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‘Life Revealed’ a Reading Highlight of 2015
Jeanne Eagels: A Life Revealed – the first biography of the legendary actress to be published in 85 years, which tells ‘the tragic story of the beautiful, Academy Award-nominated film and Broadway...
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Born on This Day: Fay Bainter 1893-1968
Fay Okell Bainter was born in Los Angeles on December 7, 1893. Encouraged by her mother, Fay first went on the stage aged six, and joined Oliver Morosco’s travelling stock company before making her...
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2015: A Year in Film
After his great performances in W.E., Inside Llewyn Davis and The Two Faces of January, Oscar Isaac is fast becoming my favourite contemporary actor. He has gone from strength to strength in 2015,...
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2015: A Year in Books
Reading Clarice Lispector for the first time is like falling in love. Each of her stories is a rare jewel. Shocking, funny and wildly imaginative, this collection is a landmark, reclaiming her as one...
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Born on This Day: John Colton 1887-1946
John Colton was born in Minneapolis on December 31, 1887. He spent his first fourteen years in Japan, where his English father was a diplomat. This early experience of colonial life in the Far East...
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Happy New Year to All My Readers!
As 2015 draws to a close – and this blog approaches her eighth birthday – I’ve been reflecting on a milestone year: from the reissue of The Mmm Girl and my inclusion in Fan Phenomena: Marilyn Monroe,...
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Born On This Day: Marion Davies 1897-1961
Marion Cecilia Douras was born in Brooklyn on January 3, 1897, the youngest daughter of Judge Bernard Douras. She left school to model for commercial illustrators, and made her Broadway debut as...
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Born on This Day: W. Somerset Maugham 1874-1965
William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris on January 25, 1874, the fourth of six children. His father was a lawyer for the British Embassy. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was eight, and when...
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Born On This Day: Tallulah Bankhead 1902-1968
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was born in Huntsville, Alabama on January 31, 1902. Her mother, Adelaide, died of blood poisoning three weeks after Tallulah’s birth. Her father William, a prominent...
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Born On This Day: Monta Bell 1891-1958
Louis Monta Bell was born in Washington D.C. on February 5, 1891. He began his career as a reporter for the Washington Herald during President Taft’s administration. Bell also appeared on the stage,...
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Born On This Day: Judith Anderson 1897-1992
Frances Margaret Anderson was born in the Australian city of Adelaide on February 10, 1897. From an early age she was drawn to the theatre. At seventeen, she made her stage debut at Sydney’s Theatre...
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Born On This Day: Kim Novak
Marilyn Pauline Novak was born in Chicago on February 13, 1933. Her father was a history teacher who also worked as a railroad dispatcher, and her mother was employed in a factory. Both parents were...
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Born On This Day: Frederick Warde 1851-1935
Frederick Barkham Warde was born in Wardington, Oxfordshire, on February 23, 1851. Educated at the City of London School, he had planned to become a lawyer. But after being cast as ‘Second Murderer’...
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Born on This Day: Montagu Love 1880-1943
Harry Montagu Love was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire on March 15, 1880. His father was an estate agent. He became a newspaper illustrator during the Anglo-Boer War at the turn of the century. By 1911,...
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Born On This Day: Joan Crawford 1904-1977
Lucille Fay LeSueur was born in San Antonio, Texas, on March 23, 1904. Her father, Thomas E. LeSueur, abandoned her mother, Anna Bell Johnson, and her two eldest children, while she was still...
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Born On This Day: Gloria Swanson 1899-1983
Gloria May Josephine Swanson was born in Chicago on March 27, 1899. Her father was in the US army, and the family moved frequently during her childhood. After an aunt took her to visit Essanay Studios...
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Born On This Day: Laurette Taylor 1883-1946
Loretta Helen Cooney was born in Harlem, New York on April 1, 1883, to Irish parents. Her mother, Elizabeth Dorsey, was the owner of a successful millinery, and the family breadwinner. Loretta had two...
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Born On This Day: Leslie Howard 1893-1943
Leslie Howard Steiner was born in Forest Hill, South London, on April 3, 1893. His mother, Lillian Blumberg, came from an upper middle-class family who initially disapproved of her choice of husband,...
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Born On This Day: George Arliss 1868-1946
Augustus George Andrews was born in London on April 10, 1868. He was educated at Harrow, one of Britain’s leading public schools. He worked for the publishing house owned by his father, William Joseph...
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Born On This Day: Anthony Bushell 1904-1997
Anthony Arnatt Bushell was born in Westerham, Kent on May 19, 1904. He was educated at Magdalen College School, and later Hertford College in Oxford. He was a champion boxer, rower, and member of the...
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