
—Billy Wilder

Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, 1488
Tempera on panel
30 in × 19 in
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid



Portrait of director Sidney Lumet, Toronto, 2007. This photo means a great deal to me. Sidney and I became close when he directed my script for “A Stranger Among Us.” He insisted that I stay on set every day of production and never made any changes in the script without my okay. He was one of Hollywood’s greatest directors, and a true gentleman. Rick McGinnis was kind enough to deliver an original print of this wonderful photo to me in Los Angeles a few months ago.




Storm, 1996-97
Oil on panel
34 5/8 x 39 in.

We were married at three-thirty that afternoon and left at five-thirty, getting home the next morning at three. Carole’s mother was there, all excited, which kept us up till five. Finally we got to sleep, only to be awakened at nine to discover forty cameramen, three newsreel men and twenty reporters waiting out in the front yard to interview us. Under the circumstances, David [Selznick] gave me another day off.”
—Clark Gable

Rosina Ferrara, Head of a Capri Girl, 1878
Oil on cardboard
Signed, inscribed, and dated by the artist at lower right, To my friend Hyde / souvenir of / John S. Sargent / Capri 1878
12 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.


Erna with Japanese Umbrella (Japanese Girl), 1913
Oil on canvas, 80 x 70.5 cm

Norma Jeane on the Pacific Coast Highway, Oct. 1945.


—Lizabeth Scott b. Emma Matzo (1922 – 2015)

Portrait of a Woman, circa 1445
Tempera on poplar wood
19.5 × 12.9 in
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Umbrella Girl, Concorde Place, 1954


Japan, 1958


Karen Ponders The Square
Los Angeles, 2017


Always amazed me how different Norma Jean was from Marilyn Monroe. I remember a documentary of her about her time in the latter 50s of staying in New York. She would walk on the sidewalk anonymously. And one day she told a friend to watch her transformation to MM – and whatever “it” was almost immediately a crowd surrounded her.
I know during the filming of Some Like It Hot, MM exasperated Billy Wilder – one scene required 25 takes?
Always enjoy your Friday Photos Robert and glad you liked the 30s cars.
I’m loving these fabulous Omer calendars!
Excellence… yet again! The photo of BB is stunning.