Happy 93rd birthday to both Lena Horne and Susan Hayward! ♥
Susan Hayward: Born June 30th, 1917 - Died March 14th, 1975
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Photos For (hopefully!!) Autographs!
EEP! I am sooooooooo excited!! Really, really, really!!!! I just bought 12 photos in a BOGOF offer on Movie Market, and I'm so hyped! I decided to treat myself, because I just got some money and, also, I've been wanting to buy some photos to send for autographs for a loooong time. So, I finally bought them! YAY! Anyone who isn't so insane as I am would probably say that I went a bit OTT, which is why I'm not saying how much I spent (also, I don't like talking about money...it makes me uncomfortable...). I will say how much I saved with the offer though. I saved, wait for it....wait for it...*drum roll*...nearly £25!! The postage was also incredibly cheap, and they have so many gorgeous photos, posters etc. etc. that I could have spent all day browsing! I advise you to get over there straight away! (:
(Only the 10x8" photos are BOGOF, but it is really good value in my opinion. Oh, and it's for a limited time only, so just go on and check it out and see if there's anything that catches your fancy! (;)
I'll show you the photos I bought, in the order that I hope to send them! I had to switch and swap some photos several times after reading that Maureen O'Hara only signs one photo (so, if you're intending writing to her, don't include more than one photo!), after finding out that no one has had a "success" with Zsa Zsa Gabor for a long time (she is in her 90s though...it's understandable that she wouldn't want to be hassled with fan mail), and after also discovering that no one seems to have received anything back from Deanna Durbin for a while. I probably will write to Deanna and Zsa Zsa sometime, but for the moment I've decided to get the letters off to the others. Eventually, I whittled down my overflowing 'basket', and chose my final photos. For the actresses I wanted to send more than one photo too, I wanted at least one photo with a good view of her face, because autographs on photos like that seem more personal! (Well, to me anyway...)
(First, the 12 10x8" photos)
Olivia de Havilland
Maureen O'Hara
(Movie Matters don't have many photos of Maureen *sob* but there was such a gorgeous photo of her, however it wasn't a particularly appropriate for an autograph, so, as I can only send her one, I decided on this - which is still stunning.)
Eleanor Parker
(I'm not sure why I chose the last one...it just really stood out to me, and I would love to have it autographed! Oh, and it's a still from the 1966 film The Oscar if you're wondering...)
Lauren Bacall
(Gah! There were so many fabulous photos of Lauren that I spent aaages picking them. The first one I adore...like, really adore. And the last photo is just stunning. Wasn't she just glorious?)
Debbie Reynolds
(As with Lauren, there were lots of lovely photos of Debbie to choose from. I'm not sure if I'll send the first one, but I really love it! She looks so happy, and it makes me feel happy! ♥ The second is one of my all time favourite photos of Debbie, so to have it autographed would be a.m.a.z.i.n.g.!)
Gina Lollabrigida
(I really adore this photo of Gina! There were several others I really wanted to get, but they were either really dark or too cluttered so, I went for this one!)
Celeste Holm
(I didn't really have much choice in the matter of a photo of Celeste as this was the only photo they had of her. It's not my favourite, but it's not the worst they could have had, so I'm happy!)
Joan Fontaine
(Joan, Joan, Joan. How happy I would be to get a 'Sister Set' of autographs! There were only two photos I liked of Joan on the website, and the other was a bit to 'facey', so I picked this!)
(Next, the 4 6x4" photos I just couldn't resist...)
Olivia de Havilland
(I just love this one...)
Lauren Bacall
Gina Lollabrigida
(I wanted a photo of her that was a bit closer to her face, and I just fell in love with this ♥ )
Debbie Reynolds
(Ok, this one is just so adorable. The moment I saw it I wanted to buy it, but I'd already decided on the other two photos, so I was like "Musn't buy...musn't buy...". But Debbie made me. It's all her fault, honestly ('; )
Gina Lollabrigida
(This isn't my favourite photo of Gina, but as I said before, a lot of the other photos weren't appropriate for [hopefully] autographs. However, I do still love this photo. Let's face it, Gina always looks beautiful! )
I'm not sure which I will send, and which I won't. I might send some of them two, and others just the one. I don't know. But whatever I do, I will keep you all updated with the writing and sending of the letters to the above lovely ladies, and of course I will [excitedly] inform you if I receive any of the photos back signed!!
