VP19

As long as you don't say she stole your heart. (Apologies to Winona, who's probably long past that kleptomaniac stage of her life, but someone was going to make that wisecrack sooner or later.)

See the Blu-ray release of "Nothing Sacred" when it comes out Tuesday (from a Technicolor print at George Eastman House, and according to reviewers a substantial improvement over all the Cinecolor public domain copies floating out there) and you may change your tune.

And there were notable stars -- I think of Edward G. Robinson and Myrna Loy as two examples -- who, while popular with the public, not only never won Oscars, but were never even nominated.

Marion Davies?

VP.. thanks for giving Carole's recipe its moment in the kitchen.. and thanks for the chili recipe too.. I can see it now.. the TCM family CHILI cookoff.. hmmmm.... HOW could we ever do the judging??? I've been given two more Lombard recipes, both for soups, from the 1930 edition of "Fashions And Foods In Beverly Hills." (This may have been supplied to the book's editors in late 1929, as Lombard lists herself as a "Pathe player"; late that year, she was dismissed from the roster, likely for too closely resembling new acquisition Constance Bennett). *_________________________________________* *TWO GOOD SOUPS NOT OFTEN PREPARED* I am going to offer two good soup recipes, which will be novel to many housewives, I think, and a welcome change from the standard varieties. One is for lettuce soup and the other for spinach soup. To make lettuce soup cook several good heads of lettuce, from which the outer leaves have been removed, with three cupfuls of milk. A double boiler is best, and the lettuce should be cooked in the milk about 20 minutes. Mix together 2 tablespoons melted butter, 2 tablespoons flour and a teaspoon chopped onions. Add to the lettuce and milk, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper and cook in double boiler ten minutes. For spinach soup, mix together 2 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons grated cheese, salt and pepper. Add two cups of milk, 2 cups of water and one cup of cooked spinach. Let simmer for about twenty minutes over a slow fire. Carol Lombard (Pathe Player). *_________________________________________* At this stage of her life, Lombard was still living with her mother and two older brothers on 138 North Wilton Street (the residence still exists), and she may have made these recipes at home. I'm not much for lettuce myself, but eat my share of spinach-related products (including salads). This soup might have some possibilities.

> *{quote:title=VP19 wrote:}{quote}Was Kate Hepburn a talented actress? Definitely. Was she the greatest? Not to my mind. She's simply too patrician for my tastes. Yes, she was a feminist, but there was always something too upper-class about her, as opposed to the likes of Lombard or Loy, whose personalities seemed to mesh better with the mass audience. And Stanwyck excelled in more genres than K. Hepburn did (could you see Kate in a western?).* I have seen her is a Western, many time. I think it was something about a Rooster, or was it a chicken? Some guy named John Payne I think was a star in it too. Or was it John Mayne? He did a few movies I think, pretended to be a tough guy with a gun mostly. You are right...oopsie. Maybe I should have used film noir as an example.

any early-Loretta Young aficionados want to clue me in to which of the five young Young movies are most essential? I thought i'd seen a lot of her early movies, but none of these are ringing a bell. i'll probably end up getting *Loose Ankles *at least, since it is paired with *The Naughty Flirt*. Hard to go wrong with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. I see that in "Road To Paradise," she plays twin roles -- a girl who falls in with gangsters and a wealthy socialite. Since I've never seen the film, I don't know if there are any scenes featuring both Lorettas. Just did an entry on these five two-packs: http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/469215.html

Was Kate Hepburn a talented actress? Definitely. Was she the greatest? Not to my mind. She's simply too patrician for my tastes. Yes, she was a feminist, but there was always something too upper-class about her, as opposed to the likes of Lombard or Loy, whose personalities seemed to mesh better with the mass audience. And Stanwyck excelled in more genres than K. Hepburn did (could you see Kate in a western?).

