Tag Archives: Ginger Rogers

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: August 31, 2018

Posted in Art, Clara Bow, Design, Donald O'Connor, Dovima, Elizabeth Taylor, Fashion, Fred Astaire, Friday Fashion, Friday Fotos, Ginger Rogers, Hollywood, June Havoc, Movie Posters, Movies, Painting, Talmud | Also tagged Anita Ekberg, Carlos Perez Siquier, Donald O'Connor, Dovima, Elizabeth Taylor, Eyes Without a Face, Fred Astaire, Gerald Murphy, Heinrich Ehmsen, Henri Matisse, Jerry Plucer Sarna, Johnny Weissmuller, June Havoc, Maureen O'Sullivan, Morgan Auto, Nina Leen, Nomos, Regina Relang, Richard Avedon, Roger Evert, Tarzan, This Gun for Hire, Vincent van Gogh, Yale Joel | 3 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: July 6, 2018

Posted in Art, Billy Wilder, Elizabeth Taylor, Ellen Burstyn, Hollywood, Lauren Bacall, Painting, Photography, True Hollywood Confessions | Also tagged Cecil Beaton, Elizabeth Taylor, Ellen Burstyn, George Platt Lynes, George Stevens, James Dean, James Nares, Jozef Israëls, Lauren Bacall, Lielle Meital, Paul Signac, Ursula Andress, Vintage Cars, Within These Walls, Wristwatches | 8 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: March 23, 2018

Posted in Art, Dovima, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Judaica, Judaism, Movie Posters, Movies, Painting, Passover, Photography, Quotes, Rick McGinnis, Saul Bass, Screenwriting, True Hollywood Confessions, Vintage Cars, Vivien Leigh | Also tagged August Herbin, Cartier, Cecil Beaton, David Niven, Eva Rubinstein, Fashion, Fay Wray, Félix Vallotton, George Clausen, Hiroshige, Jean Harlow, Joan Collins, Michael Wolf, Nina Leen, On the Waterfront, Passover Haggadah, Peter Mitchell, Richard Avedon, Vilhelm Hammershøi, Vivian Maier, Vivien Leigh, William Helburn | 3 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: January 12, 2018

Posted in Ann Blyth, Ginger Rogers, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Joan Bennett, Movie Posters, Painting, Photography, Quotes, Screenwriting | Also tagged Andy Galsworthy, Ann Blyth, Anna May Wong, Cecil Beaton, Corneille de Lyon, Edward Hopper, Elizabeth Taylor, Eric Swayne, Fred Astaire, Gun Crazy, Horst P. Horst, Jacob Lawrence, Joan Bennett, Kept Husbands, Livia Yarden, movie posters, Peggy Cummins, Ralston Crawford, Richard Avedon, Vintage Cars, Yiddish Posters | 3 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: October 4, 2017

No, you have not fallen into a time warp. It is Wednesday. So: why Friday Photos today? The celebration of Succos starts tonight and continues into Shabbat. And because Orthodox Jews (that’s us) do not use electronics during these holidays you get Friday Photos early. We hope you enjoy this edition.

Posted in Art, Brigitte Bardot, Cary Grant, Family, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jewish Holidays, Judaism, Movie Posters, Movies, Myrna Loy, Photography, Quotes, Sandra Dee, Succos, True Hollywood Confessions, Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters | Also tagged Alternative Movie Posters, Bernard Palissy, Cary Grant, Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun, Follow the Fleet, Horst P. Horst, Marilyn Monroe, Myrna Loy, Sandra Dee, Shabbat, Succos | 6 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 30, 2017

Posted in Alfred Hitchcock, Art, Betty Grable, Cary Grant, Design, Dovima, Family, Friday Fotos, Ginger Rogers, Great Dialogue, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Blondell, Judaica, Judaism, Lielle Meital, Movie Posters, Movies, Myrna Loy, Painting, Photography, Quotes, Rita Hayworth, Ronald Reagan, Screenwriting | Also tagged Albrecht Durer, Ben Hecht, Betty Grable, Bugatti, Celia, D Day Synagogue Services, Dovima, Erwin Blumenfeld, Giuseppe Cesari, Groucho Marx, Hispano-Suiza, Jacob Riis, Joan Blondell, July 4th Hollywood, Karen Singer Avrech, László Moholy-Nagy, Lee Miller, Lielle, Movie Posters from Poland, Myrna Loy, Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lifshitz, Rena, Renaissance, Rick McGinnis, Ronald Reagan, Sofonisba Anguissola, Theodore Chassériau, Truth About Youth | 15 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: February 10, 2017

