Don DeFore's Barbeque Restaurant

Back in the early days of Disneyland, actor Don DeFore operated a chicken restaurant with his brother Vern for five years. It was called The Silver Banjo Barbecue and was located in Frontierland right next to Aunt Jemima's Pancake House. After enjoying a rollickin' good time watching the Golden Horseshow Revue, Disneyland guests could mosey to the Silver Banjo to have the DeFore brothers serve up a heaping of their famous barbeque chicken dinners for $1.70 a plate. 

Don and his brother Vern DeFore pictured outside the restaurant in July 1959

During the 1950s, Disneyland offered five-year leases to a number of restaurants. Frito-Lay, who had previously occupied the space with Casa de Fritos, had requested a better location closer to the front of Frontierland, so Don DeFore - who had met Disney through their mutual participation on the Board of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences - was asked if he wanted to open up a restaurant within the park. 

The Silver Banjo Barbecue opened its doors in the summer of 1957 and remained until its contract expired in March 1962. Barbeque chicken dinners were the specialty of the house and they included baked beans, french fries, cole slaw, and rolls and butter. Other options offered were spare ribs and Fish and Chips for $1.50.  

Aunt Jemima's Pancake House wanted to expand so the lease for The Silver Banjo Barbeque was not renewed in 1962. Instead, Vern took over as a manager of several other ventures within Disneyland while Don DeFore returned to acting starring as George "Mr. B" Baxter in the television series Hazel. 

This post is a part of our latest series entitled "Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line!

Did You Know? Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was a Song

Did you know that Bette Davis cut a record in 1962? In a promotional move by Warner Brothers, Bette teamed up with singer Debbie Burton for the upbeat rock n' roll version of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" that was released shortly before the premiere of the titular film. This was not Ms. Davis' first recording but it certainly is her most memorable. 

The song made the charts, but Bette was not asked to do any follow up teenage songs. Indeed, the Frank DeVol tune is very likable and has a catchy rhythm that's hard to get out of your head. The lyrics, by screenwriter Lukas Heller, are also clever but it's Debbie Burton's husky voice and Bette's inimitable "sprechgesang" that really makes it memorable. Have a listen to the song on Youtube and notice how the edges of your mouth naturally curl up when Bette makes her entrance with "Here's what happened to Baby Jane....." Good stuff. 

If you want to follow up with another goodie, watch Bette perform this on The Andy Williams Show. 

Tommy Ivo - Child Actor and Drag Racer

Tommy Ivo's name often comes up when one mentions child actors of the 1940s and 1950s, but did you know that his name is more recognized in racing circles than at film clubs? Ivo became popular as a drag strip racer in the 1960s-1990s where he was known as "TV Tommy". 

Tommy Ivo began making films when he was 7-years old and starred with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood (William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Donna Reed, etc) but, like many child stars, once he sprouted, he was no longer in demand. So, in the 1950s, Ivo turned his attention to his love of racing and floored anything with four-wheels. He raced the Twin Buick in the late 1950s which broke the speed records for a gas-powered dragster, it also won NASCAR's first National Drag Race. 

In the 1960s, he raced nitro-powered dragsters which he designed (notably "The Barnstormer" and "The Streamliner") and even toured England to promote drag racing. By the 1970s, he was one of the most popular guest performers at any drag racing event and in 2005 was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. 

AMT's Tommy Ivo Streamliner plastic model car kit

Today, at the age of 88, Tommy still makes rare appearances at racing events. To read more about Tommy Ivo and his career, check out his website. 

This entry is a part of our latest series entitled "Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line!

Josie and the Pussycats - The Real Life Band

In September 1970, Hanna-Barbera launched a new cartoon series called Josie and the Pussycats featuring a group of girl singers who traveled around the world performing gigs and encountering adventures in the process. The show was Hanna-Barbera's own take on Filmation's 1968 musical cartoon sitcom The Archie Show which featured young Archie and his band performing teen-oriented pop tunes each episode. The series was immensely popular ( The Archies' song "Sugar, Sugar" reached #1 in 1969 ) and inspired Hanna-Barbera to launch a number of similarly themed cartoons with musical inserts. 

