"No Politics Zone"

I'm not here to receive your views on politics - most anything else is welcome.       I block political tumblrs - regardless of your cause.

[seamusdemora]

From Roman Holiday in 1953: A touching scene at approx. 1:33:23 into the film; near the end of the movie.

... and I guess this classic line sums it all up :)

[classicfilmheroines]

Happy 79th birthday to Leslie Caron!

“The most important thing is to remain active and to love what you are doing.”

[seamusdemora]

16 years later, and it's now "Happy 95th birthday to Leslie Caron!"

[seamusdemora]

Happy birthday to Aline MacMahon, born May 3, 1899. A talented and attractive actress with a career of over 50 years including stage & screen. She received an Oscar nomination for her role in Dragon Seed in 1944.

From top to bottom & left to right, the photos are:

a publicity portrait for "Once in a Lifetime" from 1932

with Walter Huston in "Dragon Seed", 1944

with Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler in "Gold Diggers of 1933"

in the bathtub! - from "Gold Diggers of 1933"

an animation from "Heat Lightning" in 1934

publicity photo by Elmer Fryer from 1933

[seamusdemora]

April 25, 1917: On this day, Ella Fitzgerald, the "Queen of Jazz" was born in Newport News, VA. Her singing career began at age 17 on November 21, 1934, in an early "Amateur Night" at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She is said to have given 2,457 concerts/performances over a career of nearly 60 years.

The top photo shows Ella performing at The Downbeat Club in NYC in 1947 while Dizzy Gillespie looks on; the lower photos show Ella with Louie Armstrong in the studio, and Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles.

Happy Birthday to the "Queen of Jazz" - perhaps the best singing voice ever recorded.

[seamusdemora]

From 24 Apr, 1976 (50 years ago today!)

Gilda Radner (as Emily Latella) and Raquel Welch (the guest host) in Season 1, Episode 18 of Saturday Night Live.

[seamusdemora]

On April 23, 1014 King Brian Boru of Ireland defeated a coalition of invading Viking and rival Irish forces at the Battle of Clontarf. This freed Ireland from foreign domination - at least for a while.

[seamusdemora]

Happy birthday to Bettie Page, and J. Robert Oppenheimer - each of them famous in their own unique way!

Bettie Page was voted "Girl Most Likely to Succeed" in her senior year (1940) at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville. Robert Oppenheimer gave a lecture on Geology to the New York Mineralogical Club at the age of 12!

[seamusdemora]

Happy Birthday to the amazing Italian actress Silvana Mangano; b: April 21, 1930; d: December 16, 1989. Top photo is from 1956, and taken by Eve Arnold for an exhibit at MoMA. The bottom photo was shot in 1946 by Elio Luxardo; this was the same year she entered, and won the Miss Rome beauty contest.

Also: Silvana is the grandmother of Giada De Laurentiis.

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RE: The "Mature Content Label" applied here by the tumblr staff: Sorry, tumblr - I just don't see it - unless you are now censoring bare arms? Please pull your head out of your arse! You are making fools of yourselves!

[rustedshutter]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAROLD LLOYD! [04/20/1893 - 03/08/1971]

Photo of Harold Lloyd for Movie Crazy | 1932

[seamusdemora]

#1873

[seamusdemora]

Happy April 19 birthday to Marisa Laurito (b. 1951), and all the other 1,634 entries on this IMDB list.

[seamusdemora]

Happy birthday to Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017).

I had a huge crush on her as a child!

[rustedshutter]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILLIAM HOLDEN! [04/17/1918 - 11/12/1981]

Photo of William Holden for Invisible Stripes | 1939

[seamusdemora]

#1869

[seamusdemora]

What’s this about, and why should I spend 4 minutes on this post?

This was filmed in Scotland in 2019 from the Black Isle at a place called Hillockhead - just north of Fortrose. From this point one is about 8 miles (across the Moray Firth) from Culloden, the site of a decisive battle fought on April 16, 1746 between the English army and the Jacobites - mostly Scottish Highlanders - 280 years ago today.

For lack of anything more interesting to do, I was filming the surf and daydreaming on this soggy day in the Scottish Highlands. While idly staring across the Moray Firth, I saw a rainbow form in a column of rainfall - across the Firth, in the distance above Culloden. The significance of this escaped me until later when I reviewed the video.

I edited the video sequence (“Ken Burns Effect”), added the Culloden Symphony by Julie Giroux as a soundtrack, and added a still photo of a small monument erected at the battle site.

[rustedshutter]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY! [04/15/1933 - 05/18/1995]

Photo of Elizabeth Montgomery | 1960s

[seamusdemora]

#1859

[rustedshutter]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, VALERIE HOBSON! [04/14/1917 - 11/13/1998]

Photo of Valerie Hobson | 1940s

[seamusdemora]

#1855

[seamusdemora]

An example of what I keep ranting about:

This post gets a "Mature Content" rating by tumblr's censorship regime;

While this post does not get a "Mature Content" rating by tumblr's censorship regime.

I don't know if this is stupidity, or if it's corruption, but something is certainly amiss. In any event, it's time for me to take a vacation from tumblr.

[seamusdemora]

From 1956, perhaps the two greatest of Jazz icons: Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong. The photo was taken on Aug 16, 1956 by Bert Stern at Capitol Studios, Hollywood during the recording session for the album "Ella and Louis" for Verve Records.