Photo Of The Day

{Scanned By Me :-)}

Christopher Columbus!!! What orangeness!!! Seriously wow! Such an autumnal colour. Plus, I just felt like this blog needed a bit more Bogie right now :-) This photograph was taken by Bert Six, and it came from my Hollywood Colour Portraits book.

~Bette

Photo Of The Day

"Ray Milland was Christened Reginald Truscott-Jones in Wales. Barbra Stanwyck was Christened Ruby Stevens in Brooklyn, New York. They each starred in about one hundred feature films and ended their careers as TV stars, she with a hit series that still re-runs, 'Big Valley' (1965-69) and he with two series 'Meet Mr. McNutley' (1953) and 'Markham' (1959). Milland and Stanwyck were very good friends, great admirers of each other's work, and both were really a kick to be around. They called each other by their given names, 'Reggie,' and 'Ruby.' Milland, who had an extra dry sense of humour, explained this habit by saying, 'We use our real given names out in public, so that our adoring fans will not recognise us.'
Despite Stanwyck's fame, she was rather reserved. After her marriage to Robert Taylor ended, she continued to live in their house on North Beverly Glen Boulevard in the Bel Air District of Los Angeles. The house was just a few doors south of Sunset Boulevard, on the southwest corner of which, as Beverly Glen, there was a fire station. On an assignment to photograph Stanwyck at home, I suggested that we create a photo opportunity by paying a call on the firefighters to bring some cookies and other treats. Her firm reply was, 'No, I'd rather not.' She didn't like the idea of PR as a 'set-up,' and she was uncomfortable at the thought of using firefighters as stage props. Her last words particularly startled me: 'I hate being on display. Attention embarrasses me.'"

Photo and exert from Hollywood Moments by Murray Garret.

~Bette

Photo Of The Day

Frank Sinatra and fan club ;-D 

~Bette

P.S. I heard that I was also awarded the stylish blogger award by The Lady Eve... Sorry I didn't see that! So I'll link back to you too :)

Great On Screen Couples: John Wayne & Maureen O'Hara

John Wayne made a lot of films. Something like 142 in which he was the lead. And he starred with a host of actresses, but his best on screen partner had to be Maureen O'Hara. They made five films together between 1950 and 1972: Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Wings Of Eagles, McLintock! and Big Jake. They made four really good films and one all time classic (The Quiet Man). The fiery O'Hara was the perfect sparring partner for the rough and tumble Wayne. Their first pairing came with the 1950 western Rio Grande, which was the third film of director John Ford's calvary trilogy (the other two being Fort Apache and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon). This would be the first of Maureen's westerns with Wayne. The other two were Big Jake and the rambunctious McLintock! (which is one of my all time favorites). They switched gears for the military drama The Wings Of Eagles, which was directed by Ford. But the pair's crowning achievement came with the sentimental The Quiet Man, which is beloved by so many fans around the world. This film perfectly captures the love/hate on screen relationship of Wayne and O'Hara. And while the film would lose the Oscar for Best Picture that year, John Ford did take one home for directing. So 5 films and the wonderful chemistry of Big John and the fiery red-headed Maureen provided movie lovers with great cinema and lasting memories.

Photos Are A Classic Film Fan's Best Friends

I think that photo's are cherished in a very special way by classic film fans, because hey... If we didn't have all those lovely pictures of Cary Grant and Laurence Olivier,  we would have no way of seeing them in their natural habitats. If we didn't have those snazzy pictures of Greer Garson, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman... How would we have outfit and hairdo inspiration? The answer is probably it wouldn't be easy. Here are some of my most recent and/or favourite ones at the moment.

A beautiful moment in a beautiful film: An Affair To Remember. Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr pictured.

Not so lucky with fur here... But it's Greer so we'll forgive her. Right?!

Beautiful Ingrid Notorious costumes. Love these dresses, but am afraid I will need to grow 6 inches to make me the same height as she was (5ft 9).

She really loves Cary Grant in this scene. How could you not?

This photo has probably been posted thousands of times on blogger, but I love James Dean! I always thought he should have been in The Great Escape.

What this post is also about, is the Classic Movie Blog Association's Hitchcock blogathon that is taking place on Monday. It is restricted to members of the CMBA and I shall be doing North By Northwest. This should be fun. 18 or more Hitchcock reviews on one day, yay!

