Old Age - Hollywood Style!

"Old age ain't no place for sissies"  

                        Bette Davis

Oh wise and wonderful one, Bette, truer words were never spoken. However, there is real old age and there is Hollywood old age and they are definitely not one in the same!

Many times young stars play a character who ages throughout the movie and they are made up to look like an older version of themselves. Let's see how close the make-up artists' vision of old age came to the real thing:

Bette Davis

Bette Davis as "The Old Maid" 

Bette as she really aged and telling it like it is!

Bob Hope, Bing Crosby 

and Dorothy Lamour

Bing, Dot and Bob in "The Road to Utopia"
(but not the Fountain of Youth!)

Bing looking a little older, but still dapper

Dorothy maintained her glamour 

So he has less hair, who cares? It was Bob Hope!

Jennifer Jones

In "Good Morning Miss Dove," Jennifer Jones
aged with nary a wrinkle!

Hardly an old maid schoolmarm! 

Clark Gable and Norma Shearer

Clark Gable and Norma Shearer as the
make-up department saw them age in "Strange Interlude"

Gable in his last film, "The Misfits."
Rugged, natural and wearing his age like a man.

Norma retired from the screen at a fairly young age, but remained the essence of chic. This was nobody's little old grandma!

Elizabeth Taylor

As a grandmother in "Giant." Well, maybe the make-up man just couldn't  make Liz look anything less than young and beautiful.

Some grandma! Liz aged beautifully until she was overtaken by illness

Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara

Maureen O'Hara and Tyrone Power in "The Long Gray Line"

Maureen O'Hara - no powered wigs for this glamour gal

We'll never know how Ty looked past age 44,
but I'll bet he would have been  beautiful

Irene Dunne

Irene Dunne as Queen Victoria in "The Mudlark"

Irene Dunne retired from the screen, but not from life.
A lovely and vital presence at age 64!

Rosalind Russell

Roz as "Sister Kenny"

Miss Russell looking like the star she is

So, after looking at these pictures, this is what I learned: Hollywood makeup artists during the golden age evidently thought old age was white powered hair for both men and women and a little extra facial hair for the men. While no one is immune to the ravages of time, some stars showed us how to age gracefully and naturally (with a little help from the box of hair color, of course). I guess glamorous grandmas and grandpas don't make for dramatic stories!

Just a few of the many 

who were taken too young 

Sadly, we will never have the opportunity to see how they matured.

Marilyn

Jean

Carole

Valentino

James Dean

John Garfield

And a candle for some of the others who are missed and not forgotten

Lupe Velez, Laird Cregar, Montgomery Clift, Gail Russell, Judy Garland, Robert Walker, Sal Mineo, Carole Landis, Natalie Wood, Maria Montez, Mario Lanza, George Reeves, Dorothy Dandridge, Jayne Mansfield, Pier Angeli, Bruce Lee, Elvis Presley, Mabel Normand, Brittany Murphy, Heath Ledger, Leslie Howard.

R.I.P. Feel free to add the names of any I have not mentioned.

A Special Liebster Blog Award From a Very Special Blogger

As The Old Man in "A Christmas Story" says, "A Major Award!"

Classic Becky of Classic Becky's Brain Food, a woman of rare taste and refinement, has chosen my site as one of five for a special award (okay, it's not quite a shapely leg lamp, but it's still major!). "Liebster" in German and Spanish means "beloved." I believe this award began in Germany and look how far it has traveled! What a lovely name for an award I am honored to receive from Becky (told you she had good taste).

Rules of the Award

You can copy this introduction or make up your own. Link back here to my blog. Then pick five other blogs to be given the award. This is hard because there are so many good writers out there they put me to shame (and I'm pretty shameless).

My five "liebchens" are:

Lily Lemontree 

@http://lilylemontree.blogspot.com: Lily gives me my almost daily dose of style, fashion and movie style and fashion. I owe my modish deportment all to her!

Put the Blame on Mame 

@ http://blamemameblog.blogspot.com. A fresh new-to-me blog with great insightful posts. I'm lovin' it!

