Views looking back - the Eclectic Ephemera Top 10

Here I am again, then, saying "What ho!" after another long dry spell at Eclectic Ephemera.  I seem to spend half my (few) posts lately apologising for my absence, and can only do so again.  I dislike constantly using work as an excuse, since I know so many bloggers who successfully juggle a good working/writing balance - it just seems I'm not one of them!  Having said that, it seems that a few of my favourite bloggers have gone quiet as the new year got underway, or have just emerged from the woodwork after months of silence, so perhaps I am not alone after all.

Anyway, enough navel-gazing, for a quite remarkable milestone was reached by this blog at the start of 2015 and it is this that I intend to celebrate in this post (for lack of anything really newsworthy!).  Quite appropriately, the start of my sixth year as a vintage blogger saw Eclectic Ephemera pass 400,000 pageviews.  Now of course that doesn't mean that 400,000 individual people have viewed this blog - some of those will have been me looking at the thing to see how it's doing (and forgetting to select "Don't track my own pageviews"!) and many, many more were probably spammers, bots, bits and other assorted members of the æthereal interweb - but the majority would have been fellow bloggers, followers and interested parties.  You, in other words.  And that deserves celebrating.  What I thought I'd do to mark the occasion, therefore, is to "run down" (to use the modern parlance) the Top 10 posts from Eclectic Ephemera's 6-year history - a sort of "best of", as it were, chosen by you the readers.

So, in ascending order they are:

10. Home linked to P G Wodehouse's Blandings Castle up for sale

 

From November 2010, the news that Apley House in Shropshire had been completely restored and was up for sale for the princely sum of £1¾ million.  I found it to be of particular interest because it is generally agreed among scholars to be the inspiration behind P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle, which was the setting for one of his other book series.  With Plum being one of my favourite authors and creator of that arch-chap Bertie Wooster, even though it was not directly related to the Jeeves stories I fancied including it here.  Eclectic Ephemera was barely a year old at this point and still evolving into the blog we know today, so at this point the stories I featured were sometimes more wide-ranging than they are today.  Still this one had a vintage bent about it and has obviously proved popular, for whatever reason (perhaps the Wodehouse connexion, or just its magnificence as an English stately home).

9. Liebster Blog Award #2

 

Jumping forward two years to November 2012, this blog received its second Liebster Blog Award.  Having largely given way to other blog awards (probably due to the demise of Google Friends) the Liebster nevertheless contained most of the things we recognise in today's examples.  Given to me by Lil of the now defunct Little Lil of London blog, it contained the usual x number of questions about myself to answer and I obviously made a decent fist of it since it is the most popular award-based post on the blog!

8. Historic wooden car floated at auction

 

November 2010 again and one of my many vintage motoring posts - this time featuring a one-off wood-bodied 1932 Talbot.  This car had an interesting history, which is why the story appealed to me (and everybody else too, it seems!), having started out in 1932 as just an ordinary 14/65 saloon before some time in the 1960s acquiring a fantastic roadster body fashioned entirely from boat-grade mahogany!  Despite this it was only valued at £20,000 to £30,000, eventually being sold for almost smack dab in the middle at £25,300.  As I said at the time, I hope the new owner enjoys varnishing!

7. Cary Grant - Style Icon

 

source

February 2012 and number 2 in my personal Style Icon series is obviously number 1 in your books - Mr Cary Grant.  Proof of the man's popularity even today, my thoughts on his impeccable dress sense - and more importantly the pictures that illustrate this - have gone towards making this everyone's favourite Style Icon post from a list that included David Niven and Fred Astaire!

6. Model of new Routemaster bus unveiled

 

source

The classic [red] AEC Routemaster bus has come to symbolise the city of London, not just for those of us in Britain but more especially for people living around the world for whom this simple, long-lived vehicle is part of their own external view of our capital.  Therefore it should perhaps come as little surprise, given the international nature of the internet (and thus, this blog), that the unveiling of its spiritual successor should prove to be so popular.  The idea of modern technology meeting classic, tried-and-tested design was much in evidence throughout the story of the NB4L (or New Routemaster, as it has become known) and this has always been the most appealing aspect of things to me, as I hope it has been to all who have followed the journey of the NB4L from drawing board to now, five years later, actually carrying passengers around the streets of London.  Having since seen one or two up close I can confirm it more than lives up to the hype and it's been fascinating to see its progress all the way from inception to now.