Unlike The Archie Show, which featured a fictional pop band, Hanna-Barbera hit on the brilliant idea of creating a real-life Josie and the Pussycats band to coincide with their new television series. Three young women would be selected from a nationwide talent search and it would be their voices that the children would hear performing on the show. 

Songwriter and producer Danny Janssen ( who wrote The Partridge Family theme ) and Bobby Engemann ( lead singer of The Lettermen ) of La La Productions were given the task of selecting the girls, writing their songs, and cutting the albums. To help in this task, they recruited Sue Steward as a songwriter and Austin Roberts who is best known for singing the 1975 song "Rocky" but also performed the leads for all of the Scooby-Doo -Where Are You songs. 

Nearly 500 finalists were under consideration before they settled on three girls who not only looked their parts but had fab singing voices, too. These were Kathleen Dougherty, a musical theater major from the University of Southern California; Patrice Holloway, an engaging R&B singer who penned, along with her sister Brenda and Berdy Gordy, the popular tune "You've Made Me So Very Happy" ( performed by Blood, Sweat, and Tears ); and lastly, Cherie Moor, a pretty South Dakota native who had a strong stage presence and a good singing voice. Cherie - born Cheryl Stoppelmoor - later became famous as Kris Monroe on the television series Charlies Angels ( 1977-1981 ) using her married name Cheryl Ladd. 

Kathleen Dougherty is credited as singing the lead character Josie, with Patrice as Valerie and Cheryl as Melody but Kathleen actually preferred singing background harmonies, so Patrice and Cheryl took turns doing the leads for the songs. 

Josie and the Pussycats recorded 19 songs, some of which were released as singles and others that appeared on their 1970 album "Josie and the Pussycats". The band never went on tour and none of their singles became hits but nevertheless, they had a groovy sound, and some of their numbers were really quite good. 

To read more behind-the-scenes stories about Josie and the Pussycats, check out this great article. 

"Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line! 

Dell Comics - The Universal Monsters Series

During the Halloween season, several television stations ( and streaming channels ) have been broadcasting the classic Universal monster movies. These include The Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon. These films are considered classics because they were responsible for launching the entire "horror" movie genre.....or at least, they made the genre popular at the box office. And unlike most films of the 1930s and 1940s, they were brought back to the theatres every decade to be re-introduced to new generations of fans. 

During the 1950s and 1960s, most movie-going youngsters devored comic books, so in 1962 comic publisher Dell, hit on the brilliant idea of releasing a series of comics based on the Universal monster movie classics. They were issued under their "Movie Classics" series and featured some really top-notch cover art. 

The comics are collectible today and luckily, not overly rare. They can be easily found on auction sites and at various vintage comic shops. We don't have any full issues to share with you, but we do have some great pics of the covers that you can enjoy!

The Mummy ( Movie Classics #211 ) - Issued Nov. 1962

Dracula ( Movie Classics #212 ) - Dec 1962

The Creature ( Movie Classics #302 ) - Feb 1963 

Frankenstein ( Movie Classics #305 ) - May 1963

The Wolf Man ( Movie Classics #308 ) - Aug 1963

Happy Halloween to our readers! 

Mae West Singing "Light My Fire"

"There are no good girls gone wrong...just bad girls found out"

This sounds like the lyrics of a rock song, but instead, these are words from the tongue of Mae West, one of the most famous actresses of the 1930s. This sassy bombshell certainly knew how to play the bad girl, both onscreen and off. With her hefty bosom and her opulent hips, she knew how to sashay around a room and magnetically attract men to herself. Mae West was a refreshing sensation in the 1930s and 1940s, and as she got older, she didn't let her age stop her from enjoying life to its fullest. 

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough" she famously said. She opened up her own one-woman show in Las Vegas where she surrounded herself on stage with wall-to-wall muscle men, invested in real estate, wrote several books, and also recorded two rock-n-roll albums. Her first album, cleverly titled "Way Out West" ( 1966 ), became a surprise chart topper and a few crazy teens actually danced to Mae singing such pop hits as "Twist and Shout", "Shakin' All Over" and "Day Tripper". But even more extraordinary was Mae's follow-up album ( released six years later ) called "Great Balls of Fire". This rad album featured Mae singing such rock songs as "Rock Around the Clock", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "The Naked Ape" and her very own version of The Doors' classic "Light My Fire". Rock on, Mae! 

