– Joan Blondell (1906-1979)
Spring Flowers (Peonies) (1889)
Pastel on paper, prepared with a tan ground, and wrapped with canvas around a wooden strainer 48 x 48 in.
Bettina Graziani, along with Dovima, was one of the first “supermodels”. Bettina was not her birth name. Her parents named her Simone. Designer Jacques Fath said: “We already have a Simone. You look to me like a Bettina.”
Screenplay by Ernest Lehman
Collapse, 1980
—Montgomery Clift (1920-1966)
The Fontanas were three Italian sisters and designers: Zoe, Micol and Giovanna. They set up their atelier in Rome in the Via Liguria in 1943. Six years later Linda Christian selected one of their dresses for her wedding to Tyrone Power in Rome, 1949. After that the sisters were asked to design outfits for Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and scores of other Hollywood and European stars.
—Jean Seberg (1938-1979)
by William Merritt Chase
1902
oil on canvas, 72 x 36 in.
by Robert J. Avrech
Oil, Acrylic on Baltic Birch, 2015
Base: 24″ X 12″
Relief Panels: 8″X 6″
Tower of Babel, 2006. India ink with gum arabic over graphite on paper. © The Irving Penn Foundation
Nice post, Robert.
I’m not familiar with Jean Simmons… time for some research!
Love the Bugatti. Love the Avrech and Chase paintings.
Myrna looks heavy in the face in this photo… or perhaps it’s just the angle of the photo.
The clock is interesting… but $23K…. really?
They did a great interview of her a few years ago for the defunct icons radio hour. Apparently in filming the big country, they allowed her to bring her own horse
And you guys are right; she was a great unrecognized beauty.
I was crazy about Jean Simmons. She seemed to be a down-to-earth actress, too.
Carole Lombard – I heard stories of her at Hearst Castle – she was supposed to be a bit of a Tomboy and a wicket sense of humor. Able to beat most of the men at billiards.
Simmons – she’s the Great Beauty that nobody seems to talk about. I remember seeing her in films on TV when I was a boy and being floored; always amazed at how little she’s mentioned in the context of other actresses of the same era.
Jean Simmons was a favorite of mine and she did a wonderful job of going back and forth as a star in England and here. Her first husband, Jimmy Stewart (Stewart Grainger to avoid the obvious confusion) is another favorite. He was always more obviously British. She was superb in “The Big Country.”