Sophia D’Aurelio Adair

Ruth Aubury's Broken Melody I’d like to tell a story about a first cousin three times removed.

Wrote a bit about one of my husband's distant historical cousins, composer Ruth Tweed Aubury, due to the wildly moving nature of her story. Her fingers only grazed a bit of the musical success that would jump right out of her hands: open.substack.com/pub/vitaphon...

I love when I see this man’s name in the fan mags because I know I’m in for a snicker.

Louis B. Mayer getting raked over the coals in a ‘35 Hollywood gossip magazine for saying ‘too many bums are coming to California’, or, time passes but never really changes:

I'll be joinin' ya. She was a powerhouse.

Ruth Aubury's Broken Melody I’d like to tell a story about a first cousin three times removed.

Wrote a bit about one of my husband's distant historical cousins, composer Ruth Tweed Aubury, due to the wildly moving nature of her story. Her fingers only grazed a bit of the musical success that would jump right out of her hands: open.substack.com/pub/vitaphon...

A lotta years without Patsy Cline. Thinking of her today.

Screenshot from King of the Hill Season 2, Episode 9

the cloister hotel, sea island, georgia, 1990

the cloister hotel, sea island, georgia, 1990

***ANNOUNCEMENT***

Coming on May 19th on Blu-ray in the US from @kinolorber.com and #SomethingWeirdVideo as #18 in their #ForbiddenFruit line: #TheWagesOfSin (1938)!

The gold standard of exploitation films, Willis Kent’s The Wages of Sin is perhaps the most polished (and emotionally compelling)

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth #BOTD with The Druid Princess 1966

NANCY BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER P1- NANCY IS WALKING DOWN THE STREET CARRYING HER DIARY NANCY:I DON'T KNOW WHY I BOUGHT THIS DIARY P2- NANCY:I CAN'T THINK OF A THING TO WRITE IN IT P3-NANCY: IT'S AWFUL- - - NOTHING EVER HAPPENS TO ME P4- OUT OF NOWHERE A BOY FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD HURLED A SNOWBALL AND HIT NANCY IN THE FACE… SMACK P5- NANCY: OH, THANKS A LOT,ТОММY NANCY IS HAPPILY WRITING IN HER DIARY TOMMY IS SO SURPRISED BY NANCY’S THANK YOU, HIS BEANIE FLIES STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR!

Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller
March 04,1946

Photo has the yellowed old-paper tint. Mackaill's hair is down, she is looking at the camera and holding what appears to be a silk shawl around her shoulders (and not much else)

A striking fan-magazine portrait of actress Dorothy Mackaill, 1923. She was #BornThisDay in 1903, in Kingston upon Hull, U.K. Much of her silent work is lost, but SAFE IN HELL (1931) is brilliant and easy to find.

Scribbling in the Margins of an Industry: Richard Fleischer & The Narrow Margin | In Review Online A new Kicking the Canon essay on The Narrow Margin, director by Richard Fleischer, for film review site In Review Online.

A little piece I wrote on Richard Fleischer and The Narrow Margin: inreviewonline.com/2026/02/28/s...

It’s so good. When I first watched it around age 20 I couldn’t stop making fun of “Karl!” and now it’s ingrained in my brain when I think of it

Makes two of us!

Here’s their second round in the reformatory.

“You know, you wouldn’t be a bad looking dame…if it wasn’t for your face.”

Dorothy Burgess #BOTD was born the day after Jean Harlow, her sparring partner in 1933’s Hold Your Man. Mind if I get my cold cream?

Dorothy Burgess #BOTD photographed by Freulich for Lasca of the Rio Grande (1931)

Various staging ideas for this Safe In Hell (1931) publicity portrait of Dorothy Mackaill #BOTD, from the film’s pressbook (Wednesday mood calls for all five versions):

A trio of frightened people in THE CAT AND THE CANARY (1927).

Wednesday mood

Thank you!

Harlow and the Platinum Peony On June 12, 1933, Harlow arrived in Chicago to attend the Century of Progress International Exhibit; also known as the 1933 World’s Fair. Her stay was brief, but a highlight included her visi…

Just remembered I wrote about the context here on my blog when I was like, 20. I haven’t opened it in about seven years so I can’t tell you it doesn’t sound like a 20 year old’s blog post, but here it is. harlowheaven.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/h...

A favorite photo of Jean Harlow #BOTD, posing with her ‘Platinum Peony’ outside the California Hacienda exhibit at the Chicago World’s Fair, June 15, 1933. Glowing.

Was Maisie (1939) Meant for Jean Harlow? Maisie (1939) is one of the seminal ingredients in Ann Sothern’s saucy filmography, which renders the fact it wasn’t initially planned with her in mind slightly humorous.

Historical hearsay dictates that Jean Harlow was meant to be the original Maisie, a role that fell to Ann Sothern's feet in 1939. I wrote about why it's not that cut and dried on Vitaphone Zone. vitaphonezone.substack.com/p/was-maisie...

William Wellman, the Precode Auteur (With David Meuel) Podcast Episode · Cinema Chat With David Heath · January 30 · 1h 6m

Wellman so often gets placed in the journeyman corner of dismissal by filmheads, and from the sound of the podcast on this book with Meuel I just listened to, he’s doing a great job pushing back on that. You should listen! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Been alerted to the fact that McFarland has out a new David Meuel book on the pre-Code films of William Wellman, “Assembly-Line Auteur”, which I’m excited to get my hands on:

Stumbled upon FILM DOPE, series of UK pamphlets from 1970s to early 1990s, digitized + hosted by Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections. WOW, they are encyclopedic! I don’t know too much about them (yet) but give ‘em a look.

digitalcollections.oscars.org/digital/coll...

One of my favorite things in their Digital Collections!

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Free to read with the free eyeballs the Lord gave you, by the way, but there's ever a tip jar for those of you out there who like to show your appreciation with a pair of pennies (instead of subscribing to my Substack, of course). ko-fi.com/vitaphonezone

Born on sort of this day. It’s fine. He’s still 31 and in my age range