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 made my own image because I refused to change my name or my hair. They wanted to change me completely when I first came over because that was the standard thing to do. They took stars from Hungary, Germany, France, and tried to change them – to make them more beautiful to American eyes, I suppose. But then they became just like all the other American stars that were there. Lots of publicity stills in bathing suits and hats and all that.”
—Ingrid Bergman

Rogier van der Weyden
Braque Family Triptych (right panel)

 

Robert Frank (1924-2019)
Wellfleet, MA, 1962

 

Marilyn Monroe in 1946

 

Joel McCrea and Laraine Day in Foreign Correspondent, 1940
Screenplay by Charles Bennett & Joan Harrison
Dialogue by James Hilton & Robert Benchley
Uncredited: Ben Hecht, Richard Maibaum
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

 

Shirley MacLaine,
1960, photo by Bert Stern

 

“As long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right.”
— President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934.

 

J.C. Leyendecker, Couple in Boat —Arrow Collar Advertisement, oil on canvas, 1922, © 2019 National Museum of American Illustration, Newport, RI. Photo courtesy American Illustrators Gallery, New York, NY.

 

Robert Frank
White Tower, New York City 1948

 

Art Deco table lamp manufactured by Pattyn Products Co., Detroit, Michigan, c. 1935, aluminum, Bakelite and glass. American adaptation of the Bauhaus aesthetic.

 

Robert Frank
Fans at a Movie Premiere, Los Angeles, 1955

 

Last week long time reader Michael Kennedy asked how many of the watches featured in Seraphic Secret are owned by yours truly. In fact, I only own the Perpetual SC-03 which cost $180.00 and is perhaps the best value for money in the known universe. It has a fine automatic movement. The enamel dial, blued hands, oversize crown, and Art Deco numbers harken to a time when men carried big beautiful watches in their vest pockets. I own several watches, but the Perpetual is easily one of my favorites. Alex, who owns and runs the Perpetual microbrand out of Hong Kong, is a real watch guy who cares about quality and beauty and delivers the best customer service I have ever encountered. You can learn more here.

 

“The purpose of the Communists in Hollywood is not the production of political movies openly advocating Communism. Their purpose is to corrupt our moral premises by corrupting non-political movies—by introducing small, casual bits of propaganda into innocent stories — thus making people absorb the basic premises of Collectivism by indirection and implication.”
—Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, 1905 – 1982)
After Rand immigrated to America from Russia she worked in Hollywood for several years as a screenwriter and as the head of the costume department at RKO.

 

1934 Packard 12 Speedster

 

Robert Frank,
Trolley, New Orleans, 1955

 

The Atzei Chaim, parchment rollers, of the Torah Karen and I dedicated to the memory of our son Ariel Chaim, Z’L
Photo by: Steve Cohn Photography www.stevecohnphotography.com (310) 277-2054 © 2019

 

Brooklyn Bridge View, 1950, photo by Paul Himmel

 

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

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. That’s a gorgeous Packard. I stopped for gas in La Jolla one time. Behind me pulled in a gorgeous Bentley roadster. It was a 1923 roadster in green. The owner chatted while we filled up. He said it was not “authentic” because the engine was a 1924 or 1926. I can’t imagine what it was worth even with the “wrong” engine.

    • One year at the Monterey Historic races they honored Bentley. I have a picture of about 15-20 of those all lined up – 20s to early 30s – all in British Racing Green.

  3. I. too, have an old Rolex. To the point that Rolex told me that some parts are now unavailable. I was told that only 125 people in the US are certified Rolex watchmakers

    Love the picture of Shirley and that Packard is beautiful!

    • The fellow I go to is Hayes Jewelers and he now has a little shop in Mission Viejo where I used to live. The clerk. a relative I think, told me they are looking at Montana so I may lose him to the emigration from CA.

  4. Thanks for the response. We both like old cars and watches. I dropped off my 40 year old Rolex at the service shop while we are in CA from Arizona. That shop used to be a Jewelry store in Laguna but about 15 years ago, he sold the jewelry store and just does Rolex watch service. I have several other watches, including a pocket watch I used to wear when I wore a vest, I’m down to two cars, neither collectable.
    We have come a long way since the public was outraged at Ingrid Bergman’s affair with Rossellini.

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