"reds"

In the 1930s, when so many women in America were still relegated to the kitchen and nursery, one actress in Hollywood became a star playing independent women who worked for a living, competing with men in a man’s world. Her name was Jean Arthur.

 He might not like to hear it, but it’s hard to think of anyone who was more of a Hollywood natural than Warren Beatty. He was born Henry Warren Beaty in 1937. He exemplified that old saying: women wanted him, and men wanted to be him. And what made him so appealing what that he wasn't the least bit self-conscious about who he was or what he had.

Once famous, Bob Dylan didn’t wait long to put his poetic, socially rebellious, cage-rattling persona on film. In the words of former girlfriend Joan Baez, he “burst on the scene already a legend” in 1961, and had only been recording for three years when he became the subject of documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker’s groundbreaking tour diary, “Don’t Look Back” (1965). 

Jack Nicholson is so much a part of our everyday life that he needs no last name. He’s just “Jack.” But how well do we know the man behind those black Wayfarers? Take our quiz to discover whether or not you really do know Jack. And remember friends, no glancing at IMDB along the way!  

Ever wonder why so many films are set in New York City? In addition to its size, and reputation for being the cultural and financial center of America (if not the world), there are the not-insignificant tax breaks our local government offers to attract penny-pinching studios, City Hall’s willingness to accommodate film crews (completely shutting down entire neighborhoods for location shoots), and a nice bonus in that 99% of stars and directors have home-away-from-penthouse spreads in the Big Apple. But there’s so much more to New York than the touristy scrum of Times Square, the hip Chelsea scene, the tony Upper East Side, or the high rise canyons of the Financial District. There are five boroughs that make up New York City, after all, and among them, Brooklyn. Part of Brooklyn’s glory is that it stubbornly defies stereotypes. Even with the current crop of twenty-something “trustafarians” overrunning the borough, the place is too big, too old, and too rich in history to erase the centuries of cultural roots hiding in plain sight.

If you’re a fellow jazz lover, you probably look on Duke Ellington, born 115 years ago today, with awe. With a career spanning over half a century, Duke’s impact on jazz was incalculable. He not only played the piano with the deceptive ease and fluency Astaire brought to dancing, he led the best band in the business. He was a genius, and impossibly cool to boot. How so? Beyond the music, Duke was elegance personified in a still highly segregated world. He was his generation’s Marvin Gaye, exuding a powerful sexual charisma that made him irresistible to women, regardless of race. His personal life was predictably chaotic as a result, but it seems as though everyone in Duke’s life understood: it was all about the music. By the 1950s, his popularity was flagging a bit stateside. Most big band acts were folding, making way for “hipper” musicians like Miles Davis and Chet Baker. That all changed with his performance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, when the Duke Ellington Orchestra caught fire and created something as close to perfection as you’re likely to hear. The lucky crowd was so enthralled that thousands of people “spontaneously started jitterbugging… hundreds of fans climbed on their seats [to cheer].” When their set ended, the crowd refused to disperse, screaming until Duke returned to the stage to placate the mob with more music. It’s a night that no one wanted to end.

“Noah,” starring Russell Crowe and a Pentateuchal God punishing the wicked with about 45 minutes of world-destroying CGI, opens today. While you could go blow money on this floating mess of animalia, we recommend you skip it, and watch a better Biblical movie – “The 10 Commandments” (1956), directed by the King of Spectacle Films, Cecil B. DeMille.  “Commandments” retells the Biblical tale of Moses, from his float down a river, to becoming a prince of Egypt, to his successful career as a prophet. It’s a film worthy of the record-breaking $13.5M budget it eventually received. It was to be DeMille’s magnum opus, and he treated it as such. When studio bean-counters complained about spiraling costs, DeMille asked if he should stop filming and make “The Five Commandments” instead.

The engine roars, the tires scream, the camshafts do whatever it is camshafts do -- and you swear you can feel the road vibrating through the supple leather… of your armchair? Yes, like that intense roller-coaster ride at the amusement park, you get that surge of adrenaline, that frisson of fear coursing through your system. Only this time you won't puke cotton candy all over the girl you brought on a date, and she won't scream and take a taxi home and never call you again. Wait, what are we talking about again? Oh, yes. Car chases!