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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Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man, 1934
She grinned at me. “You got types?”
“Only you, darling — lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.”
—Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man (1929)

Poster for The Magnificent Seven, designed by Saul Bass, 1960

 

Peggy Ann Garner as the young Jane Eyre, 1943

 

1957 Corvette

 

Sophia Loren
photo by Richard Avedon, 1961

 

Belt plaque
Western Han dynasty, 207 BCE – 9 CE
Gold, jade, agate, turquoise
Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an

 

“The film concludes with a scene in the theatre, with Mammy of Mine in the stalls… and the son… warbling down at her the most penetratingly vulgar mammy song that it has ever been my lot to hear. My flesh crept as the loud speaker poured out those sodden words, that greasy, sagging melody. I felt ashamed of myself for listening to such things, for being a member of the species to which such things are addressed.”
—Aldous Huxley on The Jazz Singer, 1927

 

Lady with Unicorn
by Raffaello Santi ( 1505-1506)
oil on wood
65 x 51 cm
Galleria Borghese, Rome

 

Carole Lombard, c.1938

 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841 – 1919) Heads of Two Young Girls , 1890. Oil on canvas, 12 ¾ x 16 ¼ inches. Tacoma Art Museum

 

Production sketch by art director/architect Walter Reimann for The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, 1920.

 

Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover in The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari
Bravur Watches is a Swedish microbrand. Their design language is clean and classic without resorting to a boring minimalism. To power the watch Bravura use rugged and reliable Swiss mechanical movements. The attention to detail—polishing and finish—are exquisite. More here.

 

“You see, the film studio… is really the palace of the sixteenth century. There one sees what Shakespeare saw; the absolute power of the tyrant, the courtiers, the flatterers, the jesters, the cunningly ambitious intriguers. There are fantastically beautiful women, there are incompetent favorites. There are great men who are suddenly disgraced. There is the most insane extravagance, and unexpected parsimony over a few pence. There is enormous splendour which is a sham; and also horrible squalor hidden behind the scenery. There are vast schemes, abandoned because of some caprice. There are secrets which everybody knows and no one speaks of. There are even two or three honest advisers. There are the court fools who speak the deepest wisdom in puns, lest they should be taken seriously. They grimace, and tear their hair privately, and weep.”
—Christopher Isherwood, Prater Violet

 

Rick McGinnis
Roses, Feb. 2019

 

King Kong, 1933. Stop motion animation by Willis O’Brien

 

Vanity Fair Art Deco cover, October 1917

 

Douglas Fairbanks on the Moorish/Art Deco-inspired palace sets of The Thief of Bagdad, 1924. Art direction by William Cameron Menzies.

 

The City of David Foundation recently delivered a major blow to the effort to erase Judaism’s 3,000-year ties to Jerusalem. On September 9, the foundation’s leading archaeologist announced the discovery of a 2,600-year-old royal seal, found near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, which bears the name (in Hebrew) of Adenyahu, a son of King David mentioned in the biblical Book of Kings. (Image source: Eliyahu Yanai/City of David Foundation) Via  

 

Constance Bennett in a photo by Elmer Fryer, 1931

 

Maayan, Lielle, and Livia wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.

 

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Comments

  1. In thinking of Dashiell Hammett, I was in San Francisco about 20 years ago for a meeting and realized my hotel was across the street from the spot where Miles Archer was shot by Bridget O’Shaunessey. Like Raymond Chandler, Hammett was very good on his locations. One of the pleasures of Chandler’s novels is the history of Los Angeles in the 20s and 30s. I don’t live there anymore but I loved the city when it was habitable. “Bay City,” for example, in “The Big Sleep,” is Malibu. There is still a “Bay City Cafe” or was.

  2. I was hoping I’d be able to tell you what that castle-like building in the “Hollywoodland” photo was, but sadly, I can’t. It appears a few times in Greg Williams’ 1992 book “The Story of Hollywoodland,” but other than saying the location of the picture is Ledgewood Drive, there’s no further information. It was most likely a private house, but I really don’t know.

  3. I walked one of those roads leading up to the Hollywood sign a couple of years ago – a day or two before I met you at your home, Robert! Of course it’s dense with houses now, but I don’t remember anything that looked like the big white house in that picture, but I might have been looking in the wrong place.

  4. Robert knows how I feel about Myrna Loy. William Powell is also one of my favorite actors so, naturally, The Thin Man is one of my favorite movies. Note Myrna’s dress design in this Art Deco-era film.

    I like the Vette, but I’m partial to the 1960 model with dual headlights and a “better” grill (IMHO).

    I love the Carole Lombard photo… and the watch design.

    I like the Renoir and I like a lot of his paintings. He was, I’ve read, an avid Anti-Semite so that’s disappointing, but not totally unexpected.

    I love the lamp designs in the Constance Bennett photo… and the Vanity Fair cover, and the Empire State Building. You’ve really outdone yourself on the Art Deco front, Robert!

  5. Im dated a girl in college who drove a 57 Thunderbird A surgeon friend, the father of a roommate, drove a 57 Corvette. Those car bodies were fiberglass and a bitch to repair. My college fraternity chapter president drove a 56 corvette and creamed a fender going into or out of the garage at his parents’ house.
    I have a DVD set of “The Thin Man” movies.

  6. As usual, wonderful selection. That Corvette is beautiful! I had an epiphany the other day – that new mid-engined Corvette is probably close to a 200 mph car (if not over), meanwhile the roads get slower and slower. My George Carlin moment.

    My mother and I lately are watching Perry Mason on Amazon. What fascinates me is the cars they use. Paul Drake, his PI, drives a white ’57 Corvette convertible. Perry seems to alternately drive a black ’57 Ford sedan and a black Cadillac (57) Convertible. I’ve also seen a 57 T Bird and Continental (3,000 made at $9800 in 1957 – and Ford lost money on every one).

    I know that Hollywoodland was the original sign – was there a large plalace lkike bldg below it? I guess so.

    • From Gregory P. Williams: The house is called Kanst Gallery because its original owner had an art gallery on the main floor. Frederic Remington stayed as a guest during and exhibit of his paintings.

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