Happy Belated Birthday, Miss Bankhead, Dahling!

Don't mess with a Congressman's daughter.

"Say anything about me, darling, as long as it isn't boring."

"My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine." 

Tallulah Bankhead, who passed away in 1968 at the age of 66, would have turned 111 years old last Thursday. In her lifetime she only made 15 movies and only performed in 23 Broadway stage productions. Her only claim to literary fame was an autobiography entitled "My Autobiography." And she was only 5'3".

So why should we remember Tallulah Bankhead?

Because she was a nut. A character. A bonne vivante. A persona (to use the magic word). In short, Tallulah Bankhead was a very interesting person.

Dorothy Parker and the Vicious Circle: A Birthday Tribute

Yesterday, August 22nd, Dorothy "Dotty" Rothschild Parker (1893-1967) would have been 119 years old. For a woman who tried to commit suicide as many times as she did, it is a wonder that she lived into her seventies. Although Parker is most well known as a wit, theatre critic, poet, and short story writer, she also made some contributions to the Hollywood scene, writing such screenplays as A STOR IS BORN (1937 AND 1954), SABOTEUR (1942), and some dialogue for THE LITTLE FOXES (1941), so I believe she deserves a mention here. And despite the fact that she once said that Katharine Hepburn "runs the gamut of emotions from A to B," she still happens to be one of my favorite 20th century women.