Gone with the Wind

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Ladies and Gents!

Happy (half hour early) St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! In honor of this holiday, I’m going to repost the most Irish-related post I’ve ever published. It is (surprisingly to me), one of the most popular posts on this blog. It’s a post in which I poured my heart out, the post many of you have loved and read, and the post in which I famously lost my shit. I STILL can’t believe some of the things I wrote in this post. The post I’m talking about my dears, is, of course, the post in which I reviewed Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley, the awful stinker of an authorized sequel to GWTW. So reread, relaugh, and enjoy!!

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a diehard “Windie” (Gone with the Wind fan). I’ve read the 1,037 page book (my second-favorite of all time, after Les Miserables), about six times, and I’ve lost count as to how many times I’ve seen the film. I just know that it’s over 20. And if you’ve been looking at my sidebar, you might have noticed that I’ve been reading “Scarlett” a sequel to GWTW authorized by the Margaret Mitchell Estate and written by Southern romance author Alexandra Ripley. I’ve heard VERY mixed reviews on this book, so I thought that I had to read and judge it for myself. I don’t believe in any sequels unless they are written by the original author, so I read this for pure entertainment, and to see just how good it is. Well…I’m sorry to say that the negative hype that had always surrounded the book is 100% true in my opinion. The book gradually got harder and harder to read, there were weeklong periods where I would neglect it in favor of doing something else, and it became a serious drag by the end. When I finished it last night, I was so physically exhausted in such a bad way, as though I had been put through the wringer. Now I present to you my “list of grievances”, every single thing I found wrong with this travesty.

GWTW Became Commercialized: The Mitchell Estate made a BIG mistake when choosing Alexandra Ripley as author of their proposed GWTW sequel. Yes, she, like Mitchell, was a Southern writer. But she, unlike Mitchell, wrote fluffy romance novels. You know, the ones that your mother or other female family member enjoyed and that you liked to flip through when she wasn’t looking. This sequel was so…commercialized and mass-market. It was cheap. “Scarlett” is nothing but an overly-long “bodice ripper” romance or 1980s Harlequin romance with some of Mitchell’s characters thrown in, and Ripley’s illogical creations thrown in there as well. I’m sure you’ve come across fan fiction. This book is like a really REALLY bad, really REALLY long fan fiction.

Ripley is not Mitchell: As I’ve stated above, nothing really ties the two authors together. Why Ripley was chosen, I have no idea. As I plowed through the stupid book, I couldn’t help but question if Ripley actually read and studied Mitchell’s work before attempting to work with her material and characters. It was that ludicrous! Considering the thin storyline, the book was much too long–823 pages–and felt much longer than the four-figure page number of the original. That’s a problem. The “drama” was so forced, as though Ripley had a page requirement to fill. Did she think that writing a long book would make her novel as much of an epic as Mitchell’s? That’s the most laughable idea imaginable! But Ripley made no bones about it. She said herself that she took on the assignment only to bolster her own fame and so “everyone can listen to every damn thing she had to say”, to paraphrase a quote of hers. I have no clue how this hot mess made it past the publishers! These were my thoughts after reading about a quarter of the book, but I have an annoying habit of seeing every book I read till the end, and I secretly hoped to find something of merit in the novel, so I marched onward. To be completely honest, if you changed the names “Scarlett and Rhett” to something else and placed the book in cheap romance section of the bookstore, then this book would’ve been passable (a 2 out of 5) but since it is the sequel to the greatest American novel of all time, it’s simply horrible! Ms Mitchell does not deserve to have her work desecrated and cheapened in this way. The writing is nothing like hers, and the characters don’t retain their personalities. At. All. It’s unethical for someone else to take another author’s work and mess around with their plot, settings, and characters. However, this is not entirely Ripley’s fault. She was commissioned to write this (what happened in the book though, is her fault). As a reviewer on Amazon said, “There is no such thing as a sequel to a masterpiece”.

The Plot: In a nutshell, it is ludicrous, laughable, unbelievable, and downright boring and pointless. It gets rid of all the characters we know and love, gives us a bunch of stupid new ones, and takes the action from Georgia to Ireland. IRELAND?! Anyway, in GWTW all the actions and dialogue carried some weight or meaning and helped to propel the novel forward. In “Scarlett”, all the actions were absolutely meaningless, the dialogue was stupefyingly cliched and forced, and it combined to make a story more stagnant than an algae-infested swamp in the middle of July. Nothing leads to nothing (I never understood that line from King Lear until now) and the characters do not develop whatsoever. They’re still the same insipid things we started out with on page one. All 823 pages are filled with tea parties, balls, hunts, dances, musicales, and house parties that lead to scenic NOWHERE. All of it can be removed and there would be no difference in the action of the story. But the actions that do propel the story forward are so unbelievable and bizarre. There is no detail (save who wore what and who said what at whose party), and none of that sweeping, grand imagery in GWTW.

Scarlett Sells Tara: Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?! Sorry for the language, but there are some times in which it is needed. And this is one of those times. Tara was Scarlett’s lifeblood, her sanctuary, her place to go when she needed to get away from it all and find peace and renewed energy. She loved Tara more than she loved herself; it was a crucial theme of the original novel. She did anything for it, even marry men she didn’t love just to build it back to its former greatness. However, Ripley has Scarlett sell Tara without a second thought. In a heartbeat. In the blink of an eye. Suddenly, she feels that she “doesn’t belong” at Tara. THE FUCK?! And she doesn’t sell it to just anyone. She sells it to Suellen. The sister she always hated with all her heart. The sister who did not understand the value of Tara in GWTW. That is a shocking shame and insult to fans of the novel and the film.

The Characters: Ripley makes quick work of getting rid of Mitchell’s beloved, lively characters and stuffing in droves of her own boring, flat, two-dimensional ones instead. Not only are all the characters seriously under-developed and remain the same from beginning to end, but they have a really bad habit of coming in at random moments and disappearing suddenly, never to be heard from again. Not even like, five chapters into the book, Mammy is killed off (because she would just get in the way of Scarlett’s misadventures later on in the book). Ashley, Aunt Pitty, Wade, Ella, Will Benteen, Suellen…everyone is thrown away as soon as possible. Nor does Scarlett seem to care. I really would’ve liked to see how she keeps her promise to Melanie from the end of GWTW, but do you think that even crossed Ripley’s mind? No, sir. All of Mitchell’s marvelous characters are killed off or ignored. It’s so upsetting, and obviously reeks of cheap romance novel. All the characters are thrust into the most bizarre and unbelievable situations imagined, that it’s actually kind of funny that someone could’ve thought of this and write it on paper without thinking “this is stupid.” No one, absolutely no one, not even Scarlett and Rhett, are complex or compelling, and are more like weak, diluted shadows of their former selves or knockoff clones of Mitchell’s original characters. Anne Hampton (who Rhett MARRIES in the book!!!) is a bad Melanie clone, Luke Fenton is a bad clone of Rhett and Scarlett’s daughter by Rhett, Cat, is an even worse, freaky clone of Bonnie. It’s all such utter nonsense.

Scarlett: She is so stupid, whiny, irritating, and a poor, mere shadow of the strong spitfire we loved in GWTW. In a masquerade ball (one of the many), she is so stupid she doesn’t even recognize Rhett! She also suddenly renounces her genteel upbringing and ladylike veneer and becomes an Irish peasant who refuses to wear a corset or a fancy gown (instead she’s happy with tacky colored petticoats and striped stockings. Uhh, this isn’t Pippi Longstocking, Alexandra Ripley), receives guests barefoot, has no furniture in her house, dances jigs in the street, spits in her hands, and engages in extramarital sex. Yep, she’s turned into an animal. The Scarlett here is utterly mindless, and none of the growth and maturity from GWTW is present here. Scarlett, who was hard-headed, unimaginative, and full of common sense, suddenly takes an interest in superstition, magic and mysticism (which the book is rife with). In GWTW, Scarlett renounces religion and has trouble understanding the minds of the people around her. So now she blindly believes the fairy tales people tell her? This magic crap started when she went to Ireland (because the official religion of Ireland is magic, obviously), and shot through the roof after a creepy-ass witch lady gives her a caesarean with the kitchen knife on Halloween night. And the witch lady heals her with her magical spells. What the fuck is this? Harry Potter? And what is the wonderful name she gives her child? CAT. You know, after those things that meow. And then she suddenly becomes the world’s most loving, caring, and doting mother to Cat, after she practically alienated her other three children from her in GWTW and continues to abandon Wade and Ella in this sequel! Does Ripley think we’re stupid or something? Her own plot is so riddled with holes that it even contradicts itself! Also while in Ireland, she doesn’t realize that a civil war is brewing right under her nose, even though she’s already been through one! And suddenly, Scarlett is secretly supporting the Fenian Brotherhood and inviting Charles Parnell to her house (I don’t know if Ripley was trying to be all smartass on us and sneak in a Gable reference) when she would literally sleep with her eyes open every time politics was mentioned in the original. What’s even more annoying is that the Irish in the book are so fake and pagan that they worship Scarlett as some sort of savior or goddess, calling her “The O’Hara” (great title, huh?) and she becomes so…nice. Scarlett, that famously flawed, selfish, spoiled brat starts doing benevolent things for people without a greedy ulterior motive. This rebirth of Scarlett as this golden soul was a TOTAL FAIL and reflected no understanding at all of Mitchell’s work. The ending of the book is totally implausible and laughable, to say it nicely (I might as well reveal the end, no one deserves to go through the entire book to find out). The townspeople (yeah, Scarlett builds her own town on the O’Hara’s former land…Ballyhara. Can it get any dumber?) rebel against Scarlett, accusing her and her daughter of witchcraft (WTF?!) They burn her town down and go looking for her, pitchforks and torches in hand. Meanwhile, she reunites with Rhett (who just happens to randomly appear in Ireland) and escapes with him and Cat to hide from the dissenters in a creepy, old tower that’s apparently haunted by a ghost, where she wants to do nothing but have sex on the stone floor with Rhett, while her child sleeps like, a foot away from them, and her town is in flames around them. My mind cannot even begin to describe how stupid this ending was.

Rhett: No longer the witty, sarcastic scoundrel that captured the hearts and minds of women everywhere, Rhett loses all of his masculinity and becomes so attached to his mother that it’s unnatural. He becomes so serious and kind of a wimp, not the reckless dashing blackguard of GWTW. After living through a storm at sea while going on an innocent boating excursion with Scarlett in the beginning of the book, he has sex on the beach with her (WOW). Afterwards he tells her he only did it because they didn’t drown in the boating accident. Then he deserts her on the island. It’s so stupid! And my eyes were glazing over every time I read about how good Rhett looked in his apparently wrinkle-proof sweater. The reader also learns that Rhett goes back to Charleston not only to make amends with his family, but to rebuild his plantation (since when did he even care about his stupid plantation?) and indulge in his new favorite hobby of planting flowers. RHETT BUTLER PLANTING FLOWERS. You read right, unfortunately. And why, oh WHY did he marry that Melanie clone?!?!?!

The Traveling: Scarlett goes wherever she wants: from Tara to Charleston, Charleston to Savannah, America to Ireland, Ireland to America, across the entire country of Ireland…all in the blink of an eye. She instantly pops from place to place like some kind of magician, and the journey across the Atlantic from America to Ireland is of no consequence or importance to her! There was one part in which she journeys across Ireland, forward and back, in one day. By horse. What’s she got, Pegasus? Oh, and Ireland is not the size of your backyard, Alexandra Ripley.

Ireland: How could Scarlett abandon her beloved Tara for Ireland? Wasn’t this the great AMERICAN novel??? It’s absolutely INSULTING to GWTW fans, since Ripley messed around with a cornerstone of American culture and literature by ripping the story out and putting it in a different country. Georgia becomes a distant, painless memory to Scarlett. One of the greatest things about GWTW was the backdrop of the South, with its grandeur and uniquely American attitude. Moving the action to Ireland is ridiculous! Ripley obviously didn’t want to fool with postwar Georgia (because she knew nothing about it), but what she did was blasphemous, since the south was the essence of the novel. As soon as Scarlett met her Irish relations, I knew it going to go downhill from there. And boy, it went downhill like a monstrous avalanche. This book was not only insulting to GWTW fans, but it was insulting to the Irish. I’m not Irish, but I do know many people of Irish descent, and they aren’t superstitious, crazy alcoholics who believe in fairies and leprechauns! She makes it seem like Grimm’s Fairy Tales is the Irish Bible. It destroyed that sense of place and history so prevalent in Mitchell’s original.

The Sex: Being a cheap romance novelist, Ripley tried to add a sex element to her sequel, but failed embarrassingly. Scarlett is turned into an unnaturally beautiful, ageless seductress, even though she’s almost 40 by the time the novel ends. The drunken kiss/attack on Scarlett from Ross Butler (Rhett’s brother) was pointless and downright ridiculous. Scarlett, who famously loathed sex and found the act repulsive, suddenly lured men like a vamp and had extramarital sex with one that she barely knew. After a boating accident, she has sex on the beach with Rhett (which is the cheesiest thing in the entire world). And a scene in which she sensually fondles herself when thinking about Rhett STILL makes my skin crawl.

But I Learned Something From This Book: Now I know why the original story ended where it did. There was simply nothing more to write, no more story to tell. Mitchell took ten years to write GWTW, and she was very tired of it. In her will, she requested that all her notes and manuscripts dealing with GWTW be destroyed. This was faithfully carried out by her husband. We were clearly never meant to know what happens to Scarlett and Rhett. One of the beautiful things about GWTW was that the reader can create their own ending for Scarlett and Rhett. The magic of the novel lies in that cliffhanger, and cemented its timelessness in the hearts of millions.

March 16, 2013 | Categories: Gone with the Wind, Rants, Reviews | Tags: by Carole Irene | 4 Comments »

Liebster Award!

