Fun Finds: Modern Screen Magazine, March 1979

The holiday madness just won't end. Too much going on both at work and at home for me to get a grip on this blog! But I've been trying for four days now to at least get something up, so here we are with another Fun Find, a celebrity gossip magazine from early 1979, just before the '80s hit! Join me now as we observe the various blatherings and photos from Hollywood days gone by...

I don't know why the photographer on this first spread thinks it's in any way admirable to be "sued by Jackie O" or "Punched by Brando," but he sounds awfully obnoxious. There are two more incidents mentioned in the text! I had NO clue that Armand Assante once dated (lived with!) Dyan Cannon. La Liz was in her frump period. LOVE the pic of Jaclyn Smith and Dennis Cole. Jack Nicholson's eyebrows! Natalie Wood looks a mite rough here.

I also didn't know that Ryan O'Neal dated Melanie Griffith! Paparazzo Ron Galella is still alive today at eighty-five, having lost several teeth over the years thanks to his in-your-face, brash style of photo-"journalism."

The big "secret" that Linda Lavin's article refers to is the fact that the little Jewish girl from Portland, Maine would perform in her kitchen when no one was around, hopping up on the sink and fantasizing that it was four tuxedo-clad dancers holding her there and so on...

Though Lavin and then-husband Ron Leibman had finally been reunited in California after her series Alice took her away from New York (He landed a lead in the short-lived show Kaz), their marriage only lasted until 1981. Lavin, now seventy-nine, is with her third husband while Leibman (the same age) has been with second wife Jessica Walter since 1983!

Cindy Williams didn't wind up staying with Michael Brandon, but wed Bill Hudson (Goldie Hawn's ex and the father of Kate Hudson) in 1982 (till 2000.) I had no idea that Dirk Benedict ever canoodled with Marie Osmond. He didn't wed until 1986 (till 1995), though she wed her first husband in 1982. They divorced in 1985 and she remarried in 1986, having and/or adopting seven children. That union ended in 2007 and four years later she re-wed her first husband! I recall lots of articles and interest in who Christopher Reeve was with as he emerged as Superman (1980.) Eyebrows were raised that they lived together unmarried. Reeve didn't marry until 1992, about five years after he and Gae Exton split up.

I live for pages like this with celebrity quotes and photos of the stars. Henry Winkler really did stay with Happy Days until its bitter end in 1984. Poor Zsa Zsa, she lived a long life, though the latter part of it was awfully miserable.

We lost ol' Grizzly Adams (Don Haggerty) about a year ago to spinal cancer at age seventy-three. He was a sort of bear/lumbersexual type of guy before those terms came to prominence! I recall as a kid thinking that Maren Jensen was just amazingly beautiful, but she was never given much of anything to do on Battlestar Galactica.

Katherine Helmond may be ten years older than her husband David, but something definitely worked. They are still wed today fifty-four years later! Oddly, Bo Svenson's name is misspelled here. He is seventy-five now and still acts occasionally. I'm not sure what the story is with Betsy Drake and the movie Players (1979.) Imdb.com doesn't list her in it, even uncredited or with scenes deleted.

Wow. Jacqueline Bisset was offered $1 million for Bloodline (1979) and turned it down? That's integrity! Her replacement, Audrey Hepburn, was fifteen years older. I don't know where I've been that I didn't know Tom Jones ever acted in a TV-movie! His costars included such greats as Rhonda Bates, Tanya Roberts and David Hasselhoff! Peter Fonda "denies" romance rumors with Brooke Shields? Christ, I would hope so. She was fourteen here!  LOL  The article's text lists Toni Tennille's husband as Carol Dragon (!) instead of Daryl Dragon. Babs Streisand as a possible Evita? The mind reels. Mark Hamill married the young lady he's shown with here in 1978 and they're still together today! By the way, Denise Crosby did more than "tell-all" in her Playboy interview. She bared-all, too!

After Saturn 3 (1980), I don't think Kirk Douglas was of a mind to develop more projects for himself and Farrah Fawcett. The troubled film was a box office bust. As for Joey Travolta, fortunately for him he moved into directing and writing in the mid-1990s. He also became involved in work with teens. Did you know he is married to the daughter of comic actor Dick Shawn? Dudley Moore's diet plan sounds hideous to me!

Since I was eleven or twelve at this time, I clearly remember the much written about romance between Cher and Gene Simmons.

It used to freak me out that he would cover his face (and sometimes go about town with a hanging black cover over much of it!) Anyway, I don't know how "wild" she was in comparison to him! I seem to recall hearing somewhere that she didn't even drink and also that she left second hubby Gregg Allman over his drug use. The article really just notes that her immense notoriety as a singer and sex symbol made it hard for him to be incognito in his private life.

Oh dear...

This one is just bad... and dumb. Linda Ronstadt never even MET Elvis (unless it was something brief at an industry function, if even then.) She listened to his music on the radio while lying on the cool basement floor of her Arizona childhood home. All she did here was cover one of his songs on her latest album.

I just adored Richard Hatch as a tyke. Those sparkling blue eyes!

There's a lot wrong with this article. The girl shown in the photo is NOT who the story is about. The story concerns Jane Seymour. But she wasn't an ongoing cast member of the series Battlestar Galactica. Her character died in the movie-length pilot! All Hatch (and his other costars) did was lend an ear and a shoulder to Seymour while she was suffering from some unwanted phone calls and telegrams from an obsessive fan.