I hope you've enjoyed this post, and it's not been too hyper and overwhelmingly mad! I'm feeling a lot better than I have for a couple of weeks, so that's another reason I'm excited too! Although, we are cancelling out holiday in France that was set to be a week yesterday, but hopefully the gîte owners will be dears and let us push it back to the middle of August! I really hope they do as I've been looking forward to the holiday since we booked in January! In hindsight, it was silly of us to book then because of my ridiculous health, but we learnt the hard way! Ah well. If we do go, it will be lovely! All summer dresses, sun hats and sunglasses. And pastries. Lots of them.
Anyway, that's enough of a ramble from me! Congrats if you got to the end! (;
A presto!
Monday, 28 June 2010
Photo of the Week and Quick Update
Jean Harlow powdering! Gah, I love her ♥ Those shoes and socks ♥
Just to let you all know, I haven't been intentionally neglecting this blog, I've just been really poorly (until yesterday I'd been flat on my back for a week, something that hasn't happened for a few months). I only managed to post the previous Photo of the Week posts in moments when I wasn't in quite so much pain and discomfort! Fortunately, I'm feeling a little better now, but I'm still very weak and unable to move much, so I'm not going to be making any lengthy posts (and perhaps not blogging every day) for a few weeks. It depends on how well I recover. But please, keep reading the posts I do make! (:
Also, I would like to thank all of you wonderful classic film bloggers! In my "better" moments, I've been reading little bits of your posts and they really cheered me up! So, thank you! ♥
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Star of the Day
She's never really been one of my favourite actresses, and I just tend to forget about her a lot of the time! It's sad, I know...she was so lovely.
I suppose the reason I'm not fond of her is because I've not seen that many of her films - and I've never seen the Donna Reed show! I want to get around to watching it one day, but for now, I have other things I'd rather watch!
I do, however, think Donna is an absolute darling, and that's why I gave her this spot as the Star of the Day. I know a lot of people love her, and I would like to watch more of her films, so hopefully one day I'll get around to it!
(do you not think her eyes look so beautiful in this photo!?)
Monday, 21 June 2010
My Unsent Letters to the Stars
Hello all! I'm pretty out of it today due to not getting a wink of sleep last night (however, I did manage to snatch 2/3 hours around midday, so I'm not as out of it as I could be!), so don't be too hard on me if I don't make any sense at all! :)
Debbie Reynolds makes me smile. Always. She's one of the sweetest darlings ever to live ♥ I decided to write to her a few years ago, but never got around to sending the letter because I was confused as to how you send SASEs to someone who lives in another country. (Something I'm still not entirely sure about. I'm sure I read somewhere that it can be done, but I can't for the life of me remember how. So, I'd be very grateful if you knew!) Anyway, I was just looking at the letter I wrote. It's so...adoring and gushy. Half of it is completely irrelevant. For example (with unaltered grammar, punctuation and spelling)...
If someone who had never seen a musical before asked me to recommend one to watch as a starter, I would probably say "Singin' In the Rain", "Me and My Girl", "Guys and Dolls", "The King and I" and "Wicked".
I wasn't sucking up to her with Singin' In the Rain!! Honest!!
There is also a part in which I inform Debbie how much I wish my life was a musical...
It would be so wonderful if I could burst into song on the street without people looking at me weirdly! It would be even better if they would all start singing and dancing behind me!
Yes, it would be fun, but I'm pretty sure Debbie Reynolds couldn't care less!
I also told her that if she did reply (ouch!)...
...I will treasure it [the reply] for all eternity.
There was also the "first draft" of the letter, which, I presume I thought was too short and snappy - so I rewrote it to include the flowery randoms you see above.
The next one I found was the letter I wrote to the lovely Jean Simmons...
It would have been a lovely letter - if it had been written to Deborah Kerr. One paragraph in and I obviously couldn't contain my love of Deborah. Now, I know that Jean and Deborah were really great friends, and that they were really close and all that jazz, but still, a fan letter that raves about another actress? I think not. I presume the idea behind it was that because Jean had been close to Deborah, she would reply to me because she was happy to find that Deborah's memory lived on!
