
—Gloria Grahame

American painter and photographer (b. 1844, Philadelphia, d. 1916, Philadelphia)
“Clara”
c. 1900
Oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris




Photo by George Hurrell
1934

Dress by Hattie Carnegie
1939
© Conde Nast / Horst Estate

—Glenda Farrell

“The Green Dress”
1890-1899
oil on canvas
39 X 21 inches


by Charles Sheeler (American, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1883–1965 Dobbs Ferry, New York)
1931
Oil on canvas
48 x 36 in.



—Robert Wagner

(American, 1876-1953)
“The Orchestra Pit”, 1906
Oil on canvas, Height: 17.25 in., Width: 19.5 in., Yale University Art Gallery


Screenplay by Anthony Veiller, John Huston, Based on the novel “Moulin Rouge: A Novel Based on the Life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec” by Pierre La Mure (New York, 1950).


Gloria Grahame got it right… it’s the thought that counts!
To Glenda Farrell — according to popular opinion, Jack Warner probably didn’t consider you and the other Studio actors as “family”.
Robert — I remember learning something of The Avengers back in some history class from long ago, but I don’t see much of anything about Rachel Rudnitzki (other than this photo) on Google. Do you know what happened to her? Aside from the military accessories, she bear a resemblance to my late mother in this photo.
Nice photo of your granddaughters… do they ever take a bad photo? 😀
No more info about Rachel. Sorry.
Found this interesting narrative: http://www.onjewishmatters.com/jewish-partisans-heros-of-wwii/
your grandchildren are sure cute Robert!
That must have been amazing to witness “talkies” take over. if you find yourself in Oakland do take a tour of the Paramount theater. Quite a history behind it – built in 1931 with 4,000 seats or so. It was planned in the silent era and finished with talkies, so the organ that came up to the stage on a hydraulic system was obsolete before it opened.
Didn’t they reshoot some movies for talkies? Somehow Marion Davies Marianne comes to mind.
Finally the car of Frank Lloyd Wright – he also designed Max Hoffman’s Park Ave showroom (which believe it or not was razed a few years ago!) and in part payment he received a Mercedes 300Sc coupe and a 300SL.
Hoffman was legendary in import circles as he sold Mercedes post war, brought VW, BMW, Alfa Romeo and others to the US.
My mother was mentioning a famous LA architect from the 50s – designed a house up here (that like all good designs still looks contemporary) – trying to think of his name.
Paul Williams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Williams_(architect)
I have always liked the movie “The Bad and the Beautiful” which has a rather fictionalized account of the coming of sound but it is fun. I have always wondered how much is true and which characters are based on real people.
It also has Gloria Grahame’s best part.
Bad and the Beautiful is not about the coming of sound. You’re probably thinking of Singin in the Rain.
You’re right about the coming of sound. I do like them both, though.
The Bad and the Beautiful is about David Selznick, and as biographies go, pretty close to getting it right, from the death of his father, an early industry pioneer, to the Val Lewton like making of a horror movie and a sweeping historical epic.
I think that there were many many careers that just dried up overnight.
It was a different way of acting with no sound and the advent of sound killed many a career I believe
Actors who women swooned over were found to have funny voices for one
“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces.”
I think John Ford and Hitchcock did a lot of their pictures as though they were silent, then added sound. I’m pretty Hitchcock did his own story boards and designs.
Actually that story about actors who lost careers because of sound and funny voice is only somewhat so. Mainly those that lost careers had person issues, such as alcoholism or extreme femininity, that would not have precluded their working in some character parts, but not as vigorous leading males. John Gilbert, usually cited, had an adequate voice and was a better than good actor, but, and this is only my view, he was not a star in sound film. By that I mean he did not project a dominant presence on screen. Had he been cast in supporting parts, and laid off the booze he might have been okay. Take a look at his final film, The captain Hates The Sea for confirmation of this.