Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Movie fanatic. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Friday Photos: Welcome to the New La-La Land

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“Paul Newman, Jim [Garner], and Steve and I went to the races at Riverside. On our way home, the men became annoyed because I had insisted on stopping at the next service station rest room. They had hoped to beat the traffic home. When they did stop I discovered to my dismay that there was a long line of women ahead of me. Unable to stand the delay any longer, I came up with a brilliant idea. I said to the girls standing there, ‘Hey, do you know there’s a car full of movie stars around the bend?’ 'Who?’ they cried in unison, 'Why, there’s Steve McQueen, there’s Paul Newman, and there’s James Garner!’ The girls looked at each other and ran like crazy, leaving me in sole possession of the facilities. I never did tell the fellas how a swarm of females suddenly discovered them!” -Neile Adams (Mrs. Steve McQueen)
“Paul Newman, Jim [Garner], and Steve and I went to the races at Riverside. On our way home, the men became annoyed because I had insisted on stopping at the next service station rest room. They had hoped to beat the traffic home. When they did stop I discovered to my dismay that there was a long line of women ahead of me. Unable to stand the delay any longer, I came up with a brilliant idea. I said to the girls standing there, ‘Hey, do you know there’s a car full of movie stars around the bend?’
‘Who?’ they cried in unison, ‘Why, there’s Steve McQueen, there’s Paul Newman, and there’s James Garner!’ The girls looked at each other and ran like crazy, leaving me in sole possession of the facilities. I never did tell the fellas how a swarm of females suddenly discovered them!”
-Neile Adams (Mrs. Steve McQueen)

Hollywood was once the dream capital of the world. Movies peddled glamour and fantasy. This was La-La Land where outrageous plots and larger than life characters allowed audiences to construct alternate realities — entertainment.

But La-La Land has relocated.

On Wednesday, President Obama delivered the commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. The mission of the Coast Guard is to protect America’s coasts. But according to this Commander-in-Chief the real threat to America comes not from enemies attacking the homeland, but from so-called global freezing/global warming/climate change — whatever they’re calling the weather this week.

Not a word from Obama about Islamic State who control half of Syria and are extending their grip on Iraq. Not a word about the thousands of women raped by Islamic State terrorists and then sold naked in slave markets. Not a word about the harrowing of the Yazidis. And what about those nasty IslamoNazis in Nigeria and Syria? According to Obama these Islamic génocidaires  are exploiting drought, crop failures, and the high price of food  caused by climate change.

This is preposterous.

Obama never mentions Islam. Never mentions sharia. Never discusses the evil that is at the core of Islamism.

In the world according to Obama, the graduates of the Coast Guard Academy need only convert every ship into a floating Prius and world peace will break out.

Obama, his administration, and the postmodern Democrat party  live in a world detached from reality and common sense.

Welcome to the New La-La Land — not an entertainment.

Here are a few pictures to help us get through the next few days.

 

Jewish partisan of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 1944 Poland.
Jewish partisan of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 1944 Poland.

 

Edward Hopper, “Office at Night”
Edward Hopper, “Office at Night”

 

Sculpture by Martin Puryear
Sculpture by Martin Puryear

 

This has to be one of the strangest publicity photos I have ever seen. Joan Blondell, one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age, is in heels, on a Spanish tiled roof (hey it could be Casa Avrech) in a bathing suit, with bow and arrow. Blonde was a trooper. This pic is just nuts.
This has to be one of the strangest publicity photos I have ever seen. Joan Blondell, one of the great actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, in a bathing suit, high heels, balancing precariously on a Spanish tiled roof (hey, it could be Casa Avrech) with bow and arrow. Huh?

 

The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (French: La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans) is a c. 1881 sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school, a Belgian named Marie van Goethem.
The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer (French: La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans) is a c. 1881 sculpture by Edgar Degas of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school, a Belgian named Marie van Goethem.

 

Audrey Hepburn as a young ballet dancer.
As a young girl Audrey Hepburn studied to be a ballet dancer.

 

Edgar Degas, Two Ballet Girls, c.1879.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Two Ballet Girls, c.1879.

 

Brigitte Bardot also aspired to be a ballet dancer.
Brigitte Bardot also aspired to be a ballet dancer.

 

Edward Hopper, New York Interior, 1921. I think she looks like a ballet dancer repairing her costume with needle and thread.
Edward Hopper, New York Interior, 1921. I think she looks like a ballet dancer in a tutu.

 

Edward Degas, The Waiting
Edward Degas, The Waiting

 

Brigitte Bardot waiting, 1946.
Brigitte Bardot waiting, 1946.

 

“I am greatly misunderstood by politically correct idiots.” —Brigitte Bardot
“I am greatly misunderstood by politically correct idiots.”
—Brigitte Bardot

 

Mark Rothko, Number 10
Mark Rothko b. Markus Yakovlevich Rotkovich, Number 10, 1950

 

Don Ameche, Hedy Lamarr and Jimmy Stewart looking elegant and fashionable at the races.
Don Ameche, Hedy Lamarr, and Jimmy Stewart looking elegant and fashionable at the races.

 

Agnes Martin, With My Back to the World, 1997, Dimensions: 152.5 x 152.5 cm.
Agnes Martin, With My Back to the World, 1997, Dimensions: 152.5 x 152.5 cm.

