Seraphic Secret

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

Friday Photos: In Every Generation

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Bookstore in Jewish Quarter, Paris ca. 1920
Bookstore in Jewish Quarter, Paris ca. 1920

On Passover, Jews around the world recite a passage from the Haggadah that strikes a note both poignant and defiant.

In every generation they [our enemies] rise up against us to destroy us, but the Holy One Blessed Be He saves us from their hands.

But Judaism does not place faith in faith alone. Man is born with free will and G-d expects us to exercise that free will in order to do what is right.

Jewish law holds—as does common sense—that it is incumbent to strike preemptively at your enemies before they attack you. Because Jewish history shows with Newtonian certainty that when people threaten to kill Jews — they mean it.

Our IslamoNazi enemies in Tehran have made it quite clear that they intend to annihilate the Jewish State. Barack Obama has, at the same time, made it even more clear, that he couldn’t care less about Israel or the Jewish people. To this doctrinaire Marxist who has made common cause with Jew-haters for his entire academic and political career, Israel is just an annoying and illegitimate neocolonial outpost in the Middle East.

In every generation they rise up.

The surprise is that the American people and 74% of American Jews rose up and freely elected one of our bitterest foes.

A few photos to enjoy over the next few days.

Barbara Stanwyck endorses a skin crea,, 1940s.
Barbara Stanwyck endorses Lux Soap, 1940s.

 

MM before her makeup is applied and after. I wonder if she used Lux?
MM before her makeup is applied and after. I wonder if she used Lux?

 

Painting by Clifford Still, oil on canvas.
Painting by Clyfford Still, (1904 – 1980) oil on canvas.

 

Otis Kaye (1885–1974) is best known for his trompe l'oeil paintings in which U.S. currency is featured. This, perhaps his best known work, is titled “The One Key to it All”. You will not be surprised to learn that Kaye lost all his money in the stock market crash of 1929. The WSJ recently published a fine article about a survey of his work.
Otis Kaye (1885–1974) is best known for his trompe l’oeil paintings in which U.S. currency is featured. This work is titled “The One Key to it All”. You will not be surprised to learn that Kaye lost all his money in the stock market crash of 1929. The WSJ recently published a fine survey about his work.

 

Photographer George Hurrell shot the portrait of actress Joan Crawford as a publicity shot for the 1931 film Laughing Sinners. Here’s a closer look at the original, unretouched version of the photo.
Hollywood’s greatest still photographer, George Hurrell shot this portrait of Joan Crawford for the 1931 film “Laughing Sinners.” This is the original, unretouched version of the photo.

 

Hurrell then passed the photograph to a retoucher named James Sharp, who spent six hours smoothing skin, removing spots, and erasing wrinkles. Sharp used a retoucher machine, which backlit and vibrated the original negative, allowing Sharp to physically smooth out the film using a pencil. Here’s the ‘Photoshopped’ portrait that resulted:
Hurrell then gave the photograph to a retoucher named James Sharp, who spent six hours smoothing skin, removing spots, and erasing wrinkles. Sharp used a retoucher machine on the original negative.
This is a ‘Photoshopped’ portrait before the digital age.

 

High School student Issur Danielovitch AKA Kirk Douglas with his beloved mother Bryna.
High School student Issur Danielovitch AKA Kirk Douglas with his beloved mother Bryna.

 

A few years later, Lana Turner has replaced Mama Bryna. Still photo from the “The Bad and the Beautiful” ('52).
A few years later, Lana Turner has replaced Mama Bryna. Still photo from “The Bad and the Beautiful” (’52).

 

Poster for "The Yellow Ticket," 1931, an obscure Raoul Walsh film about a Jewish woman, Elissa Landi, in Tsarist Russia who must apply for a Yellow Ticket in order to leave her shtetl and travel to St. Petersburg. But the Yellow Ticket is only given to prostitutes. An obscure but very interesting movie.
Poster for “The Yellow Ticket,” 1931, an obscure Raoul Walsh film about a Jewish woman, Elissa Landi, in Tsarist Russia who must apply for a Yellow Ticket in order to leave her shtetl and travel to St. Petersburg. But the Yellow Ticket is only given to prostitutes. An obscure but very interesting movie.

