Fast Away...

...The old year passes.  As it does, we can only hope to be as festive as ol' Mickey here.  And maybe not as killjoy as Frieda there in between him and the guy in the wizard hat.  Sheesh - if looks could kill!

Goodnight Mrs. Ziegfeld, Wherever You Are

And as the year ends, another chapter closes...

Human Kindness

When I think fun, upbeat material for a New Year's Eve special, this is... not exactly what I come up with.  But then again I'm not the Smothers Brothers, and it's not 1967.

Visions of Sugarplums

In the immortal words of Miss Liz Lemon, "I want to go to there."

Christmas Past

I hope your Christmas has been lovely, if you have one.  Even if not, here's your chance to see my grandparents in distinctly festive mood.

Vedette de Noël

I hope your holidays are a shade less fraught than dear Mlle. Deneuve's appear to be.  I don't know about you, but I'm not usually reduced to hovering tensely near the tree in a fur and chain-smoking at least until the 27th.

Destinations (From the Correspondence of a Lady of Quality)

Oddly enough, I found this on the breakfast table at our hotel...

Simple Joys

Do you have somewhere of which you are fond quite out of proportion to its objective merits?

And Away We Go

We hear the UK's rather festive this time of year; we decided it might be a good idea to check it out first-hand.

Say Cheese

I think, in the end, you're either a fondue person or you're not.

After All These Years, Still Definitely Not a Fruitcake

Here at the Café, our Christmas holiday has started, so it seems appropriate to kick off the festive season in the way that's become something of a tradition hereabouts.

Hairway to Heaven

Sad news from Brussels this weekend - we're down one true-blue (and blue-blooded) Bouffant Aficionado with the death at 86 of Fabiola, the dowager Queen of the Belgians.

Check Your Personality

This is proving a rather trying week, for various reasons; all the better, then, that for once the Youtubes' usually mysterious "Recommended" feature turned up a treasure, which I joyfully pass on to you herewith.

An Ethical Dilemma

So, what do you think?

Of Couture and Corn

The holiday weekend rolls on, with yesterday's highlight an outing to the Museum of Fine Arts, ostensibly to see their current exhibition of Goyas.  I found an unexpected treat, however, that very nearly outshone even the master's portrait of the Duchess of Alba (not, of course, the recently deceased edition thereof - she was old, but not that old...).

Last-Minute Menu Suggestion

Just in case your Thanksgiving isn't shaping up to be as perfectly apalling as you'd hoped, here's a tasty, terrifying treat - talk about putting the hell back in Hellmann's!

When Words Fail

Miss Nina tells it like it is.  Like it still fucking is. Goddamit.

Sometimes Jam Today

Yes, apparently it's that time again...

The Hitherto Unmentioned: Miss Hollywood

Reading an interview this morning with Miss Anjelica Huston got me thinking, in several different directions.

Look Around You / All You See Are Sympathetic Eyes

This is my favorite bit from The Graduate, and within it much of why I so admired Mike Nichols.

How Are You Celebrating?

Today is World Toilet Day.  Are you, like Jeannie Sue here, doing the traditional Dance of Bubble-Action Exhilaration?

Shameless Sunday Super Camp Explosion - Pet!

In the fall of 1964, Miss Petula Clark might well have had a few concerns about her career...

Phone Home

So - have you been following the comet-landing?  Who could have thought, in these cynical days, that the adventures of a plucky little techno-pioneer could be so gripping?

Grace Under Pressure

As the years passed, she increasingly looked as if not every aspect of the bargain she'd made had worked out quite as expected...

Lazy

These days, I'm with Marlene here...purely lazy...

A Bulletin from an Invalid

Just a quick note, darlings, to let you know I'm alive, if not particularly well...

Talk of the Town

Café Central, by Jonelle Summerfield*

So my week in Vienna speeds by.  The days are spent toiling in the vineyard of corporate instruction, grappling with a very nice but definitely motley crew of new recruits drawn from various Golden Handcuffs locations across Europe and far beyond.  The nights, though... ah, that's another story.

All Kinds of Empresses

Forget Sissi; forget Maria von Trapp - this is the face of Austria in 2014.

When Will I Realize...

...Vienna waits for me?

A Birthday Pepper Pot, Vitaphone-Style

Just a day late, here's a chance to celebrate not one but two October birthdays, and if the package this birthday gift is all wrapped up in is a little dated, the contents cram more talent into just about ten minutes than some studio super-spectaculars did into two hours plus...

Mystic Crystal Revelation

For reasons that will shortly become clear, I've been thinking about Hair, the 1979 film of which has to me always seemed too-little-shouted-about.

Grand Old Flag

Now, normally I don't approve of the kind of patriotism that involves wrapping oneself in the flag...

Birthday Girl: Heart of the World

Let's lift a glass, on this her 121st birthday, to the First Lady of Cinema, Miss Lillian Gish.  She's captured here by Steichen in the mid '30s, and he's caught an element of her she rarely showed in public.

