Welcome to Show Business! #43

Original Caption:

Preparing for Her Comeback.

Hollywood -- Mary Pickford, long known as America's "Sweetheart of the Screen" puts the finishing touches to her makeup as Roy Laidlaw assists her. Miss Pickford, who is a rarely seen figure on the screen these days, is expected to make a comeback to satisfy her huge retinue of admirers throughout the entire world. (1932)

When Legends Gather #633

Vincent Price and Alfred Hitchcock

The Gunslinger Guide to Catherine Deneuve #12

Politicians in Action #62

President John F. Kennedy makes a mental note to count his fingers.

This Sporting Life #33

Original Caption:

Game Opponent.

New York -- Studying the board in the mirror atop his iron lung, 17-year-old Polio patient Bruce Campbell plays a match with two-time U.S. Chess champion Bobby Fischer, 15, of Brooklyn. The game was one of several Bobby played at the March of Dimes-supported Goldwater Memorial Hospital's respiratory center on Welfare Island, New York. Bruce called out his moves and Bobby made them. Bobby won the game, and made a big hit with the excited patients, who are being rehabilitated as part of the National Foundation's expanded program to combat arthritis and birth defects as well as polio. (1959)

Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers #2

Paul McCartney explains to Japanese authorities that he was "just so high" when he packed 7.7 ounces of reefer in his luggage before arriving in Tokyo for his January 1980 Wings performances.

The Art of the Girlie Mag #21

 
Health and Life (March, 1925)

"Health and Life: The National Monthly Magazine for Health, Physical Education, and Right Living " 

(featuring "Camping Out in the Snow - a Real Hardy 'Health and Life' Girl").

The Welcoming Committee #1

from Flash Gordon (Chapter 1, The Planet of Peril)
(Frederick Stephani & Ray Taylor; 1936)

The Gunslinger Guide to Karel Zeman #1

from Cesta Do Praveku (Journey to The Beginning of Time); 1955
The complete film is available on YouTube here.

The Friends of Flagg #2

Theodore Roosevelt

"I marched to Sagamore Hill with the gang to get him to run again for President after he came back from the River of Doubt. Teddy was hated by big business, as was F.D.R. later on. He posed for me and when he looked at the drawing said, 'That's very good of you!' I was puzzled how to take that."

Similar Images #16S is for Steichen #20

The Pond—Moonlight (Edward Steichen; 1904)



Fantasia (Wilfred Jackson; 1940)

The First Person You See #10

Gunji (Koji Tsuruta) in Sympathy for the Underdog (d. Kinji Fukasaku; 1971)

Sex Education #161

Maggie Wheeler shuns David Duchovny’s advances in New Year’s Day (Henry Jaglom, 1989).

Jokers, Smokers and Midnight Tokers #1

Robert Mitchum sweeps his jail cell after getting busted for marijuana in 1948.

Signs and Meaning in Cinema #53

Signs and Meaning: Scarlet Street
(Fritz Lang; 1945)

Sex Education #160The Gunslinger Guide to Barbara Steele #4

Annals of Public Performance #38

Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil, Glastonbury, UK, 1985.

K is for Kinski #3

Der Zinker
(The Squeeker)
(Alfred Vohrer; 1963)

Artifacts #26

Woody Guthrie's New Year's resolutions.

Images on Images #6

Noah's Ark
(Michael Curtiz; 1928)

Seminal Image #1027

Broadway Danny Rose
(Woody Allen; 1984)

Politicians in Action #61

Tailgunner Joe takes a break from smearing his fellow man to explain he once "caught a commie this big."

L is for Lange #11Twilight of the Dreamboats #45

U.S. Highway #40, California (1956)

Faces from the Past #17Great Moments in Moxie #27

Enjoying a goat-cart ride at the Coney Island Zoo in 1904.

Another fine photo from the folks at Shorpy. See the high-res version here.

Cartoon Planet #1

Rooty Toot Toot
(John Hubley; 1951)

Treading the Boards #45

Frank Wilson and Paul Robeson listen to James Meighan's mournful tunes in the original production of Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York, 1924.

Annals of Public Performance #37

Little Richard, The Olympia, Paris, France, 1966.

The Rhythm Method #3

Sterling Morrison
Rhythm Guitar

The Friends of Flagg #1

Irving S. Cobb by James Montgomery Flagg

"I painted his portrait once and his wife loathed it. Irv said it was so much like him he shaved by it! I called him 'Old Irv' and he called me 'Young Flagg.' We were about the same age. Everybody loved him."

Civic Portraiture #35

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (a.k.a. Mata Hari)

Sex Education #159The Gunslinger Guide to Barbara Steele #3

Seminal Image #1026

Scorpio Rising
(Kenneth Anger; 1964)

Self Portrait #18Son of a Preacherman #3

Vincent van Gogh

The Rhythm Method #2

John Lennon
Rhythm Guitar

The Friends of Milt Hinton #23

Cab Calloway glows.
(New York, New York: January, 1947)

The Rhythm Method #1

Malcolm Young
Rhythm Guitar

Girls of the Golden West #4

Marlene Dietrich in Rancho Notorious (Fritz Lang; 1952)

Today, the Blonde Venus celebrates her 110th birthday.

