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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Gene Tierney, 1952 in court during her divorce proceedings against Oleg Cassini.. “I had appalling taste before I met Oleg”, she wrote in her 1979 autobiography Self Portrait. “In my early days in Hollywood, I tried to be economical. I worked with a dressmaker and designed my own clothes, much to my mother’s distress. I had a good deal of fun whipping up what I now realize were atrocities. One night when Oleg came to call I was wearing one of my own creations. I shudder to think of it: a navy blue and pink striped dress, with a navy wool cape lined in the same print. I had on a straw hat, floppy and pink, decorated with a pink rose. I wore pink suede gloves and matching bag, and navy shoes. Oleg strode in the door, took one look at this ice cream confection, and almost passed out. “I won’t take you out dressed like that!”, he bellowed. “First, take off the hat and cape and then go and get a navy bag. Forget the gloves, if you don’t have any navy ones.” Oleg winked at my mother, which made me furious, but I began to suspect that my clothes were getting to be a bit much.” Gene and Oleg Cassini remained friends after their divorce, and Tierney continued to wear his designs for the rest of her life.
“I had appalling taste before I met Oleg [Cassini]”, writes Gene Tierney in her 1979 autobiography Self Portrait. “In my early days in Hollywood, I tried to be economical. I worked with a dressmaker and designed my own clothes, much to my mother’s distress. I had a good deal of fun whipping up what I now realize were atrocities. One night when Oleg came to call I was wearing one of my own creations. I shudder to think of it: a navy blue and pink striped dress, with a navy wool cape lined in the same print. I had on a straw hat, floppy and pink, decorated with a pink rose. I wore pink suede gloves and matching bag, and navy shoes. Oleg strode in the door, took one look at this ice cream confection, and almost passed out. “I won’t take you out dressed like that!”, he bellowed. “First, take off the hat and cape and then go and get a navy bag. Forget the gloves, if you don’t have any navy ones.” Oleg winked at my mother, which made me furious, but I began to suspect that my clothes were getting to be a bit much.” Gene and Oleg Cassini remained friends even after their divorce, and Tierney continued to wear his designs for the rest of her life.

Angelica Kauffmann, Self-Portrait, date unknown, Oil on canvas, 0,648 x 0,507 m, Neue Pinakothek, Munich
Angelica Kauffmann, “Self Portrait”, date unknown, Oil on canvas, 0,648 x 0,507 m, Neue Pinakothek, Munich

 

'Queen Esther', Andrea del Castagno, 1450, Technique: fresco Dimensions: 150 x 120 cm Gallery: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy
Andrea del Castagno, 1450, “Queen Esther”
Fresco transferred to wood
150 x 120 cm
Gallery: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy

 

Midsummer Night at Vejle Fjord by Harald Slott-Moller, 1904
Harald Slott-Moller, “Midsummer Night at Vejle Fjord”, 1904

 

Richard Avedon, Christobal Balenciaga, Dovima in cloche – Cafe de Deux Magots, Paris 1955
Richard Avedon, Dovima in cloche, Cafe de Deux Magots, Paris 1955

 

Bruce Cohen Still Life with Window and Picket Fence, 2015 Oil on canvas 36 x 24 inches
Bruce Cohen
“Still Life with Window and Picket Fence”
2015
Oil on canvas 36 x 24 inches

 

Nasreen Mohamedi, Indian, (1937—1990) Untitled c1970s Ink on paper, 510 x 710mm
Nasreen Mohamedi, Indian, (1937—1990) Untitled c. 1970s
Ink on paper, 510 x 710mm

 

bacall
“Yes, I saw Twilight. My granddaughter made me watch it. She said it was the greatest vampire film ever. After the film was over I wanted to smack her across her head with my shoe, but I do not want a tell-all book called Grannie Dearest written on me when I die. So instead I gave her a DVD of Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu and told her, ‘Now that’s a vampire film!’ And that goes for all of you! Watch Nosferatu instead.”

 

nosferatu

 

John Everett Millais (1829–1896) “Esther”, 1865, oil on canvas.
John Everett Millais (1829–1896) “Esther”, 1865, oil on canvas. This is a novel treatment of the Esther story. Millais depicts Esther just as she is about to present herself to King Ahashveraus. To enter the King’s hall without an invitation meant almost certain death. Esther (AKA Hadassah, which means hidden) adjusts her hair with one hand while the other holds her crown. This is the decisive moment when Esther, a 15 – 17 year old crypto-Jewish girl, makes the decision to risk her life for the sake of the Jewish people.

 

Poster for Esther and the King, 1960. I actually saw this movie at the Kingsway theater when I was 10 years old. I thought it was the greatest movie I had ever seen. mainly because Joan Collins was so hot. I screened the film a few years ago. It is dreadful. I like the warning/promise on the poster: “Adult Entertainment.”
Poster for Esther and the King, 1960. This is one of those tax-shelter Italian/American coproductions that plagued Hollywood in the 60s. There are no Jews in the film, only, ahem, Judeans. Joan Collins is wooden but super-hot as Esther. Richard Egan as (I kid you not) King Ahasveraus is hilarious. I like the warning/promise on the poster: “Adult Entertainment.” It is neither adult nor entertaining. You can view the film on you tube here — or you can just stab yourself in the eyes with a rusty fork.

