…the discussion of security prompted actress Ginger Rogers to tell the group and the President, “Oh, I get scared for him”, and turning to Reagan, she said “because I love you so much, and we who love you get scared for you.” “I think the press is terrible, she said. “They’ve not been very nice to our president.”
—Ginger Rogers
From a 1983 Washington Post article: “Reagan on the Press,” by Daniel Radcliffe.
Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, 1554, oil on poplar wood, 19.5 x 12.5 cm (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)
Rick McGinnis
Commerce Court, Toronto, May 2017
The night of June 7, 1525 Albrecht Durer had an apocalyptic dream of a great flood destroying the world. Shaken by the experience, he painted this scene the following morning. Durer’s distress over this vision was not unusual considering the time. The early years of the Reformation brought violence, rebellion, and intense religious anxiety. In 1525 Germany was in the midst of a violent peasant revolt, and there was mounting fear among some that a flood would soon end the world. Below is a translation of the text.
“In 1525, during the night between Wednesday and Thursday after Whitsuntide, I had this vision in my sleep, and saw how many great waters fell from heaven. The first struck the ground about four miles away from me with such a terrible force, enormous noise and splashing that it drowned the entire countryside. I was so greatly shocked at this that I awoke before the cloudburst. And the ensuing downpour was huge. Some of the waters fell some distance away and some close by. And they came from such a height that they seemed to fall at an equally slow pace. But the very first water that hit the ground so suddenly had fallen at such velocity, and was accompanied by wind and roaring so frightening, that when I awoke my whole body trembled and I could not recover for a long time. When I arose in the morning, I painted the above as I had seen it. May the Lord turn all things to the best.” Via: Renaissance Art
Erwin Blumenfeld
Dovima (Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba, Jackson Heights, New York, 1927–1990) wears a Pacific suit, a Lily Dache hat and Vegetables jewelry. The name under which she modeled, Dovima, derives from the first two letters of each of her three given names: Dorothy, Virginia, and Margaret. Vogue, USA, 1950.
Judith with the head of Holofernes (c. 1605-10), by Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavalier d’Arpino, oil on canvas, 48 cm × 61.3 cm, (from the Berkeley Art Museum, Ucla, Berkeley, California, USA)
A synagogue in New York City holds 24-hour services on D-Day, June 6th, 1944
Ralph Lauren, (b. Ralph Lifshitz, 1939) with his 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic coupe.
Poster for the Polish release of Apocalypse Now, 1979
“I am free of all prejudices. I hate every one equally.”
― Groucho Marx
Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game (Portrait of the artist’s sisters playing chess), 1555, oil on canvas, 72 x 97 cm (National Museum in Poznań)
Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman
Notorious, 1946
Screenplay by the great Ben Hecht
László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946)
AL 3
1926
Oil, industrial paint, and graphite on aluminium
15 3/4 × 15 3/4 in.
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California, The Blue Four Galka Scheyer Collection
© 2017 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Jacob Riis
Talmud School in a Hester Street Tenement, 1888/ 1895
1937 Delahaye 135 MS Figoni & Falaschi Cabriolet
Unknown Artist, Spain (Madrid), 17th century, ‘Portrait of a Spanish Noblewoman’, c.1620. © National Gallery of Ireland.
Poster for the Polish release of Strangers on a Train, 1951
“I don’t know what the secret to longevity as an actress is. It’s more than talent and beauty. Maybe it’s the audience seeing itself in you.”
—Joan Blondell
Sofonisba Anguissola, Self-Portrait, c. 1556, varnished watercolor on parchment, 8.3 x 6.4 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The medallion is inscribed in Latin: “The maiden Sofonisba Anguissola, depicted by her own hand, from a mirror, at Cremona.”
Lee Miller
Mlle Christiane Poignet, law student, Paris, France, 1944
1928 Hispano-Suiza H6C by Kellner
Rita Hayworth in Reno, 1951
Desk
Artist: Carlo Bugatti (Italian, Milan 1855–1940 Molsheim)
Date: ca. 1902
Medium: Walnut, copper, pewter, vellum
Dimensions: H. 29-1/2, W. 23-2/3, D. 22-1/2 in. (74.9 x 60.1 x 57.2 cm)
Poster for the Polish release of Sunset Boulevard, 1950
Myrna Loy in “The Truth About Youth” (1930)
“If he had any ‘jack’ he wouldn’t sit there staring at me — he’d be in here crushing the life out of me, and making me like it!”
Written by Play: Henry V. Esmond
Screenplay: B. Harrison Orkow
Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine
Artist: Théodore Chassériau (French, Le Limon, Saint-Domingue, West Indies 1819–1856 Paris)
Date: 1851
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 22 3/8 x 18 1/2 in. (56.8 x 47 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchase, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 1996
Accession Number: 1996.285
Description
Chassériau witnessed this scene and sketched it in his notebook during a trip to Algeria in 1846. From the ancient town of Constantine he wrote, “I have seen some highly curious things: primitive and overwhelming, touching and singular. At Constantine, which is high up in some enormous mountains, one sees the Arab people and the Jewish people [living] as they were at the beginning of time.” The Jewish women of North Africa were especially attractive subjects for European painters because they did not wear veils.
