Wishing you all a truly spectacular Valentines Day with love and kisses galore. Here’s something you can do together. See if you can name all these loved up couples and the films these photos came from.
Category: old movie magic
The effect of vintage films on us today and why we still relate to them
Ronald Reagan: Right of Left.
Ronald Reagan was born into a poor family in Illinois became a celebrated Hollywood actor and made it all the way to becoming president of the United States. He was not, however inexperienced. He had been president of ‘The Screen Actors Guild’ not once but twice and also Governor of California by the time he got to the White House.
He was also generally liked and regarded as an all round good guy. This despite the fact that he dobbed in many Hollywood greats denouncing them as communists during the Mcarthy era. He would be rolling in his grave at the current choice for president as Melania Trump’s father has himself been branded a communist. All politics aside Reagan was the genuine article on screen and proved very popular in mostly B pictures. He had an honesty and an integrity that audiences fell in like with. Before we get to all that let’s take a look at the merit of the man before he was even a man. His father apparently nicknamed Ronnie ‘Dutch’ which probably stood for Dutch Courage which was fitting indeed.
While still at school Reagan was a beach life guard and had been involved in over one hundred rescues. Credited with saving the lives of at least seventy of those without help. 
As a teenager he took a stand against racism and would often jump the fences that segregated his poor white trash neighbourhood from the black families and hang out with his best friend who just happened to be black. Many years later when the local inn in Dixon threw out a group of black people Reagan took a stand and invited them to his house for drinks instead. On leaving school and finishing college he got himself a job as speaker for General Electrics Factories which eventually lead to his wanting to become an actor and in 1937 he made his first Hollywood movie. 
At this time he was a actually a democrat. 
In all of his movies Reagan was a nice guy with a mixture of integrity and grit.
He was also very handsome. 
In his screen debut in 1937 he played a reporter who takes on the city council and exposes them on the radio. The film entitled ‘Love Is On The Air’ set a precedent for future roles. His leading ladies on film were like a who’s who of Hollywood. Patricia Neal, Jane Bromley, Anne Sheridan, Jane Wyman, Nancy Davis, Virginia Mayo, Doris Day and Vivecca Linfores. Many of his films contained strong moral content such as ‘The Hasty Heart’ with Patricia Neal and ‘Voice Of The Turtle’ with Eleanor Powell. He was often the hero in the war films which followed including ‘Desperate Journey’,with Errol Flynn and ‘Hell Cats Of The Navy’ with Nancy Davis who would become his second wife. 
Reagan’s first wife was Jane Wyman who divorced him for being terribly unfaithful to her. 
He was ,by all accounts, a bit of a player. Still when he met Nancy it was for keeps. Just as well because he had big fish to fry and needed to be stable. 
Reagan would go on to become Governor of California and made it all the way to President with Nancy at his side.
Jane had been against many of his political leanings when they were together but she did vote for him in both elections. Nancy was the perfect political wife and supported everything he said and did all the way. She quit movies as soon as they married. In most of her films she had played housewives, teachers or psychologists.
A very wholesome type and, if one looks very closely, quite similar in type to Wyman. Choice of wife also says alot about Reagan.
Reagan was a man with middle class, moral values who really believed in the goodness of people and country. Anyway I digress. Even though Reagan made B movies for the most part he was by no means a B grade actor. Not only that he did star in one of the greatest films of all time, ‘Kings Row’ with Anne Sheridan. In this film which traces the lives of three people growing up in a small town Reagan plays the loveable kid from the wrong side of the tracks who, as an adult, loses both his legs in a work accident.
His most famous line on looking down to where his legs used to be was ‘Where’s the rest of me’. Anne Sheridan plays the girl who has loved him from childhood and Robert Cummings plays his best friend.
The film was nominated for an academy award and would have greatly boosted Reagan’s career had it not been for military service. As it was he served as Lieutenant Of the first Motion picture unit throughout the war and was able to gain much information on movements of German soldiers. It’s impossible to include all his films in this blog as he made so many but he does seem to have made quite a lot of war films which is really not surprising as he did seem to have a bit of a taste for it. There was the Iran contra affair, the arms race with Russia and increased taxes and military spending. Oh and I neglected to mention that even though originally democrat he ruled as a conservative Republican?
He did, however, hold talks with Gobachev which later resulted in the destruction of The Berlin Wall and a reduction in Russia’s nuclear arsenals. Despite some very unpopular political decisions which caused mass protests and economic doom for many Reagan was well regarded as president and completed two terms. All way too detailed to go into here. My Point? There can be no comparison to Donald Trump who has the morals of a sewer rat and is interested only in lining his own pockets. Just take a look at Ronald Reagan’s abode outside the ‘White House’ and compare it with the Golden Tower of Greed.
Guess what? There is no comparison.
Mexico Divas.
Three superb actresses Lupe Velez, 
Delores Del Rio
and Katie Jurado all had one thing in common. They were Mexican.
That was really about all they had in common even though they would be labelled with the same ‘Latino’ brand and generally given roles which were appropriate to their dark smouldering looks. The three were actually from very different backgrounds, their acting styles varied greatly and each had their own unique destiny to full fill.
