Bette Davis on Life,love and Losers

Quote bette-davisBette Davis was always my favourite because she was fiesty.  A great actress who could play almost any role and who would always give it her all. Bette Davis on Crawford Sometimes she was over the top but she was never  too little too late.  Here then are some great quotes from Bette who was sharp as a tack and never shy of speaking out. Bette and champaign She seemed to delight in playing bad girls and some of her best performances in films such as ‘ The Bad sister’ , ‘Dangerous’  ‘The Letter’ and ‘Of Human Bondage’ in which she was extra extra bad. bette-davis-quotes on life-2Bette Davis on men and marriage-jpg She was, however equally brilliant at melodrama ‘ Now Voyager’ and ‘All About Eve’ and in comedy ‘ The Man Who came To Dinner’ and ‘June Bride’. Bette-Movie-Quotes-bette-davis- Her film s are too numerous to mention as they were of every genre including Horror in which Bette became a parody of the parody that she’d created of herself. Bette Davis on revenge Think ‘Baby Jane’. Amongst my favourites would have to be ‘ Dark Victory’, ‘Old Aquaintance’ and ‘The Old Maid’. Bette Davis and Oscar drinks All made with co star ‘George Brent’.   Bette was nominated oran Academy Award ten times and won twice. Bette-Davis-quotes She is known as one of the greatest actresses of all time.  Bette did not mince words and she while she did not exactly age gracefully she at least aged truthfully.Bette Davis on old age

Renee Dallow

( Hybiscus Bloom. ) 20/2/2015.

bette-davis-quotes2

Valentine Lovers

Cooper, Gary (Meet John Doe)

Is it possible to identify real chemistry in  a photograph?

Four of these vintage screen couples were lovers in real life. See if you can guess which ones?

Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in ‘Possession’.

Leslie Howard and Myrna Loy in ‘Animal Kingdom’.

Marlene Dietrich and Garry Cooper in ‘Desire’.

Robert Taylor and Greta Garbo in ‘Camille’.Leigh & Taylor snuggle

Tyrone Power and Loretta Young in ‘Three Ladies In Love’.

‘Clark Gable and Loretta Young ‘Call Of The Wild’.Bogie & Bacall

Garry Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck in ‘Meet John Doe’.

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in ‘To Have And Have Not’

Vivienne Leigh and Robert Taylor in ‘Waterloo Bridge’.

Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn in ‘Pat and Mike’.

Bette Davis and George Brent in ‘Dark Victory’.Garbo

Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in ‘Queen Christina’.

 

Brent and Davis 'Dark Victory 2

Hepburn and Tracy

Ty Power and Loretta Young

Cable and Young 'Call of Wild'

 

Taylor and Garbo

Marlene-Dietrich_Desire

 

Joan-Crawford-Clark-GableLeslie Howard and Myrna Loy in 'Animal Kingdom'

