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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“[I] have never worked with an actress who was more co-operative, less temperamental, and a better workman — to use my term of highest compliment — than Barbara Stanwyck.”
—Cecil B DeMille

Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870)
The Pink Dress
1864
oil on canvas
Height: 1,470 mm (57.87 in); Width: 1,100 mm (43.30 in)
Musée d’Orsay

 

Sunny Harnett in a dress by Harvey Berin, photo by Irving Penn for Vogue, 1952

 

Poster for The Rules of the Game, 1939

 

Richmond, Virginia, 1964 © Charles Rosson

 

Screen legends Richard Barthelmess, Maurice Chevalier, Ramon Novarro, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor, at the 1955 George Eastman Award Dinner, photographed by fellow film legend Harold Lloyd.

 

“I like the whisky old and the women young.”
—Errol Flynn

 

Francesco Bacchiacca (1494–1557)
Portrait of a Woman and Child / Allegory of Liberality
between 1525 and 1535
oil on panel
Getty Center

 

Carole Lombard and James Stewart photographed during the filming of Made for Each Other, 1939

 

1937 Cord 812 Supercharged Phaeton

 

Rick McGinnis
Self-portrait in an elevator, Art Gallery of Ontario, 2017

 

Poster by Saul Bass for The Magnificent Seven, 1960

 

“I’m sick of carrying guns and beating up women.”
—James Cagney

 

The A. Lange & Söhne Lange Zeitwerk Chiming Wristwatch. The movement has 528 parts, including 78 jewels, a frequency of 18,000 vph and a power reserve of 36 hours when fully wound. The rose-gold case is 44.2 mm in diameter and the “argenté” dial is made of solid silver. The watch comes on a hand-stitched red-brown crocodile strap with a rose-gold pronged buckle. The price of the Lange Zeitwerk Striking Time in rose gold is $117,500. Because $120,00 is just too expensive.

 

Dovima and Lillian Marcuson wear veils by Mr. John in a 1951 photo by Milton Greene

 

Photo by Nikolai Muth

 

Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, Clash by Night, 1952
Screenplay by Alfred Hayes
Based on The play “Clash by Night” by Clifford Odets

 

 

Torah Pointer
by Ori Resheff
Israel, 1994
sterling silver
Accession #: 2003.059
Gift of Robert & Karen Avrech to the Mina K. Avrech Collection of Judaica, Yeshiva University Museum

 

Maayan Ariel wishes all our friends and relatives a joyous and inspirational Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, The End, 2003

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Comments

  1. Out of curiosity, does the leather band on a watch that costs $6,500 more than my house (!) last longer than the one on a $150 watch? 🙂

    Great photos, as usual.

  2. Until my friend Larry introduced me to classic movies I – like Prophet Joe – associated Barbara Stanwyck with The Big Valley but she was so much more – what an elegant lady.

    Like your photos and can see – like painting – there is much art in them. Some asked me the other day what makes a good photographer – I thought for a moment and said “the ability to transfer to a visual medium what your mind sees”. Don’t know what others would think about that but that is my idea.

  3. The Cord resembles the one driven by the Kerbys in “Topper” except that one had a sort of fishtail.

    I remember lots of women’s hats about 1950 had veils.

  4. Barbara Stanwyck is very attractive. I associate her (almost exclusively) with The Big Valley and my mind still sees her as Victoria, the white-haired matriarch of the Barkley clan.

    The Rosson photo of Richmond also feels like a slice of my childhood.

    The Cord is yet another fine example of the 30’s Art Deco design.

    The Lange & Sons watch is very cool. I miss the hands, but I imagine the works are impressive. $120K is a bargain compared to one of your earlier time pieces, but I’m not a big fan of the alligator band.

    The Muth photo is awesome. Do you know if it was staged or not?

    Errol Flynn… I’ve read about some of his off-screen exploits, but one wonders how many of the events really happened. What is undeniable is that his drug and alcohol abuse, combined with his rampant womanizing, indicates some serious underlying issues.

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