MEMORIES OF MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS

Released on November 28, 1944, Meet Me in St. Louis remains a quintessential piece of classic Hollywood cinema, celebrating the charm, innocence, and emotional resonance of a bygone era. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, the film is set against the backdrop of the 1904 World's Fair and revolves around the Smith family, led by the doting patriarch, played by Leon Ames, and his four daughters, the most notable being Esther, portrayed by Judy Garland. It is through Esther's eyes that the audience experiences the ups and downs of family life, love, and the anticipation of the fair's opening.

Judy Garland, who was already a renowned star at the time, is often celebrated for her iconic role in the film. In Meet Me in St. Louis, Garland effortlessly blends vulnerability and strength, delivering unforgettable performances of classic songs like "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." In fact, Garland later remarked that she felt she was at her most beautiful in the film, a statement that resonates through the stunning publicity portraits taken to promote the movie.

The film’s lasting popularity can also be attributed to its ability to evoke nostalgia for a simpler time. The period costumes, grand set designs, and musical numbers are still seen as a testament to the grandeur of MGM's golden age. Additionally, the film's themes of family, love, and home have kept it beloved by generations of viewers. Judy Garland’s performance, paired with Minnelli's direction, elevated Meet Me in St. Louis into a timeless classic, ensuring its place in the hearts of audiences for years to come...

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: BABE RUTH & LOU GEHRIG

Here is a touching photo of baseball legend Babe Ruth paying his respects to fellow baseball player Lou Gehrig. Lou died on June 2, 1941...

 

RIP: ROBERT REDFORD

Robert Redford, the dashing actor and Oscar-winning director who eschewed his status as a Hollywood leading man to champion causes close to his heart, has died, according to his publicist Cindi Berger, Chairman and CEO of Rogers and Cowan PMK.

He was 89.

“Robert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah–the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved. He will be missed greatly,” Berger said in a statement to CNN. “The family requests privacy.”

Known for his starring roles in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men,” Redford also directed award-winning films such as “Ordinary People” and “A River Runs Through It.”

His passion for the art of filmmaking led to his creation of the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit that supports independent film and theater and is known for its annual Sundance Film Festival.

Redford was also a dedicated environmentalist, moving to Utah in 1961 and leading efforts to preserve the natural landscape of the state and the American West.

Redford at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. Jemal Countess/Getty Images

Redford acted well into his later years, reuniting with Jane Fonda in the 2017 Netflix film “Our Souls at Night.” The following year, he starred in “The Old Man & the Gun” at age 82, a film he said would be his last – although he said he would not consider retiring.

“To me, retirement means stopping something or quitting something,” he told CBS Sunday Morning in 2018. “There’s this life to lead, why not live it as much as you can as long as you can?”

In October 2020, Redford voiced his concern about the lack of focus on climate change in the midst of devastating wildfires in the western United States, in an opinion piece he wrote for CNN.

David James Redford – the third of four children born to Robert Redford and former wife Lola Van Wagenen – had followed in his father’s footsteps as an activist, filmmaker and philanthropist.

Born in Santa Monica, California, near Los Angeles, in 1936, Redford’s father worked long hours as a milkman and an accountant, later moving the family to a larger home in nearby Van Nuys.

“I didn’t see him much,” Redford recalled of his father, on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” in 2005.

Because his family couldn’t afford a babysitter, Redford spent hours in the children’s section at the local library where he became fascinated with books on Greek and Roman mythology.

Yet Redford was hardly a model student.

“I had no patience … I was not inspired,” Redford recalled. “It was more interesting to me to mess around and to adventure beyond the parameters that I was growing up in.”

Drawn to arts and sports – and a life outside of sprawling Los Angeles – Redford earned a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1955. That same year, his mother died.

“She was very young, she wasn’t even 40,” he said.

Redford said his mother was “always very supportive (of my career)” — more so than his dad.

“My father came of age during the Depression and he was afraid to take chances … so he wanted the straight and narrow path for me, which I was just not meant to be on,” he said.  “My mother, no matter what I did, she was always forgiving and supportive and felt that I could do anything.

“When I left and went to Colorado and she died, I realized I never had a chance to thank her.”

Redford soon turned to drinking, lost his scholarship and eventually was asked to leave the university. He worked as a “roustabout” for the Standard Oil Company and saved his earnings to continue his art studies in Europe.

In 1959, Redford graduated from the academy and got his first acting role on an episode of “Perry Mason.” His acting career was “uphill from there,” he said.

His big acting break came in 1963, when he starred in Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” on Broadway – a role he would later reprise on the big screen with Jane Fonda.

Around this time, Redford married Lola Van Wagenen and started a family. His first child, Scott, died from sudden infant death syndrome just a few months after his birth in 1959. Shauna was born in 1960, David in 1962, and Amy in 1970.

