Movie Star Glamour

 

I started this blog not to share all of my old snapshots with the public.  In fact, I've always thought my obsession with other people's photos a bit odd.  I started it  because it was easier to look at things if I didn't have to go through the old shoe boxes.  In any case, I think I've put this one up before but I can't be certain.  The collection has become too big for me to just sit down and scroll back to see everything.  Now, I've started to buy archival boxes and sleeves to separate the scanned and posted from the non, well whatever.  Collecting is an addiction I don't wish on anyone.  It is, however, better than a heroin addiction.  She may be a movie star and this may be a wallet sized photo given to the public for publicity.  Then again, imitating glamour photos is good business for a street corner photo studio.  

Donna Reed

There's a lot on the back of this print, so let's get started with the photo credit stamp.  "KINDLY CREDIT M-G-M, Photo By CLARENCE S. BULL"  I don't often find photos by famous photographers.  Clarence Sinclair Bull was an American portrait photographer.  He was born in 1896 and in 1924 was hired by Samuel Goldwyn as the head photographer for the MGM Studios publicity department.  He worked for MGM for forty years, getting his first real recognition for a series of photographs he did of Greta Garbo.  He was know for having a sure hand with lighting and printing his own photos.  At least the first  photo, which gave the printing staff at MGM guidance for how he wanted his photos to look.  I don't know the answer to this question, but over time the photography studio at MGM had other photographers on staff.  Did Bull take every picture credited to him?  Bull died in 1979.

And the caption, "GLITTER FOR DIM OUT DINNERS.  Donna Reed favors the popular short dinner dress for cafe dinning and dancing.  Here she is seen wearing a gown of black crepe with sequins sprinkled over the softly flared skirt and peplum.  Fushia velvet belt.  Miss Reed's halo hat is black felt highlighted with a sequined ornament.  The Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer actress will be seen next with  Mickey Rooney in "The Human Comedy."

We can date this photo.  The Human Comedy was released in 1943.  Rooney plays a young man who stays home and takes care of his invalid mother while his older brother is in Europe fighting the Nazis.  I suppose, in this day and age, Donna Reed is best known for It's A Wonderful Life, released in 1946, though my favorite Reed Movie is John Ford's war movie, They Were Expendable.  In 1953, she won a best supporting actress Oscar for playing a prostitute in From Here To Eternity directed by Fred Zinnemann with, in addition to Reed, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Ernest Borgnine, and Frank Sinatra. She spent most of the 1950's on The Donna Reed Show, playing a suburban  housewife.  Despite the wholesome image, in real life Donna Reed was quite political.  She was an anti nuclear weapons activist and an early opponent of the Vietnam war.

Donna Reed was born in 1921 as Donnabelle Mullenger and died of pancreatic cancer in 1986.

Max Terhune

I can remember these postcard sized things from my childhood.  You put a quarter in a machine and out  popped  a random picture.  I patronized the machines that sold dinosaur pictures.  Sometimes baseball players, but mostly dinosaurs.

So, Max Terhune was a Vaudevillian.  He was a magician, juggler, impressionist, whistler, did card tricks, but his specialty was ventriloquism, with his dummy Skully Null.  After appearing on the Gene Autry radio show (Ventriloquism on the radio!) he moved to Hollywood and worked in a number of B movies, almost all westerns.  He was one of The Three Mesquiteers, but after John Wayne left the series, and latter  he was in the Range Busters series.  Strangely enough, after a long career of one bad movie after another,  and equally bad TV shows, he ended his life in the movies with a role in Giant.  Yes, that Giant.  The one with Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, and Rock Hudson.  Terhune died in 1973. 

Oklahoma Is OK

For someone who lives in Los Angeles and works in the film industry, albeit at a very low level, I have almost no pictures of celebrities.  So, from Hollywood via Oklahoma, "Maverick James Garner Cherokee Strip Parade Sept. 17, 1960." 

So, no need to write a lot about Garner.  I'm assuming most people know that he was a successful actor in both the movies and television.  He was in some of my favorite films, The Great Escape, Duel at Diablo, Victor Victoria, and one of my all time favorites, The Americanization of Emily.  Emily and Victor Victoria also stared another favorite, Julie Andrews.  Garner was born in Norman, Oklahoma, which explains why he was at the Cherokee Strip Parade at Enid. 

Dolores Del Rio and Her Hollywood Home

What can I say?  I love Dolores Del Rio.  She was born in Mexico, moved to Hollywood during the silent era and started working in the movies almost immediately.  She made a couple  of really good silents, especially What Price Glory and Ramona, and then, despite the accent, made an easy transition to sound films, making a few classics along the way.  Right of the top of my head, Madame Du Barry, Flying Down to Rio, In Caliente, and Journey Into Fear.  As the Hollywood parts became harder to get, she returned to Mexico and became a big star all over again, and when she was working, Mexican cinema was in a golden era.  As she aged out of lead actress territory, she came back to the United States and finished up her career with TV and smaller movie parts.  She died in 1983, aged 78. 

Next time I get to the Hollywood Walk of Fame with all the cheesy tourist shops I'll have to check if someone is still making postcards of star's homes.  I doubt it, but you never can tell.