Hollywood Then...and Then...And Now

 

You see the spin I put on this month's history lesson?   Watch carefully.

Here is my beloved Cinerama Dome, which was part of the great Arclight movie complex.  Here is how the Dome looked on its grand opening in November 1963 when the premiere attraction was "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."  Interesting factoid:   the gala was supposed to be attended by a certain President who was ultimately called to Dallas.

Flipping past, here is the Dome right after March 15, 2020 when COVID hit.

And even though we get some idle promises of reopening, all we get is a different color of board covering the front door.

Still wishing and hoping.

Dinner last night: Hospital pasta.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - June 29, 2026

 Our month of weddings and graduations closes out with this gem...featuring the worst wedding photographer ever.

Dinner last night:  Grilled sausage.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - Hello Again, Birdie

 

I was recently horrified.  I heard from a friend that, at this very moment, there is a remake of "Bye Bye Birdie" being written somewhere out here in the bowels of Hollywood.

Bowels, indeed.

Why don't you just kill me now?  At least start the process and then please know that you will have to finish when some fool ultimately decides to do remakes of my all-time favorite films, "The Apartment" and "Some Like It Hot."

There is nothing sacred anymore.  Not even formerly pristine memories from my childhood.

I think about "Bye Bye Birdie" and wonder just what a remake would look like. 

Instead of Elvis Presley going off to the Army, is the 2013 plot finding a Justin Bieber knockoff headed off to prison as he serves his sentence for a DUI convicton?

The famed "Telephone Hour" production number?  Gee, let's update that by having all the Sweet Apple, Ohio texting each other about Hugo Peabody and Kim McAfee being pinned.

Of course, some genius out there will try to connect to the original movie by including former stars Ann-Margret and Bobby Rydell in cameo roles.  Wow, they can be exasperated parents now.  Or maybe the mayor and his wife.

Ugh.

If the lunatics entrusted with this reboot were smart, they would throw the money back and walk away from the project right now.  As a creative work, "Bye Bye Birdie" is almost hopelessly and joyously bound to the 1960s.  First as a Broadway musical and then as the 1963 film, it was a product of its time.  And works only in that context. 

Now, the movie is a bit different from the Broadway production.  The filmmakers felt a need to make it even more rooted to the decade that spawned it.  There is a subplot tied to the Cold War and Russian hostilities.  Numerous gags reference Nikita Khrushchev and John F. Kennedy, the latter made even more painful because he died a short six months after "Bye Bye Birdie" was released. 

But, still.  The movie still works.  For me.  I just watched the recently remastered Blu-ray edition and fell in love all over again.  I still hear the dated jokes.  I can recite most of the lines.  I can show you a blooper where you can actually see the glass ramp that the drugged turtle zooms up.  I can point out to you amongst the teenagers Linda Kaye Henning of "Petticoat Junction" and Elaine Joyce.

I am truly a geek when it comes to "Bye Bye Birdie."  A movie that came in at #12 when I documented my Top 25 Favorite Films of All Time on this blog over five years ago.

Indeed, "Bye Bye Birdie" was my first non-edible obsession. When I initially saw it when it arrived at the Loews Theater in Mount Vernon, I couldn't get enough of it. Because I wound up seeing it six times over the next seven days. I'm not sure why I skipped a day, but it must have been, in the most Biblical of senses, our day to rest.

How did I wind up there in the darkened theater all week?  Very simple.  Neither of my parents had any interest.  My mother wasn't particularly fond of musicals.  And my dad?

"I can't stand that Dick Van Dyke.  He falls downs a lot."

A bit of a random reaction I agree.  But, even at this tender age, my parents acknowledged the safer world around us. 

"Okay, we'll drop you off at the theater and pick you up after the movie." 

Just to be clear, I wasn't completely unchaperoned.  My father would slip five dollars to the guy taking the tickets or maybe the deadly theater matron with her dreaded flashlights.  They were entrusted to watch over me.  And did so gladly.  Back in that day, five bucks went someplace.

Of course, my absolutely crazed reaction to the first viewing of "Bye Bye Birdie" made me want to go back and back and back.  My parents surprisingly didn't care.

"Well, it's your allowance."

I often wonder if each visit to Loews for "Bye Bye Birdie" cost them five dollars for the in-theater babysitting service.  Or, after the third or fourth time, they threw their hands in the air and said "what the hell."  He came back in one piece.  Maybe he doesn't need the supervision.

I certainly wasn't going to raise a ruckus as I sat gaping at my very favorite movie of all time.  I was completely mesmerized.

You see, "Bye Bye Birdie" also probably marked the official grand opening of Len's Hormones.

The ribbon cutter was none other than Ann-Margret. The record album cover at the top of today's posts gives her limited justice. I immediately used my very next allowance to go to Brodbeck's Record Store on Fourth Avenue in Mount Vernon, New York to purchase the stereophonic long playing soundtrack record.

