Seraphic Secret

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

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“Out here in California, I knew as much as the rest of the girls in movies, which was nothing. The difference was I would take any part. I never sought to be a star. I didn’t mind being typed. I wanted to be typed. One of the greatest thrills of my life was hearing a director say he wanted a Lucille Ball-type for a picture. Of course, later it was different when they said they wanted a young Lucille Ball-type.”
—Lucille Ball

Horst P. Horst
Dinner suit and headdress by Schiaparelli, 1947

 

Warren Williams, Caludette Colbert, Imitation of Life, 1934
Screenplay by William J. Hurlbut
Based on Imitation of Life, 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst

 

Gustav Klimt
Johanna Staude, 1917
Oil on canvas
27 3/5 × 19 7/10 in
70 × 50 cm

 

Leonardo da Vinci
The superficial anatomy of the shoulder and neck, c.1510-11
Pen and ink with wash, over black chalk
29.2 x 19.8 cm
Royal Collection

 

Rick McGinnis
Art Gallery of Toronto, June – Dec. 2017

 

“It felt, to me, like a permanent cocktail party, without the drinks. Acting took me away from real life to a pretend life. I wanted that real life back. I am not a dedicated actress, I’m afraid. I never have been.”
—Julie Christie

 

Harriet Backer (Norwegian, 1845 – 1932)
‘By Lamplight’ (1890)
The Rasmus Meyer Collection,
The Bergen Art Museum, Bergen

 

Roy Schatt
Marilyn Monroe
1954

 

Jacob Lawrence (American, Atlantic City, New Jersey 1917–2000)
Struggle Series – No. 10: Washington Crossing the Delaware
1954
Egg tempera on hardboard
12 x 16 in.

 

Elizabeth Taylor fixing her makeup on the set of Giant, 1955

 

Photo by Erwin Blumenfeld 1954

 

Myrna Loy getting finishing hair touches for a publicity photoshoot, 1936

 

Vintage ad for Philips TV, 1950s

 

“Doesn’t it strike you as just a little funny when you think of us actors eternally putting on and taking off make-up and spending the best part of our days and nights making funny faces? When you look at it from a grown-up point of view, acting is the most childish of professions, isn’t it? The way I justify it to myself is that with me acting is like a drug and I am an incurable addict. I can’t get along without it. I can’t throw it off.”
—Peter Lorre

 

Harriet Backer
Blue Interior
1883
oil on canvas
Height: 84 cm (33.1 in). Width: 66 cm (26 in).
National Gallery of Norway

 

Vivien Leigh, 1935, photo by Alex Stewart

 

Jean Patchett wears a gown by Jean Dessès in a photo by Norman Parkinson, 1950

 

Nan Wood Graham (the artist’s sister) and Dr. B.H. McKeeby( the artist’s dentist) pose next to Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” 1942, the painting in which they were immortalized.

 

Helmut Newton, Lips, Paris, 1983

 

Fred Morley
An Eerie Scene in Lincoln’s Inn Fields London, where a Lantern helps to illuminate the Way through a dense Fog, 1934

 

Book cover design by John Gall for Vintage Books

 

Hanging Haman, from the illuminated Ferrara Scroll of Esther, 1617

 

Costumed for Purim, Maayan, Livia, and Lielle, wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, The End, 2003

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Comments

  2. Lucille Ball had a work ethic – usually wins out.

    I can’t get over how plain Norma Jean looked and how beautiful Marilyn Monroe looked.

  3. The Lucille Ball and Vivien Leigh photos are beautiful (as is Myrna, of course), but the photo of Marilyn Monroe shows the woman without the makeup and lights… and who sits on a couch like Jean Patchett is sitting?

    (and keep those unknown photos of Myrna coming 🙂 )

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