Hollywood History

Friday Fashion: Being Gable

June 22, 2012 by Robert J. Avrech 14 Comments

automotivator(101) — Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in “China Seas,” (1935).

It’s often been said that every man wants to look like Cary Grant, while every man wants to be Clark Gable.

A few months ago Seraphic Secret was screening one of our favorite Gable-Harlow movies, China Seas, (1935) the story of a brassy dame, a gruff sea captain and piracy on the high seas.

For a good portion of the movie, Gable wears a distinctive jacket with roomy, gusseted pockets, bi-swing shoulders, and a half-belted back. During the 30’s this style of jacket was common. It has a wonderful chin-up military feel.

In vain, Seraphic Secret searched for such a jacket, but, alas, could not find one.

After a great deal of research we hired Enzo Caruso of Santa Monica, a talented, old-school tailor—Enzo doesn’t even use email—to make this jacket for yours truly.

Here’s my Gable inspired jacket, hand-tailored by the great Caruso.

Yom Kippur with Issur Danielovitch AKA Kirk Douglas

October 7, 2011 by Robert J. Avrech 11 Comments

Annex - Douglas, Kirk (Spartacus)_02 — Spartacus, 1960, Kirk Douglas as the leader of a slave revolt against the Roman empire.

…In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work … For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD.

—Leviticus 16:29-30

Raised in a traditional kosher home, Kirk Douglas (1916 – ) b. Issur Danielovitch, recalls his impoverished childhood, yet warmly remembers preparations for Shabbat: his beloved mother Bryna cooking traditional Jewish food, baking challah, Shabbat bread, and kindling the Shabbat candles.

Nevertheless, like so many Jews of his generation, Douglas was deeply conflicted about Judaism.

More than anything young Issur yearned to be a real American, and, like so many Jews of his generation, that meant rejecting Torah Judaism in favor of an all-consuming secular humanity. In fact, when Douglas first came to Hollywood he claimed to be half-Jewish. But as he matured as an actor and gained wisdom as a man Kirk Douglas reevaluated his relationship with Judaism.

In his compulsively readable memoir, The Ragman’s Son, Douglas reveals his sense of awe during Yom Kippur.

Hollywood: I Drive Therefore I am… Free

July 28, 2011 by Robert J. Avrech 22 Comments

marilynlincoln — Here's a perfect illustration of the iconography of freedom. Marilyn Monroe displays a picture of Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator, in a sleek convertible with the open road beckoning.

As noted in my last post about Hollywood stars and their cars, automobiles represent freedom. You climb into a car and go whenever and wherever you want.

The car is modern man’s most potent path and symbol of liberty.

Contrast cars with trains.

Trains and subways are an expression of the collective. Individual identity is erased. You are at the mercy of a state run system that turns the citizen into a small cog manipulated by unmotivated, inefficient government bureaucrats.

That’s why Progressives-Liberals-Leftists are obsessed with high-speeed rail. The freedom of the road is repellent to statists who want to regulate/control diet, education, light bulbs, health care, your very geography.

Need I mention that Nazis just adored trains AKA cattle cars. And hey, the Italians boasted that Mussolini made the trains run on time.

At a certain point, one must acknowledge the convergence of philosophy between post-modern liberalism and iron-fist facism. Both ideologies assert the power of the state as the final arbiter of human affairs. Hence, the government replaces G-d and family as the center of man’s universe. It’s no surprise that the Nazi party’s formal title was The National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

Anyhoo.

Hollywood produced great stars who proudly posed with their autos, symbols of glamour, affluence, and freedom.