Robert Redford working in Utah in 1969. John Dominis Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

As his acting career was taking off, Redford and his family moved to Utah in 1961 where he bought two acres of land for just $500 and built a cabin himself.

“I discovered how important nature was in my life, and I wanted to be where nature was extreme and where I thought it could maybe be everlasting,” he told CNN.

Redford made a name for himself as a leading man in 1969 when he starred opposite Paul Newman – already a major star – in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” The Western about a pair of outlaws won four Academy Awards.

Redford said he “will forever be indebted” to Newman, whom he credited with helping him get the role. The two actors had great on-screen chemistry, became lifelong friends and reunited in “The Sting” in 1973, which won the Academy Award for best picture.

Redford starred in a string of hit movies throughout the 1970s: “Jeremiah Johnson”; “The Way We Were,” co-starring Barbra Streisand; “The Great Gatsby”; and with Dustin Hoffman in 1976’s “All The President’s Men,” about the Watergate scandal.

Teaming up with director Sydney Pollack on “Jeremiah Johnson,” Redford fought with the studio to get the film made the way he wanted – a precursor to his career as a director and his support for independent filmmaking.

“It was a battle from the get-go,” Redford told “Inside The Actor’s Studio.” “They (the studio) said … ‘You’ve got $4 million, put it in the bank in Salt Lake City, you can shoot wherever you want, but that’s it. If it goes over, it comes out of your hide.’”

With spare dialogue and stunning scenery, the film tells the story of a Mexican War veteran who has left the battlefield to survive as a trapper in the American West.

"All the President's Men" inspired a new wave of journalists in 1976 when Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman portrayed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they uncovered the Watergate scandal. 

It was released more than three years after it was made because, according to Redford, the studio’s sales chief thought the film was “so unusual” that it wouldn’t find an audience.

“Jeremiah Johnson” ended up grossing nearly $45 million. It wasn’t the only time Redford’s passion for the art of filmmaking put him at odds with the studios that funded his work.

“The sad thing you have to work against, as a filmmaker, is held opinions about what works or doesn’t work,” Redford said. “Sports movies don’t work, political movies don’t work, movies about the press don’t work – so I’ve done three of them.”

Redford made his directing debut in 1980 with “Ordinary People,” a drama about an unhappy suburban family which earned the Academy Award for Best Picture and another one for him as best director. He continued starring in hit films such as “The Natural” in 1984, which tapped into his passion for baseball, and 1993’s “An Indecent Proposal,” which paired him with a much younger Demi Moore.

He later directed the 1993 film “A River Runs Through It,” which won three Academy Awards, 1994’s “Quiz Show” and “The Horse Whisperer” in 1998, which he also starred in.

Ruggedly handsome, Redford was often cast as the romantic leading man in films such as “Out of Africa” in 1985, but he wasn’t always comfortable with the label and feared being typecast.

“I didn’t see myself the way others saw me and I was feeling kind of trapped because I couldn’t go outside the box of … good-looking leading man,” he said. “It was very flattering, but it was feeling restrictive … so it took many years to break loose of that.”

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: BETTE DAVIS

Regarding this photo from circa 1954, shows Bette Davis with her husband, Gary Merrill, and their children, B.D., Margot, and Michael, capturing a moment of togetherness amidst a time when Davis was a Hollywood powerhouse. Her journey through marriage and motherhood reflects the turbulence of her life beyond the screen, showing a woman who navigated personal challenges with resilience...

HISTORY BREAK: REMEMBER 9/11

Never forget this.

 
On 9/11, just three minutes before United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower, passenger Brian Sweeney called his wife Julie one last time.

“Jules, this is Brian. Listen, I’m on an airplane that’s been hijacked. If things don’t go well, and it’s not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times. Same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I’ll see you when you get there.”

Julie missed the call while teaching her high school class that morning. She only heard his final message when she returned home and learned he was gone.

A husband’s last words. A love that endures forever. We remember.

RIP: POLLY HOLLIDAY

One of the last main stars on the television series Alice has died. Polly Dean Holliday was born on July 2, 1937, in Jasper, Ala., a small-town northwest of Birmingham, and grew up in Childersburg, a small town southeast of it. She was the daughter of Ernest Sullivan Holliday, a truck driver, and Velma (Cain) Holliday. At Childersburg High School, Polly was voted most talented in her senior class. She majored in piano at Alabama College for Women (now the University of Montevallo) but also appeared in a few productions with the school’s theater group. After graduating in 1959, she worked for a while as a music teacher. 

At Florida State University, where she enrolled to study music education, she began spending time with drama students and ended up joining the Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota in 1962.When she did leave for New York, she began her career on the stage. In 1972, she appeared with Ruby Dee in “Wedding Band,” a drama by Alice Childress about an interracial romance, at the Public Theater.