Margaret Perry over at http://thegreatkh.blogspot.co.uk/ has given me a Liebster Award! YAY! The Liebster is given to up-and-coming blogs of 200 followers or less. If you are reading this, Margaret, thank you so much for the honor! So, if you receive a Liebster Award, you must share eleven facts about yourself, answer eleven questions from the blogger who awarded you, and award eleven bloggers of your choice! Here we go:

Eleven Facts About Moi:

1. All of my fingers are double-jointed. I’m like some sort of weird finger contortionist.

2. I’m a voracious reader. My all-time favorite book is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

3. I think peacocks are the most beautiful, fabulous animals in the entire world.

4. My biggest goal is to travel the world. I hope to study abroad for winter intercession next year in either England, France, or Australia!

5. I’ve always loved cartoons, and I still do! My favorites were (and still are) Tom and Jerry, Merrie Melodies, Mickey Mouse, and Looney Tunes. I also love the classic Disney films.

6. I confess I have a strange fascination with the occult and the unknown. I love learning about that stuff.

7. The things I notice first in a guy are his eyes (I love light-colored eyes, blue being my favorite) and his smile.

8. I was originally left-handed, but I was forced to switch to right.

9. My favorite fruit is the clementine, which is quite unfortunate since they’re in season only during the winter

10. My favorite band is Queen. Queen has gotten me through a lot of difficulties!

11. All my clothes have to: 1) have a vintage flair 2) have at least a dash of sparkle. My latest purchase was a black velvet dress with a gold glitter star pattern from Topshop. It sparkles more than the sun or the stars. Best shopping decision I’ve ever made!

Margaret’s Questions:

If you could matchmake two of your favorite stars, who would be your OTP?
Hmmm…so many possibilities come to mind! But I think my OTP (one true pair) would be Myrna Loy and William Powell. Every time I watch them in a film I find myself begging them to get married and have babies already. Or Jean Harlow and Clark Gable, those two make sparks on the screen!

What classic movie would you like to see remade?
None. Modern remakes have a funny way of messing up beloved originals.

What is your favorite film genre, and what are your three favorite films in that genre?
My favorite film genre is the screwball comedy! My favorite screwballs are It Happened One Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, and To Be Or Not To Be.

You have the opportunity to share one classic film with a theatre full of your friends. Which film do you choose?
Gone with the Wind, most definitely!

What one actor/actress do you love so much, you would see a film simply because they are in it?
Clark Gable! I’ve sat through some really shitty films (LIKE THE PAINTED DESERT) just to look at Gabe’s perfect face.

What/who is your favorite animal character from a movie?
I love Asta from The Thin Man series. That dog is such a boss.

What years do you consider to define the era of “classic movies”?
This is a great, hotly disputed question, and as Margaret implies, the answer varies from person to person. I personally consider the classic movie era to be from around 1905-ish to 1960.

Astaire or Kelly? Audrey or Katherine? Bette or Joan? Olivia de Havilland or Joan Fontaine? Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin?
Astaire or Kelly: love them both with all my heart and soul, but I think I will go with Kelly here. It was a close shave, though!
Audrey or Katharine: Easy. Kate the Great of course! I might get crucified for this, but I CAN’T STAND Audrey Hepburn. The most overrated actress who ever lived, if you ask me.
Bette or Joan: I love Bette, but Joan wins this. Sorry Bette, but Joan is my homeslice for life.
Olivia de Havilland or Joan Fontaine: Livvy is my fave sister. She’s an amazing talent and a delight to watch on the screen. From what I’ve seen of Joan Fontaine’s work, she seems a lot more…forced…than her sister. Just look at the faces she makes in Rebecca and you’ll see what I mean.

Who is your favorite Barrymore?
My fave Barrymore is definitely Lionel. He’s like an old cuddly teddy bear! Who seriously knows how to act.

What is your favorite silent movie? Who is your favorite silent movie star?
Oh geez, this is a toughie. I’m gonna bend the rules here and give two favorite silent movies: Metropolis and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. I’m gonna bend the rules again with my favorite silent stars: Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino.

If you could spend one day with your favorite star, who would it be and what would you do?
I’d spend the day with the lovely Clark Gable and we would tour Hollywood together and visit all of his favorite places there

Now I shall award eleven of my favorite blogs (that meet the qualifications) for a Liebster Award! You guys have to list eleven facts about yourself, answer the eleven questions I give you, and award eleven other blogs with the Award! Congratulations to:

All Good Things http://poohtiger-allgoodthings.blogspot.com/

Classicfilmboy’s Movie Paradise http://www.classicfilmboy.com/

Dear Old Hollywood http://dearoldhollywood.blogspot.com/

Deep Glamour http://deepglamour.net/

Critica Retro http://criticaretro.blogspot.com/

Gone with the Wind Fansite http://gwtwfansite.weebly.com/

Marlene Dietrich Collection http://marlene-dietrichcollection.blogspot.fr/

The Hollywood Revue http://hollywoodrevue.wordpress.com/

Alexander’s Sanctuary http://alexandersanctuary.wordpress.com/

The Kitty Packard Pictorial http://kittypackard.com/

Old Hollywood Glamour http://oldhollywoodglamour.blogspot.com/

My Questions:

1. If you could have a dinner party with seven classic film stars, who would they be?

2. Who is your favorite classic movie director?

3. Who is your favorite most-underrated actor?

4. Have you ever watched a film in which you had NO IDEA what was going on?

5. Who is your favorite Hollywood costume designer?

6. Who is an actor/actress that you would take out of one film and put into a different one?

7. Do you mix up any classic movie actors/actresses.

8. Favorite movie musical?

9. Have you hated an actor/actress whom you now love?

10. What is your favorite performance that was overlooked by an Oscar?

11. What is your most-quoted film?

And if you don’t have a blog and just want to answer the questions, please feel free to do so in the comments! X

November 18, 2012 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Fashion, Fred Astaire, Gone with the Wind, Harold Lloyd, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Katharine Hepburn, Myrna Loy, Olivia de Havilland, Rudolph Valentino, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 7 Comments »

The Hurrell Experiment

As all of you, my lovely readers, know, the name of my blog is called An Elegant Obsession. It’s pretty straightforward why I christened my blog with this name: I am obsessed with all things classic Hollywood and vintage, and unlike most other obsessions, mine is an elegant one, if I do say so myself. After all, I am obsessed with an era of glamour and class. Part of what made classic Hollywood so elegant is the art of glamour photography.

Glamour photography is, sadly, a dying (ore pretty much dead) art. Nowadays, the idea of photographing celebrities is to show that they are “just like us”: they go shopping, they get coffee from Starbucks, they mow their lawns…whatever. The purpose seems to be to capture them at their most UNglamorous. However, in the olden days I so love, the purpose of photography was to depict these stars as gods: too perfect, too beautiful to be living in this world.

George Hurrell was perhaps the greatest and most prolific glamour photographer. With a career that spanned over seventy years, he photographed the faces of every important star from Norma Shearer to Sharon Stone. Hurrell’s photography is so great because it’s so dramatic. His hallmarks were dramatic lighting with strong blacks and whites. But the Hurrell trademark I want to talk about today is “The Hurrell Hair.”

As seen on the beautiful ladies Bette Davis, Veronica Lake, Carole Lombard, and Jean Harlow, George Hurrell loved to spread out the long, luxurious waves that all Hollywood actresses had back in the day. Any picture with the hair like that is a guaranteed Hurrell. Hurrell used a backlight on his subjects when taking a photo like this, as it added a shimmer or “halo” effect to the hair…which goes back to what I said about the whole “goddess” thing.

So, not being a photographer and having NO equipment but an iPhone 5 camera, I set out to do some Hurrell hair pictures of my own.

Ignore my face. I look like I saw a ghost. Or my reflection in the mirror. Something scary.

Another variation on Hurrell hair, to the best of my ability.

It isn’t so good, as my hair isn’t long enough, the photos are in color, I don’t have photography equipment, and I am an overall strange-looking person. But achieving a cheap knockoff of Hurrell Hair was not as difficult as I would’ve thought it would be!

If you are interested in doing a Hurrell experiment of your own, or if you just want to have long 1930s-1940s style waves everyday like I do, let me know and I will be more than happy to make a tutorial!

Meanwhile, I’ll be growing out my hair to get it as long as Vivien Leigh’s in GWTW:

P.S: does anyone have tips on getting rid of dark under-eye circles? I have them all the time, and no matter how much rest I get, I always seem tired and sick-looking! Thanks in advance for any advice!

October 25, 2012 | Categories: Actresses, Carole Lombard, Fashion, Gone with the Wind, Jean Harlow, Vivien Leigh | Tags: by Carole Irene | 13 Comments »

RIP Ernest Borgnine and Ann Rutherford

I don’t know about you guys, but lately life has been tough for me. I’ve been feeling sad, lonely, and just not good enough. Some of what I’ve been feeling comes from the recent deaths of two talented, beloved actors.

First, we lost Ann Rutherford (November 2, 1917-June 11, 2012). Most famous for her small role as Carreen O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and as Polly Benedict in the Andy Hardy films, she died from heart failure at age 94. This is just SO depressing. She was one of the last surviving cast members of GWTW and one of the most friendly, approachable actresses. In the past two years she has attended he TCM Classic Film Festival and several GWTW events. She truly loved talking to the fans and sharing her memories of a beautiful, bygone era that I would do anything to return to

And yesterday, we lost Ernest Borgnine (January 24, 1917-July 8, 2012). Borgnine often played supporting roles (often the villain) but he is most famous for his Oscar winning role as the title character in Marty. He died of renal failure at age 95. And this makes me upset. I thought it was easier to treat renal failure nowadays

I’m so worried. I have this anxiety of my favorite stars dying. Am I the only one who feels this way?

July 9, 2012 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Classic Films, Gone with the Wind | Tags: by Carole Irene | 1 Comment »

Book Review: The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case by George Baxt

The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case is not only the last book in George Baxt’s celebrity series, but it is also the last book he wrote before his death in 2003 (I have been reviewing these books in chronological order). And of course, Baxt goes out with a bang…this is perhaps the worst book in his entire series!

Before I begin my review, here’s an excellent, original review written by Vincent, who runs the site Carole & Co. (http://carole-and-co.livejournal.com/50359.html). The review not only points out some of the many things wrong with this book, but it is also a good example of how to write PROPER celebrity fiction! I’ll be referring to it throughout my own review.

Here’s the plot of this hot mess: It’s December of 1939. Gone with the Wind has finished filming and the Atlanta premiere is drawing near (saaay, that rhymes!). However, all of Hollywood, including Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, is suffering from paranoia due to a series of kidnappings. Amongst those who were kidnapped is a promising young protegee of Carole’s named Lydia Austin. But when no leads turn up about Lydia and the body of her ex-boyfriend washes up on the shore during Miriam Hopkins’ beach party, it becomes obvious that there is more to this case than meets the eye. Detective Herb Villon and his sidekick Jim Mallory team up with Gable and Lombard to crack this case.

First of all, the plot was extremely sloppy. It went absolutely NOWHERE for a good three-quarters of the book, and I think it was at that point when Baxt remembered that there has to be some solution to this absolutely boring mystery so he brought the book to a very speedy and unsatisfying conclusion. Here’s the breakdown of the book: 75% was “witty banter” terrible enough that, had they read it, would’ve made Gable and Lombard vomit uncontrollably, and 25% was actually solving the mystery.

And ya know what? The characters who went missing were so unlikable that I didn’t give a fuck about them whatsoever. They were three Nazi spies, seven Japanese spies (remember we’re starting WWII here folks) Carole’s protegee, who was a worse character than the spies!!! The girl apparently had a lot of “talent”…and how Baxt expects us to believe this I have no idea, since all this girl ever seemed to do was sleep with anything that had a penis. She literally has had a roll in the hay with every male character in the book (except the detective) at some point, from Gable to Groucho Marx. Why? Looking for a sugar daddy of course! Whadda bitch. I found myself so glad this little idiot was missing and I never wanted them to find her again. And as the story goes on and we learn more about her character, it becomes obvious that she’s a dim bulb too. WHY Carole Lombard would ever take a person like that under her wing is beyond me. Thankfully, this Lydia character is kidnapped before the action of the book takes place, so all we know about her comes from what we’re told by other characters.

In the book, Carole has three other protegees, but the most ah-nnoying one is the Eskimo, Mala Anouk. The other two are Nell Corday and Nana Lewis (dude, come up with a better name. Nana is what I call my grandma). But Mala takes the cake for being the most disgusting book character ever. Even more disgusting than Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter series. The girl lives entirely on BLUBBER. BUH-LUBBER. WHALE FAT. This is a girl who wants to be a HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS and she eats PURE FAT three times a day!!! How do you even eat squares of cold fat!? And by “how” I mean, “how can you live with yourself, do you have no shame?” or “how are you even alive right now, shouldn’t you have died from atherosclerosis a long time ago?” or “how are you not 6000 pounds?” or “how does Baxt expect us to believe that Lombard would’ve ever groomed a fat-eating actress?” In one part, the fat-eater even serves Lombard and Gable BLUBBER COOKIES. How the hell do you make cookies out of FAT!? What kind of shitty cookies are these? I was an avid eater of blubber (I’d eat a raw horseflesh before doing that, ugh!), the earth would not be able to accommodate my weight, lose all gravitational force, and end up spinning away somewhere in the cold, vast universe. Actress on the make eating blubber YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME!?!?

This book also features the most random cast of characters ever. We have Gable and Lombard, Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Humphrey Bogart and Mayo Methot, Groucho Marx, and W.C. Fields, who is completely wasted in this book and completely unnecessary to the story. And so were Bogie and Methot, for that matter. They just came for a couple of pages and left. Absolutely none of these characters were developed, with Baxt instead drawing upon film characters that these actors played. I HIGHLY doubt that Groucho Marx walked around in half crouch with an unlit cigar dangling from his mouth in real life! I seriously think Baxt put a bunch of names is a hat, closed his eyes, picked out these names, and forced them into a story. I’m quite surprised Dorothy Parker didn’t make a cameo appearance in this book like she did in all the rest. She would’ve been the icing on the cake.