Vintage Hollywood baggage

Carol Lomabard and baggageYou can tell alot about a person from their baggage … er … luggage.  For instance a lady with too many suitcases must have too many clothes and therefore too much ego.  Right?  That sounds like an old Chinese proverb.  Maybe the lady has so much luggage because she’s simply indecisive or maybe she’s moving to a new city or maybe she owns a fashion boutique.  Maybe the cases are empty and she just wants you to think she has lots of outfits or maybe she intends to go on a buying spree and fill them with the new trends.  Sabrina and baggageWho knows?  We can however, guess more about the person from the style of luggage they carry, than from the content.  Louis Vuitton luggage is a dead give away and we automatically consider all who carry it to have class.  Many Hollywood stars chose Louis Vuitton and they carried it well. It meant they had taste and ,of course money. Marlene Deitrich and baggage Sometimes though a star could be just a little over the top and strike terribly glamorous poses with their luggage. This photo of Marlene Dietrich sitting on her luggage has more an air of Mafia than mystique.  Carole Lombard and Audrey Hepburn add a touch of elegance and decorum. While Audrey’s pooch adds a touch of irreverence. Well one does have to own one’s own baggage. Gene TierneyGene Tierney in her striped gloves uses hers to best advantage as a sort of podium on which to pose while pondering her next move. Gable and Colbert decide to keep it light so that they can hitch a ride in the movie ‘It Happened One Night’ , and Pickford and Fairbanks  return to their home  Gable and Colbert with baggage‘Pickfair’ from a long sojourn over seas with enough luggage to fill the whole train.  The porters seem a little daunted but Jerry Lewis saves the day. Essentially baggage is more than just empty cases filled with stuff.  Whatever goes inside is a reflection of self.  We can only imagine the glamorous outfits inside the cases of vintage stars but does what’s on the outside always reflect that which is within?  Mary Pickford and Doug Fairbanks baggagePickford and Fairbanks luggage here looks pretty rough around the edges.  They actually divorced not long after this was taken and their mansion sold. Jerry Lewis and baggage Nothing last’s forever but in the beginning there is always the hope that it will. The photo of Lizabeth Scott here on the porch with her only suitcase speaks volumes.  No girl that could afford such gorgeous designer clothes would travel with a single piece of  non descript luggage.  Think again. Annex - Scott, Lizabeth and cases Her character in this film has nowhere to go and is waiting outside a boarding house desperate and alone despite her designer duds. Is she waiting to enter or waiting to leave?  She certainly looks determined.  If , like me, you have carried your old baggage from last year into this one.  Marylin and baggageMaybe it’s time to get rid of some of it and be pro active.  Go forth, sashay into the world and be not afraid.  Even if you don’t fit into the mainstream be proud of who you are and be grateful for what you have.  Curtis and Lemon with luggageWe’ve all got baggage.

Gabby Du Gaffe

Du Gaffe pose

C/O

Hybiscus Bloom 10/2/2015

Loretta Young and the virtues of vice

Loretta YoungLoretta Young was a lovely actress with big doe eyes.  She could be tough, demure and headstrong all at the same time.   Her roles would include housewives, femme fatales and even female pilots. Loretta Young 'The Farmer's Daughter' Loretta’s films were indeed varied and generally of a very high calibre.  A devoted Catholic all her life Loretta chose to play characters who portrayed moral virtues.  Films such as ‘The bishop’s wife where she is the faithful yet neglected wife of a clergyman befriended by an angel ( cary Grant ) and ‘The Farmers Daughter’ in which she plays a maid  to an extremely wealthy family revered for her honesty and integrity who becomes involved in politics ( Hmmm interesting. )  For this role she won an oscar. ( Even more interesting. )  The year was 1948.  Her life was often reflected in the films she made and her moral virtue was not always true to the values of The Catholic church.   In 1930 at the age of 17 she found herself pregnant and eloped with the father. An actor named Grant Withers.  He was 26 and should have been arrested. lorettayoung' Born To Be Bad'They married in Yuma and although the marriage was annulled a year later they made a film together.  Ironically the film was titled ‘ Too Young To Marry’.

Young made ‘Call Of The Wild’ with Clark Gable in 1935 and the two had an affair.  She again fell pregnant and fearing the damage it would do to her career ran away to England to have the baby which she had adopted out. MBDCAOF FE014 A year later she adopted the child as her own and the child’s real father remained a secret.  Prior to this affair with Gable she had made a film called ‘Born To Be Bad’ about an unwed mother who “entertains” wholesale buyers to gain contracts for the mob.  In the film her son is run down by a company president who she then sues for damages.  The film again co stars Cary Grant. This character is against type and lacks moral scruples, making her son tell lies in court and seducing the company president, in an attempt to break up his marriage and discredit him.

Loretta’s colourful life seemed to be on the straight and narrow when she married producer ‘ Tom Lewis’ in 1940 but the marriage ended in a very bitter divorce in the sixties.  They had embarked on a joint production, ‘The Loretta Young Show’, which had become a power struggle.  For years they battled in court over the money made from the show and Loretta also sued the producers for not updating the gowns she wore in the opening credits. 'The Loretta Young Show' Loretta won. ladies-courageous-loretta-young-1944-everett She certainly had courage.  Just like the character she played in the 1944 film ‘Ladies Courageous’.  A female pilot who joins the WAFS during WW11  and ferries aircraft parts across the Pacific by plane.  Not courageous enough , however, to acknowledge her biological daughter as her own. Then again she saved not only her own career but also that of Gable and where would we be without him. I wonder?

Cheers Dears!

Wanda in plane

Wanda Wey Awf

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Hybiscus Bloom ( 31/1/2015 )