THE NE PLUS ULTRA – RICHARD NEUTRA’S DESIGN IN THE DESERT – PHOTOGRAPHED BY JULIUS SHULMAN
↧
↧
THE KAUFMANN HOUSE – DESIGNED BY RICHARD NEUTRA – PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAVID GLOMB
Restored by: Marmol Radziner | Restoration.
And, there’s this beautiful book that’s like a vacation in itself… Palm Springs Living: Diane Dorrans Saeks, David Glomb: Amazon.com: Books.
↧
VEGAS
Barbara Stanwyck on the set of The Lady Gambles:
A couple of years ago I bumped into a cinematographer friend in Vegas. He asked me if I’d ever gambled before and I said “no” and he said “perfect” and led me over to the craps table and handed me a cup full of dice and said “just keep rolling”. So, I did. He made bets (I didn’t know how to play!) and put down chips and I kept rolling the dice. After about fifteen minutes a crowd started to gather around the table. After twenty-five minutes the pit boss arrived. I kept rolling. Hubbub, excitement, just me at the table rolling the dice. My friend kept placing bets. My glass of ginger ale, gripped in my friend’s hand, was dripping condensation down his cuff. After forty minutes I did something wrong, I still don’t know what it was… and our stay at the table was over. He cashed his chips while I was talking to my husband and when the cinematographer joined us at the bar he handed me five hundred dollars. I demurred. But, my husband told me it was customary to give lady luck a cut. Fabulous!
This is a recognizable crew playing craps at the Beverly Hilton in 1953. I think it was a benefit or charitable event -
↧
THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL – EVOLUTION
A natural amphitheater -
1923 – progress -
1925 -
1927 -
Rebuilt, again -
1928 -
Twilight at the bowl in the 1930s – note the more pronounced arch -
Distinctive – always -
↧
AVA GARDNER
From the marvelous short story, “A Toast to Ava Gardner”, by a friend of Miss Gardner’s, and author of, “I, Claudius”, Robert Graves:
“Questioned about the monstrous legendary self which towers above her, Ava told us that she does everything possible to get out from under, though the publicity-boys and the Press are always trying to clamp it even more tightly on her shoulders. Also, that she has never outgrown her early Hard-Shell Baptist conditioning on that North Carolina tobacco farm, with the eye of a wonderful father always on her; and still feels uncomfortably moral in most film-studios; it isn’t what she does that has created her sultry reputation, but what she says. Sometimes she just can’t control her tongue.”
At work:
.
Doing good work, on their way to London to perform at a benefit in December of 1951:
Recognized for her work:
“Our phone bills were astronomical, and when I found the letters Frank wrote me the other day, the total could fill a suitcase. Every single day during our relationship, no matter where in the world I was, I’d get a telegram from Frank saying he loved me and missed me. He was a man who was desperate for companionship and love. Can you wonder that he always had mine!” Ava Gardner
↧
↧
The man who set screwball comedy on its ear – Preston Sturges
The Seven Wonders of Preston Sturges
In just four years, 1940–44, Preston Sturges wrote and directed seven classics reflecting the America he loved and laughed at–a fast-talking, unpredictable melting pot that seems more real than the visions of Frank Capra or John Ford. Then his luck ran out.
By Douglas McGrath
Of all the stupid vanities in a business that specializes in stupid vanities, the possessory credit takes the cake. That credit is the one that appears at the top of a film saying, “A film by _______,” the blank then implausibly being filled by the name of a single person, the director.
Let’s not get into how many other people—starting with the writer and continuing in essential ways through the cast, cinematographer, editor, and composer—influence the quality of a film. (Try to imagine the original choice of Shirley Temple instead of Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz or Mae West rather than Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard to understand how dependent a film’s tone is on the contributions of all its elements.)
The possessory credit is silly for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is that it’s redundant: we’ll see whom the film is by when we get to the other credits. But if anyone deserves this credit, it would have to be someone who has created a world in which the speech and actions and people, in which the tone and tenor of events, are as obviously the creation of one artist as a passage of Twain’s is obviously a passage of Twain’s and not of Charlotte Brontë’s, as a Renoir is never confused with a Picasso.
