For as long as fashion has existed, animal metaphors have been an indispensible part of the designers language. Hollywood, during its golden age, a leading arbiter of taste, heightened and refined the animal metaphor with brilliant costume designers turning ravishing movie stars into expressions of animal desire.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.
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http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/record-breaking-bridal-train-nearly-2-miles-long-165800345.html ….
Loy’s front page photo on IMdb is from her vamp days. I always wondered why it wasn’t one from The Thin Man or Best Years.
Johnny:
IMDB make lots of mistakes.
It strikes me that today an actress would change her name from Joan Crawford to Lucille Fay LeSueur.
Squander:
LB Mayer felt that LeSueur sounded too much like sewer. In general, unless the actor was an exotic foreign import such as Garbo or Dietrich, the studios preferred strong all-American, non-ethnic names that could easily fit on a marquee.
Carole is my favorite – both in looks and temperament. A sultry tomboy? No wonder Gable never got over her.
Just finished the von Sternberg book. I didn’t realize that before Marlene Dietrich the name “Marlene” wasn’t in the Lexicon. It is a contraction of Marie Magdalene – which is of course Marlene’s real name.
Bill:
Gable was in love with Lombard, but he still cheated on her. Which drove her crazy.
Somehow, I think that makes some sense. And Gable was buried with her. Complicated. Guilty. And romantic.
No one can ever prove or disprove this but I think Gable volunteered to be a door gunner in England in the 8th AAF – was to kill himself. Your odds were 1 in 3 of dying or being seriously injured before your 21 missions were up.
And Carole’s decision to take that plane ride – instead of driving – was based on the flip of a coin?
To cheat on her – to have it all – and throw it away –
Bill:
After Lombard died Gable took to drink in a big way and his friends were really worried about him. His enlistment as a door gunner was relatively brief and yes, many thought he wanted to be killed. In fact, he spent most of his time working in a film unit. The USAF felt that Gable was simply too old to be a gunner—he was—and they were terrified that the Germans might capture him. Hitler put a 1 million dollar bounty on Gable.
Ahhhhh… Myrna Loy. Thank you, Robert, but no BB?
Joe:
BB always looks like an animal in heat. No costume needed:-)