Posted in Art, Clara Bow, Doris Day, Family, Fashion, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Movie Posters, Movies, Painting, Photography, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson, Quotes, Screenwriting, True Hollywood Confessions | Also tagged Albrecht Durer, Clark Gable, Colt Firearms, Doris Day, Elsa Lanchester, Erwin Blumenfeld, Fred Astaire, Gerrit van Honthorst, Gustave Young, Hans Holbein the Younger, Hengki Koentjoro, Hercules Seghers, James Siena, Jane Russell, Lucas Cranach The Elder, My Man Godfrey, Pieter de Hooch, Rick McGinnis, Thomas Nozkowski, Zoë Mozert | 9 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 3, 2016

Posted in Art, Friday Fotos, Ginger Rogers, Gloria Swanson, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, True Hollywood Confessions | Also tagged Andrew Wyeth, Captain Thomas Smith, Childe Hassam, Gene Davis, Gloria Swanson, Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, James Whistler, John Frederick Peto, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Marilyn Monroe, Mennonite Quilts, Puritans, Richard Avedon, Self-Portrait, Stuart Davis, Winslow Homer | 15 Responses

David Niven, Ginger Rogers, and the Battle of the Bulge

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: December 17, 2015

On the night of December 16, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, eight jeep teams made up of German soldiers fluent in English slipped through American lines. Some carried vials of sulphuric acid to throw in the faces of American guards if they were stopped. Other groups cut communication wires and carried out minor […]

Posted in America, David Niven, Ginger Rogers, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Military, World War III | Also tagged Antony Beevor, Ardennes, Bachelor Mother, Battle of the Bulge, David Niven, Eisenhower, General Bruce Clark, German Sabotage, Omar Bradley, Otto Skorzeny, World War II | 3 Responses

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: August 21, 2015

Posted in Art, Ava Gardner, Brigitte Bardot, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jerusalem, Livia Yarden, Movie Posters, Movie Star Ads, Movies, Painting, Photography, Rita Hayworth, True Hollywood Confessions | Also tagged Albrecht Durer, Bates House, Buster Keaton, Clyfford Still, Edward Hopper, Janet Leigh, Lucas Cranach The Elder, Michelangelo, Milton Avery, Psycho, Rolled Stockings, Star Ads, Tony Curtis | 7 Responses

Take #3: The Meaning of Leaning in Hollywood

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: October 15, 2014

Leaning boards ( also called Slant boards) were invented for Hollywood players to relax between takes. Hollywood costumes were frequently cut on-the-bias, and tailored so snugly that the actor could not sit without bursting a ladder of seams. In fact, most of the time, there were no zippers or buttons on the costumes. Actors were […]

Posted in Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Leaning Boards | Also tagged Brian Aherne, Dinner at Eight, Frank Morgan, Fred Keating, Gaslight, Gene Kelly, George Cukor, I Live My Life, Ingrid Bergman, Jean Hagen, Joseph Cotten, Margot Grahame, Merle Oberon, Night in Paradise, Singin in the Rain, Slant Boards, The Three Musketeers, Top Hat, W.S. Van Dyke | 7 Responses

Friday Footwear — Stiletto Statistics

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: June 20, 2014

Sigmund Freud famously asked: “What do women want?” A new survey by ShoeBuy.com confirms what Seraphic Secret knows: Women want shoes. Women dream of nose-bleed stilettos, ballet flats, boots, Oxfords, sandals — whatever! If it clothes the foot, women lust for it. Okay, a few statistics.

