Tag Archives: Marilyn Monroe

By Robert J. Avrech | March 6, 2014

Hollywood: I Drive Therefore I am Free

Tweet The automobile represents freedom. You climb into a car and go, go, go, whenever and wherever you want. The car is modern man’s path to liberty. Contrast cars with trains. Railroads are an expression of the collective. Individual identity is erased. You are at the mercy of a government-controlled system that turns citizens into […]

Posted in Friday Fotos, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography, Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Photography, Shirley Temple, Stars and Cars | Also tagged Baby LeRoy, Cars, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Lillian Harvey, Marlene Dietrich, Neil Hamilton, Pearl White, Rolls Royce, Seraphic Secret Baseball Cap, Shirley Temple | 17 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 14, 2014

Classic Hollywood Passport Photos

Tweet If you want to torture yourself, take a look at your passport. Chances are you look pretty awful. With flat lighting, a grim full frontal pose, and that look of bafflement, your photo probably looks like a mug shot. Are glamorous Hollywood stars just like us when they submit to the artless lens of […]

Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Hollywood Still Photography | Also tagged Anna May Wong, Beauty, Glamour, Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, Louise Brooks, Passport Photos of the Stars | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | October 25, 2013

Hollywood Hair: Leda Styled By Leonardo da Vinci

Tweet Years ago, on Shabbos evenings, when our children were little, I would frequently grab an art book, sit in my chair, and one of the kids would climb into my lap. We’d turn the pages, look at the pictures, and make up stories about the figures in the paintings. Ariel, Z’TL, was intrigued by […]

Posted in Art, Ava Gardner, Hollywood, Jean Harlow, Leonardo da Vinci | Also tagged Botticelli, Claudette Colbert, Grace Kelly, Greek Mythology, Hairdresser, Helen of Troy, Jan Steen, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Leda, Leda and the Swan, Louise Brooks, Lucille Ball, Norma Shearer, Peter de Hooch, Polydeuces, Raphael, Rembrandt, Sydney Guilaroff, Titian, Vermeer, Vivien Leigh, Zeus | 6 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 2, 2013

Hollywood on Hollywood

Tweet Labor Day affords us the opportunity to reflect on work, our jobs, present and past. Good jobs, bad jobs, we’ve all had our share of both. Work should set you free. Honest labor puts money in your pocket which allows you to spend that money as you see fit. Ideally, work infuses the individual […]

Posted in Hollywood, Hollywood Stars, Labor Day, Obama Watch, Quotes, Torah | Also tagged Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Quinn, Barbra Streisand, Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Hollywood Gossip, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Judy garland, Kirk Douglas, Lawrence Olivier, Louise Brooks, Mae Clarke, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, Shirley MacLaine, Steve McQ, W.C. Fields, Walter Matthau, William Holden | 18 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | August 8, 2013

Mamie Van Doren: Armed and Dangerous

Tweet “What’re you watching?” Karen steps into the living room, glances at the TV, and tries to figure out what movie is playing on TCM. Usually, I’m watching a 30s screwball comedy, or a silent film from the 20s. But this film is from the 50s. Not my favorite decade. The lighting is dead flat, […]

Posted in Hollywood, Mamie Van Doren | Also tagged Clark Gable, Girls Town, Jayne Mansfield, Playing the Field, Sex Kittens Go to College, Teacher's Pet, Tuesday Weld | 11 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 11, 2013

Hollywood: Cheek to Cheek

Tweet Commenting on yesterday’s Cheek to Cheek post, a faithful Seraphic Secret reader privately wrote that the lovely pictures saddened her. “Romance is gone,” she mused. “There are no contemporary Hollywood stars who can be photographed with such loving conviction.” Very true. Ever since movie stars first sat down with Johnny Carson and revealed themselves […]

Posted in Hollywood Cheek to Cheek | Also tagged Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, John Barrymore, Laurence Olivier, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy | 13 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 4, 2013

July 4th Classic Hollywood Style

Tweet A long time ago, in a universe far, far away, in a place called Hollywood, the engines of entertainment genius that were the movie studios, and the actors who were under contract to them, celebrated their love of America, and enthusiastically indulged in overt displays of patriotism. L.B. Mayer (b. Lazar Meir) of MGM, […]

Posted in Hollywood, July 4th | Also tagged Ava Gardner, Declaration Day, Independence Day, Jewish Hollywood, Joan Crawford, kaddish, L.B. Mayer, Leila Hyams, Madge Evans, Pale of Settlement, Patriotism, Phil Berg, Rabbi Shmuel Avrech, Sidney Kingsley, Timothy Oulton American Bed, yahrtzeit | 13 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | May 9, 2013

Hollywood Stars and Cars: I Drive Therefore I Am

Tweet 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. […]

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

By Robert J. Avrech | December 31, 2012

Old Hollywood, New Year

Tweet Seraphic Secret works hard to favor the glass half-full view of life. When bad stuff happens, which it does all the time, we try not to plunge into a clinical depression. But let’s face it, 2012 was a difficult year for Conservatives — and for America. Obamacare has become the law of the land, […]

Posted in Hollywood, New Years | Also tagged Barbara Kent, Bette Davis, Debbie Reynolds, Myrna Loy, Rita Hayworth, Sari Maritza, Shirley Temple | 17 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | December 28, 2012

Friday Photos: Whatever

Tweet No theme today. Just a random collection of fun photos. Enjoy!

