Nov 20, 2025
Rudolph Valentino, his wife Natasha Rambova, Lowell Sherman, Bebe Daniels, and Doris Kenyon dining in the commissary of the Astoria Studios during the filming of Monsieur Beaucaire, 1924.
Photo: Classic Cinema Archive/Alamy
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Rudolph Valentino, his wife Natasha Rambova, Lowell Sherman, Bebe Daniels, and Doris Kenyon dining in the commissary of the Astoria Studios during the filming of Monsieur Beaucaire, 1924.
Photo: Classic Cinema Archive/Alamy
Anyone else see Edward G. Robinson in the background? 🫣
Can We Eat With You? AAH! “The Warner's 65th Anniversary Special” (1994)
I don't have it handy but you've probably seen a meme that compares corporate theft with little to no prison time vs a guy who finger gun bank robbed $100 and was arrested when he decided to return it and got arrested and sent to prison for fifteen years?
His name is Roy Brown. He's from Shreveport, LA and sometimes he's really into Jesus and other times he's a thoughtful interesting guy with a lot of insight and a good sense of humor. He was my pen pal for several years, and it was kind of like having two separate pen pals: the philosopher, and the devotee.
Here's where i segue to Luigi Mangione.
Roy was the subject of a popular meme people liked to trot out when talking about capitalist greed, corporate corruption, disproportionate sentencing, etc. After seeing it a few times it started to bother me a little because i couldn't find any information about the man himself.
It took some digging, but i found the man i was pretty sure was him in a prison in Louisiana and i wrote him a letter.
He sent me his actual ID to show me he was him, which startled me. He had a lot of faith in me!
He did not know he was a meme.
He did not know there was a petition calling for his release. The petition, sadly, accomplished nothing.
His family was too poor to give him money for his commissary, so Natalie and i would send him money so he'd have a little something. And we wrote letters at a time when he felt very forgotten.
He finally started a work release program and there was talk of him finally being released but he also started having health issues and getting transferred around a lot. I had to send him new letters to new addresses several times. And i also moved several times. Eventually we lost touch.
I'm thinking about him as i see all the Luigi memes.
Right now, Luigi Mangione is being held without parole as a person of interest. He is innocent until proven guilty. He is going to be a meme forever even if he's not convicted.
I don't know if there's a commissary where Luigi's being held. Has anyone looked into that?
It's a small way to give money to people who are imprisoned so they can access a few things they can't otherwise. Sometimes including envelopes and stamps.
"WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT IT?" SAYS A SEEMINGLY HUNGOVER DONALD DUCK.
PIC(S) INFO: Cover resolution at 1187x1701 -- "Good Morning!" -- Spotlight on a Walt Disney Studio Commissary, a.k.a., "Walt Disney's Studio Restaurant," breakfast menu, c. 1940, with a still half asleep/coffee-drinking Donald Duck illustration on the cover.
Sources: http://blackwingdiaries.blogspot.com/2008/06/good-morning-disney-commissary.html & Heritage Auctions.
