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 was lazy. I would have been a hell of a lot better actress had I taken it more seriously. I never had the proper respect for acting. Quite often, I learned my lines on the way to the studio.”
—Ava Gardner

Mark Rothko
American, born Latvia, 1903–1970
Untitled, No.73
1952
Oil on canvas
55 5/16 x 30 5/16 inches

 

The Temptress, 1926
Written by Dorothy Farnum
Based on “La Tierra de Todos” by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno

 

 

Dovima models a dress by Adele Simpson for the B. Altman Company in a photo by Richard Avedon for Harper’s Bazaar, New York, 1951

 

This Hamilton watch belonged to my father. Before quartz watches started to displace mechanical my father wore this almost every day. When I was about fifteen years old my father gave me the Hamilton as a gift. I love this watch — though it has a tendency to run a few minutes slow.
As you can see, the back of the case is curved in order to better fit the wrist. I’m not sure when this watch was produced, but it seems to be a 1940s model. When I wear my father’s wrist watch I feel a powerful connection to him  and to time’s passage.

 

“I’m a terrible flop as Sylvia Sidney. Give me a role to play and I’ll do anything. I’ll assume a brand new personality.”
— Sylvia Sidney, (born Sophia Kosow, (1910 – 1999)

 

Thomas Hart Benton, “Youth Music – Study”, 1973.
Oil on board, 14 ¼ x 17 ¾ inches.

 

Anna May Wong, 1933, photo by Paul Tanqueray

 

Rick McGinnis
New York at Night, 2018

 

Dennis Stock
Venice Beach Rock Festival, California, 1968

 

The 1962 Shelby 260 Cobra CSX 2000—the first Cobra created by Carroll Shelby.

 

Andreas Feininger
The Photojournalist (Dennis Stock), 1951

 

Clement Meadmore (Australian, 1929-2005)
Three-legged plywood chair
1955
Painted steel, plywood, rubber
Harris/Atkins Collection

 

“As an artist, I aspire to be as remarkable as Leonardo da Vinci. To be fantastic, astonishing, one of a kind. I will never get there. He’s the one who stopped time. I just did ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ It’s pretty good, yes. It’s better than most, I know. But it still leaves you reaching up.”
RIP Stanley Donen (1924-2019)

 

William-Adolphe Bouguereau
French, 1825 – 1905
Washerwomen of Fouesnant, 1869
Oil on canvas, 30 x 23 5/8 in. (76.2 x 60 cm)

 

Sophia Loren signs autographs in the Carlton Hotel during the Cannes Film Festival, 1955, photo by Edward Quinn

 

The United States Postal Service recently announced that it will commemorate the influential abstract artist Ellsworth Kelly with a set of postage stamps. The stamps will go on sale sometime in 2019.

 

George Platt Lynes (1907-1955)
For Vogue, 1945

Designed by Uvtuvo, the Elevate Kiddush Cup & Tray Set is a functional work of art. The tray appears to hover slightly above the table surface, and the cup appears to hover within its tray indentation, alluding to the elevation experienced on Shabbat and holidays as we lift our kiddush cups to sanctify the special day. The cup is offset, leaving the center open, so the Shabbat experience, rather than ourselves, is at the center of our day; the mirror finish reminds us that this is a time of reflection.

 

Moshe Kosowski, paternal grandfather of actress Sylvia Sidney (Sophia Kosow)

 

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

 

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Comments

  1. I have a watch of my grandfathers that has a similar style to that Hamilton – late 40s?

    The Cobra – I remember whole on a sales trip in Phoenix (in August) in 1981, I saw a very early Cobra in a used car lot looking neglected and forlorn – I often wonder if I had bought it? But the restoration costs…

    It would today, restored, easily be worth 7 figures

    The temptress wasn’t wrong…

    I wonder who the singer was at Venice Beach? Grace Slick?

    • About 1978 a friend had completely restored a 300 SL Gullwing but was now getting divorced. He offered it to me for $19,000, completely restored. Oh well.

      • I have a friend in my car club who always wanted a Gullwing – found a local widow whose late husband was the original owner – but it was in a barn and raccoons were living in it. Bought it for $125,000 and then proceeded to write check after check restoring it – Sold it a couple of years ago because they have become so valuable that the insurance companies pretty much dictate how you use it and store it.

        But unlike a “garage queen” he drove it occasionally.

        Which to me was cool.

      • You are probably right, Rick. My first 2 years of college in the late 60s were in Menlo Park, in the SF Peninsula. My major regret is not going to Winterland where promoter Bill Graham was introducing new groups like the Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Grateful dead, on and on …. 🙂

  3. The Ellsworth Kelly stamps are pretty cool. I’ll admit I like some of them, while others leave me thinking “what the heck…”

    The Shelby Cobra is probably the pinnacle of muscle cars for my generation — for obvious reasons.

    The Hamilton watch is Fantastic. The art deco design with a beautiful brown band is Superb. The fact the is came from your father is even better. I understand why you cherish it.

    Have a wonderful weekend.

    • The 427 Cobra for 20 years remained the standard of which all supercars were judged for acceleration. Those who were involved with the Cobra and racing will almost unanimously say that it was the 289 that won most of the races.

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