Born on this day – Leslie Brooks:

Actress

Dancer

July 13, 1922 – July 1, 2011

Credits:

Blonde Ice (1948); Cigarette Girl (1947); City Without Men (1943); Cover Girl (1944); Hollow Triumph (1948); How's Your Love Life? (1971); I Love a Bandleader (1945); It's Great to Be Young (1946); Lucky Legs (1942); Navy Blues (1941); Nine Girls (1944); Overland to Deadwood (1942); Romance on the High Seas (1948); Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner (1949); TCM Remembers (2011); The Cobra Strikes (1948); The Corpse Came C.O.D. (1947); The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941); The Man Who Dared (1946); The Playgirls (1942); The Secret of the Whistler (1946); The Talk of the Town (1942); Tonight and Every Night (1945); Two Señoritas from Chicago (1943); Underground Agent (1942); What's Buzzin', Cousin? (1943); Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942); You Were Never Lovelier (1942); You're in the Army Now (1941); Ziegfeld Girl (1941).

Born on this day – John Francis Dillon:

 

Director

Actor

July 13, 1884 – April 4, 1934

Credits:

A Bachelor's Finish (1917); A Berth Scandal (1917); A Burglar's Bride (1917); A Deep Sea Liar (1916); A Desert Honeymoon (1915); A Dishonest Burglar (1917); A Dramatic Mistake (1914); A Hotel Disgrace (1917); A Maid and a Man (1915); A Maid by Proxy (1915); A Male Governess (1917); A Mixed Up Elopement (1915); A Mixup at Rudolph's (1916); A Mix-Up in Photos (1916); A Prisoner for Life (1919); A Taste of Life (1919); A Warm Reception (1917); Aired in Court (1917); All in the Same Boat (1915); Almost a King (1915); Almost a Widow (1915); Anita's Butterfly (1915); Beans (1918); Behind the Mask (1932); Bess the Detectress in the Dog Watch (1914); Betty Takes a Hand (1918); Blackbirds (1920); Bride of the Regiment (1930); Bungling Bill, Detective (1916); Bungling Bill, Doctor (1916); Bungling Bill's Burglar (1916); Bungling Bill's Dress Suit (1916); Bungling Bill's Peeping Ways (1916); Burglar by Proxy (1919); Call Her Savage (1932); Calvert's Valley (1922); Cappy Ricks (1921); Careers (1929); Cats, Cash and a Cook Book (1915); Chickie (1925); Children of the Night (1921); Children of the Ritz (1929); Chinatown Villains (1916); Curing Father (1915); Dan Cupid: Fixer (1915); Delinquent Bridegrooms (1916); Deserted at the Auto (1915); Don Juan's 3 Nights (1926); Double Dealing (1923); Down on the Farm (1915); Ethel's New Dress (1915); Fast Life (1929); Flaming Youth (1923); Flirting with Love (1924); Following Father's Footsteps (1915); For His Sake (1922); For Ten Thousand Bucks (1916); Getting in Wrong (1916); Gleam O'Dawn (1922); Green-Eyed Johnny (1919); Happy Returns (1919); He Fell in a Cabaret (1915); Heaven Will Protect a Woiking Goil (1916); Heiress for a Day (1918); Henry's Little Kid (1916); Her Birthday Knight (1917); Her Finishing Touch (1917); Hired and Fired (1916); His Blowout (1916); His Nobs the Duke (1915); His Only Pants (1915); His Sudden Rival (1917); His Taking Ways (1914); His Wife's Husband (1915); Hobbled Hearts (1917); Humanity (1933); If I Marry Again (1925); Igorrotes, Crocodiles and a Hat Box (1916); Indiscreet Corinne (1917); It Happened on Friday (1915); It Happened While He Fished (1915); It Might Have Been Serious (1915); Johnny the Barber (1915); Just for a Kid (1916); Kiddus, Kids and Kiddo (1915); Kids and Corsets (1915); Kismet (1930); Knocking Out Knockout Kelly (1916); Lilies of the Field (1924); Limousine Life (1918); Love, Dynamite and Baseballs (1916); Love's Blindness (1926); Love's Prisoner (1919); Man About Town (1932); Man Crazy (1927); Man Wanted (1922); Midnight Lovers (1926); Millie (1931); Mixed Values (1915); Molly's Malady (1915); More Truth Than Poetry (1916); Nailing on the Lid (1916); Nancy Comes Home (1918); National Nuts (1916); Nellie the Pride of the Fire House (1915); One Night at Susie's (1930); One to the Minute (1915); One Way Street (1925); One Yard to Go (1931); Out of the Ruins (1928); Paddy's Political Dream (1916); Pagan Lady (1931); Sally (1929); Scarlet Seas (1928); Search Me! (1916); Shannon of the Sixth (1914); She Hired a Husband (1918); Slipping It Over on Father (1916); Smile, Brother, Smile (1927); Some Night (1916); Spring Is Here (1930); Suds (1920); Taking Her Measure (1915); Tapering Fingers (1919); Temporary Alimony (1919); Temptations of a Shop Girl (1927); The Baby's Fault (1915); The Big Shakedown (1934); The Bold Banditti and the Rah, Rah Boys (1914); The Broken Violin (1923); The Chief's Daughter (1911); The Cohens and Kellys in Hollywood (1932); The Crystal Cup (1927); The Cub Reporter (1922); The Dangerous Maid (1923); The Finger Points (1931); The Flip of a Coin (1919); The Follies Girl (1919); The Girl of the Golden West (1930); The Half-Way Girl (1925); The Heart of a Follies Girl (1928); The Huntress (1923); The Iron Mitt (1916); The Key to Yesterday (1914); The Lion Hearted Chief (1916); The Love Swindle (1918); The Man in the Couch (1914); The Noose (1928); The Perfect Flapper (1924); The Plaything of Broadway (1921); The Political Boss (1914); The Primitive Instinct (1914); The Prince of Headwaiters (1927); The Rajah's Vow (1914); The Reckless Hour (1931); The Right of Way (1920); The Rise and Fall of Officer 13 (1915); The Roof Tree (1921); The Sea Tiger (1927); The Self-Made Wife (1923); The Silk-Lined Burglar (1919); The Tea Hound (1919); The Test of Donald Norton (1926); The Yellow Stain (1922); Their Husband (1917); Three Friends (1913); 'Tis Spring (1933); Too Many Crooks (1915); Too Much Married (1916); Too Much Money (1926); Twin Troubles (1917); Two Hearts and a Thief (1915); Walk This Way (1916); Wanted... A Chaperone (1915); We Moderns (1925); Wheels and Woe (1917); When Cupid Crossed the Bay (1915); When His Lordship Proposed (1915); When Papa Died (1916); With Father's Help (1915); Without Compromise (1922).