Posted in Brigitte Bardot, Friday Footwear, Glamour, Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Jean Harlow | Also tagged AnneFrancis, Chester Morris, Eyal Nifrah, Forbidden Planet, Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, Red Headed Woman, Robby the Robot, Roxie hart | 7 Responses

Hollywood Stars and Cars: I Drive Therefore I Am

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: May 9, 2013

America has long had a love affair with the automobile. Cars are the ultimate expression of form, function, fashion — and speed. But most of all the car represents freedom. Try and remember when you were a teenager yearning for your driver’s license so you could hop into daddy’s car and go, go, go. It […]

Posted in Hollywood, Stars and Cars | Also tagged Cadillac, Corvette, Douglas Fairbanks, Duesenberg, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Jaguar, Janet Gaynor, Jr., Kim Novak, Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Carroll, Packard, Phantom Corsair Cord, Pierce Arrow, Richard Dix, Steve McQueen, T-Bird, Young in Heart | 21 Responses

The Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: February 23, 2012

From where do we draw wisdom? First and foremost, Seraphic Secret relies on Torah, on the lessons of 3,000 years of Jewish history and on the common sense advice of my wife Karen. And then there are the movies, a moral landscape of immeasurable power where searing images and razor-sharp dialogue deliver lessons in human character that, […]

Posted in Hollywood, Screenwriting, Wisdom of Hollywood Screenwriters | Also tagged Andrew Solt, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ben Hecht, Celia Johnson, David Lean, Gloria Grahame, Humphrey Bogart, Noel Coward, Nunnally Johnson, Ronald Neame, Rupert Hughes, Souls For Sale | 8 Responses

Friday Footwear: Hollywood Steps Out

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: February 10, 2012

Classic photos of Hollywood stars usually reinforce a particular image. Lighting, composition, body language, wardrobe and the singular architecture of the face are the ingredients that create a glamorous narrative for audiences to internalize. Clark Gable is the man’s man who doesn’t give a damn; Carole Lombard, the girl next door who will drive you […]

Posted in Brigitte Bardot, Clark Gable, Friday Fashion, Friday Footwear, Gloria Swanson, Hollywood | Also tagged Brigitte Bardot, Carole Lombard, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Gloria Swanson, Harold Lloyd, Pablo Picasso, Pola Negri | 12 Responses

Friday Footwear: Hollywood Parade

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: December 2, 2011

Glamour depends on mystery, the art of concealment. Hollywood stars of the past and their handlers understood that to maintain the image projected on the screen was a full-time job. Hard working stars like Joan Crawford never appeared in public less than impeccably turned out. Even at their most casual, Hollywood stars of the golden […]

Posted in Friday Footwear, Hollywood, Movies | Also tagged Brooks Brothers, Gail Patrick, Gene Kelly, Glamour, Jean Harlow, Marlene Dietrich, Paul Bern, Paulette Goddard, Rodeo Drive, Sabbath, Shabbat | 7 Responses

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940s: ’40-’43

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: December 1, 2011

Several months ago I started a list of my picks for the Greatest Movies ever made. I began with silent films, made my way through the 30’s, then started the 40’s but got sidetracked by, um, laziness. My apologies. I’m going to continue with my list of the 20 films that I feel are the […]

Posted in Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1940s, Hollywood | Also tagged Ball of Fire, Barbara Stanwyck, Billy Wilder, Carl Dreyer, Cary Grant, Day of Wrath, Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson, Henry Fonda, His Girl Friday, How Green Was My Valley, Irene Dunne, John Ford, Lisbeth Movin, Mitchell Leisen, My Favorite Wife, Random Harvest, Remember the Night, Robert Taylor, Ronald Colman, Rosalind Russell, The Lady Eve, The Major and the Minor, Vivien Leigh, Waterloo Bridge | 13 Responses

Catching Up: Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940’s

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: December 7, 2010

Several months ago I started a list of my picks for the Greatest Movies ever made. I started with silent films, made my way through the 30’s, then started the 40’s but got sidetracked by, um, laziness. My apologies. I’m going to continue with my list of the 20 films that I feel are the […]

Posted in Great Movies, Hollywood | Also tagged Ball of Fire, Barbara Stanwyck, Carl Dreyer, Cary Grant, Day of Wrath, Fred MacMurray, Greatest Movies, Greer Garson, Henry Fonda, His Girl Friday, Hollywood 1940's, How Green Was My Valley, Irene Dunne, John Ford, Lisbeth Movin, Maureen O'Hara, My Favorite Wife, Random Harvest, Remember the Night, Robert Taylor, Ronald Colman, Rosalind Russell, The Lady Eve, The Major and the Minor, Vivien Leigh, Waterloo Bridge | Leave a comment