This thread reminded me of an entry I ran a few years ago at "Carole & Co." where Carole Lombard gave her recipe for barbecued spareribs. It was from a 1939 book called "What Actors Eat -- When They Eat." (Hey, if Eugenia can run a Stanwyck recipe, I need to give Lombard equal time!) *Carole Lombard's barbecue spareribs* *Here is a dish that I am sure everyone will like, and it doesn't require any course in cooking to prepare, if you follow the directions. Hot, it is swell, and when cold -— well, you'll just want to make enough to have a nibble, later.* *3 to 5 lbs. spareribs* *1/2 c. soy sauce* *3/4 c. honey* *2 tsp. prepared mustard* *1 clove garlic* *1/4 c. water* *2 Tbs. flour* *Combine one-half cup soy sauce, three-fourths cup honey, two teaspoons prepared mustard and one clove of finely chopped garlic. Mix well together. Place three to five pounds of spareribs in a roasting pan, pour the sauce over the ribs, cover and place in oven. Bake at three hundred degrees for two hours or more. Remove ribs from the pan (be sure to stir occasionally while cooking to make sure all the ribs are covered with the sauce). Drain off all the fat, with the exception of about two tablespoons. Add one-fourth cup of water to the remaining liquid and cook on top of the stove until well-blended, then add two tablespoons of flour mixed with a little water and cook until the sauce is thickened. Replace the spareribs in the pan with the gravy, and stir. Return to oven to keep hot until serving time.* The entry is at http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/204782.html. Lombard also apparently contributed a recipe (though I don't know what it's for) to a charity cookbook in the early '30s issued by the Beverly Hills Woman's Club. You can find out more at http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/467636.html. Finally, here's a recipe for one of Hollywood's most famous dishes -- one enjoyed by many a star, possibly including Lombard and Stanwyck. I'm referring to Chasen's renowned chili. The restaurant may be gone; the recipe lives on: *Chasen's chili* *1/2 pound dried pinto beans* *water* *1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice* *1 large green bell pepper, chopped* *2 tablespoons vegetable oil* *3 cups onions, coarsely chopped* *2 cloves garlic, crushed* *1/2 cup parsley, chopped* *1/2 cup butter* *2 pounds beef chuck, coarsely chopped* *1 pound pork shoulder, coarsely chopped* *1/3 cup Gebhardt's chili powder* *1 tablespoon salt* *1 1/2 teaspoons pepper* *1 1/2 teaspoons Farmer Brothers ground cumin* *1. Rinse the beans, picking out debris. Place beans in a Dutch oven with water to cover. Boil for two minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand one hour. Drain off liquid.* *2. Rinse beans again. Add enough fresh water to cover beans. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for one hour or until tender.* *3. Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Simmer five minutes. In a large skillet saute bell pepper in oil for five minutes. Add onion and cook until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the garlic and parsley. Add mixture to bean mixture. Using the same skillet, melt the butter and saute beef and pork chuck until browned. Drain. Add to bean mixture along with the chili powder, salt, pepper and cumin.* *4. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for one hour. Uncover and cook 30 minutes more or to desired consistency. Chili shouldn't be too thick -- it should be somewhat liquid but not runny like soup. Skim off excess fat and serve.* *Makes 10 cups, or six main dish servings.* Having lived in the D.C. area for many years, I am partial to Hard Times Cafe, which makes several varieties of chili -- Texas, Cincinnati, Terlingua, even vegetarian. The chain sells spices mixes, enabling you to create your own at home (a good gift for any ex-Washingtonian who misses home -- Hard Times' locations include Verizon Center for its many events and Nationals Park for baseball games). Happy dining to all!

I'm hoping one by-product of this will be that TCM may get greater access to the Fox film library than in the past. In recent months, we've seen slightly more Twentieth Century-Fox (and its two predecessors, Fox and the short-lived Twentieth Century) on TCM, and perhaps Fox officials have decided its older product is more valuable for TCM than for its own channel.

Some might say that many doctors shake you down for more money than do bank robbers. No, they learned that a few decades later.

