Seraphic Secret

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

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“Being an actress is like living in a show window. It’s the price you pay.”
— Madeleine Carroll

Peter Paul Rubens
Old Woman And A Boy With Candles
1616 – 1617
Oil on panel
Height: 79 cm (31.1 in). Width: 64 cm (25.2 in)

 

Rick McGinnis
High Park, Toronto, 1999

 

Yiddish movie poster for King Kong, 1933

 

Snapshot of Olivia de Havilland, 1935

 

Dovima by William Helburn 1955

 

“I’ve tried to feel that working in Hollywood was a way of earning a living like any other job. I’ve seen too many kids believe their own publicity and that’s sure death.”
—RIP Dorothy Malone (1925-2018)

 

Dorothy Malone won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “Written on the Wind” (’56). But I think her work in “The Tarnished Angels” (’57) is the best of her career.

 

Dorothy Malone as the hard drinking parachutist LaVerne Shumann in “The Tarnished Angels.”

 

Model wearing an afternoon dress by Christian Dior in a photo by Mark Shaw, Paris, 1957

 

John French
Black and White Shoes 1959

 

Diego Velázquez
Spanish, 1599 – 1660
The Needlewoman
c. 1640/1650
oil on canvas
overall: 74 x 60 cm (29 1/8 x 23 5/8 in.)
framed: 102.2 x 88.3 x 7.6 cm (40 1/4 x 34 3/4 x 3 in.)
Andrew W. Mellon Collection, National Gallery of Art

 

Brigitte Bardot and Leslie Caron in Cannes, 1953

 

“For a long time, I tried to live up to something that was in people’s minds. I don’t know what it is they want, nor do they, but movie stars fulfill some lack in people’s lives. What I realized long ago is that any time people put you on a pedestal, you’re doomed to disappoint. I can’t possibly be who they want me to be because, mainly, they want me to answer all their dreams. But we’re just people with flaws, insecurities. Maybe more insecurities than anybody else.”
—Faye Dunaway

 

Dovima wearing a wrap by Brooke Cadwallader at the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt, 1952, photo by Richard Avedon

 

Anne Truitt
Second Requiem
1977/1980
Acrylic on wood
84 x 8 x 10 inches

 

San Francisco, 1946, photo by Fred Lyon

 

James Stewart and Kim Novak
Vertigo, 1958
Screenplay by Alec Coppel, Samuel Taylor
Based on “D’entre les morts” by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac
Costume Design by Edith Head
Cinematography by Robert Burks
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

 

Dovima works with photographer Richard Avedon while Harper’s Bazaar editor Diana Vreeland looks on, 1955

 

1935 Bugatti T57 Aerolithe Coup

 

Nina de Voogt in a 1951 fashion photo by Horst P. Horst

 

Lielle, Livia, and Maayan wish all our friends and relatives a sunny and inspirational Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, END, 1983, oil on canvas, 36 x 40 inches

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Comments

  1. It’s nice to see Ernie’s restaurant in the “Vertigo” scenes. One of my favorite places and long gone. Julius’ Castle is gone. The Shadows is gone.

    Showing my age.

    • I think through the 60s Ernies was one of the places to go in San Francisco. I wonder if Kan’s is still there.

      Despite my living very close to San Francisco, I rarely go there anymore.

  2. Robert,. The picture of Olivia Dehaviland is without a doubt my favorite of her. Just the glorious smile that she has on her face is enough to guarantee that any red blooded man is spoiled for the rest of the world ‘s women. Just a picture that humanizes another of those stars from yesteryear. I know that many of today’s female stars are absolutely stunning in their own right, but you have really done well this time. Not only are they gorgeous, but they are also the kind of woman who you would love to show off to your parents. Women are every bit as beautiful and smart and sexy as they were back then. You are fan of great taste and perfect ability to pick the best of the best. Well done, Robert, as expected. You never disappoint your audience, and we are grateful for your talent. Bravo, to the man who is lucking for just such a pre
    .

  4. That is a beautiful picture of your grandchildren!

    Dorothy sounded like she had her head on right.

    Dovima – that is a most interesting picture of her in the plane. Maybe it is a sign of my age but my attention was split between the plane (what kind is it?) and the model

  5. Re The tarnished Angels. Not a great picture, but Rock Hudson perfection in it. Never better. He also, during the course of his newspaper office monologue mentions Richard Harding Davis. And the audience, both on screen and in theatre is supposed to understand the place Davis holds in American letters. Same was true in Foreign Correspondent and Somewhere I’ll Fin You. Both Clark Gable and Joel McCrea’s characters were written to assume this knowledge. No more. No assumptions, and not much knowledge.

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