In the mid-eighties up through the early nineties do you remember watching movies and wondering why it looked like the set was on fire? It was as if a huge miasma had rolled into the sound stages and diffused the hell out of everything. I don’t know why but cinematographers…
Category: Photography
Myron Hunt, one of the early influential architects of Southern California. Here he is standing outside the beautiful Pasadena Library: Here’s the library he designed: – He also designed the Ambassador Hotel…
This is another “Model Mother” posing with her child at the Ambassador Hotel pool. Photograph by Ralph Morris: At noon finish chapter 3, Back to Black, of YOU DON’T OWN ME…
This is a “Model Mother” arriving at work for the Blue Book Modeling Agency at the Ambassador Hotel in 1945: Take a look at the hatbox the child is carrying. It says, Blue Book Models Hollywood…
In 1945 the Blue Book Modeling Agency was run by a woman named Emmeline Snively and located at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Blvd. Marilyn Monroe was their most famous model.
Alla Nazimova was a silent screen star who lived large in Hollywood. One day in film class we were threading up the projector to screen Garbo’s CAMILLE – when what we saw was this: Fascinating screen vamp Nazimova beguiling Rudolph Valentino. When the roles dried up Nazimova turned her home,…
Okay, I’ll probably have to spend a couple of weeks in purgatory for this one — but, Cecil B. was… somewhat grandiose and cantankerous… especially with Edith Head. This is an early effort by Miss Head done while assisting costume designer, Travis Banton. The marshmallow dress from THE GOLDEN BED:…
Later today I’m posting information about a wonderful production, “A Conversation with Edith Head” that will be at the Pasadena Playhouse November 8th – December 1st… But, first I’d like you to see some theatrical wardrobe design and construction from 1928 – just a few years after Edith Head started…