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Dr. Maya Cantu

@mayamcantu.bsky.social

950 followers 370 following 590 posts

Greasepaint Puritan: Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Ropes, University of Michigan Press ‘24; Drama, Bennington College. www.mayacantu.com/news

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 9d

I’ve been impelled to revive my World of Bradford Ropes research blog: on ‘Val Burton, Jewish Culture, and the First Gay Movie Musical (1930):’ mayacantu.com/the-world-of....

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Max Ernst @max-m-ernst.bsky.social · 18h

Set Design for Alfred Jarry, Ubu Enchaîné https://www.artic.edu/artworks/117397/

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 21h

Found my source: November 19, 1970. ‘Yvonne De Carlo? Right on.’

Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 1d

Who would have thought Blossom Dearie would be the godmother of alt-pop singing in 2025?

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David Levy @itsdlevy.me · 1d

Kiss of the Spider Woman makes it clear that what Bill Condon really wants to do is direct Lady in the Dark. Who should be his Liza Elliott?

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 1d

Anne Hathaway could bring the vocals, the glamour, and the neurosis.

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 1d

A question that has been asked since the 1930s! According to her profile, nothing.

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Henri Matisse @henrimatisse.bsky.social · 2d

Festival of Flowers, 1922
https://botfrens.com/collections/48/contents/16614

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 2d

And she consulted on ‘Follies:’ “A 1971 Chicago Tribune article announced that Follies’ director, Harold Prince, ‘is giving Peggy the title of ‘Technical Adviser and Special Promotions Director.’”

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 2d

‘A New (Old) Look at Peggy Fears: Sapphic Showgirl, Broadway Producer, Queen of Fire Island:’ mayacantu.com/the-world-of....

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Beck Jones @beckjoneshere.bsky.social · 2d

Susan Hayward, Marlene Dietrich and Claudette Colbert, among others, were considered before Davis. Jose Ferrer was the first choice for Addison DeWitt before George Sanders. Yikes! Mankiewicz wrote & directed; supposedly based on a true story, and released #otd in 1950.

#moviesky #fiilm

Publicity still for the film All About Eve, featuring Betty Davis posed casually in a chair, with her fingers running through heir hair. She is wearing the dress she wore at cocktail party featured in the movie. The headline is "Fasten your seatbelts. Today is the 75th anniversary of All About Eve.

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Sardonicus @sardonicus.eu · 3d

Hannah Höch’s lithograph Frühlings-Messe der Kunstgewerbe Gruppe, 1925 www.christies.com/lot/lot-hann...?

where do I even begin. it has words, lots of them. a stylised face and hand, lots of straight lines in different colours

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Stephanie Zacharek @szacharek.bsky.social · 3d

One of the signature actresses of her or any era, and a woman who paved a path most Hollywood actresses -haven't- followed: dressing to express joy and a sense of self. On Diane Keaton: time.com/7325208/dian...

The Astonishing Versatility of Diane Keaton

Keaton, who died at 79, is often remembered for her comedic performance in Annie Hall, but she did so much more throughout her career.

time.com

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Damnèd Screamvens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 4d

In the original Broadway cast of Hair, 1968 (photo by Richard Avedon)

B & W photo of Diane Keaton with the original cast of Hair. She has her hands to her face and a startled, somewhat bleary expression, as if she's emerging from a daze.

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Dean Frey @dean.bsky.social · 4d

Jerome Robbins with the original “Fancy Free” cast - Muriel Bentley, Janet Reed, Harold Lang & John Kriza - in Times Square in 1958. That's photographer Gordon Parks leaning over his tripod.

A remarkable photograph from the NYPL digital collection.

www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/a...

[Gift article]

Parks photographs the dancers in Times Square.

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Ben Schrager, but he’s spooky now @benschrager.bsky.social · 5d

New reading of The Phantom of the Opera: Carlotta is simply asking for safe working conditions, and Christine is essentially a scab

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 5d

One more thing…found at a sidewalk sale. I expect guest cameos from Jack Cassidy and Anne Baxter.

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Damnèd Screamvens @thehighsign.bsky.social · 5d

Shakespeare = the ultimate "there's always a tweet"

William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 5d

Would I could find a fine frog!

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sight unseen dream @starsatellite.bsky.social · 7d

benny rubin held out as an eternal comeback kid, but i too heard of him after falling under the spell of sunny skies - fascinating info about the songwriters!

newspaper advert promoting sunny skies 1930 starring benny rubin

film magazine advert showing benny rubin with max factor

newspaper page showing film reviews, including sunny skies

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 6d

And testing my own skepticism, more on the genealogical connection between Ropes and Swift, and the surprising thematic correspondences between his ‘42nd Street’ and her ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ (the song): mayacantu.com/the-world-of....

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tnyfrontrow.bsky.social @tnyfrontrow.bsky.social · 6d

Richard Linklater's two surprising new movies, Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague, are hectic dramas of two great artists racing against the clock—in effect, racing to exist—with very different results; both are highly recommended:
www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Art and Life in Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague”

The director’s new films—about Lorenz Hart and Jean-Luc Godard—form a kind of diptych, but the contrasts are as important as the similarities.

www.newyorker.com

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Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 7d

"Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me"
(Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar in Carry on Cleo, 1964)
#classics

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 7d

This essay just got cited in the new book ‘Archival Film Curatorship,’ and as Louise Brooks is always relevant, I like to periodically share it.

Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · Nov 23

Primarily a theater historian here, but I like to cross over into film history, and this is the piece (from 2020) of which I’m proudest: on Louise Brooks’s innovative, unfinished work of feminist film criticism, ‘13 Women in Films.’ lareviewofbooks.org/article/doub...

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Frank Conniff @frankconniff.bsky.social · 7d

Insufferable. An ordeal. Moments of pure unadulterated cringe. A little bit of mime and it's way the fuck too much mime. But the Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse songs are GREAT.

Up next on TCM @tcm-up-next.bsky.social · 8d

STOP THE WORLD--I WANT TO GET OFF (1966) — 3:00 pm ET — 1h 40m
(TCM Daytime: '60s Musicals)

Tony Tanner, Millicent Martin, Leila Croft; directed by Philip Saville

An ambitious circus performer rises to the top at everyone else's expense.

#TCM #TCMParty

Stop the World--I Want To Get Off (1966)

www.tcm.com

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Dr. Maya Cantu @mayamcantu.bsky.social · 7d

What fascinating finds, thank you for sharing (and for the kind words). And while I figured Ropes was using a popular phrase for his novel, I didn’t know there was a ‘Go Into Your Dance’ song that pre-dated Warren and Dubin’s!

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