daddysprimadonna

Mary Pickford

This board has become a joke anyway,and I haven't even watched TCM this month. I'm watching it less and less,as it becomes infested by political correctness(except when it comes to offending people who still don't care for 'the scummy side' as you so succintly put it) and movies from an era that by no stretch of the imagination can be called "classic Hollywood". Like you, I became a fan of classic Hollywood and the silver screen at a young age and without having it 'dumbed down' . It was already relevant,as part of film history(the best part),and interesting (that period of movie-making was the most vital,before television had made inroads). If we were able to love it for what it was,why wouldn't kids now? And the ones who wouldn't,well,they wouldn't love it unless it became TCM the hip hop channel,and then there's no TCM classic movies anyway. It's a shame,the forums and the channel gone to hell all together. I'm removing this board from my bookmarks and TCM from my favorite channels. That's my opinion, other's mileage may vary.

I haven't seen either of those movies,and I would love to. Even I knew of Miss Rambova's fame as a decorator,especially on the "Camille" sets-I've seen some pictures of them,and they were beautiful,very early-style Art Deco. I love Art Nouveau also,and the early Art Deco seems to be a little related. Thanks for the titles of those books,I'd like to read them. Wouldn't it be ineteresting,when all these years we've gotten used to thinking of movie-style Art Deco as being primarily black and white,to find that color was often used? And it would be interesting to see what colors,if any. Somehow I think that the Fred and Ginger sets really were black and white. I remember reading some trick that they used to make the floors so shiny,but I've forgotten what it was. It couldn't have been oil,LOL, couldn't you just see Fred and Ginger trying to dance on that??!

I would indeed love your bedroom set! Lucky you It sounds beautiful,and the Art Deco in the Fred and Ginger movies was always so romantic. It must be a romantic feeling to sit at the vanity and brush your hair,or to sleep in a beautiful Art Deco bed,especially knowing that the lovely Miss Rogers was there I always loved the way her back was so supple in those dances.

Poor Matt! But I know you'll miss the hurricane evacs every two or three weeks in the season,won't you,LOL? I love fireplaces tooI have one in my living room,I even have one in my bedroom-but it's mostly for atmosphere.As you now know,there's very few days down here when you can actually use the fireplace. Every Christmas season I PRAY that we'll have cold weather,so I can burn the fireplace when the family comes over for dinner. It smells so Christmasy with the wood burning. Turkey,ham,and seafood gumbo,LOL! We've had Christmases that you could wear shorts-I HATE that! I keep threatening my husband that the family is going to have to shift for themselves for Christmas dinner,becasue we're going to rent a cabin in the Smokey mountains and go stay there,so we can enjoy a COLD Christmas. About 10-12 years ago,we actually had SNOW,that didn't melt as soon as it hit the ground-it was so beautiful! Beautiful snow,beautiful grey skies-maybe again sometime in my lifetime!

Many men only wanted the women for shallow reasons rather then for true love. Many men fell in love with the actresses and their image not the real them and when the beauty faded and they got use to one another and the true them showed, interest was lossed. That's true. Look at Rita Hayworth-she said sadly,"men go to sleep with Gilda,and wake up me with me". Such a beautiful woman,and couldn't find happiness. But it's nice to know people believed in marriage back then. I agree. Do you know,I've read studies that showed that of people who lived together before marrying,their marriages were MORE likely to end in divorce. If someone insists,I'll try to find the study I think that people who see who see marriage as the beginning of a commitment that will require hard work,and a growing together,do better than people who see the marriage ceremony as the culmination of their grand romance. Not that the romance part isn't nice,and you always try to keep that alive too,or you're just existing together,but life isn't candlelight dinners everynight. I heard the line somewhere,that "it's just being together at the end that counts"(I think in "The Women", Mary Haines' wise mother says it),and I believe it.

It's one of my most favorite "girly" movies,so I taped it

If she's the actress I'm thinking of,she's in one my most favorite "small" fluffy movies-"These Glamor Girls" starring Lana Turner. She plays the fraternity party trotter who's been around just a little too long,the last of the "too,too diviners",as another character in the movie describes her.

Thanks,it's been a long long time since I saw it. Although,how I could ever confuse Ann Harding and Irene Dunne!

