Category Archives: Glamour

Tweet Between 1919 and 1921, Gloria Swanson starred in a series of wildly popular films for director Cecile B. De Mille in which the iconography of Hollywood glamour was formally codified. The titles of these films carry the whiff of scandal and decadence: Don’t Change Your Husband (1919), For Better, For Worse (1919), Male and […]

Also posted in Gloria Swanson, Hollywood, Hollywood Moms, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Hollywood Wedding Nights | Tagged Addie Swanson, Broncho Billy, Cecil B. DeMille, Gloria Swanson, Marriage, Rape, Stage Mothers, Sunset Boulevard, Wallace Beery | 5 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 1, 2016

Hidden Hollywood: Deanna Durbin and Ann Frank

Tweet There was a time when Hollywood stars gave hope to those victims who were trapped in the whirlwind of oppression, intolerance and genocide. Such a star was the radiant Deanna Durbin, who passed away in 2013 at the age of 91. Durbin (b. Edna Mae Durbin December 4, 1921 – c. April 20, 2013) […]

Also posted in Ann Frank, Deanna Durbin, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Holocaust | Tagged Achterhuis, Ann Frank, Charles David, David Shipman, Fidel Castro, Greta Garbo, Hugo Chavez, Imperial Japan, Jeanine Basinger, Nazi Genocide, World War II | 12 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 22, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Art, Design, Eve Arden, Family, Friday Fotos, Great Dialogue, Hedy Lamarr, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Israel, Jewish Holidays, Jewish Hollywood, Jewish Photography, Judaism, Painting, Photography, Quotes, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Agnes Martin, De Stijl, design, Ed Ruscha, Etrog, Eve Arden, Fernando Taborda, Furniture, Gerrit Rietveld, Hedy Lamarr, James M. Cain, James Nares, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Louis Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, Mary Nolan, Mildred Pierce, Moira Dryer, Naum Gabo, Paulette Goddard, Piet Cohen, Robert Capa, Robert Doisneau, Robert Riggs, Sam Francis, Susan Hayward, William Klein | 19 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 15, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Photography, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Aristide Maillol, Brett Weston, Dallas, Dance Girl Dance, Ernest Bachrach, Hedy Lamarr, Jay DeFeo, Joanne Woodward, Joel McCrea, Katherine Hepburn, Kim Novak, Lielle Meital, Lilla Cabot Perry, Lucille Ball, Milton Avery, Moira Dryer, Paul Newman, Paul Strand, Preston Sturges, Robert Warwick, Ruth Orkin, Sari Srulovitch, Sean Scully, Sullivan's Travels, The Apartment, Wade Hulth | 14 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 8, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Actors, Art, Edith Head, Errol Flynn, Family, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Joan Fontaine, Lielle Meital, Maayan Ariel, Marlon Brando, Movie Posters, Movies, Olivia De Havilland, Painting, Photography, Quotes, Silent Movies, They Died With Their Boots On, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charlie Chaplin, Deborah Kerr, Dinner at Eight, Edith Head, Edvard Munch, Edward Hopper, Errol Flynn, Jean Harlow, Joan Fontaine, Lenore Coffee, Leon Berkowitz, Marie Dressler, Marlon Brando, Noel Neill, Olivia de Havilland, Sabine Weiss, Sari Srulovitch, Smith & Wesson, They Died, Tiffany and Co., To Each His Own, W. Eugene Smith, Wally Kline, Æneas MacKenzie | 19 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 6, 2016

Hidden Hollywood: Latin Lover Ricardo Cortez is Kosher Butcher’s Son

Tweet Ricardo Cortez (1900-1977) was a handsome and talented leading man whose image, in the silent era, was that of a hot-blooded Latin lover. In truth, his name was Jacob Krantz, the son of a kosher butcher, born and raised in the mean streets of New York’s Lower East Side.

Also posted in Alma Rubens, Greta Garbo, Hidden Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Irene Dunne, Jewish Hollywood, Judaism, Movie Posters, Movies, Photography, Ricardo Cortez, Silent Movies | Tagged Alma Rubens, Bebe Daniels, D.W. Griffith, Greta Garbo, Irene Dunne, L.B. Mayer, Mae Clarke, Maltese Falcon, Pidyon Ha-Ben, Ricardo Cortez, Stanley Cortez, Symphony of Six Million, The Torrent, This Bright World Again | 3 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 16, 2016

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Actors, Alfred Hitchcock, Anna May Wong, Art, Design, Family, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Madge Bellamy, Marilyn Monroe, Movie Posters, Movies, Painting, Photography, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, Photography, Signs, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Ann Dvorak, Arthur Dove, Canada Dry Spur Cola, Casablanca, Edward H, Georgiana Houghton, Horst B. Horst, Josef Hoffmann, Madge Bellamy, Marilyn Monroe, Spur Soda, William Harnett, Winslow Homer | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 10, 2015