In Which We Entertain

We decided to mark this Columbus Day weekend by Having People In for the first time in our new digs.  Actually, that's a complete lie.

Shameless Saturday Camp Explosion: Hi-dee...No

One of the many topics in regard to which I heartily agree with Mr. Ethan Mordden (novelist, raconteur, and entertainment historian par excellence) is the regrettability of the extent to which Hollywood (and, to a lesser extent, the stage) embraced the idea of the New Dance Sensation Number.  This surprisingly long-lived phenomenon consists nine times out of ten of a (frequently quite lavish) sequence based on a (nearly universally) sub-par song in praise of said terpsichory, staged without even a hint of what the damn dance was supposed to actually be.  I mean, face it - based on what you've seen on screen, could you attempt to dance the Varsity Rag?  The Continental?  I thought not.

Along those lines, this one's a lulu - and that's the least of its (many) sins.

Autumn Sonata

The changing season has me down, but I'm trying to handle it with at least a shred of the aplomb that Bette Davis brought to bear.  Although some of that may be coming from the cocktail glass she's so firmly clutching...

The Singer and the Silents

I suppose Al Martino isn't the best remembered of all the last century's crooners, but back in the day it only took a note or two of "Spanish Eyes" to reduce Mother Muscato to sighs and faraway looks.  He would have been 87 today.

What It's All About

Well, rather a surprise this morning, no?  Today's great news has made me think about these two, to whom we owe so much.  In honor of Mildred and Richard Loving - and what author of fiction would ever dare give them that name? - tonight we raised a glass to being fully legal in our home state.  To read Mildred's statement 40 years after her marriage became legal is to realize just how far we've come, and how we walk a path made easier by pioneers.

As If We Always Knew

It seemed for a while that "What I Did for Love" was going to become one of those inescapable songs, like "Feelings" or the song most usually known as "Mem'ry (from Cats)."  A Chorus Line was, after all, a phenomenal hit, a rare one for the mid-'70s that could be equally adored by aficionados of old-line musicals, those seeking some sign that musicals could still thrive in a rock-n-roll culture, and just the usual theatergoers who like a good story.  But at some point within a decade or so, it kind of went away for a while.  I thought it would be fun to think about that.

Eggies! - Royal Edition

Exciting news from Bangkok, kids!  Of course, the above regal creature is not our emerging Café obsession, HRH The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (aka the Angel Princess), but instead the rather more, um, down to earth late film sensation Edith Massy, aka Edie the Egg Lady.

What's My Wednesdays? #12: Fair Lady

This delightful (if, as captured in the screen cap above, rather intent-looking) creature brightened up a dreary February Sunday evening for television watchers nationwide - 54 years ago.  Today, Dame Julie Andrews turns a still-sprightly 79.

Knight in Black Leather

I don't know quite how it's possible, but it would seem that it's more than a year since we last checked in with one of the Café's original virtual crushes, the lovely and presumably somehow (although it's really rather beside the point) talented Mr. Upen Patel.

Even a Lifetime

Some days - like this one, O Best Beloveds - are such that what you need at the end of them is a moment or two of truth and beauty.  Like this.

The Last Hon

When thinking about a person who has had a really quite marvelous life that spans ten decades, and when one knows the person only at a great remove, it's probably not quite right to mourn, exactly, when at last they go on before.  Still, the death of Deborah, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, does seem a particularly melancholy thing.

As Tears Go By

I learned a little something this past weekend...

Sunday Storybook Theatre

A little escapism in a rather dreary week, darlings, not to mention a reminder of half-forgotten childhood pleasure...

Max! Bring 'Round the Car!

I really do think I need an Isotta Fraschini, although I don't know how much success I'd have in getting Mr. Muscato into a suitably Stroheim-esque uniform (although he does look terribly dashing in tails, so perhaps he can be Bill Holden instead, far more suitable).  I'll have to inveigle Miss Rheba into the uniform.

Meanwhile, in the Attic...

"Well," thought Sir Edgar, "Isobel has little enough to worry about, poor fool - she wasn't even awake for the worst of it."

All the Eyes That Watched Her Once

Over in his erudite corner of the blogiverse, the Post Apocalyptic Bohemian has reminded us that this week marks what should have been the birthday of a remarkable performer who made it on Broadway, became a household name in a vehicle unworthy of her talents, and then flamed out far too quickly.  Nell Carter would seem in no way to have been an easy person, but at her best, she was magical.

Balkan Belle

Here's a happy birthday to that Wallis Windsor of the Carpathians, the most scandalous woman of the 1920s (this side of Aimee Semple McPherson, at least) and a most unlikely homewrecker, Mme. Magda Lupescu.

My World, and Welcome to It

I've been wondering how to convey to you exactly what the last week or so has been like, but fortunately, I found this.