I'll name 10: Ernst Lubitsch Howard Hawks Frank Capra William Wellman Billy Wilder Alfred Hitchcock Mitchell Leisen Gregory La Cava Michael Curtiz Victor Fleming

I too welcome you to the TCM message boards. Powell is my all-time favorite actor; I love his manner, his suavity, that droll sense of humor, that charming voice. I can only imagine what my life would be like if I had the aura of a William Powell. Glad you're a classic movie buff, and I hope people here don't mind if I cordially invite you to visit a classic Hollywood blog I run that covers all sorts of topics, but usually focuses on Powell's second wife: http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/

Took a walking tour at Paramount with a guide who really knew the history. She was going to take my son and I to the typical stops featuring the TV locales on the back lot, but as we got to talking, she shifted the focus away from the Star Trek/hospital shows/crime dramas to the sightings of Rudolph Valentino at nights near his old dressing room office, and the RKO days from Welles (his office-as she could figure it out) and the Desilu studios (she knows there were some great stories, but we were running out of time), and Bugsy Seigel wandering about the place, alive and dead.. He's buried at Hollywood Cemetery over the wall from Paramount. The next time I visit, I hope I get that guide -- and hope she has some good Carole Lombard stories to tell (after all, Carole spent seven years on that lot, and one of the smaller office buildings is named for her).

Thursday, Dec 22nd, TCM is running all 6 films in The Thin Man series. Watch the original film, you will want to see the rest. And the Thursday after, you'll want to see Powell's other films with Loy. Their chemistry was splendid.

I'll give Clark and Loretta the benefit of the doubt on this one. Remember, in the 1930s, morality clauses would have rendered both anathema in Hollywood had it been made public, and since Gable was already married, wedding Young was not an option. (Apparently Clark clandestinely visited Loretta after the baby was born, found she was using a drawer for a bed, and gave Young $400 towards the infant's expenses.) At least Loretta -- whose pre-Code work is increasingly a revelation to film fans -- had the baby (secret abortions were common procedures for pregnant actresses in those pre-Roe v Wade days) and told the truth to the public in an autobiography issued after her death.

Sure I am, JEWEL ROBBERY is airing. It's not every night that you get to see William Powell handing out reefers and commenting that smoking it will make you hungry. This really should have been reissued in the '70s; the college crowd would have loved it.

Well it's no secret to anybody on this these boards that I will watch Powell anytime in anything. I don't know what it is about him, I don't think he's a particularly handsome man in an overt way but I get the feeling if he is someone I would have LOVED to know in real life. Powell may not have been especially handsome (at least in the "hunk" department), but anyone who could marry one goddess (Carole Lombard), divorce her amicably, and then romance another (Jean Harlow) must have had something going for him.

They've done so many of my favorites in recent years, so it's difficult to come up with some new ones. But here goes: Roland Young Walter Connolly Una Merkel Warren William Glenda Farrell Charley Chase Fay Wray (much more than a scream queen) Miriam Hopkins Gloria Stuart Ricardo Cortez Many of these are more character actors than stars, but all have impressive resumes and left their mark on classic Hollywood.

Did an entry on Powell today -- TCM is showing 39 of his films through December: http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/463975.html

One of the most funniest things to occur during filming was the issue of Donald's height. He was short and didn't exacly look so imposing, when paired off with Marilyn. Director Walter Lang, then politely asked Marilyn if she would consider taking her shoes off, just for a few scenes. She gladly agreed and Donald would always be grateful to her for having made him not look so childish, if not, ridiculous. Interesting; I'd say O'Connor was more slight than short, because while Monroe's build may have made her look more imposing, she really wasn't all that tall, about 5'5", I believe. Someone like Julie Newmar, who was 5'10 1/2" and beginning to dance in films about this time (you can catch a glimpse of her in "The Band Wagon"), would have dwarfed him.

Dell's next movie was to have been "You Belong To Me" (later renamed "Now And Forever"), in which she would have reunited with Temple opposite Gary Cooper, but after the fatal accident, Carole Lombard replaced her: http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/48367.html

A happy Thanksgiving to all...and (aside from you vegetarians) may you only eat turkeys, not watch them.

In the classic era, Myrna Loy. In recent times, Laura Prepon (before she mysteriously decided to go blonde and consequently lost all her distinctiveness).

I do wish a new score would be commissioned. The Movie-tone track though a bit monotonous was interesting in that I kept trying to pick out the old songs I was familiar with. Agreed. Hearing the melody of "the old gray mare ain't what she used to be" for the umpteenth time was annoying, and sort of trivialized the entire film. It's among the reasons "What Price Glory" isn't quite as highly regarded as "The Big Parade."