5. Vintage Rolls-Royces honour Spirit of Ecstasy

 

source

As if to reinforce its position as "Best Car in the World" this 2011 post about the centenary of Rolls-Royce's mascot, the famous Spirit of Ecstasy, makes it into the top 5.  As well the story about the anniversary celebrations featuring myriad Royce models from down the years, I took the opportunity to throw in a bit about some of my favourite examples and it has obviously struck a chord with many people for whom the Rolls-Royce is still the very epitome of luxury motoring.

4. Film Friday - Scarface (1932)

 

The third of the Film Friday: Gangsters series that I began back in 2010 with Little Caesar (and which sadly I've rather let slide since) this post focussed on the plot - and, more importantly the fashions - of Howard Hughes' and Howard Hawk's classic 1932 gangster drama Scarface, starring Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak and George Raft.  This post has proven to be popular with both vintage film and fashion fans alike, which are who I hoped would be the target audience and which has made me think that maybe it's about time I brought this series back!

3. All aboard the song train

 

This is the most recently-written post to make the top 10, containing a selection of railway-related tunes to celebrate (if that's the word I want!) my first foray back into the world of full-time work and commuting by train.  While that job didn't last and I now commute to the latest office by bus, this post really seemed to build up a good head of steam(!) and powered its way into the "most popular" list.  I suspect this is just through people searching for the phrase "song train", but then I live in hopes that there are several thousand visitors with a liking for the music of Glenn Miller, Paul Whiteman and Bob Crosby among others!

2. Rare photographs of comedian Stan Laurel are auctioned

 

Proof of the enduring popularity of two of the funniest comic actors to have ever lived, this story regarding the auction of rare photographs of (mainly) Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy proved inordinately popular (again probably just through people Googling "photos of Stan Laurel", I reckon).  Including some very rare images dating back to 1897 and showing a young Arthur Stanley Jefferson playing with his siblings these photographs came from a family collection owned by a great-niece of Stan's living in Sunderland, near to North Shields where he grew up.  The 54 lots eventually sold for a total of £8,000.

1. Classic car firm Morgan building new three-wheeler after gap of 60 years

 

This would certainly be in my top 10 favourite vintage news items that this blog has covered since 2009, so I'm delighted to see it make the number one slot with my readers too.  And why should it not?  Here is an almost perfect example of traditional, vintage design being married to modern technology and - even better - one that has been an unqualified success for the Morgan Motor Company.  For it is now the company's best-selling model, having sold more than 600 in the first few months after it went on sale and over 1,000 in the four years it has been on sale.  While that may not sound like much, for a niche manufacturer like Morgan - who still use the same construction methods and work out of the same factory in Malvern, Worcestershire that they have done since the company's inception in 1909 - it is a very big deal.  In 2014 a whole raft of updates were applied to the car in response to customer feedback and I see no reason why the 3-wheeler, having taken its rightful place back in the very heart of the Morgan range, should not endure for decades just as the other models have done.

There we have it, then - the 10 most popular Eclectic Ephemera posts from the past 6 years and 400,000 pageviews.  I hope you've all enjoyed this little reminiscence as much as I have writing it and I look forward to seeing what the future brings for this blog amid the hope of many more readers and followers to come.

Film Friday: Scarface (1932)

Coming to you a week later than intended (sorry about that!), the third of the Film Friday: Gangsters series - Howard Hughes gritty production Scarface, starring Paul Muni.





Right from the off we are again given the sobering reminder of just how great a problem organised crime was in the 1920s and 1930s and how it affected the average man in the street.  One can readily detect the influence of Howard Hughes in the directness of these opening titles (although he was forced to put them in by the censors).

