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September 15: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!


#BornThisDay: Musician, Bobby Short

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September 15, 1924Bobby Short, born Robert Waltrip Short, began performing as a child in Danville, Illinois. Self-taught on the piano, he was just 9 years old when he began playing in a saloon, but also at church & school.

At 10 years old, he played & sang for a private party at the Palmer House in Chicago. This gig got him an agent & more work in Chicago hotels & supper clubs. When he was 13 years old he received engagements in NYC clubs. Always a natty dresser, even as a kid Short was named on best-dressed lists. He had custom made white tails & an almost ankle-length wraparound camel’s hair coat.

He is a favorite of mine. I am feeling quite old, & never more so than when I am trying to explain pop culture from the 20th century to young people. Despite the fact that I am able to reference Rhianna, Taylor Swift & Drake, the kids today just stare dumbly, vacant eyed, & with a touch of disgust, if I try to explain to them the impact of Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Iggy Pop, or even The Clash on our cultural history. I am truly old hat, old fashioned, out-of-date, outmoded & worn out.

I am not really dismayed that they didn’t know Bobby Short. I didn’t expect them to. I am sure that few in my own circle of friends know of Short. Still, I just can’t get the kids to wrap their heads around the notion of nightclubs, supper clubs, or Café Society.

Short called himself a saloon singer, a moniker I would have happy to have lived with. His was my first choice for an avocation. His saloon, from 1968 until his final bow in 2005, was one of the most elegant in the country, the intimate Cafe Carlyle tucked in the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There for 6 months each year, in a room where he was only a few feet from his audience, he sang & accompanied himself on the piano. I saw him perform there 4 times in the mid-1970s.

Short was so much more than cabaret entertainer. He was a NYC institution & a symbol of civilized Manhattan culture. In Woody Allen‘s films a visit to the Café Carlyle became an essential stop on his characters’ cultural tour. In 1976, Short sang & appeared in a popular commercial for Revlon’s perfume “Charlie.” Short appeared in Woody Allen’s film Hannah & Her Sisters. Allen later used Short’s recording of I Happen To Like New York for opening title of Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993).

Short attracted a chic international fan base that included royalty, film stars, sports figures, socialites & jazz fans. He also appeared in small roles in TV commercials & movies. In 1972, he performed the theme song to Merchant/Ivory’s terrific film Savages.

Short’s place as entertainer for high society overshadowed his significance as a jazz pianist, singer & popular song scholar. He dedicated himself to spreading an awareness of the African-American contribution to NYC musical theater. In Short’s roster of Greatest American Songwriters, were Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn & Eubie Blake, along with Cole Porter. He was most identified with the songs of Fats Waller who wrote Guess Who’s In Town?, Short’s signature piece.

Short had a bout of notoriety in May 1980 when Gloria Vanderbilt sued River House on the East Side of Manhattan, which had refused to sell her a million dollar apartment. She accused the management of racial bias because of her close friendship with Short. The landmark building’s board said it wanted to avoid ” any unwanted publicity.” A month later, she dropped the suit. Short generally stayed out of the fray but said:

 “I’m old enough to be sophisticated about these things.”

This phrase is my new motto.

Short never publicly came out of the closet,  but it was known among his friends, fellow cabaret performers, & even among of his fans, that he was gay. When asked why he hadn’t taken part in any of the Gay Pride parades, Short’s response was:

“I have a living to make! I can’t afford to march in the Gay Pride Parade.”

The post #BornThisDay: Musician, Bobby Short appeared first on World of Wonder.

#MaryPoppins: Shaiman & Wittman Writing a New Musical for Disney Based on the Beloved Film!

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Shaiman's love for Poppins is DEEP!

Shaiman’s love for Poppins is DEEP!

Disney just announced it is developing a new original, live-action musical film featuring the beloved, Mary Poppins. Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods) will direct and the songwriting duo Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Smash) are on board to compose original songs and write a new score. It’ll take place in Depression-era London, some 20 years after for film and will draw from existing Poppins tales in the rest of author P.L. Travers’ children’s book series.