 

Brigitte Bardot as a child.
Brigitte Bardot as a child.

 

Brigitte Bardot, 18, in a demure wedding gown for her marriage to Roger Vadim. Years and several husbands later, Bardot auctioned off the gown, the proceeds in support of her animal rights foundation.
Brigitte Bardot, 18, in a demure wedding gown for her marriage to Roger Vadim. Years and several husbands later, Bardot auctioned off the gown, the proceeds in support of her animal rights foundation.

 

Bardot transformed. Photo by Douglas Kirkland.
Bardot transformed. Photo by Douglas Kirkland.

 

Sculpture by Anish Kapoor, Mother as Mountain.
Sculpture by Anish Kapoor, Mother as Mountain.

 

“Men like me because I don’t wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don’t look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.” —Jean Harlow
“Men like me because I don’t wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don’t look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.” —Jean Harlow

 

“I loved acting, which was never about money, the fame. It was about a search for meaning. It was painful.” —Kim Novak
“I loved acting, which was never about money, the fame. It was about a search for meaning. It was painful.” —Kim Novak

 

“I learned at a very early age that life is a battle. My family was poor, my neighborhood was poor. The only way that I could get away from the awfulness of life, at that time, was at the movies. There I decided that my big aim was to make money. And it was there that I became a very determined woman.” —Susan Hayward
“I learned at a very early age that life is a battle. My family was poor, my neighborhood was poor. The only way that I could get away from the awfulness of life, at that time, was at the movies. There I decided that my big aim was to make money. And it was there that I became a very determined woman.” —Susan Hayward

 

“I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.” —Marilyn Monroe
“I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.” —Marilyn Monroe

 

Ethiopian Jewish women with qita, the unleavened bread they bake for Passover.
Ethiopian Jewish women with qita, the unleavened bread they bake for Passover.

 

Jewish community in Manila conducting a Passover Seder, 1925
Jewish community in Manila conducting a Passover Seder, 1925

 

A young Jewish girl in the JDC-supported Berlin-Mariendorf DP Camp shares matzahs with Captain J. Robbins, Jewish Chaplain for Berlin. Berlin, c 1946.
A young Jewish girl in the Berlin-Mariendorf DP Camp shares matzah with Captain J. Robbins, Jewish Chaplain for Berlin. Berlin, c 1946.

 

A young Jewish girl holds up a hand-baked matzah for the camera. Teheran, Iran, c 1964.
A young Jewish girl holds up a hand-baked matzah for the camera. Teheran, Iran, c 1964.

 

From her top secret club house, Maayan Ariel wishes all our friends and relatives an inspirational last days of Passover, and a lovely Shabbat.
From her secret club house, Maayan Ariel wishes all our friends and relatives an inspirational and kosher last days of Passover, and a lovely Shabbat.

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Comments

  1. RE: Barbara Stanwyck: Just recently, I saw a DELIGHTFUL romantic comedy of hers, called BALL OF FIRE. It does sag a little, in the middle. Stanwyck plays a sassy, fast-talking showgirl, a gangster’s (Dana Andrews’s) girlfriend. Gary Cooper, playing a professor researching an encyclopedia article on slang, meets her and falls for her. Oskar Homolka plays another professor working on the same encyclopedia. Kathleen Howard, whom I had never noticed before and instantly became a fan of, plays the puritanical, snoopy, bossy housekeeper at the “Totten Foundation,” where all the professors are living while they research and write the encyclopedia. Stanwyck, hiding from both her boyfriend and the D.A., comes to live there. The encyclopedia was supposedly endowed by the late Daniel S. Totten, inventor of the elctric toaster, who blew a gasket when he found he was omitted from the Encyxlopedia Britannica.

    By the way, if there’s somebody out there who A) has seen the movie, and B) knows something about the history of hairstyling, do you think the hair stylist put a foundation in Barbara Stanwych’s pompadour?

