Woman Of The Year

This 1933 cigarette card, produced after the success of her debut 1932 film, A Bill of Divorcement, is one of the loveliest photographs of screen legend Katharine Hepburn.

With a reputation for being difficult, Katharine Hepburn is often a Hollywood celebrity one either adored or abhorred, but her extraordinary talent was recognised by fans and detractors alike.

Also, contrary to popular rumour, Hepburn didn't pitch a fit when she was passed over for the iconic role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind:

In 1939, Hepburn was going to do producer David O. Selznick a favor and play the role of Scarlett O'Hara because he did not yet have anyone else signed for the role.

Hepburn insisted that she did not have the lustful sexual appeal that the part demanded and told Selznick that his studio needed to find the woman who did. Hepburn rehearsed the lines thoroughly just in case. The night before the deadline, Selznick finally cast Vivien Leigh.

Unbeknownst to Hepburn and the rest of Hollywood, Leigh was favored for the role early on, but as an English actress, she was deemed unsuitable for the part. In addition, her affair with Laurence Olivier, while he was in the middle of a divorce, made her a controversial choice.

The vast "search for Scarlett" was orchestrated to make it seem as if no other actress could be found, thus limiting the shock of Vivien Leigh landing the role. Hepburn was later the maid of honor at Leigh and Olivier's wedding in 1940. Hepburn remained a close friend of Vivien Leigh until Leigh's death in 1967.

Blythe Spirit

Such a great face on Betty Blythe, this week's long-forgotten silent film star.

She carries such a direct look. The set of her mouth suggests a sense of humour as well as a hint of some wicked bon mots.

Sadly, hers is not a name that one readily remembers as a leading light in the roaring 20s, yet funnily enough her name graces a London catering and gourmet food company.

Why?

Dunno. There's no explanation on the company's web site.

While Blythe's leading lady career ended in the silent era, she did appear in two of Nora's favourite films - The Women (in an uncredited role) and as the lead in the 1940 farce Misbehaving Husbands.

Here's a clip:



You can watch the whole film here for free.

Betty's most famous role was the title role in 1921's The Queen of Sheba and yet one is pretty sure there was none of the media titillation surrounding her topless appearance in the film, in sharp contrast to today's adolescent slavering media over actress Eva Mendez's breast flashing in Calvin Klein's latest perfume commercial.

It shows what's has changed in 87 years.

Flame Of Youth

She was the ultimate party girl, rumoured to only sleep two hours a night and used heroin to keep her hectic social schedule.

Amy Winehouse? Lindsay Lohan? Britney Spears?

No none of the above. Instead it's Barbara La Marr, a woman who didn't get to see her 30th birthday despite having talent and beauty.

Getting her start in Hollywood as a screen writer after achieving notoriety as a teenage burlesque dancer, she made the switch to the silver screen in such outstanding films as The Prisoner of Zenda and The Three Musketeers; trading on her reputation of The Girl Who Was Too Beautiful.

Beautiful, and five times married she may have been, but long forgotten she is now and today as are a lot of her films but here's a clip from The Three Musketeers starring Douglas Fairbanks.

The Voice of Hollywood Number 12

Walter Hiers was a big man with a big career in Hollywood, starring more than 100 films in his 20 year career.

Tipping the scales at 235 pounds (106kg) he died of pneumonia in 1933 having spend the later part of his career in uncredited roles but not before bringing vaudeville timing to Hollywood in the teens and '20s.

Aged just 40, Hiers is today joined by several other 'substantial' actors who died young including John Belushi and Chris Farley.

Alice In Wonderland

Again, another silent screen icon whose name has been forgotten by al but the most ardent of Hollywood afficiandos.

Alice Terry appeared in some of the silent screen's most remarkable pictures - Civilisation (1916), The Prisoner of Zenda (1922), Scaramouche (1923).

But her influence was more keenly felt behind the scenes along with her director husband Rex Ingram where she championed a young actor by the name of Ramon Novarro.

Terry's film career lasted for 15 years before she bowed out with the advent of the talkies.

Shooting Stars

Oops. I posted this without any notes didn't I?

My bad, as the kids say.

As you've seen this is the Gish sisters - Lillian on the left and Dorothy on the right.

Like the Talmadge sisters of the same silent era, the Gish sisters were abandoned by their father to be raise by their mother who found an acting niche and the girls went to follow suit and became the favourite choice of acclaimed director DW Griffith.

