MARCH STAR OF THE MONTH: PAUL MESCAL 

Welcome to The Hollywoodland Revue Blog...

Alice Anthon: The Perfect Model Hollywood Almost Forgot

In the early 1930s, when beauty contests still promised fairy-tale ascents and the line between art, fashion, and show business blurred nightly under marquee lights, Alice Anthon briefly became a name to watch. Newspapers described her with a mix of reverence and amazement: “the perfect artist’s model,” “New York’s most beautiful artist’s model,” a young woman whose form was judged so classically ideal that painters, sculptors, and photographers competed for her presence. Her career flared brightly, crossing from the studios of Manhattan to the stages of Broadway and, finally, to Hollywood—before ending with tragic suddenness at just twenty-one.

Read more »

Here’s the Story…of a House That Became Television History: The Brady Bunch Home Earns Landmark Status

For generations it has been one of America's most identifiable residences. A humble ranch nestled on a quiet street in Studio City; it's been known to millions of television viewers around the country as the home of TV's most notorious blended family. Now the house made iconic by The Brady Bunch has been officially deemed a Los Angeles landmark. In early March 2026, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted to recognize the home as a Historic-Cultural Monument, ensuring its preservation as an integral piece of pop-culture history.

Read more »

Moviegoers This Weekend Have a Wild Mix of Monsters, Animation, and Gangsters

Moviegoers heading to theaters this weekend will find an eclectic mix of films competing for their attention, ranging from a lavish gothic reimagining of a classic Universal monster to Pixar’s latest animated adventure and a big-screen continuation of one of television’s most celebrated crime dramas. The first weekend of March is not traditionally one of Hollywood’s biggest release windows, yet the lineup arriving in theaters offers enough variety to satisfy audiences looking for everything from family entertainment to darker, adult-oriented storytelling.

Read more »

Ghosts in the Dressing Room: The Real Story of 8954 Norma Place

Tucked into the narrow slope of West Hollywood’s Norma Place stands a building that has long traded in rumor, memory, and the durable afterglow of silent Hollywood. Today it reads as an apartment house, its clapboard and porch details evoking the early 1920s domestic optimism that once defined the Sherman district. But in the earliest days of the movie colony, locals claimed that it sat at the westernmost boundary of the Norma Talmadge studio lot, located at 812 North Robertson Boulevard. In the years since, the cottage has been rumored to house Hollywood's residual ghost population both figuratively and literally.

Read more »

When Snow White Sang ‘Proud Mary’: Reconsidering the 1989 Oscars and Hollywood’s Most Misunderstood Night

For decades, the 61st Academy Awards has occupied a notorious place in Hollywood lore—an evening whispered about with the same mixture of disbelief and theatrical shudder usually reserved for colossal box-office bombs. It was the night Snow White flirted with Tom Hanks, Rob Lowe crooned “Proud Mary,” and producer Allan Carr’s bold, glittering dream came crashing down in full view of a bewildered global audience. The evening was swiftly branded a fiasco, a cautionary tale in how not to produce the Oscars.

Read more »

Terry Kilburn: From Hollywood’s Tiny Tim to a Life in the American Theatre

Terence Edward Kilburn—forever “Terry” to film lovers who met him first as a wide-eyed Victorian waif—was born November 25, 1926, in West Ham, Essex, then a working-class pocket of greater London that produced more grit than glamour. Yet the story of Terry Kilburn is not merely the story of a child actor plucked from Britain and set down beneath the klieg lights. It is also the quieter, longer story that followed: the one in which an MGM juvenile player grew into a serious stage artist, a director, and a shaping force in American regional theatre—an “after” chapter many former child stars never get to write.

Read more »

Actor Awards 2026: “Sinners” Shakes the Shrine and the Oscar Race Blinks First

The show long known as the SAG Awards walked onto the Shrine Auditorium stage this year with a new name—The Actor Awards—and, fittingly, a renewed sense of momentum. SAG-AFTRA’s leadership has framed the rebrand as a clearer, more globally legible identity now that the ceremony streams on Netflix, but the night’s real headline wasn’t branding. It was volatility. A season that had begun to feel neatly prewritten suddenly took a hard left, as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners roared in like a late-arriving storm and reminded everyone why actors’ awards matter: because performers, voting for performers, will sometimes choose the work that felt most alive in the room—even if the prediction markets said otherwise.

Read more »

Dead Hand at the Card Table: The Killing of Harry Lucenay at the American Legion

Hollywood has always been good at hiding its bodies. Long before the neon sins of Sunset Strip hardened into cliché, men drank too much, stayed up too late, and settled arguments with their fists—or worse—behind respectable doors. One such door closed forever on the morning of July 31, 1944, when Harry Lucenay, a thick-shouldered, middle-aged gambler and dog owner, fell dead on the floor of the Hollywood American Legion Post 43, shot down after an all-night poker game curdled into accusation, fear, and gunfire.

Read more »

OBIT: Neil Sedaka: The Boy From Brooklyn Who Scored the Soundtrack of Generations

When Neil Sedaka died on February 27, 2026, at the age of 86, the world lost one of its most gifted and enduring musical storytellers — a pop auteur whose melodies became the emotional currency of teen life, heartache, celebration and nostalgia across more than half a century. Tributes poured in almost instantly from fans, fellow musicians, and those whose personal soundtracks had been fashioned by his piano-driven hooks and sunny vocal style. “Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather,” his family said in a statement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly … an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

Read more »

BOOKS: Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool — A Legend, Reframed

Lauren Bacall has been written about so frequently— mythologized, quoted, imitated—that any new biography presents itself almost as an implicit dare: prove you can tell us something true about the woman underneath the lacquer of “cool.” In Lauren Bacall: The Queen of Cool, film historian Anthony Uzarowski (following his excellent biographies of Ava Gardner and Jessica Lange) rises to meet that challenge head on with a brisk, photo-rich portrait of Bacall as both icon and working actress: ambitious, watchful, sometimes insecure, and above all else, keenly aware of how an adopted persona can become a prison. Published by the University Press of Mississippi as part of its ongoing Hollywood Legends Series, this compact 192-page hardcover packs in an impressive amount of substance along with its sleek style—substantial supporting apparatus like source notes and an index, plus a treasure trove of black-and-white illustrations that give the book the satisfying heft and layout of a well-curated exhibit as much as a straight narrative life.

Read more »

About us...still under construction

This blog is dedicated to exploring the history, legacy, and continuing evolution of Hollywood—from its silent beginnings to its modern reinventions. Through essays, reviews, obituaries, and historical features, we preserve and examine the stories behind the people, places, and films that shaped the entertainment world. Our goal is to bridge past and present, connecting classic cinema and Hollywood history with contemporary film, television, and culture. Whether uncovering forgotten stars, reviewing new releases, or revisiting the landmarks of old Los Angeles, this space celebrates the art, memory, and mythology that define the film industry.