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

Also posted in Anna May Wong, Art, Bette Davis, Betty Grable, Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Friday Footwear, Friday Fotos, Greta Garbo, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaism, Leonardo da Vinci, Marlene Dietrich, Marriage, Movies, Myrna Loy, Photography, Rita Hayworth, Star Ads, True Hollywood Confessions | Tagged Ann Sothern, Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardner, B.B., Betty Grable, Busby Berkeley, Charlotte Olympia, Clyfford Still, Curacao, Ed Ruscha, Elvis Presley, Footlight Parade, Garbo, Gene Davis, James Nares, Leda, Leonardo Da Vinci, Manhattan Melodrama, Marlene Dietrich, Mikve Israel-Emanuel, Rashomon, Sandro Botticelli, Theda Bara | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 5, 2015

Friday Photos: The Image is the Message

Tweet The other day I was talking with an aspiring screenwriter about great film actors. I mentioned Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, and Marilyn Monroe. The aspiring screenwriter, a young woman, told me that she’d heard of them, seen a lot of their photos on the […]

Also posted in Abraham Avrech, Anna May Wong, Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture, Art, Family, Friday Fotos, Gene Tierney, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Joan Fontaine, John Wayne, Judaism, Painting, Photography | Tagged Agnes Pelton, Anna May Wong, Barcelona Haggadah, Carole Lombard, Carolyn Jones, Charlotte Salomon, Cornell Capa, David Ortins, Ed Ruscha, Gene Tierney, Hilma af Klint, Irene Dunne, Joan Fontaine, Livia Yarden, Marilyn Monroe, movie posters, Norma Jeane Baker, Paul Newman, Willem de Kooning | 15 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 22, 2015

Friday Photos: Welcome to the New La-La Land

Tweet Hollywood was once the dream capital of the world. Movies peddled glamour and fantasy. This was La-La Land where outrageous plots and larger than life characters allowed audiences to construct alternate realities — entertainment. But La-La Land has relocated. On Wednesday, President Obama delivered the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy in […]

Also posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Homeland Security, ISIS, Islam, Islam Denial, Islamic State, Islamic Terror, IslamoNazis, Joan Blondell, Movies, Obama Watch, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, Photography, Signs, Politics, Progressive Democrats | Tagged Andy Warhol, Anthony Perkins, Audrey Hepburn, Basil Rathbone, Brigitte Bardot, Disney Concert Hall, Don Ameche, Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper, Hedy Lamarr, Jimmy Stewart, Joan Blondell, Marilyn Monroe, Mark Rothko, Martin Puryear, Photography, Sandra Dee, Steve McQueen, The Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer, Vermeer, Wayne Thiebaud | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 1, 2015

Friday Photos: UnBaltimore Edition

Tweet The Baltimore neighborhood that saw the worst of the violence was already filled with many burned-out buildings and vacant lots that had not been rebuilt since the 1968 riots that followed the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Source via my friend Neo-Neocon Nothing more to say but enjoy the photos.

Also posted in Art, Baltimore Riots, Brigitte Bardot, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography | Tagged Audrey Hepburn, Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken, Catherine Deneuve, Constance Bennett, Dorothy Gish, Elvis Presley, Emma Matzo, Francois Dorleac, Gustav Klimt, Hedy Lamarr, Joan Bennett, Joan Fontaine, John Wayne, Jr., Karen Singer Avrech, Lillian Gish, Lizabeth Scott, Marilyn Monroe, Micha Bar-Am, Olivia de Havilland, Pablo Picasso, Rabbi Philip Harris Singer, Rudolph Valentino | 14 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | January 23, 2015

Friday Photos: Mood Board

Tweet This morning, after Daf Yomi, my friend turned to me and said: “Some week, huh?” I said: “It seems that every week is some week.” “Yeah.” On that downer, let’s try and alter the mood with some photos and stories.

Also posted in Friday Footwear, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Holocaust, Jewish Photography, Livia Yarden, Maayan Ariel, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Nolan, Movies, Photography | Tagged art, Buchenwald, Desert Nights, Eddie Mannix, Elizabeth Taylor, Erich von Stroheim, I Was an Adventuress, Indian Cinema, John Singer Sargent, Lon Chaney, Mary Nolan, Peter Lorre, Richard Greene, Seeta Devi, shul, synagogue, Tekhelet, The Light of Asia, Two White Dresses, West of Zanzibar, Zorina | 19 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | December 5, 2014

Friday Photos: Just Because the World is Burning…

Tweet All across the country protests, riots, and race-baiters doing what they do in order to disrupt civil society. We don’t know about you, but here at Seraphic Secret we feel the need for some relief from the endless cycle of horrible, terrible, very bad news. We yearn for beauty, for images that, in one […]

Also posted in Anna May Wong, Art, Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Friday Fotos, Gloria Grahame, Hollywood Mirror, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography | Tagged A Woman's Secret, Audrey Hepburn, Desert Nights, Drexel U, James Nares, John Gilbert, John Singer Sargent, Lielle Meital, Ma'ayan Ariel, Mary Nolan, Miss Elsie Palmer | 11 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | November 28, 2014

Friday Photos: Still Scattered

Tweet We hope all our readers had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. Keeping to last week’s theme of eschewing a theme, Seraphic Secret is, once again, indulging in a collection of random photos that we like for various reasons. We hope you do too.

Also posted in Anna May Wong, Art, Brigitte Bardot, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe, Seven Samurai | Tagged Brigitte Bardot, Gun Crazy, James Nares, Jan Vermeer, Self Portraits, Self-Portrait, Shabbat, Shachareet, Tefillin | 4 Responses

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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