Check it out here! 

Mae West's Great Balls of Fire Album

Watching Free Classic TV on Roku

Last month my sister and I bought ourselves a Roku and we have just begun to explore the classic movie and TV treasures to be found with this device. We first discovered the apps and then started unearthing all the channels within the Live TV stations....there are hundreds of them! 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a Roku is, it is a small device that you place near your television set and it allows you to stream films, tv shows, and live TV channels through your internet connection. Many new smart television sets come with Roku already installed, but since we own an older "dumb" television we bought a Roku Express player ( $24.99 ). You simply plug it into a power outlet and then attach the HDMI cable to your TV and presto! you'll have a neverending supply of stuff to watch. 

As with most streaming services, the films and tv series that are offered are not permanent. For example, Green Acres may be available for the spring/summer season and then it gets replaced with The Waltons. Right now, many of the apps are offering mystery/horror-themed films for the Halloween season. We won't even touch on the films, right now we want to share a list of what apps feature what television series to make it a little bit easier for you to navigate if you happen to have a Roku - or are thinking of buying one. 

Note: We missed a number of series, so we'll update this post as we come across "new" titles. 

Classic TV Series You Can Watch with No Subscription Services

PEACOCK TV 

Peacock is the new kid on the block direct from NBC but has a really nice selection already. It features some shows that other streaming apps don't offer so it is well worth adding to your homepage. 

1950s Series

• Father Knows Best
• Dennis the Menace

1960s Series

• The Munsters
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Alfred Hitchcock Hour
• Leave it to Beaver

1970s Series

• The Carol Burnett Show
• The Rockford Files
• Little House on the Prairie
• Columbo
• Good Times

1980s Series

• Unsolved Mysteries
• Cheers
• Highway to Heaven
• Murder, She Wrote
• The Ray Bradbury Theater
• Saved by the Bell
• Punky Brewster
• Cheers

1990s Series

• Sliders
• Downtown Abbey
• Frasier
• Everybody Loves Raymond
• The Jeff Foxworthy Show

THE ROKU CHANNEL

The Roku Channel has a very large selection of programs as well as some great movies to watch. And if you don't feel like watching a program "on demand" you can tune into its Live TV app and browse nearly 200 channels such as the Western channel, the Sci-Fi channel, the Classic TV channel and even The Carol Burnett Show Channel. If you want to watch it right now ( even without buying a Roku ) just head on over to their website: https://therokuchannel.roku.com/

1950s Series

• Father Knows Best
• The Rebel
• Car 54, Where are You
• The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
• Fury
• The Lone Ranger
• The Cisco Kid
• Annie Oakley
• Tombstone Territory
• Tales of Wells Fargo
• Dick Tracy
• Decoy
• Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

1960s Series

• Dennis the Menace
• Bewitched
• The Real McCoys
• The Munsters
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Alfred Hitchcock Hour
• Leave it to Beaver
• Peter Gunn
• Danger Man
• The Patty Duke Show
• Green Acres
• Flipper
• The Donna Reed Show
• Peter Gunn
• The Outer Limits
• The Saint
• Route 66
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• The Flying Nun
• That Girl
• The Naked City
• My Favorite Martian
• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• The Rifleman
• Petticoat Junction
• Hazel
• I Dream of Jeannie
• Thunderbirds
• Supercar
• The Addams Family

1970s Series

• The Carol Burnett Show
• The Rockford Files
• Little House on the Prairie
• Thriller
• Starsky and Hutch
• S.W.A.T
• Magnum P.I
• Charlie's Angels
• Benson
• The A-Team
• Movin' On
• UFO

1980s Series

• Unsolved Mysteries
• Xena
• Highway to Heaven
• Hart to Hart
• Murder, She Wrote
• The Ray Bradbury Theater
• Saved by the Bell
• The Johnny Carson Show
• Hunter
• Cagney and Lacey
• Silver Spoons
• Quantum Leap
• Alf
• Airwolf
• The Greatest American Hero
• T.J. Hooker
• The Facts of Life
• Coach

1990s Series

• Touch by an Angel
• Hawkeye
• Sliders
• Downtown Abbey
• Frasier
• Beyond Belief
• Mr. Bean
• Cybill

TUBI

Tubi is one of the mega-players and offers over 20,000 episodes of classic shows to watch, all for free ( there are commercials of course but not nearly as many as you'll find watching MeTV or Antenna TV ). 

