On sale this week for Valentine’s Day! An oversized, hardback, glossy coffee table book; I wrote it at age 19. This updated edition contains a new introduction and also an added chapter about the back story of this project. Dedicated to my friend, Jeanette’s sister Blossom. She kept the book on her night table the rest of her life. It…
Had a wonderful podcast interview today with Tommy Kovac, all about the new Tesla book. We discussed Tesla’s Hollywood contribution to the films Frankenstein (1931) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and the reason for his dislike of Dracula (1931). The book also explains why he said Citizen Kane might be his favorite movie!
As an LA native, I’ve watched in horror along with everyone else at the fire-related destruction in Los Angeles this last week. Some of my friends have lost their home and all possessions, particularly in Pacific Palisades. For my friends here in the industry, fellow film historians, and fans of classic movies, there’s an added layer of shock as chunks…
Today marks the 60th anniversary of Jeanette MacDonald’s death at age 61. Also remembering today Jeanette’s sister Blossom, who ironically died 13 years to the day after Jeanette, at age 82. In a radio interview Blossom gave some months after Jeanette’s death, she sounds loving and sad about her sister but practical and down-to-earth. Which is why she was a…
I have a new and different book release! Most of you know me for my MacDonald/Eddy writings. But over the years, I have edited and/or ghost-written several other books. This one has my name on it and deals with the life of inventor Nikola Tesla. (And yes, there is an interesting Jeanette/Nelson connection!) Some years, back I was approached to…
Hello! I wanted to share with you that the long-awaited new issue of the “Mac/Eddy Today” magazine has just been released! Journal #78 features an interview issue, with transcripts of the following: 1) an annotated, little-known 1959 interview with Jeanette MacDonald, in which she speaks candidly on some different topics than other interviews, discussing friendships ranging from Jean Harlow to…
Jeanette MacDonald and her older sister Blossom Rock both passed away on January 14, albeit thirteen years apart. Jeanette died in 1965 at age 61, Blossom in 1978 at age 82. Without Blossom’s friendship, we would not be here today. In the early 1970s when Hollywood secrets could still not be told, her viewpoint was: “My generation, we can’t talk…
I don’t much enjoy posting sad events here, but the second week of January is always a difficult one for Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fans. Both Jeanette and her sister Blossom died on January 14, albeit thirteen years apart. Blossom’s passing in 1978 was fairly swift; she had a heart attack and died a short time later. With Jeanette,…
On the Facebook “Sweethearts” book page, I just posted a short article about possible reasons why Jeanette MacDonald never recorded an album of Christmas songs. It involved three Christmases in a row, 1945, ’46 and ’47, all that had some trauma attached to them for her and Nelson Eddy. While details of 1947 are discussed in the book, I thought…
Last night (Friday the 13th) I was a guest on Tommy Kovac’s horror film podcast “Splat From the Past”. We celebrated the 80th anniversary of the release of Nelson Eddy’s starrer “Phantom of the Opera” (1943) featuring Claude Rains as the Phantom. The gorgeous Technicolor film (nominated for two Oscars) had a rocky beginning, first envisioned as a comedy for…