Tag Archives: Hollywood Glamour

By Robert J. Avrech | August 9, 2012

Hollywood Goes Kierkegaard

Tweet Hollywood stars are rarely known for their introspection. Most are working so hard at getting the right roles, staying on top, and being glamorous, there’s precious little time for self-reflection. For years, Seraphic Secret has collected choice quotes from a few thoughtful actors, and dropped them in a file labeled: “Hollywood Goes Kierkegaard.” “Men [...]

Posted in Hollywood, Jean Harlow, Kim Novak, Marilyn Monroe, Susan Hayward | Also tagged Hollywood History, Hollywood Memoirs | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 2, 2012

Hollywood on Trial

Tweet There is nothing Hollywood fears as much as a messy public trial. For movie stars, civil or criminal charges often spell the end of reputation and livelihood. In 1921, the false rape and murder charges against the wonderful knock-about comedian, Roscoe Arbuckle, destroyed his brilliant career—in pre-income tax dollars he earned a million a [...]

Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood on Trial, Lupe Velez | Also tagged Charlie Chaplin, Dolores Del Rio, Jetta Goudal, Joan Barry, Mary Pickford, Roscoe Arbuckle | 5 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 27, 2012

Friday Photos: The Not So Glamorous Family

Tweet Hollywood’s Golden Age, from the 20′s to the late thirties, was a dream factory. And glamour was the dream that was sold in every frame of every film. Studios tightly controlled the image of the stars they groomed and promoted, presenting them as glittering jewels, untouched and unsullied by the daily concerns of ordinary [...]

Posted in Colleen Moore, Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Jean Harlow | Also tagged Alice Cooper, Anna Garbo, Charlotte Hennesy, Gary Cooper, Glamour, Greta Garbo, Mary Pickford | 5 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 29, 2012

Friday Photos: A Star Is Created

Tweet Stars are not born; they are created through a long and tortuous process of trial and error. When conjuring our favorite star we remember an iconic image that captures that personae. When we think of Jean Harlow we see her glowing platinum hair, a fetching body draped in silk, and a come hither look [...]

Posted in Ava Gardner, Brigitte Bardot, Friday Fotos, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Rita Hayworth | Also tagged Classic Hollywood, Hollywood History | 10 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 15, 2012

Friday Fashion: The Female Animal

Tweet In last week’s Friday Fashion post we observed that designers frequently clothe women utilizing fur, feathers and animal patterns. For as long as fashion has existed, animal metaphors have been an indispensible part of the designer’s lexicon. Hollywood, during its golden age, a leading arbiter of taste, heightened and refined the animal analogy with [...]

Posted in Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Constance Bennett, Friday Fashion, Gene Tierney, Irene Dunne, Jean Harlow, Joan Bennett, Lupe Velez, Marlene Dietrich, Martha Hyer | Also tagged Adrian, Constance Bennett, Costume Design, Edward Stevenson, Gene Tierney, George Hurrell, Glamour, Joan Bennett, Karen Singer Avrech, Martha Hyer, Robert Kalloch, Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 27, 2012

Hollywood: A Dog’s Life

Tweet During Hollywood’s golden era studio photographers churned out thousands of photographs that created the iconography of glamour by which Hollywood stars were defined. There was a library of poses and props that photographers used in order to create and refine particular images. Who can forget Hurrell’s shimmering portrait of Jean Harlow in a skin-tight [...]

Posted in Friday Fotos, Hollywood | Also tagged Audrey Hepburn, Buster Keaton, Carole Lombard, Corinne Griffith, Doris Day, Mae Clarke, Margaret Sullavan, Margaret Sullivan, Marilyn Monroe, Pola Negri, Stars and their pets | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | April 19, 2012

The Devil’s Arithmetic

Tweet Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. I’m posting Part I of my movie, The Devil’s Arithmetic for viewing. The film stars Kirsten Dunst and the late Brittany Murphy in spectacular performances. The rest of the film is available, but I’d greatly appreciate it if you ordered the DVD and gave it to friends, [...]

Posted in Devil's Arithmetic, Hollywood | Also tagged Brittany Murphy, Dustin Hoffman, Holocaust Memorial Day, Karen Singer Avrech, Kirsten Dunst, Mimi Rogers, Yom HaShoah | 9 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | January 20, 2012

Friday Fashion: Hollywood Males It In

Tweet The operative word is effortless. In truth, Chaplin’s style was only achieved through the superlative tailoring of the English Savile Row firm, Anderson & Sheppard. As the new book, Anderson & Sheppard: A Style is Born, edited by Graydon Carter and Cullen Murphy, makes clear, the venerable British tailors shunned actors and other show-biz [...]

Posted in Books, Clark Gable, Friday Fashion, Hollywood, Joan Crawford, Men's Fashion, Rudolph Valentino | Also tagged Anderson & Sheppard, Anderson & Sheppard: A Style is Born, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Savile Row, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh | 6 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | January 12, 2012

Clark Gable: A Child… A Bull… No Filth

Tweet John Lee Mahin (1902-1984) was one of the greatest screenwriters. His credits include some of Hollywood’s most enduring classics: Scarface (1932), Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), China Seas (1935), Wife Versus Secretary (1936), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) with uncredited contributions to, among others, A Star is Born (1937), Test Pilot (1938), Gone [...]

Posted in Clark Gable, Hollywood | Also tagged Classic Hollywood, John Lee Mahin, MGM, Pat McGilligan, Screenwriting, Victor Fleming | 4 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 11, 2011

Not the Girl Next Door

Tweet A great deal has been written about the Hollywood glamour machine that flourished between the mid 1920′s and the late 30′s. But perhaps the most articulate—if somewhat caustic—meditation on Hollywood and glamour was made by Joan Crawford, a woman who worked harder at the business of stardom than most any other star of Hollywood’s [...]

Posted in Hollywood, The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood | Also tagged Joan Crawford | 7 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
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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.
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2012
video wmv [423MB]:

audio-only mp3 [15MB]: Ninth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2011
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audio-only mp3 [18MB]: Eighth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2010
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audio-only mp3 [80MB]: Seventh Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2009
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audio-only mp3 [64MB]: Sixth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

2008
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audio-only mp3 [70MB]: Fifth Annual Ariel Avrech Memorial Lecture

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