Source: The Truth About Forever
“Talent went out of style.… People either didn't believe Houdini when he said that his tricks on film were real, or they didn't care.”
"Books of the Times" in The New York Times (6 July 1981)
Context: The magaicians of the 19th century, enthralled by the science of optics, photography and electricity, opened the door to motion pictures and thereby rendered themselves obsolete. Any amateur with a pair of scissors can cut and edit a strip of film in order to make a woman vanish, sever a head, burn a body down to the skeleton and reverse time. Talent went out of style.… People either didn't believe Houdini when he said that his tricks on film were real, or they didn't care. Illusion became big bigness, and the magicians were out of work.
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John Leonard 42
American critic, writer, and commentator 1939–2008Related quotes
“Buildings were just the world's furniture, and he didn't care how it was arranged.”
John Varley
book
The Pusher
"The Pusher", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (October 1981), reprinted in The John Varley Reader (2005)
Source: The Wayward Bus (1947), Ch. 13. "He" is Elliot Pritchard.
Roger Ebert
(1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
The Great Movies II (2005), p. 94
Context: It's said that Chaplin wanted you to like him, but Keaton didn't care. I think he cared, but was too proud to ask. His films avoid the pathos and sentiment of the Chaplin pictures, and usually feature a jaunty young man who sees an objective and goes for it in the face of the most daunting obstacles. Buster survives tornados, waterfalls, avalanches of boulders, and falls from great heights, and never pauses to take a bow: He has his eye on his goal. And his movies, seen as a group, are like a sustained act of optimism in the face of adversity; surprising, how without asking, he earns our admiration and tenderness.
Because he was funny, because he wore a porkpie had, Keaton's physical skills are often undervalued … no silent star did more dangerous stunts than Buster Keaton. Instead of using doubles, he himself doubled for his actors, doing their stunts as well as his own.
Cesare Pavese
(1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
Source: The moon and the bonfire (1950), Chapter X, p. 60
Bob Ross
(1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host
Cathy Hainer (October 28, 1993) "PBS' stroke of serenity / Bob Ross brings brush of zen to 'Joy of Painting'", USA Today, p. 3D.