The film, at least in parts, supposedly mirrors the life of the real (and most famous) gangster Al Capone, whose nickname was "Scarface".  Rumour has it that Capone liked the film so much he had his own private copy, but only after he sent a couple of his men down to the set to get the production crew's assurance that the film wasn't based on him(!).

From the opening shot this has all the hallmarks of a classic gangster film.  An illuminated street sign amid anonymous, looming buildings sets the mood.

Boss of the South Side, Louis Costillo (Harry J. Vejar), has just thrown a huge party.  Little does he know it will be the last party he ever hosts.

Miles and miles of paper streamers.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, why can't more parties have them these days?

Ahem.  Less of that, though, thank you very much!  Quite risqué for 1932 and further evidence of Howard Hughes' insistence for realism.

With the place empty Costillo goes to make a telephone call but he is promptly shot down by Tony Camonte (Paul Muni).  Camonte, originally one of Costillo's bodyguards, has switched allegiance to rival South Side gang boss Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins), who ordered the hit.

Our first glimpse of Tony Camonte, as he despatches Louis Costillo.  Director Howard Hawks makes clever use of shadows throughout this film, as you will see.

The papers are quick to pick up on the increasing gang wars and the Costillo murder is front page news.

I've only included this newspaper editor for that fact that he is wearing a strikingly busy tie.

The police have a pretty good idea that Tony was behind the killing of Louis Costillo.  Despite bringing him and his buddy Guino Rinaldo (George Raft) in for questioning they are unable to pin anything on them and a crooked lawyer sent by Lovo, now boss of the South Side and backed up by a corrupt politician, gets them swiftly released.

Unlike the effete and seemingly ineffectual Law in Little Caesar, or the practically non-existent police in The Public Enemy, the cops in Scarface are proper hard-nosed tough guys.

They wear pretty standard 1930s men's fashion - dark 3-piece suits and trilbys.  Tough and stylish.

And in case you were still in any doubt as to whose side they're on, they do that thing of hooking their thumbs into their waistcoats so that you can see their badges.  A lot.

Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) may only be a two-bit henchman at this point but, despite the lack of a tie, he still dresses pretty well.  The checked suit is a nice counterpoint to the plain ones of the police.

Guino Rinaldo (George Raft) is certainly the better dressed of the two throughout the film.

Tony and Guino head straight for Lovo's place to pick up their money for the job and get further instructions.

Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins, left) congratulates Tony on a job well done and appoints him his second-in command.

It is here that Tony first meets Johnny's girlfriend Poppy (Karen Morley).  Needless to say, Tony is immediately attracted to her, but she shows no interest in him whatsoever.

Poppy (Karern Morley).  A dressing table and some silk nightwear for the ladies to pore over.

Back at home Tony's mother (Inez Palange) cooks the dinner.  Discussion turns to Tony's younger sister Cesca (Ann Dvorak), who Mrs Camonte worries is staying out too much.

It's not clear who the young woman in the background is, but she wears a lovely polka dot dress. 

Cesca and Tony have a very love-hate relationship.  Tony is extremely over-protective of her and tries to stop her from going out gallivanting and seeing other men.  The incestuous undertones, while not quite so overt as in the 1983 Brian De Palma remake, are very definitely there even in this 1932 original.

Tony gives Cesca (Ann Dvorak) some of his money from Lovo to take her mind off the latest man he's just chased out of the house.

It is then that Cesca and Guino meet for the first time.  Although there is an attraction between them Guino believes Cesca to be too young (18 years old) for him and that any relationship would drive a wedge between him and Tony.

Later on Lovo, Tony, Guino and fellow henchman Angelo (Vince Barnett) head over to Louis Costillo's old headquarters to take possession and begin running the lucrative South Side bootlegging business.

Tony is wearing a great striped shirt and solid-colour wide, short tie (as they often were in the 20s and 30s).  As we can see from the promotional poster at the top of this post, in this scene (bottom) Lovo sports a rather natty blue pinstripe suit with contrasting red tie.

Now Tony is a bona fide mobster and he begins to dress rather ostentatiously.  After helping Lovo lay down the new law on the South Side he bumps into Poppy again.