Also like the Talmadges, the young sister Dorothy found her niche as a comedic actress and purportedly surprised her sister who didn't think much of her acting chops.

Nevertheless, the sisters remained close, particularly as Lillian never married and Dorothy's only marriage lasted 15 years before ending in 1935.

Where our story departs from the Talmadges is that the Gish sisters did make the transition to talkies and both worked up until a few years before their deaths Dorothy in 1968 and Lillian in 1993.

The Outcast

What a lovely face and a charming smile. A surprisingly modern look actually. Maybe a better looking version of Cameron Diaz perhaps?

Meet Agnes Ayres who became the envy of every jazz era girl by starring as the love interest of Rudolph Valentino not once, but twice in The Sheik and The Son Of The Sheik which is probably where this image is taken from.

She also starred in Cecil B DeMille's 1923 The Ten Commandments as 'The Outcast'.

The Great Depression and the 'talkies' proved a double blow to Agnes who lost her fortune in the stock market crash and her career quickly thereafter. With a daughter to support she supplemented her spotty acting opportunities with a side career in real estate.

Agnes died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1940.

Cecily Courtneidge

The over the top hat and arch look tells you that this actress was perfect for comedy.

And so she was making the transition from vaudeville and musical hall to film.

Perhaps not surprising since she was born on April 1 in 1893 in Sydney, NSW.

Made a Commander of the British Empire in 1951 and elevated to Dame Commander in 1972, Cicely will be, for film and television afficiandos, remembered for her wonderful performances as the original 'Mum' in On The Buses.

Below is Cicley's performance in the 1930 film Elstree Calling. She was directed by her husband Jack Hulbert to whom she was married for 62 years before his death in 1978.

May McAvoy In Sunny California

Looking a little pensive, May McAvoy's place in cinematic history appears to be all but forgotten.

It's a shame, as she was part of a series of Hollywood firsts that.

Anyone vaguely aware of film has heard of the first 'talkie' The Jazz Singer and can generally name Al Jolson in the lead but don't acknowledge her co-starring role.

Unlike other actresses at the time whose star waned with the advent of speaking roles, McAvoy put her career on hold on her own terms to start a family in 1929 and only returned to film in series of uncredited bit roles from the 1940s.

McAvoy also managed her career on terms. Shunned by the studios in 1923 after refusing Cecil B DeMille's offer a role that required nudity, McAvoy bought out her contract and became the first actress to successfully 'freelance' outside the studio system.

As a result she starred in classics such as Ben Hur, Lady Windermere's Fan and the Jazz Singer.

Watch the chariot race from the 1925 film here - still exciting after all these years.

Out of the Darkness

Tom Meighan, Tom Meighan...

Let's see what Google throws up:

"Tom Meighan also called Justin Timberlake a "Midget with Whiskers", "Sex on legs" and a "Puppet in a million dollar suit".

Eh?

Oh, not it's not that Tom Meighan, it's this Tom Meighan.

Aahh, that makes more sense.

Let's look at IMDB:

Sadly, this once-popular silent screen star and older matinée idol for Paramount Studios, is all but forgotten today. Thomas "Tommy" Meighan was one of the rulers of the Hollywood roost, between the years 1915 and 1928.

Like most of the films of the silent and early talkie area, Meighan's body of work has turned to celluloid dust.

But what a good face he's got. Just the type you'd want playing a detective. A little like Gary Sinese, perhaps?

Cary On

Some things get better with age, so do some people - a case in point is Cary Grant.

Pictured here at the start of his film career in 1932, a rather puckish figure in white tie and tails that don't seem to suit him.

It's almost a decade later, and beyond, when he can fill out the sophisticated evening dress with confidence and authority.

Grant is an intriguing character, one of the first actors to buck the studio star system and his choice of roles offer a hint into the complex nature of the man behind the suave persona which still bares the psychological scars of a poor and unhappy childhood in Bristol, England as Archibald Leach.

Little surprise that in the latter part of his career he was drawn to films directed by fellow expatriate Alfred Hitchcock.

He starred in four of Hitchcock's finest films. One of Nora's favourites is the thriller North by Northwest. Below is the fabulous and oft-emulated Tiger Moth chase scene which is one of the most memorable scenes in film history:



Speaking of favourites, another loved film, this time showcasing Grant's comedic flair along side Myrna Loy is the 1948 Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House.

Here's part 1 of the film which is available in its entirety across 11 parts on You Tube. It's worth your while:

Bow Tied

It's amazing what links one finds where doing some research for Nifty Knick Knacks.

