Seraphic Secret

By Robert J. Avrech | June 23, 2017

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Lucille Ball in a dress by Edith Head, 1949, photo by Laszlo Willinger
“Edie knew the truth about all of us. She knew who had flat fannies and who didn’t – but she never told.”
—Lucille Ball

Posted in Art, Automobiles, Constance Bennett, Costume Design, Design, Edith Head, Friday Fotos, Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaica, Painting, Photography, True Hollywood Confessions, Vintage Cars | Tagged BB, Brigitte Bardot, Constance Bennett, David Des Granges, Edward Hopper, Fred Stein, Georges Dambier, Harpo Marx, Hokusai, James Nares, Lucille Ball, Maud Lewis, Patek Philippe, Petrus Christus, Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company, Polish Movie Posters, Rick McGinnis, Stanley Kubrick, Stanley Tucci | 2 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 22, 2017

Gloria Grahame: Marriage Hollywood Style

Gloria Grahame

Before Woody and Soon-Yi there was Gloria and Anthony.

In June 1948, the day after that she divorced her first husband, actress Gloria Grahame (1923 – 1981) wed director Nicholas Ray.

The marriage was troubled right from the start and ended when Ray walked in on Grahame while she was in bed with another man.

Actually, a boy.

He was 13-year-old Anthony Ray, Nick’s son from a previous marriage.

Posted in Gloria Grahame, Hollywood | Tagged Anthony Ray, Gloria Grahame, Marriage, Nicholas Ray, Soon-Yi Previn, The Bad and the Beautiful, Woody Allen | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 21, 2017

WATCH: Netanyahu Makes Emotional Visit to Family of Terror Victim Hadas Malka

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara pay a shiva (condolence) call to the family of Hadas Malka, the 23-year-old Border Police officer stabbed to death while standing guard in Jerusalem this past Friday evening.

Staff Sergeant Hadas Malka, who was murdered by IslamoNazis on June 16, 2017.

Posted in Benjamin Netanyahu, IslamoNazis, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Zionism | Tagged Benjamin Netanyahu, Children of Mao, Evergreen College, Hadas Malka, IslamoNazis | 2 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 19, 2017

Endless Love: Happy 40th Anniversary

Karen and I were married in 1977. Today is our 40th anniversary.

But the truth is I have been in love with Karen since I was nine years old. Which is to say I have been helplessly, hopelessly in love with Karen for most of my life.

I’m publishing the first chapter of my eBook How I Married Karen as a tribute to my wife without whom I am nothing.

Chapter 1

Great Expectations

Jean Simmons as Estella, “Great Expectations,” 1946.

She crosses my vision like a moon; nothing seems to touch her.

The new girl has thick black hair; dark eyes that seem to look right through you. She has just transferred from Yeshiva Ohel Moshe to Yeshiva of Flatbush. Her father is a rabbi in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Karen Singer is her name.

Posted in How I Married Karen | Tagged Karen Singer, Yeshiva Flatbush | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 16, 2017

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

“I really don’t remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on.”
—Elizabeth Taylor

Posted in Anna May Wong, Art, Audrey Hepburn, Bible, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Family, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Gary Cooper, Judaica, Judaism, Movie Posters, Movies, Painting, Photography, Quotes | Tagged Audrey Hepburn, Bert Hardy, Celia Kahn Singer, Charles Biederman, Charles Sheeler, Classic, Edward Hopper, Gary Cooper, Gene Kelly, Gustav Klimt, Jan Steen, Lowell, Marilyn Monroe, Mass., MM, Nicolaes Maes, Polish Movie Posters, Raphael, Richard Avedon, Rick McGinnis, Robert Doisneau, Willy Römer | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 15, 2017

Video: Daniel Greenfield Delivers the 2017 Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

Fighting Anti-Semitism and Defending Israel in the Age of BDS

Why does pro-Israel activism continue to be an uphill battle despite the enormous resources dedicated to it? Are we losing the war against anti-Semitism or are we failing to fight it? In a talk that applies the lessons of biblical Jewish history to current politics and events, we will learn that fighting anti-Semitism and defending Israel doesn’t require changing our opponents, but changing how we see the world and ourselves.