I am probably the biggest fan of Miss Deborah Kerr ever! I watched her biography recently and saw you on it saying what good friends you were with her, so I decided to write to you and tell you that I love and admire her more and more every day!
...and so on and so forth.
I am soooo glad that I never sent that letter! If I had, I am sure I would have regretted it for the rest of my life, and probably would never have been able to look at Jean's face again.
I closed the letter with...
It has been an immense pleasure to write to you and I sincerely hope that I have not bored you.
Yeah, right. If I was she, I would have probably torn it into tiny pieces and then burnt the photo of myself that the website I got her address off told me to include.
But I'm not Jean. Jean was too gracious and kind to do anything like that. She might even have replied. Oh how I wish I was more like her!
I am quite sad that I never got the chance to send her a letter. That's why I'm trying to get myself psyched up to start writing my all important letters to Celeste Holm, Vera Lynn, Lauren Bacall, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Oliva De Havilland etc. etc.
Actually, I have a bone to pick with dear Olivia. Mhm.
I sent her a letter in 2008, and never got a reply. I was fine with that though, because the website I got the address from said that she probably wouldn't be replying to any letters until she'd finished her autobiog. So, I took a chance writing to her, and it didn't pay off. Fair enough. However, the other day, whilst rechecking the address, I found out that she was replying to people's letters at the same time I sent mine! *blubs* Olivia doesn't love me!! My world is shattered right now. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but it must have been something bad!! What did I write in the letter that was so horrific? Why doesn't she love me? *sobs*
Or maybe the letter just went astray. Yes, I prefer to take that view. That is why I have decided to send her another letter, in the hope that we can be reconciled. If she doesn't reply to this one, I'll probably never watch anything with her in again. LOL jk. I would never do that. ♥ Long live Olivia!!
Well, that's all folks! I hope it wasn't too much of a rambling mess. If it was, I'm truly sorry.
A presto!!
Photo of the Week
Frank Sinatra and Deborah Kerr ♥ What's not to love? Mr. Sinatra was a great admirer of Deborah, and gave her a bouquet of flowers every Mother's Day - how lovely is that? *melts*
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Audrey Hepburn: International Cover Girl
This is one of my favourite books at the moment. I absolutely love it! My brother bought it for my birthday in April, and it's so wonderful!! At the moment, because of my health, I'm unable to read books because they make me really tired and I forget the plot and blah blah blah, but this books is really amazing because it's 90% photos. So I can enjoy it without having to read much! The reading parts are in nice, small chunks too, so I just read a little bit at a time.
Audrey Hepburn: International Cover Girl (I'll give the details at the end) explores her life in 'film and fashion' by way of over 600 magazine photos from all over the world. It's truly a little treasure trove - one that any fan of Audrey should own! The front cover is beautiful (I want to copy and frame it!) and inside it looks so lovingly designed. It's a really beautiful book - just like Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit (which, if you haven't read, you should!). There are so many photos of Audrey that I've never seen before, and I thought I had a rather large collection!
The book is divided into many sections. The first 8 pages are made up of the introduction and "Audrey's Early Years: Childhood and the War (1929-1947)" and then the next 250-odd pages are split into sections on Audrey's major films. A little about her British Residency and 'discovery' is to be found at the beginning, and a few pages about entitled "Roman Housewife to Goodwill Ambassador (1976-1993)" at the end.
Overall, the text is nothing very spectacular as most of it you can read in various places already, but, after all, the book isn't really about the text - it's about all the glorious photos! And, as I've said, they really are spectacular! I could sit looking at them for hours - every time I open it, I see a photo that I haven't seen before!
It's a terrific book, and I urge you, if you are an Audrey fan, to go out and buy it! Here are the details...
Title: Audrey Hepburn: International Cover Star
Author: Scott Brizel
Published: October 2009
Available From: All good book stores ;)
Price: R.R.P. £24.99 but available online for varying prices.
Please let me know what you thought of it if you've already bought it! Also, if you buy it after reading this, I'd love to know what you thought of it when you've looked at/read it! (:
A presto!
