A half-century after his death, Martin Luther King, Jr. is as revered as ever. But have we been following his example, or merely paying lip service to his ideas? Jason Riley, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, weighs in.
Marriage
Blacks in Power Don’t Empower Blacks
Between 1970 and 2012, the number of black elected officials rose from fewer than 1,500 to more than 10,000. How has this affected the black community? Jason Riley of The Manhattan Institute answers the question in this video.
Gloria Grahame: Marriage Hollywood Style
Before Woody and Soon-Yi there was Gloria and Anthony.
In June 1948, the day after that she divorced her first husband, actress Gloria Grahame (1923 – 1981) wed director Nicholas Ray.
The marriage was troubled right from the start and ended when Ray walked in on Grahame while she was in bed with another man.
Actually, a boy.
He was 13-year-old Anthony Ray, Nick’s son from a previous marriage.
Hidden Hollywood: Colleen Moore’s Not So Romantic Wedding Night
Flaming Youth was a huge hit and propelled Colleen Moore (1899 – 1988) to international stardom.
Colleen was smart about her career, carefully choosing her roles and propelling herself to stardom. However, like so many young, inexperienced Hollywood actresses, she was not wise in her choice of men. Her notions of love were gauzy images based on idealized Hollywood narratives. The importance of shared values, religious belief, and common goals, rarely entered the calculus of love and marriage.
In 1923, Moore, 22, married John Emmett McCormick, 29, a clever but highly unstable studio executive who was obsessed with Moore’s image and career.
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Hidden Hollywood: Gloria Swanson’s Wedding Night
Between 1919 and 1921, Gloria Swanson starred in a series of wildly popular films for director Cecile B. De Mille in which the iconography of Hollywood glamour was formally codified. The titles of these films carry the whiff of scandal and decadence: Don’t Change Your Husband (1919), For Better, For Worse (1919), Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920). In truth, each of the DeMille-Swanson films were neat little morality tales where virtue and tradition triumphed.
The visual language of glamour was characterized by stunning women sheathed in one gorgeous outfit after another, placed within elegant sets that defy practicality in favor of a dream-like universe. In De Mille’s Swanson movies, the decadent bathrooms were prominently featured. The massive sunken tubs, marble walls and floors, made audiences gasp with disbelief and pleasure. The symbol of the roaring twenties, according to Hollywood, was a bathroom fit for a queen.
Swanson’s elaborate costumes often weighed close to her petite 90lb. frame. But Swanson soldiered on bearing her burden with nary a complaint. For the sake of authenticity, De Mille accessorized his leading lady in wildly expensive jewels that only added to the fearsome weight Swanson carried with such regal posture.
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