I love the feeling of being back at school and being able to learn about cool things. It is so refreshing to be enlightened by the subjects I love, and it's just as refreshing to breath the fresh air when I get out of the classes I don't like. But that will all be different next year, I will be free to study my favourite subjects selected by me during the next six weeks. As of next wednesday my GCSE option choice process begins. I have to sit in assemblies and talk to teachers about mine and my parent's choices. I don't know how much time this will take and how complicated it will be, but blogging is sure to be my salvation along with my music and acting, as always.

~Bette

Frankly Ma Dear, I Give A Damn!

I am exhausted after a long piano practice. My exam is on SATURDAY!!!! And I do give a damn about how I do. I want everything to be perfect, meaning loads of practice (thats why i'm blogging instead right now ;D). But I really need some stress release, so here is a load of miscellenious anecdotes, photos, and ramblings.

Well, here is an anecdote I really, really love and it's from no other than ma main man, Monsiour Humphrey Bogart. I think it's exerpted from a book, I found it while browsing the internet.

“Bogart did drink. ‘I think the whole world is three drinks behind,’ he used to say, ‘and it’s high time it caught up.’ On one occasion he and a friend bought two enormous stuffed panda bears and took them as their dates to El Morocco. They sat them in chairs at a table for four and when an ambitious young lady came over and touched Bogart’s bear, he shoved her away. ‘I’m a happily married man,’ he said, ‘and don’t touch my panda.’
The woman brought assault charges against him, and when asked if he was drunk at four o’clock in the morning, he replied, ‘Sure, isn’t everybody?’ (The judge ruled that since the panda was Bogart’s personal property, he could defend it.)”
-excerpted from Peter Bogdanovich’s Who the Hell’s In It

In a 1949 LA Times article about Pandagate, Bogart defended his drunken misbehavior on constitutional grounds: “So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.”
(TIME magazine’s original 1949 article about the incident can be read here).

I love that. It's so cool that he loved pandas. Just the kinda story to read while in cosy black and white (black and white panda, get it?) pull ons. Hahahahaha. While I have been exploring my dad's new photo editing software, Adobe Lightroom, I did this surreal colourization of a Bette Davis picture.

Bette's Classic Movie Blog 2010 ©

if you want to use it (or any of the photos I note I have created) please give credit where credit is due and link to my blog. Here follow a series of classic movie christmas photos which I guess could be used as anything. I just think they are cute!

Bette's Classic Movie Blog 2010 ©

Bette's Classic Movie Blog 2010 ©

I will probably be posting a lot about Christmas films in the near future. I love them! I am slightly aprehensive about White Christmas. Two soldiers (one of whom happens to be a singer and Bing Crosby. Grrrrrr. I can't remember the names of the characters) are stationed somewhere in Europe. They put on a show in which Bing Crosby's character sings "White Christmas", and an air-raid starts. Conveniently, a wall nearly falls on Bing, and Danny Kaye happens to push him out of the way. Danny then claims that Bing owes him his life and wants him to be a duet act with him. There follows a very funny scene where they dress up as Vera Ellen and Rosmary Clooney and sing "Sisters", and something about putting on a show in a barn-ish thing (Summer Stock or what?). You gotta admire the film overall. The best things in it are the songs, Danny kaye and Rosmary Clooney.

Rosemary and Vera singing "Sisters"

Bing and Danny singing "Sisters"

Listening to Barbra Striesand do a very Jewish rendition of "Ave Maria". Have a great rest of day/evening/whatever-of-the-day-you-have-left!

~Bette

Time For Another Photo Post, Dahling

Hello all you people. I am here. Again. At my computer. Blogging. So before I dazzle you with a few photos, here was my day:

1. Get up
2. Go to school
3. Learn for 5 hours
4. Do an hour of PE
5. Come home and blog!

Here is how I look after that. Like a grumpy Margo Channing.

 Please enlarge these! Blogger is evil and it shrinks my fantabiedoobie photos!
Quickie Thelma Ritter Photo:

"I'm-I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, its just my way of talkin'."
I should use this apology more often, it seems to work for Birdie.

Claude Rains:

Compare.

This:

That is how facebook orientated we are nowadays.

Claude Rains looking every bit the English Victorian father.

Gorgeous Bette Davis:

Bette about to go fishing which apparently she did quite often.

Bette looking adoringly at Gary Merril, her 4th husband.

Hmm whats going on over there?

Oh Bette, you are my hero.

How could anyone think this photo is not the epitome of 1930s glamour?

Have a great weekend!

