Tag Archives: Movies

Inspiration Board: Everything Old is New Again

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What follows is a mad cyclone of some of the oddly delectable bits and bobs setting my head and heart on fire this early November, vintage-style.

Maude Abrantes by Amedeo Modigliani, 1907
US Suffrage Map, 1920
Leatrice Joy
Joe Strummer. Always Joe Strummer.
Kiki de Montparnasse by Gustaw Gwozdecki, 1920
Louise Brooks, 1930
Opel Catalog, 1904
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868
Zelda Fitzgerald, 1922
Mabel Normand, 1917
Cover of The Yellow Book by Aubrey Beardsley, 1894
William Butler Yeats, 1908
Solita Solano and Djuna Barnes in Paris, 1922. Look familiar?
Norma Talmadge on the cover of Photoplay, December 1929
Clyde Fitch’s Greatest Comedy, Girls

 

 

 

A Year in Books/Day 218: Max Factor’s Hollywood Glamour

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  • Title: Max Factor’s Hollywood Glamour
  • Author: Fred E. Basten (with Robert Salvatore & Paul A. Kaufman)
  • Year Published: 1995 (W. Quay Hays)
  • Year Purchased: 2003/2004
  • Source: Barnes & Noble clearance rack
  • About: Max Factor isn’t just a name on wands of mascara and tubes of lipstick found in the beauty aisle at your local grocery store. The Max Factor cosmetics line wasn’t invented and branded by impersonal, slick-suited admen in a glossy boardroom. He was a pioneer who not only shaped and defined the aesthetics of classic cinema (from glamour girls to tough guys and everything in between) but he brought make-up to the masses in a way that was, and is, distinctly modern. His genius for invention and marketing, as well as his humble beginnings in Central Europe, make his story a neat parallel to those of the movie moguls who were his contemporaries. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 214: Me

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  • Title: Me Stories of My Life
  • Author: Katharine Hepburn
  • Year Published: 1991 (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: Summer of 2010
  • Source: My momma
  • About: Dear Kate: You were such an iconoclast. I know, I know; what an over-used word. I’m not proud of trotting out something so stale, especially in reference to
    English: Photograph of the actress Katharine H...

    English: Photograph of the actress Katharine Hepburn in the 1932 play The Warrior’s Husband. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    someone as amazing as you were. Really, though, what choice do I have? What else is there? Rebel, nonpareil, maverick? Nonconformist, idol, icon? Legend, paragon, nonesuch? They’re all too pale, weak, humourless. You were too kick-ass to be so neatly boxed-in, anyway. Now let’s get to business. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Day 211: Leading Ladies

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  • Title: Leading Ladies
  • Author: Don Macpherson
  • Year Published: 1986/This edition: 1989 (Conran Octopus Limited/Crescent Books)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: It was a Christmas gift from my Aunt Lauree.
  • About: This is a coffee table book, not a scholarly work. The text is nice, but not genre-shattering; it’s the standard drill for this kind of product. The images are from The Kobal Collection, so the writing stands no chance of taking first place, anyway. The whole gang is here, from Theda Bara to Doris Day, Jean Harlow to Jean Seberg, Anna Magnani to Debra Winger, represented by an array of unusually stunning photographs. Since that is the dominant reason for buying a book like this, you’ll walk away happy.
  • Motivation: I’ve been fond of old movies since I was a child.
  • Times Read: Multiple
  • Random Excerpt/Page 22: “By the time she was twenty-five, Colleen Moore was earning a weekly salary of $12,500, a reflection of her value to a studio for whom she was a highly profitable jazz baby. With her bobbed hair, cheeky face and alert eyes, she resembles to modern eyes an uncanny combination of the better remembered Clara Bow and Louise Brooks. But in the 1920s, it was Moore who was the incarnation of the twenties flapper girl.”
  • Happiness Scale: 10++
    Publicity photo of Colleen Moore for Argentine...

    Publicity photo of Colleen Moore for Argentinean Magazine. (Printed in USA) (Photo credit: Wikipedia). Here, in her post-Flapper days.

     

A Year in Books/Day 208: Forgotten Films to Remember

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  • Title: Forgotten Films to Remember
  • Author: John Springer
  • Year Published: 1980 (The Citadel Press)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: Unknown
  • About: Some of the best classic movies aren’t, well, classic. At least not in the sense of having wide, lasting cultural impact. Maybe they were box office winners in their day, quiet sleepers or cheapie programmers, critically acclaimed or unappreciated gems; most have been long forgotten by the masses, embraced and beloved by fanatics alone. Hollywood studios churned out hundreds of films a year, so it is no wonder that, of those hardy survivors, few are truly iconic. If you want to learn more but are too cowed to wade through the classic film jungle alone and bewildered, Forgotten Films to Remember makes it easy. Covering the years 1928-1959 (with a quick overview of the 1960s and 1970s), John Springer devotes a paragraph each to dozens of remarkable movies that you really need to watch. In the process, a clear, workmanlike but interesting narrative of studio-era Hollywood emerges. The accompanying photographs are mostly from the author’s archive.
  • Motivation: I love old movies, especially obscure ones.
  • Times Read: 4 or 5
  • Random Excerpt/Page 18: “Howard Hawks made a strong movie out of Martin Flavin’s play, The Criminal Code, aided impressively by the performance of Walter Huston. He played a district attorney who becomes the warden of a prison, populated by men he has sent up. Constance Cummings and Phillips Holmes had the love interest such as it was and Boris Karloff skulked about as a squealer.”
  • Happiness Scale: 9

A Year in Books/Day 204: Audrey Hepburn An Elegant Spirit

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  • Title: Audrey Hepburn An Elegant Spirit
  • Author: Sean Hepburn Ferrer
  • Year Published: 2003 (Atria Books)
  • Year Purchased: 2003
  • Source: Barnes & Noble
  • About: Audrey Hepburn always seemed so decent. Not goody-goody, but all of those superlatives most of us wish we were (and only sometimes are): compassionate, patient, kind, loyal, curious, gracious, humorous, dignified and empathetic. Decency of character is not something I require of actors, writers, musicians or anyone else whose work I admire; in fact, many of the people I love-those whose talent pierces my core- are at least a bit morally scruffy. Continue reading →

A Year in Books/Days 199 and 200: MGM Posters/MGM When the Lion Roars

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DAY 199: MGM Posters The Golden Years

  • Title: MGM Posters The Golden Years
  • Text: Frank Miller
  • Year Published: 1994 (Turner Publishing, Inc.)
  • Year Purchased: 1990s
  • Source: I have no idea!
  • About: There’s nothing like an old movie poster. When art and commerce combine with history and nostalgia, the result is a visually stunning social commentary. In looking at the representative posters of five decades, changing attitudes and mores are as obvious as changing aesthetics. MGM was known for the luxuriousness of its productions, and the top talent of its employees. Although designed as throwaways, the posters that advertised its movies were no exception, and neither were their artists. My favourite era for this exciting medium is definitely the 1920s.The posters are stunning. At the risk of sounding like a crotchety hundred year old, it has been all downhill since then.
  • Motivation: Old movies are my friends. We’re tight. I’m pretty close with art, too. Continue reading →