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Star of the Day
Celeste Holm
I can't remember whether I first saw Celeste in High Society or All About Eve, but, whichever it was, she certainly made an impression on me.
I think it was her wonderful facial expressions that endeared her to me (endeared me to her? It's one of those phrases that I'm never quite sure which way around it goes...) and the fact that, if needed, she was always there ready to bring some comic relief. Hmm...that sounds like possibly High Society was the first film I saw her in! She doesn't have much to be comical about in All About Eve...
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(from l-r: Gary Merrill, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Anne Baxter, Gregory Ratoff and Celeste)
I've seen in a fair amount of films, and she never fails to bring a smile to my face. I also love her voice. She reminds me a lot of Barbara Stanwyck, especially in looks and a little in voice too!
Don't you think? They were both too gorgeous! Grr...
I'm actually gearing myself up to write a letter to her at the moment. Having not had the chance to send letters to Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons and Cyd Charisse (all of whom I was in the process of writing to, or about to write to at the time of their passing...), I've finally decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I'm a bit nervous because, and I know it's silly, it almost feels like I probably shouldn't write in case she...passes away too! I will let you all know when I write to her and when I hopefully get a reply of some description! I would go absolutely bananas...
A presto!!
Friday, 18 June 2010
Songs That Won the War
There are countless compilations with the name Songs That Won The War, and yes, I do own several of them!
I guarantee that you'll find the following songs on anything to do with the songs of World War II. Not that I mind, I love them all! I grew up on them - and I thought everyone knew We'll Meet Again, but I was sadly proven wrong.
We'll Meet Again (Vera Lynn's version, of course!)
When The Lights Go On Again
(There'll Be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Run Rabbit, Run
and
Yours
I also thought even if they'd never heard any of her songs, everyone knew who Vera Lynn was. Once again...I was let down by my fellow human beings.
For many years, songs from the war years (well, around those years...) were the only songs I would listen to. The lyrics actually mean something, unlike the mostly vacuous lyrics of today's music. I do listen to contemporary music now, but I keep at a healthy balance! Sometimes, I just like to sit and listen to Vera Lynn pouring her whole heart and soul into We'll Meet Again (which I love to listen to as it reminds me of my Grandma), the Andrew Sisters' lovely, bright voices in Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy or Gracie Field's jolly voice in Sally. It gives me a feeling of peace and calm - I feel at one with the past, just for a few special minutes.
I was going to make a longer post, but I don't feel up to it. Sorry! I'll definitely be posting more on this topic some other time, though.
A presto!
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Star of the Day
In Memory of Cyd Charisse
Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
I'm convinced if Shakespeare had been writing that in the '50s, he'd have been writing it about Cyd.
Words cannot describe my love for Cyd (real name: Tula Ellice Finklea). When I was little, she was one of the people I 'wanted to be' when I was older. I wanted to look like her and, of course, be able to dance like her. Hah. In my dreams!
I was really upset to hear of her death, 2 years ago, to the day, June 17th, 2008. It's actually really strange, because I didn't know who or what to blog about today, so I thought "Oh, I'll just do a star of the day!" So, I decided to blog about Cyd, even though it had completely slipped my mind that today was the 2 anniversary of her death. I was searching for a couple of extra photos to put in this post, when I remembered. I was quite gobsmacked for a moment!
Cyd is most remembered for her amazing ability as a dancer (but she was a wonderful actress too!). She is definitely my all time favourite. I'd pick her over Ginger Rogers any day. Don't get me wrong though, I love Ginger too! There's something about Cyd that just completely mystifies me, always has done.
It's hard for me to pick one of my favourite Cyd dance numbers, but I think I would probably go with her dance number in Singin' In the Rain. I've always loved this scene - it makes me want to get up and dance, and then it makes me want to cry! Oh, the power of dance!
(I can't embed either, unfortunately)
I also love this scene from The Band Wagon
And this scene from Silk Stockings
Whenever Cyd danced, it was magical. It just seemed so natural and easy for her - it was a part of her!
Rest in Peace, Cyd. I'm sure that you're dancing to your hearts content up there in the clouds - without getting all bruised (if you're dancing with Gene!) ♥
(I wish I had her looks...)
(...and her figure!)
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