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Vintage Culture - January 2008

James Stewart

January 31st 2008 04:20
Jimmy Stewart

Jimmy Stewart was born May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He left this world July 2, 1997.

Among the many memorable films he starred in were Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Philadelphia Story, It's a Wonderful Life, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Vertigo, Anatomy of a Murder, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and The Shootist.


The way he spoke, with an almost stuttering drawl, usually softly and with great courtesy – it made it seem unreasonable to disagree with him.

He joined the Air Force a year before Pearl Harbor. At first, they would not let him enlist. He didn't weigh enough. But, he began talking to the recruitment officer, and that would have been fun to hear. Did he go on & on, doing a version of the famous filibuster in his movie, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington?. However he did it, eventually the recruiter accepted him.

He won an Oscar for his role in the Philadelphia Story, in 1941. He gave it to his father, who kept it in the window of his hardware store. The store's address was on Philidelphia Street in the hometown where Jimmy was born. Jimmy had been born at home, on that same street.


Distinctive as his voice was, you wouldn't necessarily think of him as a singer. But it was Jimmy Stewart who sang, for the first time, the Cole Porter song “Easy To Love”. Jimmy said, “..the song had become such a big hit that they felt even my singing couldn't ruin it.”

According to Hollywood lore, Jimmy's best friend was Henry Fonda. When young they argued over politics, getting into a fist fight, which Henry won. But when Henry moved to Hollywood he stayed with Jimmy Stewart. At that time they were bachelors, and apparently earned frisky reputations. After they each had married, in later years they appeared to enjoy quietly working in the same room, where they painted model airplanes.

However, they did end up talking politics, from opposite sides of the fence, once again during the McCarthy hearings over Communism. Jimmy felt that Communist influence was a profoundly dangerous influence in the film community, and Henry disagreed, feeling that the hearings, and subsequent blacklistings, were wrong, ruining lives and un-American.

Their argument was so bitter, according to family, that they pulled back from it rather than lose the friendship between them that had endured decades....

As he aged, his hearing started to fail significantly. On the set of the The Shootist it was said that the difficult acoustics on the sound stages made it difficult for the actor to hear his cues. John Wayne had a similar problem (The Shootist was his final film). The director of the movie, Don Siegel, suppposedly told the two of them that they just weren't trying hard enough.

John Wayne replied to the director, “If you'd like the scene done better, you'd better get a couple of better actors.”

His visits to the Johnny Carson show were charming, and youtube has at least one:

Jimmy Stewart

Some of his best quotes are:

“There ought to be a law against any man who doesn't want to marry Myrna Loy.”

On John Wayne, “ I can't imagine there's anyone in the country who doesn't know who he is. Kids will be talking about him long after the rest of us are gone. John will make the history books, as Will Rogers did, because he has lived his life to reflect the ideals of his country.”

On himself, “I'm the inarticulate man who tries. I dont really have all the answers, but for some reason, somehow, I make it.”

On his fiftieth birthday Jimmy Stewart gave a speech at a Boy Scout dinner. He had been a Boy Scout (I remember the commercials they used to have – President Jimmy Carter was in one...)

He spoke of an America that was vanishing...

“Through the years Indiana has been something of tremendous importance in my life. It's true there is something special about the place where you were raised – your hometown.


“I have found through the years during the times when I've been here in Indiana that almost every direction I look, and so many faces I see, immediately cause a picture to be formed of an event, a happening in my life that I remember well.

“I think the main thing that has kept Indiana so close to my heart is the fact that Indiana has been, and still is, the headquarters of Mr. Alex Stewart and his family...My father has been almost fanatical in his determination to keep our family together- and he has done it. Time and distance haven't seemed to have affected this headquarters in Indiana.

“I've settled down three thousand miles from Indiana. I've traveled to points in the world three times that distance. At times I've stayed away several years at a stretch, but I somehow have never felt that I was very far from here...somehow I don't feel that I have ever been away.”


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Jean Harlow

January 29th 2008 02:06
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow

She was the laughing vamp.
Jean Harlow and Chico Marx
Jean Harlow and Chico Marx

She was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter on March 3, 1911 in Kansas City Missouri.
She was 26 years old when she passed away, so very early.
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow

Contrary to what a viewer might think from her movie roles, she was not born or raised in an impoverished environment.
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow


Harlean's childhood home was the second home owned by her grandfather. She was an adored only child called “Baby”. Her mother Jean filed for an unconstested divorce in 1922 (!) and moved the family to Hollywood. But Jean Harlow's mother did not succeed as an actress and returned to Kansas City after about two years.
Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
Jean Harlow and Clark Gable

Jean (still Harlean) was 15 years old when a friend introduced her to Charles McGrew, heir to a fortune, in 1926. They fell in love and married in 1927.
Jean Harlow

When “Chuck” was 21 the newlyweds moved to L.A. There Jean befriended a young woman who wanted to be a star. Jean gave her new friend a ride to Fox Studio and was hired on contract right then. As her film career succeeded, the marriage failed.

