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 didn’t want to be just another blond in the movie world, brought out to be slapped into a bathing suit, perched in a cherry tree to be photographed and then sent back to New York.”
— Jan Sterling (1921-2004). Sterling’s best role was as the hard boiled Lorraine in Billy Wildrer’s Ace in the Hole, 1951, in which she delivers one of the greatest lines of dialogue ever written for motion pictures: “I don’t go the church. Kneeling bags my nylons.” In contrast to her movie image as a street-wise femme fatale, Sterling was a refined and educated woman who came from a wealthy Manhattan family. She attended posh private schools, and traveled widely in South America, London and Paris.

Painting by Tobi Kahn

 

A young Robert Stack (1919-2003), ca. 1940. At age 16, he became a member of the All-American Skeet Team. He set two world records in skeet shooting and became National Champion. In 1971, he was inducted into the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame. His best role was as the American bullfighter in The Bullfighter and the Lady, 1951, written and directed by the great Budd Boetticher.

 

 

Photo by Eugene W. Smith, 1954

 

John Sloan, A Roof in Chelsea, New York, c. 1941­­/51, tempera underpaint with oil-varnish glaze and wax finish on composition board, 21 1/8 x 26 1/16 inches. Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund

 

“I am really a cat transformed into a woman. I purr. I scratch. And sometimes I bite.”
—Brigitte Bardot
Photo by Peter Basch

 

Rick McGinnis
Bacalar, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Nov. 2018

 

Veronica Lake wearing a gown by Edith Head, 1942, photo by John Rawlings

 

1969 Chevrolet AC Cobra

 

Barbara Stanwyck photographed by George Hurrell, 1937

 

“We both felt a current, an electricity that went straight through us. It would become a force we couldn’t control.”
— Ann-Margret, on her relationship with Elvis Presley

 

Cary Grant and director Frank Capra on the set of Arsenic and Old Lace, 1944

 

The Art Deco inspired Longines Avigation Watch Type A-7 1935 is based on a model that met a strict set of standards for U.S. Army pilots. The price is $3,500.00. Details here.

 

Duane Michals
Empty New York,1964

 

Mosaic depicting Jonah being swallowed by a fish in the fifth century Huqoq synagogue now under excavation in Israel. (Jim Haberman). Story here.

 

Rae Russel
Chewing Gum, New York City, 1947

 

Pinchas Tzvi wishes all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Robert, I will agree with Rick on the watch. I love the Art Deco design and, yes, it is out of my price range as well.

    Rick, the original Cobra was designed by Shelby and built by AC Cars in Britain. It actually featured a small block (289 c.i.) Ford V-8. The stereotypical Shelby Cobra is the Mark III with a big bore Ford 427 c.i. V-8. The cars were sold in the US as the “Shelby Cobra” by then. Shelby did use Ford engines. He went to Chevrolet first but they did not want him competing with their own Corvette, so they declined. He then went to Ford who were more than willing to provide him with engines because they had nothing that could compete with the Corvette. The car pictured is a replica created with (ironically) a Chevy 350 V-8.

    Barbara Stanwyck had some of the most penetrating eyes.

    Fascinating story on the archaeology of the synagogue and the mosaics they have unearthed.

    I’ve never heard of Jan Sterling before this. I love it when you deliver new personalities for me to discover.

    I had no idea Robert Stack was such a talented shooter (and polo player as well).

    Beautiful photo by Rick McGinnis. I don’t know how the colors are so vibrant.

    Beautiful photo of BB. Which reminds me, Robert — it’s been a while since we’ve seen one of your photos from your walks along Pico or La Cienega Blvds. (I’m going from memory here…) Are you still walking and taking some photos?

    I am really beginning to like Tobi Kahn, and I like the John Sloan painting as well.

    While I am wondering what Grant and Capra are laughing about, I am really puzzled by the man in back with his hands on his knees. He looks very familiar…

  3. Not to be a hopeless car nerd, but isn’t the Cobra a Ford/Shelby vehicle?

    The Duane Michals barber shop is an early shot for him – his trademark style isn’t quite there yet. Also, I still have memories of places that looked like that when I was young. They were all gone by my late twenties, though hipster barbers have tried mightily to recreate the look.

    The Longines is marvellous. As ever, though, totally out of my price range.

    • I wondered about that to Rick

      Thanks to reading up on Carroll Shelby I learned a couple of things more about his cobra that I did not know for years.

      I thought they were all assembled in his little shop in Venice and later by the LA airport but they were all made by AC cars and shipped over here

      I guess only his shop prepared the competition vehicles

      I thought too that he made concurrently his 427 cobra along with the earlier 289, but the 427 was superseded by the 289

      He only made about 300 427 cobra’s

      I do know that after Shelby gave up the cobra because of US emissions -a lot of good cars ended in 1967-AC continued to make a “cobra“ but this is the first time I’ve heard of one where they had a Chevrolet engine

      You’ll notice this one is right hand drive

      BTW Your picture he looks like a painting very nice

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