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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On life in Hollywood during the silent era: “The lifestyle was very bizarre and wild. I remember thinking nothing of having liquor all around. We all learned to smoke. No one told us it was bad for us. We had parties that would last from morning through night and then we’d go on to another house and end up in a house with somebody we didn’t even know. Yet, in a way, it was an innocent time.” —Madge Bellamy
On life in Hollywood during the Roaring 20s: “The lifestyle was very bizarre and wild. I remember thinking nothing of having liquor all around. We all learned to smoke. No one told us it was bad for us. We had parties that would last from morning through night and then we’d go on to another house and end up in a house with somebody we didn’t even know. Yet, in a way, it was an innocent time.”
—Madge Bellamy

Georgiana Houghton, Glory be to God, c.1868
Georgiana Houghton, Glory be to God, c.1868

 

Original German Poster for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Original German Poster for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

 

Josef Hoffmann Tea & Coffee Set Silver, Ebony, Amethyst & Carnelian c.1910
Josef Hoffmann, Tea & Coffee Set, Silver, Ebony, Amethyst & Carnelian c.1910

 

Alfred Hitchcock's passport
Alfred Hitchcock’s passport, 1954

 

Erwin Blumenfeld Self portrait, 1932
Erwin Blumenfeld
Self portrait, 1932

 

Photo by Horst. B. Horst 1943 Vogue magazine
Photo by Horst. B. Horst
1943
Vogue magazine

 

“I want to go back to the stage. The trouble with Hollywood is everybody is crazy for money. The producers are trying to make pictures cheaper and faster. They do not realize the public is becoming more critical, and can see the cheapness.” —Ann Dvorak
“I want to go back to the stage. The trouble with Hollywood is everybody is crazy for money. The producers are trying to make pictures cheaper and faster. They do not realize the public is becoming more critical, and can see the cheapness.”
—Ann Dvorak

 

William Michael Harnett American painter (b. 1848, Clonakilty, d. 1892, New York) Old Models 1892 Oil on canvas, 138 x 72 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
William Michael Harnett
American painter (b. 1848, Clonakilty, d. 1892, New York)
Old Models
1892
Oil on canvas, 138 x 72 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

 

Roman Vishniac David Eckstein, seven years old, and classmates in cheder (Jewish elementary school), Brod, Czechoslovakia 1938
Roman Vishniac
David Eckstein, seven years old, and classmates in cheder (Jewish elementary school) Brod, Czechoslovakia
1938

 

Channa Horwitz, Sonakinatrography XVIII, 1991. Casein and ink on mylar, 54 × 39 in. (137.2 × 99.1 cm). Estate of Channa Horwitz. Courtesy of the Estate of Channa Horwitz and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles. © Channa Horwitz. Photograph by Robert Wedemeyer
Channa Horwitz, (1932-2013) Sonakinatrography XVIII, 1991. Casein and ink on mylar, 54 × 39 in. (137.2 × 99.1 cm). Estate of Channa Horwitz. Courtesy of the Estate of Channa Horwitz and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles. © Channa Horwitz. Photograph by Robert Wedemeyer

 

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Waiting for an Answer 1872 Oil on canvas 12 x 17"
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
Waiting for an Answer
1872
Oil on canvas
12 x 17″

 

Anna May Wong, 1929, photo by Dudley James Glanfield
Anna May Wong, 1929, photo by Dudley James Glanfield

 

Nastassja Kinski With Marlene Dietrich Doll by Helmut Newton, 1983
Nastassja Kinski With Marlene Dietrich Doll by Helmut Newton, 1983

 

“I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anyone or anything else.” —Marilyn Monroe
“I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anyone or anything else.”
—Marilyn Monroe

 

Tomma Abts “Still” 1999, Acrylic & oil on canvas 18.9 × 14.96 inches : 48 × 38 cm
Tomma Abts
“Still”
1999,
Acrylic & oil on canvas 18.9 × 14.96 inches

 

Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains, Casablanca ('42), Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch Based on Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett, Joan Alison
Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains, Casablanca (’42),
Screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch
Based on Everybody Comes to Rick’s by Murray Burnett, Joan Alison

 

Milton Avery, Red Rock Falls, 1947, Oil on canvas, 33 7/8 x 43 7/8 in.
Milton Avery,
Red Rock Falls, 1947, Oil on canvas, 33 7/8 x 43 7/8 in.

 

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) Early Sunday Morning 1930 Oil on canvas 35 3/16 × 60 1/4 in.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
Early Sunday Morning
1930
Oil on canvas
35 3/16 × 60 1/4 in.

 

The synagogue we attend is building a new wing. Last week, as the old building came down, three wall signs were revealed. The top two were local businesses, long gone. Canada Dry Spur Cola was a regional brand I never heard of. These signs has been covered for over 50 years, and will soon be covered once again, for who knows how long.
The synagogue we attend is building a new wing. Last week, as the old building came down, three wall signs were revealed. The top two were local businesses long gone. Canada Dry Spur Cola was a regional brand I never heard of. These signs have been covered for over 50 years. They will soon be covered once again by our new building — for who knows how long.

 

With joy and gratitude to HaShem we are proud announce that Offspring#3 has given birth to a baby boy, who wishes all his new friends and relatives a peaceful and holy Shabbat.
With joy and gratitude to HaShem we are proud announce that Offspring#3 has given birth to a baby boy, who wishes all his new friends and relatives a peaceful and holy Shabbat.

 

Buster Keaton’s “The Frozen North” (1922)

 

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Comments

  2. That quote by Marilyn Monroe is a bit haunting. Too bad we cannot see ourselves as other see us.

    Wasn’t it Joe DiMaggio that left flowers by her grave for decades?

    On the picture “waiting for an answer” the question is bugging me. Is he waiting for an answer to a marriage pros all that he gave while working in the field?

    Or more likely wondering what times dinner? 😉

  3. Mazel tov!!!
    I’ve been attempting to find any posters of Houghton’s work, but even at the museum where apparently most of her work is, they don’t have. Very unusual and interesting.

  4. My mother told me she made bathtub gin during Prohibition. She also was proud of having danced with Victor McLaglen during her California sojourn in 1926 to 1929. She lived in three centuries. Born in 1898 and died in 2001. She was 40 the year I was born and I was her first born.

  6. Robert,
    You really made my week this time. As a bartender many many years ago, I can tell you the Madge Bellamy picture was what I called the “eternal look in a bar after 1:00 am.
    Then the Casablanca pictures; that scene is my favorite and why Louie is my secret hero.
    Now go drink some Canada Dry.

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