Now, onto the characterizations of Gable and Lombard. I don’t even know where to begin here. Well, in his review, Vincent addresses the annoying giggle that Baxt gives Lombard in this book. A giggle that made my eyes twitch. A giggle that almost made me explode in a rage. A giggle that made my heart turn cold and had me wondering if there is a God in this world. “Hee hee hee.” WHEN, In the name of God, did she EVER laugh like that? And this “hee hee hee” is there every single time Lombard opens her mouth in this book! I dunno if this “hee hee hee” after every statement is supposed to make Lombard sound sly and crafty but it only ended up making her sound like she’s lost all her brain cells in an alcoholic fog. Only three types of people say “hee hee hee”:
1) Evil Disney villains.
2) Evil wicked witches.
3) The senile grandmother I mentioned earlier.
Is Carole Lombard one of those three? I don’t think so! Besides the “hee hee hee,” Lombard also spends most of the time screeching and yelling at Gable for everything. EVERY SOURCE I’ve read about Gable and Lombard’s relationship said that it was a relationship based on love and laughter. Sure, they had rough patches like any other couple, but the book makes it seem like their relationship was tense and stressful 24/7. There was also none of that trademark Lombard charm, humor, and generosity. She instead screeches and throws tantrums like a petulant child or my menopausal high school math teacher. The real Lombard would’ve looked down on such behavior! Carole also spends time making obscene pictures out of cheese and crackers in this book (insert facepalm here). This book did one of my favorite actresses NO justice. Baxt did not even try to understand her at all. And why he dedicated the Astaire and Rogers book to her is beyond me. Like she would want any of these books dedicated to her!

Now Gable. Poor, poor Gable. If Baxt was trying to make the readers hate Gable by portraying him the way he did in this book, it didn’t work. I think this book made me love him even more, because it made me realize what a smart, lively, vibrant personality he had. Baxt portrays Gable as a big, lumbering idiot who barely says anything except an occasional “sure, sweetheart, sure” to calm Lombard down. Other than that, he just stands there and watches on as everything takes place around him, like some kind of shadow. And many times in this book, Baxt states outright that Gable is “dumb” and “not good enough” for Carole. First of all, Gable wasn’t dumb, and anyone who cares to learn about him can see that indeed, Gable was quick-witted and very intelligent. He loved to read, and there are plenty of photos out there that prove it. He never finished high school, so educating himself was a matter of great importance to him, and his widow Kay Gable said that he would read a book a day. He read books on all topics, from mysteries to histories (rhyme #2). And I’m sure Lombard knew what she wanted in a man, so saying he’s “not good enough for her” without any proof to back himself up is just plain wrong. Baxt did not do his homework on Gable or any other star he wrote about, and instead poorly portrayed the images the studio system gave these actors. Gable was a very quiet man, never one to brag about himself or make a big deal out of things. There is a difference between being HUMBLE and being STUPID, Mr. Baxt!

As usual, Baxt got a lot of facts wrong in this book. Big, big facts. Once again, the timing is all wrong. The story takes place in December 1939, before the Atlanta premiere of GWTW. In the beginning of the book, Lombard is getting ready to film Made for Each Other with Jimmy Stewart, but as Vincent pointed out, the film was released in February 1939, way before the action of the story and even before Clark and Carole were married! But at the end of the book, Carole was scheduled to begin filming Mr. and Mrs. Smith which wasn’t released until the end of January, 1941! And unlike today, you did not need a year to make a good film. I highly doubt this film would’ve taken more than several weeks to shoot! And whatever happened to In Name Only, Vigil in the Night, and They Knew What They Wanted, the three films that she made in between Made for Each Other and Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Did they just disappear into the mist or something?

At one point, Baxt makes up an entirely new movie for Gable. Apparently he made a World War I film called Hell Below. What the fuck is Hell Below!?!? I am proud to say that I’ve seen Gable’s entire filmography, and he never made a film by that name. I’m thinking that he might’ve mixed up with Hell Divers. But that film isn’t about World War I…rather, it is about naval aviation. Can Baxt get ANYTHING right???

Baxt also makes an outrageous claim that Harlow died from syphilis that William Powell gave her. How low can this author go? But thankfully, anyone who knows even basic facts about the Golden Age knows that Harlow died of kidney failure. Baxt’s low, cruel statement only succeeded in making him look retarded. He also claims that this syphilis is what kept Powell off the screen for two years. HE HAD CANCER. God, who would ever make something like that up!? Who in their right mind would lie about having such a disease? It’s like Baxt had something personal agaisnt these stars! He also claims that Russ Columbo’s death wasn’t an accident, and that Lansing Brown shot Columbo out of jealousy because the two were lovers and he heard Columbo wanted to marry Lombard. It was true that Columbo wanted to marry Carole, they were so very much in love. But the death was indeed an accident, with Brown feeling the guilt for the rest of his life, and THEY WERE NOT LOVERS. I hate it when an author says that every actor in Hollywood was gay! Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, but it’s very unrealistic to claim that ALL OF THEM were homosexual.

And please, don’t even get me started on the claims of Gable abusing Ida Lupino and sleeping with Judy Garland. HE NEVER DATED LUPINO AND JUDY GARLAND WAS ONLY FIFTEEN YEARS OLD! How DISGUSTING. This book and all its ridiculous claims are pure fiction. And horrible fiction at that.

So here’s what I learned from rereading and reviewing this series: the cover is the best part of any Baxt book. Just check out that artwork! I hope you guys enjoyed these reviews, and I hope I did a good job giving you a thorough idea of these books!

July 1, 2012 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Gone with the Wind, Humphrey Bogart, Jean Harlow, Rants, Reviews, The Marx Brothers, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 4 Comments »

Book Review: Rhett Butler’s People By Donald McCaig

I never realized how fun reviewing books is until I reviewed “Scarlett” by Alexandra Ripley. I will now continue this fun tradition of criticism by reviewing “Rhett Butler’s People” by Donald McCaig.

Now, in my opinion, this book was much better than “Scarlett”, which was bizarre and ridiculous. This wasn’t bizarre or ridiculous, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the original GWTW by Mitchell. Nonetheless, it was fairly interesting. Out of five stars, I’d give this a two. Scarlett would get a negative infinity.

So, without much further ado, here’s the good, bad, and ugly on ”Rhett Butler’s People”:

Characterization of Rhett: The book started off as a wonderful characterization of Rhett Butler, which is great, since of course, that’s what the book promised: to tell it all from Rhett’s POV. The reader is told about his childhood on a rice plantation in South Carolina, his abuse at the hands of his father, etc. But this didn’t last long. Fraught with inconsistencies, the book jumps from one POV to the next like a hyper frog does when there are so many lily pads and so little time. McCaig doesn’t even include all the scenes from GWTW in which Rhett was present, and even tweaked those that he did include to fit his perspective. Uh, you can’t do that to someone else’s work! A major plot point of the book has to do with Rhett’s ward, so mysteriously mentioned in GWTW. Is Rhett the father? Throughout the book, he denies paternity. But the boy looks like Rhett, Rhett does take care of him…but the way this plot point ended up caused me to roll my eyes all the way back and stink-eye the book for a long, long time. In a nutshell, the author did a halfway job with the characterization of Rhett. He seems to get too bored with whatever he’s doing, and suddenly moves on to different things throughout the book.

Characterization of Scarlett: Okay, now HERE’S where things get bad. McCaig epically, horribly failed in his characterization of Scarlett. She was so flat and two-dimensional and just plain…weird. I was thinking, “Who IS this?!” while reading. This Scarlett is totally different from the one we know and love in the original. A recurring theme in this book is that McCaig can’t seem to make a fluent continuity between the original characters and the way he writes them into the book. He. Just. Can’t. Do. It. Wanna know why? The author never read GWTW before he was approached to write the sequel. So he read it only after he agreed to write! And seriously, that means he most likely didn’t read it more than twice. So if McCaig had little understanding of the material he worked with, you know Scarlett was gonna turn out bad. I don’t mean to be sexist or anything, but maybe it also has to do with the fact that the author was a guy this time around. Instead of the complex, multifaceted Scarlett of Mitchell’s creation, we get this uber-sexy Scarlett, fresh from a male fantasy. The first line of GWTW states right off the bat that Scarlett was not beautiful. Way to ruin everything, McCaig. And with Scarlett’s brand-new sexed-up look comes a brand-new sexed-up personality. The honeymoon part scared me a little. If she was really like that, Ashley would’ve been forgotten in 3,2,1. She would NOT have been all over Rhett like that, she would NOT kiss Belle’s cheek and invite her into her parlor (WTF? x100!), and she would NOT wait for Rhett to rescue her! This is Katie Scarlett O’Hara we’re talking about here, not some lily-livered Disney princess! How could Rhett have followed this shallow, vapid creature for twelve years? If he wanted someone like that, he would’ve been fully satisfied with one of Belle’s crones. Unrealistic!!!

Other Characters: One thing that APPALLED me about this book was the characterization of Melanie. She morphed into someone so unlike herself that I was starting to question the author’s sanity while writing this. EVERYONE knows Melanie was the meek, gentle, kind, pure-hearted character of the book. McCaig instead turns her into a gossip who tells all her secrets to Rhett’s sister through correspondence. Rhett’s sister?! Does she even KNOW Rhett’s sister? Doesn’t Rhett’s sister live in Charleston? Doesn’t Melanie live in Atlanta? When did the two ever get a chance to meet? The author took HUH-YUUUUUUUGE liberties with Melly’s sexuality, which I think besmirches her character. Since when did Melanie speak so frankly about sex and birth control? In the original, she would get all shy and nervous every time the subject was merely hinted at! And she wanted to have another child not because she has a soft spot for children, but because she wants to wear out Ashley so he doesn’t cheat on her. THIS is why she risked her life?! Since when did plot and scheme like that, anyway? Isn’t that Scarlett’s line of work? And Ashley was ALL OVER THE PLACE here. First he’s in the Army of Northern Virginia, then in the Army of Tennessee, then in the Kentucky raids…either McCaig can’t keep his facts straight, Ashley figured out how to clone himself, or he discovered that he had the power of omnipresence. The characters just seem to appear, disappear, and reappear without any explanation or connection. It was tiring trying to keep track of all the characters and their relationships to each other. I thought the job of an author was to create a seamless work! Why was I the one doing his job? The original characters just weren’t the same here. This is partly because of the whole slew of characters that McCaig creates for the book. It was all nice and dandy learning all about Tunis Bonneau, John Haynes, Andrew Ravanel, etc. but this caused the originals, the MAIN characters, to take a seat all the way in the far, far, far, far back of the limo here. Rosemary also becomes such a central character, sometimes, I felt, more than her brother. Because McCaig sweated his butt off on his fake people, he did a sloppy job on the real ones.

A Lightweight Book: Although better than “Scarlett”, “Rhett Butler’s People” is still quite a lightweight book. It lacks the richness, description, and depth given to us by Margaret Mitchell. Frankly, I think Mitchell must have spoiled us or something because we can’t read books the same way again after GWTW. It’s just so good that it takes down any other book. This book may have been way better as a stand-alone piece, but since it is a sequel/prequel to an epic novel, we just have to compare. McCaig only did a halfway job on something that should’ve taken WAY more effort. He seemed to not care. And probably he didn’t. These “sequels” are being written only so that the Margaret Mitchell Estate could maintain its copyright over Scarlett O’Hara. It comes down to nothing but money, sadly. The book was also edited poorly, since I found typos here and there. But there were some merits. McCaig describes the setting well, and has a gift for retelling battle scenes. He is, after all, a Civil War author.

The Title: I was one of the people who did not pay attention to the title of the book, “Rhett Butler’s People”. After reading countless articles about how the book promises to get inside Rhett’s head and retell everything from his POV, and after reading the description on the back of the book (“The Other Side of the Greatest Love Story Ever Told”), I, stupid, silly girl that I am, believed it all, and thought nothing about the “People” part of “Rhett Butler’s People”. I was looking forward to reading about Rhett’s adventures when he wasn’t with Scarlett, the parts in which he disappears for long stretches in the original. I wanted to read about his stint in the military. But boy, was I wrong, and boy, were my hopes dashed. Turns out the “People” part was much more important that the “Rhett Butler” part. And not just any people, but the people McCaig made up! Yo, I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK about Andrew Ravanel, okay, McCaig??? The book should’ve been called “Andrew Ravanel’s Stupid Life” instead. I was waiting and hoping for Rhett in a book which was supposed to be all about Rhett! That title was no lie.

The Ending (SPOILERS. If you plan to read this book and don’t want to ruin it for yourself, stop and don’t read this. But if you don’t care, by all means, read on!): The ending was so disappointing. Firstly, Rhett’s ward is NOT his son. He’s Andrew Ravanel’s. Which, ya know, isn’t all that surprising since he appeared in the book more than Rhett himself. Then Scarlett’s Atlanta house burns to the ground. But worst of all, Tara burns to the ground in an epic fire, sending Scarlett back to square one. Again. She works her butt off only to lose it to some fire. Again. The guy burned down Tara. The guy apparently loves to burn things down. This is just unacceptable. And Belle Watling dies in the fire. WHAAAAAAAAHHHH? And if you think Belle’s death is bad, McCaig kills off Will Benteen too. So, so disappointing.

