Obsession is not too strong a word...

I've been trying (oh, alright, I've just started trying) to think up the people I'm more or less (more! more!) obsessed with. Ouch, prepositions can hurt, huh? I'll try again.

I've recently attempted to create a list of people whom...with...oh dear. You get the picture, I think. People with whom I'm obsessed. Yeah?

Anyway, Judy Garland was first, natch. Then Ginger, William Powell, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, and Sally Field (just humor me for a second, 'kay? ;) )

And then, of course, there are the people who have very little (or nothing) to do with movies. Edith Beale the younger, Dorothy Parker, Patty Hearst, and Tiny Tim. That made ten... a nice, round number.

So darn it all, Linda Darnell...you just had to make it eleven, didn't you?

I'm afraid it took me 19 long years to see A Letter to Three Wives, though I shouldn't count the first ten or so...I wasn't really conscious until age nine or ten, I think.

Anyway, I saw it last week. And again he next day. And then I watched that nice, if extraordinarily depressing A&E bio of Linda Darnell. And I was hooked (Ask Amazon-- they know). Oh well, I guess I could always clear more shelf room.

(Psst..does anyone know the deal between Linda and Otto Preminger?)

EDIT: Evidently Preminger gave Darnell a hard time on Forever Amber...but that's still too vague for me. :)

EDIT 2 (A P.P.S., if you will)

Miscellany

So, today I am tired, and therefore this blog post will take neither time nor effort. Cool, huh?



Ginger plays the accordion. Who knew? ;)

Veronica Lake at her home in Baltimore. Ah, fooled ya. It's a publicity shot from I Married a Witch, which was the first movie with Miss Lake I had the pleasure of seeing.

Hat of the Day.

This one, worn by the generally chic Leslie Caron.



Random picture. Yes, that's me. With a knife. Don't worry, kids, I'm harmless. Unless you resemble bread.

Psst...I used'ta confuse Kay Francis with Kay Medford, aka the mom in Funny Girl. Oops?

Musings, vol. II

You know, I think in the long run, writers are the only ones with any job security. Really...seems robots could do anything else. I mean, hopefully it never gets to that point, but still. Which stinks, because I could never write good fiction. It always feels as if I'm giving someone's secrets away. It seems the only true point of view is limited. But I mean limited. Knowing no one's thoughts at all. Because that's how it is in life, right? I don't know his thoughts-- or hers, or his. It would be my thoughts alone...one endless journal entry. And that's no fun for anyone.

Judy with a very large postcard. Yeah, that's my caption.

Yesterday I watched Ladies of Leisure for the first time. I liked it all, but the beginning was especially marvelous, like when Barbara Stanwyck pulls a fish face. I'm constantly making fish faces. Hopefully everyone knows what that means, because I'm nearly positive I couldn't do it justice by describing it here.

Stany in a dress. Oh boy, I really need to get more info on these pictures, huh?

I can hear William outside, probably getting ready to pounce on one of my cats. That's my neighbor's 7-year-old. Also the name of a kid I went to grade school with. Also my kindergarten teacher. Technically, that was her last name. I didn't much like her-- she took her hair off once on April Fool's Day. Also she was mean. Mainly to this kid named Brittany. I walked with Brittany at my kindergarten graduation. I tripped. The the end. I remember having to draw self-portraits with my class then, and mine being the only one with skin-colored skin. All the others' were green or blue or something. I thought that showed a terrible lack of realism in them...probably just meant I had no taste for the abstract at age six.

Jeanette MacDonald, Sally Blane and Joyce Compton in Annabel's Affairs. Can you say "pre-Code"? ;)

...But I must have liked it, for I drew a yellow train, which --according to Hattie the gal who sat next to me-- don't exist. Must be something in the name Hattie, for she was quite like Mrs. Dorsett, I suppose..."Chickens...aren't...purple...stupid." Of course, Mrs. Dorsett was right, albeit a tad cruel in her way of showing it. A purple chicken is perfectly absurd, but then again the kid was like four...

Doris Day rehearsing a number in I'll See You in My Dreams. The blackface was part of the number, not a personal preference. Pretty sure.

PS. I'm pretty sure the makers of The Simpsons based Nelson's laugh on Ginger Rogers'. You know..."HAa-ha." Who's with me? ;)

Good thing they don't still print neat pictures like this on cigarettes, or I'd be an addict.

