Above: Marie Dressler (foreground) and chorus girls from the Ziegfeld Follies picketing on Broadway, 1919.

My original screenplay Equity has been awarded a Silver Remi for Best Dramatic Screenplay at the 2008 WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.

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For the second year in a row, one of my screenplays has won a Remi Award from the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.

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From the Tony Award telecast of June 3, 1990, Brent Barrett and Michael Jeter perform “We’ll Take A Glass Together” from the musical Grand Hotel:

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From Sun Valley Serenade (1941), an intro by the Glenn Miller Orchestra segues into …

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A year after Sun Valley Serenade, Glenn Miller, the Nicholas Brothers and Harry Warren and Max Gordon continue their survey of songs about American cities with funny names …

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From The Black Network, a 1936 short, fifteen-year-old Harold and twenty-two-year-old Fayard Nicholas perform “Lucky Numbers” by Cliff Hess.

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From 1935, the VitaPhone short “An All-Colored Vaudeville Show” …

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This clip from Stormy Weather (1943) features Calloway and his orchestra, and the amazing Nicholas Brothers (Harold and Fayard).

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There once was a time when I made a point of seeing every Woody Allen movie the day it opened. Why? Because I remember breaking down in tears at this …

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In this clip from International House (1933), the strangest film W. C. Fields ever made (and that’s saying a lot), Cab Calloway And His Orchestra, featuring the legendary Al Morgan on bass, perform “Reefer Man” on television.

No, I’m not making that up.

And shut up with the reefer jokes.

Technorati tags: Cab Calloway And His Orchestra, Al Morgan, Reefer Man, International House

The last completed movie my father ever worked on was his personal favorite.

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Unlike clay animators like Nick Park, Will Vinton or Art Clokey, George Pal’s animators worked in a “replacement technique” using hand-carved wooden puppets. A separate puppet (or puppet part) was used for each motion, rather than clay or hinged parts. A single walking sequence, for instance, could involve 12 pairs of legs for one character. An average Puppetoon short would use 9,000 puppets.

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Here’s a goodie from George Pal with the music of Johann Strauß* …

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From 1946, a George Pal Puppetoon featuring Charlie Barnet and Peggy Lee, and designed by Reg Massie.

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