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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“Do it big, do it right and do it with style.”
—Fred Astaire

The Bovet Virtuoso V has two striking dials; on one side is the lavish red Guilloche jumping hours.

 

Flip the Bovet over and you get a more traditional view of the time, the complex movement, and a power reserve indicator. Price has not yet been set but it will be, um, a boat load of money.

 

Ruth Matilda Anderson
The Galician Milkmaid, 1925

 

1937 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900

 

“My mother wisely made very sure when I was young that I wouldn’t get big-headed about my looks. She said, “You have nice eyes, but they’re only nice as long as the expression in back of them is nice. And that depends solely on what you are as a person inside. You are not beautiful, but you can be attractive when you’re nice inside.”
—Elizabeth Taylor

 

Francis Speight (American, 1896 – 1989)
Late Afternoon, 1931
Oil on canvas
30 3/16 x 22 1/8 in.

 

Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray, The Apartment, 1960
Written by Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond

 

 

“You fight just so long and then you begin to worry about being washed up. You fear there’s one way to go and that’s down… I have no intention of ending my career in a rooming house, with full scrapbooks and an empty stomach.”
—Carole Landis
Carole Landis committed suicide July 5, 1948, at the age of 29.

 

Photo by Réhahn

 

Édouard Boubat
L’Amitie, Friendship, Paris, 1952

 

Vilhelm Hammershoi
Rest
1905
oil on canvas
H. 49.5; L. 46.5
Orsay Museum, Paris, France

 

Emil Otto Hoppé
Ms. Ann Hayes, England, 1934

 

Omer Counter
by Arnold Schwartzbart
Clay, glazed, 22K gold leaf, bronze rods and enameled copper tags
14″ high, 18″ wide

 

Édouard Boubat
Kyoto, Japan, 1974

 

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

 

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Comments

  3. Prophet Joe:

    Carole Landis was having an affair with the married Rex Harrison. At some point she understood that their relationship was going nowhere. She became depressed and took an overdose of sleeping pills. We can say that Rex was a cad who treated her badly, but he did not kill her. Landis was a troubled young woman who made some very bad choices, personally and professionally. Sadly, none of her films are very good. Though she did have a nice light touch for comedy. I choose to remember her for her incredible work entertaining the troops during WWII.

    My arm is getting better every day. Thanks for asking.

    • It’s funny, but I never really knew much about Carole Landis despite my love of old Hollywood, mostly because (as you said) her films weren’t very good, so they never had a life in rep cinemas. Can you think of another Golden Age actor or actress whose reputation – perhaps undeservedly – is obscure because they never had the good luck to be in a film with Bogart or Jimmy Stewart, or in a film directed by canonical directors like Ford or Wyler?

      • I’m thinking of Marion Davies – although,, at least to me, was Hearst’s pushing her into dramatic roles when her forte was comedy. Charlie Chaplin considered her to be the best comedienne.

  4. That watch looks interesting, but I think you’re right about the boat load of money! I like the car and the photos of Elizabeth Taylor and Ann Hayes. I also like Fred Astaire’s philosophy.

    Carole Landis is another story. She was (reportedly) sexually abused at a young age, slept her way up the ladder in Hollywood (not exactly a unique event for actors and actresses), then committed suicide at 29. She was noted for her support of the armed forces in WW II — she even got her pilot’s license and joined the Civil Air Patrol. Do you have any opinion on the claims that “Sexy Rexy” actually killed her?

    And I haven’t seen any update on your recovery… how is it coming along?

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