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Open thread 1/3/24 — 20 Comments

  1. Always a pleasure to watch those two dance.

    Rogers, in this clip, strikes me as very thin. I did a search and several listed her at 5’5″, 125, but she looks at a less weight than that in the clip.

  2. I agree, but I think she might be just a little taller. Hard to tell in high heels.

    I think Neo will agree when I say a close look at those famous “heels” shows that the bottom of the heel is just slightly wider for a little more stability. Not easy to see, but I think it is there.

    BTW–they bombed Lebanon again!

  3. Hey, I saw this movie. Bought it for my elderly and declining folks to watch a number of years ago because Astaire was in it . One of the caregivers liked it for reasons I’ll describe in a moment.

    I however was shocked and chagrined. The ( little known so far as I was aware) actress I had noticed on TV in a couple of old movies when I was about post college age and had taken for a beauty at least face-wise, was in this film. And excruciatingly she sang that smoke song and the jazz standard “Yesterdays”. Shivers. Wrecked my mental image.

    I do remember a model wearing a black dress …

    Anyway a famous cowboy actor was in it too. And the head caregiver, a nurse of Hispanic heritage was fascinated by the men’s suits declaring them as the greatest and as classics.

    When during an office scene I mentioned to her that my Dad’s brother looked as a younger man somewhat like Scott;, being a kind of familiar look relative to the “family type” back then, she looked at me and said:
    “Your mom married the wrong brother”

  4. To expand a bit on the post by DNW at 12:43: The “little known so far as I was aware” actress was Irene Dunn. The cowboy actor was Randolph Scott.

    Besides “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” the music from Roberta includes “Lovely to Look At” and “I Won’t Dance.”

    The original Broadway cast (1933) included Bob Hope, Fred MacMurray, and Sydney Greenstreet.

    Thank you for posting this clip.

  5. I’m seeing Bill Ackman’s expansive look at the Gay Affaire at Harvard in many places. His latest X-pression skewering DIE completely may be his Magnum Opus.

    His complaint? Racist anti-racism is still racism!

    Zerohedge has excerpts it with themes outlined in this piece:
    “ “Intersectional Pyramid Of Oppression”: After Much Reflection, Bill Ackman Pens Magnum Opus On Why ‘DEI Is Racist’ “ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/intersectional-pyramid-oppression-after-much-reflection-bill-ackman-pens-magnum-opus-why

  6. not merely that, it serves no useful purpose, thats why the usual suspects are in full screaming wraith

  7. Just another open-thread comment about something I read.

    At RealClear Investigations, Julie Kelly has published a comprehensive article describing the FBI’s plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer (http://tinyurl.com/yc2prkex).

    Kelly notes the connection between the FBI’s Whitmer plot and its orchestration of the January 6th protests at the US Capitol:

    “From appearances, a demonstration at the Michigan state Capitol in Lansing on April 30, 2020 might well have been a law enforcement dress rehearsal for Jan. 6. Chappel traveled to the event with three members of the Watchmen later held on state charges. Some protesters were clad in military gear and carried firearms but could not enter the building. When Chappel told his FBI handler what was happening, the FBI ordered the Michigan State Police to stand down and allow protesters inside. News photographers captured the moment when protesters “stormed” the Michigan Capitol and called out for Whitmer, resulting in the same sort of optics produced on Jan. 6.

    The incident took on greater significance when it was revealed that Steven D’Antuono, head of the Detroit FBI field office during the Whitmer caper, was promoted to head up the Washington, D.C., FBI field office three months before the events of Jan. 6.”

  8. I agree that Ginger Rogers looks thinner than usual there. It could be an artifact of the video, which might be slightly off on the horizontal (that sometimes happens, making people look either thinner or fatter). The film was pretty early in their career, so perhaps she was at her thinnest then.

  9. Cornflour — thanks for the heads up — this finding by Kelly has long been anticipated. NO NEW FIB PALACE!

  10. …Ginger Rogers with her pageboy-bob like a sausage on her shuffling shoulders, peach-melba-voiced Fred Astaire of the feet…

    Roll on, reels of celluloid, as the great earth rolls on!

    –Frank O’Hara, “To the Film Industry in Crisis”
    https://poets.org/poem/film-industry-crisis

    _________________________________________

    There’s something memorable about that line and I always recall it whenever Rogers or Astaire are mentioned.

    Frank O’Hara was one of the special poets of my youth.

  11. “Ginger Rogers with her pageboy-bob like a sausage on her shuffling shoulders”
    Huxley, that strikes me as creepy!
    I don’t even get it.
    Still, I guess that does fall under “memorable”.
    LoL!

  12. Marlene:

    I guess it’s poetic license 🙂 .

    O’Hara: neither a hairdresser nor a dancer. Dancing with Astaire, Rogers rarely wore a pageboy-bob that went all the way to her shoulders. Maybe in later films like “Carefree” and “The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle” and “The Barkleys of Broadway,” but not in their earlier heyday. (See this.) A “shuffle,” on the other hand, is a basic tap dance step. But do shoulders “shuffle”? Chalk it up to poetic license, again.

    O’Hara seems to have known a lot about music and art, however. Interesting guy.

  13. Ok, ok … Chalk for poetic licence. Grin.
    But the sausage reference was what seemed creepy, actually.

  14. Bringing in Mother’s Day a bit early this year…
    “…Mother elephant cuddles her calf with her trunk as they are reunited days after the young animal was separated from the herd and got lost”—
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12925651/mother-elephant-cuddles-calf-tamil-nadu-india.html

    (Kinda reminds me of an Annie Liebovitz photoshoot… )
    https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-annie-leibovitz-perfectly-captured-yoko-johns-relationship

    Gosh… How do you trumpet “poignant” in Elephant?

  15. …as Decent Joe bushwacks deeper and deeper into “Smartest-Guy-I-Know” territory.

    ‘Pressure grows in Congress to determine if Bidens got defensive intel briefing on China deal;
    ‘ Former FBI intel chief says a defensive briefing was likely and that he fears “Joe Biden chose his son’s interests over national policy.” ‘—
    https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/thupressure-grows-congress-determine-if-bidens-got-defensive-intel

    Hold on! “His son’s interests”??? Hey, whatever happened to “10% for Da Big Guy”!?? (AKA “Mr. Big”. AKA Decent Mr. Big”.)

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