I love Robert Osborne,let's hear it for the elite,hehe. Really, I have nothing against Ben Mankiewiecz, but I prefer Mr Osborne's more polished,debonair approach. And Ben would be more my generation. I don't know why anything polished and civil is associated with "fake",and "real" is associated with gritty rude ugliness. There is sincere loveliness and civility in this world,and Mr Osborne gracefully personifies it. I'd have to cut my wrists if my world was as "gritty" as "real life" seems to be for some people.

Can you believe that I haven't seen any of the others you mentioned,I didn't even know that her Hollywood career lasted that long. I will keep my eye out for them. I don't know how much of a stage career Ann Harding had,but she would've perfect in serious plays. She was such an intelligent,thinking person,as an actress and as a woman,I think. She comes across as a citizen of New York City,but I believe that she grew up in Texas. She and Ruth Chatterton are two often forgotten greats. I seem to remember seeing,ages ago,a movie called "The Silver Cord" about a woman who marries a man tied to the apron string of his manipulative mother. I seem to remember that Ann Harding played the wife. I'd love to see it again,I recall enjoying it. Am I mis-remembering,or was it Ann Harding in that movie,do you know?

I would love to able to see at least some still pictures of some of Thirties Art Deco sets in color. Becasue you always get the impression that everything was in black and white,but I saw this little movie with Ginger Rogers and Joel McRea called "Chance At Heaven",and Joel's character marries a rich "child bride" instead of Ginger,with whom he's always had an understanding. I forget the name of the actress who played the child bride,but she was really cute. Anyway,the movie is black and white,but when the bride is redecorating the home that Joel has built, and when she gets done,it looks fairly stereotypical movie-style Art Deco,but while she was doing it,she was discussing the colors that she'd like, and I remember her mentioning cream and scarlet,for two colors. I know that orangey and green colors were popular in the Art Deco period,and burl wood finishes. I suppose that's one of the differences between movie-style Art Deco and real life Art Deco.

It's a shame that a woman who gave happiness to the masses, had such a difficult time finding it for herself. That's true. I forget if it was Lana or Elizabeth Taylor who said something along the lines that they never lost their faith in a happy marriage,becasue look how many times they tried. In Lana's autobiography,which I read so long ago that I don't remember much of it,she seemed to be a true romantic. She said it was never about sex for her,she always preferred the romance of just cuddling and being close to someone.

Seven or eight,something like that. When the count gets that high,it's difficult to keep track. I think that she and Elizabeth Taylor were neck-and-neck

It seems to me sometimes that my favorite actress Norma Shearer had the best luck and the most happiness in the matrimonial department,out of Hollywood marriages. She had a happy marriage to Irving Thalberg until he died,and then a happy marriage to her second husband until she died. Lana Turner must've had some of the worst luck-I mean Johnny Stompanato-or did they ever marry?

Norma Shearer's apartment in "The Divorcee"-not that it was anything spectacular,but it had a modern chic that suited Norma. All those twin beds for married people after the Code began to be enforced can be irritating sometimes. Although practically speaking,it's not such a bad idea,so that both spouses can have their covers and ther space to sprawl,all to themselves. And the concept of one's husband "sneaking over " to your bed is kind of romantic But it's have to at least be a full bed,twin beds are for kids! Speaking of Mrs Thalberg,I understand that in real life,the Thalberg home was one of the first to have central A/C,because of Irving Thalberg's health problems.

I'm a born-and-bred southerner,lived on the Gulf Coast all my life,and I still can't take the heat and humidity. I'm cooped up in the A/C all summer long,and our summers are loooong.It's too hot to do anything outside except swim. So-you have a very good point about the heat! And then factoring in all the clothes that women wore back then. But I understand that until the mid-late 1800's,we were in a "mini ice age". I suppose that's why it was tolerable. And I suppose that in England it would have been milder. But even if it was cooler,all those clothes! Corsets,stockings,chemises,petticoats...never mind,LOL!

According to the Biography Channel (whatever that's worth ) it was Gene Tierney's parents who objected to her marrying into the Kennedy family. That's too funny! Did she come from an upper-class family? Or were her parents just aware of the Kennedy men's reputations as husbands,LOL? What was the name of the designer she eventually married,and did they stay married,or did they divorce?

