Vintage Inspiration - Lovely Lucille

Lucille Ball embroidering at home in 1943

Vintage Inspiration - Sally on Saturday

Sally Eillers models Vera West fashion

Vera West was a costume designer with over 300 credits to her name.  Some of the well-known films she designed for were:  Shadow of a Doubt, the Sherlock Holmes film series with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, W.C. Fields films like The Bank Dick, Destry Rides Again, and horror film classics like The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and Dracula.

Week in Review

Films I've Watched

• Lady Vanishes (1938) - Margaret Lockwood (as Iris), Michael Redgrave (as Gilbert), Paul Lukas (as Dr. Hartz), Dame May Whitty (as Miss Froy).  Having seen the recent PBS Masterpiece adaptation, I was curious about what I think is the first adaptation of the title.  An added bonus was the fabulous Dame May Whitty, whom is fabulous in every film I've seen her in.  The plot is basically this: Iris meets Miss Foy, a governess going back to England, on a train.  She disappears, and Iris is determined to find her but no one on the train has seen her.  Soon, it seems to Iris that everyone thinks she is crazy.  Luckily, things work out in the end.  Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, I wouldn't necessarily consider this in his style or the style he developed but it definitely is an enjoyable film.

Fitness Friday - Moving with Mitzi

I definitely need to exercise more, so today for Fitness Friday, I thought I'd look to the lovely Mitzi Gaynor's 1962 spread from Life Magazine for inspiration.

Week in Review

Films I've Viewed

Rhoda Fleming, Sally Forrest, and Ida Lupino in While the City Sleeps (1956)

• While the City Sleeps (1956) - Dana Andrews (as Edward Mobley), Ida Lupino (as Mildred Donner), Rhonda Fleming (as Dorothy Kyne), Sally Forrest (as Nancy Liggett), Thomas Mitchell (as Jon Day Griffith), Vincent Price (as Walter Kyne), Howard Duff (as Lt. Burt Kaufman), George Sanders (as Mark Loving), John Barrymore Jr (as Robert Manners).  Great all-star cast picture.  Following the death of his father, Walter Kyne creates a contest in which the heads of his multiple press divisions go head to head to win the job of leader of the company.  What becomes the test is finding out who the "Lipstick Killer", ably played by Barrymore, is.  It was a fun look into how newsrooms used to be: the busy out-scooping dog-eat-dog world of news.  The only person I wasn't a fan of was Sally Forrest as Nancy Liggett.  Everyone around her completely out-acted her.  She stuck out as a sore thumb.  Not intriguing, but supposed to be the girl everyone wants.  Just blah.

Wizard of Oz Wednesday

Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow

These fun photographs were taken by Clarence Sinclair Bull or the cast of the Wizard of Oz (1939)

Week in Review

Films I've Viewed

Louise Latimer and Owen Davis; The Plot Thickens (1936)

• Plot Thickens (1936) - James Gleason, Zazu Pitts, Louise Latimer, Owen Davis.  Zazu Pitts replaces Edna Mae Oliver in the role of Hildegarde Withers.  Murder and a jewel found, known as the Sultan's Emerald, have both Hildegarde and Inspector Piper on the case.  James Gleason plays Inspector Piper in a great, crusty way.  While Pitts does an admirable job as Withers, she just can't hold a torch to Oliver's portrayal.

Fashion Friday - Fath and Fashion

Genevieve Fath; March 1948

The lovely Genevieve Boucher de la Bruyere and French fashion designer Jacques Fath are my fashion inspirations for today.  Jacques postwar fashion (post World War II, that is), made him a contemporary of Dior and his "New Look".  Fath is probably best known for designing Moira Shearer's costumes in The Red Shoes as well as Rita Hayworth's wedding dress to Prince Aly Khan.

Cherrill and Cary's Cottage

Cherrill and Grant at Home; 1934

Virginia Cherrill (12 April 1908 - 14 November 1996) and Cary Grant (18 January 1904 - 29 November 1986) at home; 1934.  Cherrill was an actress with 15 credits, most famously for playing "The Blind Girl" in Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931).  

Vintage Inspiration - Fabulous Fiber Optics

Dr. Narinder Singh Kapany, Scientist who has experimented with fiber optics technique which emits light through glass fibers to photograph hard-to-see objects, from 1960.