Seraphic Secret

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

Irene Dunne

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“I find it so boring to talk about myself. I don’t remember the last time I did an interview. Somebody came to my house and I thought I’d never get rid of him. That sort of cooled me off.”
—Irene Dunne (1898 – 1990)

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“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

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

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Ricardo Cortez
Ricardo Cortez

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.

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Friday Fashion: The Female Animal

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George Hurrell's legendary photo of Jean Harlow on a bearskin rug is the iconic image of the female animal.

In last week’s Friday Fashion post we observed that designers frequently clothe women utilizing fur, feathers and animal patterns.

For as long as fashion has existed, animal metaphors have been an indispensible part of the designer’s lexicon. Hollywood, during its golden age, a leading arbiter of taste, heightened and refined the animal analogy with brilliant costume designers turning ravishing movie stars into expressions of animal desire.

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