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”...
View ArticleEdith Head, who was born Oct. 28th, 1897, was married to Wiard Ihnen –...
Even Google got into the act today with Miss Edith’s birthday: They lived in a wonderful house called, Casa Ladera…
View ArticleVickie 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,...
View ArticleHollywood 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”:
View ArticleNoel 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...
View ArticleCar culture and the Los Angeles drive-in — where Deco meets Googie meets Camp
1949 – Van de Kamps Bakery and Drive-In: 1939 – Simon’s:
View ArticleBewitched, bothered, and bewildered…
As the millennium was about to turn a high rolling actor, after two chaste dates with someone very near and dear to my heart, invited her back East to meet his parents. You know, a girl takes an...
View ArticleA FAVORITE OF HOLLYWOOD’S – ROMANOFF’S
Ext. Romanoff’s: Int. Romanoff’s: The Zanuck’s celebrate Susan”s graduation from the Marlborough School with a dance at Romanoff’s. From left to right, Darryl, Susan, and Virginia Zanuck:
View ArticleCARY GRANT READS THE PAPER
1960, when everybody read the paper, but none so suave as Cary Grant:
View ArticleTHE BEATLES AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
The Beatles landing at LAX – they played the Hollywood Bowl in August of 1964 and 1965: . August 24, 1964 — the day after the Hollywood Bowl — at a Bel-Air rental:
View ArticleLIZ TAYLOR WINS FOR “BUTTEFIELD 8”
April 18th, 1961 Elizabeth Taylor arrives at the Academy Awards in a gown designed by Dior with her husband Eddie Fisher: Best Actor to Burt Lancaster for “Elmer Gantry, and Best Actress to Elizabeth...
View ArticleHOLLYWOOD HORSE RACES AT SANTA ANITA PARK
Filming at the track in 1935: The building was designed by Architect Gordon B. Kaufmann (who also designed the Los Angeles Times building) in a fluid Art Deco style – 1936: The entrance and the paddock...
View ArticleSTREAMLINE MODERNE IN LA
From the tips of your toes to the top of your head – elements of style from hats to escalators: –
View ArticleTO MARKET I GO IN HOLLYWOOD
Even the grocery stores were glamorous – designed by Morgan, Walls & Clements (also designed the Chapman Market) – this firm designed some of the most iconic buildings of early Hollywood (and I...
View ArticleThe Palm Beach Story
How does a young lady who hops aboard a train in New York City without her luggage and ticket end up serenaded by “The Ale and Quail” club? And, breakfast with a stranger dressed in a pajama top and...
View ArticleAN UNLIKELY PAIR – DAVID BOWIE AND ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Terry O’Neill Photography – from a session in 1975: . .
View ArticleONLY MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN
Here’s the historical context. That’s David Bowie, during a decade he reports to have forgotten, nabbed in Upstate New York on a coke charge. Talk about aplomb. He looks impossibly elegant under...
View ArticleVALENTINE’S DINNER AT THE CAFE TROCADERO
A romantic rendezvous on Sunset Blvd. . . Profiterolles glacees au chocolat aka cream puffs with chocolate sauce are actually pretty easy to make. If anyone wants the recipe let me know and I’ll post...
View ArticleARCHITECTURAL EYE CANDY LA – HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
I was running around town with my sweetheart and I snapped these photos with my ancient, but mighty, iPhone. This is a neighborhood at the southern edge of Korea Town, south of Wilshire Blvd. When I...
View ArticleSWING TIME AND THE INESTIMABLE: HERMES PAN
Hermes Pan choreographed everything from “Swing Time” in 1936 to Elizabeth Taylor’s “Cleopatra” (including the spectacle – dancers, warriors, witch doctor’s, elephants, and zebras – that was...
View ArticleCELEBRATING AT CIRO’S – 1952 – NANCY DAVIS, RONALD REAGAN, JEANNE AND DEAN...
February 23rd, 1952. Nancy Davis, and her soon to be husband, Ronald Reagan, at Ciro’s celebrating with Jeanne and Dean Martin. The menu: . .
View ArticleLOS ANGELES LIGHT
the view from my window – winter George Kaplan, a friend writes from somewhere in the British Isles: I was looking for somewhere to put this and well this piece seems not totally inappropriate because...
View ArticleTWISTING BY THE POOL – CONTINUED
As you might have gleaned by now, when there’s a story to tell about Hollywood, I’m inclined to change the names and mix it up a bit to protect the innocent. What follows is mostly true, except what’s...
View ArticleTWISTING BY THE POOL
As you might have gleaned by now, when there’s a story to tell about Hollywood, I’m inclined to change the names and mix it up a bit to protect the innocent. What follows is mostly true, except what’s...
View ArticleWHAT PR COOKED UP TO PROMOTE THE STARS – SOME THINGS INEDIBLE, SOME NOT
Really? Just reading through this makes me a bit queasy – and doesn’t Mary look stealthy, like she’s plotting our culinary doom? At least they had the sense not to claim Clara cooked… I’ve had this,...
View ArticleJULIUS SHULMAN AND RICHARD NEUTRA
Read about two of the greats at one of my favorite blogs: Glamourized House: Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House: An Annotated & Illustrated Bibliography | so-cal-arch-history.com.
View ArticleTHE 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.
View ArticleAVA 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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleSh…I’m sleeping…watch this little bit of The Palm Beach Story and I’ll see...
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...
View ArticleNorth 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...
View ArticleRKO
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…
View ArticleHollywood Fashion – 1950
Or, the ladies who lunch at Perino’s: The Beverly Hills Hotel: And, the Ambassador Hotel:
View ArticleWaiting 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..
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More Pages to Explore .....