And I will tastefully refuse to tell you what I used to do with that record jacket.

In an incomprehensible twist, the other thing that made me love this movie was the presence of Paul Lynde as the father. I was, of course, way, way too naive to understand all the sordid details of Mr. Lynde's private life. All I knew was that I thought the guy was a stitch and that I wished secretly my father was just like this guy. Years later, I doubt that I wanted my dad to be cruising Santa Monica Boulevard looking for teenage boys.

I played the "Bye Bye Birdie" soundtrack on my record player constantly. I knew all the words to every song and wanted desperately to be in the show if it ever was done in my school. In retrospect, I creep myself out at how nuts I was about this movie. And now I wonder what the hell drew me to it, beyond Ann-Margret's multiple scenes in Spandex.

Well, the music is quite underrated. There are shows/movie musicals that have been more successful, but I couldn't tell one song from another. Indeed, "Bye Bye Birdie" harkens back to a simpler time. Perhaps it's all this teenage angst that drew me in. It was a harbinger of things to come. Amid all the drama of the world, these kids seemed to be okay and even thriving. Maybe that was the future I was hoping for. That life would be so comfortable that I could sit on the telephone and talk to my friends all day like the kids of Sweet Apple, Ohio did.
And perhaps I would be grown up enough to dance around in a night club just like this trailer shows.  The famous "Birdie" dance. 
 Admittedly, it's probably a little weird that I would walk to grade school, singing the lyrics to "I"ve Got a Lot of Livin' to Do." I mean, think about it.

"There are chicks just right for some kissing and I mean to kiss me a few."

I can almost hear the call from my teacher and the school psychologist right now. The express train to puberty making no stops. So, if I spent a year obsessed with "Bye Bye Birdie," big freakin' deal! I think I turned out okay.

What did my parents think? Well, consider the song that could have been their anthem as well.  

"Kids, I don't know what's wrong with these kids today."

As I wrote above, I now have the newly restored Blu-ray.  And they recently released a remastered CD with some of the musical numbers, originally omitted, now included.  The album cover is intact.  And, years later, I still stare at the damn thing.

Luckily, I did get to see "Bye Bye Birdie" on a big screen a few years back when the Alex Film Society ran it. It was a true time machine. I felt like I was back in the Loews Mount Vernon, eyes riveted on the screen with a mouthful of Pom Poms. Now, I want to experience that all over again.  It's the 50th anniversary of its original release.  I wait for some film society like the Egyptian or the Aero here in Los Angeles to put together a night devoted to the film.  Dick Van Dyke is still with us.  So are Ann-Margret and Bobby Rydell.  They would be available for a Q & A after the movie.  In my fantasy world, I am the moderator.

But, rest assured, I probably won't be sharing what I was doing with that record album cover. But, before you let your dirty minds go too far off course, keep in mind that I wasn't even ten yet.

Dinner last night:  Chicken taco at Cafe Ipanema.

Classic Movie Trailer of the Month - June 2026

Yikes.  This movie is forty years old this month. 

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Juke Box of the Month - June 2026

Talk about childhood memories.   My parents' stereo always had one of the Tijuana Brass albums spinning on it.  As for me, my teenage self couldn't get enough of this album cover.  Herb and Company are at the Hollywood Bowl next week.  I can't wait.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Len's Recipe of the Month - June 2026

 

A few months ago, I tried my culinary hand at Bolognese sauce for the first time.  Well, before the weather gets too hot, I wanted to try it again but in a condensed version.  This is a little less work and it might be appealing to you.   

First off, heat some EVO in a Dutch oven.   Brown about a pound of ground Italian sausage.  Then add a diced onion and some sliced garlic cloves.   

Now add a tablespoon of tomato paste. Pour in two 28 0z cans of San Marzano crushed tomatoes.   Add another cup of water, using one of the cans to empty out remaining tomato juice.  Add some salt, pepper, and oregano.   And here's another spin.   

1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.

Stir this all together and let it simmer on low for a few hours.   About an hour before dinner, raise the temperature and add some more water.  Why?  Because you're going to cook a pound of rigatoni in the sauce.  Weird, heh?  But there are chefs who do this all the time with the pasta because the starch enhances the sauce.

At the end, add a tablespoon of unsalted butter which will make the sauce nice and silky.

Sprinkle some Parmesan Reggiano.

And you're welcome.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

This Date in History - June 24

 

Today is another example of the Knots Landing guarantee.   Anybody from that show with a birthday gets their picture here.

109:  ROMAN EMPEROR TRAJAN INAUGURATES THE AQUA TRAIANA, AN AQUEDUCT THAT CHANNELS WATER FROM LAKE BRACCIANO.

It's an Aqueduct, not a Belmont.

