Burt’s Eye View: It Used to Be A Wonderful Life

When I was just a kid, I saw the stage musical, “Peter Pan,” starring Mary Martin in the title role and Cyril Ritchard as Captain Hook.  It is to this day the only version of that old war-horse I ever liked.  I still don’t know why that story has retained its popularity since 1904.  Even Walt Disney couldn’t work his magic on it.

What I remember best about the show, the tunes aside, is that at the point when Tinkerbell’s light was flickering, and she was supposedly at death’s door, the audience was urged to start clapping in the hope that our applause would somehow save her.  Suddenly a woman seated behind me leaned forward and said, “Little boy, you aren’t clapping.  Don’t you want Tinkerbell to live?”

“I know the story,” I told her.  “She’ll live even if nobody claps.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: abortion, ACORN, Afghanistan, nancy pelosi, Obama
Posted Jan 8th 2010 at 9:13 am in Political Humor | 28761876 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2010/01/08/burts-eye-view-it-used-to-be-a-wonderful-life/Burt%E2%80%99s+Eye+View%3A+It+Used+to+Be+A+Wonderful+Life2010-01-08+17%3A13%3A26Burt+Prelutsky

Esther Ralston: Why Do All My Husbands Want to Kill Me?

Esther Ralston, at the height of her Hollywood stardom in the 1920’s.

They called her: The American Venus.

She lived in a Hollywood mansion with a staff of servants. Her chauffeur drove a limited edition limousine. But she ended her days in an upscale trailer park in Ventura, California.

One of the enduring mysteries—for yours truly—are the scores of Hollywood starlets, innocent young women, who are attracted to bad men: drunks, gamblers, liars, tinsel town sociopaths.

Esther Ralston is a prime example of an early Hollywood star who showed great promise as an actress—she played drama and comedy with equal craft—but three ill-considered marriages effectively derailed Ralston’s career and drained away her considerable fortune. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Charlie Chaplin, Charlie Chaplin Studios, Esther Ralston, George Webb, hollywood
Posted Sep 14th 2009 at 5:05 am in Celebrity News, Classic Hollywood, Culture | 22009433 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ravrech/2009/09/14/esther-ralston-why-do-all-my-husbands-want-to-kill-me/Esther+Ralston%3A+Why+Do+All+My+Husbands+Want+to+Kill+Me%3F2009-09-14+12%3A05%3A51Robert+J.+Avrech

America’s Peter Pan of Pop

I remember reading years ago that Lisa Marie said that, in private, Michael Jackson spoke in a perfectly normal (well…) male voice.  By the magic of Google, I found the piece and present it to you.  Tina Brown, Washington Post, March 2005.  Ms. Brown has a very sharp and unsparing take on America’s Peter Pan of Pop.  And in the Rolling Stone interview to which Ms. Brown refers, Lisa Marie is even more devastating about the man behind the man-boy mask:

Read Brown’s Article Here.

An interview with Jackson’s ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley by Chris Heath in Rolling Stone in April 2003 would support the “secretly sane” theory. “I was always saying [to Jackson] people wouldn’t think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really are,” Presley told Heath. “That you sit around, and you drink and you curse and you’re [expletive] funny and you have a bad mouth, and you don’t have that high voice all the time. I don’t know why you think that works for you, because it doesn’t anymore.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "secretly sane" theory, Chris Heath, Lisa Marie, Neverland, Peter Pan
Posted Jun 26th 2009 at 11:21 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, News | 17187094 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aholmes/2009/06/26/americas-peter-pan-of-pop/America%27s+Peter+Pan+of+Pop2009-06-26+18%3A21%3A29Amy+Holmes

Where Have All the Kirks Gone?

Don’t beam me up, Scotty. The Capt. James T. Kirk in the new “Star Trek” film is proof of how much ground men have lost in today’s culture. 

Before you tell me it is just a movie, recall the words of series creator Gene Roddenberry: “I have no belief that Star Trek depicts the actual future,” Roddenberry said, “it depicts us, now…”  And right now, the latest Star Trek depicts men as insecure, impulsive lechs who need women and aliens to keep them out of trouble.

Consider four attributes of the ideal man: self-control, bravery, confidence and sex appeal.

In the original series, Kirk has supreme self-control. He sacrifices himself for the safety of his crew and, in more than one episode, even chooses duty over true love. In the latest “Star Trek,” Kirk is Peter Pan, an irresponsible, reckless man-boy.  (Warning: plot spoilers ahead.) The new Kirk tears down an empty Iowa highway in a stolen hot rod and drives off a cliff, jumping out to save himself, not the car.  He gets into bar fights to serve his vanity, not some higher cause like rescuing the crew from aliens.  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Chris Pine, gene rodenberry, James T. Kirk, Peter Pan, San Francisco
Posted May 14th 2009 at 8:37 am in Entertainment, Politics | 134226162 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/hsmith/2009/05/14/where-have-all-the-kirks-gone/Where+Have+All+the+Kirks+Gone%3F2009-05-14+15%3A37%3A18Heather+Smith