It became the vehicle for her screen debut, too, when the play was adapted for an ABC television movie in 1974. The Times critic John J. O’Connor found the film “powerful, moving and occasionally very funny.”

She later did a favor for Mr. Hoffman when he needed guidance in playing an actor pretending to be an actress in the 1982 film “Tootsie.” His female character-within-a-character, Dorothy Michaels, had a silky Southern accent and, like Ms. Holliday’s Flo Castleberry, a frightening temper. Ms. Holliday returned to Broadway three times. She first co-starred with Jean Stapleton in the comedy “Arsenic and Old Lace” (1986). After “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” she was in a 1994 revival of William Inge’s “Picnic,” playing the heroine’s overly protective mother.

But television always beckoned. Ms. Holliday did six episodes of the soap opera “Search for Tomorrow” in 1974 as a character identified only as “prison inmate leader.”

After the better part of four seasons on “Alice” (the show continued without her until 1985), she starred in “Flo,” her own comedy spinoff, in which her character bought a run-down bar in her Texas hometown. The show lasted 29 episodes in the 1980-81 season.

Ms. Holliday appeared in more than a dozen television movies, among them “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” (1976), “You Can’t Take It With You” (1979) and “The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story” (1983). She was in an equal number of series, including “The Golden Girls” (1986), “Amazing Stories” (1986), “The Equalizer” (1988) and “Homicide: Life on the Streets” (1996).

On “The Client” (1995-96), she was the supportive mother and roommate of a recently divorced lawyer (JoBeth Williams). On “Home Improvement,” she was Tim Allen’s slim, sassy mother-in-law, in five different seasons between 1993 and 1999.

And Ms. Holliday was surprisingly versatile in feature films. In “All the President’s Men” (1976), she was a Florida investigator’s very protective secretary; in “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993), Robin Williams and Sally Field’s annoying next-door neighbor; in “Moon Over Parador,” Jonathan Winters’s excitable wife; and in “The Parent Trap” (1998), a fearless camp director who could handle the toughest discipline problems, even with two Lindsay Lohans.

Her last film appearance was in the 2010 drama “Fair Game” as the concerned mother of the outed C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame.

She left no immediate survivors.

Ms. Holliday felt affection for her “Alice” character, but she often pointed out that the line “Kiss my grits” was hardly an authentic regionalism.

“There was nothing Southern or real about that expression,” she told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2003. “It was pure Hollywood.”

The characterization, however, was heartfelt. “She was a Southern woman you see in a lot of places,” Ms. Holliday said of Flo in the same interview. “Not well educated, but very sharp, with a sense of humor and a resolve not to let life get her down.”

THE LAST MOVIE OF JACKIE GLEASON

Rumor has it that director Garry Marshall would not go ahead with the making of "Nothing in Common" (1986) without the inclusion of Jackie Gleason. In poor health, Gleason had grown tired of filmmaking, and wished to retire from the business. After several attempts to get him on board, Marshall finally called Gleason on the phone and insisted that if he didn't do this film, that the last film he would be remembered for was the box-office bomb "Smokey and the Bandit Part 3" (1983). Gleason immediately accepted the offer on the condition that this would be his last acting role. In Marshall's 2012 memoir, "My Happy Days in Hollywood," he credits Ray Stark with asking Gleason the question about if he wanted "Smokey and the Bandit 3" being how he would be remembered.

Marshall described this picture as a humorous, poignant "exploration of how much we owe our parents.'' It is also, he agreed, a natural progression from his prior comedy, "The Flamingo Kid" (1984). That film starred Matt Dillon as a cabana boy at a 1960's beach club, awed by a flashy, flamboyant car dealer, played by Richard Crenna, at the expense of his lower-middle-class father, played by Hector Elizondo. "'The Flamingo Kid' was set in an age of comparative innocence, when notions of thrift, hard work and a good education were challenged by the values of the get-rich-quick society," said Marshall. "There's been a lot of upward mobility in the time between the stories. The family relationship in 'Nothing in Common' is more complex. It's much more of a dramatic comedy."

In a 2006 DGA interview, Marshall spoke about how an observation from Gleason in a key scene resulted in a turning point in both his and Tom Hanks' careers: "We had a hospital scene. Now Tom is a comic guy and Jackie Gleason is comical, and I come from comedy, so it was a very serious scene. So we weren't getting it and finally Jackie Gleason said, 'You know what's wrong? We're all doing hospital room jokes,' so he says, 'We must have an exorcism and free this room of all humor.' So the three of us like idiots ran around doing every bedpan, nurse, hospital joke ever done in the history of comedy and finally Jackie says, 'It's gone. It's all gone. Now we can do the serious scene.' So, now another director would say, 'Are they crazy? I knew exactly what he was saying.' And we did it and it's the one scene where Tom Hanks actually cries in the scene. Something he's never done before that, he was doing 'Bachelor Party' (1984) in his underwear, and this was a very important picture to Tom and to me because we both did a film that was a little more serious and a little more poignant and it got us into another category."