Posted in Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, Jew-haters, Jew-hatred, Jews & Guns, Judaism, Remembering Ariel, Torah | Tagged Daniel Greenfield | 4 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 14, 2017

Hidden Hollywood: Colleen Moore’s Not So Romantic Wedding Night

Colleen Moore in “Flaming Youth,” 1923.

Flaming Youth was a huge hit and propelled Colleen Moore (1899 – 1988) to international stardom.

Colleen was smart about her career, carefully choosing her roles and propelling herself to stardom. However, like so many young, inexperienced Hollywood actresses, she was not wise in her choice of men. Her notions of love were gauzy images based on idealized Hollywood narratives. The importance of shared values, religious belief, and common goals, rarely entered the calculus of love and marriage.

In 1923, Moore, 22, married John Emmett McCormick, 29, a clever but highly unstable studio executive who was obsessed with Moore’s image and career.

Posted in Colleen Moore, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Silent Movies | Tagged Colleen Moore, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flaming Youth, John McCormick, Marriage, Silent Star | 3 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 12, 2017

Daniel Greenfield Delivers a Brilliant Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

Daniel Greenfield with his wife Elana at the Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture.

Yesterday — on Sunday, June 11 — Daniel Greenfield drew the largest audience we have ever had for our son Ariel’s memorial lecture.

This was a special event because it drew people who had never attended any of our lectures before. Among those who attended were bloggers Bookworm Room, who flew down from deep-blue Marin County; Rob Miller of JoshuaPundit; and Mark Tapson of Truth Revolt. Karen and I were also delighted to meet Kyle Kyllan, producer of The Enemies Within.

(Update: Bookworm Room blogs beautifully, of course, about the lecture here.)

Daniel’s lecture was a sobering yet inspiring 45 minutes. Although it will be posted here at Seraphic Secret and on YouTube in about ten days, I would like to provide a summary.

Posted in Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, ISIS, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazi Kidnappings, IslamoNazis, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Jerusalem, Jew-haters, Jew-hatred, Judaism | Tagged BDS Movement, Daniel Greenfield, Israel, Jewish Jew Hatred, Judaism | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 9, 2017

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

James Stewart and Kim Novak taking a break during the filming of Vertigo, 1958.
“The last time she saw Stewart was when they bumped into each other at an airport [he died in 1997]. “I said, ‘Jimmy, I wish we could do a movie together.’ And he said, ‘I can’t be a leading man anymore. I don’t want to make movies anymore.’ He’d been away from movies for a while. He said, ‘You know, I walk out my back yard and I can’t remember sometimes why I walk out there.’ I said, ‘I understand that, it happens.’ He said, ‘Yep. Happens. [Pause.] Sure is good seeing you again.’ And I said, ‘You too, Jimmy.’ And gave him a hug.” — Kim Novak, The Telegraph [UK], 2014

Posted in Anna May Wong, Art, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jean Harlow, Judaica, Judaism, Kim Novak, Lauren Bacall, Movies, Painting, Photography, Quotes, True Hollywood Confessions, Vintage Cars | Tagged Anna May Wong, Barbara Stanwyck, Capucine, Clyfford Still, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Georges Dambier, Gordon Parks, Herbert List, Horst B. Horst, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Jean Harlow, Johannes Vermeer, Josef Albers, Kim Novak, Rick McGinnis, Sylvia Sidney, Vermeer, Vintage Cars, William Merritt Chase | 5 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 7, 2017

Daniel Greenfield: Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture This Coming Sunday

Ariel’s high school graduation picture from Yeshiva Gedolah, Los Angeles, June 1998.

You are all invited to the Fourteenth Annual Ariel Avrech ZT’L Memorial Lecture that will take place this coming Sunday, June 11, 2017, at 10 AM, followed by brunch.

Posted in Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazi Kidnappings, IslamoNazis, Israel, Jihad Watch, Judaism | Tagged Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Daniel Greenfield | Leave a comment

By Robert J. Avrech | June 5, 2017

Breaking Up With Mr. Islam

Daniel Greenfield will be speaking on “Defending Israel and Fighting Anti-Semitism” in Los Angeles at the Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture on Sun, Jun 11 at 10 AM at the YULA Girls High School Auditorium, 1619 South Robertson Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90035.

