Monthly Archives: December 2015

Mr. New Year’s Eve: Guy Lombardo

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Publicity photo of Guy Lombardo in the 1940s.

Publicity photo of Guy Lombardo in the 1940s.

“Auld Lang Syne” was his theme song.

They called him Mr. New Year’s Eve, and he was part of America’s New Year’s tradition for nearly 50 years.

Before Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest counted down to 12 a.m., January 1, there was Guy Lombardo. Each year, his saxophones would poignantly play “Auld Land Syne” as couples danced, kissed and wished “Happy New Year.”

From the crash of the stock market in 1929 through the bicentennial in 1976, big bandleader Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were a long standing tradition for Americans.

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Musical Monday: Call Out the Marines (1942)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

marines3This week’s musical:
“Call Out the Marines –Musical #538

Studio:
RKO

Director:
William Hamilton, Frank Ryan

Starring:
Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Binnie Barnes, Paul Kelly, Corinna Mura, Marie Windsor (uncredited)
Themselves: The King’s Men, Six Hits and a Miss

Plot:
Two ex-Marines are reunited at the racetrack where one is sanitation worker and the other a manservant to a grouchy old man. The two decide to rejoin in the Marines and spend a great deal of time at the Shore Leave Club and fight over hostess Vi (Binnie Barnes). Little do they know that Vi and the club’s owner (Paul Kelly) are working against the United States government.

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Christmas on Film: “We’re No Angels” (1955)

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Guardian angels can come in many forms, and in the film “We’re No Angels” (1955), help arrives from three convicts.

angels3

Early Christmas Eve, Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray), Jules (Peter Ustinov) and Adolf the poisonous snake, escape from prison on French colonial Devil’s Island in 1895. Joseph embezzled money, and Albert and Jules are murderers. They are able to blend in easily in the town in their prison clothes, as many paroled convicts work out in the open.

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A Gift from Comet Over Hollywood

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Almost every Christmas for the past four years, I try to film a special Christmas video for the readers and supporters of Comet Over Hollywood.

This year — as my gift to you — my mother and I re-enacted one of my favorite Christmas scenes from a classic film. I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved making it.

For context, here is a snippet from the trailer.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Check out the Comet Over Hollywood Facebook page, follow on Twitter at @HollywoodComet or e-mail at cometoverhollywood@gmail.com

Musical Monday: Lemon Drop Kid (1951)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
“The Lemon Drop Kid” –Musical #515

Poster - Lemon Drop Kid, The (1951)_02

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
Sidney Lanfield, Frank Tashlin (uncredited)

Starring:
Bob Hope, Marilyn Maxwell, Lloyd Nolan, Jane Darwell, Andrea King, Fred Clark, William Frawley

Plot:
Swindler Sidney Milburn (Hope), known as the Lemon Drop Kid, gives a notorious gangster a bad tip on a horse in Florida, ending in a $10,000 debt. The Kid has to come up with the money by Christmas Eve, or else. So he sets back to New York City to ask his friends and girlfriend Brainy (Maxwell) for money. The Kid’s elderly friend Nellie (Jane Darwell) can’t get into an elderly woman’s home. The Kid and his mob set up an old lady’s home in an old gambling parlor and starts a street corner donation Santa Claus racket with his mobster friends to with a guise that they are funding an elderly woman’s home–he really plans to use the money for his debts.

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Cary Grant’s “Christmas Lullaby”

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late 1940s --- Cary Grant --- Image by © CinemaPhoto/Corbis

Cary Grant in the 1940s

Cary Grant is often noted as one of the best and most attractive actors of all-time. His film resume includes some of Hollywood’s best films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s “Notorious” (1946) to the comedy “His Girl Friday” (1940).

But out of all of that, Cary Grant said his best production was his daughter Jennifer.

Grant became a father for the first time at age 62 with his fourth wife, Dyan Cannon. The two were married from 1965 to 1968. Grant retired from films in 1966 when Jennifer was born; a career that began in 1932 and ended with the film “Walk, Don’t Run.”

Grant doted on his daughter and this is exhibited in the only record he ever made, “A Christmas Lullaby,” which was recorded for her. The 45 was made through Columbia Records and the b-side included the song “Here’s to You.”  Continue reading →

Christmas on Film: Junior Miss (1945)

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junior missThe same year Peggy Ann Garner performed her award winning role in “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” the 13-year-old actress found herself in a coming of age comedy, “Junior Miss” (1945).

Similar to “And So They Were Married” (1936), Christmas is merely a backdrop to adolescent antics in “Junior Miss” (1945), but the holidays play larger roles in this coming of age film.  Continue reading →

Musical Monday: Shower of Stars presents A Christmas Carol (1954)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 500. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
“Shower of Stars” presents “A Christmas Carol” –Musical #537

Fredric March as Ebenezer Scrooge and Christopher Cook as Tiny Tim in a 1954 TV adaptation of "A Christmas Carol"

Fredric March as Ebenezer Scrooge and Christopher Cook as Tiny Tim in a 1954 TV adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”

Studio:
CBS Television Network

Director:
Ralph Levy

Starring:
Fredric March, Basil Rathbone, Bob Sweeney, Christopher Cook, Craig Hill, Queenie Leonard
Themselves as hosts: William Lundigan, Mary Costa

Basil Rathbone as Jacob Marley

Basil Rathbone as Jacob Marley

Plot:
Set in 1840 London, this is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ novel, “A Christmas Carol.” Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (March) is warned by the ghost of his friend Marley (Rathbone) that he need to change his ways or he will end up chained to his sins. On Christmas Eve night, Scrooge is visited by ghosts to show him his past, present and future life to convince him to change.  Continue reading →

Baby, It’s Not a Christmas Song

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What started out as a song to get party guests to leave is now a Christmas favorite that has come under some scrutiny in recent years.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has evolved into a song that is never left off a Christmas album. The catch? When it was written in 1944, songwriter Frank Loesser wasn’t thinking of the holidays.

Frank Loesser and wife Lynn Garland in 1956 performing their song.

Frank Loesser and wife Lynn Garland in 1956 performing their song.

Loesser originally wrote the song to only be performed at parties with his wife, Lynn Garland. The duet — labeling the parts wolf and mouse — involves a man trying to convince a woman that she should stay, because it’s snowing outside. She says no until she relents at the end.  Continue reading →

Christmas on Film: “And So They Were Married” (1936)

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and so they were marriedBefore twin Hayley Mills was trying to get their parents together in “The Parent Trap” (1961), Jackie Moran and Edith Fellows worked to keep their parents apart in “And So They Were Married” (1936).

In this fun, comedic romp, divorced Edith Farnham (Mary Astor) and her daughter Brenda (Fellows) are spending the Christmas holidays at the gala opening of a ski lodge. Because of Edith’s divorce, both she and Brenda are anti-men.

Widower Stephen Blake (Melvyn Douglas) is also heading to the same lodge and tailgates their car up the mountain. This leaves both Edith and Brenda with a sour taste and no interest in socializing with Stephen.

After they all arrive at the ski lodge, an avalanche occurs, and the three are the only guests at the new hotel for a few days until the roads can be cleared. Brenda develops a cold, forcing Stephen and Edith to eventually socialize, and they begin to fall in love.

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