So Tired...

Tired blood.  Maybe that's my problem.

Road Trip Angel

At the risk of becoming a tad repetitive, I was thrilled to see that my fave-rave Thai Royal, the Angel Princess herself, has taken to the road - with adorable results.

And Now, a Word From Our Sponsor

A match made in heaven: today's birthday girl, the splendiferous Jo Anne Worley, and the color red!

Hey There, Birthday Girl!

The indefatigable (and indefatigably glamourous) Miss Mitzi Gaynor turns an ever-youthful 83 today, and we can all thank our lucky stars that still she's with us.

Earth Angel

I have a new girl-crush, of a most unlikely nature, but I really am entranced.  She's a fixture, you see, of the news in Bangkok, and since I spent so much time during this trip sitting in a stupor in the hotel room that I saw rather a lot of her.  Such, however, are the local lèse-majesté laws that I thought it wiser to write about her only when safely elsewhere.

The [Airport] Bars are Temples...

...and the god's a he...

Up is Down, Black is White...

...And Hello Kitty is not a cat.  At the risk of continuing the feline trend earlier this week, I feel obliged to note how thoroughly my mind has been blown by this startling news from the good people at Sanrio.

Cat and Mouse

Let's not even address the oddity of encountering an Amy Winehouse Siamese while actually in Siam; what troubles me is whether there's any significance to the fact that Her Majesty is prey and the other two predators.  That only one was actually a Rock Star (before becoming a ChocStar) pales in comparison.

Been Shopping

At breakfast this morning, taken in the briskly efficient 31st-floor executive lounge of my very comfortable hotel, those of my students who have lingered on were fully of dauntingly ambitious plans for their Saturday, burbling on about elephant excursions and trips downriver and temple crawls of epic proportions.

Suppertime

So this evening, for the first time since I got here, I ventured out even a little bit for dinner, going down to one of the hotel restaurants rather than having a tray in my room.

Mysterious Beige

Who knew? In these parts, Blythe is a spokesmodel with her own hair color line.  It's about time the big-eyed one got one over on that damn Barbie Roberts and her endless merchandise machine.

Business and Pleasure

Because I know you worry, I thought I should reassure you that all work and no play is not, in fact, making this Jack a dull boy.

(Two) Day Tripper

So all this time we've been going through the move - and even as we dwell in the resulting chaos - I've been dreading what comes next.  I honestly didn't even really start putting it all together until I went back to work on Thursday, but now the reality of it is coming at me just like an American President Line ship bearing down on a little Siamese fishing vessel.

Positively, Absolutely, Undeniably, and Reliably... Perfect

This hasn't been the brightest shining week hereabouts, what with one thing and another, so it's nice to take a moment and experience some pure joy.  The picture had its premiere at Grauman's Chinese 75 years ago today, and I hope you'll agree that it really rather holds up.

Goodnight, Schatze...

I hate weeks when I have to quote Shakespeare more than once:

Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies 

A lass unparallel'd...

I won't lie to you, kids - this one hurts.

The Same is True of the Laugh

He made the leap from television to movies, and then went on to make a lot of them. Probably too many, truth be told, and many of them not very good.  The snap above is from one not all that much better than some, but I'm fond of it, not least because he looked so wonderful - the youthful mischief carried more calmly than before, the wildness disciplined.  How hard it must be for such a natural clown to play - as it were - the straight man and let others take the reins, outrageously; and yet he did it well.  Shortly thereafter, something seemed to go wrong, physically; the look, once so lush and in service of the role at hand, because harsher, pinched somehow.  Neither comedy nor pathos seemed to work so well as once they had.

...Your Portrait of the Queen...

A little blast from the past the feels all too much like a moment torn from our own personal headlines at the moment...

Quel trou à rats!

Ladies and gentlemen, for no good reason - Mlle. Rosa Moline!

Marlene, Norma, Joan, Loretta...and Margaret?

So, with our move ever more imminent, I'm responding in a calm, measured, and practical way - not by any kind of rational planning, mind you, or anything like actual preparation.  No, I'm mostly leafing through some of the higher works of literature that form such a feature - such a heavy, enormous, infinitely packable feature - of life chez nous.

What's My Wednesdays? #11: It Must Be!

Ah, it's another antic Sunday night out there in TVland (whatever day of the week it is here in these lower realms), and I thought it might be fun to look in on an encounter with today's birthday girl, 103 today.

So, Anyway...

Apologies, mes chers, that things have been a little quiet here of late.  We've been on the go.

And Now, a Word from our Sponsor

This is exactly how I imagine our United Van Lines consultant, although her name is Juanita, not Betty.  Maybe Juanita is the Betty of 2014?

Madame D

I realize that I'm probably boring you with my sudden infatuation with all things MerriweatherPostian, but when life is as vexing as is ours at the moment, one does find consolation in the contemplation of beautiful things.