The ’64 film, starring Julie Andrews, took its story from the first installment in Travers’ eight-book series. The new project, which is NOT being developed as a sequel, will supposedly explore Mary’s further adventures with the Banks family. All are collaborating with the Travers estate and have already gotten support from Poppins’ co-composer Richard Sherman, who penned the original film’s famous songs like Chim Chim Cher-ee and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Marshall, with producers John DeLuca, and Marc Platt are some of Hollywood’s A-list musical players. Marshall’s 2002 Oscar-winning Best Picture, Chicago, is largely credited with the resurgence of the modern musical. Shaiman and co-lyricist Scott Wittman are perhaps best known for writing the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical version of the John Waters film Hairspray, the TV show Smash and the score for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical, which is currently playing London’s West End. Some of Shaiman’s film credits include Beaches, When Harry Met Sally…, The Addams Family, Sister Act, Sleepless in Seattle, The First Wives Club, In & Out, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

The duo are beyond excited. Shaiman announced the project on Facebook yesterday;

“Scott & I have been holding onto this secret for a month and I can finally now post the greatest link to the greatest news I could have ever imagined. For those who saw the video I made last year when I found an original LP, you know how much this means to me. I’m too farklemted to type any more right now…”

It’s a boyhood dream come true! There’s maybe only one word to describe the feeling; Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Shaiman (left) and Wittman at Disney's Music Library pouring over Irwin Kostal's handwritten score adapting the songs of the Sherman Bros.

Shaiman (left) and Wittman at Disney’s Music Library pouring over Irwin Kostal’s handwritten score adapting the songs of the Sherman Bros.

(via EW)

The post #MaryPoppins: Shaiman & Wittman Writing a New Musical for Disney Based on the Beloved Film! appeared first on World of Wonder.

#Reboot: Arnold to Replace The Donald on “The Celebrity Apprentice”

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Yes, NBC has tapped former Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Donald Trump as host of The Celebrity Apprentice.

The host switch comes after Trump had to bow out of the show when he decided run for the GOP nomination for president. If he kept his regular hosting gig on NBC’s air, the network have to make comparable opportunities available to ALL of the other candidates under the FCC’s equal time rule.

And Schwarzenegger is pumped up about the job!

“I have always been a huge fan of ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ and the way it showcases the challenges and triumphs of business and teamwork. I am thrilled to bring my experience to the boardroom and to continue to raise millions for charity. Let’s get started!”

Arnold’s move to a TV gig comes after he’s had mixed results in jump-starting his film career after serving as the Govenator. Terminator Genisys, opened in July and earned nearly $450 million worldwide, but was underwhelming in the U.S.. Schwarzenegger is still an iconic personality, which makes him a pretty big score for the franchise. Paul Telegdy, NBC’s president of alternative and late-night programming says;

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is the epitome of a global brand in entertainment and business, and his accomplishments in the political arena speak for themselves. It was Arnold’s personal passion for the format that Mark Burnett and Donald Trump built over the last decade, as well as his fresh take on how to take it to new heights for today’s audiences, that made him the man to hire. ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’… will be back!”

He HAD to say that, I guess. Anyway, it’ll be more than a year before Arnold makes his debut on the show when it airs sometime in the 2016-17 season. (via Variety)

The post #Reboot: Arnold to Replace The Donald on “The Celebrity Apprentice” appeared first on World of Wonder.

#WatchNow: Idris Elba IS James Bond! (In This Mashup, Anyway…)

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Not everybody seems to be onboard with the casting British hunk Idris Elba as the next Bond. The author responsible for the official James Bond franchise novels, Anthony Horowitz, said that Elba was “too street” for the role, which got the internet understandably upset (Elba handled it all with class on his Instagram). But it got the folks Vulture Remixes thinking… so, they got video artists Diane Bullock and Mike Schuster to mashup a trailer for the upcoming Bond flick, Spectre, with Elba as 007. And it works! Watch.

(via Vulture)

The post #WatchNow: Idris Elba IS James Bond! (In This Mashup, Anyway…) appeared first on World of Wonder.

#ReAnimation: Whitney Houston Will Tour Again (As a Hologram)

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A hologram of the Whitney Houston will be streamed around the world, before “she” starts a big new tour. Whitney’s sister-in-law Pat Houston, confirmed that Houston’s estate is working with Hologram USA;

“It’s a great opportunity for her fans to see a reinvention of one of the most celebrated female artists in history and to continue a legacy of performances that will not be forgotten in years to come. I look forward to the partnership.”

Michael Jackson “performed” as a hologram to amazing effect at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards. Maybe Whitney won’t be QUITE as exciting without the dancing, but her heirs are seeing “Elvis” & “MJ” dollar signs, I’ll bet. Watch Michael do his thing.. (Skip to 1:30 for MJ reanimated)

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Lip Dub of the Day: HOT Shirtless Boy Lip Syncs Entire Episode of ‘Alyssa’s Secret’!

