Stolen Moments

If you love to laugh, then Slapsticon is the festival for you.  They will provide you with chuckles, guffaws, chortles, wheezes and some polite snickering, to boot.  The 6th annual festival in Alexandria, Virginia will be held July 17th through 20th at the Spectrum. 

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with two of the founders (shakers and movers) Rob Farr and Richard Roberts.  They're a barrel of laughs, too!

Please note, at the end of the show, I made an error of remembrance (no surprise there) - Richard's forthcoming book is on Hal Roach (Langdon comes along later, or so we're told) - sorry bout that!

Forever Lulu can only mean one thing, and that would be a discussion about Louise Brooks the iconic Lulu of Pandora's Box.  To talk about Louise with me, it's my pleasure to call upon Louise Brooks authority Thomas Gladysz, webmaster of The Louise Brooks Society.  He is also host of Radio Lulu an online radio show of 1920's era music related to Louise Brooks and jazz from the 1920s and dance band music.

Louise Brooks is probably one of the most popular and iconic stars of the silent era, in fact, she's transitioned so well as she is still so very modern.  Originally this interview was to be part of a trilogy of interviews about Brooks, the other two parts will, I hope, be forthcoming in 2008.

Secondly, I must tip my hat to and encourage those local to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's Winter Program.  They're be showing treasures from UCLA, Photoplay Productions and The Library of Congress.  There will also be author book signings by Anthony Slide, author of Now Playing and Matthew Kennedy, author of a new and long overdue biography of Joan Blondell.  This is a one-day program not to be missed!

Stolen Moments, remember that podcast?  I do!  Unfortunately, I was merrily recording interviews unaware that my software had gone buggy and ruined all the recordings before I strated editing them.  What's a poor podcaster to do?  Well, for one thing, get new software!

Thanks to everyone for bearing with me and my trials and tribulations.  Today's podcast is an apology and an update!

August is the month of the year when Valentino is remembered and memorialized officially at Hollywood Forever, August 23 2007 is the 81st anniversary of Valentino's passing.  This event is once a year, but it is true, Valentino is really the unforgotten star as people are drawn to his gravesite every day, not merely on August 23rd.  

This August and this podcast is all about the memorials to Valentino, first up, you will hear the 2002 Memorial Service as an example of what exactly happens at the event, secondly, I'm speaking with my return guest Tracy Terhune about his new book Valentino the Unforgotten and about the recent installation of a permanent display dedicated to Valentino at the Hollywood Heritage Barn.  Finally, we're talking about the newly released DVD from Flicker Alley, The Valentino Collection.

August of 2007 is a month that will be long remembered by Valentino fans, an embarrassment if riches, indeed.

Technical hiccups, that is.  Right at the time I was conducting interviews for the follow up Film Festival podcasts, Skype had an upgrade and it rendered my software to record phone calls useless.

The good news is, I've found a possible alternative recorder which I will be testing out this weekend, once Skype resolves their current issues.

It's been a frustrating couple of months for me and I hope that I've not lost my listeners.

Next up will be Stolen Moments #18 - Valentino the Unforgotten.  In this show you will hear a virtual memorial service for Valentino, in fact, it is the audio portions of the 2002 Memorial services t Hollywood Forever.  In addition, I will be speaking with Tracy Terhune about his new book, Roger Peterson's 1937 volume, Valentino the Unforgotten as well as the just about to be released 2 DVD set The Valentino Collection.

It's summer and it's the silent film festival season.  The month of June 2007 will have not one, not two, but three separate podcasts highlighting some of the festivals during the summer season.

This episode is all about the 12th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival held at the Castro Theater (in San Francisco, California, naturally).  Returning to discuss the terrific lineup is Stephen Salmons, founder and president of the festival.  He's an absolute delight to speak with.

In two weeks will be an interview with Rob Farr and Richard Roberts all about Slapsticon in Alexandria, Virginia. and right after that will be a talk with Dorothy Bradley of the Niles Essanay Film Museum which in 2007 is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Essanay Film Company in Niles, California.

June is a busy month for me, and over the summer months, so much more to come!

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking jointly with Allan Ellenberger and Andre Soares, esteemed authors of a pair of biographies of Ramon Novarro.  Novarro was thought by some to be a film rival of Rudolph Valentino and is better remembered for his grisly death rather than his charming persona.  We've also got a DVD review and a plug for a terrific website and blog devoted to Edna Purviance, the most charming of Chaplin's leading ladies.

May 6, 2007, what better way to celebrate Rudolph Valentino's than a little video tribute?  I'd like to thank Kristen Adame for permission to post her lovely video as a special vidcast.

Raise a toast, have a bit of pasta with olive oil and hot peppers and enjoy the day!

Our regularly scheduled podcast has been preempted and postponed.  This episode of Stolen Moments deals with, in brief, Valentino in The Sheik.  This was his second landmark role, and it was for him a blessing and a curse.

Like Walt Disney, this podcast, Stolen Moments, also started with a mouse.  The Mousepod, that is.  I was flattered to be invited to participate in a recent episode on Jesse Obstbaum's terrific Mousepod in the episode entitled "...and the Oscar Goes to Disney."   While I feel my contribution was minimal, it's hearing everyone else that made this show so informative and special.  I'm a total fan of Jesse's podcast and if you have not heard the mousepod yet, do give it a listen, it's well worth your time.

Luther H. Mahoney met Rudolph Valentino by chance, by chance again, he came to be an employee of Valentino during the last two years of Valentino's short life.  Luther Mahoney was one of the few people to leave an audio record of his memories of Valentino.  This podcast will broadcast, for the first time, excerpts of the 1968 recordings of Luther Mahoney.

We're also speaking with Denise Morrison of the Kansas Silent Film Festival.  They've been around now for 11 years and this year's line up is a program not to be missed.