NEW BOOK: SHOOTING THE BREEZE WITH BABY BOOMER STARS

A new excellent book from author Torchy Smith has been released. It really is a must-read for nostalgia fans...

SHOOTING THE BREEZE with BABY BOOMER STARS!

Torchy Smith’s new book covering celebrities from 1950s-1970s TV & Film

March 4, 2019 – Archway Publishing

With A Foreword by Geraldo Rivera

Gleaned from interviews on his radio show “Baby Boomers Talk Radio,” Torchy Smith shares stories and insights about baby boomer celebrities in his new book “Shooting the Breeze with Baby Boomer Stars! Surprising Celebrity Conversations for the Retro Generation.”

The book presents 50 first-hand accounts of baby boomer celebrities from beloved TV shows and films such as Jerry Mathers (Leave it to Beaver), Bill Mumy (Lost in Space), Cubby O’Brien (Mickey Mouse Club) Stephen Furst (Animal House), Butch Patrick (The Munsters), Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley) and Clint Howard (The Andy Griffith Show, Gentle Ben) The interviewees discuss their memories working on projects, behind the scenes secrets, and the lasting cultural impact of the baby boomer generation.

You will read trade secrets never before revealed as stars chat about being on set for Animal House, Star Trek, Leave it to Beaver, and more.

You will go back in time with Baby Boomer icons as they relive behind-the-scenes snafus and fights all while honoring the glory days of television.

Where are they now, and what are they doing? You're about to find out.

“Shooting the Breeze with Baby Boomer Stars” is an entertaining collection of first-person stories and histories for pop culture enthusiasts.

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About the author

Torchy Smith has interviewed well over 100 celebrities on his talk show “Baby Boomers Talk Radio.” May 4th, 1970 was Smith’s last day at Kent State, where he witnessed the shootings by the Ohio National Guard. He was a graphic design student and had worked doing advertising layouts for several employers. After gravitating to sales and building a successful career selling to large retailers, Smith began investing in real estate in the 80s.

At the same time, he also started a ribbon business, which he sold in 2006 and went into semi-retirement. Smith always had an interest in seeking a way to combine his nostalgia obsession with communications through the internet. As a self-starter, he learned and kept up with the computer age that was surging in the 90's. Smith was then able to combine those skills with his graphic design background. What resulted was his accomplishments in creating videos and communications with celebrities from the past. Smith has been on numerous radio programs, commenting on the pulse of where baby boomers now fit into today's world.

To learn more, please visit www.babyboomerstalkradio.com.

“Shooting the Breeze with Baby Boomer Stars: Surprising Celebrity Conversations for the Retro Generation” by Torchy Smith

ISBN: 9781480867840 (softcover); 9781480867857 (hardcover); 9781480867864 (eBook)

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

COMING SOON: RAGTIME ERA STORIES

Is there anyone out there who is fascinated with the Ragtime era of the early 20th century as much as I am? Probably not, but that will not stop me from having a Ragtime theme next month. Running from April 8th - April 29th, all of the stories on my blog will have a Ragtime theme. I hope you'll enjoy the theme as we remember this bygone era!

MARLENE DIETRICH: THE EARLY YEARS

Screen legend Marlene Dietrich created a mysterious image of herself that not many people were able to break through. Like every human being, Dietrich was born to a regular normal family, but as Dietrich became famous, she changed many facts about her early years. She was a family history revisionist (I wonder if she knew my mom!), but here are some of the facts of her early years.

Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901 at Leberstraße 65 in the neighborhood of Rote Insel in Schöneberg, now a district of Berlin. Her mother, Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine (née Felsing), was from an affluent Berlin family who owned a jewelry and clock-making firm. Her father, Louis Erich Otto Dietrich, was a police lieutenant. Dietrich had one sibling, Elisabeth, who was one year older. Dietrich's father died in 1907.His best friend, Eduard von Losch, an aristocratic first lieutenant in the Grenadiers, courted Wilhelmina and married her in 1916, but he died soon afterwards from injuries sustained during the First World War.Von Losch never officially adopted the Dietrich girls, so Dietrich's surname was never von Losch, as has sometimes been claimed.