Next up, I’m going to review the Herb Villon series by George Baxt, which mixed Old Hollywood with murder mysteries. Yyyyeah…

August 4, 2011 | Categories: Classic Films, Golden Age Humor, Gone with the Wind, Rants, Reviews | Tags: by Carole Irene | 2 Comments »

Book Review: “Scarlett” by Alexandra Ripley

June 22, 2011 | Categories: Gone with the Wind, Rants, Reviews | Tags: by Carole Irene | 16 Comments »

The Debbie Reynolds Auction

All classic film fans are well-aware of the Debbie Reynolds auction, which took place on June 18th. Debbie Reynolds had been collecting Hollywood memorabilia for manydecades, in hopes of building a museum. Unfortunately, her dream never came true and the bills hiked up, and she soon found it necessary to sell her treasures. Many of the 587 costumes and props unfortunately went to Saudi Arabia and Japan (I apologize in advance for any offense this may cause, but I found that shameful. I’m a firm believer in countries keeping their own history. Things that are purely American should remain in America). If I had money, I would’ve bought at least one of the priceless pieces! Of course, Marilyn Monroe items were the highest-selling (the white subway dress was sold for the most money in the auction) and Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from “My Fair Lady” took second. Here’s some of the highlights of the auction and what they were sold for (I know I’m reporting about this a little late, but it took me awhile to find the photos and figures):

Rudolph Valentino’s costume from “Blood and Sand”: $210,000 + $48,300 buyer’s premium

Harold Lloyd’s personal suit and hat: $4000+$920 buyer’s premium

A lock of Mary Pickford’s hair: $3500+$850 buyer’s premium

Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” bowler hat: $110,000+$25,300 buyer’s premium

Laurel and Hardy’s suits: $16000+$3680 buyer’s premium

Carole Lombard’s gown from “No Man of Her Own”: $11000+$2530 buyer’s premium

Claudette Colbert’s gown from “Cleopatra” (the most beautiful costume in the auction, in my opinion): $40,000+$9200 buyer’s premium

Harpo Marx’s hat and wig: $45,000+$10,350 buyer’s premium

Charles Laughton’s uniform from “Mutiny on the Bounty”: $42,500+$9775 buyer’s premium

Clark Gable’s vest and breeches from “Mutiny on the Bounty”: $30,000+$6900 buyer’s premium

Leslie Howard’s costume from “Romeo and Juliet”: $$20,000+$4600 buyer’s premium

Katharine Hepburn’s costume from “Mary of Scotland”: $35000+$8050 buyer’s premium

Norma Shearer’s costume from “Marie Antoinette”: $8000+$1840 buyer’s premium

Judy Garland’s blue test dress from “The Wizard of Oz”: $910,000+$209,300 buyer’s premium

Judy Garland’s Arabian-style test ruby slippers (never used in the film) from “The Wizard of Oz”: $510,000+$117,300 buyer’s premium

Clark Gable’s personal robe worn while filming “Gone with the Wind”: $10,000+$2300 buyer’s premium

Olivia de Havilland’s costume from “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex”: $5000+$1,150 buyer’s premium

Gary Cooper’s uniform from “Sergeant York”: $55,000+$12,650 buyer’s premium

James Cagney’s jockey shirt from “Yankee Doodle Dandy”: $27500+$6325 buyer’s premium

Claude Rains’ uniform from “Casablanca”: $$55,000+$12,650 buyer’s premium

Elizabeth Taylor’s riding costume from “National Velvet”: $60,000+$13,800 buyer’s premium

Judy Garland’s gown from “Meet Me In St. Louis”: $16,000+$3680 buyer’s premium

Vivien Leigh’s headpiece from “Caesar and Cleopatra”: $250+$977.50 buyer’s premium

Joan Crawford’s waitress uniform from “Mildred Pierce”: $22,500+$5175 buyer’s premium

Ingrid Bergman’s suit of armor from “Joan of Arc”: $50,000+$11,500 buyer’s premium

Hedy Lamarr’s gorgeous costume from “Samson and Delilah”: $12000+$2760 buyer’s premium

William Powell’s suit from “Dancing in the Dark”: $2250+$517.50 buyer’s premium

Errol Flynn’s costume from “The Adventures of Don Juan”: $13000+2990 buyer’s premium

Vivien Leigh’s robe from “A Streetcar Named Desire”: $18000+$4140 buyer’s premium

Leslie Caron’s peacock dress from “An American in Paris”: $15,000+$3450 buyer’s premium

Debbie Reynolds’ dress from “Singin’ In The Rain”: $15,000+$3450 buyer’s premium

Debbie Reynolds’ ‘Good Mornin’ flapper dress from “Singin’ In the Rain”: $27,5000+$6325 buyer’s premium

Gene Kelly’s uniform from “Anchors Aweigh”: $27,500+$6325 buyer’s premium

Marilyn Monroe’s red sequin gown from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”: $1,200,000+$276,000 buyer’s premium

Red MG TD used by Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant in “Monkey Business”: $210,000+$48,300 buyer’s premium

Lucille Ball’s shirt, blouse, and coat from “The Long, Long Trailer”: $16,000+$3680 buyer’s premium

Marilyn Monroe’s costume from “River of No Return”: $510,000+$117,300 buyer’s premium

Marilyn Monroe’s costume from “There’s No Business Like Show Business”: $500,000+$115,000 buyer’s premium

Marlon Brando’s costume from “Desiree”: $60,000+$13,800 buyer’s premium

Perhaps the most-recognized costume in film history…Marilyn Monroe’s white “subway” dress from “The Seven Year Itch”: $4,600,000+$1,058,000 buyer’s premium

Grace Kelly’s dress from “To Catch a Thief”: $450,000+$103,500 buyer’s premium

Elizabeth Taylor’s gown from “Raintree County”: $16,000+$3680 buyer’s premium

Leslie Caron’s schoolgirl costume from “Gigi”: $65000+$14950 buyer’s premium

Charlton Heston’s tunic from “Ben-Hur”: $320,000+$73,600 buyer’s premium

Elizabeth Taylor’s headdress from “Cleopatra”: $100,000+$23,000 buyer’s premium

Richard Burton’s tunic from “Cleopatra”: $85,000+$19,550 buyer’s premium

Bette Davis’ bloodstained dress from “Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte”: $11,000+$2530 buyer’s premium

Audrey Hepburn’s Ascot dress from “My Fair Lady”: $3,700,000+$851,000 buyer’s premium.

That’s all, folks! If you want to see the rest of the items featured in the auction, you can still download the catalogue for free in the Profiles In History website.

June 21, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Claudette Colbert, Fashion, Gary Cooper, Gone with the Wind, Harold Lloyd, James Cagney, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Leslie Howard, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, Norma Shearer, Olivia de Havilland, Rudolph Valentino, The Marx Brothers, Uncategorized, Vivien Leigh, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 2 Comments »

The Dames Hit Hollywood! Day Four: Warner Brothers Studio

While in Hollywood, we visited three movie studios, one per day. First we visited Warner Brothers, located in beautiful, hilly Burbank. When you visit the studio, everywhere you look you are surrounded by the verdant hills and mountains, and boy was it impressive! (I’ve never seen a mountain until I visited California. I’m an unpriveleged child.)

Before I start showing off the pictures, let’s talk about touring studios in general (if you are planning to visit Hollywood and tour the studios for yourself):

Plan ahead and make reservations: The tours take a limited number of people per day, so call up the studios and arrange your tour beforehand (the morning of should work just fine). I actually wanted to visit Paramount first, but they could not take us that day. You do not want to make the trip for nothing, only to find out they cannot accommodate you on a tour.
Bring identification: this is common sense. All film studios need to be uptight about security, so bring an ID card or your passport when you check-in. They will also give you an ID bracelet or something of that nature, so if you don’t want to be thrown out of the studio, you must wear it!
Photos are limited: there aren’t going to be as many photos in these studio posts (cheer or cry here). Taking pictures is quite limited, and varies from studio to studio (Warner Bros. and Paramount weren’t bad, MGM was STRICT). In any studio, do NOT take photos of the actual movie/tv sets…they’re copyrighted material!

Okay, now to the fun stuff! Warner Bros. was a really good tour, and I highly recommend it. Not only was it thorough, but it has a museum (which they sadly only give you about 20 minutes to view, and they actually make you lock your cameras and cellphones away in the tour cars before you enter, so no photos of it, I apologize), there is not much walking at all (most of the tour is done by a little tour car) and I got to see things here that I didn’t see in other studios. The only minor complaints I had was that (and this is for all studios) they focused A LOT on tv shows and not much at all about films or film history, and my tour guide was an annoying hipster-ish guy named Doug, who was obsessed with the show Chuck (almost all the sets he took us to were used in Chuck as well as other films and tv shows).

So, here are some famous stars that walked through the sets of Warner Bros: Al Jolson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Rin Tin-Tin, James Cagney, Edward G Robinson, Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, George Raft, Ruby Keeler, Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Lauren Bacall and Sidney Greenstreet, among others. The Warner Bros. themselves are famous (or infamous) for their business ethic and temperamental natures, and the studio was the home of gangster films, swashbucklers, film noirs, and the Busby Berkeley musicals.

As soon as you get to the studio, you are greeted by giant statues of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck:

After getting through security, you are taken to the waiting lobby/gift shop/mini Harry Potter tribute, where they had some costumes and props from the film series (the museum, which has two floors, devotes its entire second floor to Harry Potter).

The skulls used to decorate the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Costumes of Sirius Black, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley.

Costumes of Dolores Umbridge, Lord Voldemort, and Professor Quirrell.

Various spellbooks used in the films.

Copies of the Daily Prophet used in the films. This one has particularly hilarious headlines.

If you’ve seen The Order of the Phoenix, you are familiar with this copy of the Daily Prophet.

Teacups and crystal ball used in the Divination classroom.

Harry’s Firebolt.

The tour starts off with a short film about the history of Warner Bros, from the Jazz Singer (the first sound film) up until today. When you go outside to actually start seeing things, you are first greeted by the sight of that famous water tower!

Now here are various spots around the lot (which is HUGE.) I’ll try to point out as many classic movie references as I can remember. Doug knew a heck of a lot more about tv shows like Chuck and Friends than he did about classic films…

Whenever they get the chance, studios would film using their own land. It’s common sense, but sometimes it seems quite unbelievable. This patch of grass sometimes doubles as…Central Park. That was not a typo.

The orphanage from Annie, if I remember correctly.

“The New York Street”. Countless of the classic gangster films we know and love were filmed here.

More of the New York street. Let me say now that many of these buildings that make up the “streets” are actually facades–false fronts with no insides, and only used for exterior filming. So, there are no rooms in these buildings. Interior shots are usually done of the soundstages. And all the materials are hollow and fake. Nothing is real, from the wood to the marble. And you aren’t allowed to lean on them…you might topple them down! Not even the sidewalks are real.

The courthouse from “Robin and the Seven Hoods”. Frank Sinatra sang “My Kind of Town” on the steps. Since daddy didn’t take a picture of the steps (because he’s so smart), Baby did:

Anyone recognize this set? It’s the outside of Rick’s Cafe Americain from Casablanca!

George Lopez’s trailer, because I love his show.

Another street of facade houses.

I think this was James Dean’s house in either East of Eden or Rebel Without A Cause.

Or was this James Dean’s house? I can’t remember, and I have to look through all the pictures again…

“The Jungle”. Yes, Warner Bros. has its own jungle. Now it used primarily for the tv show “True Blood”.

Bamboo growing in the jungle.

Next we were taken to the prop building, where literally millions of props used in both classic and modern films are stored. This eyeless painting was used in none other than the Scooby Doo films.

The long long long hallways of the prop building.

The lighting room in the prop building. The chandeliers in the back were used in Mildred Pierce!

Really ugly lights in the lighting room.

A desk and two lampposts that were used in The Maltese Falcon. Of course, I totally pawed it behind tour guide Doug’s back. I touched the same desk Humphrey Bogart touched!!!

A replica of JFK’s desk.

A wall mural of Bogart and Bergman from Casablanca.

Now here are some photos of the Central Perk set from Friends. It was left fully intact, and we were even allowed to sit on the couch. Interior sets in general are quite small (our group could barely fit in), are built in odd angles (that make them look a heck of a lot bigger on camera), and incredibly fake (you really lose the movie magic when you see how it all works). Oh and all the studios smell quite musty and kinda like a construction job. Which is okay because I like that smell (odd I know):

Animated Hollywood: A Look At Hollywood Through Vintage Cartoons

Dedicated to Mark, who, like me, is never too old for a good cartoon.

Many people I know are impressed that someone as young as I am can appreciate films that my grandparents watched. It’s sometimes very hard, since I don’t fit in with the crowd (to say the least) but instead of killing my love for classic films, it only intensified it. How did I come to like classic films in the first place? Well, it was kind of always in my family. My grandfather was a theater usher in the 1940s and 50s and my parents were raised on greats such as Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin, etc. Therefore, I was not only raised on the silent comedians, but being a child who absolutely loved cartoons (and which child doesn’t?) I also grew up watching the old vintage Disney, Warner Bros, and MGM shorts, the Merrie Melodies, Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny…you name it, I saw it and recorded them on countless of those VHS tapes. However, some of these cartoons featured stars of the time, such as Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, people I wasn’t familiar with at the time. Now, as I re-watch these cartoons, I have a new appreciation for them. They are quite poignant, and so…vintage (for lack of a better description). It’s quite interesting to see Hollywood make fun of itself, and I hope my love for cartoons would inspire you to look back on them.

The Coo-Coo Nut Grove (1936)

Here’s one of Warner Bros’ many caricatures of Hollywood, “The Coo-Coo Nut Grove”. In the 1930s, one of the most popular clubs was the Cocoanut Grove, located in the Ambassador Hotel. It was one of those places in which you were guaranteed to rub shoulders with the famous, and it was quite famous for its unique decor. Sadly, this legend no longer exists, as the Ambassador Hotel was torn down several years ago. This cartoon places all of our favorite 1930s stars (some in animal caricatures, some as people, which confuses me, but no matter) at this famous club, and of course, the antics begin. The cartoon opens with bandleader Ben Bernie (here as Ben Birdie) and gossip columnist Walter Winchell (Walter Windpipe), then goes on to showcase caricatures of stars such as John Barrymore, Laurel and Hardy, Jean Harlow, Johnny Weissmuller, Bette Davis, Mae West (as a bird) and so on. Musical entertainment was provided by Dame Edna May Oliver (as the Lady in Red!) causing Clark Gable to flirtatiously wiggle his ears (possibly making fun of his penchant to flirt with anything in a skirt), the Dionne quintuplets (who’s lives were unfortunately marred by showbiz), and singer Helen Morgan, who even makes tough guys Edward G Robinson and George Raft cry with her torch song. Through it all, Harpo Marx chases a woman, as usual…but is it really a woman? And Katharine Hepburn caricatured as a horse named Miss Heartburn? Classic!