Tony makes no secret of his attraction to Poppy, but she still couldn't care less.  She's starting to tolerate him a bit more, though, even in that brightly dotted jacket and horseshoe tie-pin.  I'll admit that Poppy's the better-dressed of the two here(!).

However, Tony's overeagerness to move up to number one and run the whole town has already made itself apparent.  During his recent tour of the South Side's bars and nightclubs where he enforces the use of Lovo's bootlegged beer Tony ventured into the North Side, run by rival boss O'Hara, and put a couple of bars out of business.  O'Hara's warning is swift and to the point:

Hughes was adamant that the film should be "as grisly, as realistic as possible".  Hence several instances of murdered mobsters being thrown from moving cars.

In spite of this Tony doesn't heed the warning and sends Guino to kill O'Hara in his front of a florist's shop (this is a reference to the real murder of crime boss Dean O'Banion in 1924).  Meanwhile Tony and Angelo stay at home running the business.

Angelo is by no stretch of the imagination the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he is loyal, tough (as we shall see later) and dresses well with a nice homburg, wing collar and checked tie ensemble.

Poppy shows up.  As Tony begins to assert himself more and more over the gang, so she becomes slowly more interested in him.

Tony's predilection for gaudy clothing hasn't abated, sadly.  Poppy's hat, blouse(?) and belted jacket is a much better, more understated look.

Meanwhile, following the murder of O'Hara, the North Side gang prepare to mobilise under their new leader Gaffney.  They have a secret weapon that they think will give them the edge over Lovo, Tony and the rest of the Souh Side gang - the Thompson Submachine Gun, the infamous "Tommy gun" so inexorably linked to gangsters ever since.

Gaffney checks his "pineapple".  Yes, you're not wrong - it's Boris Karloff, fresh from his appearance in Frankenstein, and still to appear in The Mummy later in 1932.

(It's great to see Karloff in a really dramatic role such as this.  That's not to take anything away from the horror films that justly made him famous, but here he gets a chance to essay a whole range of emotions and show just what a good all-round actor he actually was.)

Gaffney's henchman wears the contrasting dark suit/ light cap well, but the boss's 3-piece and trilby are the equal of them.

Gaffney and his gang head over to the South Side to exact their revenge.  Tony and Poppy are having lunch in a restaurant with most of their gang, when suddenly three cars roar past and a hail of bullets erupts from each of them - it's a drive-by shooting!

Poppy's still wearing the same blouse and jacket, but she's changed her hat.  The black's a nice contrast compared to the previous white, and the feather's a pleasant little touch.

This is the first time we see a woman in the middle of a gunfight, and it's something of a shock even today.

Guino is able to get one of the gunmen and retrieve his Tommy gun.  Gaffney beats a hasty retreat, his mission to wipe out Tony and the gang a failure.

Tony, Poppy and Guino immediately head over to Lovo's offices, where they find that Gaffney has struck there too.  He's been equally unsuccessful, though - Lovo is wounded in the arm, but alive.  As far as Tony is concerned it is all-out war and he practically usurps Johnny's authority, insisting he find Gaffney and give him a taste of his own medicine.  Now Tony has a Tommy gun, and is delighted:

Tony's double-breasted pinstripe is, for once, slightly more restrained.  It's the first thing I've seen him in since that checked suit at the beginning that I actually like.  Poppy is remarkably unfazed by it all - look, she's actually helping by loading a revolver!

"Say hello to my little friend!".   Whoops, wrong version! ;-)  "Look out Johnny, I'm gonna spit!".

So begins an all-out gang war, giving Hughes/Hawks ample opportunity to stage some really quite impressive (particularly for 1932) crashes and shootings.

A beer lorry smashes through a wooden platform.

A mobster is gunned down in the street.  This is the first of several instance where Howard Hawks includes an 'X' motif to signify a murder by Camonte or his men.

A car is shot up and ploughs through a fire hydrant and a lamp-post.

In a nod to the real St. Valentine's Day Massacre a group of North Side hoods are lined up against a wall and gunned down.  Good use of shadows again and, of course, there is the 'X' motif again.