Her earliest professional stage appearances were as a chorus girl on tour with Guido Thielscher's Girl-Kabarett vaudeville-style entertainments, and in Rudolf Nelson revues in Berlin. In 1922, Dietrich auditioned unsuccessfully for theatrical director and impresario Max Reinhardt's drama academy; however, she soon found herself working in his theatres as a chorus girl and playing small roles in dramas. She did not attract any special attention at first. She made her film debut playing a bit part in the film The Little Napoleon (1923).

It was in musicals and revues such as Broadway, Es Liegt in der Luft, and Zwei Krawatten, however, that she attracted the most attention. By the late 1920s, Dietrich was also playing sizable parts on screen, including roles in Café Elektric (1927), Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame (1928), and Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen (1929).

In 1929, Dietrich landed the breakthrough role of Lola Lola, a cabaret singer who caused the downfall of a hitherto respectable schoolmaster (played by Emil Jannings), in the UFA-Paramount co-production of The Blue Angel (1930). Josef von Sternberg directed the film and thereafter took credit for having "discovered" Dietrich. The film is also noteworthy for having introduced Dietrich's signature song "Falling in Love Again", which she recorded for Electrola and later made further recordings in the 1930s for Polydor and Decca Records.

In 1930, on the strength of The Blue Angel's international success, and with encouragement and promotion from Josef von Sternberg, who was already established in Hollywood, Dietrich moved to the United States under contract to Paramount Pictures. The studio sought to market Dietrich as a German answer to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Swedish sensation, Greta Garbo. Sternberg welcomed her with gifts, including a green Rolls-Royce Phantom II. The car later appeared in their first US film Morocco. In Morocco (1930), Dietrich was again cast as a cabaret singer. The film is best remembered for the sequence in which she performs a song dressed in a man's white tie and kisses another woman, both provocative for the era. The film earned Dietrich her only Academy Award nomination. The rest as they say...is movie history...

RECENTLY VIEWED: AFTER LIFE

I am not a big television fan unless I am watching classic movies or re-runs of The Office or The Twilight Zone. However, I finally entered the modern age and became a Netflix member. I was recently lucky enough to catch the new series After Life. After Life is a British dark comedy web television series created, executive produced, and directed by Ricky Gervais (who also plays its main character), that premiered on 8 March 2019, on Netflix.

After Life follows Tony, who has a perfect life before his wife dies from a battle with breast cancer. After contemplating suicide, he then decides to live long enough to punish the world for his wife's death by saying and doing whatever he wants to. Although he thinks of it as sort of a superpower, the situation turns tricky when everyone around him starts trying to make him a better person again.

No review can do justice to the show. Season one is six episodes long, and I have never had a television show affect me the way that Gervais' show did. I laughed. I squirmed. I cried. This is all within a 28 minute episode. Luckily, I have never lost a spouse, but I have lost extremely important people in my life like my grandfather and my father. Ricky Gervais' portrayal of Tony is just amazing. He manages to capture every emotion that someone has when they lose a loved one. I have always liked Ricky Gervais' work, and he makes me laugh hysterically with his stand up comedy specials, but I never realized what a striking actor he is. He deserves and Emmy for this role.

After watching the sixth and final episode the other night, I crawled in bed with my wife who went to bed earlier, and I just looked at her and held her hand as she slept. (Unfortunately, she woke up and was none to happy with me!). This show made me laugh, but it also made me realize that I will never take my wife for granted. After Life made me realize that I want to make every moment to matter with my wife and kids, because life is too short.

If you want a show that will make you ball your eyes out as well as cause you to pee your pants in laughter, then Ricky Gervais has really given us a treat with this new show. Keep the tissues and clean underwear handy when you watch this one. The only fault I could find with After Life is that a six-episode season is too short. I hope there will be a season two...

MY RATING: 10 out of 10

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: MORE CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and classic Hollywood is no different. Here are some pictures of some great St. Patrick's Day poses. I spotlighted some Irish inspired photos in 2017. You can see that photo gallery HERE. Here are some different great pics...

Maureen O' Hara

Fred Astaire

Adele Mara

Jimmy Cagney and Joan Leslie

Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins and Mary Ann Jackson

Greer Garson

NEWSPAPER CLIPPINGS: HARLAN LATTIMORE

This clipping features the comeback of vocalist Harlan Lattimore. He was a the talented singer in the Don Redman Orchestra of the 1930s. This article was featured in the Washington Afro-American newspaper on November 1, 1949...

MUSIC BREAK: BENNY GOODMAN - ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND