#Patsy Todd

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Early 60's

Not the same Marianne (or Mary-Ann) as I previously posted.

A lively ska classic!

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Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd with director Gus Meins at Hal Roach Studios during filming of the 1933 short, BACKS TO NATURE.

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🎂 Remembering actress/comedian Thelma (Alice) Todd born on July 29th, 1906 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Appeared in 119 feature films and shorts between 1926 thru 1935. She performed opposite; The Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chase. Thelma was also partnered with Zasu Pitts and later Patsy Kelly in over 30 comedy shorts at Hal Roach Studios. 🎭 🥂🍾

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Silver Screen magazine, February 1939

Merle Oberon is actually signalling that she is doing all right, having implemented method 3 (sob story), as recommended by her two maids/pals in the film (Patsy Kelly and Mabel Todd), on how to get Gary Cooper in a "romantic" mood.

[davidhudson]

Thelma Todd, July 29, 1906 – December 16, 1935.

With Patsy Kelly in Gus Meins’s Air Fright (1933).

[queer-cinephile]

30 Days of Classic Queer Hollywood

Day 7: Patsy Kelly (1910-1981)

"I'm a big dyke. So what? Big deal." - Patsy Kelly to a biographer in the 1970s

Actress Patsy Kelly, best known for her role as the witty sidekick to Thelma Todd in a series of twenty-one 1930s comedy short films, was a lesbian. In the 1930s, she admitted to Motion Picture Magazine that she had been living with fellow actress Wilma Cox for several years and had no intention of getting married. (In those days, this was about as close as one could get to coming out without being blacklisted.) Kelly later admitted to having had an affair with Tallulah Bankhead (see earlier post) when she worked as Bankhead's personal assistant. In the 1970s, when an author interviewed classic Hollywood stars rumored to be lesbians, Kelly was the only one to openly admit to being queer.

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Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd for Hal Roach Studios, 1930s

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Patsy Kelly and Thelma Todd, 1933.

A female version of Laurel and Hardy, the two appeared together in a series of Hal Roach comedy shorts beginning in 1933 with Beauty and the Bus, where Kelly replaced ZaSu Pitts who left after a salary dispute. Kelly and Todd became close friends, but the partnership ended in 1935 due to Todd's tragic death later that year.

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60's

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Babes in the Goods (1934) Gus Meins

April 22nd 2024

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The Double Feature: Salon Scandals

Our theme for tonight’s double feature is the 1930s beauty salon. The salon was oft-used cinematic setting for feminine feuds to fester, infidelities to be revealed, and close friendships to grow or falter. The pseudo-privacy afforded to patrons by the flapping ears of their beauticians provide ample opportunity for the proliferation of exposition, gossip, and rumors. Films set in the salon also serve as real life insight into what gender politics and social roles were promoted by the studios and censors of the era, and we will briefly visit that subject after we enjoy tonight’s offerings.

Tonight’s Bill

Hair-Raising Hare (Merrie Melodies, 1946, Warner Bros)

Mel Blanc, dir. Chuck Jones (as. Charles M. Jones)

Beguiled by a curvaceous mechanical rabbit, Bugs is lured into a mad scientist’s castle. The mad scientist—a Lorre caricature—intends to turn Bugs into dinner for his hairy monster, Gossamer. Bugs attempts escape in typical Bugs fashion, most famously impersonating a manicurist who’s INTereSTed in INTereSTin’ people. 💅

This short is a bonafide classic that I’m sure many of you have seen before. The beautician bit (similarly portrayed in 1952’s Water, Water Every Hare) is one of Bug’s funniest and a familiar sight to movie-goers at the time. The chatty, heavily accented manicurist or hairdresser is a common motif in comedies of the era and gave many a character actress and wannabe starlet her 15 seconds of fame. (My Letterboxd rating)

Soup and Fish (Todd and Kelly, 1934, Hal Roach/MGM)

Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly, Billy Gilbert, Gladys Gale, dir. Gus Meins

Thelma and Patsy are hairdressers in a fancy salon. When a wealthy client mistakenly invites them to her evening soirée, the women are tasked with entertaining guest-of-honor Count Gustav. Thelma sets out to romance the count, while Patsy tries out some of her “tricks” on him. Thankfully, the count appears better humored than the party’s staff…

This is the fifth entry in the Thelma Todd-Patsy Kelly partnership that would end far too soon with Thelma’s untimely passing in late 1935. What a shame to conclude in such tragedy, doubly so now that Todd and Kelly aren’t well remembered as a comedy duo—neither are the preceding Pitts and Todd, nor the succeeding Kelly and Kelton, Kelly and Roberti, or Pitts and Kelly. Regardless of being denied their proper place in our cultural memory, Patsy and Thelma had chops and chemistry that made even predictable gags funny. (My Letterboxd rating)

Daily Beauty Rituals (1937, Brown-Nagle/Educational Films Corp. of Am.)

Constance Bennett, dir. unknown

Glamorous star Constance Bennett shares her daily skincare and makeup routine with the women of the audience, for “to be beautiful and natural is the birthright of every woman.”

An interesting routine that I’d be curious to see someone follow to the letter as a test… and don’t you dare be one of those lazy cream rouge antis. In case you need something other than beautiful Constance in color to pay attention to, RiffTrax provides great commentary here.

Visit a 1930’s Beauty Salon (c. 1938, posted 2020, glamourdaze)

NEWSREEL: AI colorized and enhanced footage of Pattons and beauticians inside Caroll’s Beauty Shop in Hamtramck, MI, circa 1938.

Peek those torture devices! They’re kinda calling to me, though…

Beauty for Sale (1933, MGM)

Madge Evans, Una Merkel, Otto Kruger, Alice Brady, dir. Richard Boleslawski

An innocent but game woman obtains a job at a beauty salon for wealthy patrons, alongside hardboiled and streetwise beauticians seeking love and security in an unforgiving world.

Beauty for Sale is a severely underrated Pre-Code with bite! The salon herein sets the stage for complicated—often illicit—romantic entanglements. Positions at Madame Sonia’s (well-cast Hedda Hopper) salon provide opportunities for love and a change in economic status at the risk of losing one’s sense of self, as played out in the lives of three women:

Letty Lawson, the small-town woman trying to make it in the big city, playing the game while preserving as much of her moral compass as she can. The game gets complicated, however, when she falls for lawyer Mr. Sherwood (Otto Kruger), who is eager to progress their relationship despite being unhappily married to one of Madame Sonia’s top clients (Alice Brady). Meanwhile, circumstances pressure Letty to leave the lurid salon life to settle down with Bill Merrick (Edward J. Nugent), brother of her best friend. Portrayed by confident—and yes, adorable—Madge Evans.

Carol Merrick, Letty’s wised-up best friend and confidante. Carol is involved with an older sugar daddy (Charley Grapewin), knowing better than to fall prey to feelings again after having been abandoned by her only love, a married man who went back to his wife. Una Merkel is in top form.

Jane, a kind and meek beautician secretly in a relationship with Madame Sonia’s son, Burt (Phillips Holmes). Madame Sonia would never allow her precious boy to date an employee, but Jane and Burt don’t let that deter them—as long as it’s in private. As their relationship develops, they must decide how to proceed in public. Is this real love, or is Jane being strung along? Florine McKinney didn’t have many opportunities as a leading woman or secondary lead beyond 1935 or so, but she makes the most of her truncated screentime here thanks to her light touch and sensitivity. (My Letterboxd rating)

The Women (1939, MGM)

Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, dir. George Cukor

After news of her husband’s ongoing affair spreads like wildfire through the patrons of a salon, a woman decides to go to Reno for a divorce, finding camaraderie with a group of soon-to-be former wives involved in thorny relationships.

MGM’s latest foray into beauty salon drama was a smashing success. The Women, based on a stage play of the same name and concept, garnered resounding praise in 1939 and is one of studio’s best remembered treasures, no doubt due to the behemoth star-power of its all-women cast. Besides the leads noted above, you will recognize a slew of other notables in minor roles or cameo appearances, including Virginia Wiedler, Ruth Hussey, Virginia Grey, and Hedda Hopper. Marjorie Main, Phyllis Povah, and Mary Cecil recreate their roles from the original play.

Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) is happily married to Stephen. During a manicure, however, Mary’s cousin Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell) finds out that Stephen is engaged in an affair with Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford), a known homewrecker. Instead of letting her down easy, Sylvia arranges for Mary to see the manicurist so the juicy gossip is revealed via salon (thanks, cuz 😒). Mary intends to work it out with her philanderer until she meets Crystal and everyone in her social circle finds out, thanks to Sylvia and Edith (Phyllis Povah). This prompts Mary to finally put her foot down and divorce Stephen.

She sets out for a ranch in Reno, where she will stay the required 6 weeks until her quickie divorce is finalized. There she meets a countess (Mary Boland) divorcing her umpteenth husband to marry her nextteenth husband (a cowboy, this time!), chorus girl Miriam (Paulette Goddard) whose intentions have been set on Sylvia’s husband, and sensitive Peggy (Joan Fontaine) being pressured to divorce her new husband by the gossip mill.

Although Mary has second thoughts about the divorce, she discovers that he has already married Crystal before she can return to him (what a charmer that Stephen is). The story picks up a couple years later with things going about as well as you’d expect for all involved parties, but I’ll spare you more spoilers and let you see for yourself how the intrigue resolves.

Analysis

While both films have their own merits and are well worth any moviegoer’s time, I’d like to briefly discuss how the films frame sociopolitical attitudes about the "women's picture" and modern relationships broadly. Turn your attention to the respective taglines of Beauty for Sale and The Women: “Which Type of Girl Do Men Marry?” and “It’s All About Men.” These taglines, by nature of their principal positions on the advertisement posters, represent what the studios thought made these films appealing and sellable, namely that women’s lives can and should be portrayed as revolving around men—not at all unlike Old Hollywood’s real-life patriarchal and predatory attitude toward its actresses (TW: descriptions of rape, abuse). Tonight’s double feature, however, reflects two clashing factions acting within a system of onscreen female exploitation: One confirming stereotypes and promoting their acceptance and one managing to assert a spoonful of autonomy by working around them.

Despite the powerful group of screen goddesses blinding audiences with their talent and wit and glitz, The Women remains precisely what the poster says it is: a movie about men, starring women. The conflicts are about men. Most of the conversations are about men. The women get into rows and backstab one another over men. Their thoughts and actions are guided and defined by men who, in Mary’s case at the very least, don’t deserve a second thought, let alone a second chance. But that second chance is exactly what they get, and the women learn to like it—even fight for it, tooth and Jungle Red nail. In 1939, the message is clear: The object of a woman’s desire, the ruler of her heart, and the light of her life is Man… so says the studio mogul, the producer, the ad man, the censors, et al.

On the face of it, Beauty for Sale is hardly different. It’s a story about women being used and abused by men individually, or by a male-centric system. But this B picture wrests back some control over the prevailing stereotypes and narratives—you were allowed to do that in 1933, Joseph Breen be damned. Letty decides to make her own way instead of marrying the first man that comes along, wrestling with the potential consequences and harm she causes all the while. Carol finagles men for monetary gain, which for her is regrettable but preferable to falling for another man destined to jilt her. Jane, sweet Jane, has the hardest time of any, but is a girl’s girl through it all and to the last. Beauty for Sale’s leading trio forge their own paths in a system designed to keep them from doing so successfully—sometimes with wisdom and other times by using and abusing in kind. In this way, the aforementioned tagline doesn’t even make much sense; this film isn’t really about marriage. That’s why I prefer the alt tagline: “The Drama of Three Footloose Daughters of a Modern Skin Game.” This one recognizes that the game is set up for these women to fail, and that they’re free to do as they please anyway. 1939 would be appalled.

Exit

One can little argue that the salon setting in the movie, with its obsessive focus on gossip, cattiness, and florid sex, is socially progressive or flattering to the perception of a modern woman. But for all its trappings and stereotypes, it does provide us with one of the few classic film spaces reserved almost exclusively for women—and what a wonderful avenue it opened to allow the glamor days’ finest talent to share the screen together and sneak in a few feminist sensibilities here and there.

Thanks for attending our first double feature! Make it a triple feature with 1939’s Beauty for the Asking, starring Lucille Ball as a boss babe face cream inventor and entrepreneur whose investor is the wife of her gold-digging ex fiancé. Then read some fan magazine articles featuring Florine McKinney here. You can learn more about the salon treatments given at Sydney's in The Women here. After all that taxing research, treat yourself to a day at Madame Brainey’s Cinema Salon on Letterboxd, where the only gossip allowed is about those INTereSTin’ movie stars from before our grandparents were born.