Silver Screen Modiste 

@ http://www.silverscreenmodiste.com. Christian is indeed amazing in both his knowledge and taste regarding film and costumes and fashion. If you need to know more, and be royally entertained, this is your "go to" destination!

The Girl With the White Parasol 

@ http://thegirlwiththewhiteparasol.blogspot.com. Aside from the fact that this is one of my favorite named blogs (so stunning), Rachel is an awesome writer.

Movie Montage 

@ http://voteforgracie.blogspot.com. Another new favorite, well written, fun and full of the kind of posts on the kind of movie I like - so what's not to like?

Please check these great blogs out and let the authors know how much you like them. After all, we do it for the love of movies and certainly not the paycheck!

MOVIE BOOKS I LOVE: THE ART OF THE GREAT HOLLYWOOD PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS

This is an occasional series featuring my favorite movie books. Before TCM and the internet, the only way to satisfy my passion to know more about classic Hollywood was through books, books and more books. I've cleared away the clutter over the years, but many remain permanent residents in my home. You'd never throw out an old friend, now would you?

THE ART OF THE GREAT HOLLYWOOD PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS - by John Kobal

The cover of this 1980 book hooked me from the start. Dolores Del Rio. Stunning. Not my favorite actress, but one of my favorite photo subjects. You see, I am a star gazer. I admit I am totally, shamelessly and hopelessly mesmerized by that product of Hollywood called glamour. Looking at beautiful portraits of beautiful stars is equally as pleasurable to me as watching a movie. And, lest some think that is pretty shallow, it is through the beauty and artistry of these portraits that I came to know about some wonderful stars and later sought out their films. Before TCM, it was easier to find a picture of Garbo than it was to see one of her films.


This book has the three key ingredients that I crave in a movie tome: 


1. lots of good information;
2. lots of good, quality photos on good quality paper stock; 
3.  and lots of good gossip!


The author, John Kobal, was a great collector of film photos and author of many fine books about the golden age of Hollywood. This is just one of his books I possess and treasure and have no intention of giving up. You can't put these great coffee table books on a Kindle!

"The Art of the Great Hollywood Portrait Photographers" treats those great give-away fan portraits of 1925-1940 as not only a record of the era, but as tools that helped build and create the allure of the star. Like the ancient Greek sculptures of the gods and goddesses and the Renaissance and Victorian romantic portraits of great beauties, these works celebrate and elevate human beauty. 


Portraits of such early stars as Mary Pickford, Theda Bara and Rudolph Valentino perpetuated their stardom, but were often done by photographers were not employed by a studio. The studio's use of portrait photographers did not fully flourish until the late 1920s and 1930s. By then, portrait photography became an integral part of creating the star's image and publicizing their films.

Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino:
early examples of the power of the portrait

By the 1930s, the film industry actively employed thousands whose sole function was to find performers of extraordinary physical beauty and create, says Kobal, a "compelling visual ideal that would stand as a statement of our desires and our need for fulfillment." Jean Harlow, Gloria Swanson and Clark Gable embodied our ideal of sex, glamour and beauty. Kobal asserts that this was not new and asks if, long ago, did Emma Lyon's wordy lovers fall in love with the blacksmith's daughter or with the Lady Hamilton created by the painter Romney? Centuries later, did Aly Khan fall in love with Margarita Cansino or with the ideal beauty called Rita Hayworth?


Kobal chroncicles the careers of many of the greatest, interviews many stars and photographers and presents a feast of gorgeous photos. I especially enjoyed his interviews with Loretta Young, whose observations are astute and honest.


Some interesting facts and gossip: Joan Crawford, Carole Lombard and Katharine Hepburn liked to be photographed and recognized the importance of these photos. They were willing and cooperative subjects and their photographers appreciated them. Constance Bennett, Veronica Lake and Irene Dunne were not very enthusiastic subjects and Miriam Hopkins was a handful (to say the least and are we not surprised?). Errol Flynn needed a drink to get going, as did Jean Harlow, who liked to disrobe in front of photographer Ted Allan (which he didn't seem to mind at all) and Gary Cooper was lazy (but managed to always come through looking just right). Hedy Lamarr's stardom was created almost completely through portrait photography and Norma Shearer's slightly crossed eye was a challenge. Spencer Tracy, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart considered sitting for portraits "sissy stuff," but Cagney used eye makeup to highlight his piercing gaze.