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Y’all! TJ Vorian gets his entire damn life lip syncing the whole “How to Look Picture Perfect” episode of Alyssa’s Secret. The original episode was uploaded on June 23 of last year, and TJ already had it memorized through and through and uploaded on his YouTube page by August 13! We have to give him props for the hysterical and sexy-as-hell portrayal of Alyssa Edwards. Check out both TJ’s version and the original episode below and subscribe to TJ Vorian and WOWPresents on YouTube!

The post Lip Dub of the Day: HOT Shirtless Boy Lip Syncs Entire Episode of ‘Alyssa’s Secret’! appeared first on World of Wonder.

#BushwigLastLooks: Why Tyler Ashley Is The Queen To Watch!!!

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You guys already know that the Brooklyn drag festival Bushwig was THE event of the year so far, over 150 queens landed in a field and despite the rain, the girls turned out tons of stellar performances…but the lady who was clearly the crowd favorite was androgyne Tyler Ashley! She did a fab rendition of Celine Dion’s cover version of River Deep, Mountain High, replete with a PERFECT lyp-sync and full on choreography with back-up boys in bare feet (doesn’t get more brand new than that)! CONGRATS DOLL…A new day has come! Check out her full show HERE, and more pics from the 3 day festival below. (Pics by Santiago Felipe, Michael Chernack and Brett Lindell)

 

Tyler Ashley:

“Two months ago, I busted my head open on a concrete floor while performing Celine Dion’s The Power of Love. I’ve been possessed since and only doing Celine numbers! I love the tempo she chose for her cover of River Deep, Mountain High. That song has a great message and is built to give a good show…so I was like BUSHWIG, done! I’m lucky to have amazingly talented and professional dance friends that could learn the performance quickly and turn for the entire bridge…ha ha. I’m from Canton, NY and just celebrated a big birthday. I’ve been performing my entire life, but regularly in nightlife for around a year? #headinjury”

 

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September 16: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Actor, George Chakiris

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"West Side Story" won the Academy Award® for Best Picture of 1961.  George Chakiris (center) is shown here as Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, as he guards the street against rival gang the Jets.  Chakiris won the Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. Restored by Nick & jane for Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans Website: http:www.doctormacro.com. Enjoy!

George Chakiris (center) in West Side Story

September 16, 1934- I first took note of George Chakiris as a 7 year old watching the film version of West Side Story (1961). I found the film to be absolutely enthralling. I think my parents must have found it odd that his character, Bernardo, was the one I was fixated on.

Chakiris won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor his work in West Side Story. He was only 27 years old, winning over such heavyweights as Montgomery Clift & George C. Scott. Chakiris beautifully combined the sexual seriousness of Marlon Brando with his breathtaking, powerful, athletic dancing talent, especially in the famed opening sequence on the streets of NYC & in America, one of the greatest dance sequences on film,  well matched with Rita Moreno, who also won an Oscar playing Bernardo’s girlfriend, Anita.

Groundbreaking, legendary, gay director/choreographer Jerome Robbins gave Chakiris his first big break in show biz when he cast him as Riff, the leader of the Jets, in the original London production of West Side Story. Before that breakout part, he had appeared in many small roles as a dancer in films including: one of Marilyn Monroe’s escorts in her Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend number from Gentleman Prefer Blonds (1953), & alongside Rosemary Clooney doing Irving Berlin’s Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me in White Christmas (1954). If you look close he can be spotted in the demented Chop Suey production number in the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song (1961).

Often playing various, sometimes mystery ethnic characters, Chakiris is actually the son of Greek immigrants. He was born in Ohio but grew-up in Long Beach, California where he sang in the boys choir at the local Episcopal Church. He is a great vocalist & had a recording contract with Capitol Records in the 1960s, releasing 4 albums.

In 1971, I saw him in San Francisco doing the first national tour of Stephen Sondheim’s Company along with the rest of the original cast. He was the third actor to play the lead role of Bobby after Dean Jones & Larry Kurt. My little 17 year old musical theatre fanatic self was over the moon with his acting performance, his singing, & his good-looks, complete with an award winning “package”. I waited at the stage door to meet him. Chakiris was warm & welcoming as he signed autographs.

