Greetings music sloots, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Today, we're going to meet a ghost - but not the spooky kind. This is a "ghost singer," one of the select few who did not make a name for themselves by providing the singing voice for popular movie stars during Hollywood's Golden Era. It was all very hush-hush. For years this ghost singer remained silent, as her contract forbid her from saying a peep, but tonight, at the Manor's "Bean Flick Lounge," DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing some of her best tunes sung for other people - and more. So let's unveil her, shall we? Why, it's that ghost-tacular singer herself, India Adams, who began her career as a high school lass singing with a friend's three-piece band, performing at various clubs around Los Angeles. It didn't take long for an MGM talent scout to take notice and to hire her for a prime ghosting role in 1953: providing the singing voice for none other th...

Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today’s article is by SpiceDong , the concluding chapter in their epic three-part Ava Gardner series! The first part is HERE and the second part is HERE . In October in 1957, a group of friends invited Ava Gardner to visit the Peralta Ranch, an estate dedicated to raising Lidia bulls. She had been drinking, and on a dare agreed to get on a horse. The steed got spooked by a bull, threw her off - and she fell, hitting the right side of her face. The ranch hands quickly intervened and kept the bull from goring Ava as she lay on the ground. A photographer with a high-speed camera just “happened” to be there and captured the whole scene.  Afterwards, Ava suspected someone in her circle may have tipped the photographer as to her whereabouts, and that everything had been a set up. The photos (seen below) fetched high sums, causing a media frenzy. Paris Match was ...

Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today's is from SpiceDong , the second in a three-part series! The first part is HERE . By the early 1950s, Ava Gardner had become one of the top leading ladies in Hollywood. She was in high demand and even got an Oscar nod for “Mogambo” in 1954. On the personal front, her tempestuous marriage to Frank Sinatra, marred by jealousy, drunken fights and constant press, had disillusioned her, while also making her a gossip column staple. Ava’s career was on the rise while Sinatra’s was in the dumps. She was supportive of him, to the point of using her clout to get him the screen test for the Private Maggio role in “From Here To Eternity.” He got the part, won an Oscar for it and rose back to the top. But by then, Ava was already fed up with his antics and emotional manipulations, including his suicide attempts. She terminated two pregnancies while they were ...

Greetings, Manor Hors! Periodically, "The Roving Pecker" presents urgent missives from filthy esteemed guest writers. Today's is from SpiceDong, the first in a three-part series! In 1950, Tossa de Mar, a then sleepy fishermen village in The Costa Brava of Spain, was put on the map when an A-list Hollywood production landed on its shores. This spectacular stretch of Mediterranean coast a few miles north of Barcelona was to be the backdrop for “Pandora & The Flying Dutchman," the film by Albert Lewin starring British actor James Mason and Hollywood’s rising femme fatale, Ava Gardner. The cost of filming in Spain at the time was very low, and it was also a way for MGM, Ava’s home studio, to put some distance between her and the still-married Frank Sinatra, as they were hoping the scandal of their budding romance would die down in the press. Little did they know that the drama off-screen would soon rival the movie's plot. It was Miss Gardner’s first trip abroad....