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P.M.Bryant

@pmbryant.com

Edward G. Robinson and Claudette Colbert in “The Hole in the Wall” (1929). Both were Broadway stars and this was one of their earliest films.

Robinson stands over seated Colbert, looking down at her as she looks elsewhere.

December 12, 2025 at 6:26 PM

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Forever Louise Brooks

@foreverlouiseb1.bsky.social

Lili Damita for The Match King (1932).

December 5, 2025 at 9:58 AM

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@starsatellite.bsky.social

ok one weberfields (statue scene ⚔️) as a treat

'Whoop-De-Doo, “a jumble of jollities in two whoops,” finally opened on September 24. Both the spectacle on stage and the one in the audience lived up to the house standards. According to the Dramatic Mirror, the glittering first-night audience included “everybody who is anybody, as well as those who would like to be somebody.” The wealthier women dressed to compete with Lillian Russell’s extravagant costumes. The orchestra and box seats contained a stunning display of Paris gowns; many of the women wore their diamonds on the back of their necks and in their hair to show them off more effectively to those seated behind.

Russell confounded them all when she made her first entrance in male evening clothes, a la Vesta Tilley, then lit up a cigarette and sang a song. One nonplussed reviewer praised her “lighting and smoking of the cigarette … for true naturalism and ease.” Evidently, the idea of putting the era’s epitome of femininity in male attire and allowing her to smoke a cigarette onstage made Music Hall patrons uncomfortable. When Russell reappeared “as her radiant self … in the costume of her sex,” the audience seemed much relieved.' (cont)
source: From The Bowery to Broadway: Lew Fields and the Roots of American Popular Theatre by Armond Fields and L. Marc Fields

'Once again, the setting was Paris. The curtain opened on a failing German beer garden owned by the anxious Herr Hoffbrau (Louis Mann), whose flirtatious waitresses refill the steins of the Heidelberg students and German officers for free. The setting evoked two of the previous season's hits, Old Heidelberg and The Prince of Pilsen, foreshadowing the operetta craze that would last for a decade or more.

Hoffbrau’s guests include Peter Dailey as a ragtime impresario, and Carter De Haven as a gilded youth trying to become a reckless spendthrift. John T. Kelly was P. Dennis O’Shay, a New York subway contractor “enjoying the fruits of his crimes,” accompanied by his pretentious daughter Bridget, played by Evie Stetson (an ample replacement, at least physically, for Fay Templeton). Much of the action satirized the philistinism of wealthy Americans, and their appetites for' (cont)
source: From The Bowery to Broadway: Lew Fields and the Roots of American Popular Theatre by Armond Fields and L. Marc Fields

'(Chapter tiles: Business Suicide)
acquiring European art work. A student asks the Countess (Lillian Russell) whether it is true that the millionaire Russell Sage wanted to buy the Venus de Milo. True, says the Countess, “but he wanted it cut-rate because it was damaged.”

Weber & Fields were, respectively, Michael Suppergreentz, “a grocer looking to invest,” and Meyer Schmartzgeezer, “a financier with no money.” In a variation on their “Skindecat” and “Starting a Bank” routines, Meyer explains to Mike how the stock exchange works. Hoffbrau recognizes the pair as potential suckers and decides to try to sell them his beer garden.

The hit of the evening was, appropriately, a new Weber & Fields routine that would be remembered as one of their greatest. The Countess (Russell) is interested in buying a marble statue of Roman gladiators in combat on display in the garden. Naturally, Mike and Meyer’s inspection of it results in its destruction. To conceal their misdeed, they have no choice but to don short skirts and swords, paint themselves white, and pose as “The Dying Gladiators.” Hoffbrau, who hopes to profit from the sale, instructs them: “Don’t look so happy! You’re about to be killed. Look dying! Look dying!”

The Countess, however, is wise to their scam and decides to have some fun' (cont)
source: From The Bowery to Broadway: Lew Fields and the Roots of American Popular Theatre by Armond Fields and L. Marc Fields

'with them. Inspecting the statue, she pinches, prods, and tickles the life-like figures. When they cannot suppress a sneeze or a cry, Hoffbrau pretends to make the noises himself. Mike and Meyer have difficulty holding their uncomfortable poses, and try resting whenever they think the Countess is not looking. The Countess is so delighted by the naturalness of the statue — “Isn’t it grand, the expression of agony on the dying gladiator’s face?” — that she invites her guests to join her for dinner in front of the statue.

Frozen on their marble perches, Mike and Meyer watch the diners enviously. When they think nobody is looking, they steal food from the table, but in between bites, they are forced to suspend their movements in increasingly ridiculous poses — fighting over a piece of bread, their cheeks bulging with food. Meyer spears a chicken with his sword, but before he has time to remove it, he must reassume his pose, with Mike apparently reaching for it. Seeing this, Hoffbrau tries to dis¬ tract the Countess and retrieve the impaled fowl, but Meyer raises it out of reach.

Reviewers described “convulsions of laughter,” and an audience “in fits.” One critic claimed that the statue scene was so good that “few could adequately praise it.” As for the music, William Francis’ score was unremarkable; the two best tunes in the show were interpolations composed by the black ragtime masters Cole and Johnson.'
source: From The Bowery to Broadway: Lew Fields and the Roots of American Popular Theatre by Armond Fields and L. Marc Fields

December 1, 2025 at 4:45 AM

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@starsatellite.bsky.social

like can we get herbert fields back into the rodgers and hart narrative

photograph of three men, 1920s: l-r herbert fields, richard rodgers, lorenz hart

sheet music cover for 'moonlight mama' from 'the jazz king' starring lew fields, with lyrics and music credited to herbert richard lorenz (fields, rodgers & hart pseudonym)

December 1, 2025 at 1:28 AM

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@starsatellite.bsky.social

everyone pining after charles laughton (and paul gregory) auteurism come re/listen to the laughton/boyer/moorehead/hardwicke don juan in hell w me ❤️‍🔥

July 30, 2025 at 9:09 PM

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@starsatellite.bsky.social

cbbc gary larson.........that's MY 2009

June 25, 2025 at 4:34 PM

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cow tools daily

@cowtoolsdaily.bsky.social

what do you mean 'normal tools'?

Single panel cartoon in the style of Gary Larson Far side.

Hacker T. Dog, a dog puppet in a flashy shirt, pulls a goofy smile behind a table of 4 crudely made tools as his co-host, Lauren, puts her thumb and forefinger to her nose trying to stifle laughter.

Caption reads "just normal tools."

June 25, 2025 at 12:00 PM

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Leah Tigers

@leahtigers.bsky.social

i find myself thinking often lately of these two photos of April Ashley with Marie-Pierre Pruvot, trans women who worked the drag circuit in Paris in the late 1950s, taken almost 60 years apart. i hope my friends now will be this good

January 26, 2025 at 12:07 PM

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@starsatellite.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC-_...

death valley days episode: cockeyed charlie parkhurst

season 6 episode 19, 1958 (26min)

🏳️‍⚧️ transgender film & television history