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BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

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“She can’t act. She can’t talk. She’s terrific. Sign her!” Louis B. Mayer

May 27, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Relationships, Story, Theater, Travel, Truth & Rumors • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Artie Shaw, Ava Gardner, beauty, candid, Frank Sinatra, Louis B. Mayer, man-eater, memoirs, MGM, MGM kids, Mickey Rooney, Peter Evans, She can't act, She can't talk, She's terrific, Sign her, signed with MGM in 1941, taped conversations, the secret conversations, unfinished memoirs

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“He’d photograph your soul if he could find enough light, honey.” Ava Gardner and Jack Cardiff

May 8, 2014 by Vickie Lester

I finally got around to reading Ava Gardner, The Secret Conversations, and one of the things that jumped out at me was the bond that develops between Stars and Cinematographers. Jack Cardiff (the extraordinary, he who painted with light) had this to say about his friend, Ava, when approached by her biographer, Peter Evans: “Don’t kid yourself, pal. If Ava Gardner wants you to write her book, you’ll write it.” And, “Nobody becomes a movie star by putting all their […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, London, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Relationships, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: actress, Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, Cinematographer, friendship, Hollywood, Jack Cardiff, Movie Star, painting with light, PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, Peter Bart, Peter Evans, Remember it's always the cameraman who grows old never the star., special relationship, Technicolor, The Barefoot Contessa, the world's most beautiful animal, trust, Variety

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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.” . I picked up a sweet #volume of short stories in the new year, continuing my #love affair with fictional Manhattan. . . . . . #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. . 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. . . . . . #trainstation #exploretocreate #artofvisuals #waiting #portrait #citylife #architecture #homewardbound #urban #dawn #interior #graphicdesign #art #lifeisbeautiful #journey #style #friends #everyonehasastory #itsinhiskissbyvickielester #amwriting another #hollywood #novel

Sometimes places look #enchanted — because they are. This town sends me. There’s a little free library in front of the police department, #design students everywhere you turn, early risers who stroll around the park, and #bookstores like @thebookladybookstore where you can browse and talk for hours — discovering #treasures. All that and I had a eureka moment working on my manuscript. Where am I @williee64 ? In #Savannah! Thank you @heybillkuhn for giving us a proper introduction 😘. . . . . . #bibliophile #books #amwriting #library #exploretocreate #historichome #federalarchitecture #architecture #december #hollywood #novel #author #southerncharm #style

It’s the #morning before #Thanksgiving in #Savannah and I found lady bountiful on my #walk to the market. It’s #bright and beautiful and last night on the #movie set they made it snow — glorious fluffy frosty stuff — which I can’t share pictures of, but I can share stories and a #recipe for a #delicious #dessert, link in the profile. . #goodmorning! . Am #onlocation with my #beloved #writing another #Hollywood #novel.

“Eloise, if you keep touching those rocks we’ll never get to the park...” So said an exasperated mom to an exploring toddler, exceptionally layered against the cold, as the wind cut down 72nd street. She was dressed for an expedition but this LA dame certainly wasn’t... However, I did get to bask in some #maxfieldparrish blue. #thankyou @kfullermendez . . . . . #centralpark #cityscape #exploretocreate #nyc #bluesky #pond #fredericklawolmsted #design #garden #urban #autumninnewyork #fallingleaves #water #artofvisuals #eastside #manhattan #citypark #westcoastmeetseastcoast #autumncolors

“I felt better knowing he was only a bus ride away, a straight shot down Fifth Avenue; and in the night when I woke up jarred and panicked, the explosion plunging through me all over again, sometimes I could lull myself back to sleep by thinking of his house, where without even realizing it you slipped away sometimes into 1850, a world of ticking clocks and creaking floorboards, copper pots and baskets of turnips and onions in the kitchen, candle flames leaning all to the left in the draft of an opened door and tall parlor windows billowing and swagged like ball gowns, cool quiet rooms where old things slept.” . And yes, I will be journeying east from #losangeles with a traveling companion that weighs a little more than my computer, but ever so much more engaging. . . . #bookstagram #bookquotes #bibliophile #reading #thegoldfinch #newyorkcity #novel #goodreads #literature #dickensian #shelfie #library #bookish #author #bookworm #painting #design #shadowandlight #artofvisuals #exploretocreate #october #autumnmood #flashofdelight #nothingisordinary #wordswilltakeyouthere

The wind knocked the power out in the dark of #MondayMorning and at first light I turned to coffee and #EdithWharton. “I read the other day in a book by a fashionable essayist that ghosts went out when electric light came in. What nonsense!” All Souls’ and After Holbein, short stories in the #spooky #Halloween #spirit. Ah, and what do you know, the whir of electricity and we’re back on the grid. . . . . . #shelfie #bookstagram #author #writersofinstagram #bookworm #bookshelf #bibliophile #library #ghosts #goodmorning #goodreads #october #autumn #pumpkin #painting #homedecor #artofvisuals #postitfortheaesthetic

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