Guess Who?

Many years ago, not long after the MGM Grand Hotel opened in Las Vegas, someone, a most wonderful someone, found a box of old snapshots in the hotel's gift store. (The same someone that made sure I got Esther's photo's). It was stuffed with old black & white wardrobe test shots and she decided to buy me some. They weren't cheap and she wasn't rolling in dough at the time, but put together a nice selection of photos....a great gift! Some of the subjects we knew right off, others not so. (This was long before the internet). Since then, only a few were never "named". I'm gonna throw some of these up...without labeling them. Many will be easy to identify, others, maybe not.


Here's a hint....guy on the right? He's a singer.









ANY IDEAS?

JANUARY 30

1649 King Charles I beheaded

1836 Betsy Ross dies

1915 John Profumo

1925 Dorothy Malone

1926 Barbara LaMarr dies

1928 Harold Prince

1933 Hitler sworn in as Chancellor of Germany

1934 Tammy Grimes

1937 Vanessa Redgrave

1969 The Beatles last public performance

1971 Carole King's Tapestry released

1999 Huntz Hall dies

Is YOUR Beauty Operator covered?

Think about THIS

the next time

you get your

roots touched up.

Edie in the library.

Isn't Mrs. Goetz stunning in her library? Wanna borrow a book? Yah, sure. Get a load of the Van Gogh? It's called "Study by Candlelight." When purchased in 1948 for $50,000, Bill Goetz insured it for $200,00. Turns out, Van Gogh's nephew, a dutch engineer deemed this a fake....Edie & Bill must've shit bricks. Louis was probably on the phone to Harry, ordering him to drop another bomb, this time on Holland. A letter, written by Vincent himself did surface in 1954, authenticating the painting, but the haze of doubt never cleared since it was not sold in the big Goetz auction after Edie died in 1987. As a writer said of this tempest (in 1954) "The authenticity of a painting is like a lady's virtue-once questioned, it is never quite the same." Amen sister.

Happy Birthday Handsome!

JANUARY 26

1918 President Hoover calls for "meatless and wheatless" days for the war effort.
1939 Principal photography begins for Gone With The Wind.
1945 Soviet forces arrive at Auschwitz.
1963 Milk & Honey closes at the Martin Beck Theatre after 543 performances.
1971 Charles Manson convicted of murder.
1979 The Dukes of Hazzard premieres on CBS.
1998 "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
2006 Western Union ends telegram service.


Best Personal Critique......Ever.

Knee Socks?

Could they come back?

Cock Socks?

Could they come in 'em?

Ann Sothern....................January 22, 1909

“Sometimes I’ll watch an old movie on television and, once in a while, one of mine, such as April Showers, will come on and I’ll watch it. And you know something? I’m always amazed at what a lousy actress I was. I guess in the old days we just got by on glamour.”

and what ever happened to Tisha?

swiped from We Had Faces Then

Mae Murray

Miss Bee-Stung Lips was quite the silent screen star. Beginning on Broadway with Vernon Castle, she then hooked up with the Ziegfeld Follies and became a headliner in 1915. By 1919 she was a big deal, starring with Valentino in The Delicious Little Devil. Mae's peak, in the mid 20s, came soon after Metro, Goldwyn & Louis joined forces, starring her in The Merry Widow. Like many of her other pictures, Mae's dancing was what helped Widow become the box-office hit it was. (Joan Crawford & Clark Gable were extras in that film.). By the early Thirties [her stab at the talkies having proven fatal] she was a has-been. The 1940s found her trapped in the nostalgia circuit, playing Billy Roses's Diamond Horseshoe and performing her once famous Merry Widow Waltz. Like others before him, Rose found Mae horrid to work with and fired her. Ultimately, she was found homeless in 1964, wandering the streets of St.Louis and ended her days at the Motion Picture House, founded by the Motion Picture & Television Fund of which she had been an early board member.

The ever delightful Miss Murray

was quoted as saying, "You don't

have to keep making movies to

be a star. Once you're a star,

you're always a star!"

Maybe that's exactly what she's

screaming, but was anybody

listening?

The 2009 Mitten Drinnen Holiday Party!

Unfortunately, there was no centerpiece to win at this table, so the ladies were slightly annoyed.

ELEGANZA! Brockton, Massachusetts

The Girls

Edie and Irene Mayer, sisters....rivals actually, and the daughters of Mr. Louis B. lived a life few others have. Ever since I read Irene's memoir, "A Private View", I was hooked. Finding information about these women has never been easy. Though Irene seemed generous [in regards to her recollections], reading that book, I knew there had to be another book, one she wouldn't write. A.Scott Berg in his book, "Kate Remembered" wrote about Irene, as she and Katharine Hepburn had been close for many years. As far as he is concerned, Irene, the ultimate control freak, willed herself to die....and succeeded.

As to Edith, there is even less information available. Dominick Dunne spoke of Edie in his book, "The Way We Lived Then", but the best source turned out to be the marvelous David Patrick Columbia at New York Social Diary (http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/). He knew Edie quite well and visited her weekly, with pen and pad in hand.

I intend to drop little bouquets about The Girls as time goes by. They are my obsession.

Happy Birthday!!

Aldo Ray.....

...who I just watched in "God's Little Acre" , warrants a photo post. Mmm, good.

But did they offer lay-a-way?

The Poor Stepchild....

If you saw the Coen Brothers, "A Serious Man", you probably enjoyed the running gag involving the Columbia Record Club. Gee, did any of us ever fill out one of those "Get 10 Records For Free" cards and consider not paying? I don't recall this club, but I can't imagine many took the bait and shelled out $19.98 for, "...this superb stereo phonograph." And, if you choose to join, do make sure and select 80735, "HAG" by Merle Haggard.

Happy Birthday Margaret!

Birthday Girl

Do you think she asked the doctor

to reattach her ear horizontally?

Uncovered Flotsam

Homemade holiday card from many years ago.




Never thought it too far a stretch that Divine could have dropped from Virginia's uterus.



....................................................................................................................................................................



Connecting the dots from Mommie Dearest to Frankenstein

Since everyone's talking about Autos.....

These were in the Sunday Star Tribune back when we first moved here. I clipped them for a while 'cause I thought they were cute.