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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“The golden age is gone, and with it most of the people of great taste. It doesn’t seem to be any fun any more.”
— Joan Bennett in a 1984 interview

Eva Gonzalès
Morning Awakening, 1876, (The model was Eva’s sister, Jeanne.)
oil on canvas; Height: 31.8 ″; Width: 39.3 ″

 

Robert Doisneau
The Christmas shop window, Paris, 1947

 

Rick McGinnis
Remembrance Day
Prospect Cemetery, Toronto, Nov. 11, 2018

 

Lana Turner and John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1946
Screenplay by Harry Ruskin, Niven Busch
Based on “The Postman Always Rings Twice,” 1934 novel by James M. Cain

 

 

Me act? Why, I just make faces! Really, that’s all I do, I make lots of faces and they pay me for it. The director says: “You’re mad, Peter. Make like you’re mad.” Then pretty soon someone calls out “one hour for lunch”! I follow the others to the commissary and later return to the set. “Make like you did before lunch, Peter,” says the director. “Make like you’re mad.” So I make like I’m mad again and before long someone says, “wrap ’em up. That’s all for today.” So I go home, have dinner, go to bed, get up, report for work again and the director says: “Make like you’re mad again, Peter. Make like you did yesterday.” I find it so easy. I just look mad and like old man river I keep rolling along doing devilish things in motion pictures.
—Peter Lorre

 

Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883) 
“Nanny and Child”
(1877 – 1878)
oil on canvas
Height: 650 mm (25.59 ″); Width: 814 mm (32.04 ″)
National Gallery of Art

 

Robert Doisneau, The Brothers, rue du Docteur Lecene Paris, 1934

 

This Timex Marlin Automatic burgundy dial is handsome with a fine mechanical movement and a classic dial. It is priced at $249 and is an excellent value for your money. Learn more here.

 

Grace Kelly, New York, 1956, photo by Lisa Larsen

 

1954 Buick Wildcat II

 

“Although no one believes me, I have always been a country girl and still have a country girl’s values.”
— Ava Gardner

 

Eva Gonzalès (1849–1883)
Portrait of Jeanne Gonzales in Profile
before 1883
oil on canvas

 

 

Robert Doisneau
Les Pieds au Mur, 1934

 

Tobi Kahn
Study for TAHRA, acrylic on handmade paper

 

Photo by Chema Madoz

 

Ariel and Pinchas wish all our friends and relatives a lovely Shabbat and a happy Chanukah.

 

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Comments

  1. I had a 1953 Buick Skylark. It was gorgeous. Mandarin Red, Something like 20 coats of lacquer. The radio was controlled by a button on the floorboard so you could change the station. I bought it used for $650.
    Here’s one just like it but it is for sale for $159,500. Wish I’d kept it.

  2. I like the Robert Doisneau photographs. I was not familiar with his name, so I googled him. Interesting biography, but the most fascinating fact (to me) was that after leaving the French Army in 1940 (didn’t everyone leave the French Army after Dunkirk??) he used his talents to help the French Resistance with forged documents throughout the war. Sounds like a movie script in there, Robert.

    Back in the 50’s Joan Bennett was, essentially, blacklisted after her husband shot her agent believing they were having an affair. She noted the change from the “judgmental 50’s” to the sensationalism of later years when she reported said “If it happened today, I’d be a sensation. I’d be wanted by all studios for all pictures.” — she was probably right.

    I also note that Joan Bennett was married at 16 and divorced at 18 with 1 child. Contrast that with Ava Gardner who reportedly aborted 2 pregnancies while married to Frank Sinatra because MGM has penalty clauses for actresses having babies.

    Grace Kelly looks cold. Everyone else seems to have a winter coat on. The Buick WIldcat II reminds me of the 60-61 Corvette front end — except for the Dagmar bumpers, of course. They weren’t so popular by 1960. I like the Timex watch…. and I can afford the Timex watch!!

    I love the photo of the grandchildren and the menorahs.

    Have a wonderful Shabbat and happy Chanukah.

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