Marni Nixon was a name that Hollywood did its best to keep out of the credits, even as she found herself in one after another cinematic blockbuster of Hollywood’s Golden Age that featured the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, and a young Natalie Wood.
PROLOGUE I’m hardly the first guy to ponder the end of television, merely the last. The epiphany came at a Berkeley cafe in Fall 2011, when I overheard one college freshman say to another, “I can’t wait to go…
For the first time since Alexander Haig was Secretary of State, I had the opportunity to watch an episode of “Laverne & Shirley” from the very beginning. I still remembered that distinctive theme song as if it were yesterday, but…
In another indicator of the subtle but steady changing of the times, the death of Joyce Brothers earlier this week went by largely unnoticed. To anyone who watched a respectable amount of television in the Seventies, Joyce Brothers was instantly…
(In Part I of this essay, the origins of the rock star figure in Western culture were examined, beginning with Elvis and leaving off with the Beatles’ triumphal debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.) To be sure, America’s youth…
Rock stars. Is there even such a thing anymore? The answer seems to be no, at least not in the traditional sense. There are YouTube sensations and American Idol winners, but they’re more like karaoke performers with choreography. Beyond that,…