Tony Mastroianni Review Collection

Commentary/News

Film

  • Batman Lived -- Will You?
    Back in the days when a kid got into the movies for a dime and dimes were hard to come by and you made up your mind whether it was going to be a Saturday or a Sunday matinee on which you spent your fortune, your decision might just as well be influenced by the serial that was playing as by the feature attraction.
  • Cinerama
    GREATER CLEVELAND'S only Cinerama theater -- for the time being anyway -- opened last night. The Great Northern Theater opened to the public with the premiere of "Battle of the Bulge."
  • Circus Is Big Business in Soviet Union
    The circus may be an occasional thing for Americans but in Russia it is second in attendance only to the movies The vastness of the Russian circus business was described -- through an interpreter -- by Vassili Pakhomov, director of the Moscow Circus which opens at the Arena tonight.
  • The Film Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    It's odd, the tricks your memory plays on you. What I remember about that 1938 movie version of "Tom Sawyer" is seeing it at an angle. In those pre-TV days when movie going was both a habit and an event, most pictures that amounted to anything drew standing audiences. So at that matinee performance, the first at our neighborhood movie house, folks stood through most of the feature.
  • Film Color Story Recalled by Death
    A movie pioneer died a few days ago, but his passing created little stir outside the industry. Yet his efforts had some of the greatest effects on films. The man was Herbert T. Kalmus who died at the age of 81 in Los Angeles. Kalmus was the scientist who invented Technicolor and who headed the Technicolor Corp., which he founded in 1912, until 1960 when he retired.
  • Filming With Lions Sort of Grabbed 'Em
    Said he: "Well we lost some skin occasionally." Said she: "And we were knocked down now and then. When a lion runs at you there's not much chance to stand up." He and she are neither game wardens nor animal trainers but actor Bill Travers and his.actress wife Virginia McKenna.
  • Four for the show
    Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures are going to use the same studios 20th Century Fox is selling off its studio land for a shopping center and MGM auctioned off costumes and props from several generations of movie making.
  • 4 Hours of Batman -- Man, It's Wild
    There are these four no-goodnies, see. And they're up to something. Then these two cats wearing long underwear and crazy capes show up and they're not yelling "trick or treat" or anything like that. But one of those hoods spots them and just like that he sizes up the situation. No dummy is he.
  • 14,000 Expected to See Beatles on TV at Hipp
    An estimated 2,500,000 Beatle fans are expected to pack theaters across the country Mar. 14 and 15 when their four heroes appear via closed circuit television. The telecast here will be carried at the Hippodrome, a theater with a seating capacity of 3500, a total of 14,000 for the four shows.
  • Garbo
    Greta Garbo was born Greta Gustafson in 1905. Her American film career began in the mid-1920's, ended in 1941.
  • Ghosts Haunt "Gone With The Wind" Revival
    Most of the people involved are dead and, as time passes, one event is likely to loom largest in the memories the public has of them -- their participation in the 1939 movie, "Gone With the Wind."
  • "Godspell" puts Bible to rock
    "The Godspell" -- it isn't Shakespeare, it isn't Shaw, it isn't even classical. It is a rock musical drawing on the New Testament for its material. But it is on the schedule of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival.
  • He made a successful spectacle of himself
    The death this week of Harold Lloyd marks more than the passing of a great screen comedian. It serves as a reminder of a whole different time, a period alien to us. Harold Lloyd, his eyes peering out from his lensless horn rims, was all innocence and naivety.
