Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Hollywood Still Photography

Hollywood Friday Photos — The Beautiful and the Damned

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Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) was the first American-Chinese movie star. Her long career spanned silent and sound movies, radio, stage and television.Her first film role was Toll of the Sea (1922) one of the first movies produced in color. Tragically, the Production Code instituted by the studios to protect against outside censorship, which forbade race-mixing, Wong was never cast as a leading opposite a Caucasian star. Thus, she was relegated to support roles and often as a stereotypical dragon lady. This wonderful photo is by artist Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Radnitzky.
Anna May Wong (1905 – 1961) was the first American-Chinese movie star. Her long career spanned silent and sound movies, radio, stage and television. Her first film role was in Toll of the Sea (1922) one of the first movies produced in Technicolor. Tragically, the Production Code instituted by the studios to protect against government censorship, upheld anti-miscegenation laws. Thus, Wong was never cast as a leading lady opposite a Caucasian star. Her greatest disappointment, and a notorious outrage, was when MGM refused to cast her as O-lan, the leading role in their adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s huge best-seller, “The Good Earth.” Instead, the plum assignment went to the competent but dreary Luise Rainer. For most of her career, the enormously talented and beautiful Anna May was relegated to supporting roles and B movies, frequently as a stereotypical dragon lady. This evocative photo, which views Anna May’s silken, waterfall hair, as a distinct character, is by artist Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Radnitzky.

 

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Hollywood Friday Photos — Just Because

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Brigitte Bardot is either thinking deep thoughts or having a migraine.
This might be my favorite photo of Brigitte Bardot.  I’m pretty sure it’s a still from Contempt directed by the tedious and talentless Marxist Jean Luc Godard. Either BB is wondering how she got roped into a dopey art film, or she’s having a migraine.

This week Seraphic Secret has been preoccupied with, um, stuff. Hence, no time to post about the latest ObamaCare outrage, our government of the pen and by the phone, and of course, John Kerry’s startling and touching discovery of his Jewish ancestry.

Anyhoo.

It is Friday. Time to take a vacation from the weight of history.

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Classic Hollywood Passport Photos

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Here's Anna May Wong in the 1930s, in a studio publicity still.
Anna May Wong in a studio publicity still from the 1930s.

If you want to torture yourself, take a look at your passport.

Chances are you look pretty awful. With flat lighting, a grim full frontal pose, and that look of bafflement, your photo probably looks like a mug shot.

Are glamorous Hollywood stars just like us when they submit to the artless lens of the passport photographer?

You be the judge.

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