Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Happy Birthday Sophia !




Birthday greetings to a true legend: 77 on the 20th! A demonstration of Loren's star power: I remember being about 14 and reading about EL CID which we were eagerly looking forward to; it seems the early advertising featured Heston as sole name above the title [which would have been appropriate really: "Charlton Heston as EL CID"]. But there was a court case, whcih I read about in the papers, Sophia's contract stipulated equal billing, so the early campaign had to be pulled, which must have irked the Heston camp somewhat! She really was as big a star as Elizabeth Taylor then, and is still a legend.

How I loved HOUSEBOAT and IT STARTED IN NAPLES, and THE MILLIONAIRESS as well as BOY ON A DOLPHIN and LEGEND OF THE LOST .... and those later ones. It is fascinating now going back to her early 50s pre-Hollywood movies, when she was about 20 where she is marvellous in WOMAN OF THE RIVER, TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, GOLD OF NAPLES,SCANDAL IN SORRENTO, even in the silly TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA one could see this is a girl who is going places!

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