A shot-up car crashes into a railway wagon.

Gaffney lays low, in fear for his life.  A little later he gets up enough courage to go bowling, surrounded by his mob.  But Tony finds him  anyway and mows them all down in the bowling alley.

Gaffney proves that all you need to play a good game of ten-pin bowling is a waistcoat & tie and a pair of proper shoes.  A shame he isn't given the chance to finish the game.

With the whole town buttoned up Tony and the gang go out to party.

I'm loving the whole look of this nightclub!

Poppy is already there with Lovo, but Tony barges straight in.

This great scene brilliantly illustrates Lovo's complete loss of any control he had left over the South Side, Poppy included.  Offered a light by both Tony and Johnny, she chooses Tony's match over Johnny's lighter.  Her simple, strappy evening gown is set off nicely by her earrings.

Also at the nightclub is Cesca.  She runs into Guino again and tries to seduce him, but Guino still isn't sure.  Cesca eventually ends up dancing with another man, until Tony spots them.  Then the fireworks really start.  Tony chases the guy off and takes Cesca home, where he treats her quite roughly in his attempts to reign her in.

Cesca wears a very simply, elegant black floor-length gown accessorised with large necklace...

...which Tony later tries to rip off.

Cesca is saved by their mother who sends Tony away, more convinced than ever that her son is a lost cause.  Meanwhile, Lovo, in a final act of desperation, hires some men to take care of Tony in order to try and get his empire back.  As Tony leaves the family home they strike, and a vicious (and again, impressive) car chase ensues.

The chase ends with both cars careering down a bank.  Lovo's men are killed but Tony escapes with only a few injuries.

Tony guesses that Lovo was behind the assassination attempt and once he has located Guino they both go to his office to confront him and extract revenge.  We all know what happens to double-crossers, don't we?

Guino's obviously still spreading himself around at this point, as Tony has to make a couple of 'phone calls before he locates him, including one to this girl who seems to make her furs out of her dead parrots(!) ;-p

Once he and Guino have dealt with Lovo, Tony heads over to Poppy's place to claim the last bit of the empire.  By this time Poppy is more than happy to see him.

The sign that Tony takes to be a good omen.

Some time later Cesca, having seemingly forgiven Tony for the umpteenth time, calls at Tony's office and meets Guino once more.  Admiring her persistence in constantly pursuing him, Guino starts to soften.

Cesca sports a brilliant white dress-suit with great cuffs and collar details, plus a simple hat.  It's easily the best outfit she's worn in the entire film, in my book.

Tony leaves town for a few weeks on a business trip and when he returns he finds that a few things have changed, not least the fact that Cesca has secretly married Guino.

Not aware of who the husband is, he gets Cesca's new address from their mother and storms over there.  He gets the surprise of his life when the door opens and he sees Guino standing before him.  In a moment of madness, Tony pulls out his gun and...

'X'!

Cesca is distraught and flees from Tony.  The shock of the whole thing has left him in a complete daze and his men take him back to his fortress home.  The police, meanwhile, get the news of Guino's death over the wire and the finger of guilt points squarely at Tony.  They head off to take him in, dead or alive.  The police arrive at Tony's house just after he and Angelo make it inside and barricade themselves in.

I mentioned that Angelo was tough.  He's just been shot in the stomach twice, yet he still manages to lock the door, climb a flight of stairs, lock another door AND answer the telephone before he finally expires.  Now that's tough!

It's Poppy on the telephone, but Tony is still insensible and this is the last we see or hear of her.

Suddenly Cesca appears in the doorway brandishing a gun, intent on avenging Guino's death.  But even then she can't bring herself to kill her own brother and instead joins him as they try to fight off the police.  Do they succeed?  Will the world be theirs, or will they lose everything?  Watch and see!


(I don't think this is the original trailer to be honest, more likely a later one -  perhaps from a 1940s/50s re-release.

This is the last of the Pre-Code crime films in my collection; the next Film Friday (whenever that will be!) will see us return to James Cagney in the 1938 classic Angels With Dirty Faces.