Gleason was seriously ill with colon cancer, liver cancer, thromboses hemorrhoids, diabetes and phlebitis throughout production. One evening during filming, he admitted to his daughter that he only had a short time to live. He died nearly one year after the film's release, long enough to personally view the completed film which he was said to have enjoyed very much....

TINA FEY AND MEAN GIRLS

Tina Fey read Rosalind Wiseman's "Queen Bees and Wannabes" and called "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels to suggest it could be turned into a film. Michaels contacted Paramount Pictures, who purchased the rights to the book. As the book is nonfiction, Fey wrote the plot of "Mean Girls" (2004) from scratch, borrowing elements from her own high school experience and her impressions of Evanston Township High School, upon which the film's fictional "North Shore High School" is based.

Lindsay Lohan first read for Regina George, but the casting team felt she was closer to what they were looking for in the actress who played Cady, and since Lohan feared the "mean girl" role would harm her reputation, she agreed to play the lead. Rachel McAdams was cast as Regina because Fey felt McAdams being "kind and polite" made her perfect for such an evil-spirited character. Amanda Seyfried also read for Regina, and the producers instead suggested her for Karen due to Seyfried's "spacey and daffy sense of humor". Both Lacey Chabert and Daniel Franzese were the last actors tested for their roles. Lizzy Caplan was at first considered too pretty for the part of Janis, for which director Mark Waters felt a "Kelly Osbourne-like actress" was necessary, but Caplan was picked for being able to portray raw emotion. Fey wrote two roles based on fellow "SNL" alumni, Amy Poehler (whom Fey thought the producers would not accept because of being too young to portray a teenager's mother) and Tim Meadows, and the cast ended up with a fourth veteran of the show, Ana Gasteyer.

In an interview about the film, Fey noted, "Adults find it funny. They are the ones who are laughing. Young people watch it like a reality show. It's much too close to their real experiences so they are not exactly guffawing." Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "'Fetch' may never happen, but 2004's eminently quotable movie is still one of the sharpest high school satires ever. Which is pretty grool, if you ask me!" In 2006, Entertainment Weekly also named it the twelfth best high school film of all time, explaining: "There was a time when Lindsay Lohan was best known for her acting rather than her party-hopping. Showcasing Lindsay Lohan in arguably her best role to date, this Tina Fey-scripted film also boasts a breakout turn by Rachel McAdams as evil queen bee Regina George (Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen! It's not going to happen!). While 'Mean Girls' is technically a comedy, its depiction of girl-on-girl cattiness stings incredibly true."

A 2018 Broadway musical version of the film was adapted into a film version in 2024. Fey and Meadows reprised their characters of Ms. Norbury and Mr. Duvall respectively 20 years after the original film...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD WEDDINGS

To commerate my 21st wedding anniversary today, I wanted to take a look at some classic Hollywood weddings...

Dick Powell & Joan Blondell, 1936

Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow, 1966

Angela Lansbury & Peter Shaw, 1949

Audrey Hepburn, 1954

Judy Garland & Vincente Minnelli, 1945

Lucille Ball, 1940

ROBERT SHAW AND HIS JAWS SAGA

Robert Shaw wasn't that impressed with a script he received and read, and even confided to a friend, Hector Elizondo, "They want me to do a movie about this big fish. I don't know if I should do it or not." When Elizondo asked why Shaw had reservations he mentioned that he'd never heard of the director and didn't like the title, "Jaws".

However, the 1975 film, while it was the first movie to gross more than $100 million worldwide that Shaw had ever been part of, he didn't make a cent from it because of the taxes he had to pay from working in the United States, Canada and Ireland.

Shaw ad-libbed the "Here lies the body of Mary Lee" line after director Steven Spielberg prompted him to give Brody's wife (on the dock) a hard time. Asked later where he quoted it from, as it would require getting a license and release from the author to be used in the film, Shaw said that was unlikely, as it was off an old grave marker in Ireland.

Shaw sang the song "Spanish Ladies" while at the dock with Hooper and Brody, loading the boat to catch the shark. The song is a traditional British shanty, not a New England one. However, Shaw changed the lyrics from "for we have received orders, for to sail to old England..." to "for we've received orders for to sail to old Boston..." Shaw who was born and raised in England was an accomplished novelist and playwright, and may have become familiar with the tune while working as a teacher in the fishing town of Saltburn by the Sea.

