Tag Archives: Ron Base

When I mixed up Frankie Avalon with another former teen idol

Posted on September 18, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett ‘It wasn’t exactly Elvis in Las Vegas’. That was the lede in our story after my colleague Ron Base and I interviewed Frankie Avalon, who turns 84 today,  when he performed in cabaret at a seedy nightclub … Continue reading →

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That time when Lauren Bacall gave me a smacker

Posted on September 16, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett ‘You know how to whistle, don’t ya? Just put your lips together and blow.’ Whenever I watch the movie ‘To Have and Have Not’, that provocative line Lauren Bacall (photo below) says to Humphrey Bogart always gives … Continue reading →

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Lauren Bacall, a friend’s death and a total eclipse of the sun

Posted on April 8, 2024 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Lauren Bacall was wrapping up the pre-Broadway run of ‘Applause’, the stage musical based on the feature film ‘All About Eve’, at Detroit’s Fisher Theatre in February 1970. After the final curtain in a nearby … Continue reading →

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How Jerry Bruckheimer landed Tom Cruise for ‘Top Gun’

Posted on September 21, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Several actors claimed to have been first choice to play hot-shot pilot ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in ‘Top Gun’ but producer Jerry Bruckheimer told me Tom Cruise always had the part.

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When watching the Oscars used to be fun

Posted on March 12, 2023 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Maverick banshees all at once, Elvis sadness, women on water, Fabelmans on the western front. Tár but no thanks. There was a time when I really cared about movies and found the competition for Academy Awards … Continue reading →

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Ed McBain tops my 2018 reading list

Posted on December 30, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Evan Hunter was an American writer who wrote several novels that were made into movies including Richard Brooks’s ‘Blackboard Jungle’ (above) starring Glenn Ford and featuring Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow but known best for … Continue reading →

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Elvis: The man who fell to earth and changed the world

Posted on January 8, 2015 by admin

By Ray Bennett Little more than 10 years after the end of World War II, Great Britain was a cold, grey place in 1956 when Elvis Presley, who would have been 80 today, dropped from the sky. He changed everything.

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TIFF 2014: A tale of three Equalizers

Posted on September 7, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett File under “it’s a small world”: I’m at my old pal Ron Base’s place in Milton for a Sunday brunch chatting with another guest, Hans Gerhardt, who ran the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto when it was … Continue reading →

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TIFF: Sunshine, music and Liona Boyd at the CFC picnic

Posted on September 11, 2011 by admin

One of the treats at the Toronto International Film Festival is Norman Jewison’s annual picnic at the Canadian Film Centre and it was a pleasure there today to meet the London-born Canadian classical guitarist Liona Boyd. We have Notting Hill, … Continue reading →

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A good man down: Brian Vallée dies

Posted on July 23, 2011 by admin

By Ray Bennett My good mate Brian Vallée died Saturday in a Toronto hospital after a fight with cancer. He was 70. That’s him in the centre of the photo with me and another great chum Ron Base on the … Continue reading →

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