~Bette

Marilyn Monroe Transparancy Slides Being Sold for Charity

The Hollywood Entertainment Museum (HEM) will continue to sell items from its archives in an effort to save its media arts highschool program for at risk students. Included in the auction are 116 transparencies of Marilyn Monroe appearing on the cover of more than a dozen magazines.

View the online auction listing at http://www.icollector.com/auction.aspx?as=17212&p=1&ps=100&kw=marilyn%20monroe

The full press release for the auction is provided below:

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Historically Significant Hollywood Items Continue at Auction for Charity The Hollywood Entertainment Museum will Auction more of its Prized Collection March 27th and April 17th.

Hollywood, CA – Hollywood Entertainment Museum (HEM) announced today the continuation of the auction of its prized collection in an effort to save its media arts high school program for at-risk kids. Plans are in place to host two online auctions with live auctioneer streaming Saturday March 27th, and Saturday April 17th. Presented by Super Auctions, these auctions make available some of Hollywood’s most iconic items.

Fantastic discoveries of lost Hollywood history are being made as a warehouse full of original pieces of history are being cataloged and verified. Included in this lot are more than 100 color transparencies of “Marilyn Monroe – Cover Girl”, color slides from Gone with the Wind, and an entire Max Factor collection dating from 1917 through 1970.

But it’s not all about the items. Phyllis Caskey, President of Hollywood Entertainment Museum (HEM) and main force in creating the Hollywood Media Arts Academy, a collaboration between HEM and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, explains the powerful impact of the school: “In just a short period of time, I see the transformation that takes place in students who attend the Hollywood Media Arts Academy. While training for careers in the media arts, they earn their high school diplomas leading to higher education and security for their futures and families.”

Founded in 1986, HEM’s program mixes culture and education as one of the most successful in the country, and it serves as a global model. This unique fusion of education, community and culture grounds HEM in a deep sense of social responsibility. As a result, more than 82 percent of HEM students graduated high school, and 50 percent of those graduates went on to college.

Like all schools, HEM is faced with tough economic conditions, and has found a unique way to cover expenses. HEM’s auction will raise money to keep the program in operation. Fans of movies, television shows and the stars of by-gone eras, have an opportunity to claim a piece of history, while providing educational opportunities that change lives.

For more information on items and bidding, visit www.superauctions.com.

ABOUT HOLYWOOD ENTERTAINMENT MUSEUM (HEM) (hollywoodmuseum.com)

HEM, founded in 1986 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, is an exceptional mix of culture and education. Through the Hollywood Media Arts Academy, HEM uses entertainment media as a vehicle to inspire, engage and teach at-risk youth. This unique fusion of education, community and culture grounds HEM in a deep sense of social responsibility and exemplifies the spirit of Los Angeles.

ABOUT SUPER AUCTIONS (superauctions.com): Super Auctions, Certified and Accredited Auctioneers from Huntington Beach, California, is the World’s Largest Entertainment Auction Company who specialize in the Auctioning, Marketing, Consulting and Appraising of Amusement & Entertainment Based Assets and Real Estate. Super Auctions has been exclusively serving the Entertainment Industry sector for more than 16 years.

Sindhu Menon eyes on negative roles

It’s all about heavy downpour of praises on actress Sindhu Menon . The actress made her debut with Bharathiraja’s Kadal Pookal and later didn’t focus much in Kollywood due to her hectic schedules in Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada projects.

But now, she is back in business with her extraordinary performance in Eeram. Interacting with media channels, Sindhu says, “It was really hard to shoot the first scene where I am supposed to drown myself in the water of bathtub. Every time , the shot had to be retaken, the water would enter my nostrils resulting in suffocation. Fine I am much elated that I’m paid for my hard work now.”

When asked about her dream role, she adds, “Anything that offers me more scope to perform. But I am keen on performing negative roles as Ramya.





Tags: sindhu menon, actress sindhu menon,Sindhu Menon Pictures, Stills, Wallpapers, Images, Clips, Photos

Iconic Monroe Images Go Up for Auction This Month

Some famous images of Marilyn Monroe will hit the auction block this month at Bloomsbury Auctions, London. The collection includes works by Philippe Halsman, Inge Morath, Bob Willoughby, Elliot Erwitt, Arnold Newman, Eve Arnold and Frank Powolny. The auction will take place on Thursday, May 21. For more information, visit www.bloomsburyauctions.com.

A Large Collection of Monroe Photos to Hit the Auction Block

More than 100 Monroe images are being offered for sale in three sessions on Dec. 16-17 at Christie's auction house. They are expected to bring from $811,000 to $1.1 million.

www.christies.com