Will Straw
@wstraw.bsky.social
James McGill Emeritus Professor of Urban Media Studies at McGill University. Scholar of cities, media, night Follow news of night culture at https://theurbannight.com/ or visit my research site at https://willstraw.com/
This is published today, with my article on spaces of collective sleeping in the cinema.
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
This is published today, with my article on spaces of collective sleeping in the cinema.
1965 - Scopitone machines come to Des Moines, Iowa.
September 30, 2025 at 3:49 PM
1965 - Scopitone machines come to Des Moines, Iowa.
From the excellent Miguel Cavarubbias exhibit in Mexico City, "United Nations," 1942.
August 25, 2025 at 3:39 AM
From the excellent Miguel Cavarubbias exhibit in Mexico City, "United Nations," 1942.
From the excellent Miguel Cavarubbias exhibit in Mexico City, "William Shakespeare and Metro Goldwyn Mayer," 1936.
August 25, 2025 at 3:36 AM
From the excellent Miguel Cavarubbias exhibit in Mexico City, "William Shakespeare and Metro Goldwyn Mayer," 1936.
Döden er et kjaertegn (Death is a Caress), the 1949 Norwegian film by Edith Carlmar, is often considered the first film noir directed by a woman. Tonight we watched a 1953 film by Carlmar, Ung Frue Forsvunnet (A Young Woman Missing), a very good drama about drug addiction.
July 5, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Döden er et kjaertegn (Death is a Caress), the 1949 Norwegian film by Edith Carlmar, is often considered the first film noir directed by a woman. Tonight we watched a 1953 film by Carlmar, Ung Frue Forsvunnet (A Young Woman Missing), a very good drama about drug addiction.
Bess Flowers, Queen of the Dress Extras, in Something in the Wind (1947), one of Deanna Durbin's last films.
June 29, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Bess Flowers, Queen of the Dress Extras, in Something in the Wind (1947), one of Deanna Durbin's last films.
Waiting for me on my return from holiday: The New York Daily Column (1968-1969), made up almost entirely of signed columns.
June 29, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Waiting for me on my return from holiday: The New York Daily Column (1968-1969), made up almost entirely of signed columns.
Magazine history: The opening of Slander (1957), one of a handful of Hollywood films responding to the post-Confidential boom in celebrity scandal magazines .
June 16, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Magazine history: The opening of Slander (1957), one of a handful of Hollywood films responding to the post-Confidential boom in celebrity scandal magazines .
I missed the Drawn & Quarterly lunch of this fine piece of cultural history because I was out of town, then had to wait to get it while D&Q replenished their stock. It's a fascinating book, full of scenes I watched from the edges and people I still know.
June 16, 2025 at 3:08 PM
I missed the Drawn & Quarterly lunch of this fine piece of cultural history because I was out of town, then had to wait to get it while D&Q replenished their stock. It's a fascinating book, full of scenes I watched from the edges and people I still know.
At the M+ Museum in Hong Kong - hard to imagine what this would involve
May 23, 2025 at 7:51 AM
At the M+ Museum in Hong Kong - hard to imagine what this would involve
Nice when the mail brings new books by friends.
April 27, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Nice when the mail brings new books by friends.
This was a very good book, fascinating and impeccably researched!
March 26, 2025 at 3:54 PM
This was a very good book, fascinating and impeccably researched!
Coming this autumn . ..
March 25, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Coming this autumn . ..
From The Montrealer, May 1934. Adolf Ginsburg was a band leader in Weimar Germany. On-line fan sites say little is known of his activities after 1933, when, as a Russian-born Jew, he probably left Germany. His music seems to be on every streaming site.
February 16, 2025 at 3:48 PM
From The Montrealer, May 1934. Adolf Ginsburg was a band leader in Weimar Germany. On-line fan sites say little is known of his activities after 1933, when, as a Russian-born Jew, he probably left Germany. His music seems to be on every streaming site.
Let me recommend this book!
February 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Let me recommend this book!
I watched this because one of the writers was Gordon Kahn, a reporter for Broadway Brevities (the focus of a lot of my researcher) and the blacklisted author of Hollywood on Trial. But it also has Bess Flowers dancing in the background of a nightclub sequence . . .
February 4, 2025 at 3:21 AM
I watched this because one of the writers was Gordon Kahn, a reporter for Broadway Brevities (the focus of a lot of my researcher) and the blacklisted author of Hollywood on Trial. But it also has Bess Flowers dancing in the background of a nightclub sequence . . .
I just finished this book - a fascinating, well-researched study of a newspaper which, almost from the beginning, was caught up in the corruptions of the Panama Canal, Tsarist loan programs, and French interwar parliamentary politics, then ended up as a collaborationist paper during the Occupation.
February 2, 2025 at 12:55 AM
I just finished this book - a fascinating, well-researched study of a newspaper which, almost from the beginning, was caught up in the corruptions of the Panama Canal, Tsarist loan programs, and French interwar parliamentary politics, then ended up as a collaborationist paper during the Occupation.
The postman brought this today.
February 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
The postman brought this today.
100 years ago. My book on all this will be out in the autumn.
January 31, 2025 at 2:53 PM
100 years ago. My book on all this will be out in the autumn.
Bess Flowers, Queen of the Extras, slumming on Poverty Row (but with more lines) in His Sister's Secret (1946).
January 27, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Bess Flowers, Queen of the Extras, slumming on Poverty Row (but with more lines) in His Sister's Secret (1946).