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Thursday, 04 March 2010
THE AMAZING BALL OF FIRE, BETTY ROWLAND: LOS ANGELES "PRETTY THINGS" & "BALL OF FIRE" BENEFIT SCREENING MARCH 9TH 8PM
Los Angeles, CA. TUESDAY MARCH 9th at 8PM special double feature benefit screening of PRETTY THINGS and BALL OF FIRE in honor of Betty Rowland.
BETTY ROWLAND THE BALL OF FIRE
Betty Rowland, whose burlesque moniker was THE BALL OF FIRE, at 93 years old has a spirit and love for life that is contagious and invigorating to be around. I secretly wish I had met her in her hay day, for as you can see, she was quite a knock out. I had a pleasure of being introduced to Betty several years ago by my good friend Liz Goldwyn who spent 10 years interviewing Betty and many of her contemporaries, for her documentary PRETTY THINGS (2005) and her book, Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens (HarperCollins 2006).
Betty Rowland and Liz Goldwyn at the Pretty Things book release party in Los Angeles
Betty was one of the most famous burlesque queens of of her time and among many other accomplishments, claims she once dated Orson Wells. Regrettably, like most of her peers, Betty was never quite able to break her way into mainstream Hollywood. In 1941, Liz`s grandfather, Samuel Goldwyn, produced a great screwball comedy, directed by Howard Hawks, called BALL OF FIRE, starring Barbara Stanwyck , not Betty. However, the costumes in BALL OF FIRE (designed by legendary Edith Head) have striking resemblance to some of Betty`s signature costumes from her act. Around the release of the film, Betty sued Mr. Goldwyn as part of a publicity stunt on the advice of her publicist. Almost 60 years later, through several intriguing twists of fate, Liz sought Betty out to document her life story as a burlesque dancer and to attempt to re-imagine a generation of performers whom she felt deserved more respect as their artistry was in general over looked and misunderstood.
In 2008, I had the special opportunity of shooting Betty and Liz together for a photography book I produced, called HARMONY.
The book is a collections of portraits of Los Angeles-based artists and
performers, shot by my good friend, Japanese photographer, Mote Sinabel.
On the set, Betty delivered many one-liners with sass and personality
of a woman a quarter of her age, that made everyone laugh. Over the
years, I have always enjoyed Betty’s stories about being a burlesque dancer,
her life on the road, and getting arrested for dancing; but it is her
inspirational spirit for life, which has always struck me and stuck
with me. Read more about HARMONY book project here in my former post.
BETTY ROWLAND AND LIZ GOLDWYN portrait from HARMONY book project
Unfortunately as of late Betty has fallen on some hard times with her health. Liz has arranged a great double feature benefit screening of PRETTY THINGS and BALL OF FIRE which will play at Cinefamily at the Silent Movie theater in Los Angeles, March 9th, 2010 at 8PM. Liz has also helped create the BETTY ROWLAND TRUST which all produces of the screening will go to. A paypal account to receive donations on line has been set up for those of you who can`t make the screening but would like to donate. For more interesting anecdotes about the last generation of burlesque queens read and watch Liz`s PRETTY THINGS. For those of you that are in Los Angeles, please come and join us to support our friend in need. Please see the flyer below for more information on buying tickets on line for the screening as well as donating to the BETTY ROWLAND TRUST through the paypal account. You can follow Betty on facebook as well here.
THANK YOU.
- GRIFFIN
HERE IS INFO ABOUT THE EVENT, PAYPAL DONATIONS, AND FACEBOOK PAGE
PLEASE COME SUPPORT BETTY "THE BALL OF FIRE" ROWLAND FUNDRAISER WITH A
DOUBLE FEATURE!!
OF PRETTY THINGS (2005) & BALL OF FIRE (1941) AT
SILENT MOVIE THEATER
611 N. Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90036
MARCH 9TH 2010 AT 8 PM
TICKETS ARE $20, ALL PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE HOUSING AND MEDICAL CARE OF BURLESQUE QUEEN EXTRAORDINAIRE BETTY "BALL OF FIRE" ROWLAND
CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO BUY TIX ONLINE:
http://www.cinefamily.org/calendar/events.html#betty
OR IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT YOU CAN DONATE VIA THE BETTY ROWLAND TRUST ON PAYPAL:
THANKS!
Posted by Griffin at 09:45 PM | Permalink
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Comments
yes, i enjoyed this too!
Posted by: laura tattoo | Mar 5, 2010 7:29:33 AM
fabulous post xxx
Posted by: kirsty | Mar 4, 2010 11:43:53 PM