The Elizabeth Taylor Salad at the MGM Commissary
Now then, if you were working at MGM in the late 1950s or early 1960s this is what was on the menu — wait, we’ll start with an aerial view of the studio:
Okay, now the menu:
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instagram: toobeguiling, behind the scenes
“Lily harbored a den of coyotes in her back yard. They went about their nocturnal haunts stealthy-like, unless they were circling to prey and then they raised all hell. Yelps and howls, high-pitched and stunningly shrill, vibrated in the dark. In echoing canyons or flat streets stretching to meet the hilly wilderness, Los Angelinos — both dreaming and about to be eaten — startled into heightened perception.”
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Want to hear the beginning of a story? Let me read to you, link in the profile.
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#goodmorning #audio #losangeles #noir #goodreads #historichomes #amreading #amwriting #writer #storytime #bookworm #bibliophile #december #mood #explore #create #blackandwhitephotography #portrait #interiordesign #elegance #booklover #creative #antique
Do nondisclosure agreements apply to #fiction? I don’t think so... Link in the profile.
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“I had become a suit, and I vowed to myself, if not anyone else, I would never forget movies were made on cavernous stages and dusty streets all over the world; not in the corporate tower where my old boss had held sway.
What of my old boss? The guitar-strumming scion of the old Hollywood family had decamped the area for the trout streams of Montana... I do get distracted sometimes. Please forgive me. What was it I meant to say? Oh, yes. I remember. In Hollywood employees are contractually obligated not to squeal on social media about the internal workings of the dream factory.”
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#romanĂ clef, #hollywood, #studio, #behindthescenes, #amwriting, #writer, #novel, #explore, #reading, #visualsoflife, #agameoftones, #bookquotes, #wordsmith, #reflection #postitfortheaesthetic
Night falls on the red roofs of California. Sweet dreams.
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#historic #historichome, #historichouse #historicpreservation #oldhomelove #architecture #architecturelovers #exteriordesign #architecturaldetail #style #design #nightphotography #lightandshadow #nightsky #uplighting #nightscape #garden #curbappeal #losangeles #houseportrait #captivatinghouses #romantichome #californiadreaming #goodnight
What am I hiding? A spider bite! Do I hide much in the pages of my new Hollywood novel? Nothing you won’t have fun trying to figure out...
“Late in the summer following my sophomore year, I was living in the Beverly Hills home of a blonde former figure skater. She had met Mr. Major Movie Star on a commercial promoting California cheese...arguably a metaphor for something.”
There are more pages up on the blog today, link in the profile.
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#portrait #author #authorlife #blackandwhitephotography #bookaddiction #bookstagram #bibliophile #booklover #behindthescenes #hollywood #moviemagic #lovereading #bookworm #bookish #lovereading #excerpt #amwriting #readers #lovetowrite #californiadreaming
See what’s unfurling on the blog, it might be a new #Hollywood novel...
“Life never is a simple linear narrative; it’s too messy and senseless. On the other hand a memoir, no, make that a novel (a much less contentious prospect) is an attempt to resolve the random acts of a life and give them meaning — put them into some sort of context. Whether this reads as simply an insider chronicle of a life lived in Hollywood or another of those cautionary tales about the same, I’ll leave to you, gentle reader, my unknown confidant.”
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#bookaddiction #bookstagram #bibliophile #author #booklover #mustread #petals #rose #behindthescenes #moviemagic #lovereading #bookworm #bookish #ilovereading #amwriting #readers
It’s a good night when @kfullermendez calls me from the east to herald a moonrise over the west. #goodnight #supermoon #sweetdreams @heybillkuhn @antiquegoddess
“These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationary store, and when almost everybody wore a hat. Here is the last of that generation of chain smokers who woke the world in the morning with their coughing, who used to get stoned at cocktail parties and perform obsolete dance steps like “the Cleveland Chicken,” sail for Europe on ships, who were truly nostalgic for love and happiness, and whose gods were as ancient as yours and mine, whoever you are.”
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I picked up a sweet #volume of short stories in the new year, continuing my #love affair with fictional Manhattan.
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#stories #manhattan #nyc #johncheever #bookbliss #bibliophile #exploretocreate #empirestatebuilding #architecture #streetscape #citylife #literature #author #writer #bookstagram #bookstoread #cityscape #skyscraper #bluesky #writerslife #thestoriesofjohncheever
Traveling SW I promised @heybillkuhn I’d take pictures... Over breakfast in the dining car I learned how to bet the horses. Sharing a meal with people I’ve never met is now one of my favorite things to do.
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So relaxing watching the country roll by, thinking about what to make for Christmas dinner back home. #Pavlova? #ChocolateMousse? For recipes check out the link in the profile.
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#trainstation #exploretocreate #artofvisuals #waiting #portrait #citylife #architecture #homewardbound #urban #dawn #interior #graphicdesign #art #lifeisbeautiful #journey #style #friends #everyonehasastory #itsinhiskissbyvickielester #amwriting another #hollywood #novel
Look at all those stars! More stars than there are in the heavens! And film Composer Johnny Green got a salad too! I noticed that they sure liked to Julienne a lot of things on the menu…what is Julienne anyway?
Julienne is a chop that looks like a little baton. xox, V
Someone in my family ran the commissary at MGM or some studio in Culver City; do you know of an archive, data base, etc devoted to the studios of the 40’s, 50’s? I don’t know if it was my great grandfather Harry Morey (not to be confused with the actor Harry T Morey) or my grandmother’s brother in law Laurence Beatley, but I would sure like to find out…..Love the menu post!
Hello! MGM was the biggest studio in Culver City, it’s now Sony and they maintain an extensive archive, I bet they’d have a record of whether it was Morey or Beatley running the commissary. I’d start here: http://www.sonypicturesmuseum.com/studio/timeline and click on the contact at the bottom right of the page. 🙂
Thank you!
Wow, that’s one hell of a menu.
What a fun find!
*sigh* I must admit, I do enjoy a good menu cover. It helps make that often-sepia-toned bygone world that much more real. But an MGM menu??? Are you kidding me??? In my world, this is hitting-pay-dirt time! Thanks for sharing this one!