coopsgirl

How could you rat me out for the terrible cook that I am? Okay due to popular demand (well not really) I?ll tell the meringue story. I was about 14 and for some reason I got on a real cooking jag. So one afternoon I decided to make a pie that had a meringue topping. The recipe said beat the whites until they formed stiff peaks. I got out the mixer and mixed and mixed and nothing ? no peaks. So I went to the hand wisk and after about 20 minutes of beating and wisking my mom got home and seeing my beginning to sweat and looking quite worn out she asked what I was doing. I told her I was waiting for the peaks to form and she busted out laughing. Unbeknownst to me you only have to wisk it a few minutes and then you just pull the wisk up out of the meringue and if it stays up in a peak it?s ready. I was waiting for them to magically appear on their own. It?s a good thing she got home when she did or she probably would have found me passed out on the kitchen floor with a wish in one hand and the bowl in the other mumbling about the peaks . My Betty Crocker days didn?t last long and all I can say is pity the poor man who marries me. He better like frozen dinners.

I?m also convinced Grace won b/c they ?uglied her up?. She couldn?t act her way out of a paper bag in my opinion which I?m sure no one cares for . *Greatest Show on Earth* shouldn?t have even gotten a nomination much less won Best Picture for ?52. I?d take that one out and put *Singing in the Rain* in its place. However I would have given the award to *High Noon*. For me the best pics of the year are *HN* and *SitR*. I don?t like the Broadway Melody part of *SitR* though and I think it drags the film down so that?s why I would put it in the #2 slot. I also don?t think Joan Fontaine ever deserved to win an Oscar. She was a mediocre actress and while she may be a lovely person as well as Grace Kelly, they just weren?t that good.

Thanks Chris! I know what I'm doing next Sunday :x.

If it was up to me, every movie would have a Frank (i.e. Frank James ?Gary? Cooper).

The TCM logo is in the top b/c it was recorded off one of the European TCM channels. I wish they would play it here in the U.S. too so more people could see that one. It's basically an art deco gangster film and I love that style :x.

I?ve only seen her in *City Streets* (1931) with Gary Cooper but she was good in it. Here are some screencaps.

I sent you a PM about the movie.

It would be fantastic to have hair/makeup/wardrobe people to follow you around and make sure you look great all day. They might look a little strange though hanging around my cubicle . It would be fun to go somewhere and have your pictures done in that old Hollywood glamour style. I nearly always close my eyes though during the flash so that might not be a good idea for me . I agree that Rocky was lucky in some ways but it wasn't exactly all sunshine and roses being Mrs. Gary Cooper. She was a real classy lady though and handled all the various situations (the paparazzi, crazy female fans, and his affairs) with grace and dignity. I don't think he could have chosen a better gal (except for me of course :x ).

I was browsing through the Corbis website looking at pics from the 30s and this one of Rocky (Gary's wife for those who might not know) came up when she was briefly acting under the name Sandra Shaw. She would have been about 19 or 20 here. It's a beautiful pic.

Here's some more stuff from my scrapbook.

A woman named Lily is singing the version I used. I liked this one a little better than Enya?s so that?s why I chose it. That?s a good idea for a thread. I think it seemed to take more talent and skill to film a black and white movie than one in color. Color selection was very important b/c you needed to get the right look for b+w. I?ve read before that instead of using something like black for an outfit that was supposed to look black they would actually use other shades like really dark red and that filmed better. You can do a lot more with lighting and shadows too than you can in color films. As far as color films go though, you can?t beat 3-strip Technicolor used from the mid 30s to mid 50s. That is just the most gorgeous color palette you will ever see. It just had a depth and richness to it that is lacking in all other color processes unfortunately. I wish they hadn?t stopped using it. I mean come one, does it get anymore gorgeous than this? :x

You can add many of my videos as you want.

I had a Raggedy Ann and Andy too! I don't think those are ever gonna change . I also had a cute set of teddy bears that looked like the ones from 'Goldilocks and the 3 bears' and I'd have tea parties with them since my little table had four chairs. That reminds me of a silent movie version of that story and it?s from the early 1900?s when teddy bears were first starting to become popular. Near the end a guy shows up dressed like Teddy Roosevelt on safari and he and Goldilocks chase down the three bears (people in bear costumes) and he shoots the mamma and poppa bears and then Goldilocks takes the baby bear as a pet. It was really pretty freaky.

