#Solomon and Sheba (1959)

[perioddramapolls]

Period dramas dresses tournament: Pink dresses Round 1- Group D: Sheba, Solomon and Sheba (gifset) vs Carolyn Palamas, Star trek's ancient Greece themed episode (pics set)

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

October: Gold Redux

Solomon and Sheba / Gina Lollobrigida as the Queen of Sheba

Like the gold dress from Auntie Mame featured earlier in the month, this is basically a 1950s strapless evening dress masquerading as something more exotic. It's pretty clearly more advanced tailoring than the ancient world would have created, but the jewelry and heavy tassels do help to create an archaic effect. The wide collar necklace may be intended as a hint to her Egyptian alliance. Also note the matching turquoise ornament at the waist.

The shiny gold color is definitely anachronistic, as even real cloth of gold is a medieval invention and this is pretty obviously lamé. But it does make her stand out among the Israelites, where even the king only has limited gold elements on his clothing. (That's Yul Brynner as King Solomon, by the way!)

The costume designer is Ralph Jester. He only worked on a few movies, among them The Ten Commandments (another Biblical epic) a few years earlier.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Gina Lollobrigida - Solomon and Sheba (1959)

[popculturebaby]

Gina Lollobrigida as Queen of Sheba in “Solomon and Sheba”, 1959 ✨

[gameraboy2]

Solomon and Sheba (1959)

[la-femme-en-rouge]

احتمال هذا الفستان يحل مشاكلي

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[gatabella]

Gina Lollobrigida, Solomon and Sheba, 1959

[branfraser]

Gina Lollobrigida in SOLOMON AND SHEBA (1959) dir. King Vidor

[perioddramapolls]

Period dramas dresses tournament: Pink dresses Round 2- Group D: Ilithyia, Spartacus (gifset) vs Sheba, Solomon and Sheba (gifset)

Propaganda for Ilithyia's dress (written by a submitter):

Another pic

[kitty-leche]

Gina Lollobrigina in Solomon and Sheba (1959)

[xabiramone]

Gina Lollobrigida in the film "Solomon and Sheba" (1959)

[nocturnal-stims]

Gina Lollobrigida in "Solomon and Sheba" (1959) and "Beautiful But Dangerous" (1955)

[livesunique]

Ms Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida OMRI (4 July 1927 – 16 January 2023)

Destined to be called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Ms Lollobrigida was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in the pictorial mountain village. She studied sculpture at Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts, and started her career with minor Italian film roles before coming third in 1947’s Miss Italia pageant. 

After refusing a contract with Howard Hughes to make three pictures in the United States in 1950, Ms Lollobrigida gained for starring turns in 1952’s “Fanfan la Tulipe” and 1953’s “Bread, Love and Dreams,” the latter of which netted her a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Actress.

Ms Lollobrigida’s first American film was “Beat the Devil,” a 1953 adventure comedy directed by John Huston that cast her opposite Humphrey Bogart. Over the course of the ’50s and ’60s, she starred in numerous French, Italian and European-shot American productions, with highlights including “Trapeze” with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” as Esmerelda, “Solomon and Sheba” with Yul Brynner, “Never So Flew” with Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen, “Come September” with Rock Hudson, and “Woman of Straw” with Sean Connery, and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” with Shelley Winters.

Her roles made her a major sex symbol of Italian cinema; in 1953, she won Italy’s David di Donatello award for Best Actress for her performance in the opera star Lina Cavalieri’s biopic “Beautiful But Dangerous,” known in Italian as “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman.” 

She later won two more David di Donatello Award for “Imperial Venus” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” a Golden Medal of the City of Rome in 1986, a 40th Anniversary David in 1996 and a 50th Anniversary David in 2006. In 1961, she won the Golden Globes’ Henrietta Award for “World Fan Favorite,” and received nominations for “Falcon Crest” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.”

After the ’60s, Lollobrigida’s career began to slow down, but she continued to act intermittently, including in the 1995 Agnes Varda film “Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma,” and in ’80s TV shows such as CBS’ “Falcon Crest” and ABC’s “The Love Boat.” 

Ms Lollobrigida also developed a successful second career in photojournalism during the ’80s. She obtained an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and also photographed many famous film stars, as well as publishing a number of books of her photographs.

In 2011 she made her final film appearance, playing herself in a cameo for the Italian parody film “Box Office 3D: The Filmest of Films.”

The screen legend sale of some of her 23 jewels from her Bulgari  collection at Sotheby’s in 2013 to help fund an international hospital for stem-cell research. 

On 16 October 1999, Lollobrigida was nominated as a Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization

Ms  Lollobrigida won the Berlinale Camera at the Berlin Film Festival in 1986, Karlovy Vary Film Festival special prize in 1995, and the Rome Festival’s career prize in 2008. In 2018, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ciao, Gina, Riposa in Pace

(Armando Pietrangeli, “Light and Shadow,” Gina Lollobrigida,1960, Trapeze 1956, Woman Of Rome,1954, Salomon & Sheba,1959, Come September, 1961,Un Bellissimo Novembre,1968, The Hunchback of Notre Dame,1956, In London to publicise her book of photographs titled Italia Mia,1974, Fidel Castro shot by Ms Lollobrigida,1974, Gina Lollobrigida pictured on July 11, 2022 in Rome).

[hollywoodlady]

Gina Lollobrigida in 'Solomon and Sheba' (1959).

[tina-aumont]

Litte Tina, aged 13 with her dad, step mother and half brother Jean-Claude Aumont in Madrid, Spain in 1959 while a break of "Solomon and Sheba" filming.

It's a beautiful thing that Tina visited Spain as a child and later filmed there "L'Uomo L'Orgoglio, la Vendetta" and "The Last Run" because she fulfilled her mother's dream in a way...

The thing is that María Montez wanted to film in Spain and she was about to do it in 1951, and she was really happy because she wanted to use her real surname Gracia (she changed it to Montez cause the English-speaking people don't know how to pronounce Gracia) and she wanted to do a film in Spanish, sadly, it never happened as fate had other plans for her...

"Saludos afectuosos al pueblo español, mi pueblo, que pronto tendré el inmenso placer de visitar. Estoy tan contenta de trabajar en España! María Montez"

"Affectionate greetings to the Spanish people, my people, who I will soon have the immense pleasure of visiting. I am so happy to work in Spain! María Montez"

This is a postcard announcing that María would come to Spain to film "La Maja de Goya", a film produced by Cesáreo González. He contacted her with the contract and the script and she agreed to take part on the film.

First photo comes from Moon City Garbage Agency and the second photo comes from "María Montez La Reina del Tecnicolor" book written by Antonio Pérez Arnay. Please notice that María is wearing a necklace that later inherited her younger sister Teresita and later she gave it to Tina, as you can see in this post.

Very special thanks to @74paris for his invaluable help!!