Posted in Friday Fotos, Photography, Family, Girls Love Footwear, Photography, Los Angeles, Pico-Robertson | Also tagged Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, Lielle Meital, Mildred Davis | 13 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | September 28, 2012

Friday Flickers: My Life As A Mankiewicz

Tweet The son of famed writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewics, (All Abut Eve, A Letter to Three Wives, Guys and Dolls, Cleopatra) and the nephew of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman Mankiewics, Tom Mankiewics (1942-2010) was Hollywood royalty. Humphrey Bogart gave Tom his first drink. He dined with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and spent an evening […]

Posted in Hollywood, Screenwriting, Tom Mankiewicz | Also tagged All About Eve, Hollywood Memoir | 12 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 4, 2012

July 4 In Hollywood

Tweet The photos seem to be from another planet, or at least a parrallel universe. It was not so long ago that Hollywood was institutionally patriotic. Studio photos always included an Independence Day shot, frequently an innocent piece of cheesecake. Because what’s more American than igniting fireworks while wearing a bathing suit. L.B. Mayer of […]

Posted in Ava Gardner, Hollywood, Joan Crawford, July 4th, L.B. Mayer, Rita Hayworth | Also tagged Ava Gardner, Betty Boop, Joan Crawford, Liberty Bell, Madge Evans, Marian Marsh, Marion Shilling, MGM, Rita Hayworth | 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, Hollywood Glamour, Mae Clarke, Margaret Sullavan, Margaret Sullivan, Pola Negri, Stars and their pets | 8 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | March 29, 2012

Passover Wine According to Alice ‘Naked Wine’ Feiring

Tweet Passover is almost here. We’re scrubbing our houses, changing dishes and silverware, purchasing tons of kosher for Passover food, shopping for new clothing, and many are wondering which wines to buy for the Passover seders in which we are commanded to drink four cups of wine. Medical Interpolation: Seraphic Secret does not drink wine, […]

Posted in Passover, Wine | Also tagged Alice Feiring, Benyamin Cantz, Four Gates, Jean Harlow, Kosher Wine, Naked Wine, Passover wine, The Battle for Wine and Love, Wallace Ford, William Powell, wine critics | 15 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 17, 2012

Friday Fashion: The Past Is The Present

Tweet Seraphic Secret likes to check out the latest fashions, scouting for beautiful but modest clothing. We don’t believe that women have to reveal acres of flesh in order to appear and feel attractive. In fact, the opposite. The more chaste the surface, the more mystery and depth. This season, it’s kind of obvious […]

Posted in Friday Fashion | Also tagged Anna May Wong, Calvin Klein, Douglas Hannant, Downton Abbey, Eva Marie Saint, Fall 2012 RTW, Hebrew Tattoos, Hollywood Influence on Fashion, Jason Wu, Jean Harlow, Kim Novak, Lyn Devon, Marlene Dietrich, Milly, Modest Fashion, Orry-Kelly, Ralph Lauren, Suzanne Pleshette, Tippi Hedrin, Victoria Beckham | 15 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | February 3, 2012

Friday Fotos: Hollywood Stars and Their Cars

Tweet 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 didn’t […]

Posted in Friday Fotos, Hollywood, Stars and Cars | Also tagged Abraham Lincoln, Cadillac, Clark Gable, Deusenberg, Friday Fotos, Hollywood on Wheels, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Packard, Pierce Arrow, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Stepin Fetchit, Tyrone Power | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 28, 2011

Hollywood: I Drive Therefore I am… Free

Tweet 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 […]

Posted in Hollywood | Also tagged Classic Autos, Errol Flynn, Hollywood History, Jimmy Stewart, Liberal Facism, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Robert Montgomery | 22 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | July 15, 2011

In Search of Hollywood’s Sole

Tweet Hollywood glamour is most often, and correctly, associated with picture perfect faces, figures, magical charisma, and the stunning costumes worn by stars of the silver screen during Hollywood’s Golden Age. But then, as now, footwear was a vital component of the machinery of glamour.

Posted in Friday Footwear, Hollywood | Also tagged Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Classic Hollywood, Glamour, Marlene Dietrich, Mary Pickford, Paulette Goddard, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tony Curtis | 7 Responses

By Robert J. Avrech | June 17, 2011

Hollywood For Sale

Tweet Tweet Debbie Reynolds The Auction tomorrow, June 18, 2011, is your chance to own a slice of Hollywood history. Hollywood’s Golden Age is over. The great stars exist only as silvery shadows on the screen. But some of the most important movie costumes and props, collected and preserved by actress Debbie Reynolds, […]

Posted in Debbie Reynolds | Also tagged Auction, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Charlie Chaplin, Classic Movies, Costume Design, Elizabeth Taylor, Hollywood, Walter Plunkett | 11 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.
Search Seraphic Secret
Annual Ariel Avrech
Memorial Lectures
Young Israel of Century City

Tenth: June 9, 2013
David Horowitz: "The War Against Judaism on the University Campus." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 16MB)

Ninth: June 3, 2012
Joel B. Pollak: "The Mainstream Media's Betrayal of Israel." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 15MB)

Eighth: June 5, 2011
Yossi Klein Halevi: "What is Expected of a Survivor People: Lessons My Father Taught Me." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 18MB)

Seventh: June 13, 2010
Dennis Prager: "Happiness is a Mitzvah, Not an Emotion." Blog Post | Audio (mp3 80MB)

Sixth: June 21, 2009
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky: "Conformity in Jewish Life: Vice, Virtue or Affectation?" Blog Post | Audio (mp3 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 (mp3 70MB)
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