It is safe to say that no one ever mistook a film by Preston Sturges for a film by anyone else. This is not something you can say of most directors, including many fine ones: George Cukor, William Wyler, John Huston. While one might expect that it was George Cukor who directed Roman Holiday instead of William Wyler, one could never imagine anyone but Sturges behind any of the manic yet buttery pictures that bear his name.
Though the events in his films often border on the unreal, ironically his world resembles ours more than most movies do, because the Sturges universe is so ungentrified. The characters in a Sturges film are slickers and hicks, frantic, contemplative, melancholy, literate, sub-intelligent, vain, self-doubting, sentimental, cynical, hushed, and shouting. A hallmark of most artists is the consistency of their world—one thinks of the delicacy in René Clair’s work, the droll, intoxicating understatement of Lubitsch, the painful clamor of Jerry Lewis. But the Sturges world seems the product of a multiple-personality disorder. (Sturges used to dictate his scripts aloud to a secretary as he wrote them, and when he did, he convincingly played all the parts.) I can think of no other artist who keeps the delicate and the explosive so close together.
This collision of tones perhaps took its cue from his life. He was born in Chicago at the end of the 19th century. His mother, Mary, divorced Preston’s father when Preston was not quite three and moved with her son to Paris. On her first day there she met the celebrated dancer Isadora Duncan. Though Sturges would at times resent his mother’s fast friendship with Duncan, he owed the Duncan family an enormous debt. Almost as soon as they arrived in Paris, Sturges, always susceptible to respiratory trouble, came down with a pneumonia that no doctor could tame. Isadora Duncan’s mother arrived with a bottle of champagne, from which she fed him lifesaving spoonfuls until he was restored. “Champagne and Pneumonia”—it could be the title of a Sturges movie. It also aptly calls up the conflicting elements at work in his films: the effervescent and the feverish.
via The Seven Wonders of Preston Sturges | Vanity Fair.
Preston Sturges, center, flanked left to right by Joel McCrea, Mary Astor, Claudette Colbert, and Rudy Vallée on the set of “The Palm Beach Story”.
↧
Sh…I’m sleeping…watch this little bit of The Palm Beach Story and I’ll see you soon
My darlings, I first posted this the day after the Academy Awards in February, and I’m trotting it out again because; a) it’s possibly my favorite movie of all time, and b) I’m still working with my editor on the manuscript… and I feel certain he would have something to say about that semi-colon I just typed in 
.
It’s the day after… And, if you’re reading this any time before noon Pacific Standard Time I’m probably burrowed under my blankets and flat out sound asleep. About a month ago I finally figured out how to put film clips up on the blog (look, I’m middle-aged so cut me some slack, and yes I know the kid could do it in about 15 seconds, but he’s busy at school), the point is this is sooooo much more entertaining than anything I could come up with – so have some fun and watch.
I’m not a shopper, and considering who raised me that must have come as quite a shock. My mother, the erstwhile retail ninja, also was responsible for sitting me down when I was young and screening “The Palm Beach Story” – still one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. If only shopping was like this… effortless, indulgent, adventurous, and full of surprises.
↧
EDITH HEAD – FASHION FOR THE STARS
From left to right – Model, Orry Kelly, Bernard Newman, Travis Banton, Edith Head, Adrian, and Irene.
With model showing evening gown, 1955:
Edith at bat 1957:
A fashion show from the “Think Pink” sequence at the premiere of “Funny Face” – model Ginni Adams with Edith Head:
Dressing Debbie Reynolds for a benefit, 1960:
Hosting a charity event at her home, Casa Ladera, 1967:
With Tony Curtis, Anne Baxter and Omar Shariff, 1967:
At the Costume Designers Ball with Greer Garson, 1969:
↧
Edith Head, who was born Oct. 28th, 1897, was married to Wiard Ihnen – Production Designer
Even Google got into the act today with Miss Edith’s birthday:
They lived in a wonderful house called, Casa Ladera…
↧
↧
Vickie Lester’s greatest hits — THE INESTIMABLE – PAUL NEWMAN
Here’s the deal, I only saw Mr. Newman on film sets and in elevators. He was about the same age as my dad, quite a bit younger than my uncle – so, as a kid I just categorized him as “old”. My dad, well, I don’t suppose there was a time he could be considered hip, my uncle… maybe a long time ago. However, Paul Newman, even to a child was the epitome of cool. And, beyond cool, he was NICE.