Recommended reading – The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (2007)

 

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps (2007).

The Best crime stories from the pulps during their golden age - the '20s, '30s, & '40s.

Edited by Otto Penzler.

Publisher: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard.

 
ISBN-10: 0307280489
ISBN-13: 978-0307280480
 
Paperback.
Unabridged.
Anthology of short stories.
 
Back cover description:
 
The biggest, the boldest, the most comprehensive collection of Pulp writing ever assembled.

Weighing in at over a thousand pages, containing over forty-seven stories and two novels, this book is big baby, bigger and more powerful than a freight train—a bullet couldn’t pass through it. Here are the best stories and every major writer who ever appeared in celebrated Pulps like Black Mask, Dime Detective, Detective Fiction Weekly, and more. These are the classic tales that created the genre and gave birth to hard-hitting detectives who smoke criminals like packs of cigarettes; sultry dames whose looks are as lethal as a dagger to the chest; and gin-soaked hideouts where conversations are just preludes to murder. This is crime fiction at its gritty best.

Including:

• Three stories by Raymond Chandler, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Dashiell Hammett.
• Complete novels from Carroll John Daly, the man who invented the hard-boiled detective, and Fredrick Nebel, one of the masters of the form.
• A never before published Dashiell Hammett story.
• Every other major pulp writer of the time, including Paul Cain, Steve Fisher, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and many, many more of whom you’ve probably never heard.
• Three deadly sections–The Crimefighters, The Villains, and Dames–with three unstoppable introductions by Harlan Coben, Harlan Ellison, and Laura Lippman.

Featuring:

• Plenty of reasons for murder, all of them good.
• A kid so smart–he’ll die of it.
• A soft-hearted loan shark’s legman learning–the hard way–never to buy a strange blonde a hamburger.
• The uncanny “Moon Man” and his mad-money victims.

