Little Miss Sunshine in CA, Pt. 3

Part 3 begins at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles for the main event: The LA Conservancy’s Last Remaining Seats showing of James Dean’s “Rebel Without A Cause” (1955). I hadn’t been inside the Orpheum since 2008, and it still looked pretty grand.



To say “they don’t make ’em like they used to” in this case would be a gross understatement. A little bit of history from the Orpheum’s website:

Since its February 15, 1926 opening, the Orpheum has played host to some of the most venerable names in show business – from burlesque queen Sally Rand, a young Judy Garland (as Francis Gumm) and comedian Jack Benny, to jazz greats like Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. The 1960s brought a completely new dimension to the theater – “rock and roll” – with performers such as Little Richard, Aretha Franklin and Little Stevie Wonder.



Imagine this craftsmanship produced for something that will barely be noticed in a darkened theater:





Edward Torres played the organ before the movie began, which definitely added to the experience of a very special evening.



Out in the lobby were Sarah Lann, director of education for the LA Conservancy, Natasha Gregson Wagner, actress and daughter of Natalie Wood, and Christy, aka Little Miss Sunshine, also the President of the James Dean Museum in Fairmount, IN which is the only official Dean museum sanctioned by Dean’s family:



A quick selfie before the film began with Christy and Natasha, who couldn’t have been any sweeter:



Time to turn the lights down!



Before the showing of “Rebel,” film critic Leonard Maltin interviewed (sort of) Natasha.



Leonard did most of the talking, which was unfortunate. Once he let Natasha speak, we got to hear how meaningful this role was and the respect Natalie had for Dean’s talent. They had worked together before in the “I’m a Fool” November 14, 1954 episode of General Electric Theater, which was introduced by Ronald Reagan. 



And then the remaining house lights dimmed and the movie began! While it was amazing to see Sal Mineo, James Dean, and Natalie Wood up on the big screen in a classic movie palace like the Orpheum, it was a bit disappointing that it was a digital projection and the quality of the projection was not all that great. While many details were revealed at that large size, the print seemed a bit muddy and fuzzy, especially considering what the current Blu ray version looks like.



A little Vogue-ing in the theater lobby before we exited:



Outside the theater we all waited for our rides home. Christy is surrounded by photographer Taylor Galloway and Kate Croley:



After a late night chat by the Chateau pool, Christy and I returned to 67 to order room service, since the dining room was closed for an event held by luxury menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna.



The big reveal: we each got a sinfully delicious Nutty Chewy Sticky Gooey dessert:


 
…and another round of Garden Gimlets.



What had tasted so delicious and refreshing that afternoon sitting by the pool tasted more like fermented lawn clippings at midnight.



We left them out on the porch until the next morning when the clippings appeared to have congealed.



I got up early to do my laps; as I crossed through the gate to the pool, this cute little tableau was setup outside the bungalows, as part of the Zegna event:



There was also a temporary edicola (newsstand in Italian) by the pool, guarded by two stoic young men who looked like they’d just stepped off the runway:



The edicola was stocked with limited-edition copies of Zegna’s print publication, Top magazine.



Inside the hotel, this was the first time I got to see the new Chateau Marmont photo history wall on the first floor (which features a number of images from my collection!).



It’s pretty amazing to see all of the famous artists and celebrities that have stayed here over the years. A true testament to this Hollywood architectural legend.





This is one of my favorite images, featuring many of the hotel’s employees (some still there, some not):



Before breakfast, a quick selfie from the seventh floor:



My good friend Jorge from San Diego happened to be in LA at the same time, so he joined us for breakfast:



The pancakes were just as delicious and fluffy as I remembered:



Even without its usual pepper crust, the Chateau bacon is second to none:



Jorge joined us on the ride back to San Diego, where we made a detour to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano.



Stay tuned for Part 4!

See more Los Angeles Orpheum Theatre photos at my main website.