X of the Day

Today I finally convinced (guilted, convinced-- same difference) my sister to watch The Scar with me. It was my birthday, so that helped I suppose. She liked it, which isn't much of a surprise, because it's great. I'm not sure why she was so apprehensive, as I've never led her astray (this month we've seen Stage Door, Marked Woman, Meet John Doe, and I Married a Witch together and she's not been disappointed yet).

Anyway, if I had to make a list --I don't, mind you, so I won't bore you with that-- The Scar would be one of my top ten movies of film noir. Fun stuff, huh?

I'm in a picture-posting mood, so today there's to be a person, hat, and photo of the day, you lucky kids, you.

Let's start with photo, shall we?

Ginger Rogers showing her Nixon support in 1960.

Nifty, huh? I especially like the boy's face in the backseat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...it's not really a hat. So sue me. Peanuts aren't really nuts. ;)

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the person of the day.

Her name is Tallulah.

When I was younger, I always knew Tallulah Bankhead was famous, I just never knew what for. Was she a singer, actress, dancer? I'd no idea. Some time ago I decided to remedy this situation. I googled her.

The answer quickly came, but not in terms I could understand. It said online that Tallulah was a "bon vivant." I knew this meant, of course, a person of rather epicurean ideals. Howeveer, I did not understand why this would make someone famous. So I did more research. I discovered she was an actress, and a rather good one at that. She was also in the Algonquin Round Table with my hero, Dot Parker and the also-cool Edna Ferber.

It's odd-- I've looked everywhere for a quote (and there are plenty around), but I wouldn't dare print most of them, and if I'd "clean them up," so to speak...they wouldn't quite be sentences anymore. Finally, I came across this one, which seems to capture some of Tallulah's spirit.

“The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again I'd make all the same mistakes - only sooner.”

Psst!, Pictures, and Peggy Lee

Whenever I'm bored, say, in a waiting room or something, I like to make up new names for Sally Field movies-- all revolving around Gidget. I'm saying this knowing how incredibly silly it sounds, but it's one of my more unassuming idiosyncrasies, so I thought I'd share.

Examples? Sure. Well, Norma Rae becomes "Gidget Fights the Man." Sybil turns into "Gidget Gets Multiple Personality Disorder" (among other more unsavory things), and --my personal favorite-- Absence of Malice becomes "Gidget Hooks Up with Paul Newman." Yeah okay, say what you will, but it makes me plenty happy. :)

For some reason I've had "My Name is Tallulah" stuck in my head all day. And in that odd, adenoidal voice they used to dub Jodie Foster. Odd, but not entirely unpleasant.

Speaking of Ms. Foster (and who isn't?), I read a while back that she's to direct, produce, and star in a biopic about Leni Riefenstahl. How grand is that? I mean, as far as Nazi filmmakers go, Leni was the tops-- who else are ya gonna choose? Disregarding Leni's lovefests with Hitler (now that would make a good title), her work's actually not bad at all. Junta from The Blue Light is quite possibly my hero.

And I can actually picture Jodie Foster as Leni. They both have a sort of falcon look going for 'em. Beaky, some might say. In a good way, of course. Which is not the case with Anne Hathaway and Judy Garland. Bad casting if you ask me. Cast a Panabaker (or two), if you ask me. And maybe throw in Elizabeth Perkins or Tammy Blanchard and have them dubbed, if you ask me. But did anybody ask me? Did I get a midnight call from Harvey Weinstein saying, "Juliette, oh Juliette-- I need you now." No, I certainly did not. Ah well, I'll still be standing in line for tickets. Because that's just who I am. Ho hum.

Instead of doing a hat of the day, it's gonna be Peggy Lee-- person of the day. Aside from having a marvelous singing voice (I've had "Mr. Wonderful" on repeat for hours), Peggy Lee was also a gifted actress and songwriter. Duke Ellington once said, "If I'm the Duke, then Peggy's the Queen." Plus, she was the voice of the Siamese cats in Lady in the Tramp. It doesn't get any cooler than that.

Peggy with her first husband Dave Barbour.

Scratch that earlier statement-- this is the hat of the day. And these are the gloves of the day, too. :)