Just like Joe Kennedy and Gloria Swanson. Kinda silly,considering that they themselves were Irish upstarts,and Gloria had been married to a titled man(a count,I think-I forget. The actresses of the Twenties seemed to swap titled husbands around,LOL. Those Mdivanis made the rounds!) After all,the Prince Of Monaco considered Grace Kelly good enough to marry!

Can I hitch a ride on your time machine? I think first I want to go back to the Edwardian era and be a rich titled mistress of a country estate and a beautiful town home in Berekley Square,and a member of the "Marlborough House Set". If I can be a different person just for a while,I want to be Alice Keppel.

I love "Leave Her To Heaven" and "The Shanghai Gesture",even though the latter is a very strange movie. Two of my husband's most favorite actresses are Gene Tierney and Natalie Wood. He thinks that I look like Natalie Wood,bless his dear little near-sighted heart

I loved her in "The Animal Kingdom". That movie,and her role in it,were more advanced than any ten "feminist" message movies from the Seventies were. She didn't use sex as a weapon, or a tool for "finding herself"-it was an expression of love. She didn't fall apart because a man left her life-she had her own life,not living through his. She didn't rebound by sleeping around-she had healthy self-respect for herself and her own talents and ambitions. The little I know of her as a real-life person,she was a lot like that. Very self-possessed and poised. Plus,it's one of the few times that Myrna Loy's "perfect wife" shoe is on the other foot,so to speak,LOL. Myrna Loy played that role very well,who knew that she could be so kittenish

As we discussed- Manderley would be at the top of the list, I think-beautiful old English country manor(in the beautiful wilds of Cornwall,no less),and Rebecca's bedroom/sitting room suite,with those beautiful sheer draperies,and the huge windows with the breath-taking view of the Cornish coast and the lovely breezes she must've gotten-that was a room! Manderley was a house! Twelve Oaks from GWTW-it looked like the stereotypical ante-bellum Greek Revival Southern home. Tara seemed nice and comfy,but it seemed more an overgrown farm home,it didn't have the planned symmetry and grace of Twelve Oaks. Some of the Art Deco-styled homes in Joan Crawford's flapper silents were pleasant to look at,but I don't know about living in some of them,they were so huge and sterile. Those staircases,though,like the one in "Our Modern Maidens" when she comes down to dazzle the party in her costume of a few feathers while she does an "Apache" dance. Those were something else! Gloria Swanson had some rococco bedrooms and bathrooms in her silents,Cecil B deMile did more for bringing bathroom decor out of the dark ages than anyone! Loved her shower in "Male And Female" with the hot and cold running water,and also the ROSEwater rinse,of all things! That was a hoot! And some of those beds-especially the ones shaped like swans or gondolas and things! The Miniver's home in "Mrs Miniver". I love that home! So cozy and comfortable and essentially English,without being homely.

You're right about Ann Harding. She never hammed it up. She was an intelligent actress.

That's a thought,regarding the fact that we never learn her name. You put it well-she's defined by her relationships to others,and especially always being in the shadow of the first Mrs deWinter,famed for her beauty and poise. I know that her husband Max had his problems,but he certainly didn't help matters with the poor girl! I suppose that's another given in Gothic-type stories---the big mysterious misunderstanding. There wouldn't be a story if the principals just spit it all out from the beginning and cleared it all up I agree about Joan and Olivia also,but I have to say that their "mousy" still puts many contemporary actresses' versions of "glamor" to shame! That thread sounds great,about movie sets we'd love to live in-Manderley would be up there,and a lot of the Art Deco sets from the Fred & Ginger movies, Twelve Oaks from GWTW, quite a few of the silent sets-especially Gloria Swanson's Cecil B deMille bedrooms and bathrooms. Well,maybe those were better for looking than for living with-I'd need to see some of them again. But in "Male And Female",she had a shower that had cold water,hot water,and rosewater for rinsing! I thought that that was so romantic! And Bebe Daniel's apartment from "Why Change Your Wife" was so cute, with the little hidden bar in the sofa. I think that was a little bottle of Chambord that she broke out when she got Gloria's husband over there in her clutches.