The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s: ’34-’37

By Robert J. Avrech | Published: December 2, 2010

We continue our survey of the Twenty Greatest Movies of each decade. For The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1920s, click here. For The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s, click here. For The Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1940’s, click here. Let’s roll: 11. Twentieth Century, 1934. Oscar Jaffe, John Barrymore, a stubborn, hyperkinetic […]

Posted in Great Movies, Greatest Movies of the 1930s, Twenty Greatest Movies of the 1930s | Also tagged Alfred Hitchcock, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Desire, Ernst Lubitsch, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Howard Hawks, Irene Dunne, John Barrymore, Madeleine Carroll, Marlene Dietrich, Robert Donat, Swing Time, The 39 Steps, The Awful Truth, Twentieth Century | 20 Responses

How I Married Karen

The new book
by Robert J. Avrech

Available in All Major Book Stores

Adobe Digital Edition's version is available through the Lulu store!
About Me
Robert J. Avrech
Los Angeles, California
I'm an Emmy Award winning screenwriter. I'm also an observant Jew, a religious Zionist, a conservative Republican, and a member of the NRA. I've been writing and producing in Hollywood for over twenty-five years. But the focus of my life is my family: my radiant wife, Karen—with whom I have been in love with since I was nine years-old—and my two daughters, who, thankfully, look like Karen. Not too long ago, we had three children. But our son, Ariel, died at the age of twenty-two from cancer. We miss him terribly. We think about him practically every minute of every day. People tell us that time heals, but Karen and I know this is not true. Time grinds away doing its terrible work. Ariel is gone. Yet absence becomes presence.

Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
Search
Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City
NOTE: Click on video titles inside the thumbnail images, below, to open that video in YouTube

Fifteenth: June 10, 2018
Jackie Danicki: “Confessions of a Convert: A Humbling, Joyful Journey to Judaism.”

Blog Post | Audio: (94 MB)

Fourteenth: June 11, 2017
Daniel Greenfield: “Fighting Anti-Semitism and Defending Israel in the Age of BDS.”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Thirteenth: May 22, 2016Ben Shapiro: “How You Can Save Israel”

Blog Post | Audio: (70 MB)

Twelfth: June 7, 2015
Larry Elder: “The New Black Anti-Semitism”

Blog Post | Audio: (100 MB)

Eleventh: June 8, 2014
Michael Medved: “Shifting Alliances: Why Liberals No Longer Reliably Support Israel — And Conservatives Do.”

Blog Post | Audio: (97MB)

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: “The War Against Judaism on the University Campus.”

Blog Post | Audio: (16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: “The Mainstream Media’s Betrayal of Israel.”

Blog Post | Audio: (15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: “What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me.”

Blog Post | Audio: (18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: “Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion.”

Blog Post | Audio: (80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: “Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?”

Blog Post | Audio: (64MB)

Fifth: June 15, 2008
Rabbi Dr. Gil S. Perl: “What Was the Rosh Yeshiva Reading: Intellectual Openness in 19th Century Lithuania.”

Blog Post | Audio: (70MB)
Tags

Alfred Hitchcock Al Sharpton Ariel Avrech Audrey Hepburn Ava Gardner Benjamin Netanyahu Bette Davis Big Government Brigitte Bardot Carole Lombard Cary Grant Clark Gable Dovima Edward Hopper Elizabeth Taylor Gary Cooper Grace Kelly Greta Garbo Hillary Clinton Hollywood Iran Irving Penn IslamoNazis Israel Jean Harlow Jeremiah Wright Jew-hatred Joan Crawford Karen Singer Avrech Kim Novak Lana Turner Liberal Facism Lielle Meital Ma'ayan Ariel Marilyn Monroe Marlene Dietrich Myrna Loy Nuclear Iran Obama Prager University Richard Avedon Rick McGinnis Rita Hayworth Shabbat Vintage Cars