 

“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” —Hedy Lamarr
“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”
—Hedy Lamarr

 

Wayne Thiebaud, "Yo Yos," 1963 (oil on canvas)
Wayne Thiebaud, “Yo Yos,” 1963 (oil on canvas)

 

Great publicity still of Basil Rathbone for “Son of Frankenstein” 1939.
Great publicity still of Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill and Boris Karloff  for “Son of Frankenstein” 1939.

 

Johannes Vermeer, The Geographer, 1668-69, oil on canvas, 53×47 cm.
Johannes Vermeer, The Geographer, 1668-69, oil on canvas, 53×47 cm.

 

“I always worry about making a fool of myself on dates,” Sandra says. “I often wonder if other girls do, too. And Mother says that even if I started five hours ahead to get ready, I’d still be late. I always ask the boy where we’re going, so I’ll know what to wear and I try—-honest!—-to be ready on time. If I don’t know the boy too well, I always feel shy, so to hide it I start to talk. But I’m learning to let him say what he thinks, too. I don’t worry about boys getting fresh. It’s really the girl who sets the pace on a date. A boy can almost tell what kind of girl you are from the first ten words you speak.” —Sandra Dee
“I always worry about making a fool of myself on dates. I often wonder if other girls do, too. And Mother says that even if I started five hours ahead to get ready, I’d still be late. I always ask the boy where we’re going, so I’ll know what to wear and I try—honest!—to be ready on time. If I don’t know the boy too well, I always feel shy, so to hide it I start to talk. But I’m learning to let him say what he thinks, too. I don’t worry about boys getting fresh. It’s really the girl who sets the pace on a date. A boy can almost tell what kind of girl you are from the first ten words you speak.”
—Sandra Dee interview

 

Bowl fragment with Menorah, Shofar, and Torah Ark, 350 AD.
Bowl fragment with Menorah, Shofar, and Torah Ark, Roman Empire, 300- 350 AD.

 

Martin Puryear, Untitled 1994, Wood, 78 x 13 x 6 inches
Martin Puryear, Untitled 1994, Wood, 78 x 13 x 6 inches

 

This photo from Seventeen magazine, 1960 is a close runner-up to the loony Joan Blondell photo. Here's Anthony Perkins on the set of Psycho, posing in form of the Bates home on a ladder (why a ladder) with two adoring woman on either side. Okay, Psycho had not yet been released, and Perkins was not yet typecast as Norman Bates. But still, the oppressively gloomy house should have tipped off the editors at Seventeen that a happy go lucky photo shoot was a bit... loony.
This photo from a 1960 issue of Seventeen magazine is a close runner-up to the loony Joan Blondell photo. Here’s Anthony Perkins on the set of “Psycho” posing in front of the Bates home, perched on a ladder with two adoring woman dangling on either side. Okay, “Psycho” had not yet been released, and Perkins was not yet typecast as the murderous Norman Bates. But still, the oppressively gloomy house and the title “Psycho” should have tipped off the editors at Seventeen that a happy-go-lucky photo shoot was a bit weird.

 

Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1962
Andy Warhol, Marilyn, 1962

 

merill inn

 

Original publicity still of MM for the 1953 film “Niagara.”
Original publicity still of MM for the 1953 film “Niagara.”

 

American women,1943
American women,1943

 

Disney Concert Hall, downtown LA. I took about 100 photos, but this abstracted fragment is my favorite.
Disney Concert Hall, downtown LA. I took dozens of photos of the Frank Gehry building, but this abstracted fragment is my favorite.

 

Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan, early 1900s
Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan, 1920s

 

I love the IDF.
I love the IDF.

 

Lielle Meital admires the Degas sculpture and wishes all our friends and relatives a lovely Shabbat and a joyous Shavuos.
Lielle Meital admires the Degas sculpture, and wishes all our friends and relatives a lovely Shabbat and a joyous Shavuot.

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Comments

  1. The Degas reenactment is marvelous. Never seen that one.

    As for the horse racing trio, Don Ameche looks elegant, Hedy Lamarr looks fashionable, and James Stewart looks just plain old comfortable, as he always seemed.

    What a tremendous photo with Rathbone! I just watched “Mark of Zorro” and thought that if I also watched “Captain Blood” and “Court Jester” it would be a sword fighting film festival with the master. I do have all three on disk.

  2. re: the IDF photo;

    My dental hygienist is an Ethiopian Israeli. We have had a number of discussions of the pathology of American blacks. She is married to a white man (probably Jewish but I haven’t asked her) and tells me that she gets hate stares from black women in public when she is with her husband. The plight of American blacks is so sad but not all are infected with Rev Wright’s virus. I have black neighbors in “all white” Mission Viejo and they seem perfectly happy to be here. One is a little league coach. The team is all white.

  4. I would love to know the story behind the Joan Blondell publicity photo. She had another photo which pretty risque for 1932:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Blondell#/media/File:Joan_Blondell_banned_1932_publicity_photo.jpg

    I don’t know if this was colorized or if the photographer used a color process.

    As for Obama’s speech, maybe he didn’t get the NASA memo…

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2015/05/19/updated-nasa-data-polar-ice-not-receding-after-all/

    Thanks again for all of the wonderful Art.

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