Tuesday 29 May 2012

Who Was Harrison Carroll?

Harrison Carroll was for more than 40 years a columnist for The Herald Express and I have a number of his articles from the 1950's and 1960's in my collection when he wrote about Joan.
This one is dated Mar 28, 1956 and is about the film, The Opposite Sex.

Joan actually told this story during her one woman show in March this year at Leicester Square Theatre in London

HOLLYWOOD, Mar. 28. - Tears and foregiveness ended what could have been the start of that whopping big feud everybody has been expecting to develop among all those feminine stars in MGM's "The Opposite Sex.
Supposed to fake a slap for a scene, June Allyson belted Joan Collins so hard that Joan's earrings flew off and a welt swelled up on her face.

"It was just awful!" June tells me. "I never hit anybody before in my life. I don't even spank my children. I let go this haymaker. I had rehearsed faking it. Instead I hit her an awful wallop."
"Joan was wonderful. After the slap, she was supposed to look at me and smile. She went ahead and did it. Afterwards we both bawled."
Harrison said, "When I reached her at home, Joan laughed:"It was a complete accident. But, when I heard my earrings hit the floor, I thought she had knocked out some of my teeth; I really did."

I will feature more of Harrison's columns in future posts and also have them added to the website

Advert: The Opposite Sex

I came across this slimline advert featuring Joan in some old American press clippings and reviews of Joan's early films. Although I cannot put a date to it, unsure if it is for the films original release or a screening at KENOSHA theater.

The Opposite Sex was a musical remake of the film "The Women", starring another 'JC' - namely Joan Crawford, with our Joan playing the role of Crystal Allen, set out to seduce and steal June Allyson's husband Steven, played by Leslie Nielson.
Other cast members included Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller and Agnes Moorehead.

Monday 28 May 2012

Monte Carlo - Joan Sings

This rarely seen photo of Joan in a recording studio was taken during filming of her second mini-series, Monte Carlo when Joan as Katrina Petrovna sang "The Last Time I Saw Paris".

When asked how the Collins vocal chords were, Joan replied she has "an amusing voice that travels well - matured with age."

Sunday 27 May 2012

Past In Photos: Joan with Celebrities

This picture of Joan and Percy with David & Victoria Beckham is from 2002

Friday 4 May 2012

Daily Picture: Seawife

This picture of Joan as a nun is from the 1956 film 'Sea Wife', in which she co-starred alongside Richard Burton, Basil Sydney and Cy Grant.

Joan's last line in the film was "No one ever looks at the face of a nun".

29 Years later (1985) in Dynasty, episodes 6.6 "The Titans" and 6.7 "The Decision" the Moldavian Massacre storyline continues with Dex disguised as a priest and Alexis as a nun trying to transport the injured King Galen out of Moldavia

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Memorabilia Corner - Lobby Title Cards

Due to PC problems towards the latter end of last month and a busy work schedule, posts were a little scarce. Hopefully as we settle into May and my schedules start to calm down a little, I can devote more time to the blog.

Today I am featuring this title card for "The Girl In The Red Velvet Swing" from the collection


Title cards as they are known or #1 lobby card often have different artwork to the rest of the set, and often closely resemble the poster for the film


Check out other lobby cards on the website in the galleries section