—Marilyn Monroe
Rick McGinnis writes:
“I hadn’t shot a portrait in months when the lockdown entered its third month. Then I realized that the most appropriate subjects were the people on my street, with whom I had become familiar as we got used to each other’s very abbreviated routines. It took a couple of weeks to set up and shoot the series, posing my neighbours in the front or back doors of the homes where they’d been sheltering in place since March.” More plague portraits here.
Audience watches movie wearing 3-D Spectacles, 1952
Silent movie star Rudolph Valentino loved fast, sporty and exotic automobiles. In 1923 at the height of his career, Rudolph visited Paris and drove virtually every exotic marque. His choice was Voisin and he bought three; two he left in Paris and this one he brought to Hollywood. The coiled cobra mascot was a gift from actor/screenwriter/director/producer Douglas Fairbanks.
Engine Type: Sleeve-Valve
Cylinders: 4
Horsepower: 40/90
Manufacturer: SA des Aeroplanes G. Voisin (Issey-les Moulineaux, Seine, France)
Coachbuilder: J. Rothchild Et Fils (Paris, France)
Price When New: $14,000
Source: The Nethercutt Collection.
—Claudette Colbert
—William Goldman’s credits include: The Stepford Wives, All The President’s Men, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Princess Bride. Full credits here.
In the Park, 1919
oil on canvas
In the Night, 1943
Medium:
Oil on canvas
18 1/2 x 20 5/8 inches
Philadelphia Museum of Art
New York City, for “Vogue, U.S.” 1945
Didn’t Olivia originally come out to Hollywood to be with Lawrence Olivier? And she happened to audition for GWTW?
That MM quote has kept me thinking.
Certainly Joe DiMaggio loved her – isn’t he the one who continued to send flowers to her crypt on her birthday? I get the feeling that she wouldn’t let anyone get close to her.
Then what you said years ago Robert – about her being obsessed with her looks – thinking that she was ugly. And that one nostril was bigger than another. Wonder if she knows how many posters she’s sold since her death?
If we could only see ourselves as others see us.
No, not Olivia, Vivien, and nothing much happens by accident.
One little anecdote about Valentino. When I was a surgery resident at LA County Hospital, we all learned about “Valentino appendicitis. ” Valentino had pain typical of appendicitis. In the right lower quadrant and accompanied by symptoms consistent. Appendicitis has been called “The great impersonator.” He was operated on and his appendix was removed but there was not much inflammation. He got worse after the surgery and was operated on again later. A perforated ulcer was found and he ultimately died of peritonitis. There were, of course, no antibiotics at the time and peritonitis was a feared complication. At the Mass General at that time, there was whole floor of patients, mostly children, in “Fowler’s position, a seated position in bed hoping the pus collected in the pelvis, where it could be drained out the rectum.
I have personally seen a case of Valentino Appendicitis in which the appendix had bile around it from a perforated ulcer. I have also drained a pelvic abscess after a perforated appendix. The girl was a month post op and had pain with horse back riding.
The Wikipedia article is a bit misleading. Nothing new
Goldman’s book was excellent.
His takeaway on Hollywood” “Nobody knows nothin'”
On Valentino, Family lore was that a relative of mine was “buried next to Valentino”.
I stopped at Hollywood Forever – a fascinating cemetery – and finally found his crypt in a mausoleum. He had some fake flowers on each side. I thought “what a comparison to the millions of women who swooned when he was alive.”
All alone now.
My relative?
Down the hall about 100 yards away.
They even give tours there.
Amazing who you see there…
https://www.seeing-stars.com/Buried2/HollywoodMemorial.shtml#:~:text=Where%20the%20Stars%20Are%20Buried%3A%20a%20look%20Hollywood,Power%2C%20Judy%20Garland%2C%20Mickey%20Rooney%20and%20Nelson%20Eddy.
Cut that URL off after the “.shtml” and you’ll get there just fine.
Unfortunately no editing allowed
Can’t edit, but someone can copy up to the appropriate character and then paste.
That 3D movie was probably “Bwana Devil” and I was sitting there with those cardboard glasses on. It was about building a railroad in Africa and the lions eating the workers. True story.
Goldman’s writing reminds me of Steve Pressfield’s. A variety of topics all done well.
Audrey Hepburn is the one actress I would want to know, She had kind of a sad life. Starved as a child, romance with Holden but he had had a vasectomy and she wanted children. Not very happy marriages and then dying of cancer of the appendix. I treated a young man with the same diagnosis (rare) but he had better luck. I’ve read her son’s book.
Her son’s book was excellent – I saw her though his eyes as a mother and friend…the starvation came when she was living in Holland under Nazi occupation – they even resorted to tulip bulbs.
She was estranged from her father – and when they were living in England the father, certain that the Nazis would invade England, took them to Holland. Not the smartest of moves in hindsight.
Well, Robert, today’s pictures and quotes really get to me!
How I would love to travel back in time and drive to a party at Falcon’s Lair in that Voisin – a real example of the phrase, “they don’t make them like that anymore.”
I always love a quote or clip from “Sunset Boulevard.” No matter how many times I watch that movie, I always find something new. Did you ever read Sam Staggs’ book about it, “Close-Up on Sunset Boulevard?”
Colbert, Hepburn and de Havilland – grace and beauty you just don’t find these days.
I should paste that quote from William Goldman above my desk so I can finish my new Theda Bara novel!
A lovely weekend to you and yours.
The Voisin was expensive. That $14K in 1923 would be about $360,000 today!
I like the Longines watch. It is a clean, simple, elegant design.
The staircase is extreme. I cannot imagine cutting it from a single tree. The time, skill and patience it took to cut that is impressive.
I know Marc Chagall is considered to be a great artist, but I’ve never understood his art. I look at it and think “that doesn’t look like a real person”. I’ve read a short biography about him and he sounds like he had an interesting life. I do like that he painted in the nude so he didn’t have to change/wash his clothes. I don’t know if that was pragmatic, or just being lazy. I just can’t believe his paintings are worth so much money. I much prefer the Bocchi painting,
I love the Hepburn photo with the fawn and Olivia de Havilland has aged well. She looks much better than some actresses half her age who’ve gone the plastic surgery route (Meg Ryan, et. al.)
Have a wonderful weekend!
$14K then? Closer to $1.4M today.
It looks like we both overshot a bit, Larry. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the $14K in `1924 would be the same as ~$210K in May, 2020.
Umm, no. BLS & every other govt agency fudges with the numbers so much that nothing they offer about inflation is trustworthy. Inflation is caused by fiat creation of measure, such as dollars, injected into the system. Take something with intrinsic value, such as gold, and the measure of extrinsics, such as dollars, at a moment identifies the level of inflation. An oz of gold in 1923 — well before FDR fouled it up in 1933 — was $20.67 in dollars. The trade price (spot+15% for transactions) at end-of-day Friday was $2069.77. That’s over 100x, which means the dollar today is worth less than a penny in 1923 or, for that matter, any year prior to 1933. Thus, using the 100x as a reasonable approximation, $14K in 1923 is about $1.4M in today’s money. Might find https://mises.org/library/genuine-gold-dollar-vs-federal-reserve interesting.
I agree with your math. You don’t even have to go back to 1923. In 1971, my salary as a resident physician at LA County Hospital was $17,000 a year. Gold was $35 an ounce. I bought my first house in 1969 for $35,000 in South Pasadena. My first new car was a 1968 Mustang convertible, for which I paid $3050.
That house this year is valued at $1.4 million. The cars and salary you can do the math.