Though respected as an actor, Shaw's trouble with alcohol was a frequent source of tension during filming. In later interviews, Roy Scheider described his co-star as "a perfect gentleman whenever he was sober. All he needed was one drink and then he turned into a competitive son-of-a-b!tch." 

According to Carl Gottlieb's book "The Jaws Log," Shaw was having a drink between takes, at which one point he announced, "I wish I could quit drinking." Much to the surprise and horror of the crew, Richard Dreyfuss simply grabbed Shaw's glass and tossed it into the ocean. When it came time to shoot the infamous USS Indianapolis Scene, Shaw attempted to do the monologue while intoxicated as it called for the men to be drinking late at night. Nothing in the take could be used. A remorseful Shaw called Steven Spielberg late that night and asked if he could have another try. The next day of shooting, Shaw's electrifying performance was done in one take...

RECENTLY VIEWED: JAWS

The movie used to terrify me when I saw it as a young boy, but now 50 years I got to see Jaws in a movie theater for the first time. It is now my favorite movie of all time. For anyone born under a rock, Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg. Based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, it stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a New England summer resort town. Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.

Shot mostly on location at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts from May to October 1974, Jaws was the first major motion picture to be shot on the ocean and consequently had a troubled production, going over budget and schedule. As the art department's mechanical sharks often malfunctioned, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the shark's presence, employing an ominous and minimalist theme created by composer John Williams to indicate its impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures released the film to over 450 screens, an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture at the time, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.

Regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history, Jaws was the prototypical summer blockbuster and won several awards for its music and editing. It was the highest-grossing film in history until the release of Star Wars two years later; both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which pursues high box-office returns from action and adventure films with simple high-concept premises, released during the summer in thousands of theaters and advertised heavily. Jaws was followed by three sequels, none of which involved Spielberg or Benchley, as well as many imitative thrillers. In 2001, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Seeing the film on the big screen was monumental for me. I have sene the movie close to 100 times, and I jumped at every scene as if I was seeing the film for the first time. The film is not in theaters long, but you have to go see it on the big screen. I had tears in my eyes watching the movie, and not from fear. This movie has meant so much to me growing up, and I was overjoyed to be able to see it not in the theaters 50 years later. It was an amazing movie experience for me...

MY RATING: 10 out of 10

MEMORIES OF JAWS

Roy Scheider stated in an interview that in the scene where Lee Fierro (Mrs. Kintner) smacks him in the face in "Jaws" (1975), she was actually hitting him. Apparently, the actress could not fake a slap and so the seventeen takes were some of the "most painful" of his acting career. Also, Fierro stated in several interviews that in one of the takes when she slapped Roy Scheider, his glasses fell off.

The role of Brody was offered to Robert Duvall, but the actor was interested only in portraying Quint. Charlton Heston expressed a desire for the role, but Spielberg felt that Heston would bring a screen persona too grand for the part of a police chief of a modest community. Scheider became interested in the project after overhearing Spielberg at a party talk with a screenwriter about having the shark jump up onto a boat. Spielberg was initially apprehensive about hiring Scheider, fearing he would portray a "tough guy", similar to his role in "The French Connection" (1971).

When Scheider was trapped in the sinking Orca, it took 75 takes to get the shot right. Scheider did not trust the special effects team to rescue him in case of an emergency so he hid axes and hatchets around the cabin just in case.

Scheider's ad-libbed line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat" was voted 35th on the American Film Institute's list of best movie quotes.

URBAN LEGEND: JUDY GARLAND

URBAN LEGEND: Did Judy Garland steal her costume from the set of Valley Of The Dolls after she was fired from the film?

ANSWER: No!

STOLEN COSTUME? For years there were rumors that Judy Garland, upon being fired by Fox, stole the famous pant-suit eventually worn by Susan Hayward in VALLY OF THE DOLLS. This is not true. The studio, after hiring her at 75 Grand per week, found her drunk and loaded on pills and they were unable to film her first scene. She had already been through costume fittings and had recorded I'LL PLANT MY OWN TREE, one of her Broadway numbers for the Helen Lawson character she was playing. It went well. Her fans believe that the Director deliberately called her in for a morning shoot which was not scheduled until almost 5 PM. Whether he was testing Judy's resolve to stay sober or whether he had sabotaged her first day, is up for dispute. It's a difficult decision for a Movie Studio to make and Garland had been a big help in the HYPE PUBLICITY prior to the filming of Valley of the Dolls, so they paid her a fair settlement for her few days of work and let her keep the famous costume...

THE LAST DAYS OF VIVIAN VANCE

On a summer day in August 1979, Lucille Ball came to Belvedere, California, to bid farewell to her friend and beloved costar Vivian Vance.

