cigarjoe Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 I know that it evolved from safety reasons when there was a massive influx of women doing dangerous jobs during WWII. But come on scarves and hair nets would have been preferable to this: Veronica Lake Rita Hayworth Ann Sheridan Joan Crawford Gloria Grahame No? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Yeah, well one might think so NOW, but back THEN? Ya gotta think that not long BEFORE that, the big thing was the MARCEL! (for some reason, no matter how small the image, TCM tells me it exceeds what I'm "allowed" to enter, so my image example isn't available). I remember a photo of my Grandmother and her sister( my great-Aunt Mary) that was taken of them when they got back from "the city" (Pittsburgh) with their new "Marcels". Even SHE used to laugh at it! BTW--MEN'S hair wasn't faring much better back then too. Heh... my CAR has less oil in it! Sepiatone 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedracer5 Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 I agree. The "Ethel Mertz" hairstyle (as I call it) adds at least 10 years, if not 15, to the leading lady's appearance. Last night I watched Without Honor (1949) with Laraine Day. Day looked really pretty in The Locket (1946), but in this film she had the Ethel Mertz 'do and she looked so much more matronly. I thought that Agnes Moorehead was more glamorous. Barbara Stanwyck had this same hairstyle in Jeopardy. Add the hair with her emerging smokers voice and Stanwyck aged 20 years in the decade since Ball of Fire. I wouldn't have even recognized Veronica Lake in that top photo. I don't know why anyone would want this hairstyle. It seems like it'd be more maintenance than long hair. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinemaspeak59 Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Today, going to great lengths to make one appear as unattractive as possible is Oscar bait. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terrence1 Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Cinemaspeak, you make a very good point. Just look at Charlize Theron and Susan Hayward! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickAndNora34 Posted November 3, 2018 Share Posted November 3, 2018 16 hours ago, speedracer5 said: I agree. The "Ethel Mertz" hairstyle (as I call it) adds at least 10 years, if not 15, to the leading lady's appearance. Last night I watched Without Honor (1949) with Laraine Day. Day looked really pretty in The Locket (1946), but in this film she had the Ethel Mertz 'do and she looked so much more matronly. I thought that Agnes Moorehead was more glamorous. Barbara Stanwyck had this same hairstyle in Jeopardy. Add the hair with her emerging smokers voice and Stanwyck aged 20 years in the decade since Ball of Fire. I wouldn't have even recognized Veronica Lake in that top photo. I don't know why anyone would want this hairstyle. It seems like it'd be more maintenance than long hair. Mary Astor looked older than her years in "Maltese Falcon" (1941) because of her hairdo. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scsu1975 Posted November 3, 2018 Share Posted November 3, 2018 12 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said: Mary Astor looked older than her years in "Maltese Falcon" (1941) because of her hairdo. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sukhov Posted November 3, 2018 Share Posted November 3, 2018 Still a better haircut than Merle Oberon's in Wuthering heights. Just look at that forehead. It looks like she's balding. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tikisoo Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 All long hair does (vs short hair) is distract from any facial flaws. It takes a super beautiful, even featured face to pull off short hair well...for example young beauty Ann Hathaway. MM's regular 'do was very "designed" and specific to flatter her face until THE MISFITS, ugh. Notice in the first picture, the widest area of her hair is along her eye line? That brings attention to her beautiful eyes. Just a wisp of hair across her forehead "cuts" the large, open area, making it smaller. "The Misfits" 'do is just a blob of stiff lifeless wig hanging there like a blonde square with the giant stiff curl along her chin/mouth. (similarly to Stanwyck's ugly Double Indemnity wig) Look around-almost all gals under 30 you see these days have their hair severely pulled back to a ponytail-because they don't want to bother styling it. Sorry, you ain't no Ann Hathaway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkblue Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 Is there anything that can't be sold to women? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted November 4, 2018 Author Share Posted November 4, 2018 Tiki you're up early.... Thanks for explaining about hair, who would have thunk it. Anyway I had to look up who Anne Hathaway was, the only film I remember her from is The Devil Wears Prada, My wife likes it and re watches it. I've seen Interstellar but wasn't impressed and don't remember Anne in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 2 hours ago, darkblue said: Is there anything that can't be sold to women? UMMmmmm........ SENSIBLE SHOES comes to mind. And, IMHO, those BANGS Stanwyck had in DOUBLE INDEMNITY wasn't doing her any favors. I've seen OLD PHOTOS of my ex where she was sporting bangs like those. But, she was TWELVE at the time. And because it was all that could be done with them after she tried to trim them herself and FUDGED it up! Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingrat Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 Just watched the Ginger Rogers/Henry Fonda/Cesar Romero story from Tales of Manhattan, and I have to make two observations: 1) Ginger Rogers handles the very stylized dialogue as if she were the finest light comic actress on Broadway--we know how good Henry Fonda is, but can forget how good Ginger is, too; and 2) Ginger has another of those horribly unfortunate helmet hairdos. She deserves better. I can never see these hairdos without thinking of Carol Burnett as Eunice, but that was the point of Eunice's character, wasn't it? Tiki, thanks for explaining the difference in the two Marilyn Monroe pictures. In the first picture the beautiful honey blonde hair, so attractively styled, sets off her features perfectly, and the black sweater is just right. Marilyn looks as much like an attractive real woman as she does like a screen goddess. The wig from The Misfits is harsh and makes her look cheap, and the dress also looks cheap (maybe that was the idea for the character?). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted November 5, 2018 Author Share Posted November 5, 2018 7 hours ago, kingrat said: The wig from The Misfits is harsh and makes her look cheap, and the dress also looks cheap (maybe that was the idea for the character?). Yea that's what I was thinking also. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 A bit off track, but.... I remember a "smoking" session..(smoking what I'll leave to your imaginations ) where some of us came up with.... Instead of PETE BEST, GEORGE MARTIN or BRIAN EPSTEIN being tagged as "The 5th Beatle", it should either be--- MOE HOWARD or ISH KABIBBLE! Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tikisoo Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 8 hours ago, kingrat said: Ginger has another of those horribly unfortunate helmet hairdos. She deserves better. I can never see these hairdos without thinking of Carol Burnett as Eunice, but that was the point of Eunice's character, wasn't it? ? Woo boy do I agree about Ginger's hair. Once you put all those lights on, hair can photograph "frizzy". Ginger's hair must have been dry & fine because too often stylists "hardened" her hair. I always wondered if they did that to keep it smooth looking on camera to hide the flyaways/frizzies that ALL hair has? On 11/4/2018 at 5:41 AM, darkblue said: Is there anything that can't be sold to women? Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Women, especially actresses will do just about anything to look good on camera since audiences are so quick to judge them by their appearance, it's an anxiety producing priority. And I agree MM tarted herself up to look cheesy for that role, very brave of her considering how people unfairly judge women's appearance, especially weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonCole Posted November 12, 2018 Share Posted November 12, 2018 On 11/4/2018 at 5:51 AM, cigarjoe said: Tiki you're up early.... Thanks for explaining about hair, who would have thunk it. Anyway I had to look up who Anne Hathaway was, the only film I remember her from is The Devil Wears Prada, My wife likes it and re watches it. I've seen Interstellar but wasn't impressed and don't remember Anne in it. Is Anne Hathaway supposed to be attractive? Who'd have thunk that also. I think she looks a bit like a muppet with that gigantic wide mouth which reminds me of the Joker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dargo Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 "What were they thinking"? Now, I could be wrong here, but I THINK what women were thinking back in the 1940's and the 1950's when the trend was for those short permanent hairstyles was that "only girls and very young women were supposed to have long hair", and that "the older women who still sported long hair were either 'unsophisticated' or were from the 'lower classes'". (...in fact, I think I remember my mother holding of this very idea back during that time) 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 Y'know, come to think of it Darg, I just think it's that by that time they're pretty much tired of all the rig-a-ma-rol required to take care of the longer locks. And that older women who still sport long hair either can't afford to get it cut, or too vain to let go. Depends too, I suppose, if the ladies have minds of their own after a while, or still allow themselves(like a lot of people, men OR women) to be dictated by social "trends". Sepiatone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 Here was the ultimate distillation of that look 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepiatone Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Good one, Joe. And a reminder that it wasn't only WOMEN who need be questioned about THEIR choices when it came to hairstyles. Remember those times when, while watching some flick from the '30's and certain years in the '50's that made you wonder.... "Is there MORE oil in their SALADS than in their HAIR? Or vice-versa?" Sepiatone 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted December 14, 2018 Author Share Posted December 14, 2018 It just came to me that Judy Garland was another, I seem to remember for years seeing her on TV she sported that same cropped look. she looks great in these two examples. compared to say I know she is a lot older in the above photo but I remember seeing her in the early 1960s when she was in her late 30s on TV with pretty much the same unchanging do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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