Priceless Images

Found this and many others like it, on YouTube and they are simply incredible. Cinema icons from the 40's, 50's & 60's hanging out at Rock's place at the beach on a holiday weekend, just like you or I would. Get some of these folks: Film director George Cukor yakking it up with our host Rock. Then there's Adolph Green { co-writer Singin in the Rain, Band Wagon, etc } in sailor hat and red scarf. Oh and look over there, isn't that restauranteur Mike Romanoff in the white shirt ? And look at Jason Robards, he's married to Lauren Bacall  { Betty to her friends don't cha know } in a New York Mets hat!  And here on the coast!! The gall!! Isn't that screenwriter George Axelrod in the blue shirt talking to the camera? There she is: Our girl Betty Bacall, widow of Bogie, but even at forty looking so young and full of fun! There's RJ Wagner in that nice new yellow shirt. Why his divorce from Natalie didn't set him back one bit! And there is Mrs. Thurston Howell III, our own Natalie Schafer at the height of her somewhat dubious fame.

Wow. That was my first reaction to these old 8mm films I found on YouTube. All these folk look so well scrubbed and, well, ordinary. Like my parents home movies from the same time period, only these are not only celebs, but a couple { at least } tinseltown legends. Not just your ol' Aunt Mabel or drunk Uncle Sid making a spectacle of themselves at the 4th of July barbecue. There are other videos I will be posting, including one from Memorial Day 1965 with some footage of  Producer David Selznick { Gone With The Wind }, who was to die on June 22, 1965, less than a month later. And did you get the nice routine with Bacall & Hudson? They co-starred in Written on the Wind less that ten years earlier when Rock was just coming into his own as a major star and Betty was still Mrs. Humphrey Bogart. Love the way Ms. Bacall plays to the camera: she seems just like I thought she would be: Fun and sassy, even without sound.  More coming. I love these things! Whoever posted these priceless images on YouTube, thanks!!! Priceless.