Howard Hughes met her and signed her to a five year contract, beginning with the movie Hell's Angels.

MGM executive Paul Bern talked Irving Thalberg into buying her contract from Hughes. She was only 21 years old.

A cute video of Harlow at youtube is here

While filming the movie Red Dust, Paul Bern, now Harlow's husband, was found dead. Whether it was suicide, or of other causes, is still unknown. MGM put out the story that Mr. Bern committed suicide because of sexual inadaquacy. Jean didn't comment. Later stories have said that he was murdered by a former lover.

Harlow began a torrid affair with Max Baer, who was still married.

MGM's strategy to diffuse the situation was to marry Harlow to Harold Rosson, a film cinemetographer.

(Yes, the studios had that kind of power....)

Jean and Harold were friends when they married, and friends still, seven months later when they divorced.

Then Ms. Harlow fell in love with actor William Powell. Though their relationship lasted several years, reported differences concerning wanting children (she wanted, he did not) ended the affair.

She gave a fine performance in Dinner At Eight, and unfortunately, turned down the Fay Wray part in King Kong. That would have been fun to watch.

She was Godmother to Bugsy Siegal's daughter. And she once said, “Men like me because I don't wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don't look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.”

One can only imagine what she might have done if she had lived longer.

In 1937 she began to suffer more frequent illness', including kidney disease. She had survived scarlet fever when a teenager, and this may have predisposed her to a weaker immune system. But, in 1937 there was no cure or treament for kidney disease.

Jean Harlow wrote a book, entitled Today is Tonight. The rights to the book were sold to MGM, but they never made the book into a film. Jean Harlow's mother left novel publication rights to a family friend, and the book was publixhed in 1965, nearly 30 years after her death.

Is she still an icon of the brassy, excuse me, Platinum Blond created by Hollywood? You could ask Madonna or Gwen Stephani.

Or, you could read Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, p. 279,

“Ma tells us this house used to be a shop, that Laman Griffin's mother sold groceries throught the little window and that's how she was able to send Laman away to Rockwell College so that he could wind up as an officer in the Royal Navy. Oh, he was, indeed. An officer in the Royal Navy, and here's a picture of him with other officers all having dinner with a famous American film star Jean Harlow. He was never the same after he met Jean Harlow. He fell madly in love with her but what was the use? She was Jean Harlow and he was nothing but an officer in the Royal Navy and it drove him to drink and they threw him out of the Navy. Now look at him, a common laborer ...”

Ah, the glare that blights a life, just from sharing a dinner table with a Platinum Blonde....
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Frank Sinatra

January 27th 2008 00:12
Frank Time Magazine
Frank, Time Magazine

He was a great singer and actor. He was involved with the mob ( at least according to the FBI files.. including, when buying into the Cal-Neva Casino, funding from Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters, among others....... FBI) and he fought racism long before a lot of folks seemed to agree with him Clark County Library - Memories.
(If Sammy Davis, Jr. didn't enter a joint by the front door, Sinatra wouldn't be back.)
Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Roosevelt
Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Roosevelt


When Mario Puzo wrote "The Godfather", the character of Johnny Fontaine was based on Frank Sinatra. Accurately, according to most.

He was born Francis Albert Sinatra on December 12, 1915. When he was being evaluated for the draft for WWII (he was 4F for an ear injury), his criminal record came up, showing him guilty of adultery.
The Rat Pack
The Rat Pack

Those were different times....

He was Ol' Blue Eyes, The Chairman of the Board, and the leader of the Rat Pack. He was an incredible musician, sometimes petty and mean, other times brave and generous. Volatile seems a little too mild a word for his personality.

There's a great video of pictures of him, while he sings, at Really Long Link

He lived his life as passionately as he sang his songs. He married his first wife, Nancy, before he became an icon. His second wife was the stunning Ava Gardner.
Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner
Frank Sinatra & Ava Gardner
His third was the waifish Mia Farrow (who also married Andre Previn, and had a long and turbulent relatinship with Woody Allen).
Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow
Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow
His fourth wife was Barbara Marx, widow of Harpo Marx, and there was a tumultuous relatinship between his children and his last wife.

As beloved as he became with rockers, doing duets with Bono among others, at the time of Elvis Presley arriving on the rock scene, Sinatra said “The most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicous form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear.”

Eventually, Frank Sinatra would record Elvis' Love Me Tender.

In 1966 writer Gay Talese Esquirewrote a profile on Sinatra for Esquire, “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold”, that is one of the best personal journalism pieces ever. Here's a sample, about Sinatra in a bar, and his song "In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning", comes on,

“It is a lovely ballad that he first recorded ten years ago, and it now inspired many young couples who had been sitting, tired to twisting, to get up and move slowly around the dance floor, holding one another very close. Sinatra's intonation, precisely clipped, yet full and flowing, gave a deeper meaning to the simply lyrics – 'In the wee small hours of the morning/while the whole wide world is fast asleep/you lie awake, and think about the girl...” -- it was like so many of his classics, a song that evoked loneliness and sensuality, and when blended with the dim light and the alcohol and nicotine and late-night needs, it became a kind of airy aphrodisiac.“
Frank
Frank


On January 22, 2008 Lew Spence who had written Sinatra standards (“Nice n Easy, and “That Face”), passed away at age 87. Living memories of the culture are passing...