Have You Got Any Castles? (1938)

It’s midnight at the library, so what happens? Why, all the books come to life of course! This cartoon is all about music and riffs on titles of classic books, and Hollywood caricatures were used to serve that purpose. The cartoon opens and ends with a caricature of Alexander Woollcott as a town crier, and is very zany and busy, to say the least. Frankenstein, Mr Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera, and Fu Manchu dance a minuet, a “good earth” prays by his bedside, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson dances on The 39 Steps, Greta Garbo and her infamously large feet grace the cover of So Big, Cab Calloway sings within the covers of The Green Pastures, William Powell as The Thin Man wanders into the White House cookbook, three Jane Withers sing on the cover of Little Women while three Freddie Bartholomews sing on the cover of Little Men, seven Clark Gables sing as a chorus in The House of the Seven Gables, Charles Laughton saunters across the cover of Mutiny on the Bounty, and plenty more where that came from! And as the music gets louder and a rendition of the popular tune, “Have You Got Any Castles, Baby?” begins, the characters get even wilder. But in comes Gone with the Wind (which, by the way, the novel is celebrating its 75th anniversary!) to blow the whole party away. This cartoon has suffered many cuts and censorships over the years, but it is now widely available in its full, uncut version.

Mickey’s Gala Premier (1933)

Mickey’s newest cartoon is premiering at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and all of Hollywood takes part in the festivities! All the A-list actors are there: The Keystone Kops guard the traffic, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, The Barrymores (in costume for Rasputin and the Empress), Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers arrive in a limousine, Maurice Cheavalier, Eddie Cantor, and Jimmy Durante take turns singing at the mike, while Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, and Bette Davis and Harold Lloyd, Edward G Robinson, Clark Gable, and Adolphe Menjou sing in groups. Sid Grauman welcomes all the stars, including Joe E Brown, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers. Charlie Chaplin sneaks in, while Mae West makes Grauman blush with her famous line, “Come up and see me sometime”. Finally the true stars, Mickey, Minnie, and their gang arrive, and the cartoon begins. In the audience are tons and tons of stars, from Helen Hayes to Bela Lugosi as Dracula. the cartoon is a great success, and all the stars congratulate Mickey. Even Greta Garbo gets up on stage and kisses Mickey! However…it’s all a dream. A nice bit of trivia” Walt Disney himself is caricatured in the cartoon. You can see him in the scene where Garbo gets up on stage.

Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938)

Another Disney short, this one features parodies on Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes featuring the Hollywood stars. All the usual suspects turn up: Hugh Herbert as Old King Cole, Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, and Freddie Bartholomew sail in Rub-A-Dub-Dub, W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Laurel and Hardy as Simple Simon and the Pieman, Edward G Robinson and Greta Garbo in See Saw Margery Daw, and many more stars featured in those nursery rhymes. Then stars a musical sequence, with Eddie Cantor as Little Jack Horner, Wallace Beery as Little Boy Blue, and Cab Calloway and Fats Waller providing plenty of jazz. Then we pay a visit to the Old Woman in a Shoe, where there is more music provided by Edna May Oliver, Joan Blondell, Mae West, ZaSu Pitts, Clark Gable (and his wiggling ears) on flute, George Arliss on sax, and Laurel and Hardy playing clarinet and trombone, respectively. Through it all, my favorite caricature, Katharine Hepburn as Little Bo Peep, looks for her missing sheep. Really, she has! This cartoon has had major problems with censorship, since it depicts African-Americans in an unsavory light, and is rarely shown on television (and usually with the African-American stereotypes cut out), but the full version can still be found. It was also said that Clark Gable was very unhappy with his caricature, and Walt Disney sent him an apology.

The Autograph Hound (1939)

In his first cartoon with his blue sailor hat, Donald Duck tries to sneak into MGM Studios to get some autographs. Although he was deterred the first time, he manages to get through by getting in Greta Garbo’s limousine. When the policeman realizes Donald’s trick, he chases after him for the rest of the cartoon. Donald then sneaks into Mickey Rooney’s dressing room, where a very bratty Rooney tricks him with a variety of magic tricks, frustrating our poor hero. Donald then finds himself on an ice-skating set, and tries to ask Sonja Henie for her autograph. Henie signs her name with her skates in the ice, so by the time he meets the Ritz Brothers on a desert film set, his precious ice block melts. They sign their names on his butt, which makes him angry too. He then bumps into Shirley Temple, who recognizes him and asks him for his autograph! The two happily exchange signatures, but the policeman finally corners Donald. However, Shirley reveals his identity, and soon enough everyone in MGM (and from other studios as well) runs to get Donald’s autograph!

Mickey’s Polo Team (1936)

It’s the Mickey Mousers vs the Movie Stars in this exciting polo match! Team Mickey Mousers: Mickey, Goofy, Big Bad Wolf, and Donald (riding a donkey). Team Movie Stars: Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Harpo Marx (riding an ostrich). Referee: Jack Holt. Let the chaos begin! The audience features both characters from the Mickey Mouse cartoons and Hollywood movie stars: Shirley Temple is next to the Three Little Pigs, Edna May Oliver next to the Hare, and Clark Gable is seated next to Clarabelle Cow. Other Hollywood audience members include Charles Laughton, Eddie Cantor, Harold Lloyd, W.C. Fields, and Greta Garbo. So, after all the chaos and Donald getting his butt kicked by everyone, who wins the match? No one, since the horses end up riding the team members!

Malibu Beach Party (1940)

Jack Benny (spoofed as Jack Bunny) invites all his Hollywood pals for a party at his beachfront home in Malibu. Hailed as one of the most successful parodies of Jack Benny and his radio crew, this cartoon features the usual: Greta Garbo, Edward G Robinson, George Raft, and Clark Gable. But it also features some fresh faces: Claudette Colbert, Cesar Romero, Robert Taylor, Astaire and Rogers, Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and James Cagney. Like at any good party, there is entertainment provided. Deanna Durbin serenades with a tune…and Jack Benny plays on that violin…

Hollywood Steps Out (1941)

Last but definitely not least, my favorite cartoon of them all, Hollywood Steps Out, which, in my opinion provides the best and most hilarious caricatures of the stars. This cartoon also takes place at a very famous (but sadly gone) club, Ciro’s. We first see the exterior of the club…offering dinner at $50 (over $700 today!). Sitting at the tables are Adolphe Menjou, Norma Shearer, and Claudette Colbert. Then we meet Cary Grant, who says “What a place! What a place! It’s as pretty as a picture. But if I ever told my favorite wife the awful truth I’d land right on the front page. Yessireee Bobby”, referencing several of his films. Greta Garbo is working as the cigarette girl, and Edward G Robinson converses with the “oomph” girl, Ann Sheridan. Johnny Weissmuller and Sally Rand arrive in the coat check room, where Paulette Goddard works. James Cagney, George Raft, and Humphrey Bogart, all famous “tough guys” of the cinema, plan to do something risky…and end up pitching pennies. Harpo Marx chases Garbo and lights up one of her extra-large shoes, to which she coolly responds, “Ooouucchhh”. All the while, Clark Gable spots a girl and chases her throughout the cartoon. Bing Crosby introduces conductor Leopold Stokowski, who begins a conga. When Dorothy Lamour begins to sway to the rhythm, Jimmy Stewart chickens out. Oliver Hardy dances with two women, while Cesar Romero steps all over Rita Hayworth’s dress. When Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland run up an expensive bill, Rooney and his onscreen father from the Andy Hardy series, Lewis Stone, wash dishes to make up for it. Then the final act begins: Sally Rand performing her famous bubble ance. Kay Kyser instructs William Powell, Spencer Tracy, C. Aubrey Smith, Errol Flynn, Wallace Beery, and Gilbert Roland to look, resulting in them whistling and catcalling. Peter Lorre “Has never seen such a beautiful bubble since I was a child!”, a naughty Henry Fonda is pulled away by his mother, Buster Keaton and Ned Sparks (who some say was the inspiration for Squidward in the tv show Spongebob Squarepants) provide their famous poker faces, while Jerry Colonna and “Yehudi” look on with binoculars. Harpo Marx pops Sally’s bubble with a slingshot–she’s wearing a barrel–and Gable finally gets the girl…but is it a girl? This is probably the most famous Hollywood-themed vintage cartoon, and it deserves its place immensely!

June 10, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Claudette Colbert, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Golden Age Humor, Gone with the Wind, Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Mickey Rooney, Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Reviews, Singers, Spencer Tracy, The Marx Brothers, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 163 Comments »

The Dames Hit Hollywood! Day Three: The Hollywood Museum

Since I love history and Hollywood, I was excited beyond belief to visit the Hollywood Museum, located at the former Max Factor building. I’ve heard beforehand that the museum is chock-full of rare artifacts and collectibles…and boy was that an understatement! If you ever visit this museum (which you totally SHOULD!) I recommend you take two or three days to see it, so you can fully view and appreciate everything it contains. Obviously, this was one of my favorite parts of the vacation.

The entrance to the museum, which has the scariest Marilyn Monroe statue of all time waiting there. “Hooray for Hollywood” from the film Hollywood Hotel was playing on a constant loop there, which meant that I was whistling along on a constant loop as well!

A more close-up view of the sign.

The side sign and some detail of the building.

Haha you get the idea by now, I hope!

The people who work there are very nice. They complimented me endlessly on my hair and makeup (yay!) A lot of people complimented my style in Hollywood in general. Hollywood people are a lot nicer than New York people for sure! Anyway, The entire first floor is intact from the Max Factor days, and is now a tribute to the master behind our favorite faces and hairstyles. So, they still got the pink lobby (which has a ton of stuff to look at as well), and you know that Max Factor’s makeup was created based on hair color, right? (he would create a line for redheads, another for brunettes, blondes, etc) Well, he actually had rooms for the hair colors as well, where he would treat the actresses. Today, each room features a famous actress well-known for having that hair color. The room “For Redheads Only” features Lucille Ball and Rita Hayworth, and even some Joan Crawford. “For Blondes Only” features mostly Marilyn Monroe. “For Brunettes Only” features mostly Judy Garland.

In the pink lobby:

A costume worn by Michael Jackson. You can see a hall lined with glamour portraits in the background

Rudolph Valentino’s sunglasses (missing the bridge for the nose) and something else that belonged to him, I have no idea what it is.

The shoes and wands used by the Harry Potter kids to make their prints in Grauman’s forecourt.

Display case containing two 1930s fan magazines, and various kinds of Max Factor makeup.

A close-up of an issue of True Confessions featuring Joan Crawford on the cover.

An issue of Screen Book featuring Marlene Dietrich and Max Factor makeup (this is not Marlene’s personal makeup)

Now here’s Joan’s personal makeup!

Joan’s face powder, rouge (wet and dry), grease paint, compact mirror, and false eyelashes (the freakiest false eyelashes in the entire world. They probably stood two inches off her face!)

Another pair of Joan’s eyelashes, and what I suppose is the stuff she would use to apply them. I think the black thing is mascara, which was dry at that time and quite different from what we have today.

More of Joan’s face powder and rouge. The beige-ish bottle is actually leg makeup, and the blue bottle next to that seems to be a cologne.

A portrait of Joan putting all that stuff on her face.

A case dedicated to Mae West.

An issue of Movie Mirror featuring West.

Haha her rhinestone heels

Mae’s sunglasses

A closer view of the case: Mae’s hair extensions, beauty tools, and Christmas present she gave to someone.

Bette Davis’ shoes, and a random Irving G Thalberg award in the background

Bette Davis and Darryl F Zanuck

Academy Award of Sol Harperin for the invention of CinemaScope

Original vintage photograph of Clark Gable, Ria Langham, Constance Bennett, and Gilbert Roland dining out. How much do you love that vintage camera underneath it?

Joan and Tone! Haha, love their names

A 1938 issue of Life magazine featuring Rudolph Valentino

In the Redhead Room:

Lucille Ball’s own chaise lounge and hair dryer. even though there is a sign on the chaise that says ”do not sit”, I sat on it anyway.

For you, Mark (there always seems to be something dedicated to you every day of this trip!) a photo of Lucille Ball and Hedda Hopper.

Costume worn by Lucille Ball in the Tallulah Bankhead episode of The Lucy/Desi Comedy Hour

Poster for the most hilarious film ever, The Long, Long Trailer.

Rita Hayworth’s personal vanity set.

Random boatload of Max Factor makeup and other knickknacks

Lucille Ball’s sunglasses, jewelry and makeup, and a tea set which was used in I Love Lucy. I love that TV Guide issue with her caricature on it!

Photos of Lucille Ball and a stand of her personal makeup

Close-up on the makeup, which includes face powder, mascara, eyeliner, and pancake makeup. Those are her pearls in the background as well.

Random photos of Joan Crawford

Lucille Ball’s sunglasses

In the Brunette Room:

A Judy Garland Max Factor ad, Judy and Max Factor

THE RUBY SLIPPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Costume worn by Judy Garland in A Star Is Born

Judy’s makeup, makeup case, and jewelry. The lower shelf has her baby clothes!

Joan Crawford’s fur coat, purse, and shoes

In the Blonde Room:

Portrait of Jean Harlow glamming it up

Marilyn Monroe’s death certificate

Newspaper reporting the death of Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn’s dress

What looks like Max Factor’s “makeup lab” with his personal makeup case, lots of strange beauty gadgets, and hair extensions lining the ceiling

Randomness inside the museum (second and third floors):

A poster of Without Love, with autographs:

Then there was a “portrait room”, full of nothing but glamour photos and shots of vintage Hollywood. That room on its own would take hours! Here’s some highlights:

More bits of vintage Hollywood awesomeness:

Autographs of Frank Capra and Roscoe Karns

autographs of the full Gone With The Wind cast

CARY GRANT’S CAR!!!!!!

