Tweet Gallery of Mastheads

I look forward to a daily calendar of new mastheads, Mike. Keep it up!

Jim

[Mike Gebert]

It seems profligate when I really have no idea yet what next month's will be.

Great to see Roscoe! Looking forward to the DVD!

Rick

Arbuckle was on the masthead long ago, but as supporting man to Harry Houdini in that photo, so here's his starring debut.

It's a comfort to know Roscoe Arbuckle is not forgotten (here at Nitrateville, hopefully somewhere else as well)
Looking froward to his latest discovered Films. Thanks Mike for giving him the spotlight on this month's Masthead's space.

[Mike Gebert]

So really, I don't know what the next one will be. So I'll take nominations. Who should I feature, and do you have a favorite image? Note that it needs to be a full image left-right, meaning, it can't be a head shot where it cuts off either side of the body (though I can fake a little) so they only have partial arms shown. Imagine them standing in the little window...

So really, I don't know what the next one will be. So I'll take nominations. Who should I feature, and do you have a favorite image? Note that it needs to be a full image left-right, meaning, it can't be a head shot where it cuts off either side of the body (though I can fake a little) so they only have partial arms shown. Imagine them standing in the little window...

You haven't had Bill Hart or Harry Langdon in awhile, have you? I know both of them popped up once each, but it's been awhile.

And nobody's going to complain if Clara Bow and Jean Harlow get posted every month...

For a really out-of-the-way choice, try to find a shot of Viola Richards.

Jim

I live seeing Roscoe on the masthead, but April 20th is Harold Lloyd's 125th birthday.

Agnes

Notable birthdays during the month of May include Norma Talmadge, Valentino, and Doug Fairbanks. But the birthday honoree I'd really enjoy seeing up there is Max Davidson.

[Mike Gebert]

Almost all of those have been on the masthead. As this month shows, my early no-repeats rule gave way over time, but mostly I like to put first-timers up (which is why we've had some real obscurities), and repeats only after some years, which to me is better than doing the ten most famous stars over and over. So let me put it this way-- who's never been on the masthead that you'd like to see?

(You can see all the past masthead honorees here.)

(You can see all the past masthead honorees here.)

A few UK peeps? Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, Anton Wahlbrook (also works for German), Patricia Roc, Pamela Brown, Ivor Novello, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Phyllis Calvert, even Michael Balcon, given how important he was to UK film. You did one for James Mason and Margaret Lockwood, which this girl appreciated.

There’s an early listing of many Aussies proposed, including several Pollards. I recall suggesting Ernie Morrison, around whom Hal Roach intended to create Our Gang. surely there’s a shot of Snub, Marie and Ernie somewhere on the web.

Bob

[Danny Burk]

How about von Sternberg - Dietrich together? JvS was born in May (1894).

[Mike Gebert]

A few UK peeps? Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey

Oh yeah. An IKWIG masthead would get me points at home.

Novello was... technically... in this one. But he could turn up again, bigger.

Keep 'em coming, I'll start looking for pics...

Here's a question-- MOMA is doing a big Fox retrospective next month, presumably focused on pre-20th Fox. What star represents early Fox, the way Cagney or Davis, say, would represent 30s Warners? (We already had Theda Bara...)

Here's a question-- MOMA is doing a big Fox retrospective next month, presumably focused on pre-20th Fox. What star represents early Fox, the way Cagney or Davis, say, would represent 30s Warners? (We already had Theda Bara...)

I'd vote for Janet Gaynor, or possibly Gaynor-Farrell as a team. Gaynor joined the studio in 1925 and stayed a little past the merger; she won an Academy Award for two major hits and one film that's usually classed in the top 10 silents, or just plain movies, ever made; she was as big of a box-office winner for Fox as Crawford or Shearer for MGM; she knew when to bow out before the offers became inferior. And she's one helluva good actress.

I just don't recall if she's been on the mast before. (Yes, she has been, with Farrell and Borzage.)

--HA

Almost all of those have been on the masthead. As this month shows, my early no-repeats rule gave way over time, but mostly I like to put first-timers up (which is why we've had some real obscurities), and repeats only after some years, which to me is better than doing the ten most famous stars over and over. So let me put it this way-- who's never been on the masthead that you'd like to see?

