Nuggets of Note - December 31, 2012

Mary Pickford and Her Flower

The Daily Mirror features Flowers Names After Stars

Cecil B DeMille's Christmas Card

Some great Christmas related posts:
The 1914 Christmas Truce on Today I Found Out
Origin of NORAD Tracking Santa on Mental Floss
Very cool story about the First Christmas Recording.  It's so cool to hear a family celebrating Christmas over 100 years ago
Cecile B. DeMille's Christmas Card on Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie

Dorothy Gish of MY HERO and AN UNSEEN ENEMY

Immortal Ephemera features Movie Ads from Christmas 1912


Los Angeles Morgue Files features: Norma Talmadge, Florence Lawrence

Fleischmann's Mixer's Manual

Leave it to Letterology to come up with some great Mixology for New Year's  


Part 2 on Aldo Ray is delightful on Movie Morlocks

A gorgeous 1840s Astronomy book on BiblioOdyssey


Some cool homes on Daytonian in Manhattan include: the 1926 Scientific American Building, Wm. Barnard House, 


I wish I had received even one of these Best Movie Books of 2012 on San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Marilyn Monroe FBI Document

And of course there is the recently released FBI Files about Marilyn Monroe


Deja View has some cool initial sketches of Amelia and Abigail Gabble from the Aristocats

Homes of the Stars - Part 6

Loretta Young

Norma Talmadge

Pola Negri

Homes of the Stars - Part 2

Homes of the Stars - Part 2

Shirley Temple

Norma Talmadge

Norma Shearer

Mary Pickford

Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks

Madame Sylvia meets Gloria Swanson and I don't think Mrs Patrick Campbell likes her

Laura Hope Crews suggested Madame Sylvia to Gloria Swanson. Swanson's secretary called Sylvia at 10 PM Saturday night for an emergency rub down. Our dear Sylvia went straight over to her Sunset Boulevard home. At the time Gloria lived on Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Drive at 904. Some people who also lived at this address at some point include Irving Thalberg, Carmel Myers, and Norma Talmadge. The cream-colored 2 story Italian palazzo house was apparently fantastic including sweeping lawns, iron-railed terraces, 22 rooms, 5 bathrooms, and a private elevator. The reception room was draped in peacock silk and hung tapestries. The breakfast room was cream and gold, she had a movie theater, and there was a black marble bathroom with a golden tub.

Gloria had array of servants including footmen, butlers, etc. At home she was known as La Marquise de la Falise et de la Coudraye. What a mouthful! I would stick to Gloria or Ms Swanson.






Madame Sylvia rubbed Gloria's nerves down for an astounding TWO HOURS! Gloria refused to let Sylvia go until she was massaged to sleep. Well Sylvia must have done a good job because Gloria wanted Madame Sylvia to work for her exclusively. As powerful as Gloria was, this did not happen.

Madame Sylvia observed that everyone has to be a rival of Gloria Swanson. Mrs Patrick Campbell, London actress known best for originating the role of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion said of Gloria Swanson: "I've been wondering what it was that struck me most about that gel - and her most striking smile, and I've just hit on what it is. Really, my dears, she ought to be told to file down her teeth!"

Mrs Patrick Campbell

Up next - Where did Norma Shearer get all those red marks and is our Madame Sylvia responsible?

Sound transition sparks cattiness

Hollywood Undressed was written during the transition between silent and sounds pictures, so there was naturally some practical things that needed to be done with the starts to make them sound ready. One of these was finding a voice coach to aid voices that were not ideal for sound pictures.

Actors and Actresses grabbed for Italian voice coaches. They believed they were the best. Norma Talmadge, got one from New York as did Laura Hope Crews.

Gloria Swanson did not get a vocal coach. Instead she stressed out gained a little weight.

Gloria Swanson, like many film stars, had a lisp. This definitely needed correction for the translation to sound films. Gloria asked Norma Talmadge if she could borrow her vocal coach, Laura Hope Crews. Norma agreed and so Hope Crews coached Gloria Swanson for her first talkie, Edmund Gouldings' "The Trespasser."

*Note - All photos on this page are of Norma Talmedge

Up next, Gloria Swanson, Queen of her household