My dad was obviously conflicted between photographing Elvis Presley’s robe or the posters on the bottom

evening gown belonging to Lucille Ball

Marilyn Monroe as Theda Bara. Can you believe?!

Charlie Chaplin’s Oscar nomination for Best Musical Score for Limelight

Poster of Some Like It Hot

Lobby card for Saratoga.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I saw the Harlow at 100 exhibit at this museum. Here are the photos from it:

Harlow’s white gown and white fox fur cape

I once saw a dress of Anna May Wong’s and said she’s like the height and width of a pencil. Well, Harlow is the size of a pencil broken in half.

Jean’s 1932 Packard Phaeton

Jean’s paycheck from MGM

A note written by Jean on her own stationary. Each MGM star had their own personalized stationary.

Publicity portrait of Jean for her last film, Saratoga

My new favorite photo of Jean. There is something so poignant about it

Many newspapers reported the tragic death of Jean Harlow

It even made headlines in international publications

This picture is too depressing to even explain

Jean’s personal makeup

In 1937, Jean was the first actress to grace the cover of Life magazine

Jean’s childhood address book. It contained the address of her grandfather

A love letter written by Jean to her high school crush, a boy named Howard

A playbill and ticket to the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre premiere of Hell’s Angels, Jean’s breakout film

A souvenir program from the premiere

A program from the president’s birthday ball, one of the last events Jean attended before her death

Jean and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt at the ball

Jean’s personalized handkerchiefs

A menu from the MGM commissary signed by all the major stars of the time: Jean, Robert Taylor, Franchot Tone, William Powell, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Montgomery, and Myrna Loy, among others

It’s no secret that Jean loved children. Here, she responds to a young fan named Josephine

Beyond the Harlow exhibit:

A gorgeous dress worn by Greta Garbo

A caricature of Cary Grant

Mae West costume, awards, and photographs

Mae West costume and accessories

Claudette Colbert costume and accessories from Cleopatra

photograph and accessories worn by Theda Bara in her version of Cleopatra

Cameras and film equipment from the silent era

Robe worn by Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky series

More vintage film equipment:

I bet you a million dollars this is upside down and I can’t even tell lol

The entire basement of the museum was replicated to look like the prison from Silence of the Lambs. Since my family and I were the only people in the museum that day, it was 364237623 times creepier than it should’ve been:

May 28, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Claudette Colbert, Constance Bennett, Fashion, Franchot Tone, Gone with the Wind, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Myrna Loy, Rudolph Valentino, Spencer Tracy, Uncategorized, Vivien Leigh, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 151 Comments »

The Dames Hit Hollywood! Day Two: More Grauman’s Chinese, The Egyptian, The El Capitan,The Pig N’ Whistle, and Madame Tussaud’s

As you can tell by the title, my second day in Hollywood was full to bursting! It was hella lot of fun, of course. We went back to Hollywood Boulevard nice and early in the morning. Here’s a better picture of the Hollywood Roosevelt to start us off:

Isn’t it just amazing? Anyway, we arrived a bit late to Grauman’s the other day, and all the interior tours were over. While waiting for the tour this day, we took more pictures of hand and foot prints we missed out on the first day:

May she rest in peace

His feet are HUGE, by the way.

While her feet are like two dots in the cement!

Also for you, Mark: Durante’s nose

A more up-close view of that glorious appendage.

John Wayne and his fist

Gregory Peck’s. He, like Jean Harlow, had his pennies pried out by stupid tourists at some point.

A panoramic view of the theater. It’s breathtaking in person

Mary Pickford was the first to get her footprints done at the theater.

The Kodak Theatre, where the Academy Awards are held today

OH MY GOD EVERYONE IT’S SUPERMAN!!

The marquee of the El Capitan Theatre, where many stars got their start on its stage before making it big in pictures!

The entrance to the El Capitan. Unfortunately, you are not allowed inside unless you want to watch a film stupid El Capitan people.

One of my favorite photos: the breathtaking ceiling of the El Capitan

Wall detail of the El Capitan

The Hollywood and Highland shopping complex, built to look like a Babylonian D.W. Griffith epic

Do you see what I see? The Hollywood Sign!!!

The sign of the Egyptian Theatre. We tried to get inside, but it was closed. Guess it was a bad day for theaters in general.

The forecourt of the Egyptian…and mama walking on the right

Giant wall mural

Giant Ramses heads. Sorry I didn’t dwell on this too long, I’ve been to Egypt before and frankly I’ve had enough of the ancient pharaoh stuff to last me a lifetime.

After the Egyptian, we had lunch at the Pig N’ Whistle, where everyone who was anyone wined and dined. It was very 1920s, with its extensive bar and dim colored lighting (hence the lack of interior photos. They all pretty much sucked). The food was pretty…well…mediocre, but the point of going here is to breathe the same air as our favorite film stars, so who cares about the food!

The ceiling of the lobby

More of the ceiling of the lobby.

A mural painted along the inside wall.

The carpet in the lobby.

The bar, which is a little way into the theatre.

On the wall across from the bar, there were photos of stars that frequented Grauman’s. Here’s Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Our tour guide told us a highly entertaining story of an Australian girl who absolutely could NOT identify anyone in the photos (if I remember correctly she thought Jane Russell was Amy Winehouse!) The gals are doing their hand and foot prints in the forecourt.

A photo of Clark Gable and his last wife Kay Williams attending a premiere at the theatre. The tour guide then said that Gable was cold to his fans, which was SO NOT TRUE. AT ALL.

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford doing their prints. They were the first to do so. Sid Grauman is crouching on the floor, helping them out.

The wax lady. Whenever Grauman’s held a premiere, the actors of the film would pat the lady for good luck. Us lowly tourists got the chance to pat her as well!

That famous red curtain, hiding that famous screen! It was HUGE. MAMMOTH. COLOSSAL. The screen of the Chinese Theatre is actually the largest non-IMAX movie screen in the entire world!

The side wall and seats of the screen room. It is decorated with columns, red lights, and paintings of nature in the ancient Chinese style (duh). The seats are red plush, and are quite comfortable, as you can lean back quite far in them!

“Cathay Circle”, the boxes where all important figures and luminaries would watch films. Sid Grauman’s own personal box is the one on the far right. The film projector is directly above the two blue lights.

After the tour, we headed onward to Madame Tussaud’s. You’d think we’d be tired, right? Nope! Especially your hyper-active blogger with her boundless energy!

Two more blocks (you know you love these):

Rita Hayworth has the smallest adult feet in the forecourt (Shirley Temple has the smallest feet overall). She stands in at a size ONE. No, I did not just make a typo. She was a size ONE.

The Madame Tussaud’s in Hollywood, although a lot smaller than the one in New York, is a hell of a lot more fun. The figures are built around little sets, where you can join in and feel as though you are part of the scene. Yes, you do get costumes with some of the figures!

A beautiful replica of Marilyn Monroe greets you when you enter.

Lady Gaga, who’s here purely to give this post more traffic. I know, shrewd business tactics.

Charlie Chaplin, who had the bluest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

Bette Davis in costume from “All About Eve”

Vivien Leigh in costume and script in hand for “Gone With The Wind”

She is accompanied by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler. I don’t know why, but I felt that the statue didn’t do him justice, and really doesn’t look like him too much. What do you think? (and by the way, his hair is HAAARRRD)

Little Judy Garland, with Astaire and Rogers and Howard Hughes in the background.

Astaire and Rogers, with Ginger in her famous feather gown

Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen

The incredibly tall Jimmy Stewart.

John Wayne in costume for True Grit.

Rocky Balboa! (duh)

Michael Jackson!!! (DUH x2378694)

And last but not least…Madame Tussaud herself!

Hope you enjoyed day 2! Day 3, with my visit to the Hollywood Museum, will be coming soon!

May 27, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Fashion, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gone with the Wind, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, Vivien Leigh, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 120 Comments »

If Classic Hollywood Were To Sign My Yearbook…

Us seniors got our yearbooks last Wednesday, and since then, it’s been nothing but yearbook MANIA. Everyone is scrambling for signatures, passing the book around to friends, running after teachers with pens in hand, allotting valuable page space among people (empty front and back pages for close friends, divide these pages among the close friends, everyone else can sign by their photo in the book, so on and so forth). Of course, there’s also the frustration of what to write and where to begin writing. There’s also the dread of someone you really don’t know well asking you to sign their book, and you’d have to end up writing some weak, obviously fake, generic message to them (“I’m glad we got to know each other! Good luck in college!”). An ex-friend of mine (she’s a SEVERE NUTCASE and as soon as I found out, I dumped her faster than a hot potato, and you have no idea how much I was made to look like the bitch after that!) asked me to sign her yearbook. To my inner satisfaction, I was probably the second person to sign. I told her to be happy in life (she’s faking being depressed about everything. Sorry for the amount of parentheses in this post).

But what if I was lucky enough to go to school with Classic Hollywood? What would they have to say to me? Look no further!

Marion Davies:
Hooray for having big beaver teeth like me girl! Go us!
Sincerely, Marion

Loretta Young:
Clark knocked me up so take THAT!
–Loretta

Cary Grant:
So…wanna go out for dinner at a five-star restaurant tonight? Just kidding! And please stop laughing hysterically at me when I trip/fall on my butt/make pigeon-like motions with my head/get constantly confused and baffled by what’s going on around me.
Love Always,
Cary

Tallulah Bankhead:
DAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-LIIIIINNNNGGGG! Best in luck with everything you do dahling, but dahling, you ain’t ever gonna be better than me dahling!
Your dahling friend,
Tallu (DAHLING) (DUH)

Lana Turner:
You’re butt-ugly! What else can I say, being a blonde bitch?
Love,
Lana (MWAH)

Jimmy Durante:
So…wanna go out for dinner at a five-star restaurant tonight? You get full access to my schnozz!
Love,
~~Schnozz~~ Durante

Julie Andrews:
THE HIIIIILLLLLLLSSS ARRRRRRREEEEE ALLLIIIIIIVVVVVEEEE WITH THE SOUND OF MUUUUUUSSSIIICCC! Please stop calling me “Judy” Andrews. MY NAME’S FRIGGIN JULIE, GET WITH IT GIRL!
With Kindest Regards,
JULIE Andrews

Jack Benny:
I’m so glad we are friends! I’m not the only cheapskate who badly plays an instrument!
From Your Pal,
Jack Benny

John Barrymore:
Admire the profile! Wanna go out for a drink? Don’t worry about getting a fake ID!
See Ya!
John B.

Robert Young:
Thank you for tormenting me with duck jokes you meanie!
From,
Robert “Quack” Young

Zeppo Marx:
I AM THE FUNNIEST MARX BROTHER! Just wait and see!
Sincerely,
Zeppo

William Frawley:
I am in love with our friendship! Who else says “MONEY!” instead of “CHEESE!” when we take pictures??
Love,
Bill

Franchot Tone:
I’m glad you are one of the few who appreciate my brand of humor and acknowledges my talent…even though you often say I look like a turtle.
Love,
Tone

Desi Arnaz:
BABALU! BAAAABAAALLLUUUU! Keep on Babalu-ing, amiga!
~~Desiderio (I know you have an obsession with my full name)

Jean Harlow:
Congratulations to the Queen of Sheba! You, like me, can throw a swell left!
Love Always,
Baby

Chico Marx:
YOU NEED SOME PIANO LESSONS STAT.
Love, Chico

Joan Crawford:
We’re two of a kind! But I’m the prettier, thinner one!
Best Wishes,
JOAN!!!!

Freddie Bartholomew:
Your accent, loud voice, fast way of speaking, sprinkling of your speech with disgusting swearwords, and tendency to make rude noises while conversing are shameful to the integrity of the English Language. I, a mere child, can speak with better diction than you ever will in your entire lifetime. Please try to make an effort to see me sometime this summer so I can attempt to alleviate your situation.
Sincerely,
Mr. Freddie Bartholomew

Wallace Beery:
So we share birthdays! How about I eradicate you off the face of the earth so I can be the only one eh?
–Wallie

Marlon Brando:
You’re just jealous of my mumbling voice and brooding persona, so stop making fun of it! And you have to admit, I was cool as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls!
Lovealwaysmarlonbrando

Leslie Howard:
HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU I DO NOT LOOK CONSTIPATED THROUGHOUT GWTW! I hope you will become blinded by my shiny golden locks!
From, Lels

Bette Davis:
So you think you have big eyes huh?
~~Bette

Spencer Tracy:
Thank you for always hoping that someday I will get the girl over Clark Gable.
From,
Spence

Charlie Chaplin:
Voules-vouz le taximeter?
Love,
C Chaps

Shirley Temple:
I AM NOT EVIL.
–Shirley

Rudolph Valentino:
I hope you someday find your very own pale hands by the Shalimar. Stop making fun of my thick Italian accent and my incredibly long name. I know it’s sexy, but please contain yourself.
Love,
Rudy Guglielmi

Gary Cooper:
Yep.
Coop.

Fred Astaire:
The only time you ever showed any promise in dance is when you badly needed to use the restroom.
With Love,
Fred

Katharine Hepburn:
I’m very happy for you really I am.
~Heppy

Jimmy Stewart:
Aww, I dunno what to say…ummm…aw gawsh!
Uh,
Jimmy

Laurence Olivier:
IFIWASN’TSUCHAPOMPOUSSUCCESSFULSTAGEACTORIWOULDCONGRATULATEYOUBUTSINCEI’VEDONE
GREATERTHINGSTHANGRADUATEHIGHSCHOOLIDON’T SEETHATYOUREALLYDESERVEIT.
Sir Laurence Olivier

Al Jolson:
Aww baby, you should be sittin’ on top of the world!
Your Pal,
Al (which rhymes. New song!)

