
“I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here… Selling your soul, I suppose? All you writers have such a bloody romantic attitude. You think you’re too good for the movies. Don’t you believe it. The movies are too good for you. We don’t need any romantic nineteenth-century whores. We need technicians.”
A wise and experienced film editor to a first time screenwriter.
—Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood


New York’s World’s Fair, Harper Bazaar, 1938

The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter, 1796
Oil on canvas; 45 7/8 x 35 in. (116.5 x 88.9 cm)

Parkdale, Toronto 2003


—Veronica Lake

Moonlight, Strandgade 30 (his apartment)
1900–1906
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:16 1/8 x 20 1/8 in. (41 x 51.1 cm)

Madrid, 1930


In 1930, film mogul Carl Laemmle, Jr., attended Lost Sheep, a Broadway play that had garnered positive reviews. A young actress, Sidney Fox, b. Sidney Leiffer (1907), received particularly strong notices for her performance. The influential New York Times observed:
“As Rhoda, little Sidney Fox [she stood only 4′ 10″ tall] won the hearts of the audience at once with her frail, girlish beauty and her pert spirit. Nothing could be more tenderly disarming than the freshness of her acting.”
Apparently Fox also won the heart of Carl Laemmle Jr. He brought her out to Hollywood, put her under contract to Universal Pictures and groomed her for stardom.
Fox was born in New York to wealthy parents who somehow managed to lose all their money. Fox, an intelligent and ambitious young woman, quit school and went to work. She got a job as a seamstress and studied law at night. At age 15 she joined a law firm as a secretary. In her free time she wrote articles about women’s fashion. These articles led to a job as a model at a Fifth Avenue shop. Modeling, as it often does, led to an interest in acting. Fox tried breaking into the film business but was told that she was too young and inexperienced.
Fox joined a touring company and soon, with determination and talent, worked her way to Broadway.
Fox made her film debut in the 1931’s The Bad Sister opposite Conrad Nagel, Bette Davis—also in her film debut—Humphrey Bogart and Zasu Pitts. Fox was also named a Wampas Baby Star that year.
Years later, Bette Davis sniped that Fox got the title role in The Bad Sister because she was Carl Laemmle’s mistress.
In that same year Fox appeared in the Preston Sturges penned comedy Strictly Dishonorable. This was the best role of her career, a Southern girl who attracts the attention of an Italian opera star. Her performance received positive reviews and she seemed to be on her way to a sparkling career.
Unfortunately, Fox’s performances in dramas lacked depth. Sweet and appealing, like the girl next door, she was far more effective in comedic roles. One of her better films at the time was Once in a Lifetime (1932) co-starring Jack Oakie. With proper career guidance and better scripts, Fox could have developed into a fine screwball comedienne.
In 1932 Sidney starred as Mademoiselle Camille L’Espanaye in Murders in the Rue Morgue opposite Bela Lugosi. In this role Fox’s performance is less than stellar. To be fair, the role is a thankless grind requiring gasps of horror, and of course, maidenly faints. The entire film is stiff and awkwardly paced. Robert Florey’s direction never goes beyond the most rudimentary blocking. But Fox came in for particularly vicious criticism; no doubt, because her relationship with studio head Carl Jr., was an open secret in Hollywood.
Fox married screenwriter Charles Beahan in 1932. But Beahan was a hard drinker who physically abused the petite actress.
As her career went downhill, Fox was too often featured in the cruel pages of the tabloids. Soon, she was reduced to bit parts in B films. Fox spiraled into depression and took solace in liquor and pills. Her final movie appearance was in 1935. Thus her film career lasted a brief four years, with appearances in fourteen films total.
Fox died of an overdose of sleeping pills on November 15, 1942 in Beverly Hills. She was 34.
Sidney Fox is buried in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, Glendale, Queens, New York.
The Hebrew reads: Buried here is Sarah daughter of Yehuda Yonah.
There is also a traditional abbreviation of a verse from the first book of Samuel, 25:29, May this soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.


Marion Davies, San Simeon, California, Harper’s Bazaar, February 1934

Los Angeles, CA
The scribe fills in the last letters of the Ariel Avrech Torah
Photo by: Steve Cohn Photography www.stevecohnphotography.com (310) 277-2054 © 2019

Katharine, Marion, and Margaret Hepburn, Harper’s Bazaar, August, 1939

I’ll bet editing is almost as important as screenwriting isn’t it? Although if the whole movie’s a pig no matter how you dress it up it is still…a pig.
Reminds me on the old ICONs radio with Steven Bogart he was interviewing Katherin Wyler and she was saying that her father regretted not editing The Big Country more. But he had to go off to Italy and film Ben Hur.
I just know from years of amateur photography knowing what to throw out is the difference between a nice series and junk. Most people think everything they shoot is gold.
That Sidney Fox photo makes her look like Myrna Loy, to me.
I thought so, too.
Veronica Lake’s size probably had something to do with her career, too. I believe she was also under 5 feet tall, which made her a good match for short actors like Alan Ladd.
I like that Cord. We are in LA this week and stopped by a friend’s new shop where he restores classic Porsches. They moved into a larger shop a couple of years ago. 10,000 square feet of classic Porsches.
Excellent post this week, Robert.
The watch is interesting…. I like it, but the face is unusual. I assume the metal was to protect the crystal from the abuses of trench life, but it seems like a shiny watch would be a bad idea — remember, “3 on a match” could get you killed by a sniper!
The Cabriolet is nice, but give me an art deco design from the mid-30’s.
The Sidney Fox story is sad… and probably more common in Hollywood than we know.
Have a wonderful weekend!