Category: Interesting Stories

Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman made her English language debut in Intermezzo in 1939, the American remake of a Swedish film she had already starred in three years earlier. Renowned roles in Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious all followed, while an Oscar-winning performance in Gaslight in 1944 (the first of her […]

The postwar years in Hollywood were an era of extreme contrast. On the one hand, it was in the late 1940s and early 50s that Hollywood produced many of its brightest and boldest movies, a grand and glorious series of Technicolor productions that have remained firm favorites with moviegoers ever since. On the other, the […]

Few Hollywood mother-and-daughter pairings are as iconic as Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli. Both are just as well known for their work on screen as on stage; both were successful singers and dancers as well as actresses; and both have been awarded Oscars—Garland a special Juvenile Award in 1939, and Minnelli the Best Actress award […]

Legendary Hollywood child star Shirley Temple was just three years old when she made her screen debut in a series of single-reel comedies called Baby Burlesks in 1932. Dressed in ludicrous costumes and over-the-top make-up, Temple was called upon to impersonate some of the biggest stars of the era, portraying the likes of Marlene Dietrich, […]

Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life is regularly listed as one of the greatest holiday films of all time, and among James Stewart fans is often cited as one of the best movies he ever made. Besides its leading man, It’s a Wonderful Life also starred Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and future […]

By the early 1940s, Frank Sinatra—or “Frankie,” as the up-and-coming twenty-something was known at the time—was already one of America’s hottest new talents. Marketed as “The Voice That Has Thrilled Millions,” Sinatra was wowing audiences and breaking hearts all across the country with his extraordinary singing voice, effortless charm, and boyish good looks. But by […]

It’s one of the most famous lines in the history of Hollywood. But oddly, at no point during the classic 1942 movie Casablanca does any character utter the words, “Play it again, Sam.” Here are some more facts and stories from one of the greatest movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age. PLAY IT AGAIN The plot […]

Unlike many of his fellow Hollywood luminaries, James Stewart’s private life was surprisingly sedate for such a huge star. His earliest public relationship was with the actress Margaret Sullivan, whom he reportedly had fallen head over heels in love with while the two worked together in the theater. But she saw Stewart as more of […]

Perhaps best known for her lead role opposite Marilyn Monroe in the classic musical comedy Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Jane Russell made her Hollywood debut a decade earlier—in a film that proved so scandalous it took some two years to pass the censors. The movie in question was The Outlaw, a classical western melodrama telling […]

There are enough extraordinary and scandalous stories in the life of movie legend Judy Garland to fill a book on their own. From her early days at MGM and her star-making turn in The Wizard of Oz to her later dramatic work and her one-woman shows, Garland’s life and career are among the most talked […]