*What I like about your videos, is that if you know the movies they are from, the video actually tells a story.* That?s one of the tricky things with some of them is that if you know the movie, the video makes more sense. There is another I made with *Peter Ibbetson* clips called ?Marble Halls? and I picked that song b/c it?s in the movie in the scene when Gary goes into the party at the Duchess?s house. It was a brilliant selection by the filmmakers since the song is about a dream itself. It was funny b/c when I first saw that one I recognized the song and was singing along with it and it took me a while to remember what I knew it from. Finally it hit me it was on an Enya cd I had. I looked it up and was surprised to find it was from an opera from around the same time as the film is set so it was not only current for that time but also fit perfectly with the story. Filmmakers nowadays don?t seem to be nearly that clever anymore with little touches like that.

He looked so cute standing there holding that little horse. It was so sweet. No, I didn?t think of a name for him in the dream but it would have to be something real cute like Applejack or something like that. My Little Pony was a new thing when I was a kid (and now they are celebrating their 25th anniversary!!!) and my fave was this one named Applejack.

Totally off topic, (is there actually a topic here though? ) I gotta tell y?all about the dream I had last night. I?m not a pet person at all but I do love miniature horses and if I had to have a pet that?s what I would pick. So last night I dreamed that I was a waitress in a diner like in the 50s and it looked more like a real diner as opposed to what we see in more modern movies that are set in the 50s. Anyway, Gary was one of our regular customers but he was just a regular guy so not famous or anything like that. Well he came in one day (dressed like Will Kane ? yummy!) and he told me he had a present for me. So we went out back and in a little pen was a miniature horse and he went over and picked him up and told me it was for me. I just couldn?t believe it. Then Gary set him back down and I was petting him and playing with him and Gary was happy b/c it had made me so happy. He was tan with a blonde mane and tail and a little white around his nose. He looked kinda like the ones in these pics. It was such a cute dream :x.

I don't mind if you add it to the TCM fansite. Working for the state government (especially in one of the few states not currently in the red, thank goodness) is a little more stable than working in Hollywood so I guess I better keep my day job . As far as what you said Wendy about me knowing the movies I?m working with, I should as many times as I have watched them . That does make it quite a bit easier b/c I can be at work listening to a song and I can kinda storyboard the idea in my head and then get on the computer at home and put it together. I can?t help but hear songs and then either put dance routines (from all my years in dance lessons I guess) or movie scenes to them. I?m glad y?all liked the song too. When I first heard it the line that jumped out at my was one from the chorus where she says ?I wanna stay, I feel safe here in your light?. It reminded me of a couple of dreams I?ve had about Gary where he saved me from something and I felt safe with him so that song made me think of him. I try to stay away from the longer songs (anything much over 3 minutes) b/c they can be tricky and seem to drag on sometimes but I was happy with how this one turned out. I?ve got tons of ideas and songs for a lot more so my creative well isn?t dried up yet . Shirley Bassey has a lot of good songs that fit him and those should be fun b/c they?re real cutesy. Another woman, tikilizzy is her youtube name, has made some good Gary videos too and she used one of Shirley Bassey?s songs ?Kiss Me, Honey, Honey, Kiss Me? and it?s real cute.

Thank you both for the compliments! I'm very proud of them and they are just so much fun to do. Here's another one I just finished.

You are too sweet! The 'begging you for mercy' one is one of my very faves. I heard that song when it was new on an episode of *Smallville* and thought it would make a great video and then it just took off and all the sudden I was hearing it in a bunch of commercials and stuff like that. It's a cool song and it fit those scenes so perfectly. That was a really fun one to do.

*he was definitely a great screen kisser!* Yes he was!!

