#old hollywod glamour

[loveforoldcinema]

Angela Lansbury

[porcelainbunnyy]

[stazjohnson]

Belinda Lee. Ink on paper, digital colour.

[bitter69uk]

“Merle Oberon, the durable Anglo-Indian beauty born Estelle Merle O’Brien Thompson in Tasmania (1911), made her film debut as an extra in a 1930 British B film, but soon her dramatic if one-dimensional beauty caught the eye of the Hungarian-born British producer Alexander Korda, who groomed her for stardom and was her husband for a time. In 1935 he sold a half-share in her contract to Samuel Goldwyn, another famous star spotter, who oversaw her transition from exotic to all-American. Never a top star but a popular actress in a number of prestigious films, Oberon continued to make periodic starring appearances until her death.” / From Hollywood Colour Portraits by John Kobal, 1981 / Died 45 years ago today: exquisite golden age Hollywood leading lady Merle Oberon (19 February 1911 - 23 November 1979). Of course, we now know that Oberon was actually born in Bombay, India rather than Tasmania, but that wasn’t common knowledge when film historian Kobal wrote his book in the early eighties. In her lifetime Oberon took painful efforts to conceal her mixed-race heritage (when even an onscreen interracial kiss – then called “miscegenation” - was strictly forbidden by the Hays Code), including the use of toxic skin-lightening make-up containing mercury. (A few years ago, the reliably excellent and addictive You Must Remember This podcast devoted an instalment to Oberon – look it up!). In her romantic lead heyday Oberon specialized in period dramas (she’s probably best remembered for playing Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights (1939)), but I like her best in the movies that forced her out of her primarily decorative and ladylike comfort zone like the sordid Temptation (1946), the wild nymphomania-themed melodrama Of Love and Desire (1963) and especially obscure 1956 film noir The Price of Fear, in which she plays a prim high society woman whose life unravels after a hit-and-run incident.

Merle Oberon

[iridessence]

Channeling angels in the new age now…

[inthedarktrees]

Actress and pin-up model Vikki Dougan

Ralph Crane, Life, 1957

[sookurt]

Marilyn Monroe in the set of bus stop, 1954

[eroticlamb]

Cristina Gaioni as Jeanine in A Hyena in the Safe, 1968. Directed by Cesare Canevari

[poppingmary]

Clara Bow and Felix The Cat ca. 1928

[onlysophiaandnooneelse]

embodiment of perfection.. she looks unreal.🎀

[nevebella]

Jane Russell in a publicity photo for “The Outlaw” - 1943

[loveforoldcinema]

Super stylish Ann Sothern 🤍

[porcelainbunnyy]

[maximumcollectorgardenerposts]

Diana Dors

[marilyn-and]

[iridessence]

Waving on the silver screen