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Aug 14, 2012
2,872
123
Just watching the Fred Astaire film of that name. he is smoking a #4 Dunhill Crosby. Wondering what that shape was called at the time. I started smoking a pipe 20 years after this film was released. Back then pipe smoking was common, not unusual as it is today.

 

jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,517
50,591
Here
My wife and I visited a museum exhibit portraying the Vaudeville period last weekend. I did not know that Fred Astaire had gotten started there. Many early century personalities did. It was an interesting exhibit.
jay-roger.jpg


 

puffy

Lifer
Dec 24, 2010
2,511
98
North Carolina
I've been smoking a pipe for a long time..I still can't dance..You're right about pipe smoking being much more common back then.

 

floridapipeman

Might Stick Around
Jun 3, 2018
57
0
Most movies from the 30's through the 50's and some in the 60's were greats! And they did them without fowl language, nudity, agendas and rap.

 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,846
553,761
I happily spent some time watching Fred and Ginger today. One of the things I enjoy in their (and other old) movies is seeing the great character actors like Eric Blore and Edward Everett Horton. Those kind of actors are essentially extinct today, which is sad considering how much those kind of actors added to classic films.

 

bnichols23

Lifer
Mar 13, 2018
4,131
9,554
SC Piedmont
>>"Astaire had gotten started there" -- Yeah, he was a stage hoofer from way back. And thanks, jay, for your lack of self-control. I was going to say something about the fowl & boid, but tried to be good. Glad you covered my butt. }:)
@wyf, you're right -- Powell & Loy are two of my absolute favorites. "Are you packing?" "Yes, dear, I'm just putting away this liquor...." Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles, Cary Grant.... HUUUUUGE talent back in that era.

 

pepesdad1

Lifer
Feb 28, 2013
1,023
675
"HUUUUUGE talent back in that era." So true. The actors back then had to be talented in many fields. Today...zero talent just a foul mouth will do. Pretty sad.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,565
27,068
Carmel Valley, CA
Tons of talent today. Some of it displayed on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, etc., etc.

Hollywood no longer controls most of the talent, nor the release of film, budgets, timing etc. as they did 30 years ago.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Many performers in the old days got their start as song and dance people. James Cagney, Sammy Davis Jr., and Bob Hope were just a few of those better known for singing and/or acting who could dance like crazy. In a more recent generation, the songwriter John Hartford often used a piece of composite board mic'd under his feet to provide percussion and a dance step or two to go with his singing and banjo playing.

 

weezell

Lifer
Oct 12, 2011
13,653
49,163
In a more recent generation, the songwriter John Hartford often used a piece of composite board mic'd under his feet to provide percussion and a dance step or two to go with his singing and banjo playing
YEP! Saw him live in Ann Arbor Mich. in a small club in the late 70s. Was a real treat...

 

seacaptain

Lifer
Apr 24, 2015
1,829
7
Most movies from the 30's through the 50's and some in the 60's were greats! And they did them without fowl language, nudity, agendas and rap.
Agreed, and it was by design. That was the Hays Code era.

 
May 3, 2010
6,423
1,461
Las Vegas, NV
This is where it becomes obvious I'm very young in this hobby and of the new guard.
I've never really been a fan of films from the 30s-60s. To me the acting seems to be that over the top stage type that comes off as very fake compared to movies made in the 80s up to the present. Personally I think acting has evolved into actors being the character these days instead of portraying one like they did back in the 30s-60s.

 

seacaptain

Lifer
Apr 24, 2015
1,829
7
I've never really been a fan of films from the 30s-60s. To me the acting seems to be that over the top stage type that comes off as very fake compared to movies made in the 80s up to the present. Personally I think acting has evolved into actors being the character these days instead of portraying one like they did back in the 30s-60s.
There's truth in that. People went to the movies to see actors back then, not characters. Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, etc. etc. They were the same regardless of what movie they were in.
There's still a lot of actors like that in modern movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the exact same person, no matter what movie he's in. Even highly acclaimed actors are still very much like that, Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, and Brad Pitt for instance.
I always thought it was odd that they say Tom Hanks is the modern Jimmy Stewart because Tom Hanks blends into his roles and you don't find yourself thinking "hey that's Tom Hanks" in every movie, but Jimmy Stewart is like most old school actors and you are always aware it's "Jimmy Stewart" no matter the role.
And none of that is a knock on the actors, I love old movies. They don't call it the Golden Age of Hollywood for nothing.

 

tbradsim1

Lifer
Jan 14, 2012
9,092
11,008
Southwest Louisiana
:There good in all of em, just separate the wheat from the chaff, the Old Establishment didn't pontificate , the young ones do. The Outlying Studios are producing great stuff making the Controlers angry.

 

bnichols23

Lifer
Mar 13, 2018
4,131
9,554
SC Piedmont
Tom Hanks is more the modern Robert Duvall or Henry Fonda. Those two could play any role, good guy, villain, or everyman & makeyou believe in the character. The mark of a good actor, a lot of people would say.
John Wayne,for instance, played John Wayne & nothing but, even when he played Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror." Doesn't say he was a bad actor, but compare Henry Fonda, in almost any of his movies, to the character he played in "Once Upon a Time in the West." Huge difference. :)

 
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