Via: MetMuseum
Celia Singer (Karen’s mother) holding Rena, Karen’s sister.
Harrisburg, PA, 1949.
Robert J. Avrech
Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills
2006
Betty Grable wishes America a happy and meaningful July 4th. G-d Bless America. And—
—Lielle wishes all our friends and relatives an inspiring and peaceful Shabbat.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
15 Comments
That “Open for Special Services on D-Day” sign was put up ON D-Day, correct, after the American soldiers had hit Omaha Brach. Putting it up before D-Day might have alerted a Nazi spy that D-Day was coming.
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I of course don’t know you, my being a 57 year old man from MI, and a 35 year foundry worker, and now retired. But I do know that you must be the hardest working person in your industry. I say that given the fact that you were able to get the beautiful Karen to marry you. I stop here on occasion, and am always blown away with the fantastic pictures of not only old time Hollywood beauties, often caught in moments with their hair down, but also with paintings that I would not otherwise see. So I thank you for that. And of course, I must mention that I grieve with you at the loss of your son, Ariel, taken from you much too early. I have not had to bear such a tragic thing, but I can only offer my sorrow to you and your family at something that can never completely fade. Thank you for this blog, which helps others, when I know you often must have sadness inside.
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Pigpen51: I’m pretty sure that you do know me pretty well and that you and I have more values in common than with the people with whom I work in Hollywood. Karen and I greatly appreciate your words of comfort. Ariel’s death is a bottomless wound.
Have a lovely July 4th weekend.
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1) In regard to Joan Blondell, I believe the audience all saw someone they knew in the characters she played — from a vivacious, young tart to a mature, maternal waitress at the diner frequented.
2) I love the Lee Miller photo, but I prefer the other photo of Mlle Christiane Poignet found here: http://www.leemiller.co.uk/media/y0hIBInjKAaNttewxcel4A..a
3) Robert, you know how I feel about Myrna Loy, and I suspect you chose that quote on purpose. 😉
4) Lastly, in regard to your lovely wife’s family. I have not see a great many photos of Karen, but even I can recognize the familial connection — it’s undeniable! As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Have a wonderful Sabbath and a Happy Independence Day!
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Apparently, the whole URL didn’t get linked. If you follow that link you need to add the “..a” to the end to see the photo I referenced.
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The bullet holes in the Lee Miller picture!
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“The bullet holes in the Lee Miller picture!”
Probably quite a few in 1944 Paris, even though it was bypassed. In one of my favorite Helen MacInnes novels a character says he would show another “my bullet hole” in a building. He had been in OSS and get there early.
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In almost every Alan Furst novel, there is mention of the bullet hole in the mirror over a certain table in the Brasserie Henninger.
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It’s more than talent and beauty. Maybe it’s the audience seeing itself in you.
Or not seeing itself in you.
Which brings us back to talent and beauty.
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Ginger was speaking for posterity, and self-conscious, but she got it right.
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Correct!
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The photo of Rita Hayworth in jeans reminds me of the story of someone on a set complaining that she was sweating because of the hot lights. Her rep was there and said, “Horses sweat. Miss Hayworth glows.” I forget the reply.
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The ‘Portrait of a Spanish Noblewoman’ is cool, but I was thinking that would be some date at the drive in. Never mind that making out would be fiendishly tricky, what kind of car could you even get her into?
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Spanish Noblewoman: Mucho Maintenance.
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Good pictures Robert! Rita Hayworth certainly doesn’t look like a Star in that outfit – I’ll bet she would walk down the street unnoticed.
That Delahaye is stunning.
Ralph Lauren is quite the car collector. I think -like Bill Harrah was – or Jay Leno – every car in his collection is maintained such that he can drive it at a moment’s notice.
There is an interesting article in the current Road & track Magazine on a car that was made long after your interest 1990s) – the McLaren F1. It is a collector car that because of its amazing history and low production numbers, is worth about $15 million now. It is the last of the analog supercars (no computers running everything) and doesn’t even have traction control. 106 were built, and a privateer entered one at LeMans – essentially a street car – and won.
And Ralph Lauren has 3.
http://cars.mclaren.com/F1-the-story
If you haven’t seen it I think you would like the Blackhawk Museum in the Bay Area. Not only beautiful and rare cars, but a beautiful settinkg. If you are up this way let me know and I will take you to lunch (do we say “let’s do lunch?)
http://blackhawkmuseum.org/
I have wanted to see the Peterson Museum and every time I have been though Los Angeles it has either been closed (Monday?) or remodeled. One of these days…
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