"No Politics Zone"

From Roman Holiday in 1953: A touching scene at approx. 1:33:23 into the film; near the end of the movie.

It's Barbara Stanwyck's birthday today! - she was born July 16, 1907 in New York City as Ruby Catherine Stevens. She was orphaned at the age of four, raised in foster homes, and made her debut on stage in the chorus as a Ziegfeld girl in 1923 at age 16. She was 31 years old when this lovely photo was taken by Ernest Bachrach for RKO Pictures in 1938.

Happy birthday to Aline MacMahon, born May 3, 1899. A talented and attractive actress with a career of over 50 years including stage & screen. She received an Oscar nomination for her role in Dragon Seed in 1944.

From top to bottom & left to right, the photos are:

a publicity portrait for "Once in a Lifetime" from 1932

with Walter Huston in "Dragon Seed", 1944

with Joan Blondell and Ruby Keeler in "Gold Diggers of 1933"

in the bathtub! - from "Gold Diggers of 1933"

an animation from "Heat Lightning" in 1934

April 25, 1917: On this day, Ella Fitzgerald, the "Queen of Jazz" was born in Newport News, VA. Her singing career began at age 17 on November 21, 1934, in an early "Amateur Night" at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She is said to have given 2,457 concerts/performances over a career of nearly 60 years.

The top photo shows Ella performing at The Downbeat Club in NYC in 1947 while Dizzy Gillespie looks on; the lower photos show Ella with Louie Armstrong in the studio, and Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles.

Gilda Radner (as Emily Latella) and Raquel Welch (the guest host) in Season 1, Episode 18 of Saturday Night Live.

Happy birthday to Bettie Page, and J. Robert Oppenheimer - each of them famous in their own unique way!

Happy Birthday to the amazing Italian actress Silvana Mangano; b: April 21, 1930; d: December 16, 1989. Top photo is from 1956, and taken by Eve Arnold for an exhibit at MoMA. The bottom photo was shot in 1946 by Elio Luxardo; this was the same year she entered, and won the Miss Rome beauty contest.

Also: Silvana is the grandmother of Giada De Laurentiis.

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Happy birthday to Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017).

What’s this about, and why should I spend 4 minutes on this post?

This was filmed in Scotland in 2019 from the Black Isle at a place called Hillockhead - just north of Fortrose. From this point one is about 8 miles (across the Moray Firth) from Culloden, the site of a decisive battle fought on April 16, 1746 between the English army and the Jacobites - mostly Scottish Highlanders - 280 years ago today.

For lack of anything more interesting to do, I was filming the surf and daydreaming on this soggy day in the Scottish Highlands. While idly staring across the Moray Firth, I saw a rainbow form in a column of rainfall - across the Firth, in the distance above Culloden. The significance of this escaped me until later when I reviewed the video.

This post gets a "Mature Content" rating by tumblr's censorship regime;

While this post does not get a "Mature Content" rating by tumblr's censorship regime.