*CANDIDS*

[JackFavell]

Happy Birthday, Theresa Harris!

[mongoII]

Elizabeth Taylor celebrates New Years with 6th husband John Warner

[mongoII]

[feaito]

HAPPY NEW YEAR JO & EVERYONE!! Love the new Stany pic in your new avatar!! Sth great to start 2011!! Cheers!

[JackFavell]

Ooh... what a beautiful new avatar. Happy New Year, Mongo!

[klondike]

Mongo, thanx for reminding me that Babs has my permission to flirt away any number of my afternoons, in L.A. - or Miami - or Milwaukee . . . .
Happy New Years!

[Professional Tourist]

[deleted duplication]

[klondike]

Well, their identities may be unsure, but the dress worn by the gal on CW's right takes me right back to watching All About Eve yesterday just before the Mrs & I went out on the town.
We'd seen it before, numerous times, of course, but ya got to watch it at least once a year!

[mongoII]

Thanks you guys for all the good wishes. Let's just hope that 2011 is the best year yet for all of us.
The Stanwyck avatar is a beaut (with help from Moira). It's a pensive Stanwyck that I chose for the New Year.

PT, I used that image in the past and perhaps identified the lady on the left. It's here in the mix of thousands...somewhere.

[mongoII]

BORN ON NEW YEARS DAY

TY HARDIN is 80 today


MATTHEW 'STYMIE' BEARD (1925 - 1981)


CAROLE LANDIS (1919 - 1948)


DANA ANDREWS (1909 - 1992)


CHARLES BICKFORD (1891 - 1967)

[moira finnie]

Party at the Bogarts:



I can identify only Mrs. B and Clifton Webb. The other guests and the year are unknown to me.

I believe that the lady and gentleman on the left are Kendall Lee (an actress in films until about 1934), and her husband, director Lewis Milestone. Miss Lee, a wealthy descendant of Robert E. Lee, was a popular New York model who was photographed by Edward Steichen, among others. As with many of the elite in New York society, she listened to David O. Selznick of RKO when he was trolling for talent and beauty in the shoals in The Big Apple, and briefly dipped her toe into filmdom, appearing as a minor character in Milestone's version of Rain (1932) and in a racy sequence as a nude model for a sculpture in the enjoyably illogical Secrets of the French Police (1932) before calling it a day as a thespian. This photo appears to be one taken in the early '50s, just before "Millie" Milestone and his wife left Hollywood for a good chunk of the '50s, living well but in a detached way in London and Paris, away from the director's familiar working environment in Hollywood. Lewis Milestone, who was born in Russia but who left in part because of anti-semitism, economic and political unrest in that country during WWI, began his career making some of the first training films for the U.S. Army during the war. Never a communist, but a liberal, he was literally tarred with an exceedingly broad brush by Hedda Hopper and her fellow hysterics during the McCarthy era, ending his opportunities in America for a time, until Gregory Peck insisted that he be hired for the excellent Pork Chop Hill (1958). After that poor Milestone (whose films were sometimes wildly uneven anyway), arrived back in the U.S. for his last major job just in time to encounter Marlon Brando at the moment when the actor's egotism overwhelmed his talent on Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).

The lady between Milestone and Webb with the faraway look in her eye is familiar, though I can't place her right now. Maybe Larry Russell will know her name?

[klondike]

and in a racy sequence as a nude model for a sculpture in the enjoyably illogical Secrets of the French Police (1932)

Hey, I know that movie!
I spent the worth of a short lunch on a bootleg disc of Secrets of the French Police 4 years ago, and found it absolutely delightful in its intense & often sardonic eccentricity. And watching Frank Morgan as a relentless Parisian criminologist was a special treat - until the 70 minute mark, when the disc crapped out, and kept skipping and locking.
Hopefully, some day, I'll have the opportunity to see how this curiously pulpish film ends!

[moira finnie]

I wish that TCM would show Secrets of the French Police again. I could not believe how much Frank Morgan smoked in that movie, though I loved the "state of the art" forensic techniques depicted in the movie and any time a movie tosses in a lost Romanoff or two, my interest is automatically piqued. I really liked the cheesy plot and Gwili Andre is one of those might-have-been actresses who remains interesting to me, despite her utter failure and sad end.

[Moraldo Rubini]

I really liked the cheesy plot and Gwili Andre is one of those might-have-been actresses who remains interesting to me, despite her utter failure and sad end.

Do tell...

[mongoII]

Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr celebrated the New Year 1939, 71 years ago