    • CORRECTIONS: “(I)nventor of the electric toaster.”

      By the way, if there’s somebody out there who A) has seen the movie, and B) knows something about the history of hairstyling, do you think the hair stylist put a foundation in Barbara Stanwycks pompadour?

      • CORRECTION: By the way, if there’s somebody out there who A) has seen the movie, and B) knows something about the history of hairstyling, do you think the hair stylist put a foundation in Barbara Stanwyck’s pompadour?

    • “Ball of Fire” was remade for Danny Kaye, substituting Big Band music for Slang as the research subject. I didn’t think it was quite as good as “Ball of Fire” but still enjoy it. Virginia Mayo played Barbara Stanwyck’s role, as she often played against Danny Kaye. Otherwise the plot was primarily the same and the Seven Dwarfs were in both, much to viewer delight.

  2. The Joan Crawford photo pair is an impressive display. If your browser size is right you can position one photo and then alternate Page-Down and Page-Up to go back and forth nearly seamlessly between the two photos to see the differences. The retouching work demonstrates the important difference between “Do you want it good?” and “Do you want it fast?” My opinion is that six hours by a professional proves that you rarely can have both, making it one of the important tradeoffs that only great managers understand. Considering the amount of work, I’ll bet the retoucher’s hours is equivalent to someone else’s days.

  3. Maayan’s club house looks first class because Robert & Karen don’t do half measures! Is there a doorman?

    on MM’s pictures – you can tell who is Norma Jean and who is MM.

    Reminds me of a wonderful documentary I saw of her – she is staying with her NY friends in 1956 – quietly – and shows someone in downtown Manhattan the difference between NJ and MM –

    As it was she was NJ – nobody on the street noticed her. Then she turned on the MM persona and people instantly recognized her.

    What “it” was was a mystery, but MM knew…

  4. Oh Mr. Avrech how I love your Friday photos. They are like savoring a box of chocolates. I had surgery this morning but glad I took the time to read your blog; back to bed for me 😉

  5. In my discussions online with various folk, I often run across the argument that whereas the poster is not anti-Jewish and thinks Israel is okay…. they think that Israel is “creating enemies out of the people of the region;” that Israel needs to stop “oppressing the Palestinians;” that if Israel doesn’t “change” its enemies are going to destroy Israel….
    Oy.
    My last response to such a comment was:
    “In a Middle Eastern/ Arab/ Muslim world of self-immolation; of the most horrific destruction imaginable; that grows almost exponentially before the eyes of the rest of the world and that is being spread by Arabs and Muslims everywhere, it is indeed comical to read how State of Israel and Jews are supposed to be somehow held accountable for this utter barbarism.
    G-d; the G-d of History says otherwise.
    Look it up.”
    Gut Moed and Chag Sameach!

    • that Israel needs to stop “oppressing the Palestinians;”

      Dear Moishe3rd: Ask the next person who tells you that Israel needs to stop oppressing the now-so-called “Palestinians” if he thinks that Anne Frank, may the al-mighty avenge her blood, and her family, were oppressing the Nazis, may their names be erased. Anne and her family, when they went to hide in that attic, were trying to stay alive when the Nazis wanted to kill them. When the Israelis finally shoot back, after the Arabs, which is what the “Palestinians” are, historically, culturally, and liguistically, have been firing missiles at them for years, they are trying to stay alive when Arabs want to kill them. Logically, anyone who thinks Israel is oppressing the “Palestinians” should think that Anne Frank was oppressing the Nazis.

  6. Nice pair of photos showing skilled retouching. I watched an expert at work at the Erie Times newspaper, in 1979. His tools were an airbrush with a collection of different shade of gray paints, plus a q-tip. He worked on the prints, because those are what goes into the page layout. Elapsed time, 5-15 minutes per photo.

  7. My dental hygienist is a young woman born in Ethiopia and raised in Israel. We sometimes talk about the psychopathology of American blacks. She tells me she gets hate stares from black women who see her with her white husband.

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