1950s Series

• Four Star Playhouse
• Foreign Intrigue
• Adventures of Jim Bowie
• Our Miss Brooks
• Mister Peepers
• Tales from Wells Fargo
• The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
• Lights Out
• The Life of Riley
• Date with the Angels
• The Adventures of Sir Lancelot
• Hawkeye
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Frontier Doctor

1960s Series

• Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
• Thriller
• I Dream of Jeannie
• The Donna Reed Show
• The Flintstones
• The Andy Griffith Show
• Family Affair
• My Living Doll
• The French Chef
• The Adventures of Batman ( animated series )
• Petticoat Junction
• The Mothers-in-Law
• The Prisoner
• Bewitched
• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• Underdog
• My Favorite Martian
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• Gidget
• Route 66
• The Saint
• Pippi Longstocking
• The Flying Nun
• The Doris Day Show
• Secret Agent Man
• Stingray
• The Dick Cavett Show
• Professor Balthazar
• Captain Scarlett and the Mysterions
• Fireball XL5
• The Lucy Show
• At Last the 1948 Show
• Davey and Goliath
• The Merv Griffin Show
• Ultraman
• The Glen Campbell Hour
• The Westerner
• The Joey Bishop Show
• The New Three Stooges
• Cool McCool
• Joe 90
• Tate
• The Secret Service
• Krazy Kat
• Batman
• Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in
• Space Angel

1970s Series

• The Partridge Family
• Sapphire and Steel
• Charlies Angels
• Fantasy Island
• Dark Shadows
• Archie
• Hammer House of Horror
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
• The Addams Family ( animated series )
• Space: 1999
• Soap
• Tales of the Unexpected
• Emmerdale
• The Sandbaggers
• The New Adventures of Flash Gordon
• Police Woman
• CPO Sharkey
• Ultraman Ace
• The Johnny Carson Show
• Thriller
• Battlestar Gallactica
• Buck Rogers in the 21st Century
• Logan's Run
• The Jeffersons
• The Rockford Files
• That's My Mama
• Grady
• Maude

1980s Series

• The New Scooby Doo Mysteries
• Designing Women
• Jem
• Ace Crawford, Private Eye
• Tim Conway Comedy Hour
• Mr. T
• Family
• Hart to Hart
• Columbo
• Alf
• The Transformers
• V
• 221
• What's Happening Now
• My Two Dads

1990s Series

• Hercules
• Xena
• Mr. Bean ( animated series )
• Zorro
• The Nanny

Listen and Guess Game - Actors Who Sing!

There are a lot of actors who are equally well known as singers ( e.g. Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich ), but there are also a surprising number of actors who it would astonish you to find out recorded an album... or at least a single ( e.g. Rock Hudson, Cheryl Ladd ). Over the years, my sister and I have come to discover ten or fifteen actors that are not known as singers but have a really nice singing voice regardless. While doing some research for a blog post on this topic, the number we discovered grew to over fifty actors! 

In a couple of weeks, we will share this post with you but, in the meantime, we thought it would be fun to make a game of identifying the actor who is singing. Below you will find ten sound clips featuring famous actors singing. Test your knowledge of voice recognition and see if you can name the star who is singing!

The first five sound clips feature the voices of actors/actresses who are best known for making films. They may have appeared on television, too, but they are primarily film stars. The last five sound clips feature the voices of actors/actresses who are best known for their television work. 

If you can guess 5 out of 10, pat yourself on the back, because these are tricky!

P.S: Hover your mouse slightly to the right of the play button in order to click on it ( the same goes with pausing ). Play button not working? Then click on the pop-out tab to download. Need a hint? Scroll down a bit and on the right column of this blog you will see two picture gadgets with the faces of all ten actors on it. 

