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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“Unlike writers or painters, we don’t sit down in front of a blank canvas and say, ‘How do I start? Where do I start?’ We’re given the springboard of the text, a plane ticket, told to report to Alabama, and there’s a group of people all ready to make a film and it’s a marvelous life.“
—Albert Finney R.I.P. 1936-2019

The Fish Market (1627)
by Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp (1594-1652)
oil on canvas: 110.5 x 122.5 cm

 

Roman Vishniac (1897-1990)
Man purchasing herring, wrapped in newspaper, for a Sabbath meal, Mukacevo
c. 1935-38
International Center of Photography
© Mara Vishniac Kohn

 

Napoleon Hat Shape Piano, one of the earliest surviving upright pianos, commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1853, made in England as a wedding gift for Napoleon III, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Made of walnut wood, the piano has beautifully carved decorations of roses and figs on its legs and pedals.
Source: artstarbird

 

Joan Crawford, 1930, photo by Clarence Sinclair Bull

 

The Nomos Club Campus wristwatch is a Bahaus inspired design with lumed hands and numbers and a sturdy, old-school mechanical movement. It has the relatively affordable price of $1,500.

 

“Anybody with a good memory for cliches and unafraid to write like a child can bat out a superb movie in a few days.” —Ben Hecht.  A personal observation: Hecht was being cynical. Screenwriting is a difficult and demanding craft. Ironically, Hecht was most proud of his novels and short stories. But read today, they are quite bad, sloppily constructed and poorly resolved. In contrast, the best of his scripts are marvels of structure, character, plot, and dialogue

 

Thomas Gainsborough
Artist dates 1727 – 1788
The Painter’s Daughters with a Cat
Made probably about 1760-1
Oil on canvas
Dimensions 75.6 x 62.9 cm

 

I’m pretty sure this is Ava Gardner’s MGM ID photo, 1940s.

 

Rick McGinnis
Brooklyn Bridge, 2018

Ninotchka, 1939
Screenplay by, Melchior Lengyel, Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, Walter Reisch
Story by Melchior Lengyel

 

Yvonne Jacquette (American, born 1934). East River View with Brooklyn Bridge, 1983. Oil on canvas, 96 x 128 in. (243.8 x 325.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by the Landowne-Bloom Foundation in memory of Louis Landowne and Dick S. Ramsay Fund, 83.84. © artist or artist’s estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 83.84_SL1.jpg)

 

Charles Hewitt
Night Time Coffee, London, 1952

 

Dovima modeling a Dior evening gown, mink stole coat and Cartier jewelry in a photo by Virginia Throen, Harper’s Bazaar, 1954

 

“They say there’s a thin man trying to get out of every fat man. Well, with me it’s always been the actress trying to get out of being a star.”
— Jane Russell

 

Giovanni Battista Moroni
Portrait of a Young Woman,
ca. 1575
Oil on canvas
20 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
Private collection

 

Milton Greene
Marilyn Monroe with mandolin. Los Angeles, California, 1953.

 

Ernst Haas
View from Notre Dame, Paris, 1955

 

Jimmy Cagney is justly proud of his Duesenberg. According to Timothy P. McGrane, Executive Director of Blackhawk Automotive Museum, “This car is one of the two Duesenberg Model J Convertible Sedans by Dietrich from 1931. It is understood that there is only one remaining as the other was destroyed by fire
Cagney was also associated with a 30’s V12 Auburn Convertible Coupe.” Thanks to Seraphic Secret reader Bill Brandt for putting us in touch with Mr. McGrane.

 

Illuminated Megillat Esther (Scroll of Esther), Northern Italy, Mid-18th Century

 

Roman Vishniac (1897-1990)
Vishniac’s daughter Mara posing in front of an election poster for Hindenburg and Hitler that reads “The Marshal and the Corporal: Fight with Us for Peace and Equal Rights,” Wilmersdorf, Berlin, 1933.
Courtesy International Center of Photography
On display at Jewish Museum London
© Mara Vishniac Kohn

 

Ariel Chaim and Pinchas Tzvi wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. The Ava Gardner photo – looks more like a mug shot. I am wondering if this somehow survived despite the efforts of MGM to quell the record of her and Frank Sinatra’s arrest in Indio? (late 40s)

    The story, as I remember it, is that early in the morning a drunk Sinatra grabbed a .38 out of his glove box and he and Gardner drove down an Indio (near Palm Springs) Blvd started to shoot out windows of stores.

    Arrested, later on that night an MGM studio rep showed up with a suitcase full of money to help authorities forget about the whole thing.

    At least that is the story I remember 😉

    Love the photos of the Paris view and early morning London. A good photo stirs the imagination and you can just feel it.

  3. “Peace and equal rights.” Why do I never believe people who insist that’s what they’re all about?

    Really like this week’s watch. Fancy chronographs and pilot’s watches aren’t really my style, but this works for me. Where to get $1500, though?

    Is Jane Russell still alive? She’d be a fascinating person to meet.

    • Jane died in 2011 at age 90. She was down to earth and very savvy. Good real estates investor. My mother-in-law was her personal representative all her career. Unlucky with men, though. She and Waterfield, when I knew them, did not speak to each other. She finally met a man who was exactly what she wanted and he dropped dead a month after their wedding.

        • She died about 15 years ago. There was a TV special about Jane and she (Edith Lynch) was quoted. She was quite a woman and had a very interesting life. She was in Australia with Jane when the Bel Air fire burned down their house in 1961. My wife was driving her car so it was saved. She had lots of colorful stories about Jane. She had worked for Hughes for years, even before Jane. My wife and I went to a New Year Eve party one year and sat at a table Hughes had paid for. We had to have security clearances to do so. She had some great Howard Hughes stories, too.

  4. I love the watch and I’m fascinated with the mixed numerals design.
    I love the detail and design of the piano.
    The Duesenbrrg is impressive, but I am amazed at the difference in design between this “classic” design and the swept, futuristic art deco cars and motorcycles which came out about the same time. It’s like night and day.
    It seems to me that Marilyn Monroe usually looks unhappy in her photos.
    Paris and London in the mid-50’s — beautifully done. Hard to imagine WWII was only 10 years removed. Rick — another wonderful photo.
    Robert, I hope your daughters and grandchildren appreciate the weekly photos when they are older and can look back on their history and growth.

    Have a great weekend.

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