The two women had created comedy magic in the legendary '50s sitcom I Love Lucy, with Ball as Lucy Ricardo and Vance playing her sidekick Ethel Mertz. But now, two decades later, Vance was dying of bone cancer, and Ball had come to say goodbye.

"You could hear them laughing, and towards the end there was a lot of sobbing," says Paige Peterson, who'd grown close to Vance after the actress rented her mother's home in Belvedere. "It was an amazing thing to witness. The love of these two women."

Peterson shared the story of the stars' final meeting with us while discussing her new book, Growing Up Belvedere-Tiburon, which tells the history of the beautiful town located in Marin County, California.

On that day in 1979, Peterson remembers, "We had brought Viv down and she was lying on the couch in the living room. They ate lunch and they talked and talked. Viv knew she was dying." (The breast cancer she had been diagnosed with in 1973 had metastasized into bone cancer.)

Peterson, who was in an adjacent room in case Vance needed her, remembers seeing Ball as she left. "The pain on her face shook me to my core. She was in tears. She couldn't speak."

"I think Viv gave up after that," says Peterson.

Vance died a few days later, on Aug. 17, at 70 years old.

"She cried about losing Viv for months after that," says Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. "Viv was, in many ways, like a sister to my mother. She could talk to Mom like nobody else, and I don't think my mother could confide in many people the way she would with Viv."

According to Peterson, after Vance was first diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and grueling chemotherapy, she moved to Belvedere from Salem, New York, "because she wanted a lifestyle change. The first house they [she and her fourth husband literary agent John Dodds] rented was my mother's house."

At the time, Peterson's mother, an interior designer, told her daughter to bring some fabric swatches over to the new tenant (without telling her who she was). "I knocked and Ethel answers and I was stunned," Peterson says with a laugh. "She said, 'Come on in, honey,' and I did. It was just one of those connections. We loved each other."

Vance, who was about to go on the road for the touring show, The Marriage Go Round, invited Peterson, then working as a local actress, to audition. She got the part opposite Vance, and the two traveled all over the country and grew close. Afterward, Peterson would often help her out as a personal assistant. "She had become a mother to me and she loved 'little Lucie' [Lucie Luckinbill]," notes Peterson. "Lucie and I were the daughters she never had."

Vance, originally from Kansas, was already a Broadway star when she was asked to play Ethel Mertz. Together, the show's four stars — Ball, Arnaz (her real-life husband, who also played her husband Ricky Ricardo), Vance and William Frawley, who played Ethel's cantankerous husband, Fred Mertz — created a hit.

After the show ended in 1958, Ball and Vance reunited on the sitcom The Lucy Show, from 1962 to 1968. This time, Vance's character was named Vivian Bagley because as she once explained, "I was tired of people calling me Ethel."

Looking back, Peterson says, "Viv loved living in Belvedere. She moved to a home [the Farr Cottages] that was cantilevered over the bay and would sit and read for hours on the deck, where she could look at the most beautiful view in the world. She loved the simplicity and the quiet of living here."

In her final days, she says, "Viv was in the place she loved most. And that's how she left the world."

A MOMENT WITH ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY

In early 1992, as snow blanketed the suburbs of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Elizabeth Montgomery quietly arrived at the modest home of Dick York. The neighbors didn’t notice. No press followed. She had traveled in silence, determined to see the man with whom she had once shared one of television’s most cherished bonds on "Bewitched." Years had passed since they last spoke, but hearing about York’s declining health stirred something deep within her.

Inside the small bedroom where York lay weak and frail, Montgomery sat beside him without ceremony. His thin hand rested in hers, and for several minutes, they said nothing. The room smelled faintly of peppermint oil and old books. The silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable. It was full of shared memory. She didn’t speak of fame or reruns or regrets. Instead, she gently began recounting their favorite moments from the early days of "Bewitched," the moments before the back pain, before the producers recast him, before the show became something else.

York, once a vibrant and witty presence, could barely speak above a whisper. But his eyes sparkled when she mentioned the scene in season one where Darrin tried to chop wood using magic, only to set the living room rug on fire. They both laughed then, softly but genuinely. Her visit wasn’t planned for attention, nor did she inform her agent or any friends outside of a trusted mutual contact. It was something she needed to do for herself. A way to honor what they once had.

Montgomery had always carried a deep affection for York, though their on-set chemistry was often overshadowed by his physical struggles and the show’s punishing production schedule. She had watched him suffer, his spinal condition worsening under studio lights and tight shooting deadlines. When he eventually left "Bewitched" in 1969, there had been no proper farewell, no wrap-up dinner, no closure. He was gone from the lot, and within a week, another actor stepped into the role. York later admitted that the sudden exit left him broken in more ways than one.

