At the 2014 TCM festival in Hollywood this past April, Maureen O’Hara was on hand to introduce How Green Was My Valley and to chat with Robert Osborne, film historian and host of Turner Classic Movies. Before the showing of the 1941 drama directed by John Ford, TCM paid tribute to the 93-year-old actress by showing a series of clips and stills covering her enormous body of work … [Read more...] about TCM Honors Maureen O’Hara
June July 2014 Issue
The Very Modern Ed O’Neill
It’s hard to put a finger on why the sitcom Modern Family is so successful. It seems set to play to stereotypes – older man with trophy wife; gay male couple with their adopted Asian child – but the secret of the show’s success may lie in the acting. It’s a well cast ensemble, all of whom have perfect comic timing. The characters are believable and seem familiar. The show is … [Read more...] about The Very Modern Ed O’Neill
Lovely Lola: The Countess Who Became the Vamp of the Mining Camps
June / July 2014
There was a time in the mid-19th century when all Europe raved about the Spanish dancer, Lola Montez, not realizing that she wasn’t Spanish and couldn’t dance. She wowed them in Paris, London, Berlin and St. Petersburg with her famous Spider Dance, a number that had Lola wearing a black mantilla, clicking castanets and shaking tarantulas out of her petticoats. When the hairy … [Read more...] about Lovely Lola: The Countess Who Became the Vamp of the Mining Camps
Sláinte: Forty Shades of Green
Back in the nineties a friend’s gorgeous garden made me 40 envious shades of green. Then in 2002, I moved into a little 1950s bungalow with a big backyard that was choked with weeds, discarded bed and bicycle frames, and a dilapidated shed housing a black widow spider colony. Full of purpose and heavily gloved, I dove into the task of creating my first garden. For four months I … [Read more...] about Sláinte: Forty Shades of Green
Oscar & Doc: A trip to Leadville, Colorado
You hoist one of Colorado’s fine craft beers at the long, dark bar of the Silver Dollar Saloon in Leadville, and consider this possibility: had history played out a little differently, Oscar Wilde and Doc Holliday might have exchanged bon mots right at this spot. Both caroused here, Wilde in 1882, Holliday a year later. They both provided memorable episodes in a wild … [Read more...] about Oscar & Doc: A trip to Leadville, Colorado