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back at it again with the good old-fashioned text post memes

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Propaganda

Judy Garland (Meet Me In St. Louis, A Star is Born, Summer Stock)— Judy is the GOAT when it comes to classic movie musicals. The voice of an angel who deserved so much better than she got. She can sing she can dance she can act she's a triple threat. Though she had a turbulent personal life (her treatment as a child star by the studio system makes me mad as hell like Louis b Mayer fight me ((she was made to believe that she was physically unattractive by the constant criticism of film executives who made her feel ugly and who manipulated her onscreen appearance by capping her teeth and using discs in her nose to change its shape and Mayer called her "my little hunchback" like imagine hearing that as a child and not having damage)) she always goddamn delivered on screen and in any performance she gave. She began in vaudeville performing with her sisters and was signed to MGM at 13. Starting out in supporting parts especially paired with mickey Rooney in a bunch of films (she's the best part tbh) she eventually transferred to the lead role. She is best known for her starring role in movie musicals like the iconic Wizard of Oz (somewhere over the rainbow still hits hard and is ranked the top film song of all time), meet me in St. Louis (Judy singing have your self a merry little Christmas brings tears to the eyes she is that powerful), the Harvey girls (she looks like a technicolor dream and sings a catchy af song about trains), Easter parade ( dancing and singing with Fred Astaire), for me and my gal, the pirate, and summer stock ( with pal Gene Kelly who she helped when he was starting out and he helped her when she was struggling). But she also does non- singing just as well like the clock ( her first movie where she sings no songs and is an underrated ww2 era romance), her Oscar nominated a star is born ( like the man that got away she put her whole soul in that and I have beef with the fact she lost to grace kelly ((whom I love but like still not even her best work)), and judgement at Nuremberg (a courtroom drama about the nazi war criminal trials). Outside of film she made concert appearances to record-breaking audiences, released 8 studio albums, and had her own Emmy-nominated tv series. She was the youngest (39) and first female recipient of the Cecil B DeMille award for lifetime achievement in the film industry. Girl was a lifelong democrat and was a financial and moral supporter of many causes including the civil rights movement (she was at the March on Washington and held a press conference to protest the 16th street Baptist church bombings). She was a friend of the Kennedy family and would call jfk weekly often ending the calls by singing the first few lines of somewhere over the rainbow (she thought of them as Gemini twins).She was a member of the committee for the first amendment which was formed in response to the HUAC investigations. Though she died far too young and tragically she remains an icon for her work and her life. As a girl who didn't feel like i was as pretty as everyone else I have always felt a connection to Judy and I just really love her.

Patsy Kelly (The Countess of Monte Cristo, Merrily We Live, Topper Returns)—patsy kelly was a character actress best known for her brash wisecracking best friend roles, first appearing in a series of comedy shorts with thelma todd and then in a number of feature films. she was openly gay (lovers included tallulah bankhead), even candidly referring to herself as a dyke to the press on occasion and declaring she didn't intend to marry.

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

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Patsy Kelly:

Oh, that wry little smile! She could sing. She could dance. She could do comedy and drama. Her mother enrolled her in dancing school to distract her from playing baseball and trying to become a firefighter. At the height of her career, she burned the whole thing down (heh) by answering a reporter's softball question about why she never married with "Because I'm a dyke." She became Tallulah Bankhead's "private secretary" and by the 1960s, she was once again a prominent character actress. Remember Laura-Louise in "Rosemary's Baby"?

Judy Garland:

Judy's voice alone qualifies her for at least top ten hottest HOT VINTAGE MOVIE WOMEN. She was a truly incredible swing singer, with a stunning voice on top of her technique. Her short dark hair looked incredible in just about any style. Have I mentioned her swagger? I can’t do it justice with words. She had swagger. She was funny as hell, and clever too. Incredibly charming and cool. I adore her.

Her eyes, her voice have bewitched me

I mean how can you beat the one and only Judy? She's beautiful, her smile is contagious, the way she sings with her whole body. You can't help but love her.

Beautiful woman, love her singing voice. And she can do everything between happy or silly and angry or heartbroken