 
Contents:

Otto Penzler: Foreword. Part One: The Crimefighers. Harlan Coben: Introduction. Paul Cain: One, Two, Three. Dashiell Hammett: The Creeping Siamese. Erle Stanley Gardner: Honest Money. Horace McCoy: Frost Rides Alone. Thomas Walsh: Double Check. Charles G. Booth: Stag Party. Leslie T. White: The City of Hell! Raymond Chandler: Red Wind. Fredrick Nebel: Wise Guy. George Harmon Coxe: Murder Picture. Norbert Davis: The Price of a Dime. William Rollins, Jr.: Chicago Confetti. Cornell Woolrich: Two Murders, One Crime. Carroll John Daly: The Third Murderer. Part Two: The Villains. Harlan Ellison: Introduction. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Cat Woman. Cornell Woolrich: The Dilemma of the Dead Lady. Richard B. Sale: The House of Kaa. Leslie Charteris: The Invisible Millionaire. Steve Fisher: You’ll Always Remember Me. James M. Cain: Pastorale. Frank Gruber: The Sad Serbian. Dashiell Hammett: Faith. Raymond Chandler: Finger Man. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Monkey Murder. Raoul Whitfield: About Kid Deth. Frederick C. Davis: The Sinister Sphere. Paul Cain: Pigeon Blood. C. S. Montanye: The Perfect Crime. Norbert Davis: You’ll Die Laughing. Frederick Nebel: The Crimes of Richmond City: i) Raw Law. ii) Dog Eat Dog. iii) The Law Laughs Last. iv) Law Without Law. v) Graft. Part Three: The Dames. Laura Lippman: Introduction. Cornell Woolrich: Angel Face. Leslie T. White: Chosen to Die. Eric Taylor: A Pinch of Snuff. Raymond Chandler: Killer in the Rain. Adolphe Barreaux: Sally the Sleuth. C. S. Montanye: A Shock for the Countess. C. B. Yorke: Snowbound. Randolph Barr: The Girl Who Knew Too Much. D. B. McCandless: The Corpse in the Crystal. D. B. McCandless: He Got What He Asked For. P. T. Luman: Gangster’s Brand. Robert Reeves: Dance Macabre. Dashiell Hammett: The Girl with the Silver Eyes. Perry Paul: The Jane from Hell’s Kitchen. Whitman Chambers: The Duchess Pulls a Fast One. Roger Torrey: Mansion of Death. Roger Torrey: Concealed Weapon. Carlos Martinez: The Devil’s Bookkeeper. Lars Anderson: Black Legion. Richard Sale: Three Wise Men of Babylon. Eugene Thomas: The Adventure of the Voodoo Moon. T. T. Flynn: Brother Murder. Stewart Sterling: Kindly Omit Flowers.

Nicholson Baker, on books:

 

Books: a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens.

- Nicholson Baker.

On this day in movie history - Road to Perdition (2002)

Road to Perdition

directed by Sam Mendes,

written by David Self,

based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner,

was released in the United States on July 12, 2002.

Music by Thomas Newman.

Cast:

Tom Hanks, Tyler Hoechlin, Paul Newman, Jude Law, Daniel Craig, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Liam Aiken, Dylan Baker, Ciarán Hinds, David Darlow, Kerry Rossall, Anthony LaPaglia, Kevin Chamberlin, Harry Groener, JoBe Cerny.

On this day in movie history - Reign of Fire (2002)

Reign of Fire

directed by Rob Bowman,

written by Gregg Chabot, Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg,

based on a story by Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka,

was released in the United States on July 12, 2002.

Music by Edward Shearmur, Brad Wagner, Grant Claytor and Mad at Gravity.

Cast:

Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler, Scott Moutter, David Kennedy, Alexander Siddig, Ned Dennehy, Rory Keenan, Terence Maynard, Doug Cockle, Randall Carlton, Chris Kelly, Ben Thornton, Alice Krige, Malcolm Douglas, Dessie Gallagher, Martin Linnane, Denis Conway, Duncan Keegan, Laura Pyper, Berts Folan, Brian McGuinness, Barry Barnes, David Herlihy, Gerry O’Brien, Patrick Foy, Anne Maria McAuley, Maree Duffy, Alex Meacock, David Garrick, Andy Godbold, Conor Dean Smith, Ross Donnelly, Jack Gleeson, Sebastian Siegel.

On this day in movie history - News Is Made at Night (1939)

News Is Made at Night

directed by Alfred L. Werker,

written by John Francis Larkin,

was released in the United States on July 12, 1939.

Music by Samuel Kaylin.

Behind the scenes photograph:

Cast:

Preston Foster, Lynn Bari, Russell Gleason, George Barbier, Eddie Collins, Minor Watson, Charles Halton, Paul Harvey, Richard Lane, Charles Lane, Betty Compson, Paul Fix, Paul Guilfoyle, Ernie Alexander, Irving Bacon, Eugene Borden, Wade Boteler, Harold Goodwin, George Guhl, J. Anthony Hughes, William Irving, Robert Emmett Keane, Alberto Morin, James C. Morton, David Newell, Jack Norton, George O'Hara, Imboden Parrish, Arthur Rankin, Jack Richardson, Harry Strang, Billy Wayne.