He made several films after the Oscar winning West Side Story. My favorite is opposite Catherine Deneuve & Gene Kelly in Jacques Demy‘s charming French musical Les Demoiselles De Rochefort (1967)

Chakiris has also appeared in many stage roles in the USA & London, & as a guest star on several TV series including Murder She Wrote, which I was also in (who wasn’t?), one of the few things we have in common, aside from being openly gay. My research never finds him matched up with anyone or, for that matter, involved in any scandals.

Chakiris, still trim & handsome, lives quietly in LA with his dog & concentrates his artistic expression on jewelry design, showing his modern inspired silver pieces in galleries on both coasts.

About his most famous film:

“I’d been playing Riff in the London stage show for over a year when the movie was announced. They were floating names like Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty & Robert Redford. So none of us thought in our wildest dreams we’d be cast. Then 5 of us were invited to do a test scene, so we stole our stage costumes for the day. Weeks went by & then I got a call from Robbins, who asked me out to LA. They wanted me to be Bernardo. I concluded that the Sharks parts had more meat: we sang America & had more scenes with Natalie Wood, who plays Bernardo’s sister Maria. None of us put on very heavy Puerto Rican accents. The danger in going too strong is that it will show up the cracks. Rita Moreno, who played Anita, is Puerto Rican, so we all turned to her if we had trouble pronouncing our lines.”

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, George Chakiris appeared first on World of Wonder.

Fashion Photo RuView: Raja & Mystique Summers Toot & Boot the Season 4 Queen’s Looks

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Since Logo is airing RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 4 RuVealed, we thought now would be the perfect time to find out whether Raja & Raven ‘Toot’ or ‘Boot’ their looks! Since Raven was out this week, we brought in RuPaul’s Drag Race season 2 queen Mystique Summers! See whatRaja & Mystique had to say about the queen’s looks from the seventh episode of season 4 on  Fashion Photo RuView! Watch RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 4 RuVealed Fridays at 8PM on Logo and Fashion Photo RuView the following Wednesday on WOWPresents!

The post Fashion Photo RuView: Raja & Mystique Summers Toot & Boot the Season 4 Queen’s Looks appeared first on World of Wonder.

#LGBT: Queer New York Arts Festival Features “Post-Modern Drag”, an “Ecosexual Tour” & More!

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Annie Sprinkle and company will offer an "ecosexual" experience in Central Park

Annie Sprinkle and company will offer an “ecosexual” experience in Central Park

The Queer New York International Arts Festival starts today. Annie Sprinkle, Max Steele, Ivo Dimchev and many more queer artists from around the globe present a week plus of performances and workshops dedicated to queering performance art. Sprinkle and her partner offer one of the festival’s highlights, an “ecosexual” walking tour of Central Park, before performing a piece based on sensual environmental activism. Other works include Max Steele’s postmodern drag and Ivo Dimchev’s haunting music. Here’s a full list of what’s on offer. For tickets and more info go here. Cheers queer arts!

Max Steele

Max Steele

Wednesday, September 16
3pm: Central Park – Annie Sprinkle/Beth Stephens, EcoSex Walking Tour of Central Park
8pm: Abrons Underground – Annie Sprinkle/Beth Stephens, Goodbye Gauley Mountain

Thursday, September 17
8pm: Abrons Experimental – Ivo Dimchev, Facebook Theater

Friday, September 18
8pm: Abrons Experimental – Ivo Dimchev, 15 songs from my shows
9pm: Abrons Experimental – Social Health Performance Club

Saturday, September 19
8pm: Abrons Experimental – John Moletress, Jarman (all this maddening beauty)

Sunday, September 20
8pm: Abrons Underground – Max Steele, The Good Daughter

Monday, September 21
8pm: Abrons Experimental – Mmakgosi Kgabi, Shades of a Queen

Tuesday, September 22
8pm: Abrons Underground – Bruno Isaković, Disclosures

Wednesday, September 23
8pm: Abrons Underground – Bruno Isaković, Disclosures
9pm: Abrons Experimental – Kaia Gilje/Lorene Bouboushian, Know What Smokes

Thursday, September 24
8pm: Abrons Underground – Bruno Isaković, Disclosures

Friday, September 25
7pm: Merton D. Simpson Gallery – Medhi-Georges Lahlou, Stupidité contrôleé or jump jump baby jump jump
8pm: Dixon Place – Michael Breslin, Kiss me just once more
8pm: Abrons Underground – Bruno Isaković, Disclosures
9pm: Abrons Experimental – Joshua Monten, Doggy Style

Saturday, September 26
8pm: Abrons Experimental – Joshua Monten, Doggy Style
10pm: Abrons Underground – Bruno Isaković, Disclosures

Ivo Dimchev

Ivo Dimchev

Bruno Isakovic

Bruno Isakovic

Michael Breslin

Michael Breslin

The post #LGBT: Queer New York Arts Festival Features “Post-Modern Drag”, an “Ecosexual Tour” & More! appeared first on World of Wonder.

