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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At the beginning of her career Myrna Loy´s turned-up nose was rather troublesome. She had a little bone on the side of her nose, which cast a shadow in certain lights. This drove the cameramen crazy “because they never knew when it would appear. They’d see the rushes, groan, ‘There’s that thing again,’ and have to retake the scene. It looked like a tiny smudge on my nose. I mean you could hardly see it, but that’s how far the mania for perfection went.” So she was often called in for retakes and since those are rather expensive she was once called in by the makeup department who announced that they maybe would fix her nose. “I was horrified. I used to be known as ‘The Nose’ for goodness’ sake—thousands of women went to plastic surgeons to have it duplicated. I said, ‘Never! Nobody’s touching this nose!’ and got out of there fast.” And she was right. She had the most famous and sought-after nose of the 1930s and women would regularly go to plastic surgeons to get a nose like Myrna Loy.

Jaquet Droz’s Bird Repeater
The watch, which required two years of development, is offered in a 47-mm case in 18k rose gold and on a rolled-edge, handmade, black alligator leather strap with a rose-gold folding clasp. Only eight pieces will be made, each with the series number engraved on the caseback, at a price of $472,500. There are also eight in a white-gold case with diamonds, priced at $493,500. Or you can buy a home.

 

Carolyn Jones, 1961, three years before she became Morticia Addams of The Addams Family television series.

 

Irving Penn
Bee/Lips, New York City 1995

 

Franz Christian Gundlach, Op Art Fashion, Bathing Caps, Egypt, 1966

 

Poster for My Fair Lady
by Wiktor Sadowski
Poland

 

“As long as I was playing someone else, everything was fine. It was when I had to be myself that the problems began.”
—Gene Tierney on her mental illness

 

Francesco Bacchiacca (1494–1557)
Portrait of a young lady holding a cat
circa 1525-30
oil on panel
Height: 21.1 in; Width: 17.2 in

 

Audrey Hepburn photographed during the filming of Sabrina, 1954, by Dennis Stock

 

Irving Penn
Red-lacquered Lid, New York City, 1994

 

Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in a publicity photo by George Hurrell for Possessed, 1931

 

Paul Iribe (1883-1935)
Art Deco Illustration of Les Robes des Paul Poiret
1908
Etching and Pochoir print
31 x 27.7 cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

 

“I think all actors — they’ll hate me for saying this — but we are babies. We like to be loved, and we’ll do anything if we’re loved.”
—Anjelica Huston

 

Edward Hopper (1882–1967)
American
High Noon, 1949
Oil on canvas
27 ½ x 39 ½ inches

 

Letter from Greta Garbo to the great Hollywood hair stylist Sydney Guilaroff “…I can speak to no one.” (1964)

 

Gordon Parks
Untitled, New York, New York 1956

 

Steve McQueen while starring in ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ (1958-1961) at CBS Television City, Hollywood, CA with his TV horse and his sports car, a Jaguar XK-SS

 

Relief from the Arch of Titus showing spoils from the Siege of Jerusalem. Tisha B’Av begins Saturday night. We wish all our friends and relatives a meaningful fast.

 

Lielle Meital wishes all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, The End, 2003

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Comments

  1. That story of Myrna Loy’s nose reminds me of Jennifer Grey. In an effort to make her nose “perfect“ she lost her defining feature

    Jaguar of Steve McQueen‘s was a very special car. It was a road going version of the racing D type

    Only made a few of them before the factory burned down

  2. That is a beautiful picture of Carolyn Jones, whom I have had a crush on ever since I first saw “The Addams Family.” I recall reading somewhere that early in her career she was known as “The Beat Bette Davis” (especially after her starring role in “The Bachelor Party”) and that the nickname irked the real Davis so much that she tried to sabotage Jones’ career.

    This is another lovely picture of her, from 1956: https://tinyurl.com/ycb9aw7z

  3. Myrna Loy… she could play an urban, high-society heiress or a sassy tomboy on the farm nextdoor… and leave that nose alone!

    Carolyn Jones is cute. It is interesting to see the real side of Morticia.

    Audrey Hepburn was an incredible woman.

    The watch, while artistically beautiful, is not my cup of tea. I wouldn’t pay 1% of the asking price.

    I love the Steve McQueen photo… so much symbolism there.

    Well done, Robert.

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