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 only dwelling in which you need to work – to change yourself – is the room of your own mind.”
—Ida Lupino

Marcus Gheeraerts II, Portrait of a Woman in Red, 1620
Oil on oak, 1143 × 902 mm
This is a fine example of a pregnancy portrait, a distinct sub-genre of British portraiture. More here.

 

Paul Kaye
From the Book “Paradise Street”, Balham, London, ca. 1961

 

“The R. W. Lindholm Service Station is a service station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and located in Cloquet, Minnesota, United States. Built in 1958 and still in use, it is the only station built to a Wright design during his lifetime. It was originally part of Wright’s utopian Broadacre City plan and is one of the few designs from that plan that was actually implemented. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.” More here.

 

Beach and Comet
Photo by David Fokos

 

French poster for Written on the Wind, 1956.

 

“When I am working, I must spend hours of each day fussing with my face and hair. A hairdresser touches me up after each shot…I must give half of my lunch hour to my face and hair…and when I go home to bed I must have a masseuse…and the hairdresser to set the wave. Even on Saturday night I must not stay up after eleven because I know that I must spend eight hours in the beauty shop on Sunday. Do you wonder that when I am between pictures I can’t bear to look at myself in the mirror?”
—Jean Harlow

 

1966 Pontiac GTO. Considered by some of my friends back in Brooklyn to be the muscle car.

 

Dick Whittington
Bob and Betty’s Dream Home, California, 1927

 

Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945)
The Princess Badroulbadour, 1908
Oil on canvas
1410 × 1194 mm
“This is a portrait of the artist’s three children in fancy dress. The subject is taken from the story ‘The History of Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp’ in The Arabian Nights.” More here.

 

“I’m no actor and I never have been. What people see on the screen is me.”
—Clark Gable

 

Robert J. Avrech
“Rusty Strokes”
Acrylic on canvas
20 in. x 20 in., 2019

 

Myrna Loy, 25 years old, 1930. She had already appeared in 41 films, though her career was just getting started.

 

From Hermes this elegant, stainless steel, 43 mm, with date and moon-phase functions, automatic movement, limited edition of 100 pieces, $25,500.

 

Rick McGinnis
Rose, 2019

 

Lielle Meital wishes all our friends and relatives a peaceful Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, END, 1983, oil on canvas, 36 x 40 inches

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Comments

  1. On the ’66 GTO – my cousin had one – that thing was amazing…in a straight line. Stomp on the accelerator in 1st gear (it was a 4 speed, of course!) and you’d see 2 black lines in the rear view mirror for 100 yards or so. You could watch the needle on the gas gauge go down. The one to have was the 389 with the 3 2 barrel carburetors.

    Anything Wright made that doesn’t look as good today as 60-100 years ago?

    Poor Jean. And to die so young.

  2. I like the Gable photo. Rich Lang was a roommate in college for a year. Gable gave him his Oscar for “It Happened One Night.” It sat on his desk in his ham radio “shack” behind his parents’ house.

    I grew up in Chicago and several neighbors had houses designed by Wright. They were not big or particularly unusual. Probably early work. The gas station is interesting.

    Myrna Loy is one of those women who got better looking as they aged.

    We watched “Merrily We Live” last night. Brian Ahern got better looking as he got older. I love Constance Bennett. Too bad she died at only 60.

    I read Leslie Caron’s book, “Thank Heaven” this week. She is 88 and still going. I would love to visit her auberge in Burgundy but my trips to France are over. She sold it in 2009 but ran it for 15 years.

  3. I intended to comment about the Wright gas station. I have had the pleasure of touring 2 Wright houses. I loved his Usonian designs and his eye for detail. This filling station is… different. It feels cobbled together for me. I’m not sure I would say I dislike it, but I can’t say that I like it either.

    Lastly, Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

  4. Ida Lupino was right and yet it feels “uncommon” to hear such sensible talk from a celebrity.

    I love the juxtaposition between Harlow and Gable. She reminds us that “Stardom” is largely a mirage of makeup and marketing, while he reminds us that not all successful actors are accomplished thespians.

    With all due respect to your Brooklyn compadres, the 1970 Cherolette Chevelle SS with a 396 V8 is “the muscle car”. 🙂

    Myrna, Myrna, Myrna… ah.

    I am wondering if your recent canvases are going to fit together into a larger composition. I really like the way you created The Tribe, but I’m not able to visualize it yet.

    I love Rick’s photo and the watch is beautiful, but unattainable (for me).

    Lastly, I want to comment on the photo of Clark Gable. The framing of that photo is extraordinary. He is situated in an unusual position. The leaded window is a slightly imperfect background. It contrasts the stairway, with its remarkable wrought iron railing, which offers a a consistent pattern. Finally, there is the portrait in the lower left which contrasts the main subject. Very well framed.

    Stay warm (as I type this, it is -5 degrees outside with a high of 15 predicted today) and have a wonderful weekend and a meaningful Shabbat everyone.

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