Category Archives: pop culture

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HEART ATTACK & VINE | “THE BACK” AKA VIKKI DOUGAN MADE MARVELOUS EXITS IN THE ’50s

What happened to Vikki Dougan? The model once known as “The Back” had her Hollywood career cut short.
Hollywood gossip columns produced a profuse number of groan-inducing puns. In 1957, Hollywood Today column headlined “Vikki Dougan … Backs Into a Film Career,” Erskine Johnson suggested that Ms. Dougan’s dresses are “lower in the back than a teenager’s hot rod.”
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BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID | BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE 1969 CLASSIC

According to William Goldman, when he first wrote the script and sent it out for consideration, only one studio wanted to buy it, and that was with the proviso that the two lead characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, “I don’t give a shit. All I know is John Wayne don’t run away.” Goldman rewrote the script, “didn’t change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it.”

William Goldman said that many young people saw the super posse in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ as a metaphor for the government and authority during the years of anti-war protests. He said his students said the similarity lay in the relentlessness by which both “would hunt you down.”

With nine wins, ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ currently holds the record for the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs). It won for picture, actor (Robert Redford), actress (Katharine Ross, direction (George Roy Hill), screenplay, cinematography, film editing, sound, and score. It won every award it could, as its tenth nomination was a dual nomination for Best Actor. It was the top-grossing film of 1969, and today is considered one of Hollywood’s greatest westerns.
Paul Newman said this was the most fun he’d ever had making a film~ and that he and Robert Redford drank a lot of beer in Mexico. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed in 1968 in Utah, Colorado, and Mexico. It cost $6 million to film, but earned over $102 million at the box office in 1969, which would be around $725 million currently, adjusted for inflation.
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CANDY BARR | SMALL TOWN TEXAS GIRL, BURLESQUE STRIPPER, AND MOB DARLING!

During the 1950s the burlesque stripper, Candy Barr, received nationwide attention for her stripping career in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Then there were her encounters with the law, the death of her second husband, and her sentence to a prison term for drug possession. Candy Barr was a darling of the mob and had relationships with both Mickey Cohen and Jack Ruby. Whew! And below are a timeline of her sorted history, and the legendary Dallas strip clubs where it all began.
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RIP OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN | GREASE THE MOVIE WAS A BIG DAMN DEAL IN 1978, AND STILL IS!

With a cigarette held between her scarlet red lips, Olivia Newton-John electrified John Travolta in the legendary movie musical of 1978. Throwback to the most scandalous rock’n’roll look of cinema.

In 2019 Julien’s Auctions organized a ‘Grease’ auction. Among the 500 items offered-up for auction were the hot black leather jacket, and skin tight leather pants worn by ‘Sandy,’ in the legendary finale scene. Much of the proceeds were donated to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, created by the actress herself as she has battled breast cancer since 1992.  The total sale of those two pieces alone fetched $405,700 dollars, or about 360,000 euros. Spanx founder Sara Blakely bought the pants.

GREASE was the highest-grossing movie of 1978. For a while, GREASE was the third highest-grossing movie of all time, behind Jaws (1975) and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977).
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KATE BUSH RUNNING UP THAT HILL… AGAIN | STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED.

Here’s what I remember about Kate Bush as a teen back in the ’80s. She definitely stood out as an individual and an artist that was not interested in following the trends. Kate Bush had her own sound, a and softly stirring voice. She thoughtfully crafted her music that stood out in the trendy 1980s, and it still stands the test of time. There was strength and vulnerability in her songs, She was beautiful, graceful, captivating, and unique.

Now a whole new world is discovering Kate Bush, as her song, “Running Up That Hill” was picked-up by the Netflix drama, “Stranger Things.” It’s a song and mood that connects strongly with viewers of her era, now sitting in front of the TV alongside their children, hearing a song from long ago that conjures memories of their own youth that still sounds earnest, fresh and magical.

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HOW RITA MORENO USED ELVIS TO MAKE CHEATING MARLON BRANDO JEALOUS

“Rita Moreno knew how to make her cheating boyfriend jealous long before the age of social media. The task is simple; just a three-step process. First, date screen legend Marlon Brando. Second, find evidence of his affair (what would be the first of many). Third, get asked on a date by Elvis Presley and accept. While this seems like a page of Old Hollywood fan fiction, this was, in fact, Moreno’s life.” –From the pages of Vanity Fair.

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DAVID BOWIE IS WORTH IDOLIZING | SUSAN SARANDON SPEAKS ABOUT THEIR HUNGER

David Bowie, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve who starred together in the 1983 movie, The Hunger.

“He’s worth idolizing. He’s extraordinary. That was a really interesting period. I wasn’t supposed to have kids, and I’m the oldest of nine and had mothered all of them, so I wasn’t ever in a mode where I was looking to settle down and raise a family, so that definitely changes the gene pool you’re dipping into.”

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BACK WHEN BETTIE PAGE WAS ALL THE RAGE | THE EARLY IRVING KLAW DAYS

In 1949, Bettie Page moved to New York with aspirations of becoming an actress. It was there she met one of America’s first ‘fetish’ photographers, Irving Klaw. From 1952 to 1957, Page worked as a model for Klaw for both his photographs and films, earning her the media nickname, “The Queen of Bondage.”

“For years I had my hair parted down the middle in a ponytail, tucked down around the sides Well, I went and cut the bangs, and I’ve been wearing them ever since. They say it’s my trademark.”
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