The sensationalism (and misleading falsity) of this publications articles reaches still further heights with this headline.

The article actually has the nerve to go on to say that since Burt and Sally had been together for three years, that their "love" could be considered like their child. (What??) Field already had two young boys by this point from her first marriage. This article is really dumb.

Star Wars (1977) fans might like this two-page photo spread of then-hot Carrie Fisher modeling some tossed together "disco duds!"

Is it wrong of me to suggest that she looks like she may be a tad under the influence in these pics? I already got myself in hot water recently with a Star Wars fan when we were looking at "mannequin challenges" on Facebook and I said that one of them was the best one I'd seen since Carrie Fisher in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)!

I've been watching Vega$ lately on DVD and will likely be pointing out some of the guest stars in future post. But this stuff about him being plucked from obscurity (from a Florida State University production of The Rainmaker) by Burt Reynolds and brought to live with Burt for six weeks until he landed steady work is intriguing...

Urich had one guest role on TV before landing a lead in the sitcom Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Later, Aaron Spelling took a hand in his success with S.W.A.T. and Vega$. Urich died altogether too early of cancer at age fifty-five in 2002.

Vince Van Patten is back in the public eye again as of late as the husband of Eileen Davidson of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

If this is their idea of being "caught kissing in public...." Wow. I do recall, though, Frrah Fawcett playing a lot of tennis and Van Patten was an excellent player as well, in fact he later turned professional. Did you know he was once wed to Betsy Russell of Avenging Angel (1985) fame?

It's true that Shaun Cassidy seemed to go for older women. His first wife, a Playboy Playmate and the sister of Janice Pennington, was eight years his senior.

Check out the young Jamie Lee Curtis, one of Shaun's dates around this time! (In this case, the two were the same basic age.)

What else can I say that the text doesn't?

Dolly was a "legend" in 1979, so lord only knows what she would be now, still going on as strong as ever! She's also still married to the same elusive husband Carl, a sixty year union that has intrigued and mystified many a person on the outside. What a whirlwind life of success and celebrity she has had!

You can really tell that this page on daytime soaps was from a time just before the soaring '80s successes of General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and All My Children. Those shows barely rate mention if at all while many of the stars and shows featured were all washed up before too long.

Some of the incidents in this page on the music business are quite startling. (And I barely recognized Anne Murray, though it looks like she was photographed through a hook rug.) Tammy Wynette and her crazy kidnapping, Waylon Jennings' entourage trashing a hotel room and "sex checks" at Teddy Pendergrass concerts? Not sure what occurred between Billy Joel and boxer Mike Rossman.

I don't seem to associate the movies Magic (1978) and Midnight Express (1978) as having been released around the same time, yet here they are. The movie Angie Dickinson had made called "Labyrinth" was a French-Canadian production called L'homme en colere (1979), released in the U.S. on home video as Jig-Saw. No matter how many times I ever see Karen Grassle out of Prairie gear, it shocks me... Fonda's Broadway play was First Monday in October (opposite Jane Alexander), which was later made into a 1981 movie with Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh.

The long, long parade of people who knew The King continues with this article by the business owner who supposedly sold Elvis Presley his very first guitar.

These you may read for yourself... LOL Nothing really jumped out and grabbed me, but Farrah's quote was sort of amusing-interesting.

The Kate Jackson-Andrew Stevens relationship and marriage just never did seem to fit right to me... Interesting to see a report of John Travolta prepping for American Gigolo (1980), a movie that would ultimately star Richard Gere. I always thought that Gregory Harrison and Stephanie Zimbalist worked opposite each other very well!

Not sure what happened to Dyan Cannon's directorial project, but it actually took until 1990 for her to helm a feature-length film. The woman with Dick Clark is NOT his second wife Loretta, who he divorced in 1971! This is his third wife Kari, who was with him from 1977 until his death in 2012. And that brings a close to this latest Fun Find! A mini-bonus to follow below!

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If you've been coming here for a long while, you know that I have an unusual Christmas tree. I call it "The Famous Hollywood Tree" because it's got an Oscar on top, the Hollywood sign along the bottom and the whole thing is bedecked with famed performers and characters from the big and small screen. Near the top are Elvis, Marilyn and James Dean, but on their heels are Scarlett & Rhett, Lucy & Desi, Groucho, Bing, Chaplin, Hope & Crosby and so on. Then the middle segues into TV with animated characters along the bottom. (Determining the placement - "billing" if you will! - of all these is always a considerable exercise...) Anyway, a few pics of the homestead, including this year's additions!

The Famous Hollywood Tree

My Royal Copley doggie figurine who holds some of the smaller cards in his mailbox.

This affords a slightly closer view, but only shows a fraction of the ornaments.

Larry Hagman, Dallas' J.R. Ewing, which plays the series' theme song.

A sucker for costar reunions, I have Hagman near his old series-mate Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie.

Miss Julie Newmar in her iconic guise of Catwoman from Batman. I have her near a Batman ornament, too.

This was a 1988 ornament I recently picked up while antiquing. Howdy Doody isn't actually as close to The Grinch as it looks from this angle, but he still might want to watch his back!

My dining table on days when no one's actually eating on it!

Wishing all of you joy this holiday season, whatever it is you celebrate. Thank you so much for reading & remarking at Poseidon's Underworld!