Marilyn Monroe:
Gentlemen prefer blondes!
Love,
Marilyn

Rosalind Russell:
I thoroughly enjoy terrorizing everyone with our caustic remarks!
Love Always,
Roz

Errol Flynn:
Why do all of your tights look strangely like mine?
From,
Errol Flynn (aka In Like Flynn…please stop randomly saying that)

Peter Lorre:
I’VE NEVER SEEN SUCH A BEAUTIFUL BUBBLE SINCE I WAS A CHILD! You can imitate my voice so well it even creeps ME out!
~~Peter Lorre
PS: I LIKE MONEY!

Charles Laughton:
Please excuse me while I count my cocoanuts
-Charles

Louis B Mayer:
There’s room for only one tyrant around here!
From, LB

Barbara Stanwyck:
Fellow Brooklyn dames!!!
Love,
Babs

William Powell:
Please remove this monstrosity of a yearbook away from me! By the way, I still can’t get rid of the botanical freak from Life With Father.
Love,
Bill Powell

Myrna Loy:
Please stop playing with my nose and calling me Myrna Boy! I’m not a boy!
Sincerely,
Myrna

Robert Taylor:
I did NOT steal my cable-knit sweaters from Clark Gable!!!
-Rob

Lucille Ball:
We have so many inside jokes! From, “a little bit of laryngitis baby” to “I got the gobloots from the booshoo bird?” I never fail to bust your lungs!
Love, Lucy

Norma Shearer:
JUNGLE RED!!!!
Sincerely, Norma

Mae West:
Come up and see me sometime! Oh wait, you’re a girl, not a sexy muscleman.
XOXO Mae

Gene Kelly:
You’ll be “singin’ in the rain” at your prom tomorrow!
Gene

Ruby Keeler:
Every time you sing “42nd Street” I have a brain aneurysm
Love, Ruby K.

Greta Garbo:
OOOOWWWWWWWCCCCCCHHHHH.
~Garbo

Mickey Rooney:
Stop offering me your retainer!
From, Mickey

Groucho Marx:
Women should be obscene and not heard.
From, Groucho

Carole Lombard:
May I have my name back?
Love,
The Real Carole

Humphrey Bogart:
Here’s NOT looking at you, kid
-Humphrey

Vivien Leigh:
Great balls of fire! Stop fancying yourself as Scarlett O’Hara! And there are SOME non GWTW movies in which I don’t die!
Kindest Regards,
Viv

Grace Kelly:
Please tell them to stop comparing Kate Middleton to me.
Love,
Grace

Harpo Marx:

(love, Harpo)

Clark Gable:
You are a very nice girl. Now stop stalking me and get a life.
Love Always,
Gabe

May 17, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Franchot Tone, Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Golden Age Humor, Gone with the Wind, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, Jimmy Stewart, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Lana Turner, Laurence Olivier, Leslie Howard, Lucille Ball, Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Marion Davies, Mickey Rooney, Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Rudolph Valentino, Spencer Tracy, The Marx Brothers, Vivien Leigh, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 106 Comments »

Gone With The Wind In His Own Words

Gone with the Wind is coming on TCM tonight at 10, so in honor of that, here’s Clark Gable’s experiences acting the film, in his own words. here’s an article entitled “Vivien Leigh, Rhett Butler, and I” from the February 1940 issue of Photoplay, in which Clark confesses all.

Everyone else has had his say about what went on behind the scenes of “Gone with the Wind.” Now the hero himself, in a startling frank story, tells the truth about the year’s most exciting cinematic event

To begin with I’d like to state that despite what a lot of papers said there was never any feud between Vivien Leigh and me during the filming of ”Gone with the Wind” or at any time thereafter.

Hollywood goes just as much to extremes when it comes to male and female stars cast together as it does on any other subject. Get a man and a woman in a picture together and you are immediately reported as either fighting or romancing. The fact that in eighty percent of your pictures you have no emotion about the beautiful creature opposite you, other than an interest in her acting ability, is never printed. Yet that’s the truth more often than not.

As for any possibility of Vivien Leigh’s falling in love with me I knew that was out from our first glance. For never have I seen any girl more completely in love than that one is-with Laurence Olivier. It’s as visible as a Neon sign that she can’t think or talk of or dream about anything or anyone else on earth-except when she’s on the set. When she’s on the set, she’s what a good actress should be. She’s all business.

As for my falling in love with her, I’m sure that could have been plenty pleasant except that, added to her lack of interest in me. I didn’t have any heart to give away, either. Mine was staked out to that Lombard girl who is mighty beautiful and brainy. Carole and I weren’t married when Vivien and I first met, but we did marry while I was working on the picture and there’s a story about our wedding that has never been told and which I’ll get to presently.

I’ll be truthful about it, however: I’ll confess that, the first time I saw her I doubted that Vivien could really play Scarlett. That reaction certainly shows I’m no casting director. But, accustomed to the more abandoned and superficial personalities of Hollywood girls, Vivien seemed too demure to me, at that first meeting, for the vivid, relentless Scarlett.

David Selznick introduced us to each other at a dinner party at his home. Vivien was wearing a very plain, tailored dress. Site’s much tinier in real life than she appears on the screen, and since she uses little make-up she has a very young unsophisticated air. Besides, she had all the fires banked that evening and that Olivier guy was her escort.

Now I know I should have stopped to consider all that. But having seen Vivien only in “A Yank at Oxford,” in which she didn’t have a lot to do, I just looked at her that first evening at David’s and wondered if that keen-minded producer had gone haywire when he signed her.

I knew he hadn’t the first day Vivien and I got on a set together. (David doesn’t go haywire, anyway, which is another thing I should have thought about-but as a profound thinker I’m a good duck-hunter) The best alibi I can offer for my thickheadedness is that my mind was preoccupied with Rhett Butler. He had me plenty worried, so worried that I didn’t want to play him.

Don’t think that was because I didn’t realize what a fat part he was. Rhett is one of the greatest male characters ever created. I knew that. I’d read the entire book through six times, trying to get his moods. I’ve still got a copy in my dressing room and I still read it once in a while, because I know I’ll probably never get such a terrific role again. But what was worrying me, and still is, was that from the moment I was cast as Rhett Butler I started out with five million critics.

About all the handicap an actor ordinarily has is two or three professional critics to a city which adds up for the whole world to about one large theater’s matinée business. Those birds may rap you and while you’d prefer their praise, still you can take those raps, if need be, hoping that the public which makes up all the millions of other movie-goers will like you regardless. But five million people have read “Gone with the Wind” and each must have his or her own idea of bow Rhett should he played.

There was not only that, but I had an accent to think of, long hair to wear, and twenty-six costume changes-more than Carole has ever had in any one of her pictures (which brought me in for lots of ribbing from that one, too).

Photoplay, in publishing some two years ago, a sketch of me as Rhett had given me a guide on the make-up which was an enormous help, and I followed that. The hair was a mere matter of growth and getting used to going without a haircut. All those things were headaches enough, but I talked with Alicia Rhett, a Southern deb (she’s from Charleston, where Rhett was supposed to have been born), before every scene and she was a marvelous accent coach. (Watch for her in one of the smaller roles. The girl’s good and that “Rhett” stuff is her own name.) But Scarlett, being in every foot of the picture, needed plenty of watching.

We started the picture early last March. I discovered Rhett had been pruned of most of his cuss words and much of his force, but apparently that had to be for the censors. Still, he had every scene he actually had in the book. I was signed for six months (and be it said here that it was a honey of a contract. Selznick had offered me a flat rate for the picture. M-G-M played very fair with me and let me make my own deal. I put it on a week-to-week basis. Six months at that rate was mighty sweet sugar amid I ate it up, for I know I’ll never get such a chance again, and the ranch needed a lot of landscape gardening.)

Actually in production, however, I discovered that Rhett was even harder to play than I had anticipated. With so much of Scarlett preceding his entrance, Rhett’s scenes were all climaxes. There was a chance to build up to Scarlett, but Rhett represented drama and action every time he appeared. He didn’t figure in any of the battle scenes, being a guy who hated war, amid he wasn’t in the toughest of the siege of Atlanta shots. What I was fighting for was to hold my own in the first half of the picture-which is all Vivien’s-because I felt that after the scene with the baby, Bonnie, Rhett could control the end of the film. That scene where Bonnie dies, and the scene where I strike Scarlett and she accidentally tumbles down stairs, thus losing her unborn child, were the two that worried me most.

The problem of Rhett, to me, was that although he reads like a tough guy and by his actions is frequently not admirable, actually he is a man who is practically broken by love. His scenes away from Scarlett make him a heavy and his scenes with her make him almost a weakling. My problem was to make him, despite that, a man people would respect. In that scene where Rhett has knocked Scarlett down stairs and learns later that the baby is dead, while Scarlett hovers between life and death, Rhett has to show remorse and suffering.

The scenario, in fact, has him banging to Melanie’s skirts and crying. So there was Moose Gable, clutching the skirt of that dainty de Havilland and trying to sob.

I thought of the stuffed doves Carole had sent to my dressing room on the day ”Gone within the Wind” started. They are an omen between us. The first night we ever really talked to each other, the night of the White Mayfair three years ago, we quarreled. Next morning when I waked up, a little time worse for wear, I heard the weirdest noise in my room. I was living in the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel at the time but I kept thinking I heard birds in the room. I got up and right I was. I had heard birds in the room. They were a whole hamper of doves of peace that Carole had sent over. Ever since then whenever we have an argument about anything one or the other of us sends a dove. Result is that we’ve got some ten original doves on the ranch today and about fifty of their progeny. Squab from squabbles one could say, though it might be wiser if one didn’t.

Anyhow, I thought of the stuffed doves for luck and I blessed Vie Fleming, the director, who has guided me through some tough ones before this, and as for the rest, I honestly prayed the scene would be good. Vic was kind and didn’t keep the camera too much on my face. He let me try to do most of it on the sound track, act it with my voice, rather than with my expressions, I mean. I only hope you’ll feel I’ve gotten away with it.

In the scenes with Bonnie, I tried to show a mature man’s transfer of love away from a woman he knows doesn’t love him to their child whom he adores. I’ve played only a few scenes with kids so these were a new experience to me, too. A new type of love scene. They were exciting but the scene in the whole picture that I enjoyed playing the most was the scene where I come in late at night, drunk, and Scarlett comes down and joins me, getting a little drunk herself. That’s the scene where I knew what an actress Vivien is because while I intended nothing of the sort, she took the whole shot neatly away from me.

The greatest day on the picture to me was March 31, 1939. That was two days after my wedding to Carole.

It has been written since then that Carole and I had that wedding day planned out for months in advance, but that’s not true. It happened this way. On the afternoon of March 28, I was finished with my scenes about three in the afternoon. While I was taking off my make-up, the assistant director came over and said I didn’t need to work the next day. I called Carole at once and with the aid of a close friend, we headed out that night to Kingman, Arizona. We took Otto along, not only to untangle any difficulties we might get into, but because he had a new car without license plates which meant we wouldn’t be spotted.

We were married at three-thirty that afternoon and left at five-thirty, getting home the next morning at three. Carole’s mother was there, all excited, which kept us up till five. Finally we got to sleep, only to be awakened at nine to discover forty cameramen, three newsreel men and twenty reporters waiting out in the front yard to interview us. Under the circumstances, David gave me another day off.

But the next morning when I reported at the studio, ready for the prison sequence, I discovered Vic had switched things on me and was prepared to do the wedding scene, only this day my bride was Vivien. David had engaged a full orchestra which was gurgling through the wedding march and while I knew it was all a rib on me, I blew up in the first take. The stage hands all groaned, Vivien asked solicitously what was the matter with me, and Vic said, “It’s that Clark has always been shy of girls.”

Despite the kidding I got that day, however, we did precious little fooling on “Gone with the Wind.” I, for one, was a stranger in a strange studio. Somehow, I’d never met Olivia de Havilland or Leslie Howard before. The crew, who are the ones who put over the gags in any studio, were all new to me. And Technicolor is too expensive to play tricks with. Besides David, having three million dollars invested, was down on that set all the time fixing us with his eagle eye. So we worked, day after day and hour after hour, for those six exciting months. It took all the stamina I’ve got, which is enough, but I can’t imagine what it must have taken out of Vivien, who worked twice as much as I did. I only know that never once did I hear her complain.

As for me, when I finally was released, and they let me cut my hair again, the MGM gang sent me a turkey. They named it Rhett Butler and it was a male bird. The card said, “This is just to assure you that even if a turkey, Rhett can’t lay an egg.”

That leaves me nothing to do now but wait until after the picture is released, to read the critics and to see if I have to go out to the chicken house and tell that gobbler to move over.

Hope you enjoyed it! I love it when Clark takes over the interview and tells all. Everything he says is a mixture of clever wit and plain good humor.

February 12, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh | Tags: by Carole Irene | 3 Comments »

The Best Damn Poster Ever

I stumbled across the greatest poster in all of classic moviedom several days ago. I really want to blow this up and hang it on the wall of my room so I can revel in its awesomeness every day:

How AMAZING is that? And it’s very true. It’s so hilarious. I love it so much I could scrap a whole side of my locker and donate it to this wonderful thing. Okay, maybe not, but it would get a sizeable chunk!

January 14, 2011 | Categories: Actors, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Golden Age Humor, Gone with the Wind | Tags: by Carole Irene | Leave A Comment »

2010: A Year In Classic Movies

Happy New Year everyone!

To celebrate, I’m going to look back on my 2010 classic movie escapades. Get ready for An Elegant Obsession’s Annual Classic Movie Yearbook!

Best Movie: Gone with the Wind (1939). This film won ten Academy Awards in 1939, and it deserved every single one!

Worst Movie: Apologies to The Painted Desert (1931), but it was the stinkiest Western ever created. It even has the stinkiest film poster ever created:

Best Female Performance: TIE! Rosalind Russell in The Women (1939) was witty, charismatic, funny, and engaging. Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was complex, emotional, and heartbreaking.

Best Male Performance: TIE AGAIN! Spencer Tracy in Captains Courageous (1937) was simply amazing. William Powell in The Thin Man (1934) was smooth, suave, and urbane.

Best Villain: Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder (1954). That guy was an evil CREEP.