For instance, the reference fourth result in on a simply Google search on Clara Bow:

Did actress Clara Bow service the entire USC football team at orgies?

Pictured here being mauled by a fur wrap, Miss Bow, was Hollywood's original 'It Girl' a picture of both innocence and comehither sexuality which tantilised silent move goers in the 1920s.

Her career only lasted 11 years but those years defined the between-war era popularised by the likes of novelist F Scott Fitzgerald.

This cigarette card dated from 1933 was actually published at the end of her career. The reverse reads:

Clara Bow (Fox)
Won a beauty contest in 1922 and was given small part in a picture. Quickly rose to stardom and great popularity in silent pictures. After temporarily retiring from the screen she is returning in the talking picture "Call Her Savage". Born in Brooklyn. Red hair and brown eyes.

- From Who's Who on the Screen, 1933

Hints of Britney Spears emerges in the tale of Clara Bow - arising from poverty, becoming a sex symbol, suffering terribly from mental illness. Yet in the case of Bow, she acknowledged the end of the public career and retired at the age of 28 to raise two sons with her husband Rex Bell.

Bow died relatively young at the age of 60 in 1965.

So, is there any truth to the urban legend referenced at the start of the post? What do you think?

Below is part one of a documentary about Clara Bow:

A Star Is Born

In a youth obsessed Hollywood, there is a type of woman whose appeal doesn't diminish with age.

For teenage boys of Nick's generation actress and comedienne Suzanne Pleshette (who died this past week) had just as much sex appeal as younger starlets Ali MacGraw or the cast of Charlie's Angels.

To the generation earlier, the alluring older woman was Barbara Stanwyck whose role of matriarch Victoria Barkley in The Big Valley (1965-1969) set the standard for the glamorous older woman.

Indeed, she was the 'older woman' (by four years) in her second marriage to Robert Taylor which, although lasting 12 years was tempestuous for them both.

But back onto the Stanwyck legacy. Outstanding films like Double Indemnity, Stella Dallas and The Lady Eve, also earned her the title of the finest actress never to have won an Oscar.

Also in another bit of trivia, Stanwyck starred alongside Linda Evans in two series - The Big Valley and Dynasty.

Break A Leg

At right is a picture of Dietrich in 1933.

Linked here is another picture of Dietrich, in the form of a terrific memoir of her 1965 visit to Australia by entertainment journalist Raymond Stanley.

Between the press conference and the opening performance Dietrich had nine hours of rehearsal with the orchestra. At the final rehearsal, on the day of the opening, according to (impersario) Kenn Brodziak, the star never ceased to complain. Everything seemed to be wrong - the lights, sound, music - just about everything. At 4 p.m. she said: “It’s terrible. Everything’s wrong. I’m going. You’ll have to fix it.” And left the theatre.

There was dead silence and everyone seemed panic-stricken - except Brodziak. “We’re going to do nothing”, he said firmly, “she’s too much of a perfectionist. If anything was wrong she wouldn’t have left the theatre.”

Sadly one cannot sure whether Dietrich would have remembered our country foundly. While on tour here in 1975, at the age of 74, she broke her leg, effectively ending her stage career.

Vice Grip

From 'the more things change the more thing stay the same file' comes this report about a Hollywood celebrity whose rise to stardom from young teenage starlet is marred by alcoholism, drug taking, exhibitionism including taking her clothes off in public and less than discreet bisexual affairs.

Who is it?

Britney Spears?

Lindsay Lohan?

Nope it's Tallulah Bankhead who, to give her credit though, had more talent in her right hand than either of the two airheads mentioned above combined.

Tallulah managed to control her self-destructive tendencies to live for 66 years but the truth is her life was filled with missed career opportunities caused by her behaviour and also as roles she owned on stage such as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire went to other actresses when it came to their filming.

Although, based on her pithy quotes including: "If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner", it seems certain Bankhead would argue that she had nothing to regret.

One wonders whether in another 30 years Spears, Lohan, Richie and Hilton could claim the same.

Here's an online tribute we've found for Miss Bankhead:

Million Dollar Couple

One becomes inured to seeing news about the latest celebrity couple.

Women's magazines gush over the romance, ooh and ahh over how beautiful, how much in love, how perfect they are.

Then they're divorced within five years.

Oh, l'amour, l'amour! toujour l'amour

Described as 'the most popular couple the world has ever known', Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were certainly Brangelina of their day but doing a whole lot more than looking pretty and collecting bairns in the same way other people collect souvenir spoons.