This is his latest article:

Islam is peaceful. Just ask Rafiqi Islam, a loving husband, who told his wife that he had a present for her, blindfolded her to make it a surprise and then cut off her fingers. Then the rest of the Islam family mopped up the blood, while Mr. Islam threw her fingers into the trash, and after a few hours took her to the hospital where they warned her to tell the doctors that she had an accident.

Posted in America, Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Ariel Chaim Avrech, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazi Kidnappings, IslamoNazis | Tagged Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Daniel Greenfield, Islamic Terror | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 2, 2017

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

“I don’t know why the public took a liking to me so fast. Popularity is a curious thing. The public responds to a dimple, a smile, a giggle, a hairstyle, an attitude. Acting talent has less to do with it than personality.”
—Irene Dunne

Posted in Art, Carole Landis, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Irene Dunne, Judaica, Judaism, Marilyn Monroe, Painting, Photography, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Carole Landis, Claudio Bravo, Dovima, Eugène Delacroix, George Seeley, Georges Dambier, Grant Wood, Irene Dunne, Lucas Cranach The Elder, Monet, Philippe Halsman, Richard Avedon, Rick McGinnis, Tyrone Power, Vintage Cars, Vivian Maier, William Merritt Chase | 1 Response

By Robert J. Avrech | May 30, 2017

Hollywood Joins the Coup

Over the years Seraphic Secret has pointed out that Hollywood is the greatest machinery of propaganda the world has ever known. If you doubt the veracity of this claim just keep in mind that America only wins wars when Hollywood produces films and TV shows that support the war.

There was a time when the Hollywood establishment was deeply patriotic, when Hollywood expressed a love of America in movies and TV. But all that changed with the war in Vietnam. Hollywood turned hard left and produced propaganda that portrayed America as a corrupt, racist, imperial beast.

Hollywood is now deeply engaged in the slow motion coup the Democrat party is engineering against President Trump.

When you hear people say that Hollywood is all about profit, don’t believe them. Frequently, Hollywood is just as much about leftist propaganda.

Posted in America, Donald Trump, Hollywood, Politics, Propaganda War | Tagged Hollywood Propaganda, Leftist Hollywood, Quantico | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 28, 2017

Memorial Day Weekend, 2017

My father, Rabbi Abraham Avrech, 42nd Div. U.S. Army, Colonel, Ret., conducts services during the Korean War.

My father, Chaplain Rabbi Abraham Avrech, z’l (1919-2014) U.S. Army, 42nd Div., Colonel, Ret., conducts services during the Korean War.

On Memorial Day, we remember all the members of our armed services who paid the ultimate price in service to this great country.

Our eternal gratitude.

Posted in Abraham Avrech, America, Judaism, Judaism & Christianity, Memorial Day, War, World War II | Tagged 42nd Rainbow Division, Abraham Avrech, Chaplain Abraham Avrech, Jewish Chaplains, Korean war, Memorial Day, Vietnam | 1 Response

By Robert J. Avrech | May 26, 2017

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

“After my screen test, the director clapped his hands gleefully and yelled, “She can’t talk! She can’t act! She’s sensational!”
—Ava Gardner
Photo by Norman Parkinson, 1953

Posted in Automobiles, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Dorothy Lamour, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jewish Holidays, Judaica, Judaism, Movies, Myrna Loy, Photography, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Dorothy Lamour, Dovima, Erwin Blumenfeld, Irving Penn, John Holland Fountain Pen, Milton Green, Myrna Loy, Omer counter, Quirijn van Brekelenkam, Rick McGinnis, Rufus Hathaway, Vincent van Gogh, Vintage Cars | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 25, 2017

But It’s Okay to Slaughter Jewish Children

A few of the Israel children slaughtered by IslamoNazis.

And now the Manchester atrocity.

Another IslamoNazi terrorist attack in which lives are snuffed out and the injured are burnt, blinded, deafened, crushed and absent limbs, condemned to a life of psychological and physical agony.

