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 never take any notice of reviews — unless a critic has thought up some new way of describing me. That old one about my lizard eyes and anteater nose and the way I sleep my way through pictures is so hackneyed now.”
—Robert Mitchum

American model and actress Anita Colby poses with store mannequins. Colby was nicknamed “The Face”. She was one of the highest paid models of her era. In 1936 she appeared on the covers of fifteen magazines in a single month. Her film work is less notable.
Photo by Nina Leen, 1954

 

Harriet Backer (Norway, 1845–1932)
Blue Interior
1883
oil on canvas
Dimensions: w66 x h84 cm
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Norway

 

Actor Russ Tamblyn (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Peyton Place, West Side Story) on the beach with his girlfriend, actress Venetia Stevenson. According to Life Magazine, where this photo first appeared in 1955, Tamblyn is performing a “love-propelled backflip.” Tamblyn and Stevenson married in 1956 and divorced in 1957. Tamblyn is now 85 years old.
Photo by Allan Grant

 

Citizen, a Japanese brand, manufactures robust watches at reasonable prices. The ProMaster Marine NY0071-81EE has a SuperTitanium case and bracelet, and a work-horse automatic movement. The watch also meets tough dive watch standards. The case is solid and light, the black dial is high contrast and features a day-date complication. At about $490.00 this is a great value proposition.

 

“Hollywood is too deadly serious about the wrong things, and too flippant about the really important ones. We build our lives on the silly, tinsel elements of our work and we have practically no contact with the realities. In short, we’re fools, but there are so many of us crowded into one community that any attempt at change is swamped.”
—Mary Astor

 

Babe Ruth, on Babe Ruth Day, April 27, 1947. “The Bambino” passed away in 1948.
Photo by Ralph Crane

 

The Human American Eagle, made up of 12, 500 officers, nurses and men at Camp Gordon, in Atlanta Ga, 1918.

 

Rick McGinnis
Red Sky at Night
Toronto, 2020
@awaywithacamera

 

William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard, 1950
Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, D. M. Marshman Jr.

 

“If it’s true that men are such beasts, this must account for the fact that most women are animal lovers.”
—Doris Day

 

Nik Barte
Biorythmes, 2020
@nikbarte

 

BMW 328 Roadster, 1936

 

Louis Stettner (1922-2016)
Coming to America, 1951

 

The kitchen in artist Claude Monet’s home, Giverny France.

 

Gianni Boradori
The Girl With the Bubbles
@gianniboradori

 

Livia Yarden wishes all our friends and relatives the best Shabbat ever.

 

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Comments

  1. Years ago, Mitch leased a house from a family friend while she was in Europe for a year. After she got back and moved back in, her next door neighbor, Hugh O’Brien, stopped by and suggested she have her gardener remove the remaining marijuana plants that Mitch had left.

  2. I hear you Christopher. On us all being slightly out of equilibrium these days there seems a certain symmetry with “the other side“ four years ago.

    They couldn’t believe it in for four years and refused to believe it.

    As far as Robert Mitchum a quote attributed to him always stayed with me. When some reporter or fan told him about something he read in a tabloid about him he replied that “whatever they say it’s all true“

    Mitchum always seemed to have a carefree attitude towards what others thought about him.

    Doris Day used to live in the Carmel California area, and I believe off Carmel Valley Road.

    It’s a wonderful drive for a sports car with lots of twists and turns through the hills connecting Highway one to Highway 101. 36 miles.

    And right or wrong, I always thought Doris lived off Carmel Valley Road.
    I pictured pictured sitting down with her with a glass of iced tea just talking about things for an afternoon.

    I guess like many Hollywood stars she had a rather wretched person life.

    The death of her son, Terry Melcher, was just part of it.

    And I read something interesting about him a few months ago.

    On the randomness of life, one of the Beach boys picked up one of the Manson women hitchhiking.

    One thing led to another and he learned that Charles Manson was an aspiring singer and songwriter and introduced him to Terry Melcher Who was a record producer.

    When Melcher decided he wanted no more to do with Manson, Manson sent his followers to what he thought was his house to kill him.

    Only unknown to Manson he had moved out six months ago.

    And that’s what happened on that infamous night in 1969 with the gruesome murders of Sharon Tate and her friends.

  3. I’m afraid I haven’t much to say this week. I’m still dazed by the “election” and have hardly gone anywhere or spoken to anyone (but fortunately, I work at home). It’s going to be a long while before I regain any sort of equilibrium.

    As far as Mary Astor’s diary, I don’t know that it was quite as scandalous as later writers have madeit out to be, though I’m sure Robert can correct me! I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the story about the judge locking it up and then destroying it was an urban legend, but I can’t be bothered to look right now.

    Perhaps, having been reminded, I’ll watch “Sunset Boulevard” this weekend. I never get tired of that movie. There’s always something new in it for me at every viewing.

    A lovely weekend to you and yours, Robert.

  4. Lucile Langhanke (yes, Mary Astor was a good name change) was right about Hollywood, but she could have also been their poster child to represent the “dysfunctional moral compass” of movie stars — 4 husbands, a highly-publicized custody battle complete with her diary detailing her infidelities (supposedly so scandalous that the judge had it sealed in a vault for 16 years then destroyed), decades of alcoholism, and a life-long liberal Democrat.

    I will admit, however, that when I hear her (stage) name, my mind instantly pictures Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon.

    Claude Monet’s house is interesting. Just what I would expect from a French artist. Just to the right of the hearth in your photo is the entrance to the dining room which is painted in 2 tones of bright yellow. His grounds are also a work of art. He has 2 gardens. A traditional flower garden and a Japanese inspired water garden on the other side of the road.

    The BMW certainly looks Art Deco, but when I saw it, my first thought was that the color was (what I might call) Wehrmacht Green.

    Have a wonderful weekend.

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