

Category: Hollywood Monday
10/12/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Hello, Dolly!- Louis Armstrong & Barbra Streisand (1969)


“Hello, Dolly!” won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1965, and Armstrong received a Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, Male. Louis Armstrong also performed the song (together with Barbra Streisand) in the popular 1969 film Hello, Dolly! Continue reading
10/5/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Stompin’ at the Savoy (1992) Starring Lynn Whitfield Jasmine Guy- Debbie Allen director

As the Harlem Renaissance flourishes in jazzy New York City, Pauline (Vanessa Williams), Esther (Lynn Whitfield) and Alice (Jasmine Guy) struggle to survive. By day, they toil at dreary jobs, dreaming of stardom, riches and happiness. By night, they dance their troubles away at the famous Savoy Ballroom. But when World War II appears on the horizon, the girls find their fortunes unfolding too unevenly to reconcile, and they inevitably begin to drift apart. Continue reading
9/21/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Hellzapoppin’ (Lindy Hop Scene In Full Color)


Lindy hop is the granddaddy of all swing dances, a blend of African and European dance influences that is both uniquely American… and now spans the globe. Lindy hop takes its name from the Charles Lindbergh’s flight to Paris in 1927.

If Tango is sultry, and Ballroom dancing is aloof, lindy hop is joyful and playful. Lindy has a grounded, flowing style that closely reflects its music — from the late 20s hot jazz to the early 40s big bands. Harlem, New York, and in particular the Savoy Ballroom (“The Home of Happy Feet”) is where the dance was developed and innovated from the 1920s onward. Based on earlier dances such as the Charleston, the Black Bottom and the Breakaway, the dance evolved and spread over the decades along with the new swing music.
Hellzapoppin’ (In Full Color)
And while the dance continues to evolve today, contemporary lindy hoppers still strive for that same spirit, inventiveness, and musicality of the pioneers of lindy hop like Norma Miller, Dean Collins, Frankie Manning and many more.

8/24/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: In the Heat of the Night- Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger
Sidney Poitier, in one of his most-celebrated roles, appears as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia homicide detective who, while visiting a small Mississippi town, will find himself falsely arrested for a murder and then, in a strained collaboration with the town’s sheriff (Rod Steiger), stays on to help solve the murder. Continue reading
8/17/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Good Hair (A Film By Chris Rock)
Chris Rock visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the black community in this exposé of comic proportions that only he could pull off. A raucous adventure prompted by Rock’s daughter approaching him and asking, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” Continue reading
8/10/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Panther (1995)

Panther is a 1995 cinematic adaptation of Melvin Van Peeble’s novel Panther, produced and directed by Mario Van Peebles. The drama film portrays the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, tracing the organization from its founding through its decline in a compressed timeframe. It was the first narrative feature-film to depict the Black Panther Party. Continue reading
8/3/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Slaves (1969) | Dionne Warwick and Ossie Davis


Slaves, a 1969 American drama film directed by Herbert Biberman, was entered into the 1969 Cannes Film Festival. The film stars Dionne Warwick (in her screen acting debut), Ossie Davis, Stephen Boyd and Barbra Ann Teer (founder of the new established the Harlem based National Black Theatre- 1968). Continue reading
7/27/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Ruby Dee- Harriet Tubman and The Underground Railroad (1964)

Ruby Dee plays the escaped slave Harriet Tubman and her attempts to rescue enslaved family members and friends through the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad. aka “Go Down Moses.” With Brock Peters, Ossie Davis, Isabel Cooley and Ethel Waters.
Continue reading
7/13/20 O&A NYC HOLLYWOOD MONDAY: Paris is Burning – Deleted Scenes Outtakes


Paris Is Burning deleted scenes and outakes including interview with Marcel Christian and footage of Avis Pendavis and Dorian Corey battling. Continue reading