Fairbanks and Pickford were heavily involved behind the scenes of the fledgling film industry as actors and then later as direct/producers and founders of United Artists.

Although married to other people at the time the Pickfairs (okay, bit of a stretch but that is what they named their mansion) started a torrid five year affair and were wed a few scant days after Pickford's divorce to Owen Moore in March 1920.

From their they began a 16 year love affair with the movie going public as cinematic royalty but the seeds of the end were sown just nine years into the marriage. This from IMDB:

Douglas Fairbanks' and Mary Pickford's marriage had deteriorated so badly by the time they made this film that many onlookers said that Fairbanks exaggerated Petruchio's harsh treatment towards Katharina in order to take out his own frustrations on Pickford.

Oh dear.

Hhmmmm, reminds me of another Shrew-playing couple... now, what were they called?

BurTaylor??

Elizaburton???

Never mind. Just watch Fairbanks buckle his swash in the 1922 version of Robin Hood:

Into The Sunset

For all the actors who complain about typecasting there are those who embrace their iconic roles with relish.

Adam West and Clayton Moore spring instantly to mind and in more recent times Mark Hamill pops up from time to time to either play up or play down his Luke Skywalker character.

The one who out did them all was William Boyd - better known to generations of film and TV viewers as Hopalong Cassidy.

Groomed in this studio portrait as a matinee idol in the making (doesn't he look a little like Leonardo di Caprio?) Boyd was cast as the romantic lead in Cecil B De Mille's The Volga Boatman and was earning $100,000 a year.

By the start of the talkies era his film roles dried up and the situation become dire after a newspaper mistakenly identified him instead of stage actor William Stage Boyd as being up on liquor and gambling charges.

He got his return to the big screen break as Hopalong Cassidy whom he transformed from a rough gunslinger into the wholesome family-friendly character which became the model for the likes of Roy Rogers and Gene Autrey.

Boyd made 66 films and then turned his hand to television where he made original series as well as cut the feature films into TV length.

After being nearly broke in the late 1920s, early 1930s Boyd ensured that he had the rights to Hopalong Cassidy and on this he made a considerable fortune. Not only in rights and residuals but also on merchandising deals including the first licenced branded lunchbox.

There's an amusing juxtaposition in these two images.

As the non-smoking, teetotal, gunslinging lawman he may not have approved of the cigarette card, today do-gooders would frown on Hoppy's endorsement of a preservative filled, sugar charged, teeth rotting, obesity causing Cola.

Laughing At Danger

That sharp look silver screen silent starlet is giving your way is Betty Compson, a silent screen diva who turned her hand to producing after her run in front of the camera ended.

Her career is perhaps best summed up by La Compson herself:

"My wickedness has kept me going. I wouldn't have lasted more than five years, possibly not that long, as an ingenue. Yet you cannot call my girl a stereotyped vamp. She has a business, a 'racket' of some sort, whereas the vamp's only occupation consists of breaking up homes. My girl, unless moved by jealously, doesn't stoop to such petty tricks. She never does dirty work just to be mean. She has no yellow streaks. Often she is a victim of circumstances. She is morally 'bad' through love, or she is placed among crooks and knows no better life."

Such was life during The Depression one supposes.

But just to bring a smile to your face Betty sings and dances her way, along with a panoply of Hollywood stars in this clip from the film The Show Of Shows.

Life of a Waxworks

While Greta Garbo is the best recognised of Hollywood's Swedish imports, it could be argues that Anna Q Nilsson opened the door.

Almost forgotten except for silent film buffs, Nilsson starred in some of the most popular of the early 20th Century films with her first film, Molly Pitcher, released in 1911.

In the talkie era, Nilsson ended up playing bit parts in memorable movies including Sunset Boulevard, Showboat and An American in Paris.

The title is, of course, a reference to Nilsson's appearance, along with Buster Keaton as Sunset Boulevard's Nora Desmond's bridge companions.

High and Dizzy

We all need to smile and one man guaranteed to bring it to us is Harold Lloyd.

Charlie Chaplin may have had the market corners on charming tramps but Lloyd had the cute bespectacled dork down pat - a look later replicated by Thomas Dolby.

Often starring with Bebe Daniels Lloyd's physical comedy in films such as Safety Last has been much replicated.

Below is a scene from the 1917 film The Flirt. It's probably how he charmed the ladies to get starlets to pose for cheesecake shots.