#old hollywod glamour

[bitter69uk]

“Death or the nunnery: in her most memorable roles Ava Gardner seemed predestined for one or the other. Her powerful appeal takes its resonance from western civilization’s unstated obsession with death, and the implicit understanding that certain people – the beautiful, the passionate, the headstrong or the too truthful – are chosen to be sacrificed for the rest of us. In this lies much of Garbo’s appeal as well, but what gave Gardner’s personality its own distinction is the wonderful gusto with which she lives life while it lasts, leaving it without regret when the time is up. In all her finest films she possesses this sense of destiny: Snows of Kilimanjaro, Pandora and The Flying Dutchman, The Barefoot Contessa, The Killers and Knights of the Round Table.” / From Hollywood Colour Portraits by John Kobal (1981) /

Born on this day 102 years ago: tempestuous screen goddess extraordinaire (publicized in the 1950s as “the World’s Most Beautiful Animal”) Ava Gardner (24 December 1922 – 25 January 1990). For anyone interested: the definitive biography is Ava Gardner: Love is Nothing (2006) by the late, great Lee Server (who also wrote the definitive biography of Gardner’s erstwhile lover Robert Mitchum).

“You want a friend? You can’t do better than Ava Gardner. Good Lord, do not ask her a question, any question, unless you want the unvarnished, peppery truth. She will level you with honesty, kindness, appreciation, open and pure love. If you deserve it, of course. Do not get on her bad side. It takes a lot to get there, but don’t get there. In the name of God - or anything.”

- playwright Tennessee Williams

[whiskeylover75]

Marilyn as Sugar Kane in 1959's Some Like It Hot. Co-starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Directed by Billy Wilder 💗

[docblly]

Lauren Bacall (1943)

[amazinglanadelrey]

Loving you can't be wrong. There's no complications.

[iridessence]

Waving on the silver screen

[bitter69uk]

"I love everything about show business, even the junk. You can't change the junk. People have tried. So, you might as well accept it along with the good. Acting is my life. The profession can break my heart. In fact, it already has several times. But I love it." Ruth Roman speaking to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in 1949.

Born on this day: Ruth Roman (22 December 1922 – 9 September 1999). Despite working with major directors like Alfred Hitchcock (Strangers on a Train (1951)), Nicholas Ray and King Vidor and providing the romantic “love interest” for leading men including Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart, Roman arguably never quite cracked the A-list. Nonetheless, the sensual, earthy actress with the distinctive nicotine-stained rasp elevated every film she appeared in. I’m painfully aware I haven’t yet seen Lightning Strikes Twice (1951) or Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951), widely considered Roman’s best films, but I love her performances in Blowing Wild (1953) and Love Has Many Faces (1965). (Interestingly, Roman almost played Stella in the 1951 film adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire but director Elia Kazan insisted on Kim Hunter, who’d played the role on Broadway). Call me perverse, but I treasure Roman most as the crazed harridan mother in the bizarre 1973 exploitation film The Baby. Who else could growl lines like “Nothing happened? With your damn tit in his mouth and you call that nothing?” and “Tie her up and gag her!” with such butch, menacing authority? In the 1980s, Roman made sporadic appearances on TV in Knots Landing and Murder, She Wrote. According to Wikipedia: “Roman died at the age of 76 in her sleep of natural causes at her beachfront villa on Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach, California, on 9 September 1999.” There are worse ways to go.

Ruth Roman

[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

[whiskeylover75]

The famous white dress from "The Seven Year Itch" was meticulously hand-pleated, with each pleat sewn into place.

📸: Bernard Of Hollywood

[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

[maximumcollectorgardenerposts]

Diana Dors

[marilyn-and]

[duchessoftranquility]

audrey hepburn as princess anne, in “roman holiday” (1953)