Who are these broads?

Answers please. I'm thinking Joan and Carole in the middle?

Pretty Dames I Never Heard Of

I have five minutes to spare. Feeling like sharing. I have never heard of any of these women. But they're awfully pretty. The woman at the top is Lyda Roberti. *shrugs*


Mary Nolan


Jeanne Kent


Irene Manning


Lee Parry


Mary Brian


Phyllis Brooks


Wynne Gibson

Pick of the week

Starlet Showcase is rapidly becoming my favourite blog for its economy of opinion and quality of images. It was Parker who suggested I turn my bckgd black. I'm not convinced. Do let me know your opinion. Yeah, I know commenting is time consuming, but cough it up anyway, boys; you know I hang on your every word.

And here's a collection of entries from a blog I stumbled across while time-wasting (I hate myself). But tell me, is this a great idea or what? I was so disappointed when I found out it was a school project and not something I could put on my Amazon wish list.




Pickable stuff seems to have been a bit thin on the ground this past couple of weeks. Perhaps I've just been too busy to notice, too jaded to care, or perhaps everyone's been using up way too much space on Paul Newman's demise. Syrupy obituaries nauseate me. He was good. Now he's dead. Leave the grieving to his family. I prefer widespread, historical suffering. This is a far more fascinating article which Orlando drew my attention to. Much tougher reading than some gooey treatise on Newman's rich, successful and clearly rewarding life, and if he was half the man I think he was, Newman would be the first to point it out.

The Tiny Details of Film-Making

Parker's post inspired this one.

The studios spent a lot of time testing hairstyles for their new star Betty Bacall before they started filming To Have and Have Not.







Aren't you glad they decided to have her wear her hair down?













Dear God, if I could find a man to light my cigarette with that intensity, I'd take up smoking again. In fact, if I could find a man who'd make love to me with that kind of intensity, I'd take up sex again. When did we all get so bored?

Theda Bara (again)

"I have the face of a vampire, but the heart of a feminist." Theda Bara

You can read about her in this blog. It seemed pointless to repeat the info. I just wanted to show you the glossy pics.

I can only repeat that the journalist who recently wondered at her appeal must have been gorging himself on too much Kylie Minogue and other overly sugary treats.

For Pickfair

In exchange for that lovely story about Theda Bara being wicked because her name spells Death Arab backward (well almost), I'll share my pictures of Nazimova and Negri (and an extra Theda). There is so much to know! I'm still trying to fit Katharine Hepburn into my hectic schedule and she is just the tip of the iceberg. The days are too short!

Dinner at Eight

Last night I watched Dinner at Eight - a long film in its day, running at almost two hours.

I haven't seen it since I was in my twenties, and watching old movies again now, I'm always surprised how grown-up they are. I used to think they were anachronisms - pretend people living pretend lives, but the good ones really do resonate.

Dinner at Eight was particularly apposite because it was made shortly after the Wall Street Crash (it was released 1933, which must mean the script had been written closer to the Crash) and very much deals with the effect of the the financial collapse on business, who became the winners and who the losers in the clear-up afterwards. My favourite line came near the beginning when Lionel Barrymore is talking to Marie Dressler (who I want to be when grow old).



Marie plays a retired actress who has been living in Europe and who has returned to America to try and salvage her dwindling finances. Lionel sighs and points to the window: "those are your financiers, sitting out there on benches" (I paraphrase, but you get the idea. It reminded me of recent BBC footage of suited cityboys gathered disconsolately outside the pubs of London's Square Mile).



Of course Harlow was wonderful - I'm still trying to decide what makes her so sexy - I don't think she's beautiful and her figure isn't voluptuous like Munroe, but she has such a fleshy presence that even when she's sounding off like a fishwife or putting the final touches to her make-up you're always aware of her body.



Finally before I drone on, one note of irony: Billy Burke, who plays the wife of the shipping magnate whose business is sinking, only returned to Hollywood to make some money after her husband Florenz Ziegfeld lost everything in the Crash. Which makes the scene where she switches from silly socialite to loving-wife-on-an-economy-drive all the more poignant. I couldn't help feeling she'd been there and done that for real.