On The Tinsel Front

Category: Real People & Places

  • The Zoot Suit Riots

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    Dress and racial conflict in World War II Los Angeles SPOILER ALERT: While this post doesn’t given away any plot points, it’s best read after listening to Season 2, Episode 7: “Riot.” OLLIE: Dear Bet: Over the weekend war broke out between servicemen and zoot suiters in downtown Los Angeles and Mexican neighborhoods to the…

  • The Mexican Repatriation

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    The more things change the more they remain the same. JULIE: My parents came here from Mexico in 1919… met, got married, had us. Everything was great until the Depression, when people started blaming Mexicans for the lack of jobs… and started sending them back to Mexico. As I conceived the character of Julie —…

  • SNAFU STORY MEETING

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    How an idea becomes a story. Spoiler Alert: This post doesn’t give away any plot points, but you’ll appreciate it more if you read it after listening to Season 2, Episode 5 (“Mother”). OLLIE: I have an idea… PHIL EASTMAN: Great. What is it? OLLIE: Well, it’s kind of dumb… GEISEL: Ollie, there are no…

  • The Two Rays

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    Harryhausen and Bradbury, best friends SPOILER ALERT: While this post doesn’t give away any plot points, it’s best read after listening to Episode #6: “Reflections” HARRYHAUSEN: Ollie, this is my friend, Ray Bradbury… Ray’s a writer. OLLIE: Really? Of what? BRADBURY: Science Fiction, things like that. HARRYHAUSEN: Weird stuff. BRADBURY: Yeah, weird like everything in…

  • Agness ‘Aggie” Underwood

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    Agness “Aggie” Underwood “Tough as nails” reporter and first female city editor AGGIE: Nice to meet you, Ollie. Agness Underwood, with the Herald-Express. OLLIE: A reporter? AGGIE: Yeah, but don’t hold that against me. Back when I was beginning to map out the plot of Season 2, I decided I needed the character of a…

  • Private Snafu

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    GEISEL: Remember when you told me that the best way to teach is to make students laugh? OLLIE: Yeah. GEISEL: Well, that’s what we’re trying to do with these, each one about this idiot screwing up in every way possible… In Episode #2: “New Job,” Ted Geisel shows Ollie the trailer for the Private Snafu,…

  • LEON SCHLESINGER PRODUCTIONS

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    Leon Schlesinger Productions Where Warner Brothers cartoons were made! OLLIE: And what is it they do? JULIE: They’re animators. We make the Warner Brothers cartoons here. You know, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck… Asked to identify the company associated with the cartoons that featured Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck et al, most people would answer…

  • Ivie Anderson

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    Christopher Bomba
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    Ivie Anderson Jazz Singer Turned Restauranteur TOES: That, Ollie, is none other than Ivie Anderson. OLLIE: And who’s that…? TOES: She’s a singer, one of the best. Toured with Duke Ellington… The owner of “Ivie’s Chicken Shack” (who disapproves of Toes and company’s nickname for Ollie) was a jazz great. This profile from AllAboutJazz sums…

  • SEASON 2 has begun!

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    Christopher Bomba
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    It’s taken only two years, but Season 2 is finally here! (Thanks for your patience!) Episodes #1 and #2 are now available wherever you get your podcasts. Go to the podcast’s page on Podlink for links to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other platforms. You can also listen on the Tinsel Front website Episodes page, The…

  • Central Avenue

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    I couldn’t tell a story about Los Angeles in the 1940s without some mention of Central Avenue, the road that, running due south from downtown, was the cultural epicenter of the city’s black community and a musical mecca where jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Billy Holliday, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald performed. Sadly, this…

  • “That’s What The Best Dressed Man In Harlem Will Wear”

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    Ollie: “The guys arranged for me to come on set and watch them shoot their number — “That’s What The Best Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear.” It’s a song about soldiers trading in their smart civilian clothes for army khaki. Joe Louis is part of it, doing a workout on a speed bag…” This…

  • The Hollywood Canteen

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    Ollie: “So the next night I headed off to the Canteen by myself… There was a long line of servicemen waiting to get in… it struck me just how young most of us were, and how, -eager and rambunctious, we weren’t much different from a bunch of high schoolers on a field trip, goofing off,…

  • Ted Geisel aka “Dr. Seuss”

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    Ollie: “I saw a man I recognized… and never thought I’d see in Hollywood. It was the cartoonist who publishes under the name Dr. Seuss. And he was in uniform with captain bars!“ Ollie: “… I made sure I read every cartoon you did for PM. I admired the way you took a stand against…

  • “This Is The Army” – The Movie

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    Reagan: “You are thus being temporarily attached to the company performing the Irving Berlin muscial revue “This Is The Army.” Its cross-country tour over, it’s in town for the for the production of the film version over at Warner Brothers, to which you will report immediately…” This morale-raising cinematic ode to the U.S. Armed Forces…

  • Culver City

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    Ollie: It’s in California in a town called Culver City, which is near Los Angeles… Culver City is a Southern California town with a rich history and the location for much of TINSEL FRONT’s first season. The city was founded in 1917 by developer Harry Culver at the junction of several rail lines. (See post…