#LGBT: YouTube Star Tyler Oakley Covers 17 & Talks Body Image

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Social media stars and bff’s Tyler Oakley and Zoe Sugg (aka Zoella!) share their lives all the time to adoring (& I’m sure hating) teen fans around the globe on YouTube. This month they cover Seventeen and Tyler talks here about body image and his eating disorder;

“With videos, meet and greets, and a million pictures a day, it’s definitely a thing that I think about. It’s not about clothes fitting. It’s not about feeling chubbier than normal. I’d beat myself up over a day that I’m not active. If I’m lazy, then I feel grody.

Talking about it is really hard because it’s something I suppress and work through every day. And I haven’t really talked about body image in videos. I assume when people read this, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, you’re not fat.’ That’s not what it’s about at all. Even when I was the skinniest I’d ever been, I was still not happy.”

Read all about both their journeys and their friendship in the October issue of Seventeen here.

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(via Seventeen)

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#LGBT: “Hart To Hart” Is Getting a Gay Makeover

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The 80s detective show Hart to Hart is getting a gay reboot. NBC is working on a new version with a gay couple instead of the original’s husband and wife. The BBC says that this update will see attorney Jonathan Hart and his male partner – investigator Dan Hartman – juggle relationship drama with solving crimes. The original stars of the series, Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers, played Jonathan and Jennifer Hart in the ABC original – which ran from 1979 to 1984.

Christopher Fife –who worked on the groundbreaking gay sitcom Will and Grace – is tapped to write it. A description of the new show says that the show will be

“a modern and sexy retelling of the classic series about attorney Jonathan Hart and free-spirited investigator Dan Hartman, who must balance the two sides of their life: action-packed crime-solving in the midst of newly found domesticity.”

The news comes after media charity GLAAD recently announced its ninth—and final—edition of their Network Responsibility Index (NRI). This rates TV networks on the quality –and quantity– of representation by the LGBT community. It will no longer publish the annual report monitoring the quantity, quality, and diversity of LGBT representation on TV.

(via Pink News)

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Donald Trump is a Drag: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Queen Alaska Bashes Trump


Fashion Underground: The World of Susanne Bartsch at MFIT NYC, This Friday, September 18

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The long-reigning fairy godmother of New York nightlife gets an (overdue!) tribute to her “30 years of sartorial self-expression and its influence on the global fashion scene.” The exhibition at the museum at FIT, curated by Valerie Steele and Susanne Bartsch, will be accompanied by a book by Steele and Melissa Marra. A two-day symposium will feature a range of designers, performers, and scholars speaking on fashion, creativity, nightlife, and performance art. It runs September 18 – December 5, 2015.

And the party Friday night is the first ABSOLUTELY-MUST-ATTEND ta-doo of the season, don’t you know. Everybody who is ANYBODY in the downtown/fashion/art/will be there. Are YOU going?

From FIT:

Susanne Bartsch has been the queen of New York City nightlife since the 1980s when she became renowned for creating spectacular parties where she and a diverse mix of individuals—uptown, downtown, gay, straight, multiracial—dressed up in their own versions of high fashion, street style, drag, and Mardi Gras extravaganza. Her first party took place in 1986 at a club near the Chelsea Hotel, where she has lived for many years. Bartsch says;

“It was about seeing and being seen.”

Bartsch and her friends have long constituted a fashion underground of creative individuals who take dressing up to the level of performance art.

“Style is about expressing yourself. You can be whatever you want to be—a silver-screen star, a Marie Antoinette baroque creature, a Victorian punk. I love that about fashion and makeup.”

A muse for fashion designers and makeup artists, Bartsch has also been a catalyst for the cross-fertilization of ideas between creative people in a range of fields. Today, she is increasingly creating events that explicitly link fashion and art.