Years later, long after Montgomery had moved on to other projects and York had faded from Hollywood, she still remembered the man who made her laugh when the cameras weren’t rolling. During her visit, she apologized. Not for anything she did, but for not staying in touch. York simply squeezed her hand and said, “We both had to keep going.” She nodded, a tear sliding down her cheek.
After about an hour, she stood to leave. York, exhausted but moved, gave her a faint smile. She kissed his forehead and whispered, “You’ll always be my Darrin.” Then she walked out, not knowing it would be the last time she saw him. When he passed away later that same year, she kept the visit private. It was only through a conversation with a close friend that her quiet act of compassion eventually came to light.

“She told me he was more than a co-star,” the friend recalled. “She said, ‘He was part of something magical we created together.’” That line, spoken without rehearsal or spotlight, revealed a tenderness that went far beyond any scripted scene.

Elizabeth Montgomery never spoke publicly about that visit. She never sought credit, never gave an interview about it, and never included it in retrospectives. It remained a personal gesture. Sincere, intimate, and deeply human.

She left his house that day with a full heart and silent tears, knowing the real magic of "Bewitched" had always lived offscreen, in moments filled with quiet love and lasting grace...

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: JAMIE GERTZ

Do any of you remember actresst Jami Gertz - a popular actress in the 1980s and 1990s? Jami Gertz was unrecognizable during a recent outing 20 years after starring with Helen Hunt in Twister. Gertz, 59, was recently seen an LA restaurant. Gertz, who also appeared alongside Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles, reportedly grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant Alba.

For the dinner excursion, she rocked a black and white striped suit with floral embellishments and black shoes. The talent behind Twister's Dr. Melissa Reeves accessorized with large, gold earrings, a gold necklace, black-framed glasses and a black clutch, wearing her natural gray hair down and tucked partially behind her ears. Best known for cult hits like The Lost Boys and Sixteen Candles, Jamie has successfully transitioned from ’80s starlet to billionaire power player alongside husband Tony Ressler.

Jami got her start as a child actress, but it wasn’t until she was 21 that she broke through with a memorable role in the 1987 addiction drama Less than Zero. It also starred Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy.

That same year, she solidified her status as a cult icon of the ’80s by portraying one half of a vampire duo opposite Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys, sharing the screen with notable names like Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. Throughout the ’90s, Jami kept up her acting career, with her final big box office hit coming in 1996’s Twister, a thriller starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt.

In 1989, she married her husband, who was then employed at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. Her husband is now worth $14 billion making Gertz one of the richest actresses in Hollywood. From time to time Jamie will still act but not in the blockbusters of her youth. She last appeared in a movie in 2022...

IS HOWARD STERN GETTING CANCELLED?

For over two decades, The Howard Stern Show has been a staple of satellite radio, entertaining millions of listeners with its unfiltered humor and celebrity interviews. But now, rumors are that Stern’s long-running SiriusXM program may be getting canceled. Is Howard Stern’s show on SiriusXM getting canceled?

According to insiders who spoke to the press, Howard Stern’s contract with SiriusXM is set to expire this fall, and the jock may not return for another term. Sources claim that while SiriusXM plans to make an offer, they don’t expect Stern to accept it due to financial disagreements. “Sirius and Stern are never going to meet on the money he is going to want. It’s no longer worth the investment,” an insider revealed.

Seemingly, it’s not just finances at play. According to the same outlet, Stern’s outspoken political views, especially his consistent criticism of Donald Trump, could be another factor affecting renewal talks. “If Sirius isn’t going to give Stern a good offer, I don’t think it would have anything to do with his ratings,” said one source. “It’s more likely everything to do with the political climate,” they added.

This theory got its basis after Stern’s 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which drew criticism from conservative circles. His blunt commentary on Trump recently resurfaced in viral clips.

Even if Howard Stern’s show on SiriusXM gets canceled, discussions are reportedly underway to preserve his extensive audio library on SiriusXM. A possible licensing deal may keep his past shows available for streaming, offering fans a slice of nostalgia even if no new episodes come.

But the recent contract uncertainty has reportedly blindsided his staff of nearly 100 employees. With Stern taking his usual summer break, some wonder if he’ll return at all. “He is off in the summer, but this year has been saying ‘maybe I should retire,'” an insider added...

MUSIC BREAK: HENRY THIES - WHEN YOU'RE SMILING

FORGOTTEN ONES: HENRY THIES

Forgotten bandleader Henry Thies led a popular dance orchestra throughout the 1920's. Thies (born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893) became known in Detroit, Michigan, as a "boy wonder" on the violin and rapidly rose to lead his own orchestra in one of the city's top hotels. In 1926, the orchestra leader brought his stylish brand of symphonic jazz to Cincinnati where appearances at the Chatterbox Club led to a devoted following on local radio. Well, known on the Ohio hotel circuit, Thies also toured on vaudeville and performed in theatres.Starting in Chicago he came to Cincinnati for a short gig at Castle Farms mid-decade. That gig stretched to where the orchestra found a permanent home at the Hotel Sinton.

