Seraphic Secret

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

Joan Bennett

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“I turned my hair dark and have received much better parts ever since… I was sometimes greeted as Miss Lamarr in dimly lit restaurants. Personally, I liked the idea of escaping from all that bland, blonde innocence and thought the whole thing was very funny, but I don’t think Hedy found the comparisons very amusing.“
—Joan Bennett

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“I don’t think much of most of the films I made, but being a movie star was something I liked very much… My film career faded. A man can go on playing certain roles till he’s sixty. But not a woman… The golden age is gone, and with it most of the people of great taste. It doesn’t seem to be any fun any more.”—Joan Bennett in a 1984 interview

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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Fortunately, before I was due to make a final commitment to the Actor’s Studio, I was invited to sit and watch eight classes there. As I studied Lee Strasberg and his approach to his hapless students, I was appalled. One student was instructed by Strasberg to pretend to be a dog and lick the floor beneath his paws. He complied… I quickly concluded that the Actor’s Studio approach was not for me. I much preferred the Bette Davis school of acting. She was kept waiting one day to do her scene at the Studio while another actor interminably discussed his motivations for taking off his shoe, his mood, his emotions. In the end, an exasperated Bette burst out, “Just drop it on the floor. It’s only a goddamn shoe!”
—Shirley Jones, A Memoir

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Star in the Hat

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Theda Bara, born Theodosia Goodman, was a nice Jewish Girl form Cincinnati who transformed herself into cinema's first femme fatale, the man-eating vamp. Tragically, most of her films were destroyed in a fire.
Theda Bara, (1885 – 1955) born Theodosia Goodman, was a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati who transformed herself into cinema’s first femme fatale, the man-destroying vamp. Tragically, most of her legendary films were destroyed in a fire.

There was a time when wearing a hat was  de rigueur. Fine millinery was considered a sign of good taste, good breeding, and good fashion.

Hollywood actresses were rarely seen in public without hat, gloves and a designer outfit. Those were the days when Hollywood insisted on projecting style and glamour. Of course, with the destruction of the studio system by the federal government and the advent of television, stars abandoned style and rapidly devolved into vulgar celebrity.

Here’s a reminder of classic Hollywood glamour featuring stars in their hats.

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Hollywood Sells: Buy Me, Be Me

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Annette Kellerman (1886 – 1975) was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville and film star. She was credited with being the first women to wear a one piece bathing suit in place of pantaloons. It’s also said that she was the first woman to do a nude scene in “A Daughter of the Gods.” Unfortunately, the film has been lost. This ad is from 1916.

 

Ever since there were movie stars there have been star product endorsements.

Corporations and their advertising companies were quick to understand that those larger than life figures floating like angels on the silver screen were potent persuaders. Thus, the synergistic relationship between one product, the movie star, and a consumer product—cigarettes, perfume, makeup, whatever—was born, and continues with increasing power and sophistication to this very day.

The idea is simplicity itself: Buy me, be me.

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