11.29.2009

PILLOW TALK: ROCK HUDSON DORIS DAY



My favorite Doris Day comedy. Of course we loved Rock Hudson too. He was such a gorgeous hunk o man. This formulaic Day film was such fun to watch silly as it's plot was.

Doris Day plays an interior decorator who finds she's sharing a telephone party line with a womanising songwriter (Hudson) - she finds him unbearable at the end of the phone, but there are definite sparks for the better when they meet for real. He goes about romancing her in the guise of a nice Southern boy and almost succeeds ...



In support are the funny Thelma Ritter and Tony Randall, perfect foils for the glamorous leads. The film zips along with a large amount of charm, certainly helped by the colour and the snappy title song. There are numerous classic scenes to add to the fun but I won't spoil yours until you've seen it. If you've never seen this, lucky you, you've got a treat to look forward to.



RETRO:KIMMER FAVORITE 1960'S MEN



Warren Beatty



Paul Newman



John Lennon Paul McCartney



Brian Jones



Elvis Presley



Marlon Brando



David McCallum



Robert Redford

DIANA RIGG: MRS PEEL THE AVENGERS




Diana Rigg was a big hero in my childhood. She and of course Honey West were our very first women action figures! The carried gun and beat up the bad guys! Especially Emma Peel OMG she was a toughie that girl. She often defended John Steed from bad guy assaults. Emma was my first image of being an independent while still being beautiful. The boys at school loved her but so did the girls! We had a character we could portray.

 

Diana Rigg was a troublesome girl, born in England but raised in India, where her father worked as a railroad executive. At the age of eight, she was sent back to England for a more proper upbringing, but classes, she has said, were boring, and she was often caught daydreaming. One particularly bright teacher suggested that Rigg channel her daydreams onto the stage, and performing in a school production of Goldilocks, she knew she wanted to be an actor. 

 
Rigg has made a career out of playing troublesome characters. She went straight from high school to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she made her professional debut at the age of 19. The pay, however, was meager, and she supplemented her income with work as a shopclerk, a switchboard operator, and a fashion model. 


 At 21, she signed a five-year contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and when that deal expired she auditioned to spy with Patrick Mac Nee in The Avengers. She stayed with the series for only two years, but her second season was aired in America as well as Britain, making Rigg a worldwide star. And she was simply smashing as the smart, sexy, widowed Mrs. Emma Peel, an expert in kung-fu, tai-chi, and other forms of hand-to-hand combat. 

 

In one understandably beloved episode, "A Touch of Brimstone", Rigg was disguised as "The Queen of Sin", to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, a clandestine group determined to topple governments through practical jokes. She wore an extremely tight Edwardian-style corset, high heeled leather boots, and a three-inch spiked collar. According to legend, that memorable outfit was not provided by the program's wardrobe department, but instead came from Ms Rigg's own closet. Really great Diana Rigg slideshow HERE Read Wiki HERE

KIM NOVAK


Kimmer was named after Kim Novak that fantastic actress of the late 50's and 60's. She is best known for her association with Alfred Hitchcock and my favorite of her films is VERTIGO. She was so hauntingly beautiful in that film with Jimmy Stewart. It was so real when Jimmy's character became entranced with Kim's. Everyone in the audience did as well.


My second favorite of Kim's films was BELL BOOK AND CANDLE because it features witchcraft and Gillian's (Novak) pet Siamese cat Pyewacket. Here is a little about the film:

The play was adapted successfully into a beautiful color film starring Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Elsa Lanchester, Hermoine Gingold, Ernie Kovacs, and Janice Rule. It's light entertainment, about a normal-appearing family of witches (Novak, Lemmon, and Lanchester) and the publisher (Stewart) who lives in their building. The most expert of them is the sultry, soft-voiced Gillian, who would love to be normal. One night, with Stewart in her apartment, she puts a spell on him using her Siamese cat, Pyewacket, and he falls in love with her.