Fashion Underground: The World of Susanne Bartsch opens with a small introductory gallery of images and videos about Bartsch and her world. In the main exhibition gallery, the first section focuses on the 1980s English fashions that Bartsch introduced to New York displayed in a mise-en-scène evoking her surreally styled boutiques. The second and largest section features a variety of the creations that Bartsch and her friends have worn at her famous club nights at Savage, Copacabana, and Le Bains, with a special section devoted to the AIDS balls. The final section evokes her apartment at the Chelsea Hotel, the center of her creative world. Videos and projected photographs throughout the exhibition document Bartsch’s 30 years of sartorial self-expression and its influence on the global fashion scene.

Designs by Rachel Auburn, The Blonds, Leigh Bowery, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Pam Hogg, Stephen Jones, Alexander McQueen, Thierry Mugler, Rick Owens, Vivienne Westwood, and Zaldy contribute to the approximately 80 looks from the underground fashion impresario’s personal collection of clothing and accessories that will be included in Fashion Underground: The World of Susanne Bartsch.

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WOW Premiere: Stream Voguing Track “Call Me Crazy” By Enyce

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Iconic west coast ballroom voguing commentator Enyce, aka Enyce Chanel, is making a move to take his emcee vocal talents to the next level, with his first original track Call Me Crazy- a mix of hardcore house music, rap and Baltimore club music. Enyce has become one of the biggest stars on the scene, competing nationally as a voguer for the House of Chanel, and as a professional choreographer, working with the likes of Toni Braxton and Mya. Check out the track below, produced by indie-dance duo Purple Crush.

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September 17: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Actor, Roddy McDowall

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September 17, 1928– I ran into Roddy McDowall twice. The first time was at the 50th Anniversary of MGM Ball at the Beverley Wilshire Hotel in 1973, which I had successfully crashed. He was there as Elizabeth Taylor’s date, or Taylor as his beard. He could not have been more gracious & warm. He was better looking in person than I had ever found him to be in films. The second time was at a coke fueled all-boy party at the home of a famous producer in the Hollywood Hills. He couldn’t have been more gracious & friendly, & from his films I would never have guessed that McDowell was profoundly “gifted”.

McDowall was thought to be one of the nicest people in show biz ever. He was also known as an especially good friend who was known for being able to keep a confidence.

After winning an acting prize in a school play, little Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was able to secure film work in England beginning at age 10 with Scruffy (1938). He appeared in 16 movies before his family was evacuated to the USA during the Battle Of Britain in 1940.

McDowall’s arrived in Hollywood just as 20th Century Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck was looking to create ” the new Freddie Bartholomew.” McDowall screen-tested for the main juvenile role in Fox’s How Green Was My Valley (1941). He was cast in the role & received terrific reviews & a long contract.  McDowall was cast with the then unknown Elizabeth Taylor in her first film, Lassie Come Home (1943). Taylor & McDowall became lifelong, very close friends. Taylor’s casting in this film was an absolute fluke. The director simply wanted any young girl who could do an English accent.

McDowall’s first adult role was as Malcolm in Orson Welles‘ 1948 film version of Shakespeare’s Scottish Play. But for the most part, McDowall left films in the 1950s, preferring TV & stage work. Among his Broadway credits were No Time For Sergeants (1955), Compulsion (1957), working with fellow former child star Dean Stockwell, & Lerner & Loewe‘s musical Camelot, as Mordred, a role I played in summer stock a decade later.

McDowall won a 1960 Tony Award for his work in a short run of the play The Fighting Cock, by odd coincidence a chapter title in my memoir Jockstraps & Vicodin. He spent almost all of 1962 portraying Octavius in the mammoth film production of Cleopatra with longtime pal, guess who?

An accomplished & original photographer, McDowall’s photos of Taylor & other celebrities were frequently published in the leading magazines of his era. He was, briefly, the photographic editor of Harper’s Bazaar &  published the first of several collections of his rather extraordinary photographs, Double Exposure (1966).

McDowall went ape shit for his acting gigs between 1968 & 1975, in elaborate simian makeup as Cornelius in the Planet Of The Apes films & the TV series. He kept working & did the occasional film role or stage play into the 1990s. McDowall served on the executive boards of the Screen Actors Guild & Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

McDowall was a lifelong film collector & historian. In 1974, around the time I met him briefly, the FBI raided his home & seized his collection of films & TV series during an investigation of film piracy & copyright infringement. His collection consisted of nearly 200 16mm prints & more than 1,000 video cassettes. McDowall had purchased Errol Flynn‘s home movies & the prints of his own directorial debut Tam-Lin (1970) starring Ava Gardner, transferring them all to tape for archival storage. McDowall was open about those who dealt with him: Rock Hudson, Dick Martin & Mel Tormé were just a few of the celebrities who gave support in his film reproductions. No charges were brought against McDowall, but he was shaken by the experience.

