Frankenstein

One of the most popular and recognizable monsters of all time, the creature known only as “Frankenstein’s monster” was the invention of a bored young woman of eighteen named Mary Shelly who is said to have set out to write a ghost story one rainy day while visiting Switzerland.  Frankenstein, often subtitled, “The Modern Prometheus,” was first published anonymously in 1818, becoming an immediate success, with Shelly’s name appearing on the second edition. Today it is regarded as a genuine masterpiece of Gothic Horror and one of the first ventures into science fiction.  Read more . . .

Hollywood Icon Tony Curtis

From 1949 to 2008, Hollywood icon Tony Curtis made over 100 films including The Vikings (1958, with Kurt Douglas), Some like it Hot (1959, with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe), Spartacus (1960, with Kurt Douglas), The Great Imposter (1961, with Karl Malden), Sex and the Single Girl (1964, with Natalie Wood and Henry Fonda), and The Boston Strangler (1968, with Henry Fonda).  An older generation remember him from his earlier films like The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951), Houdini (1953), The Purple Mask (1955), and, of course, The Sweet Smell of Success (1957).  Throughout his life, Curtis enjoyed painting--a surrealist claiming Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, and Magritte as influences, and since the early 1980s painted as a second career, his work commanding more than $25,000 a canvas. In one of his final interviews he said, “I still make movies but I'm not that interested in them any more.  But I paint all the time.”  In 2007, his painting “The Red Table” was on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and today his paintings can be seen at the Tony Vanderploeg Gallery in Carmel, California.  Read more . . .

Marlon Brando: America's Greatest Film Actor

Considered one of the most creative, complex, and by some descriptions, psychotic actors ever to appear on film, Marlon Brando is widely recognized as the greatest actor of the 20th century, and by many, the greatest movie actor of all time.  Having crossed the line from obscurity to fame by his twenty-fourth birthday in 1948, Brando became an idol the likes of which is usually reserved for rock stars, while becoming the model for virtually every other aspiring actor from the moment he first appeared on screen. His performances literally stunned fans and colleagues alike, and neither Hollywood nor the public has seen anything like him before or since.  Read more . . .