Seraphic Secret

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

The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“You see, life goes on without the slightest regard for individual preoccupations. You may take what attitude you like toward it or, like most people, take no attitude at all. It doesn’t matter a darn to life. The ostrich, on much the same principle, buries its head in sand. But just as forces outside the sand ultimately get the ostrich, so life, all the time, is getting you. I’ve found that sometimes you can gamble with life, but that’s about as near as you ever come to beating it.” – Helen Twelvetrees
“You see, life goes on without the slightest regard for individual preoccupations. You may take what attitude you like toward it or, like most people, take no attitude at all. It doesn’t matter a darn to life. The ostrich, on much the same principle, buries its head in sand. But just as forces outside the sand ultimately get the ostrich, so life, all the time, is getting you. I’ve found that sometimes you can gamble with life, but that’s about as near as you ever come to beating it.”
– Helen Twelvetrees

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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Marlon Brando applying his make-up on the set of On the Waterfront (1954, dir. Elia Kazan) “[In On the Waterfront] there was a scene in a taxicab, where I turn to my brother, who’s come to turn me over to the gangsters, and I lament to him that he never looked after me, he never gave me a chance, that I could have been a contender, I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum…It was very moving. And people often spoke about that, ‘Oh, my God, what a wonderful scene, Marlon, blah blah blah blah blah.’ It wasn’t wonderful at all. The situation was wonderful. Everybody feels like he could have been a contender, he could have been somebody, everybody feels as though he’s partly bum, some part of him. He is not fulfilled and he could have done better, he could have been better. Everybody feels a sense of loss about something. So that was what touched people. It wasn’t the scene itself. There are other scenes where you’ll find actors being expert, but since the audience can’t clearly identify with them, they just pass unnoticed. Wonderful scenes never get mentioned, only those scenes that affect people.” -Brando, quoted in Lawrence Grobel's Conversations with Brando (1993)
Marlon Brando applying his make-up on the set of On the Waterfront (1954).
“[In On the Waterfront] there was a scene in a taxicab, where I turn to my brother, who’s come to turn me over to the gangsters, and I lament to him that he never looked after me, he never gave me a chance, that I could have been a contender, I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum…It was very moving. And people often spoke about that, ‘Oh, my God, what a wonderful scene, Marlon, blah blah blah blah blah.’
It wasn’t wonderful at all. The situation was wonderful. Everybody feels like he could have been a contender, he could have been somebody, everybody feels as though he’s partly bum, some part of him. He is not fulfilled and he could have done better, he could have been better. Everybody feels a sense of loss about something. So that was what touched people. It wasn’t the scene itself. There are other scenes where you’ll find actors being expert, but since the audience can’t clearly identify with them, they just pass unnoticed. Wonderful scenes never get mentioned, only those scenes that affect people.”
-Brando, quoted in Lawrence Grobel’s Conversations with Brando (1993)
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Lunch with Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren

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Audrey Hepburn visits Sophia Loren and her husband, producer Carlo Ponti in Switzerland.
Audrey Hepburn visits Sophia Loren and her husband, producer Carlo Ponti in Switzerland.

During Christmas 1957, Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti rented a villa in Switzerland. Their neighbors were Audrey Hepburn and her husband actor Mel Ferrer.

One day, while Mel was away for work, Audrey invited us to lunch. To get to their house we had to walk along a trail surrounded on both sides by the peaceful, silent snow. It was like being in a fairy tale. The chalet was very beautiful, luminous, all decorated in white, set on a hill overlooking the lake. Audrey was dressed in white too, as was the table, on which she’d placed a few flowers and lots of candles. It was the height of elegance.

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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Your inner life means an awful lot, too. If you’re unhappy or bitter or jealous, it shows in your face. And I’m sure it’s true, love keeps you pretty.” —Ingrid Bergman
“Your inner life means an awful lot, too. If you’re unhappy or bitter or jealous, it shows in your face. And I’m sure it’s true, love keeps you pretty.”
—Ingrid Bergman

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“You know what you can do with this.” -Myrna Loy to her movie studio when they sent her a letter reprimanding her for speaking out on behalf of German Jews. Her activism resulted in a loss of revenue for the studio when Hitler banned Loy’s movies in Germany.
“You know what you can do with this.”
—Myrna Loy to MGM when they sent her a letter reprimanding her for speaking out on behalf of German Jews. Her call against Jew-hatred resulted in a loss of revenue for the studio when Hitler banned Loy’s movies in Germany.

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