Actors/Actresses from Movies

Mystery Singer Number 1

Mystery Singer Number 2

Mystery Singer Number 3

Mystery Singer Number 4

Mystery Singer Number 5

Actors/Actresses from Television

Mystery Singer Number 6

Mystery Singer Number 7

Mystery Singer Number 8

Mystery Singer Number 9

Mystery Singer Number 10

The Phantom Stage - Universal's Haunted Stage 28

The old story of a phantom haunting a Hollywood sound stage was brought to television in a number of episodes of various series throughout the 1970s-1980s ( most notably in the two-part "The Hollywood Phantom" episode from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries ) but did you know that this plot idea was actually based on a real legend? 

Stage 28 was one of the oldest sound stages built on the Universal Pictures lot in Hollywood. The studio was planning to film the horror classic The Phantom of the Opera ( featuring Lon Chaney ) and needed a stage large enough to house their own creation of the interior of the Paris Opera House. Construction on the 21,000 square foot stage began in July of 1924 and was completed in a few months. Because the set would need to be able to support hundreds of extras, the stage was built with steel girders in concrete...one of the first steel stages of its kind. The beautiful Opera House set was built inside and filming of The Phantom of the Opera began shortly thereafter. A strange occurrence also happened at that time: an electrician fell to his death, presumably while maneuvering around the catwalks at the top of the stage. 

Years later, rumors began to circulate that the ghost of a "phantom" running along the catwalks was seen. Others reported the lights flickering on and off suddenly and doors opening and shutting. 

The set to the Opera House remained at Stage 28 long after the film was completed. The studio thought that it may come in use in a future production...and indeed it did. Its most famous reappearances were in Todd Browning's Dracula ( as The Royal Albert Hall ), the 1943 color remake of The Phantom of the Opera starring Claude Rains, and the theatre sequences in Charade ( 1963 ). 

Even with the Opera House set still in place, there was plenty of space in Stage 28 to construct other sets and this stage was one of the most used at Universal Studios. The special effects department from The Bride of Frankenstein ( 1935 ) used this stage to film the destruction of Frankenstein's laboratory, Abbott and Costello's Here Come the Co-Eds ( 1945 ) was filmed within its doors, and the interiors of the Bates Motel in Psycho ( 1960 ) was also filmed inside Stage 28. 

In 2014, Universal Studios demolished the stage to make room for expanding their theme park but not before carefully dismantling The Phantom's famous Opera House set and putting it in storage. Perhaps one day, it will reappear in another film or be put on display for film fans to see. 

Did You Know? - Lynda Carter Has Other Wonders

American actress Lynda Carter is best known for playing the beautiful Diana Prince, an Amazonian princess, on the television series Wonder Woman ( 1975-1979 ). For four years she entertained television audiences with her superhuman powers, deflecting bullets with her golden bracelet and capturing criminals with her magic lasso. Lynda Carter truly became her character and Wonder Woman remains part of her identity to this day. 

However, Ms. Carter is also famous for another talent: singing. Lynda always enjoyed singing and during the 1970s she recorded an album titled Portrait. Two of the songs that she helped co-write were performed on an episode of Wonder Woman in 1979. Later, when the series ended, Carter had a variety of her own musical television specials - Lynda Carter's Special ( 1980 ), Encore! ( 1980 ), Celebration ( 1981 ), Street Life ( 1982 ), and Body and Soul ( 1984 ) - where she performed with other popular singers of the time, such as Tony Orlando, KISS, Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers and Ben Vereen. 

When she is not doing Wonder Woman appearances, Lynda still tours across the country today performing songs from her latest albums -  Crazy Little Things and Red Rock N' Blues.

Want to hear her in action? 

Lynda performs "Toto - Don't It Feel Like Paradise" ( a song she co-wrote ) from her 1978 album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0qHRT8tGFQ&list=PL0D35A7B8DD5BB3FC&index=10

Lynda and Tom Jones perform "With You I'm Born Again": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOPweKGdOIs

"Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line! 