POTC: Everything Old Is New Again

Disneyland and the classic Pirates of the Caribbean attraction made headlines lately when it reopened:

Disneyland reveals high-tech upgrade to ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’

One of Disneyland’s most popular classic rides has reopened after refurbishment, with a new feature that brings an iconic scene to life using modern technology. Pirates of the Caribbean in New Orleans Square was the last attraction personally overseen by Walt Disney before his death in 1966. It opened 59 years ago, telling the tale of marauding pirates, swashbuckling sailors and cursed treasure. The dark ride reopened Friday after a nearly two-month refurbishment, and Disneyland is revealing the major update. The classic scene depicting the skeleton of a greedy pirate sitting atop a pile of cursed gold is no longer – just a skeleton. We now see his story unfold. Thanks to patented technology involving projections and robotics, riders now see the pirate as a living soul transform into a skeleton after picking up a cursed gold coin. “When he lifts and picks it up and looks at it, it casts a spell over him that freezes him in time,” Alfredo Ayala, a Disneyland Imagineer, explains in an official video released Friday. “And then, the weight of his arm after he turns into a skeleton drops the coin, releasing him from the cursed treasure.” But the short story, of course, doesn’t end there. The greedy pirate picks up the coin again and-this time- becomes frozen forever as a skeleton. The magic is accomplished through what Disney Imagineers call “hybrid front projection technology,” an extension of traditional animatronics seen throughout the park. What’s different here is that the animatronic figure moves, so the projection has to move with it. “It opens up a whole new level of engagement with our beloved guests,” Ayala said.



How the scene looked, a few years after opening, in the September 1969 image below:



How it looked in 2015; not too dissimilar:



While the “hybrid front projection technology” may be a new term, the concept is not anything new. Exhibit A: Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion:



Granted, the actual head is a stationary sculpt, the special effect still works and has been amazing guests since that attraction opened in 1969. The original film frames that were projected on the matching sculpted head:



The photographer who shot this blurry 1972 image used a flash, which canceled out the film projection and revealed the blank sculpted head:



Exhibit B: The same effect was used on the Singing Ghosts in the graveyard:



With the lights on, you can see the sculpts without the projection:



Exhibit C: In 2007 when Pirates Lair on Tom Sawyer Island opened, they used projection effects in the Dead Man’s Grotto area; these were not quite as effective as the ones in the Mansion:



When Pirates of the Caribbean was being put together, it was brought up that the overlapping scenes and dialogue might be difficult for guests to understand and comprehend as the boats sailed by. Walt Disney’s response was that the attraction was akin to a cocktail party, where guests would hear bits and pieces of conversation as they walked through the room. He figured that each time guests would ride the attraction they would see new details or hear different bits of convo that they had missed before. It was important for Walt that guests would want to come back and ride the same attractions over and over again.



The “new” technology has been lambasted by fans, who say it is incongruent with the other scenes of the attraction. A missed detail from the “upgrade” is that the face changes back and forth from skeleton to living human, but the hand stays the same. I’ve said it before and I will probably say it again, but just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you SHOULD. To me, this screams “Look at what we can do” rather than a true improvement. Below is a fan-made video about the changes:



If I had to make an edjumacated guess as to why this is a big deal for the Disney Corporation it would be (as always) because of cost. A projection effect is going to be a lot cheaper than upgrading and maintaining a mechanical audioanimatronic figure that has to work around the clock on a daily basis. What are your thoughts?

See more Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley and The Egyptian

A radiant 1950s Shirley Temple can be seen above with her handsome husband, Charles Black, sitting in a theater surrounded by other celebrities, including filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille and actor Henry Wilcoxon. That’s the only info I had about the negative I recently purchased.



Unfortunately, there were no programs or other bits of info to help identify the date or event that Shirley was attending.



Shirley and DeMille had worked together before on radio, as seen in this image below from January 27, 1941 when she did the Captain January broadcast:



DeMille and Wilcoxon had worked together on “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) and “The Ten Commandments” (1956). Looking up those leads on newspapers.com didn’t provide any info on Shirley, so I went to the expert, the great Rita Dubas! Not surprisingly I had an answer faster than the speed of light: 

She was watching “The Egyptian,” an “epic historical drama” by 20th Century-Fox, which premiered on September 1, 1954 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood! I remembered the lacy dress and found the Modern Screen magazine clip I had [below]. Darryl Zanuck produced the film, and it stands to reason that Hollywood elite would show up for this important film at the time. Shirley and Charles were back in Hollywood before their move to Atherton. It was a busy time for Shirley—her dolls had just gone on loan to Science and Industry to benefit Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and the March of Dimes, and she had started her work for the MS Society.