 

Dovima b. Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba (1927 – 1990) by Horst P. Horst, Vogue 1952.
Dovima b. Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba (1927 – 1990) by Horst P. Horst, Vogue 1952. Dovima, one of the first super models, had aristocratic European features, but she was from Jackson Heights, Queens. Dovima has a small part in the Audrey Hepburn/Fred Astaire romance “Funny Face” (’57) as a glamorous but vacuous model, with a horrifying New York accent. Her scene with Astaire is here.

 

Gerrit Dou, “Scholar Sharpening a Quill Pen” 1630-1635, The Leiden Collection NY
Gerrit Dou, “Scholar Sharpening a Quill Pen” 1630-1635, The Leiden Collection NY

 

Joan Miro The Larks Wing Encircled-with Golden Blue Rejoins the heart of the poppy sleeping on a diamond. 1967 oil on canvas 195 x 130 cm
Joan Miro, Spanish 1893 – 1983
“The Larks Wing Encircled with Golden Blue Rejoins the Heart of the Poppy Sleeping on a Diamond.”
1967
oil on canvas
195 x 130 cm

 

“Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.” —Myrna Loy
“Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”
—Myrna Loy

 

Palma Vecchio, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1525. oil on canvas, 95 x 80 cm (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)
Palma Vecchio, Portrait of a Young Woman, 1525. oil on canvas, 95 x 80 cm (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid)

 

Vivian Maier, untitled, undated.
Vivian Maier, untitled, undated.

 

Potiphar’s Wife (1914) by the Russian artist Léon Samoilovitch Bakst (1866-1924). Bakst was a painter but became famous as a scene and costume designer who revolutionized the arts in which he worked. Here he imagines the costume of Potiphar’s Wife, as an exotic, scary strange lady.
“Potiphar’s Wife” (1914) by the Russian artist Léon Samoilovitch Bakst, b. Lev Samoilovich Rosenberg (1866-1924). Bakst was a painter but became famous as a scene and costume designer who revolutionized Russian ballet. Here he imagines Potiphar’s Wife as an exotic, scary strange lady.

 

Richard Alvedon, Dovima with Elephants, Dress by Christian Dior, 1955.
Richard Alvedon, Dovima with Elephants, gown by Christian Dior, 1955.

 

Double Portrait of the Artist and his Wife, seen through a Mirror, The Cottage Spurveskjul Vilhelm Hammershøi - circa 1911
Vilhelm Hammershøi, “Double Portrait of the Artist and his Wife, Seen Through a Mirror, The Cottage Spurveskjul” circa 1911.

 

Kazimir Malevich “Eight Red Rectangles” 1915 31.5 × 24.4 in Oil on canvas Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam Netherlands)
Kazimir Malevich
“Eight Red Rectangles”
1915
31.5 × 24.4 in
Oil on canvas
Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam Netherlands)

 

Robert J. Avrech, Silent Picture, Costco, 2016
Robert J. Avrech, Silent Picture, Costco, 2016

 

Lielle, Maayan and Ariel wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat. Photo by: Steve Cohn (310) 277-2054 www.stevecohnphotography.com © 2016
Lielle, Maayan, and Ariel, wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and inspirational Shabbat.
Photo by: Steve Cohn
(310) 277-2054
www.stevecohnphotography.com
© 2016

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. You’re a cruel man, Robert. You know some of your readers are going to wonder if it can really be as bad as stabbing yourself in the eye with a rusty fork, and are going to go see that film.

    Me, I’m going to trust you on this one.

  3. I would love to see the navy blue and pink outfit Gene Tierney describes. It sounds remarkable, to say the least.

    I had no idea the “deep” Marion in Funny Face (“Minute Men from Mars!”) was Dovima.

    You always have fascinating information and wonderful pictures to share with us. I look forward to it every Friday. Thank you!

  4. I’m with Lauren Bacall. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” is excellent. Showed it to my son when he was old enough and he loved it. Somewhat later I had the opportunity to show him “Sunrise” and he now tells anyone who will listen that Murnau is the greatest silent-era director.

    Dovima’s eyebrows in the Horst P Horst photo remind me of Boldini’s portrait of Edith Wharton Drexel (see http://www.jssgallery.org/other_artists/Boldini_Giovanni/LadyDecies.htm). Lady Decies was the opera attendee in the middle of Weegee’s famous photo, “The Critic” from 1943. (Read more about that photo at http://thedowneastdilettante.blogspot.com/2010/12/night-at-opera-or-portraits-of-some.html and at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-night-at-the-opera-111819803/?all)

  5. Thank you, Robert. It’s been a very long week and this always lifts me up!

    Myrna Loy, Joan Collins, Lauren Becall… *sigh* I feel like I’m reliving my youth 😉

    I was not familiar with Dovima, but it looks like an interesting story.

    Have a wonderful Sabbath.

    Back to the grindstone!

  6. Love the story of Lauren Bacall.

    ““Life, is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”
    —Myrna Loy

    A profound statement. As I have gotten older I have come to realize that “things” – beyond the basics, aren’t all that important. The “getting” always seems to be a letdown after the “wanting”.

    And eventually you end up being owned by the things you own.

    Peggy Lee’s song “Is that all there is” comes to mind.

  7. I love Astaire and his necktie belts. I’m reading “The Astaires” by Kathleen Riley now. RJ Wagner has some nice memories of Astaire in his biography. I wonder how many movie stars play golf now? I know a couple. Andy Garcia is club champion of Lakeside.

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