron Shelton. A few years ago I sat across the aisle from Shelton during a screening of BULL DURHAM at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

...Last week Turner Classic Movies announced a new weekend franchise, Musical Matinee, hosted by Dave Karger. He'll show a musical every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time/noon Eastern. There's a TCM promo video on YouTube.

...Last week I mentioned the new Bill Elliott double feature coming out from VCI Entertainment. Toby has more specific details on the films at 50 Westerns From the 50s.

...Great news today from Kino Lorber: They'll be releasing THE BIG EASY (1986) on Blu-ray. This film starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin was a real favorite which I saw in a theater multiple times on first release. I'd recently been thinking I hadn't seen it in quite a while and was planning to pull my DVD off the shelf soon. I'll wait for the new Blu-ray instead!

...New classic film reviews include Grand Old Movies on THE WICKED LADY (1945) starring Margaret Lockwood...Annette Bochenek wrote about the MGM musical LOVELY TO LOOK AT (1952) at Hometowns to Hollywood...Colin reviewed Randolph Scott in TEN WANTED MEN (1955) at Riding the High Country...and Raquel reviewed DESIRE (1936), starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper, at Out of the Past.

...At Hamlette's Soliloquy, check out Rachel's "10 Favorite Non-Scary Movies for Fall." As someone who's also not into scary movies, I enjoyed her list!

...Notable Passing: Longtime character actor Ron Masak, who played the sheriff on MURDER, SHE WROTE, has passed on just a few days after MURDER, SHE WROTE star Angela Lansbury. He was 86. I also particularly remember him as a big Dodgers fan who was part of the Hollywood Stars game they held for many years.

...For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please check out my October 15th roundup.

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