Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Curio: Casting Leading Men in 1961

Alexa here from Pop Elegantiarum to share another vintage film curio. Occasionally you'll see these pop up on ebay, and I always find them interesting: a vintage Academy Players Directory. These were the casting bibles back on the day (apparently they still exist, but the Academy no longer publishes them). Vintage Funland is selling this one from 1961.

It covers "Leading Men," "Younger Leading Men" (hmmm, wonder if the same categories applied to women) and "Characters and Comedians." Inside is Jack Nicholson, back when his main film credit was Little Shop of Horrors:

Also inside is a young Robert Redford, who had mostly television credits to his name:

It is available here, if you have $44 to spare. I'm still waiting to find one featuring a young Meryl Streep, fresh out of Yale.

7 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

i LOVE time capsules like this. So funny to think of legends as being just another new face. you know. one in the sea of people.

and it kinda makes you wonder how many mega talents just never catch a break at all and nobody ever ends up hearing about them.

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Christine said...

Hey, Alan Reed, Jr (below Redford). Isn't that Fred Flintstone?

billybil said...

I agree Nate!! And look at that picture of Nicholson. I totally forget that he was actually sort of a hunk at one time! And that photo of Redford - it made me think just what you wrote. Redford looks like so many handsome, young, blond actors I've seen in casting books - it does make you wonder if RR was just that extra special or if they're really are/were so many other Redford's out there.

What do the rest of you think? Was Robert Redford actually a dime a dozen?

par3182 said...

ahh, who could forget denny niles?

whitney said...

woah. Jack Nicholson looks good!

Jim T said...

Redford was breathtaking!