My favorite story is  Laszlo Willinger's reminiscence of his assignment on the 1939 film  "The Women," which starred MGM rivals Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford, as well as Rosalind Russell and Paulette Goddard. Shearer and Crawford both wanted Willinger as their photographer, but both had the right to reject photos they appeared in together. In shots of the two of them together, countless prints were rejected in a real-life version of the on-screen cat-fight. Willinger describes his experience:

Shearer would look at the prints first and say "Gee, this is a beautiful picture of me, but I really don't like the way Joan Crawford looks." And then Joan would have her turn, and we'd have the same thing. It's a wonder any pictures of them were released at all.

There were two on that film who were easy to work with - Paulette Goddard, because she was ambitious, and Rosalind Russell, because she didn't give a damn. As a result, Goddard got practically 90 percent of the stuff that was published, because she made herself available.

One day the three principals took off from filming, just so we could shoot stills. The call was for ten a.m. I'm up there, ready - nobody. It's ten-thirty, eleven - still nobody. Finally Rosalind Russell turns up and says, "Sorry I'm late." I told her, "You're not late. You're the first one here." I walked outside the stage that had been set for the session. A crew of ten was standing around waiting, including a flower man, in case one of them wanted a flower. (I couldn't give them a flower, because that would have been against union rules, and everybody would have walked off.) Finally, I saw Norma Shearer's car drive by. It slowed down. She looked out and continued driving around the block. A little behind her was Joan Crawford, who also slowed down, looked out and drove on. I thought "What the hell is going on here?" I called [publicity director Howard] Strickling and told him "There are two stars outside driving around the stage and not coming in." He said "Don't you know what they're doing? Shearer isn't going to come in before Crawford and Crawford isn't going to come in before Shearer. The only thing I can do is stand in the middle of the street and stop them." Which he did.

Good stuff. And the book is full of great tidbits like that. But best of all are the photos by these great artists. Some of my favorites:

Ruth Harriet Louise

This is my favorite Garbo portrait. Although she is always beautiful, here she  is is more approachable than I have ever seen her. I think this is just breathtaking.

John Gilbert looking glamorous for Ruth Harriet Louise

Ernest Bachrach

Capturing the glamour, sophistication and exoticism of Dolores Del Rio

Beautiful Carole Lombard

Don English

Don English fulfilled the vision of Von Sternberg and Dietrich

George Hurrell

Joan Crawford: the essence of Hollywood glamour
and a favorite Hurrell subject

Another stunning Crawford portrait by Hurrell

Jean Harlow

Norma Shearer

Clarence Sinclair Bull

Bull was Garbo's favorite photographer and she his favorite subject

The stuff that dreams are made of

Laszlo Willinger

Hedy Lamarr

Tyrone Power looking beautiful

Vivien Leigh

Clark Cable

Otto Dyar

Anna May Wong

Robert Coburn

Rita Hayworth

Charles Boyer

This is only a hint of the great photos contained in this book. No wonder I held on to it! A few last thoughts on the art of the great Hollywood portrait photographers:


Madison Lacy, who spent fifty years as a photographer said, "I think probably everything to do with glamour - real glamour photography as we know it - originated in Hollywood."


Louise Brooks: "When you think of it, what people remember of those stars is not from films, but one essential photograph: Dietrich - heavy-lidded, sucked-in cheeks / Keaton - sad little boy / Crawford - staring self-admiration / Gable - smiling, darling. And when i think of Garbo, I do not see her moving in any particular film. I see her staring mysteriously into the camera. No matter how many times I've seen her in films, that is how I always see her. She is a still picture - unchangeable."


I don't know about you, but for my money these great photos are truly works of art and deserve to be treated as such.

Portraits are, sadly, all that we have left of
Theda Bara, as most of her films no longer exist