Observe the kabuki theater of solidarity, candles, flowers and shrines of stuffed toys. Listen to the boiler plate expressions of outrage as they wash over the media with numbing mindlessness and, ultimately, meaninglessness.

Posted in ISIS, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazi Kidnappings, IslamoNazis, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Jew-haters, Jew-hatred | Tagged Europe, Kiryat Shmona, Ma'alot, Manchester Massacre | 1 Response

By Robert J. Avrech | May 23, 2017

The Reunification of Jerusalem, 1967

In honor of Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, here’s a short film that tells the story of Israel’s 1967 battle to rescue Jerusalem from Jordanian assault, and the ensuing reunification of Jerusalem.

My father z’l, said to me, “This is a miracle.”

He was right.

Posted in IslamoNazis, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Jerusalem, Jew-haters, Jordan | Tagged Israel, Jerusalem Day, Jordan | 3 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 22, 2017

Trump’s Middle Eastern Reset: One Sentence Never Before Heard in the Muslim World

President Trump at the Kotel.

Barack Obama spent eight years enabling Iran through a nuclear deal which guarantees them a nuclear device within 10-15 years, and by showering them with money, several million in hard cash — money laundering, anyone? For this America has earned the well-deserved contempt of not just Iran, but Israel and the Sunni states.

Posted in Barack Hussein Obama, Donald Trump, Iran, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazis, Israel | Tagged Iran, Ivanka Trump, Melania Trump, Obama, Saudi Arabia, Trump in Israel, Zionism | 15 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 19, 2017

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

“She was an absolute genius as a comedic actress, with an extraordinary sense for comedic dialogue. It was a God-given gift. Believe me, in the last fifteen years there were ten projects that came to me, and I’d start working on them and I’d think, ‘It’s not going to work, it needs Marilyn Monroe.’ Nobody else is in that orbit; everyone else is earthbound by comparison.”
—Billy Wilder

Posted in Art, Automobiles, Billy Wilder, Brigitte Bardot, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Cars, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jewish Holidays, Judaica, Judaism, Lizabeth Scott, Marilyn Monroe, Painting, Sidney Lumet, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Bathing Suits, Bikini, Brigitte Bardot, Charles Demuth, Classic Cars, Diana Dors, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Filippo Lippi, Georges Dambier, Howard Hodgkin, Ivy Nicholson, John Singer Sargent, Lizabeth Scott, Louis Réard, Marc Riboud, Marilyn Monroe | 3 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 18, 2017

Never Underestimate Barbarians

Massacre of the Prisoners of the Jewish Tribe of Beni Qurayzah, illustration of a 19th-century text by Muhammad Rafi Bazil.

Howard Bloom, a brilliant author whose ideas about geopolitics should be absorbed by those who cherish Western Civilization, authored the 1997 book, The Lucifer Principle, where he introduced a new concept in geopolitical science: “the pecking order of nations.”

The following is an excerpt from the second part of an interview with Bloom, published here last November by the invaluable Gatestone Institute.

Posted in ISIS, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazi Kidnappings, IslamoNazis, Israel, Jew-haters, Jew-hatred, Judaism | Tagged Howard Bloom, The Lucifer Principle, The Pecking Order of Nations | Leave a comment

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
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Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City

Fourteenth: June 11, 2016
Daniel Greenfield: “Fighting Anti-Semitism and Defending Israel in the Age of BDS.”

Blog Post
MP3 Audio Stereo (100 MB)

Thirteenth: May 22, 2016
Ben Shapiro: “How You Can Save Israel”

Blog Post
MP3 Audio Stereo (70 MB)

Twelfth: June 7, 2015
Larry Elder: “The New Black Anti-Semitism”

Blog Post
MP3 Audio Mono (50 MB) | Stereo (100 MB)

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: “Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do.”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: “The War Against Judaism on the University Campus.”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: “The Mainstream Media’s Betrayal of Israel.”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: “What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me.”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: “Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion.”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: “Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 64MB)

Fifth: June 15, 2008
Rabbi Dr. Gil S. Perl: “What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania.”

Blog Post | Audio (mp3 70MB)
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