That’s a lot to unpack there! Zanuck was Shirley’s former boss during her childhood movie career at Fox, so naturally she would be on the guest list. Shirley’s famous doll collection of 523 dolls was put on permanent display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park, Los Angeles (now called the California Science Center). At the time, they had an estimated value of $50k. The collection was sold off by the family in 2015 along with Shirley’s other costumes and memorabilia at the Theriault’s Love, Shirley Temple auction. Back to today’s rabbit hole, below is a full-page ad for “The Egyptian” from Photoplay magazine:



The September 1, 1954 ad from the LA Times promotes the premiere and lists Shirley as one of the star-studded attendees:



From elsewhere in the Times that day:



A trio of screenshots from the historical epic, filmed in CinemaScope with color by DeLuxe:



On eBay I found this ribbon from the Hollywood Premiere:



More from the L.A. Times, September 1, 1954:

“The Egyptian,” 20th Century-Fox Cinemascope film of the best-selling novel, will be given its premiere showing tonight in the Grauman's Chinese Theater with all the traditional fanfare and glitter of the Hollywood first night. Curtain time is 8:30. The theater is sold out for the event, according to Charles P. Skouras, president of Fox West Coast Theaters, with scores of top filmland celebrities scheduled to alight from limousines to enter the foyer over a red carpet spread out before the fan grandstands. The film is based on Author Mika Waltari’s novel about a turbulent era in the Egypt of 14 centuries before Christ. It was produced in Technicolor and stereophonic sound by Darryl F. Zanuck at a cost of $5,000,000. As one phase of the producer’s striving for historical authenticity, technical advice on the use of the ancient armillary, a device used by Egyptian astronomers and astrologists of the era, was obtained from Carroll Righter, astrologian for The Times. “The Egyptian” cast includes Jean Simmons, Edmund Purdom, Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Bella Darvi, Michael Wilding, Judith Evelyn, Peter Ustinov, and Anitra Stevens, who plays the beautiful Queen Nefertiti. The studio said all will attend the premiere. Others expected include Lana Turner, Jess Barker, Joan Caulfield, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Alan Ladd, Arlene Dahl, Cyd Charisse, Tony Martin, Jane Powell, Tyrone Power, Linda Christian, George Raft, Shirley Temple Elizabeth Taylor, and Clifton Webb.…KTLA (5) will be on hand to catch some of the highlights for televiewers starting at 8:30 p.m. George Fisher will be mike-side to introduce the stars who aren’t barred by studio regulations from appearing in living rooms.

Bella Darvi was a discovery of Zanuck and his wife Virginia, who renamed Bajla Węgier by taking “Dar” from Darryl and “Vi” from Virginia. The next “discovery” was that she had become Zanuck’s mistress, which led to some cloudy judgment on his part when it came to pushing her career. Darvi was chosen over Ava Gardner for her role in “The Egyptian.” She left Hollywood by the end of the year, with Zanuck admitting, “I was guilty of egomania.”

From columnist Sheilah Graham for the LA Evening Citizen News, September 3, 1954:

Katy Jurado wore a matador’s heavily embroidered coat, complete with crucifix, for the flashy premiere of “The Egyptian.” She bought it in Spain.…And Bella Darvi, the Babylonian menace in the film, twoed with Brad Dexter who was married for a short spat to Peggy Lee…“How d’ye like my guy?” Sonja Henie asked me. I did a double take and there was Superman — George Reeves on her arm…Cecil B. DeMille twoed with his daughter, Cecilia, ad she goes with the virile old man to Egypt Sept. 19 for his Egyptian picture, “The Ten Commandment.”…It was interesting to see Edmund Purdom in the role vacated by Marlon Brando. But I can see why Marlon took off to his psychiatrist. The role was wrong for him…Shirley Temple can come back to pictures any time she wants to. Shirley received the biggest hand from the bleacher fans. And her husband, Charlie Black, is handsome enough to be a movie star.

Entertainment Editor Dick Williams for the LA Mirror, September 3, 1954 added this bit of gossip:

Any trouble at the Lana Turner, Lex Barker domicile? They had a spat at the Sonja Henie party last week end. And they failed to show, although expected at “The Egyptian” premiere.

Rita also discovered that Shirley wore the same dress almost two months later at a gala for the Old Vic Company’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as reported by the San Francisco News on October 28, 1954 below:



Also reported in the accompanying article:

Completely captivating and gracious, Shirley…and her equally handsome husband have moved to Atherton and it is rumored that she is going into the decorating business.



I wonder how many homes Shirley worked on?

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.