Obviously I never saw him in this incarnation, but I present Paul Newman, and the roots of hip:
.
↧
Jack Dawn – he brought us the Cowardly Lion
Jack Dawn was an extraordinary make-up artist at MGM who came up with pliable facial prosthetics that supplied us with the likes of the Cowardly Lion…
During WWII he volunteered to make temporary applications for disfigured soldiers to make them appear more normal in between reconstructive surgeries. To read his credits is an exercise in amazement; The Good Earth, The Wizard of Oz, Ninotchka, The Philadelphia Story, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Gaslight, Father of the Bride… And, that’s just a random sampling. Here he is applying make-up on actress Ruth Hussey:
Jack Dawn, head of the make-up department at MGM:
↧
North of Hollywood Blvd. where the swells lived, in the late 1920s…
About a block west from Gelson’s market on Franklin, across from the Bourgeois Pig cafe the Villa Carlotta is now painted… an interesting array of hues and surrounded by foliage. The apartment building was designed by Arthur E. Harvey and built in 1926 by Eleanor Ince (Thomas Ince’s widow) for an upscale Hollywood clientele. Former residents include famed director George Cukor and mogul/producer David O’Selznick.
↧
RKO
Famous for launching the careers of Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and the production of the Astaire-Rogers musicals… Oh, and a bunch of “B” movies…
Located at the corner of Gower and Melrose…
↧
↧
Hollywood Fashion – 1950
Or, the ladies who lunch at Perino’s:
The Beverly Hills Hotel:
And, the Ambassador Hotel:
↧
Waiting Tables in Hollywood
1920 – out in the fresh air:
1934 – at The Talk of the Town:
A carhop on roller skates, reminiscent of Vickie Lester, hat tip to SCENTS MEMORY | There is nothing like the smell of a man..
↧
Hollywood Kitchens
Kitchens – this one is from a Pasadena estate and was designed by Wallace Neff:
A cheerful California kitchen from 1938:
And here’s one you might recognize from “My Man Godfrey”:
↧
Noel Coward on Vulgar Curiosity, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons
… But during the last few years this has become increasingly difficult owing to the misguided encouragement of a new form of social parasite, the gossip columnist. This curious phenomenon has insinuated itself itself into the lifestream not only of Hollywood but the whole of America, and what began as a minor form of local, social and professional scandalmongering has now developed into a major espionage system the power of which, aided and abetted by radio, has reached fabulous proportions… This is not done, except on rare occasions, with any particularly malicious intent, but merely to gratify one of the least admirable qualities of human nature: vulgar curiosity. The accuracy of what is written, stated, listened to and believed is immaterial. The monster must be fed, and the professionally employed feeder of it is highly paid and acquires a position of power in the land which would be ridiculous were it not so ominous. In Hollywood, where this epidemic first began to sap the nations mental vitality, no large and few small small social gatherings can take place without one or several potential spies being present… Excerpt from “A Richer Dust” by Noel Coward
Imagine what he would have thought of social networking?
↧
↧
Sh…I’m sleeping…watch this little bit of The Palm Beach Story and I’ll see you soon
My darlings, I first posted this the day after the Academy Awards in February, and I’m trotting it out again because; a) it’s possibly my favorite movie of all time, and b) I’m still working with my editor on the manuscript… and I feel certain he would have something to say about that semi-colon I just typed in ;) .
It’s the day after… And, if you’re reading this any time before noon Pacific Standard Time I’m probably burrowed under my blankets and flat out sound asleep. About a month ago I finally figured out how to put film clips up on the blog (look, I’m middle-aged so cut me some slack, and yes I know the kid could do it in about 15 seconds, but he’s busy at school), the point is this is sooooo much more entertaining than anything I could come up with – so have some fun and watch.
I’m not a shopper, and considering who raised me that must have come as quite a shock. My mother, the erstwhile retail ninja, also was responsible for sitting me down when I was young and screening “The Palm Beach Story” – still one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. If only shopping was like this… effortless, indulgent, adventurous, and full of surprises.
↧
Car culture and the Los Angeles drive-in — where Deco meets Googie meets Camp
1949 – Van de Kamps Bakery and Drive-In:
1939 – Simon’s:
↧
“Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it.” Brigitte Bardot
↧