McDowall’s passion was film preservation & he worked diligently with the National Film Preservation Board. In August, 1998, he was elected president of the Academy Foundation. He had a devotion to the great female stars of the past, whom he idolized. McDowall enjoyed unlikely friendships with some of the most elusive women stars of the silver screen, including Jean Arthur, Great Garbo & Lillian Gish.

McDowall was one of the most loved stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, noted for his kindness, generosity & loyalty. McDowall’s announcement that he was suffering from terminal cancer a few weeks before he died, rocked the film community & many of his friends came to say good-bye to the gravely ill McDowall at his home in Studio City. Shortly before his cancer diagnosis, he had provided the voice-over for Disney/Pixar’s animated feature A Bug’s Life (1998). A few days before McDowall’s final curtain call in 1999, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences named its photographic archive after him.

McDowall graduated from University High School in Santa Monica. Christopher Isherwood wrote in a volume of his memoir that Tom Maddox had told him, that he was having an affair with the McDowall, then 17 years old.

Tab Hunter mentions McDowall in his terrific memoir Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making Of A Movie Star (2005):

“While making shakes at the Rexall drugstore at Hollywood & Highland, I met my first bona fide movie star. It was the night of the big 1948 Christmas parade. Dick Clayton brought along Roddy McDowall. Roddy was only 20, but he’d been in pictures his whole life. We hit it off, gabbing & laughing…”

Hunter & McDowall had posed shirtless for a Photoplay Magazine spread titled Calling All Girls!.

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Farley Granger writes about McDowall in his very fun & readable memoir Include Me Out (2008). Granger knew McDowell prior to his joining the Navy at 18 years old. Granger:

“It was 1953. I found an apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan… My old pals Roddy McDowall & Monty Clift lived on the same block”.

McDowall & Clift were very close & lived together for a period, & along with Taylor they were often seen out & about as a trio. During this time he also had a short, but intense, affair with Marlon Brando.

Eddie Fisher, in his autobiography Been There, Done That (1999), mentions McDowall & his decades of hatred towards him. Fisher had first met Elizabeth Taylor at a party that Merv Griffin & McDowall had in an apartment they were sharing in one of my favorite NY structures, The Dakota Apartments. Fisher:

“She spent most of the evening in a corner with her close friend Montgomery Clift. She was recently divorced from her first husband Nicky Hilton. But Roddy wouldn’t let me near her.”

Lauren Bacall, in her memoir By Myself (1978):

“He was someone I always looked forward to being with, loved seeing, loved hearing from.”

McDowall was with Bette Davis during the last part of her life, taking care of her & watching out for her best interests. When Julie Andrews asked McDowall why he didn’t write a book about his life, he said:

 “I have too many friends. I know too much, I couldn’t.”

McDowall has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6632 Hollywood Boulevard & there is an honorary rose garden on the grounds of the Motion Picture & Television Fund with a statue of him in costume & makeup from the Planet Of The Apes.

McDowall:

“My whole life I’ve been trying to prove I’m not just yesterday.”

Interesting that in his over 260 film & TV roles, none of the characters were gay, but nearly all were gay-coded.

I think that I would really have loved to have been pals with McDowall. True friends are to be treasured.

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Roddy McDowall appeared first on World of Wonder.

#TBT: Rosie Perez KILLED IT on the “Soul Train” Line!

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Maybe you knew this… honestly, I kind of forgot. Rosie Perez got her start in the late 80s as a dancer on Soul Train. As a college student in LA (majoring in bio-chemistry, btw) in order to relieve stress she said she would go to nightclubs for Ladies Night. A talent scout from Soul Train “discovered her” and asked her to be on the show. She was not a professional dancer but loved it so much she dropped out of school. A few years later Perez was noticed at a dance club, Funky Reggae, by Spike Lee, who cast her in her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing… and once we heard that voice, as they say, the rest is HerStory. Watch her tear UP the floor!

The post #TBT: Rosie Perez KILLED IT on the “Soul Train” Line! appeared first on World of Wonder.

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