Posts Tagged ‘Follies’
“There is so much to do on a film set”*…
Legendary director Billy Wilder– Some Like it Hot, Sunset Boulevard, Double Indemnity, The Apartment, et al.– and equally-legendary designers Charles and Ray Eames were long-time friends, from the days when Charles worked as an MGM set designer. The three famously collaborated on “Glimpses of the USA,” a multimedia installation at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow. Moreover, Ray designed the opening credits for Wilder’s Love in the Afternoon.
Wilder (left) with Charles and Ray Eames
The Eames were multimedia masters, frequently—and brilliantly—communicating their philosophy through film and photography. Over the years, their image archive grew to include over 750,000 snapshots that document everything from travels through India to the circus. One series in particular—Movie Sets—is the focus of a new exhibition new exhibition at the Art & Design Atomium Museum in Brussels. Curated by Alexandra Midal, the photographs date from 1951 to 1971 and are all Charles’s snapshots from the sets of Wilder films…
More at “Hollywood’s Golden Age, As Photographed By Charles [and Ray] Eames.”
* Sir Ben Kingsley
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As we take our marks, we might send extravagant birthday greetings to Florenz Edward “Flo” Ziegfeld, Jr.; he was born on this date in 1867. One of the greatest theatrical showmen in American history, he was a Broadway impresario who produced dozens of shows, mostly (like one of his biggest hits, Showboat) musical spectacles. But he is best remembered for his 25-year series of elaborate annual theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris– a run that introduced such stars as Fanny Brice, Bert Williams, Ed Wynn, W.C. Fields, Marion Davies, Eddie Cantor and Will Rogers.
It’s Alive!…
Bacteria from the belly button of Project Leader Jiri Huler
From the Dunn Lab at North Carolina State University and the Nature Research Center at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences: The Belly Button Biodiversity Project.
You are alive, but just how alive? We know that species live under our beds or in our backyards. But how many living organisms are on a square centimeter of your skin? What do they do, and how they differ from those of your neighbor? Very little is known about the life that breathes all over us. Each person’s microbial jungle is so rich, colorful, and dynamic that in all likelihood your body hosts species that no scientist has ever studied. Your navel may well be one of the last biological frontiers. It is time then, to explore…
More, intrepid reader, in the bacteria galleries here.
[TotH to GMSV]
As we wash even more vigorously, we might recall that it was on this date in 1917 that showman Florenz Ziegfeld staged the first Ziegfeld Follies on the roof of a New York theater. (N.B., the date is given by some sources as July 7.) Ziegfeld’s extravaganzas were produced annually through 1931; they featured production numbers choreographed to the works of composers that included Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern, and performances by a panoply of stars including Nora Bayes, Fanny Brice, W. C. Fields, Eddie Cantor, Marilyn Miller, Will Rogers, Bert Williams, Ann Pennington, Billie Burke, and Anna Held. The shows moved indoors after the premiere; in 1927, Ziegfeld opened the eponymously-named Ziegfeld Theater on Broadway (actually, on Sixth Avenue between 54th and 55th Streets). Before Ziegfeld’s death in 1932, he managed the migration of the Follies to motion pictures and radio.
“Flo” Ziegfeld (source)
Poster for the Follies, 1912 (source)
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