“MOVIE MAGIC” by Des Kelly

Remember friends?, do you remember all those old movie theatres in the “Ceylon” in the  30’s, 40’s, 50’s & 60’s?

When Hollywood produced the greatest films, with real Actors & Actresses that would “blow our young minds”.

Do you remember the “unforgettable” films, both in black & white, and, later in technicolour?, The Regal Theatre in the heart of the “Fort” in Colombo, The Majestic Theatre, in the heart of Bambalapitiya, The Savoy Theatre, Wellawatte, that entertained all of us with “pictures” like The Jolson Story, and so many other theatres all around us, where youngsters could somehow scrounge that 50cts to buy a “Gallery” ticket & strain our necks upwards for up to three hours at a time to watch these super-humans do their thing on the silver-screen?, well, I did, and will never regret it. 

     Somehow, at that time, we knew very little about the private lives of these “Film-Stars”. We watched their movies, some of them, more than once. I remember going to see actor Larry Parks take the part of Al Jolson who, in that particular era was supposed to be the Greatest Entertainer in the World, at least 3 times, then “Jolson sings again” twice more. The original  “Romeo & Juliet” in black & white, the magnificent film “Carrie” with Lawrence Olivier, long before he was Knighted, & Jennifer Jones, which brings me to some of the most beautiful women (Actresses) on Planet Earth. Ava Gardner, Esther Williams, Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, (there had to be a “Kelly” in there, somewhere), Maureen O’Hara, & who could forget Elizabeth Taylor & dozens of other beautiful females, some of whom were also excellent in their job, but who cared about their “acting ability”?, we, young guys didn’t give a hoot about their “acting”, all we wanted to do was SEE THEM.!!

     Folks, here is something that I saw for the first time, and having really enjoyed seeing the “backgrounds” of these Actors & Actresses, I thought I would share them with you.

The idea behind this is to give all of you readers a few minutes to refresh your memories of the Movie-Stars in a way that you possibly haven’t seen them before. The photos can be “enlarged”, of course, and I feel sure you will enjoy them as much as I did. My thanks go to Max, who sent them to me.  Watch, folks, & reminisce. It is well worthwhile.

Desmond Kelly

   Star of eLanka

 (Editor-in-Chief).