It was dark this morning, and there were two clusters of Whitetail Deer in the neighborhood -- I know because they ran right in front of me twice on the way to work! (Go SLOW, Mike.)

Footbarn's Celebration of Theatre: Theater X-Net

Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris, from my jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley

Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW! Spitfires of the Spaceways
Watch Dale Arden rescue Flash Gordon for a change!

Charity Alert: Keep that resolution as Autumn progresses! Click on The Hunger Site every day.

Media Watch: Winifred Shaw -- one of Cinema's greatest unknowns, who sang and starred in Busby Berkeley's scary masterpiece Lullaby of Broadway in 1935, was also the star of Broadway Hostess a forlorn 70-minute bill-filler which TCM showed along with some other forgettable backstage dramas* last week. Tireless journeyman actor Lyle Talbot was her leading man. Allen Jenkins, Spring Byington, and other stock performers from First National Pictures padded the cast.
Lloyd Bacon is supposedly the director, but I doubt he was on the lot much -- the story and songs stink, and the production looks like the work of various assistants. Berkeley had NOTHING to do with this movie's Playboy In Paree number -- he was making his own flicks at the time, while trying to recover from a car accident which almost landed him in jail for negligent homocide.
Somebody spent a little money on special effects -- placing a dozen or so chorus girls in a champagne glass, wearing balloon-festooned costumes, and bubbling up to a zooming lens. Poor Winnie doesn't get the man she wants, and ends the film by saying to her good-hearted accompanist: "...A girl always needs a piano player..."
(Read Wini Shaw's Wikipedia Article.)
Ms. Shaw crossed paths with Busby Berkeley again when she sang The Lady In Red during a cantina sequence for Dolores Del Rio's comedy In Caliente. Whatever thunder she built up at the beginning was stolen by Judy Canova doing a low-comedy dialect number which frankly ruined the piece. Edward Everett Horton was his usual funny self, and even Pat O'Brien was tolerable. Del Rio herself was excellent in a less-than-stellar movie -- her identical fate in Berkeley's own Wonder Bar.
*Jean (Dale Arden) Rogers was beautiful, competent, and charming in Let's Make Music, a real pile of carpet-sweepings from a Hollywood cutting-room floor -- featuring popular bandleader Bob Crosby. (I knew a man named Hal who had played clarinet in Crosby's orchestra. Hal was a good friend and ally of my theater company in the 70's.)

C'mon along and listen to -- the lullaby of Broadway!

Winifred Shaw's immortal starring moment as the focus of Busby Berkeley's frightening dance sequence from Golddiggers of 1935. She starts by singing in the dark, as the camera slowly zooms in on the oval of her beautiful Hawaiian face. Berkeley then quotes Man Ray as Winnie sticks a cigarette in her mouth and lies down to visually morph into the New York City skyline.

Winifred Shaw then becomes a "Broadway Baby," in a hot romance with Dick Powell. True to the song, she comes home at dawn, sleeps all day, and is off in a limo that night. This particular photo is from the abstract nightclub scene where Winnie and Dick party above a huge crowd of male and female tap dancers, who eventually stampede our "Broadway Baby" over the balcony of a skyscraper.
Winnie reappears to finish the song, but the audience never knows what's supposed to be surreal or real.