(You can see all the past masthead honorees [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/mgmax/albums
/72157644450038082]here[/url].)

How about George Arliss - April 10, 1868.

Here's a question-- MOMA is doing a big Fox retrospective next month, presumably focused on pre-20th Fox. What star represents early Fox, the way Cagney or Davis, say, would represent 30s Warners? (We already had Theda Bara...)

If we're referring to the Fox talkies before the merger with 20th, then Will Rogers has to be up there with Gaynor/Farrell. In 1931, Warner Oland's Charlie Chan films became big moneymakers for Fox and continued to be right up until Oland's death in '38.

Here's a question-- MOMA is doing a big Fox retrospective next month, presumably focused on pre-20th Fox. What star represents early Fox, the way Cagney or Davis, say, would represent 30s Warners? (We already had Theda Bara...)

If we're referring to the Fox talkies before the merger with 20th, then Will Rogers has to be up there with Gaynor/Farrell. In 1931, Warner Oland's Charlie Chan films became big moneymakers for Fox and continued to be right up until Oland's death in '38.

What about publicity stills from one of John Ford's movies with Rogers? Or shots of Alan Dwan or Raoul Walsh? We've got lots of pictures of the actors, but what of the men and women behind the cameras? Wouldn't Frances Marion be worth honoring or Karl Freund? We had a dramatic masthead for Cinerama, but what about Merian C. Cooper?

Bob

Lena Horne would certainly be easy on the eyes and Oscar Micheaux would be appropriate if they haven't been seen yet.

Wasn't there a Seven Samurai masthead a few years ago? or am I confabulating mastheads? If I'm remembering correctly you can delete Mifune and Shimura, but it would be neat to see a Tatsuya Nakadai masthead, especially since he's still with us. Isusu Yamada, Rentaro Mikuni, Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, Machiko Kyo. Or directors, Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kobayashi, Kinoshita, etc.

On the other hand, if anyone deserves a second masthead, it's both Mifune and Shimura.

Fox - Gaynor Rogers Temple Murdoch

[Mike Gebert]

Murdoch: Ha.

Re: Japanese: the only ones were tied to new releases, Sessue Hayakawa and Tsuru Aoki in The Dragon Painter way back when, and more recently the Ozu Gangster Films series from Eclipse, which Bob's recent posting about made me realize I had never watched... anyway, good ideas.

Sounds like this crowd would be game for more directors and other behind the camera folks. I have kind of parceled them out stingily in the past, figuring stars were preferable most of the time, but we'll see. I think many of these will be acted upon in the months ahead.

So keep 'em coming, and if you know any anniversaries ahead (which can be centenaries of 1918 but also 1928 and others), let me know-- I don't really know a lot of them for 1918-20.

One 1918 centenary to consider: the anniversary of the 1918 flu epidemic, the impact of which has been discussed in a couple of different Nitrateville threads. October 1918 was considered the worst month of the epidemic, and it's also the month that took two of the highest profile film industry victims - Harold Lockwood and Myrtle Gonzalez.

[Mike Gebert]

Interesting. I have a November one planned for the Armistice (I bet, if you assume it's also a 1918 title, you can guess what it is) but that's a good idea for October.

[Mike Gebert]

Well, this will be known as the month of many mastheads, but when I saw what Los Angeles had done to honor one of the good guys, someone who's championed Hollywood's heritage in countless ways from books to TV to podcasting to a very funny bit in Gremlins 2...



It seemed like something we ought to be doing, too. For me there's no better story about his ubiquity than one I tell about my kids— after seeing him at the beginning of so many Disney cartoons on DVD, one of them asked me, "Is that the president?" Oh, for a world in which the president's main job was to introduce your cartoons.

Thank you sir. Happy Yourself Day.

I still have his early books (TV Movies, Behind the Camera, Movie Comedy Teams, The Great Movie Shorts, &c ) that I bought back in the halcyon days of the early 1970's and have been happily adding to that collection ever since. Leonard Maltin is a national treasure.