News

Leaders of two Hollywood Iatse locals have been shown the door. Leslie Simon’s contract as business rep of Local 871 was not renewed, and Ed Brown, longtime business agent of Prop Local 44, was defeated in his bid for re-election. Local 44 president Michael Diersing also lost his re-election race.

Simon’s departure was not unexpected, having been on the wrong side of an officer and board election in December. The incumbents, who supported her, were swept out of office by a slate of challengers who did not endorse her, led by the local’s new president, Crystal Hopkins.

Simon, who served at the pleasure of the board, has been the local’s business rep since 2013 and played a key role in its Pay Equity movement, which seeks to raise the salaries of those employed in Hollywood’s historically female crafts — a movement to which the new leaders also are committed.

The Bob Hope “Thanks for the Memories” collection features six Hope films made in the 1930s and 1940s. Three of the films, Thanks for the Memory, The Cat and the Canary, and Nothing but the Truth are making their DVD debuts. While the six films are not Hope’s Best six films, they all are very good and the set features a nice array of extras. My full reviews after the jump:

“Thanks for the Memory” (1938) is titled after what would soon become Hope’s well-known theme song. He plays novelist Steve Merrick who is struggling to complete his book. His wife Anne (Shirley Ross) decides to take a job to help pay the bills. She goes to work for Steve’s publisher who also happens to be her former fiancée who still has a thing for her and wants to get her out of the house. This is the weakest film in the set.