Eddie Albert and Earth Day

Oliver Wendell Douglas, the hapless gentleman farmer of the television sitcom Green Acres ( 1965-1971 ), loved the Earth dearly and never grew tired of talking about the miracle of how little tiny seeds planted in the ground would begin to grow stretching their arms toward the sun, eventually shooting - or "shoosting into the sky" as his wife Lisa Douglas would say - into tall corn plants. This character was very much like the actor who portrayed him - Eddie Albert - a man who was deeply committed to the environment. 

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Earth Day, a day that Eddie Albert helped to inaugurate. And it is no coincidence that April 22nd also happens to be this actor's birthday. 

Eddie Albert had a long career acting in film ( Brother Rat, Roman Holiday ), theatre ( The Music Man ), and television that spanned nearly sixty years. In 1965, Albert accepted the role of Oliver Wendell Douglas for the new CBS sitcom Green Acres. He had previously turned down the leads in My Three Sons and Mister Ed, but when his agent told him of this new idea about a "city slicker who comes to the country to escape the frustrations of city living", Albert jumped at the role - "Swell, that's me. Everyone gets tired of the rat race. Everyone would like to chuck it all and grow some carrots. It's basic. Sign me."

It is difficult to define how much of Mr. Douglas was the written character and how much was Eddie Albert himself. Albert had studied organic farming methods long before it was fashionable, and the front yard of his Pacific Palisades home stood out from its neighbors with its cornstalks, tomato vines, and other vegetables flourishing in place of a manicured lawn. He also helped to bring gardens to inner cities throughout the United States when he founded the City Children's Farms. 

Outside of acting, Albert had a broad range of interests and accomplishments. An adventurer in his youth, he once bought a boat and sailed around California and Mexico, where he later joined a circus as a trapeze artist. After service in the Pacific during World War II ( he was awarded the Bronze Star for saving 70 Marines in the bloody battle of Tarawa ), he joined Dr. Albert Schweitzer in the Congo to help make educational films that brought awareness to the public about the conditions of malnutrition that existed in third-world countries. 

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, he actively fought agricultural and industrial pollution and shared his opinions on various talk shows about the disgraceful treatment of our planet's natural resources. TV Guide once described him as an "ecological Paul Revere," to which the actor responded, "Ecologist, hell! Too mild a word. Check the Department of Agriculture; 60% of the world is hungry already. With our soil impoverished, our air poisoned, our wildlife crippled by DDT, our rivers and lakes turning into giant cesspools, and mass starvation an apparent inevitability by 1976, I call myself a human survivalist!"

It became his lifelong crusade to raise awareness about pollution and pesticides and, through his endeavors, he helped to ban the use of the pesticide DDT. He lectured everywhere, from high schools to industrial conventions, and even produced films to aid in campaigns against pollution. He founded the Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation, chaired the Boy Scouts of America's conversation program, and was a world envoy for Meals for Millions. 

Of all his interests outside acting, Albert is best known for being a humanitarian and environmentalist and it is this work that led to Senator Gaylord Nelson's founding of Earth Day in 1970. As early as 1962, the senator had hoped to create a grassroots movement that would highlight the needs of the planet. In honor of Eddie Albert's work, he chose April 22nd, Albert's birthday, to be the day we celebrate the Earth. Eddie attended the inauguration ceremony for that first Earth Day and, for the remainder of his life, he always delighted in celebrating the Earth in place of his birthday. 

The Art of Kim Novak

Last Sunday, the CBS Sunday Morning show aired a segment about Kim Novak and her rarely publicized hobby: painting. The beautiful actress - who is best known for her roles in Picnic ( 1955 ) and Vertigo ( 1958 ) - uses art to relax and to express herself. As she writes on her website, “I never dreamed of becoming an actress or a movie star. As a young girl I won two scholarships to the prestigious Chicago Art Institute where I hoped one day to become a great artist."

Ms. Novak left Hollywood in the late 1960s to focus on art and continues painting to this day, at the age of 86. Her work was recently part of a 2019 exhibition at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. The exhibit describes her work as "impressionistic and surrealistic, [having] a dynamic effect where surrealism meets traditional realism".

It was an interesting Sunday Morning clip ( you can view it here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-art-of-kim-novak/  ) and after watching it, I wanted to see more of her work. Fortunately, she shares many of her paintings on her website - https://www.kimnovakartist.com/ - along with verses that she wrote to go along with them. 

