Vintage Inspiration July 24th

I love Constance Bennett. I know most people only remember Joan, but Constance was just as good an actress. Very intelligent.

She was also a very devoted mother, of course

She also had some major drama in her life including:

• Accepted the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934), but later turned it down when Columbia Pictures would not allow her to produce the film herself.

• Her 1931 contract with Warner Brothers, $300,000 for 2 films. At the time this made her the highest paid actress.

Constance was considered one of the best poker players in Hollywood

• As a colonel's wife and in recognition of her work for the Berlin Airlift, she is buried in Arlington National Cemetery

• Bennett eloped with millionaire socialite Philip Morgan Plant (died 1941) in 1925, they divorced in 1929. In 1932, Bennett brought back from Europe a three-year-old child, whom she claimed to have adopted and named Peter Bennett Plant. In 1942, however, during a battle over a large trust fund established to benefit any descendants of her former husband, Bennett announced that her adopted son actually was her natural child by Plant, born after the divorce and kept hidden in order to ensure that the child's biological father did not get custody. During the court hearings, the actress told her former mother-in-law and her husband's widow that "if she got to the witness stand she would give a complete account of her life with Plant. The matter was settled out of court (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Bennett)

And last but not least, one of my favorite beauty routines. I love when they play this on TCM. Not only does it give a window into the life of one of my favorite stars, but her house is gorgeous and it is wonderful to view true beauty in real time

And so, as Constance Bennett says, "To be Beautiful and Natural is the Birthright of Every Woman"

Have a Beautiful day Ladies and Gents!