Tag: celebrities

February 18, 2015 /

When Oscar went from gold to plaster – 1943

Readers inquired about the scaled down ceremony, I thought I’d supply the visual, and yes – these statuettes were plaster: From left to right, Van Heflin, Greer Garson, James Cagney, and Theresa Wright.

February 16, 2015 /

“I found that the best way to handle filmmakers was to hang medals all over them. If I got them cups and awards they’d kill themselves to produce what I wanted. That’s why the Academy Award was created.” Louis B. Mayer

This week a series of posts about the Academy Awards, but I thought we’d start at the inception, the organizing banquet at the Biltmore on May 11th, 1927.

January 24, 2015 /

Veronica Lake as Peter Pan

Veronica Lake took Peter Pan on the road in 1950, starring in productions across the country, “If I had stayed in Hollywood I would have ended up like Alan Ladd and Gail Russell – dead and buried by now. That rat race killed them and I knew it would kill…

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January 24, 2015 /

Jean Arthur as Peter Pan

At the age of 49 in 1950 Jean Arthur starred on Broadway in the role of Peter Pan with Boris Karloff playing Captain Hook. In later life Miss Arthur taught at Vassar, one of her students was Meryl Streep. “I guess I became an actress because I didn’t want to…

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January 24, 2015 /

1928 — Eva Le Gallienne as Peter Pan

She played Peter Pan on Broadway in 1928… As head of the Civic Repertory Theatre, she is known to have rejected the admission of Bette Davis, whose attitude she described as “insincere” and “frivolous”. via Eva Le Gallienne – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
November 14, 2014 /

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: . . .
November 3, 2014 /

Marlene Dietrich, Josef von Sternberg and the inside skinny on a Hollywood divorce

October 17, 2014 /

Patti Smith on fame

“I didn’t have time to read, I wasn’t studying, wasn’t writing. I was basically promoting, going to radio stations, performing, battling bronchitis because there was so much smoke in venues. I thought, I see a lot of potential fame and fortune, but I don’t see a lot of human evolution.…

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October 17, 2014 /

Portrait by Horst – Loretta Young NY 1941

As a typical example of wartime escapism, the Rita Hayworth film Cover Girl (1944) provided Horst with the opportunity to produce one of his most sumptuous film-star covers in a montage of seven different portraits of the cover girl Susann Shaw set against a silk design. His picture of Loretta…

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October 6, 2014 /

What’s with the antlers?