Girls of the Golden West #3

Virginia Mayo in Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh; 1949)

Art of Cinema #473

As the Christmas whirlwind dies down, few films capture the seedy, bloated, hungover post-holiday mocus state of mind as accurately as this bargain basement fiasco that was originally released in 1964. To watch its opening credits, set to the Milton Delugg/Roy Alfred theme song “Hooray for Santa Claus”, click here.

When Legends . . . Gather?? #632

As a plainly intoxicated Truman Capote and his one-time stalker make the Yuletide gay, we here at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger . . . would like to wish all of our visitors, past, present and future, our greatest good cheer on this Christmas Day, 2011.

12 Discs of Christmas 2011 #12

The Greedies - A Merry Jingle (Vertigo 6198-513; 1979)

Funny, you'd think a medley of We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jingle Bells recorded by ex-Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, and Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott, Brian Downey and Scott Gorham would have found its way into the popular Yuletide playlist, but it seems the single is largely forgotten now. Over 30 years later though, it still sounds fresh and fun, I'm glad classic rock radio never got ahold of it, even though at the time it even got an airing on Top of the Pops.

Art of Cinema #472

Directed by René (Night of the Bloody Apes) Cardona, this bizarre Mexican film imported in the U.S. by K. Gordon Murray was originally released in 1959 — and continued to play the weekend matinee circuit in North America (“Delighting children of all ages!”) every December until the early ‘80s.

Dreamland Destinations #7

Willoughby. This stop is Willoughby. (Twilight Zone, d. Robert Parrish, Original air date May 6, 1960)

12 Discs of Christmas 2011 #11

Paul Anka - Christmas in Japan (ABC-Paramount SP-401; 1960)

Sticking with a Canadian theme, Ottawa-born teen pop sensation Paul Anka didn't strike Christmas gold with his 1960 single It's Christmas Everywhere, although its B-side--a version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer--hooved its way to 104 on the chart. What is truly odd is this re-recorded version of the tune titled Christmas in Japan, presumably done for the pan-Pacific marketplace.

Sad to say, I wish I could get my mitts on a copy, it's hard to say how many were released to the public in North America, or if they even made it past the radio promo copy level. Presumably it was released in Japan itself (documentation at that link credits orchestration by Nuburo Hara & his Sharps and Flats with background vocals by Motomichi Ito & his Liliuo-Rhythm-Airs, which indicates Anka either recorded it in Japan, or sang to a Japanese-taped backing track). At any rate, Christmas in Japan is slightly more upbeat than It's Christmas Everywhere, maybe the original would have charted higher if it had been less lugubrious.

The Gunslinger Guide to Julie Christie #39

Merry Christmas from Julie Christie

Adventures in the Vast Wasteland #37

Today's Adventure:
Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan) explains to Mister Green Jeans (Hugh Brannum) what's up and what's down.

Dreamland Destinations #6

Mushnick's Florist (Little Shop of Horrors, d. Roger Corman, 1960)

Artifacts #24Heroes of Animated Cinema #9

Fleischer Studios Betty Boop Christmas card circa 1933

This delectable image, and many more, are on display at the new Fleischer Studios Museum website.

And don't forget our previous Mae "Betty Boop" Questel installment in 2010's 12 Discs of Christmas series.

The Acid Eaters #7

William Stout cover art for the one-shot Fear and Laughter, a comic book ‘tribute’ to Hunter Thompson published by Kitchen Sink in 1977.

12 Discs of Christmas 2011 #10

Mike O'Neill - Frosty the Gold Rush (from The 2011 Zunior Holiday Blender; 2011)

The trend of creating mashups seems to have come and gone like the feature film career of Craig Wasson, although you could trace its roots back to the 1970s and the beloved panel game One Song to the Tune of Another, on the BBC's long-running radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

In that spirit comes a new Canadian Christmas compilation, The 2011 Zunior Holiday Blender, with Canuck indie acts doing familiar holiday tunes in the style of perennial favourites from the Great White North. So you get The Violet Archers singing Good King Wenceslas to the melody of Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and Dog Is Blue grafting the Flaming Lips' surreal Christmas at the Zoo lyrics onto the robust Stan Rogers shanty Barrett's Privateers.

I've settled on former Inbreds member Mike O'Neill's Neil Young impression on Frosty the Gold Rush, in which he eerily warbles the tale of how a snowman came to life one day. You can hear a sample of the track here or go to the Zunior link and hear bits of the whole thing and maybe even download the compilation (all proceeds go to Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank). It's what St. Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia would do.