Here's the link to the segment of that documentary that has the scene from *CoD*. It's just a couple minutes into the clip. The other videos you posted ealier are a couple of mine, I'm glad you liked them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTK0oU5moUU&feature=related

He first spoke a few words of dialogue in *The Shopworn Angel* in 1928 as they tacked on a talkie scene at the end to what was otherwise a silent film (now lost). His first all talkie was *The Virginian* in 1929. The studio actually had him scheduled to make a different picture as his first talkie but when *The Virginian* came up he lobbied to get that role since he felt more comfortable in westerns at that time.Westerns only make up about a quarter of his films so he really was able to increase his range as his career moved into the early to mid 30s and he also didn?t want to be typecast as a western actor only. He was definitely not shy with the ladies in private but I think it?s very sweet how he was so nervous to do the romantic stuff on camera. Once he got past the nerves though his kiss packed a mighty wallup . Laraine Day, his leading lady in *Dr. Wassell* (1944) told an interviewer decades later how surprised she was when he kissed her during a scene b/c it was so much better than most movie kisses she had had before. I?m so jealous!

It was made after *Wings* and *It*. I believe it was her follow up film to *It*. It didn?t do all that well though b/c it?s a drama and people were used to seeing her play the happy flapper usually and especially after her role in *It*, that seems to be what people wanted. It did get some critical praise though. There are some hilarious stories regarding Gary?s involvement in *CoD*. He had only had two major roles prior to *CoD*. He played a supporting role in *The Winning of Barbara Worth* and the lead in *Arizona Bound*. Both of these were westerns and that was where he had the bulk of his film experience up to that point. In *CoD* he is supposed to be a rich playboy type and he wore fancy clothes instead of his usual cowboy duds. He was very nervous and uncomfortable and he did such a bad job that he was fired. The guy they replaced him with (don?t know his name) was even worse though so they managed to track Gary down and rehired him. In one scene he is supposed to kind of breeze into a party and saunter about the room holding a glass of champagne and walk up to Clara?s character. It took more than 20 takes to get it as he kept spilling the champagne all over Clara. They ended up shooting some of his scenes with him sitting down instead of standing b/c his long legs were visibly shaking. It got even worse when he was supposed to kiss Esther Ralston, his character?s fianc?e. He was mortified at the idea of kissing a woman in front of all those people and on camera. He thought it was indecent to do that in public especially with a woman he barely knew. The director, who knew of his relationship with Clara, told him ?I hope you do a better job then tomorrow in the kissing scenes with Clara!? ? ha! That fear of kissing on camera would follow him for his next few pictures as the directors would have to coax him into actually holding and kissing these actresses. He would just barely put his arms around them and they would have to tell him stuff like ?she?s not gonna break?. Poor guy, I would have felt the same way. I?m glad he got over it though :x.

*You are right. I didn't really think it out like that.* Don?t you know I?m always right? (just kidding ) *This is what I could never understand about Ann - why did she write that speech? Maybe she was so used to trying to get money that it didn't really sink in until later? You can see the wheels turning in her head - she is uncomfortable, and maybe a little afraid of Norton.... I guess we all do things once in a while that we are not proud of.....* The movie is supposed to be set a few years earlier than it was made so they would still have been in the depression and I guess Ann was just trying to do whatever she could to make a living even if she knew it was wrong. Her conscious finally got the better of her though at the fancy dinner when she could see what the bad guys were plotting and then when John came in and really exposed them, she knew it was wrong and refused to go along anymore. *I always like to see stars who are in love behind the screen as well as on screen- it is electric when they do touch, or talk to one another. It adds another dimension to what is already a good movie.* The scene in *CoD* that I was talking about is cute b/c Clara?s character got Gary?s character drunk and tricked him into marrying her. He is quite surprised to find her in his bed the next morning and he doesn?t remember how she got there. He truly does look panicked as he is engaged to Esther Ralston?s character (who is a long time friend of Clara's character) and really loves her. Clara plays it cool and coy as she kinda writhes around a little and gives him those big puppy dog eyes and pretends to pout a little and be upset that he doesn?t remember marrying her. It?s fun to see them together at that particular time b/c she was enjoying the peak of her career and he was brand new in his. Their quite torrid affair at the time was real but also partly a publicity stunt as Clara could see he had real talent and she was great about helping people out who she thought deserved it like Jean Harlow and Jack Oakie as well as Gary.

*Children of Divorce* has been restored and preserved and a copy is held in the Library of Congress. I don?t have access to youtube at work or I would post the link but the little snippet I talked about seeing is from a doc on silent films called *Hollywood*. If you go on youtube and search for Clara Bow you should be able to find it.