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 think if you were born with privileges—or given privileges—then you should share them. Like money—it’s to share. I’ve known too many people who just sat and hoarded and were miserable. Just miserable SOBs. I have always believed that giving is one of the reasons that we were put on this earth. I’ve acted on that belief since I was old enough to leave my nest…”
—Elizabeth Taylor

 

Samurai Helmet (Zukinnari Kabuto)
16th century
Iron, lacquer
H. 16 1/8 in. (41 cm)
Photo by John Rawlings,
1938

 

Smith and Wesson .38 Caliber Safety Third Model Double-Action Revolver, serial no. 83097
Decorated by Tiffany & Co., ca. 1890–93
Steel, silver, enamel, wood, leather, copper alloy, gold.
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Soldier’s Farewell, 1943

 

Rick McGinnis
Beneath the Hollywood sign, Los Angeles, Nov. 2016

 

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, Rome 1593–1651/53 Naples)
“Esther Before Ahasuerus”
Oil on canvas
82 x 107 3/4in. (208.3 x 273.7cm)

 

“I am in no sense of the word a great artist, not even a great animator; I have always had men working for me whose skills were greater than my own. I am an idea man. I can never stand still. I must explore and experiment. I am never satisfied with my work. I resent the limitations of my own imagination.”
—Walt Disney

 

Marsden Hartley (American, 1877-1943)
Mt. Katahdin (Maine), Autumn #2
1939–40
Oil on canvas
30 1⁄4 x 40 1⁄4 in. (76.8 x 102.2 cm)

 

Florence Georgie in “It Happened On 23rd Street”, above (1901, dir. Edwin Porter); Marilyn Monroe in “Seven Year Itch” (1955, dir. Billy Wilder)

 

Rick McGinnis
Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, Nov. 2016

 

 

Peggy Cummins and John Dall in “Gun Crazy” 1950
Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, MacKinlay Kantor
Based on “Gun Crazy” 1940 story in The Saturday Evening Post by MacKinlay Kantor.

 

 

 

Vilhelm Hammershøi
A Young Consumptive Girl
oil and canvas

 

Gustav Klimt,
“Seated Young Girl”
1894

 

Ava Gardner, 15 years old

 

Hieronimo Custodis c. 1589, Elizabeth Brydges, aged 14.

 

Brigitte Bardot, 15 years old

 

Statue of Brigitte Bardot in Buzios, Brazil

 

Esther Bubley
Teenagers listening to the latest hits, New York, 1957

 

“I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, introduced us in New York City. When the studio didn’t want me for the film — it wanted somebody as well known as Paul — he stood up for me. I don’t know how many people would have done that; they would have listened to their agents or the studio powers.
…Both of us were fundamentally American actors, with the qualities and virtues that characterize American actors: irreverence, playing on the other’s flaws for fun, one-upmanship — but always with an underlying affection. Those were also at the core of our relationship off the screen.
Paul was very engaged at work. He was there. He liked a lot of rehearsal. But he was fun too. Whenever he’d make a mistake on set, he would enjoy it more than anybody. I’d look at him, and he’d look at me, and I’d say, “You’re not fooling anybody. You’re not staring at me intensely; you’ve lost your line.” And he’d roar with laughter…We played lots of pranks on each other. I used to race cars, and after he took this rare Porsche I owned for a drive, he began to get into racing. He had incredible reflexes, and he got really good, but he talked so much about it that I got sick of it. So I had a beaten-up Porsche shell delivered to his porch for his 50th birthday. He never said anything, but not long after, I found a crate of molten metal delivered to the living room of my (rented) house. It dented the floor. I then had it turned into a really ugly sculpture and dropped into his garden. To this day, neither one of us has ever mentioned it.”
—Robert Redford, 2008

Horst. P. Horst
Nina de Voogt on Striped Sofa II, 1951.

 

Gene Davis
See Saw
1979
72 × 92-½ × 1-½ inches
acrylic on canvas

 

Photo by Marius Vieth

 

Carlo Dolci
Poetry (Poesia), late 1640s. Oil on panel, 21 1/3 x 16 3/6 inches (54 cm x 42 cm). Florence, Galleria Corsini.

 

Ernst Haas
“View from Notre Dame”, Paris, 1955

 

Scroll of Esther
18th century, possibly Alsace, Ink and gouache on parchment, 5 × 99 1/8 in. (12.7 × 251.8 cm)
The Jewish Museum, NY
Gift of Dr. Harry G. Friedman
This scroll is profusely illustrated and unique in its emphasis on legends concerning King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, above the text. Depicted at bottom are scenes from the Book of Esther.

 

Pinchas Zvi (Finn) wishes all our friends and relatives an inspirational and peaceful Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, The Absolute End, dry pigment on paper, 1982.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • I’m reminded of a Peanuts cartoon in which Linus (I think) makes a similar observation. Charlie Brown (I think) muses on it for a moment, then asks, “What were the others put here for?”

      It’s one reason, but it can’t be the only one.

  3. Is there any information as to who the young girl in the Klimt painting is? She could be the image of a friend’s granddaughter. Lovely!

    All of your grandchildren have wonderful, beautiful eyes, but young Pinchas Zvi currently takes the cake! Adorable!

    Shabbat shalom, with gratitude.

  4. Elizabeth Taylor was so perfect looking at that age. Several of my fraternity brothers and I went to see “A Place in the Sun” multiple times when it came out. It was like a cult movie for boys about 20.

    • My mother came out here from Manhattan in the late 40s and work for bullocks department store in Los Angeles. She would see stars occasionally and they would close the entire floor while they went in to shop. She saw a young Elizabeth Taylor and said you always remember the eyes

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