Weekend Onesie: Hangin' On The Telephone - Part One

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Weekend Onesie: The Magic Of Burton Rice, Part VIII

Weekend Onesie:

The Magic Of Burton Rice

Part VIII

As you may know, on Thursdays, Wonderland Burlesque does a series of posts about old movies, featuring movie posters. During the course of research, I fell in love with a particular type of poster art, enough so that I wanted to learn a bit more about the artist.

That's what I'll be sharing with you the next few Saturdays, as part of the Weekend Onesie series (which is rarely about a single image, so, not sure why I cling to that title).

I remain in awe of this man and his work; the sheer volume and quality is astounding. He must have slaved over his drawing table like a madman. His movie posters for Bluebird and Pathé are not all he did... he also created book covers, advertisements, and sheet music art. For this series, I've chosen to group them according to visual type.

I find his use of color and white space quite amazing and far ahead of his time. 

Here's a bit of information (all cribbed from various sites) about the artist and samples of his work.

The Magic Of Burton Rice

American designer, illustrator, photographer, and poster artist Burton Rice is best known for his work creating posters for the Bluebird Photoplays division of Universal Pictures between 1916 and 1919. Little else is known about him.

He was an American native born in a Chicago suburb on April 15, 1894. Records show that he returned from France in 1917, when he was 23 years old, and again in 1924, aged 30. In 1943 his draft registration card showed him living in New York city, and self-employed. 

Burton designed a wide range of products, but you might know him under a different name. When designing fashion pieces, he often used the pseudonym of Dynevor Rhys. No one knows why Rice did this. Some believe he wished to save his real name for fine art, but this was never confirmed. This change happened after his New York studio burned down in November of 1923. After the fire, Rice began submitting magazine covers as Dynevor Rhys.

In 1959, he returned to Chicago.

He died in Paris on April 4, 1977.

Through his years as a designer, Burton Rice produced many impressive pieces. His posters help capture an era. Through his work, we can better experience the time period.

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Poor Butterfly - Judy Garland w/ Bobby Cole

Wednesday's Question Of The Day: Current Obsessions

Wednesday's Question Of The Day: 

Current Obsessions

Hump day? Well, I'll give you something to ponder.

Yes, it's time for Wednesday's Question Of The Day.

Each Wednesday, a new question to give you the opportunity to do a bit of self-examination.  Think of it as a way of getting to know all about you and a chance to learn a little more about me. 

That's right. You know me; spill that tea! For I am the king of over-sharing!

Oh, and please leave your responses in the comments section. 

Why, think of this as a little blogging kiki!

Okay! Ready, set... 

Here's today's question:

What is your current obsession?

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Watching old black and white movies on Youtube for free.

I never knew there were so many available.

I adore those air channels which show the old movies, but I never pay attention to what airs when, so I was constantly coming in during the middle of a movie... one that I was interested in watching. The other downside? Commercials. So many. And so long... some play like mini-informercials. It eats up a lot of time and I find I no longer have the patience for all that noise.

I used to have Netflix, but the price more than doubled in the time I had it and I hate feeding corporate greed. Plus... they didn't carry any classic films. So, I canceled. The BF has Prime - but very few of the black and white movies on there which I want to watch are free. 

While researching Wonderland Burlesque's regular Thursday feature Let's All Go To The Movies, I started to notice all these free films on Youtube. There are whole channels devoted to them, with a number of old films now in the public domain due to the copyright holders failing to renew them. Well... their loss, our gain.

So, I asked the BF for an HDMI to HDMI cable and it was simple as one, two, three. Surprisingly, the films look wonderful on my big screen television. 

You see...

I adore the old stars: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Garbo, Gene Tierney, Gloria Swanson, Hedy Lamarr, Claudette Colbert, Agnes Moorehead, etc. I grew up admiring them, collecting photos and reading their life stories. There are so many of them. And so many films I want to see. 

Yes, the stories are frequently quite melodramatic, the acting hammy and the writing rather mundane or silly, but I adore them all the same. I like that they tell a story concisely in just over an hour (and rarely more than and hour and a half). I appreciate the fact that there are no commercials. Granted, the film quality varies greatly - many are copies of copies of copies of the original print, but all those squiggly lines and breaks in the film merely add to the charm. 

The lighting, and the sets, and the costumes... economical and elaborate at the same time. I adore monochromatic sets, impossibly tailored costumes, the posing, the eyebrows, the close-ups, the air of film noir. I think they did more with less in those days and it's all real... real sets, real actors, real props - no CGI. I adore reading the credits - and they don't go on for a fifteen minutes after the movie is over like they do with today's films. 

So, yes... I am becoming a bit like Norma Desmond, squirreled away in my basement, huddled beneath a blanket, eating peanut butter on saltines while sipping hot chocolate and  living in the past, but then...

They know me there (and they like me).

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As If We Never Said Goodbye - Elaine Paige

from the musical Sunset Blvd

Friday Fun: Black and White

Friday Fun: Black and White

When he said:

“I want concise answers, clear pathways, defined execution.”

I thought…

Dude, you must be joking. Life is filled with grey areas and you best get used to it.

Why insist on such simplicity? 

Just what are you afraid of?

Besides...

Sometimes it’s in those areas of grey that one finds something unexpected and intriguing. 

Nothing wrong with a bit of mystery.

So, relax.  Explore the grey.

Not everything need be viewed in terms of black and white.

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Wishing you all a great weekend!

from uptonking at Wonderland Burlesque