"Bell Book and Candle" was filmed on a charming set that replicates New York. The movie is loads of fun. Jack Lemmon is very funny in a supporting role as Gillian's brother, a musician in the witch and warlock-laden Zodiac Club.


He uses his powers to turn streetlights on and off and to turn on the occasional woman. Janice Rule is perfect as the snobby ex-college rival of Gillian, now dating Stewart, and Ernie Kovacs has a great turn as an eccentric who is writing the definitive book on witches. Lanchester and Gingold, of course, are always wonderful, Lanchester Gillian's daft aunt and Gingold as a sort of queen of witchcraft.



Kim Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak in Chicago, Illinois of Czech extraction. Her father was a railroad clerk and former teacher; her mother also was a former teacher, and Novak has a sister. While attending Farragut High Academy, she won a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. 
 

After leaving school, she began a career modeling teen fashions for a local department store. She later received a scholarship at a modeling academy and continued to model part-time. She worked as an elevator operator, a sales clerk and a dental assistant. After a job touring the country as a spokesman for a refrigerator manufacturer, "Miss Deepfreeze," Novak moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to find work as a model. Wiki Story HERE
 

RETRO:KIMMER FAVORITE 1960'S BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN B/W


Brigitte Bardot


Twiggy


Sharon Tate

Elizabeth Montgomery


Elizabeth Taylor


Kim Novak

Connie Francis

Jane Fonda

 Ronnie Spector

Ann-Margret

Sophia Loren

11.28.2009

NIKKI COREVETTE!



Exciting fan moment coming this month for Kimmer at the Ann Arbor Rock n Roll Revival show. I finally get to meet Nikki Corvette! We love her and she reminds us of our favorite girl singers of the 1960's and all that is retro fabulous.

Two decades before the Donnas were doing their best to be the "chick Ramones," we had Nikki and the Corvettes. Bomp has reissued on CD the band's sole album -- think of a sexed-up punked-up Shangri-Las, fueled by Chuck Berry guitar riffs -- along with their two singles. You get 16 foot-tappin', head-boppin' songs about boys, "Backsteat Love," and dancing that I think would require a supreme effort to NOT enjoy. Bubblegum punk that tastes as good as it looks.


11.22.2009

ENGLISH POP SINGER JULIE DRISCOLL


Tonight I was discussing my favorite decade and the ultra cool fashion models of the time with my pal Rock Photographer Heather Harris. I mentioned how Twiggy invented the waifish short hair and painted on lower lashes look. No no pointed out Ms Harris you must see Julie Driscoll!

Have to admit I had never been exposed to Ms. Driscoll before that I was aware of. Turns out she did sing back up with Rod Stewart with Long John Baldry so I had seen (heard) her at least once. She is fantastic and here is more on the lovely Ms Driscoll nee Tippetts.


Julie Driscoll is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger & The Trinity. She and Auger had previously worked in Steampacket, with Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart.




"This Wheel's on Fire" reached number five in the United Kingdom. With distortion, the imagery of the title and the group's dress and performance, this version came to represent the psychedelic era in British music. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early 90s with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, whose main characters are throwbacks to that era. 



Since the 1970s Driscoll has concentrated on experimental vocal music, married jazz musician Keith Tippett and collaborated with him. Her name is now 'Julie Tippetts', thus using the original spelling of her husband's surname. She participated in Keith Tippett's big band Centipede and, in 1974, took part in Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert; released a solo album, Sunset Glow; and was lead vocalist on Carla Bley's album Tropic Appetites.


Later in the 1970s she toured with her own band, and recorded and performed as one of the vocal quartet 'Voice', with Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton and Brian Eley.

IT'S ALL TOO BEAUTIFUL: ITCHYCOO PARK



"Itchycoo Park" was released by mod band The Small Faces in August, 1967. Together with "Lazy Sunday", "Tin Soldier" and "All or Nothing", the song is one of the band's biggest hits and has become a classic of its time. The song reached number 16 in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968.


