It’s just so beautiful. I cannot wait to see director Jonas Mekas’ new movie, “Outtakes from the Life of a Happy Man.” I’m watching the trailer in my kitchen this morning, eyes shining. The avant-garde filmmaker, now 90 years-old, has assembled this filmic diary of his beautifully bohemian daily life in New York over the [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1476
If I had a movie theater I’d happily go broke showing films like “The Last Days of Pompeii” ( or “Gli Ultimi Giorni Di Pompei”) a 1926 silent movie with hand colored frames that recently had its first US showing at the Harvard Film Archive. Stars included Rina de Liguoro, who cavorted topless, playing an [...]
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Today, just a little pictorial ode to Jules Léotard (1830-1870) who, after performing to great success at the Cirque Napoléon in 1859, ditched his law career to become, the “Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze,” as celebrated by the famous song of the era. Of course, his spectacular spangled and fringed outfits were the [...]
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As I wind down writing my second book (!), I’m taking some time to go back through my files & to post some of the photos I had hoarded while writing Encyclopedia of the Exquisite. Perhaps you’ll remember the entry on Felines? Well, here are some photos of famous feline lovers, like Josephine Baker and [...]
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I came across all these wonderful photos of chorus girls (a ton after the jump), most anonymous, though they reminded me of Anna Held, of course, as well as Busby Berkeley’s dancers and the dancers of the Quadrille Naturaliste. (And I’m starting out my first pinterest board in high style under the handle encycloexquisit, if [...]
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I haven’t had as much fun as I had at the What Cheer Brigade’s show since I don’t know when. This 18-piece marching band out of Providence, RI, is a horn-blaring, drum-booming riot, just like those formed during the 13th century, when trumpeters were joined by “kettledrums louder than the roar of a runaway Mack [...]
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1282
I do like Lewis Carroll, but I love director Jonathan Miller’s 1966 film “Alice in Wonderland,” based on that fateful fall down the rabbit hole. It was made for the BBC and it is everything that you could hope for, with Peter Sellers as the King of Hearts, and Sir John Gielgud as the mock [...]
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Encyclopedia of the Exquisite’s entry on Milk Baths introduces the Ziegfeld sensation Anna Held, who was famously sued by a milk farmer for the amount she owed for keeping her bath tub filled with milk. She’s one of my favorite characters in the book. So today, because I missed her a bit, I decided to [...]
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Plenty of stylish types have worn top hats—an entry in Encyclopedia of the Exquisite—over the years. But did anyone ever wear a top hat with more panache than Marlene Dietrich did? She made her American movie debut in 1930 in Morocco, playing a cabaret star, and thrilling audiences with her audacity. She appears swaggering around [...]
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Encyclopedia of the Exquisite’s entry on Heels focuses on how Marilyn Monroe wore them with such va-va-voom back in the mid-20th century. In Niagara, a film noir shot in 1952, she played a vixen with a walk so provocative that it sparked controversy. “The uninhibited deportment in the motel room and the walk seemed …
http://www.encyclopediaoftheexquisite.com/?p=1116
