Fun Finds: Hollywood Studio Magazine, September 1990

Yes, it's another Fun Find. Would you believe that my company actually expects me to WORK during the 8 hours a day I am there? Thus, with that, summertime activities and nightly rehearsals for an upcoming show, I am desperately short on time. Thus, I must present another Fun Find rather than delve into a more labor-intensive topic such as I might like to instead. I posted some bits and pieces from this publication once before quite a while back and it turned out to be a neat blend of old, new and unknown. This will be a more straightforward presentation of the magazine which, by 1990, focused more on the "then" than the "now," at least in this instance.

The issue kicks off with a Letters section. I had to chuckle at the one called "GLARING ERROR" since I once got an e-mail from a reader and the subject was "Major Error on Blog"... I had mistyped the word Mary as Marty or vice-versa. Regarding the Jeffrey Hunter lookalike, think of how simple times must have been that an unknown Canadian actor would send in a head shot hoping to one day land the lead in an unplanned biopic!

The section continues with a clarification on where the remains of George "Superman" Reeves is laying at rest as well as a condemnation of celebrity photographers who staked out a terminally ill John Wayne.

As I have written little or nothing here with regards to Mr. Ronald Coleman, some of you might like this tribute to him that's dotted with several nice pictures.

When one is used to the cosmopolitan Myrna Loy from The Thin Man movies or her later work as kindly older ladies, it's startling to see her earlier slinky and exotic looks. Love the eyes here!

We gave Mr. Lord his own tribute about seven years ago right here.

I don't think I was fully aware of the struggle (or of peoples' apparent dislike for Lord) when I penned his Underworld profile.

I own (and treasure) this book and have even presented excerpts from it here before with pictures to go with!

I believe this is at or near the end of the long line of portraits done of Ms. Greta Garbo and her amazing features still impress.

Some interesting reflections in this article about Garbo's later job offers and home life.

I know that several of my readers are enamored of Miss Paulette Goddard, so this will be a welcome article.

Considering the size of Garbo's and Goddard's articles, this one on Miss Ava Gardner seems positively puny (and lacking many photos) by comparison. We have some nice shots of her here in a tribute to her later career.

I've looked at this photo of Capucine over and over again and every time I see it, I think at first glance that it is Susan Sarandon!  LOL (The Bette Davis ad at the right probably isn't helping my jumbled noggin any either...)

Shit, I might have written to the Sharon Tate fan even if I didn't already like her!

One cannot underestimate in that pre-Internet age what it meant to have a physical representation (in the form of a photo, a program, etc...) of the person or project that was most dear to one. We never knew if we may ever see it again and had to grasp onto it. To this day, people (myself included) like to possess something of this nature physically rather than rely on solely a digital image.

This column by 1950s actor-turned-reporter Lee Graham was a regular feature in Hollywood Studio Magazine. Regarding that Warner Brothers party, I seem to recall a television special (later released on VHS) that coincided with the occasion called "Here's Looking at You." Ann Sothern, by the way, looks great here!

Graham doesn't have a very flattering view of Barbra Streisand (perhaps she declined to be interviewed at some point for this major publication?) There are some rare photos involving Michael Douglas, Kirk Douglas, Margaret O'Brien and Jane Withers. There is also some rough news regarding Dana Andrews and Sylvia Sidney. Andrews wouldn't last two more years, but Sidney lived almost another decade.

Finally, we have this back page of tidbits from the present time and from 31 years before. Miss Ross never did get that Josephine Baker project off the ground. I seem to recall Joan Collins regretting that she didn't wind up doing Sons and Lovers since her replacement Mary Ure wound up with an Oscar nomination for it! (She lost, by the way, to Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry.)

I decided to toss in this ad a) to add a splash of color and b) to point out that they were getting $3.00 apiece for these 16" x 11" posters (basically a magazine centerfold) of distinctly unappealing quality (with ugly color, grimy contrast and tacky detailing and text!) $3.00 went further in 1990 than it does now and this seems rather steep for what you were getting.