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 married Nicholas Ray, the director. People yawned. Later on I married his son, and from the press’s reaction you’d have thought I was committing incest or robbing the cradle!”
—Gloria Grahame

The Chocolate Girl
by Jean-Étienne Liotard (Swiss, 1702 – 1789)
circa: 1743-44
Pastel on parchment
82.5 cm × 52.5 cm (32.5 in × 20.7 in)
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

 

In 1943 Paul Newman enlisted in the Navy, joining the V12 program to become a pilot. His physical revealed he was color blind. Thus Newman was disqualified from becoming a flyer. He was sent to basic training where he became a rear set radioman and gunner for torpedo bombers. In May 1945 his unit was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill, but Newman’s pilot developed an ear ache and another crew was sent in their place. A few days later a kamikaze pilot attacked Bunker Hill killing almost 400 on board.

 

Dymaxion car designed by Buckminster Fuller, 1933.

 

Randolph Scott, Nancy Carroll and Cary Grant on the set of Hot Saturday, 1932, celebrating Scott and Grant’s birthdays which were five days apart.

 

Rick McGinnis
Grand Velas Maya Riviera, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Nov. 2018

 

“Nobody thought of me [playing the part of a] virgin, I guess. I had these slinky eyes and a sense of humor.”
—Myrna Loy
Zodiac diagram, 14th century, French manuscript. Medieval scholars believed that the Zodiac was integral to God’s design of the universe.

 

N. Jay Jaffee
Synagogue with Two Carriages, Stanley Ave, East New York, Brooklyn, New York, 1949
The Hebrew sign identifies the synagogue as “Sons of Yonah, a Sephardic Congregation.”

 

Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702–1789)
Early Breakfast
1754
pastel on vellum
Height: 26.1 in Width: 21.1 in

 

A fashion photo by Antony Armstrong-Jones, Vogue, 1959

 

J.N. Shapiro, a Los Angelino, makes some of the most beautiful watches I have ever seen. He has mastered the difficult art of engine-turning (Guilloché). There’s an in depth interview with Shapiro at Hodinkee magazine. He has also lectured at the prestigious Horological Society of New York about the art of engine-turning.

 

I’ve often said to young actresses whom I noticed were affected by the adulation – ‘Don’t let these people impress you; you know it doesn’t mean a thing when they make a fuss over you. They’ll forget you tomorrow.’”
—Carole Lombard

 

This illustration depicts the golden menorah in chapter 4 of the Book of Zachariah. In Zacharia’s vision the golden menorah is fueled by olive oil which flows directly from the trees into a series of golden funnels and then into the menorah. This illustration comes from the Cervera Bible, a manuscript of c. 1300 housed in the National Library of Portugal in Lisbon. A series of colophons at the end of the text identify the scribe of the main text as Samuel ben Abraham ibn Nathan, the micrographic scribe of the commentary as Abraham ibn Gaon, and the French illuminator as Joseph Hazarfati.

 

Photo by Wynn Bullock

 

Kim Novak in Vertigo, 1958

 

The Art Institute of Chicago reacts to the Chinese-Wuhan Virus.

 

Livia, Lielle, and Maayan wish all our friends and relatives a happy and healthy Shavuot (which begins tonight) and Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, The End, 2003

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Comments

  1. Both Randolph Scott and Victor Mature are quoted in Jeanine Bassinger’s book, “The Star Machine” as saying they could prove they were not actors. Scott used the quip to get accepted in LA Country Club which had a no actor rule. I think Scott might have become club champion.

    Burning down cities seems to dominate the news today.

    The chapter on William Powell is good. He made “My Man Godfrey” with Lombard after they were divorced. He lived a long happy life except for the Jean Harlow episode.

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