Long running British music magazine NME cites readers poll voting "Itchycoo Park" number 62 out of top 100 singles of all time.

"Itchycoo Park" climbed to the top of the charts again when it was re-released on 13 December 1975. The song was first thought of by Ronnie Lane, who had been reading a leaflet on the virtues of Oxford which mentioned its dreaming spires.



A number of sources claim the song's name is derived from the nickname of Little Ilford Park, on Church Road in the London suburb of Manor Park, where Small Faces' singer and song-writer Steve Marriott grew up. The "itchycoo" nickname is, in turn, attributed to the stinging nettles which grew there. Other sources cite nearby Wanstead Flats (Manor Park end) as the inspiration for the song.

Marriott and Small Faces manager Tony Calder came up with the well-known story when Marriott was told the BBC had banned the song for its overt drug references, Calder confirms:

"We scammed the story together, we told the BBC that Itchycoo Park was a piece of waste ground in the East End that the band had played on as kids - we put the story out at ten and by lunchtime we were told the ban was off." - Tony Calder



Ronnie Lane on the true location of Itchycoo Park:

"It's a place we used to go to in Ilford years ago. Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it's full of nettles and you keep scratching". - Ronnie Lane

Another local park, in the nearby town of Ilford, called Valentines Park, was also often referred to as Itchycoo Park. Itchy Park is located in the East End of London and dates back to the Victorian era.

11.21.2009

A NAUGA STORY!




The small chameleon-like animals known as Naugas™ have long been known as the source of beautiful and durable fabrics that look like fine, soft leather. And since Naugas shed their hydes without harm to themselves, the fabrics they help make came to be known as Naugahyde®, The Cruelty Free Fabric™.




Despite the popularity of these little animals and their HIDES, little is known of their origins and how they first came to America.

Some researchers say Naugas™ are native to the island of Sumatra. Ancient Nauga artifacts recently found near the Coliseum in Rome have, however, cast doubt on this theory.

One prominent historian believes the first Naugas arrived in America in 1778 when they delivered designer clothes from France to George Washington's Continental Army. Others suggest they arrived far earlier, pointing out an abandoned tenth century Viking settlement that was recently unearthed in Newfoundland. Among the tantalizing evidence is the discovery of two Nauga names, Olaf the Red and Erik the Navy Blue, on a fragment of stone tablet at the site.



But like most immigrants many Naugas simply arrived with little more than their hydes on their backs and a willingness to work hard for a better future.

Before long Naugas™ were succeeding in many industries and professions.

Thomas Maroon built a nationwide chain of dry-cleaning shops.

Catherine Orange completed the first solo transatlantic flight by a Nauga in 1932.

11.20.2009

HISTORY OF BOBLO ISLAND IN DETROIT MICHIGAN


Boblo Island Amusement Park
was a theme park which ran from 1898 until its closure on September 30, 1993.

Sky Streek and White Sands

The park was located on Bois Blanc Island, which is part of the Province of Ontario, Canada. It lies just above the mouth of the Detroit River. The people of Detroit characterized it as that city's Coney Island.


The Nightmare, Falling Star, Wild Mouse, Sky Streak, Screamer, ferris wheel, zoo, and the carousel were the signature attractions. To move visitors around the island the park constructed a mini railroad. The rides were sold off in 1994. Henry Ford also had a dance hall designed and built by Albert Kahn. It was second largest in the country, holding 5,000 dancers at full capacity.


The island is a five minute ferry ride from Amherstburg, Ontario, and 18 miles from Detroit, Michigan. For more than 85 years, the park was serviced by the SS Ste. Clair and the SS Columbia ferry boats. The Boblo Island Amusement Park was famous for those two steamers, which went between Detroit and the island. They could hold over 2,500 passengers each. The ferry boats were sold off in January 1996.









S.S. Columbia


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