TCM Pick O’ The Day: Friday, January 23rd
by John Nolte
2am PST – Hollywood Without Make-Up (1966) – In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood’s greatest stars. Cast: Ken Murray BW-50 mins, TV-G
Not a movie this time, but a delightful 1966 television special hosted by Ken Murray and starring his own home movies that date back to Hollywood’s silent-era when the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks wiled away their weekends at San Simeon, the estate owned by William Randolph Hearst and his wife mistress Marion Davies. The same estate Orson Welles somewhat recreated for his character in “Citizen Kane” who was modeled after Hearst.
You’ll also see Cary Grant, Mary Astor, Lucille Ball, Bogie, Edgar Bergen, Ruth Etting, Kirk Douglas, Demille, Fred MacMurray, dozens of others and even Walt Disney, who takes Murray’s kids on a very special tour of a fairly new theme park called Disneyland.
Ken Murray kicked around Hollywood all during the Golden Age in various roles, but he was always very well liked by the stars and enamored with the little film cameras he took with him most everywhere. The result is a one-of-a-kind look at our biggest stars relaxing and at play.
The special itself is a simple affair, hosted by Murray whose sincere affection his subjects makes the 50 minutes most memorable. You’ll feel as though you’ve entered an irony and snark-free zone.
Proof that once upon a time real movie stars roamed the Earth.
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9 Comments
Watching this today you wonder if anything like these home movies could be made today. Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt would worry about their private lives ending up on You Tube and Murray would be kicked out of every party. Plus I doubt that stars today would have as much innocent fun as the stars Murray filmed.
When Murray made these home movies the studios managed the images of their stars so what he shot was very unusual. Today with the internet and People magazine it’s easy to see Tom Cruise in shorts and sandals.
When you think of some of the money people get for photos of the stars today I wonder how much Murray could have gotten for his movies. At any rate it was a different time and should not be missed.
If you get the chance to see San Simeon, by all means go – it is on the coast just west of San Luis Obispo. As soon as I saw that picture I recognized it from a book on San Simeon.
“When Stars Were Stars” – just imagine as you go past the Neptune pool seeing these stars lounging around
Charlie Chaplin was a regular up there I believe
I hate to be critical, but Marion Davies was never married to WRH. They lived together without benefit of clergy.
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