  • Hollywood Preview Old-Time Spectacle
    HOLLYWOOD -- Stanley Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" opened here last night in a special preview for the stars of the film and some 250 newsmen from more than 20 countries.
  • Horror Flicks
    Boris Karloff was the best known practitioner in the field of horror movies. But the term "horror" in connection with them is one to which he objected.
  • "Husbands" is dull, despite 'raves'
    "How can you be so wrong?" the voice on the phone inquired. Actually, it's kind of easy, but I waited to find out what I was wrong about -- this time....February 16, 1971
  • Longer "Hair" set here
    Curiosity not only kills cats, It sells tickets to "Hair." The five-week run of the controversial rock musical at the Hanna has been extended another three weeks, through Sunday, May 2. Tickets will go on sale next week, not now.
  • Only 7% of recent movies have received ratings as 'X' have received ratings as 'X'
    For those who keep score, about 25% of the movies rated since the rating system went into effect Nov. I, 1968, have been G movies (general audiences) and about 7% have been X (no one under 17 admitted)...February 9, 1971
  • Rain steals the show in "Return to Campus"
    They tried. Heaven knows, they really tried. But heaven wasn't helping. The movie that ex-Clevelander Harold Cornsweet has been planning to make back on his old stamping grounds began shooting yesterday. That's the way the schedule read.
  • Questions Hall Ban on Beatle - Like Groups
    Mayor Locher's musical tastes may be excellent but his wisdom in banning the Beatles and similar groups from Public Hall is less than perfect. Aside from the danger of arbitrary censorship, inherent in any such act by a public official, is the bizarre possibility of a fight developing over free speech in artistic expression in a matter in which the expression isn't very artistic.
  • SIZING UP THE SIXTIES Movies Came of Age in a Troubled Decade
    It was a wild decade and if the state of the movies in the '60's confused those who made them it was nothing compared to the consternation of those who saw them. Yesterday's taboos became today's box office. Though many movies lost money a few made enormous sums with nothing in common except that they captured the public's fancy. The material ranged from sweetness and light to sex and sadism.
  • "Snow White" Remains a Delight
    Our nine-year-old, having read the original by the Brothers Grimm, noted that Disney's "Snow White" was pretty good even though it had added "a lot of phony stuff."
  • Strange Handling of Familiar Theme
    Back in the days when Warner Bros. turned out more and better gangster movies than anyone no one pretended they were anything else. Humphrey Bogart sneered and James Cagney snarled and they killed their victims without any psychological probings as to motives or any symbolic identification with well-meaning but rebellious youths.
  • Sugaring in the Suburbs Don't Be a Sap! Buy Your Sirup
    The sap started running at our house and life hasn't been quite the same since. For one thing it's a rather odd sight -- those buckets hanging from the maple trees and us living not more than five minutes from a CTS bus stop.
  • The topic of Capra -- corn
    There was, back in the '30's, Hollywood corn and there also was a special strain known as Capra -corn. Critics coined the term scornfully; Frank Capra repeats it with impish delight in his autobiography -- and great book -- FRANK CAPRA: THE NAME ABOVE THE TITLE (Macmillan, $12 50. 513 pages).
  • 2 School Films Are Tops
    With all the knocks the film industry has taken -- with justification -- over excess violence and blatant sex it is only fair to give credit for a positive accomplishment when one comes along.

