Long before chat shows, judges and “tabloid infotainment” cluttered up American television airwaves, game shows dominated daytime programming. Several popular game shows of the 1950s and ’60s featured celebrity panelists—To Tell the Truth, Password, What’s My Line, You Bet Your Life, I’ve Got a Secret and Hollywood Squares. Each show had a rhythm and structure to it while still allowing for a cheeky faux pas...

Gone with the Wind, Spartacus, Pillow Talk, To Have and Have Not… these are some of the films that comes to mind when we think of “Classic Hollywood” today. But what of the actors and actresses who appeared in them, the men and women who defined glamour and romance during Hollywood’s golden age… where are they now? Still hard at work. James Garner (Born 1928):...

Gypsy Rose Lee. Tempest Storm. Lily St. Cyr. If there’s one word associated with these famous women, it’s “burlesque.” In the modern sense of the word, burlesque was a popular form of theatrical variety show featuring risqué comedy, parody, and pastiche. When it was exported from Victorian England to the United States in the 1840s, American elements were added: minstrel show performances, stage magic, contemporary...

With Mad Men out of the game this year and not expected to make a return until spring 2012, television networks are going head to head to see who can fill its gap. ABC is joining the mile high club with their upcoming Pan Am series, while NBC are heading to Chicago and the opening of the first Playboy Club. I am intrigued by both...

From age 7 to 30, I was Darrin two all the way. This kid was a macho, red-blooded Dick Sargent devotee. I couldn’t stand Darrin one, Dick York, with his big ears, greasy hair, and constant whining. No sir, Dick Sargent was my man – so much smoother and more willing to roll with the punches. But then I got married and something strange happened....

Exotica music began to take its roots as early as the 1930’s, but after WWII this romanticized version of Polynesia, far-away places, and tropical islands was clearly permeating its way into the American culture, transporting the listener with distinctive sounds like jungle drums, idiophones, Indonesian and Burmese gongs, Tahitian logs and the exotic sounds of bird calls, primal screeching, and other abstract jungle sounds. Martin...

Thanks to a post-World War II economic and technological boom, the 1950s and early 60s was the golden age for the bachelor lifestyle. With the advent of Playboy magazine, the quintessential guide to urban living, it reached critical mass. Armed with affluence, abundant leisure time, and the sagacity of Saint Hefner, bachelors found themselves with two things: freedom and optimism. The ultimate expression of this...