Tony Curtis

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

January 11, 2019 by Robert J. Avrech 3 Comments

“I cannot tolerate fools — won’t have anything to do with them. I only want to associate with brilliant people.”
—Ida Lupino

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

August 21, 2015 by Robert J. Avrech 7 Comments

“The fact is I am terribly shy. Or maybe introverted is a better word. But introverted, shy, whatever, it stays with you whether you’re a star or not. I think people become actors and actresses to overcome just that. You can become so many people." —Rita Hayworth, — “The fact is I am terribly shy. Or maybe introverted is a better word. But introverted, shy, whatever, it stays with you whether you’re a star or not. I think people become actors and actresses to overcome just that. You can become so many people.”
—Rita Hayworth

Take #1: The Meaning of Leaning in Hollywood

October 2, 2014 by Robert J. Avrech 10 Comments

Jean Harlow relaxes on the set of Dinner at Eight. 1933 Costumes by Adrian, b. Adrian Adolph Greenburg. — Jean Harlow relaxes on the set of Dinner at Eight (1933). Costumes by Adrian, b. Adrian Adolph Greenburg.

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

So, when you see Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight, and marvel at the impeccable fit of the famous white silk gown, be aware that Harlow’s mobility was severely limited. In fact, just breathing was something of a chore.

These days, leaning boards are still in use, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Hollywood Stars and Their Cars: I Drive Therefore I Am Free

October 17, 2013 by Robert J. Avrech 37 Comments

The great director King Vidor (The Big Parade, The Crowd) behind the wheel of this unidentified car, 1920s. — The great director King Vidor (The Big Parade, The Crowd) behind the wheel of this nifty unidentified car.

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 passive cogs, at the mercy of by-the-book bureaucrats.

That’s why democrats/progressives/liberals/ (what are they calling themselves this week?) are obsessed with high-speed rail. The freedom of the road is repellent to big government fanatics. The ruling elite seek to regulate and control tobacco, food, calories, soda, education, light bulbs, toilets, health care, reproduction, cow flatulence, oxygen — every cell of your body.

In short: liberty is constricted by any and all means.

And all in the name of an amorphous, pre-adolescent concept: Fairness.

And you better believe that the chattering elite are the ones who get to define what’s fair and what’s unfair. Funny how that always works out in their favor.

Nazis just adored trains. And hey, the Italian fascists boasted that Mussolini made the trains run on time. Though Italian trains were about as effective and efficient as the Italian army. Which is to say: Not.

At a certain point, one must acknowledge the convergent philosophies of post-modern liberals and iron-fist fascists. 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 formal title of the Nazi party was “The National Socialist German Workers’ Party.”

Anyhoo.

Today, Hollywood celebrities make sure to be seen driving a Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, or any of the dopey but politically correct green cars. It is something of an open secret here among my Hollywood colleagues that the garage is fully stocked with BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, and for sure, a few Jags—for real driving.

But once upon a time Hollywood produced great stars who proudly posed with their autos, symbols of glamor, affluence, and freedom.

Terror in Toulouse: Not Casting Against Type

March 21, 2012 by Robert J. Avrech 13 Comments

The victims: Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two sons, Gavriel, 6, Aryeh, 3, and Miriam Monsonego, 7, daughter of the school's headmaster.

When this story first broke yesterday I assumed the killer was Muslim.

I know, this marks me as a bigot. More enlightened citizens figured the killer as Mormon or Catholic.

The really enlightened—American liberals—tagged the murderer as a member of the Tea Party.

An Israeli Zaka volunteer stands next to the bodies of Monday’s shootings in a morgue before their funeral in Jerusalem today. Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons Aryeh, 5, and Gavriel, 4, and seven-year-old Miriam Monsonego were gunned down.

And geopolitical sophisticates will, no doubt, cast this as a Mossad operation carried out in order to make Muslims look bad.

INTERPOLATION: In Hollywood, when casting a film we look for certain types and we cast actors whose personae fit that type. But sometimes we cast against type. We do this to confound audience expectations and bring a whole new dimension to the movie One of the best examples of casting against type was when Tony Curtis, the amiable boy next door, was cast as the Boston Strangler in the 1968 movie. His performance was chilling and brilliant.

Well, in France they’re not casting against type.

It’s shocking, just shocking, but the confessed butcher of Toulouse is named Mohammed, a Muslim multi-tasker with the standard grievances—Jews, Israel, Jews, Israel, blah, blah, blah—who shoots Jewish children at point blank range while simultaneously filming the act.