474:  JULIUS NEPOS FORCES ROMAN USURPER GLYCERIUS TO ABDICATE THE THRONE AND PROCLAIMS HIMSELF EMPEROR OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE.  

Glycerious?  Isn't that something for a rash?

1230:  THE SIEGE OF JAEN STARTED IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SPANISH RECONQUISTA.

I suppose there was an earlier Spanish Conquista.

1314:  FIRST WAR OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE - THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN CONCLUDES WITH A DECISIVE VICTORY BY SCOTTISH FORCES LED BY ROBERT THE BRUCE.  

At least, he didn't call himself Robert the Springsteen.

1374:  A SUDDEN OUTBREAK OF ST. JOHN'S DANCE CAUSES PEOPLE IN THE STREETS OF AACHEN, GERMANY TO EXPERIENCE HALLUCINATIONS AND BEGIN TO JUMP AND TWITCH UNCONTROLLABLY UNTIL THEY COLLAPSE FROM EXHAUSTION.  

They shoot Germans, don't they?

1509:  HENRY VIII AND CATHERINE OF ARAGON ARE CROWNED KING AND QUEEN OF ENGLAND.

The Mickey Rooney of monarchs.  I mean in number of marriages, not height.

1535:  THE ANABAPTIST STATE OF MUNSTER IS CONQUERED AND DISBANDED.  

Herman or Lily?

1717:  THE PREMIER GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND, THE FIRST MASONIC GRAND LODGE IN THE WORLD, IS FOUNDED IN LONDON.

Wives now know where their husbands are two nights a week.

1779:  DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR BEGINS.

Get a piece of the rock.

1793:  THE FIRST REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION IN FRANCE IS ADOPTED.

Not those Republicans, right?

1880:  FIRST PERFORMANCE OF O CANADA, WHICH WOULD BECOME THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF CANADA.

Now they have something to play before hockey games.

1902:  KING EDWARD VII OF THE UNITED KINGDOM DEVELOPS APPENDICITIS, DELAYING HIS CORONATION.

Back in the day when appendicitis was sometimes a fatal disease.

1904:  SINGER/ACTOR PHIL HARRIS IS BORN.

That's what I like about the South.  Ah, you thought there was going to be a "bare necessity" joke.

1916:  MARY PICKFORD BECOMES THE FIRST FEMALE FILM STAR TO SIGN A MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT.

That's $500,000 per pigtail.

1919:  ACTOR AL MOLINARO IS BORN.

Most remember him from Happy Days, but I still prefer him as Murray the cop on the The Odd Couple.

1938:  PIECES OF A METEOR, ESTIMATED TO HAVE WEIGHED 450 METRIC TONS WHEN IT HIT THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE, LAND NEAR PENNSYLVANIA.   

What's that flying above...OUCH!

1942:  ACTRESS MICHELE LEE IS BORN.

Met her several times.  Nice lady.

1947:  KENNETH ARNOLD MAKES THE FIRST WIDELY REPORTED UFO SIGHTING NEAR MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON.

Maybe it was a piece of that meteor.

1948:  START OF THE BERLIN BLOCKADE - THE SOVIET UNION MAKES OVERLAND TRAVEL BETWEEN WEST GERMANY AND WEST BERLIN IMPOSSIBLE.

Mr. Stalin, put up that wall.

1949:  THE FIRST TELEVISION WESTERN, HOPALONG CASSIDY, IS AIRED ON NBC.

There will be a few others...ahem.

1957:  IN ROTH VS. US, THE SUPREME COURT RULES THAT OBSCENITY IS NOT PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT.

Hell, yeah.

1973:  THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE ARSON ATTACK TAKES PLACE AT A GAY BAR IN NEW ORLEANS.  THIRTY-TWO PEOPLE DIE.

They should have gone to the Downstairs Lounge.  Probably easier to get out.

1987:  ACTOR JACKIE GLEASON DIES.

And away he goes.

1997:  ACTOR BRIAN KEITH DIES.

Killed himself.  Buried in the Westwood cemetery near my house.

2000:  ACTOR DAVID TOMLINSON DIES.

No saving Mr. Banks this time.

2004:  IN NEW YORK, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IS DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL.  

Glad I moved.

2005:  VENTRILOQUIST PAUL WINCHELL DIES.

Oddly enough, Jerry Mahoney released a statement.

2013:  FORMER ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI IS FOUND GUILTY OF ABUSING HIS POWER AND HAVING SEX WITH AN UNDERAGE PROSTITUTE AND IS SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON.

And you thought all the political sleazeballs were in this country.

2014:  ACTOR ELI WALLACH DIES.

The Good, the Bad, and the Dead.

2025:  ACTOR BOBBY SHERMAN DIES.

There Go The Brides.

Dinner last night:  Leftover rigatoni.