Theater

  • Actor Marley to direct here
    John Marley, seen most t recently as Ali McGraw's father in "Love Story," will be a guest director at the Play House this fall. He will direct a production of Ibsen's "A Doll's House," which will open at the Drury Theater Oct. 15 and play through Nov. 7.
  • CBS Buys Show; No One Cries "Foul"
    One big difference between Broadway and the American League -- and there must be many -- is that Broadway isn't clamoring for an investigation of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
  • Chagrin Getting New Little Theater
    The Chagrin Valley Little Theater is one that has had its ups and downs over the years. Many theatergoers can remember those summers during the '50's when Chagrin Falls was a regular stop for Broadway performers making the summer stock circuit. Martyn Green, when he was at the Hanna a few weeks ago with his Gilbert and Sullivan company, recalled playing there in "Visit to a Small Planet."
  • Director says regional theater is best
    Patrons of the arts are fickle and support for the arts can and should come from the community as a whole. Jon Jory, the man with that philosophy, is not an outsider looking in and criticizing but an insider explaining the way things should be. Jory is artistic director of the Actors Theater of Louisville, Ky.
  • Hail the "Fiddler" -- deserving champ
    The thing about "Fiddler on the Roof" setting a record is that it couldn't happen to a nicer show. "Fiddler" will become the longest running musical on Broadway next Wednesday with its 2845th performance. It will top "Hello, Dolly!" -- a show that set a record through a combination of smart showmanship, sharp publicity and the willingness of producer David Merrick to keep it going even when it had to play at cut rate ticket prices.
  • In Stratford there's much ado about Shakespeare
    Ont. -- This is not exactly a town that the Stratford Shakespeare Festival built. But the festival has clearly contributed to its prosperity ($8 million a year exclusive of theater admissions) and has been a factor in attracting a number of industries to the city.
  • Karamu at 50: the gold and black--To be old, gifted and black
    Aside from the Cleveland Play House, a professional theater, no Cleveland theater is so well known outside of the city as Karamu, a non~professional theater.
  • Katharine Hepburn - Chanel No.1
    Katharine Hepburn will be in Cleveland for two weeks beginning Jan. 11 at the Music Hall in the musical "Coco." In it it she plays Gabrielle 'COCO' Chanel, the most famous of French designers....January 1, 1971
  • Last downtown movie theater---Hippodrome bids farewell to glory
    Nostalgia just took another kick in the pants. Nostalgia doesn't meet expenses. The Hippodrome Theater is going to close -- this time definitely. No maybes. This is the end for the last downtown movie house.
  • Mastroianni Is Drama Critic With Wootten as Art Editor
    Tony Mastroianni was appointed today as Press drama critic by Editor Tom Boardman. He succeeds the late Stan Anderson with whom he had been associated on the drama beat for five years. Mastroianni will continue as entertainment editor, a post he has held since he joined the department in 1962.
  • Mrs. Silver to re-stage "Letters Home" in N.Y.
    Entertainment notes from all over . . . Dorothy Silver, Jewish Community Center cultural arts director, will return to New York City in September to re-stage the play she did there in a workshop production in May.
  • Old Vic to Offer a Beatle Angle
    The phone calls to the box office were decidedly from a new group of customers. Among those who showed up at the box office was a girl in a mod outfit. These were Beatle fans and among them was a stirring of interest in a forthcoming production of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
  • Only echoes in old theaters
    There is a hollow echo to your footsteps as you walk through old Loew's State Theater. The echo in the Ohio next door has a faster reverberation, probably because of the lower ceiling in the lobby.
  • Play House Near CSU to Be Culture Center
    The new Play House, to be built adjacent to Cleveland State University, will be more than a new theater. It will be in fact, a downtown cultural center.
  • Play House Sets Out in New Directions
    English theatrical director Peter Coe, best known for his staging of the musical "Oliver!" in both London and New York, will be a guest director at the Play House this season.
  • Polite exit by Partington may calm the Play House
    Rex Partington, who resigned as managing director of the Play House, is making his exit like a gentleman. Those are stormy seas out there around the theater but Partington -- in spite of his shock announce
  • Price Digs for Muted Sound of Music
    Musicarnival producer Johnny Price is digging a $12,000 cellar under the stage of his tent theater. The basement might not be apparent on opening night Monday but some of its by products should be. For one thing, the orchestra pit will be lowered another three feet. It's only four feet deep now and the effect hasn't always been pleasant for that part of the audience sitting immediately behind the orchestra.
  • PSA still fights to save the past
    When the Playhouse Square Assn.came into being it announced plans to save four empty downtown theaters at an estimated cost of $4,000,000 to $5,000,000...JULY 21, 1972
  • Stratford Proves Ideas Pay Off
    STRATFORD, ONTARIO: The Stratford Festival began its 15th season this week and for a theatrical idea that started in a tent in a town of less than 20,000 people it has gone a long way.
  • 10th Season -- Musicarnival
    The setting seemed rustic enough at the time for a summer theater. It wasn't as far out in the country as some, to be sure, and you didn't pass a dozen farms to get to it. Still, there was plenty of land around.
  • This past season at the Play House is undoubtedly one that everyone would rather forget-actors, audiences and reviewers alike.
    This past season at the Play House is undoubtedly one that everyone would rather forget-actors, audiences and reviewers alike. Which is all the more reason to consider next year's season. No doubt this is the chief behind-the-scenes activity at the Play House right now.