Her paintings have a Southern Californian air to them and flow in all directions, much like the tide hitting the sand upon a beach. They are bright and colorful and feature a lovely mixture of pastels and watercolor. Ms. Novak is a wonderful example of someone staying true to their first passion and following their dream.

All images were obtained from Kim Novak's website where prints can also be purchased.

The Magic of Music

Finding the Way Back Home

Transformation - Nelson Mandela

Vertigo - Vortex of Delusion

River Dancers

The Tides of Humanity

Self-Portrait

Adrienne Corri and The Search for Gainsborough

It is always interesting to discover the hobbies that actors have outside of their film and theatrical work. Adrienne Corri, who is perhaps best known for portraying the sensuous red-haired Valerie in Jean Renoir's The River ( 1953 ), had a most interesting passion: Thomas Gainsborough.

The Scottish-born actress had a life-long love of art and in the early 1980s she made a remarkable find: in a dilapidated Birmingham theatre, she spotted an early portrait of the actor/playwright David Garrick hanging upon the wall. She was convinced that it was the work of the English portrait and landscape painter Thomas Gainsborough, whose paintings she was very familiar with.  However, art experts whom she showed the painting to, disagreed with her. So, with admirable persistence, she set out to prove them wrong. Her investigations led to getting access to Bank of England ledgers where she found a record of the payment that Gainsborough had received for painting Garrick's portrait. This discovery revealed that Gainsborough had been commissioned to paint yet another portrait which Corri uncovered in 1982. A stroke of good fortune indeed! 

Adrienne Corri in the delightful "Make Me an Offer" ( 1954 )

In 1984, she published an account of this treasure hunt in an entertaining diary-formatted book entitled "The Search for Gainsborough" published by Jonathan Cape Ltd. 

This entry is a part of our latest series entitled "Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line!

Yvonne Mitchell, Author & Playright

At some point in their career, most actresses feel the need to write an autobiography, but while there are many actresses who penned one of these personal books of praise, there are very few who put a quill in hand to write something more than an autobiography - to write a book. Lilli Palmer, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Julie Andrews are several actresses that come to mind who have made a name for themselves as authors.....another is Yvonne Mitchell. 

Did you know that this striking English actress was quite an accomplished writer? One of her early works, a play entitled The Same Sky, won an Arts Council playwriting competition in 1951 and was performed at the Nottingham Playhouse that same year. Her writing may have possibly came about from her desire to address her feelings about being Jewish, which was a bit uncommon in the English stage scene. This play is set in London during the Blitz and deals with a romance between a Jewish woman and a non-Jewish man and the reaction of their families to this arrangement. 

Mitchell in "Woman in a Dressing Gown" ( 1957 )

Mitchell's husband, Derek Monsey, was a theater critic, journalist, and novelist himself, so they shared a passion for writing as well as for the theater. In 1957, at the height of her career, she wrote her autobiography entitled "Actress". That same year, she penned "Colette", one of the best biographies of the famous French author. Even while she was busy throughout the late-1950s and 1960s making films such as Passionate Summer, Tiger Bay, Sapphire, Conspiracy of Hearts, and The Trials of Oscar Wilde, she didn't put her writing on the backburner. It was during this time that she wrote "The Bed-Sitter" ( 1959 ), "A Year in Time "( 1964 ), "Cathy Away" ( 1964 ), and "The Family" ( 1967 ).

In the 1970s, Mitchell eased away from films and focused more on theater work, nonetheless, she also wrote novels such as: "Martha on Sunday" ( 1970 ), "But Wednesday Cried" ( 1974 ), "God is Inexperienced" ( 1974 ), "Fables" ( 1977 ), and "But Answer Came There None" ( 1977 ). 

There are so many reasons why fans and critics adore Yvonne Mitchell and it is wonderful that she was able to take her writing, which was a creative outlet for her, and build a reputation for herself as an author as well.

This entry is a part of our latest series entitled "Did You Know?".....sometimes we just feel like sharing interesting fragments of television and movie history and now we have a place to do just that. If you have a hot tip that you would like us to share on Silver Scenes, drop us a line!