Henry and his band recorded for a time at Victor Records and made some nice recordings in the late 1920s and early 1930s. With vocalist Don Dewey and a young Jane Froman, the Thies band had some nice recordings of songs of the day like - "When You're Smiling" and "Rose Of Mandalay". 

Unfortunately, his life ended tragically. While his wife and son and a musician waited for Henry to show up for dinner, Thies ended his life with a bullet at his home. Thies, who was 41 years old left no notes. Alvin Miller, Thies' trumpet player, found the body. According to Miller, the band leader had been in good spirits.

In the past however, Henry Thies had nervous problems. Two years before his death, he had tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills. After that attempt, Thies was a patient in a mental hospital for nearly 15 months.

He had new performances and radio shows scheduled and was a very successful bandleader. If he hadn't ended his life, his band would have continued to hit greater heights of fame and stardom. It's sad that he died from a self inflicted gunshot wound on June 12, 1935. His wife, his son (who was 19), and a mother and a sister survived him...

MUSIC BREAK: HENRY THIES - ROSE OF MANADALAY

RIP: JANE MORGAN

Jane Morgan, a singer, nightclub entertainer, Broadway performer and ubiquitous TV presence in 1950s and ’60s, died Monday of natural causes in Naples, Florida. She was 101.

Her family announced her death, saying, “Our beloved Jane passed away peacefully in her sleep.”

As Jane Morgan, the singer was a popular and ubiquitous presence on television variety shows from the Golden Age of the 1950s well through the 1960s and even into the early 1970s. She appeared on The Johnny Cash Show, where she answered the Man in Black’s “A Boy Named Sue” with “A Girl Named Johnny Cash,” which was written for the show by Martin Mull. The song was a minor hit on country radio.

She is thought to hold the record for female singers appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show — 50 times in all.

On Broadway, Morgan appeared in Ziegfeld Follies of 1957, The Jack Benny Show (1963) and in the title role of Mame (1968-69).

Born Florence Catherine Currier on May 3, 1924, in Newton, Massachusetts, Morgan raised by a musical family in Florida and started singing onstage at age 7. In 1948 she was training as a lyric soprano at the Juilliard Conservatory in New York. Singing in nightclubs and small restaurants to help pay her tuition, Morgan was spotted at one such venue by French bandleader Bernard Hilda. Recognizing her unique talents, he took her to sing at clubs in France where she quickly became “The Toast of Paris.”

From there, Morgan’s popularity and career continued to ascend. Having taken Europe, she returned to America, signed with Kapp Records and released a string of albums including The American Girl from Paris and All the Way. In all, she would ultimately earn six gold records.

Among her single hits was one that would become a signature tune for her: “Fascination” (1957). Featured in the Gary Cooper-Audrey Hepburn movie Love in the Afternoon, it went Top 10 and was the title track from her biggest stateside album, which reached No. 13. Her recording of “Fascination” also has been used in the soundtracks of Diner, The Next Karate Kid, Call The Midwife and Fallout.

Her U.S. chart career was spotty, but the international hits would keep coming through the ’50s and ’60, including recordings of such traditional pop standards as “The Day The Rains Came” — which topped the UK chart in 1959 — “With Open Arms,” “To Love and Be Loved” and “Blue Hawaii,” among many others.

In 1962, Morgan had found a new manager, Jerry Weintraub, who would become one of the entertainment industry’s more formidable music managers with clients including Elvis Presley and John Denver. Weintraub also would become a prolific film producer, responsible for such hits as The Karate Kid and Ocean’s Eleven.

Morgan married Weintraub in 1965 and she became stepmother to Weintraub’s son Michael. Morgan and Weintraub would add to their family by adopting three daughters, Julie, Jamie and Jody.

Over the course of her career, Morgan performed for presidents and toured with the popular comedians of the day. She made numerous appearances on television specials and hosted three of her own including The Jane Morgan Hour (1959). A sampling of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s TV variety shows and specials she appeared on include The Colgate Comedy Hour, Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall, The Jack Benny Program, The Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, The Kraft Music Hall and The Jackie Gleason Show.

She also did a few TV guest shots during her career including Peter Gunn and It Takes a Thief.

Morgan received a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

She is survived by her son Michael Weintraub (Maria), daughters Jamie Weintraub and Jody Weintraub, six grandchildren and eight grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by husband Jerry and daughter Julie. Memorial Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology at UCLA...