Let Yourself Go ... To Old Hollywood

Perspectives on glamour and Hedy Lamarr

A famous quote on classic Hollywood glamour photography is attributed to 1940s movie star and inventor Hedy Lamarr:

Just stand still and look stupid.

Later variants expanded this to "Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." (See quoteinvestigator.com.)

Recently, I ran across some quotes from two prominent Hollywood glamour photographers who worked with Hedy Lamarr (from the 1985 book People Will Talk, by John Kobal). These top photographers' perspectives are an interesting contrast to Lamarr's.

George Hurrell in 1969, whose "pictures came to define Hollywood glamour photography, not to mention the dreams of millions of star-struck moviegoers", (according to a 1990 New York Times article):

I shot pretty much everybody I wanted, except Clara Bow, she came too early. That's one I missed; too bad, 'cause she was such a lively gal and she had so much of it. Not like Hedy [Lamarr]. I didn't get too much out of Hedy because she was so static. Stunning. But it was the nature of her, she was so phlegmatic, she didn't project anything. It was just a mood thing. And she had just one style. It didn't vary particularly.

Laszlo Willinger in 1979, who "devoted his career to taking pictures of illustrious personalities, and was recognized as one of Hollywood’s top photographers" (according to a 1989 AP obituary):

How do you make Hedy Lamarr sexy? She has nothing to give. It wasn't as simple as showing legs or cleavage. She was not very adept at posing. She was just ... She felt that if she sat there, that was enough. You try to bring it to life by changing the lighting, moving in closer to the head, whatever, because nothing changed in her face. It never occurred to me that one could wake her up... and nobody ever did.

A view into Fox Films just before the 1935 merger with 20th Century

While researching my essay on Elinor Norton (1934), I came across a full page ad for Fox Film Corporation from the January 2, 1935 Los Angeles Times. This fascinating ad is a view into the last months of this major studio.

Just a few months later, Fox was taken over by upstart independent studio 20th Century, run by the legendary producer Darryl Zanuck. For nearly a century after that, 20th Century-Fox was one of the preeminent Hollywood studios. (Alas, 20th Century-Fox met its own demise just a couple years ago when Disney swallowed them up.)

Look the ad over carefully. Examine the planned 1935-36 productions of Fox Films. Note their stars. Note their featured players, directors, writer, producers, etc. If I knew more of their later history, that overhead view of their Movietone City campus would be equally fascinating.

Here is the full ad. Click on the image to bring up the full size version.

For more legibility, expand these images of the top and bottom halves of the ad:

End of one film writing era. Beginning of another?

My Facebook movie writings ceased after September 2015, with "The Animal Kingdom" being my final film post on Facebook. I had been finding it very hard to keep up with our viewing. To help, in August of that year, I started keeping a list of films we watched, so I could keep track of which ones I still needed to write about.

But it soon became clear I had no hope of keeping up. Looking at the list, I watched ten films in September 2015, but I only wrote three posts. In addition becoming discouraged from falling behind, I was boring myself with my unimaginative prose. I did not know how to write about films. I still don't know, but I am going to try again. And hopefully I will get better as I go along.

Encouragingly, I've actually managed to keep up that list of films. So now I have a comprehensive list of films I have watched going back over three years--dominated by old Hollywood films from the 1930s and 1940s. And using my old Facebook posts, I can re-construct a mostly-complete list back another year. If I ever get around to diving into my Netflix DVD history, I may be able to go back even further, though with less precise dates, which should cover my entire history of strong interest in classic films.

As my list continues to grow, I plan resume writing about the old Hollywood films I add to it, and related subjects I find interesting.

Favorite actresses and actors of classic Hollywood

The single event that kick-started my interest in classic Hollywood was my discovery of Preston Sturges' great films of the 1940s very early in this decade. I was always searching for good, fun, diverting comedies to watch, and we had pretty much exhausted the limited supply of modern ones.

But I didn't really become a full-fledged classic Hollywood fan until my discovery of Fred Astaire a couple years later, in September 2013. The previously mysterious Ginger Rogers--who I of course had heard of, but alas had never seen a film of prior to late 2013--very soon became my favorite actress.

As I explored more and more films from the 1930s and 1940s, my list of favorites grew. My list has changed modestly over these last few years, but currently these are my favorite actors and actresses of that era, and hence of all time.

Actresses:

Ginger Rogers still is at the top of my list. Judy Garland, as the only other actress I know besides Ginger who was fabulous at four talents--drama, comedy, singing, dancing--has been in the next position for years, but Ida Lupino is up there with her now. Amazingly it wasn't until 2017 that I started seeing a significant number of Ida's films. I had taken notice of her right away, but full appreciation of her work took a while to break into my consciousness. Glenda Farrell, despite not getting many lead roles, is next thanks to her brilliant comic persona.

The next tier consists of Joan Blondell, Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis. On occasion I think Myrna Loy and Kay Francis may graduate into this tier, but I don't think I can put them there yet. Alice Brady deserves an honorable mention as well.

Actors:

Fred Astaire is obviously at the top. William Powell was an earlier discovery, though, as I found My Man Godfrey and The Thin Man a year or two before the Astaire-Rogers movies. Right below these two are Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Cary Grant, Dick Powell, Lionel Barrymore, and Edward Everett Horton. Honorable mention goes to Jack Carson, Joel McCrea, Don Ameche, and perhaps a few others.

A beginning

The purpose of this writing platform is to provide me a place to put my thoughts on subjects related to classic films and "Old Hollywood"--that semi-mythical place that existed from, roughly, the 1920s through the 1950s. Of course I may venture onto other, hopefully somewhat related, subjects at times.

As I've learned, Facebook isn't really an useful place to collect such thoughts, as it is best for personal notes and photos. Twitter has a great community of classic film fans, but doesn't provide the space to write much beyond the briefest thoughts. Far worse, those are platforms with huge problems related to abuse and fake accounts. Furthermore, they can lock you out or otherwise restrict access to your writings at any time, now or down the road.

So back to the Web.

I've blogged before, mostly about political topics, back in the heyday of personal blogging in the mid-2000s, before the rise of social media. So I realize it can be a lot of work to do well. It also can be very rewarding, and I hope to be able to get back to it periodically.