The Sinatra Family's website classily, opens currently with a farewell to actress Suzanne Pleshette. Sinatra sings “I'll Be Seeing You” to her...

Frank Sinatra passed in 1998 at the age of 80.
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What's on your Vintage Trends wishlist?

January 25th 2008 05:30
7 Vintage Trends and Items I wish would make a new millennium comeback.


hula hoop
The Hula-Hoop


Fashions come and go, but there are certain “vintage” items that have a timeless appeal. Plenty of trends and faces of days gone by have had a second wave of popularity, sometimes subsiding forever, other times recurring with each new generation.

Slowly a few dedicated followers increase the public consciousness and the masses embrace something from yesteryear. Sadly today when it happens it means commercialization, that’s why brand names like Elvis, Sinatra and Monroe never fade.

For instance, in recent years Burlesque, The Rat Pack and Betty Page have resurfaced in the mass media and the general population. That’s not say that they ever disappeared from view, but their just seems to be a heightened enthusiasm occurring.

Certain trends that were born long before me have captured my imagination over the years. Shaped by a romanticism of more innocent times here is a list of defining obsessions from the past I wish would make a comeback.

Fedora hats
Fedora hats


Fedora Hats
Indiana Jones wore one and ever since I glimpsed pictures of their hey day I have been waiting for the stylish felt headwear to become haute couture.

Vintage Car
Sleek and easy to exit


Sideboard runners on cars
More than just Gangster favourites, the retro appeal look of these built to last beasts makes me wonder why they never returned after the Tommy Gun ceased to be an optional extra.

Radio Shows
From the comedy voices of the Goons to the exciting adventures of Superman, listening to a story told purely through voice over the radio may sound quaint. With the advent of CD several long lost gems reappeared on the market and they have captured my imagination. The concept is simple but having skilful talent on the other end of the microphone means you can listen to the tale told with emotive passion and inventive sound techniques.

montgomery clift
Montgomery Clift


Montgomery Clift
Everyone seems to worship Marlon Brando and James Dean as the end word pioneers of method realism in acting. I’m the first to bow humbled to their talents but the truth is they both were inspired and enamoured by one man, Montgomery Clift. He was more sensitive and powerful at physically communicating the extremes of the human condition. He sacrificed for his craft as few have and bared his turmoil filled psyche onscreen to birth what Dean and Brando imitated.

Sense of Community
Idealism is a powerful thing and when I think back to the first half of the 20th century it is not history that tells me things were better before civil rights, but stories that I heard from the older generation all my life. They tell of a time when people still respected one another and contributed to the neighbourhood they lived in without thought for retribution or rebuke. Crime was less rampant and there was a sense of kinship with those around you, oh to dream.

Skat
Now I know that if you go to a jazz bar you may here someone skatting up and down the scales to some groovy beat. What I want is for the style to make a return to mainstream pop and with it an infectious rhythm may sweep the music world once more.

Speakeasy bar
SpeakEasy Bar


Speakeasy Bars
Granted we would need another prohibition era or extreme political upheaval to truly capture the essence of the depression era speakeasy bars. That doesn’t change the fact that flashing back to an age of underground jazz, Burlesque and sipping on illegal brew sounds appealing. Uncensored discussions about cultural problems, beliefs and personal quagmires, shame the image is probably a far cry from reality.


So do you have a vintage trend that needs a comeback?
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Billie Holiday

January 24th 2008 00:02
Mistreated, disrespected Soul


Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday 1915 - 1959

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Evelyn West and her Treasure Chest

January 23rd 2008 13:33
Evelyn West in a black top
A little bit of old fashioned burlesque for this dark Saturday night: one of the most notable burlesque dancers from the Golden Age was Evelyn West, known as 'Evelyn Treasure Chest West'.

Why? West was endowed with a voluptuous body, featuring, most prominently, natural breasts that were so spectacular, she had them insured with Lloyd's of London for $50 000


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Barbie So Much More Than A Doll

January 23rd 2008 00:31
Barbie
Barbie

As Mattel says, “She's more than a doll.”

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Vampira’s Last Bite

January 18th 2008 00:56
Maila Nurmi R.I.P

Vampira RIP
Vampira's Coffin

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Burt Lancaster

January 16th 2008 03:13
The Brute Artisan.

burt lancaster
Burt Lancaster

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Ann-Margaret

January 11th 2008 00:05
Blazing Kitten


Ann Margaret
Ann Margaret - Undeniable beauty

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Tuesday Weld

January 9th 2008 00:02
Unsung Blush


Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld

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Maureen O Hara

January 5th 2008 07:38
Red headed force

maureen o'hara
Irish Vixen maureen O'Hara

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