Best Female Comedic Performance: Carole Lombard in To Be Or Not To Be (1942). She made me laugh to tears.

Best Male Comedic Performance: the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933), Horse Feathers (1932), and Monkey Business (1931). Laugh out loud HILARIOUS!

Best Romantic Screen Team: Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. Platinum blonde stunner with an acid tongue and jug-eared, burly ex-lumberjack? Their chemistry and spark is inimitable.

Best Hero/Sidekick Team: Clark Gable and Franchot Tone. They complimented and played off each other so well, it’s a darn shame they only made three movies together

Best Song: TRIPLE TIE!!! Puttin’ On The Ritz from Idiot’s Delight (1939), the title song from 42nd Street (1933), and How Could You Believe Me? from Royal Wedding (1951)

Best Dressed: Joan Crawford. She always looks her best

Best Kiss: Clark Gable and Mary Astor in Red Dust (1932). Considered to be one of the best classic movie kisses

Best Line: “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!” fills me up with tears every time

Best Newcomer: I recently discovered Rudolph Valentino, and he has quickly become one of my favorites

Most LOL-worthy Moment: TIE! William Powell cooing in Myrna Loy’s face in I Love You Again (1940) and Norma Shearer’s Jungle Red Nails in The Women (1939)

Hope you enjoyed our first annual Classic Movie Yearbook! Look forward to a new year full films, fun, and a whole lot of insight and sarcasm! As Frank Sinatra said in his song, The Best Is Yet To Come: “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

December 31, 2010 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Franchot Tone, Fred Astaire, Gone with the Wind, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell, Rudolph Valentino, Spencer Tracy, The Marx Brothers, Vivien Leigh, William Powell | Tags: by Carole Irene | 5 Comments »

Lesson Learned: Never Watch Gone With The Wind With A Parent

Yesterday was the 71st anniversary of Gone with the Wind’s premiere in Los Angeles. Even better…it was also Baby Jean’s birthday! Lucky girl! So we celebrated the two events by watching Gone with the Wind. I thought it would be like any normal viewing of the film: trying to spot bloopers, getting jealous over Vivien Leigh’s looks, sighing over Clark Gable (why couldn’t Rhett Butler exist today? WHYYYYY?!), laughing at implied jokes, listing as much trivia as we possibly could, and making fun of Ashley Wilkes.

However, I was WRONG. More wrong than I’ve ever been in my life.

Baby Jean invited our MOTHER to watch the movie with us. What were you thinking, Jean?! Just because YOU don’t have the hots for the leading male actor DOESN’T mean this was going to be an easy walk in the park!

My mother also has a crushie on Clarkie (if you’ve seen any of my previous posts, you’d know this already). But that didn’t make it any easier for me. There she was, talking about how CUTE he was, and here I was, resisting the temptation to agree/gush over him/control my face from giving me away/hug the television.

I have no idea why I just can’t admit to my mother that I love that man. It’s just too uncomfortable. Telling your mother that you have an undying love for a man 50 years in the grave is NOT an option.

HECK YES. And get that look off your face!

So, my mother started with him right off the bat. Seriously, the OPENING CREDITS weren’t done yet and she was already talking about him! Therefore, I watched the movie, from beginning to end, huddled up into a corner of the couch, so I can wallow in my embarrassment alone.

As my mother laughed along with his laugh (she’s obsessed with it) and drooled all over him, I began to notice things in the film that I’ve never noticed before (anything not to look at his face): how heavily penciled Vivien Leigh’s eyebrows were, that Leslie Howard is more of a strawberry blonde than a straight blonde, there are dogs in the background of the opening scene, two birds fly in the background when the big GONE WITH THE WIND title shows up in the credits, there’s a naked guy in the background during the scene when Frank is taking a bath (before Ashley comes home)…the list goes on and on.

I was also noticing things that the censors should’ve caught instead of jumping all over Clark and “frankly my dear”. Take that naked guy for instance. He’s STARK NAKED! However, he’s shown from the side so you don’t see anything. That’s maybe why they didn’t notice it (?) Or maybe they were just buh-lind. Also, the plot point about Jonas Wilkerson and Emmy Slattery’s illegitimate child is fairly obvious. The language was really bold when relating to that point!

Suddenly, while watching the film, it started getting really, REALLY hot. Very unusual, since we were practically snowed under here in New York. It was so hot, I rolled up both my pants and my sleeves, piled my hair in an ugly bun (I looked like a Dr. Seuss creature), and my hot face was radiating like a furnace. Turns out that Jean and Mom were COLD and it was just me being embarrassed and having the hots for Clark! The only word that was rushing through my head was CRAP. Clark was so beautiful, he almost made my legs burst out into heat rash.

There I was, with the fan on full blast, and the others huddled in fleece blankets. How embarrassing.

Thankfully, I got over it by the end of Part I and no longer needed the fan. My mother fell asleep here and there in Part II, and missed a lot of Gable HAHAHAHA-ing. OH WELL. TOO BAD.

All was smooth sailing until the part when Bonnie dies and Rhett keeps her body with him for three days. That part was very sad, but also a tad strange for me. My mother CRIED. BAWLED. I was so shocked. Could this get any worse? Clark Gable’s moving performance made her cry? Now he’s going to be the god of all actors in her eyes.

We stayed up until 12:35 AM watching that movie. It did NOT want to finish. The only good part about that was that we were too tired to discuss any of it. We crashed and slept as hard as rocks.

Note to self: Never, ever, ever, EVER do that again. Not for a million dollars. Okay, maybe I can endure another four hours of embarrassment for a million dollars!

P.S: My mother also successfully came up with about 30 different insults for Ashley Wilkes, which helped to ease me up. Poor Leslie Howard. He doesn’t get much appreciation, does he?

December 29, 2010 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Gone with the Wind, Leslie Howard, Reviews, Vivien Leigh | Tags: by Carole Irene | Leave A Comment »

Bloody October Post#19: Haunted Culver Studios

Culver Studios, founded by pioneer filmmaker Thomas H. Ince, opened its doors in 1918. Since then, it’s been the studio for classics such as Gone with the Wind, King Kong and Citizen Kane. Since Ince’s mysterious death in 1924, many people have spotted his restless spirit stalking Culver Studios.

On November 15, 1924, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst held a birthday party for Ince on his yacht, the Oneida. Unfortunately, Ince died during the party. In Hearst’s newspapers, it was reported that Ince died of acute indigestion. However, some people tell a totally different story…

Hearst’s mistress, comedienne Marion Davies, was allegedly having an affair with Charlie Chaplin, who was invited to Ince’s birthday party. Apparently, Hearst got wind of the affair and grew intensely jealous and enraged. Some say that Hearst invited Chaplin just to see if the rumors were true.

Hearst allegedly saw Davies and Chaplin run off together and he caught them at the lower deck of the yacht. A livid Hearst was about to shoot Chaplin when in entered Ince. Instead of shooting Chaplin, Hearst accidentally shot Ince! This story was told by Chaplin’s secretary. Hearst was also absent from Ince’s funeral, and Louella Parsons, who was at the party, was awarded a lifetime contract with Hearst after the party. Even director D.W. Griffith knew that something was wrong, for every time Ince’s name was mentioned, Hearst would turn “as white as ghost”. Was all this a coincidence, or did it have to do with the murder?

But don’t be too eager to believe that story. There is no proof as to what actually happened, as no inquest was made into Ince’s death. It has been said in recent years that Ince most likely died of a heart attack.

Even though Ince might not have been murdered, employees at Culver Studios insist that it is haunted by his ghost. Ince’s ghost was seen climbing up the stairs in the administration building, and walking into the screening room, which was where Ince would watch projections back in his day. When the studio was renovated, Ince’s ghost allegedly became quite angry and petulant. His ghost was also seen watching over studio proceedings from the catwalks, always wearing a bowler hat. Once, the ghost allegedly told an employee, “I don’t like what you’re doing with my studio” and disappeared!

Do you think some of the classic Hollywood actors saw Ince’s ghost? Did Gable and Leigh get an otherworldly surprise while filming Gone with the Wind? Or maybe Orson Welles did during Citizen Kane? What about Lucille and Desi while filming I Love Lucy? It’s something interesting to contemplate!

October 20, 2010 | Categories: Classic Films, Gone with the Wind, Uncategorized | Tags: by Carole Irene | Leave A Comment »

Gone With The Wind (1939)

Here’s an EPIC post for the most epic film of all time! Without a doubt, Gone With The Wind is my all-time favorite film (and Jean? Forget it!). We love it so much that we watch it once a month, meaning we’ll end up watching this film more than anyone else in the whole entire world! You see, Jean and I are training ourselves in the art of being a Windie. All what we need are reproduction dresses of those worn by Vivien Leigh in the film!

Gone With The Wind has every element of what makes a great film: colorful characters, great plot, wonderful editing and art direction, attention to detail, killer acting, a sweeping score…you name it, Gone With The Wind has it. The film is so special that even though Jean and I see it all the time, each viewing feels new and different. That, I believe, is what makes a great film: it feels fresh even after seeing it 112 385,910,747 times.

If you’re reading this and you’ve never seen Gone With The Wind yet, let me tell you that there it is a film that caters to everyone’s interests:

Fashion Buffs: you will j’adore Walter Plunkett’s beautiful, envy-worthy costumes

Music Buffs: be amazed by Max Steiner’s sweeping score

Art Buffs: study the bold remastered Technicolor and admire the wonderful architecture and art dirtection by Lyle Wheeler.

Action Buffs: marvel at the amazing special effects during the Burning of Atlanta scene

Clark Gable Buffs: PLENTY of eye candy!!!

One really amazing thing about this film is how it got some of its lines and scenes past the censors. Every GWTW fan knows that David O.Selznick had to pay $5000 for Clark Gable to say the word “damn”, but some other parts, such as the part concerning Jonas Wilkinson and Emmie Slattery’s illegitimate child, should’ve never made it to the film…

Gone with the Wind is also famous for its stellar performances. Vivien Leigh showed she was more than just a pretty face and totally deserved her Best Actress Acadamey Awaard for her supreme talent. It’s amazing to see Leigh’s determination in winning the most coveted female role of all time..imagine Scarlett O’Hara as your American film debut! It was also amazing that Leigh did not get “stuck” in that film role. She was able to branch out and make other great films. Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Academy Award for her wonderful portrayal of Mammy. Clark Gable didn’t win an Academy Award for his performance, but he sure as hell deserved one!

Gone with the Wind: every movie buff’s favorite! It’s hard not to have a strong opinion on this iconic film.

Some cool photos:

There is also no movie that has a better ending…

Vive le Gone with the Wind!

September 18, 2010 | Categories: Actors, Actresses, Clark Gable, Classic Films, Gone with the Wind, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Reviews, Vivien Leigh | Tags: by Carole Irene | 5 Comments »

Cammie King Conlon: 1934-2010

Cammie King Conlon, best known for her role as Bonnie Blue Butler, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara’s daughter in Gone with the Wind, had passed away on Wednesday morning. She was 76 years old, and was battling lung cancer. Please keep Mrs. Conlon in your thoughts and prayers.

Rest in Peace, Cammie King

September 4, 2010 | Categories: Classic Films, Gone with the Wind | Tags: by Carole Irene | Leave A Comment »

September Star of the Month:Vivien Leigh

TCM is dedicating the month of September to one of my favorite film actresses…the great Vivien Leigh. Don’t let her beauty fool you, she is certainly an actress who is full of talent and is considered to be one of the greatest performers of all time. Vivien was famous for her astounding dramatic abilities, taking her classical stage techniques and using it on screen better than most of her contemporaries. The movies that will be featured this month are The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Storm in a Teacup, Sidewalks of London, A Streetcar Named Desire, Fire Over England, That Hamilton Woman, Waterloo Bridge, A Yank at Oxford, Anna Karenina, Caesar and Cleopatra, Ship of Fools, and of course GONE WITH THE WIND, Vivien’s most famous movie.

September 1, 2010 | Categories: Actresses, Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh | Tags: by Baby Jean | Leave A Comment »

Olivia de Havilland Day: Princess O’Rourke (1943) and The Heiress (1949)

Yesterday was Olivia de Havilland day on TCM, so naturally I tuned in to celebrate the actress I knew and loved as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939). However, not all of Olivia’s characters are goody-goody and kind-hearted like Melanie…

First I watched Princess O’Rourke (1943), an adorable film that kinda expects you to suspend your disbelief. How often do you see an average guy fall in love with a woman who’s secretly a princess escaping from the high life? But alas, that is part of the beauty of classic movies: the elegant escapism they provide. It’s a great film for those of you who are brand-new to Olivia. It also showcases her talent for comedy: she aaccidentally overdoses on sleeping pills during a plane flight (hilarity ensues!) and gets badaged like a mummy by a bunch of way-too-eager nurses in training. This film also taught me something else about Olivia: she can make KILLER animal noises! I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better dog imitation, and she makes a lot of bird noises as well–though not as good as William Powell in I Love You Again (1940).

Then I watched The Heiress (1949), which totally BLEW ME AWAY. Olivia’s talent and ability to play a variety of roles is amazing. In this movie, she goes from a shy, homely girl to a hard, cruel woman. The transition was done so well, it was kinda scary. And Monty Clift is awesome in his third film! He also had really awesome hair! =) Speaking of hair, Olivia is in a hair-raising situation all her own–those EYEBROWS. For the first half-hour of the film, I was totally skeeved out by the hairy worms on top of her eyes, and I wanted to travel into the film just to give her a pair pf tweezers. But I got used to them–eventually. Other than the eyebrows, the film was a gem. It’s a great psychological thriller, with each character providing a wealth of complex feelings, motives, and relationships. A great film for us classic movie buffs to discuss for hours on end!

Too bad I fell asleep before The Snake Pit (1948). Now THAT’S a psychological thriller!!!

August 28, 2010 | Categories: Actresses, Gone with the Wind, Reviews | Tags: by Carole Irene | Leave A Comment »

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