Lupe Velez’s family moved to California when she was still a girl and, after some thetrical training, Lupe began a career in Vaudeville.
Her first big film was in ‘Wolf Song’ 1929 with Garry Cooper. She and Cooper began a torrid affair and her career went from strength to strength with films like ‘Strictly Dynamite’ and ‘Hollywood Party’. Velez was unpredictable and apparently had quite a temper.
She attacked Cooper with a knife at a party and when he tried to leave her she tried to shoot him as he boarded the train. She was wonderful at doing impersonations of other film stars at parties and used to love lifting her skirt under which she wore no underwear. More famous for her personal life than for her films she married Johnny Weissmuller of Tarzan fame and after their divorce had an affair with a Hollywood film maker to whom she fell pregnant. When he refused to marry her Velez committed suicide in 1944.
Delores Del Rio was , by all accounts, a lady. She was charming, well bred and elegant. She had married into the Mexican aristocracy and was the first lady of Mexican society.
Her first big Hollywood film was ‘What Price Glory’ which made her an instant star. Her first marriage failed soon after Hollywood success and she was pursued by producer Edwin Carawe.
Because she would not encourage his advances a film she was to make titled ‘ Resurrection’ was given to Lupe Velez. In the 1930s she married Cedric Gibbons with who she used to give fabulous house parties. During this period she made ‘Flying Down To Rio’ with Fred Astaire and ‘Madame Du Barry Was A Lady’. She was probably most famous for ‘Bird Of Paradise’ with Joel McCrea in 1932 and ‘Journey Into Fear’ with Joseph Cotton. Del Rio returned to Mexico in the mid 40s ,after an affair with Orson Welles, where she starred in many Mexican films and in the 1950s was to star in a film called ‘Broken Lance’ but was branded a communist. The role was given to Katy Jurado.
In 1949 she had begun dating millionaire Lewis Riley and they married in 1959. She would make a few more Hollywood films and appear in various T.V. series before retiring.
Katy Jurado was considered beautiful in Mexico.
She was a strong and sensual presence in film and often portrayed a wisdom far beyond her years. Marlon Brando was amongst those smitten with her. 
She had an economically stable childhood but had not dreamed of becoming an actress. She had, actually , studied to become a lawyer. Jurado made many films in Mexico before, apparently, being spotted by John Wayne at a bull fight.
In 1951 she starred in ‘High Noon’ with Garry Cooper and Grace Kelly and in 1954 was nominated for an academy award for the film ‘Broken Lance’ in which she had replaced Delores Del Rio. She was a serious actress mostly well known for westerns.
Married to Ernest Borgnine for many years life was stable until he became overly possesive and jealous. She died at the age of seventy eight from heart disease
These three well revered actresses did Mexico proud and in today’s world would be considered intelligent, resourceful,hard working women who have every right to call America home. So there Mr Donald Trump.
Lana Turner: Breathless Blonde.
Lana Turner had a voice that was like that of a child pouting when a new toy is taken away . It had a breathless quality and made her appear at once vulnerable and just a little needy. First discovered at drinking a coke at Schwabs milkbar her rise to fame was , nothing short , of miraculous.
She was a beautiful child/woman who brought out the protective side in men. In her first film ‘They Won’t Forget’ Turner wore a sweater. She actually looked so great in the sweater which emphasised her curves that she became known throughout America as ‘The Sweater Girl. 
She went on to make some truly great films. Notably Ziegfeld Girls, Johnny Eager and ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’
Until ‘Postman’ Turner had mostly played pretty girl roles and relished the chance to play the conniving temptress who would stop short at nothing to become rich.
In
‘The Three Musketeers’ she was positively evil.
Her life often reflected her film roles though and the men she picked were often volatile and abusive. She married eight times. That’s once more than Elisabeth Taylor. 
Lana’s men included Arty Shaw, Lex Barker ( Of Tarzan fame ) and mafia front man Johnny Stompanato. She was, by her own admission, an alcholic who suffered bouts of depression and maybe it was the danger that kept her enthralled long enough to forget her miseries. Her father had been murdered in an alley many years before she became famous after winning some money at cards. In ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ she and Garfield plan the murder of her character’s husband who likewise has won some money. In ‘Johnny Eager’ with Robert Taylor she is attracted to a mob frontman who is murdered. Turner’s gangster boyfriend, Stompanato , was murdered by her own daughter.In the film ‘Peyton Place’ she has a daughter faced with a similar dilemma. Only it’s more about the crimes of racism than plain old domestic abuse.
Like many stars of the 1940s she was cast with Clark Gable for a few movies. These included ‘Honkey Tonk’ and ‘Green Dolphin Street’ 
They really steamed up the screen just as her predecessor Jean Harlow had done with the same leading man. Harlow had died only six months before Turner was discovered. Unlike Harlow, though ,Turner lived a relatively long life and died at the age of 74 from throat cancer.
Loved Lana in the 1940s.
Bourgeoise Bloomers 