The Silver Screen Oasis

Hee hee. Dumb question, I guess!

With Joe's blessing, I'll be posting some candid photos of Fred Astaire. Here are a couple more of him sans toupee, just to show that he didn't always look as awkward as in that one earlier photo.

First, one of him and Ginger in the early 1940s:



Next, one of him with his wife, Phyllis, taken about 1939. Some columnist published this beside a photo of him with the toupee, remarking, "Here are two views of Mr. Astaire: One of him with his wig and not his wife, and one of him with his wife and not his wig."





Poor Fred--he started balding at about age 27! But like Crosby, he was not as careful in public as Frank and Gene and a number of others who also wore a hairpiece.

This is going to sound silly but even when Fred had a hairpiece, he looked like he was balding. Suely if you are going to have a hairpiece it's better to look like you have a good think head of hair? or perhaps the thinking is reversed perhaps the viewer wouldn't think it was a hairpiece because they would think a hairpiece would be fuller or is it because he had appeared on screen and/or famous before he was balding and a bushy haired Fred would have fooled no one.

I have seen a couple of pictures of Gene without a hairpiece.

Now I'm thinking, if your a big famous star who can't be seen without a hairpiece either you get used to putting it on yourself before you go out and about or the valet would do it. Who said women take more time to get ready than men?

charliechaplinfan wrote:This is going to sound silly but even when Fred had a hairpiece, he looked like he was balding. Surely if you are going to have a hairpiece it's better to look like you have a good thick head of hair? or perhaps the thinking is reversed perhaps the viewer wouldn't think it was a hairpiece because they would think a hairpiece would be fuller or is it because he had appeared on screen and/or famous before he was balding and a bushy haired Fred would have fooled no one.

I think that's a good point, as he was a stage star before the movies (and never wore a hairpiece until he got before a camera at age 34). And it was kind of the style for men (and women) to have that sort of combed-back-from-the-forehead look in those days, so I think it was adjudged that FA would have looked unnatural with a further-forward hairline. What I've always been amazed by is how these 1930s-50s guys almost always look like it really is their hair, as opposed to so many toupee-wearers after that, who went for the fuller look that didn't show the hairline, but somehow looked fake!

Fred at age 20:


The only evidence of how Fred would look with more hair:


Hmm... shades of Moe Howard!

Thanks with your patience as I digress...

Ayres, that is a nice selection of Fred Astaire images.
As far as his hair loss goes it never interfered with those magic feet.
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More Images:


Cheers for Chico Marx, Ray Bolger, John Garfield, Oliver Hardy & Stan Laurel.


Dorothy Lamour and Betty Hutton at the Brown Derby.


Robert Cummings with his 4th wife Regina Fong.


Marilyn Monroe in the hospital for an appendectomy gets a card from Joe DiMaggio.


Deanna Durbin marries Vaughn Paul her first of 3 husbands in 1941.


Silent screen star Louise Brooks cuddles a koala bear.


Carole Lombard & Clark Gable slurping watermelon.


John Wayne & Jean Arthur eating burgers on the set of "A Lady Takes a Chance".


Natalie Wood & James Dean clowning around during lunch on the set.



Betsy Blair as Clara in "Marty" and recently at age 84.


Bette Davis dining with her lover, director William Wyler.


Charles Chaplin with the March King John Philip Sousa.

I've never seen the Chaplin photo before, thanks Mongo.

That snap of Jean & the Duke @ the lunchwagon's a keeper, Big M!
I recall reading somewhere that the delightful Ms. Arthur had a recurrent problem with depressive feelings of nagging insecurity, particularly in her late career, and despite her many highly-memorable roles, often felt she just wasn't very good at her craft; do you know anything about that?

Your quite welcome, CCfan. I also like the image of a naturally relaxed Chaplin.

Klondike, I didn't even realize that Jean Arthur was in a movie with John Wayne. I'll have to see it.
Jean Arthur was most likely insecure since Director George Stevens famously called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen" while Frank Capra credited her as "my favorite actress".
If she didn't take heed to that then something was wrong.

On the completion of her Columbia contract in 1944, she reportedly ran through the studio's streets, shouting "I'm free, I'm free!". Go figure.
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Silent screen star Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle mug shot (murder charge) in 1921.


Joe E. Brown with his sons Joe and Don.


Wallace Beery dancing with his daughter Carol Ann.


Agnes Moorehead emoting on radio.


Fredric March & Claudette Colbert peddling Coca Cola.


Silent Screen star Anita Page who past away recently at age 98.


John Travolta plants one on a surprised Kirk Douglas.


Mickey Rooney and wife Ava Gardner smooch for the cameras.


Marlene Dietrich and French singer Edith Piaf get liplocked.


Charles Laughton & Lillian Gish meeting to discuss "The Night of the Hunter".


Audrey Hepburn at the farmer's market.


Director John Huston showing Marilyn Monroe the art of the crapshoot.


Boxer Joe Louis giving his autograph to Olivia de Havilland & Burgess Meredith.


Roy Rogers and Dale Evans upbeat as usual.


3 reliable gents Ronald Colman, Pat O'Brien & Edmund Gwenn get together.


King Kong's girl Fay Wray with her daughter Susan.


Impressive still of Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien and Tom Drake from "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944).


A smokin' Sandra Dee with husband Bobby Darin.


Elsa Lanchester making ready as the "Bride of Frankenstein".


Ultimate movie stars Tyrone Power & Loretta Young.


Anna Magnani in Italy reading about the assassination of Kennedy in 1963.

Okay, Mongo. I'm going to stick my neck out here and guess that some convivial social drinking may have been going on here. Just a guess. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. You can almost hear the laughter. Great pic!

I have this picture somewhere.....but I can't get hold of it! it's either in one of my magazines or on my computer HD...anyway, I would date it from the late 40s.

Another rather amusing candid with Colman and many distinguish guests:

Preparing for a radio show in 1939: Groucho M., Carole L., Cary G., Lawrence Tibbett, Harpo M. and RC.

Moira, I believe you hit the nail on the head concerning those three gents.
Also, I didn't realize just how good looking Ronald Colman was.

AnnHarding, that is a nice shot. No doubt that radio was big in it's day, featuring such stars.

moirafinnie wrote:

Okay, Mongo. I'm going to stick my neck out here and guess that some convivial social drinking may have been going on here. Just a guess. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. You can almost hear the laughter. Great pic!

She's right, Mongo; a gay ol' time was doubtless had by all; and, hopefully, nobody allowed Edmund to show them the view from the roof!

Loved the one, too, with Audrey outside the produce seller; looks like she was waiting for Hubie Givenchy to chain their vespas to a balustrade somewhere down the boulevard.

Klondike, it appears that we love just about every shot that Audrey Hepburn appears in. She was something else.

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Lovely silent/talkie movie star Thelma Todd.


Thelma Todd found dead on December 16, 1935 at age 30.


Thelma Todd's wake. The mystery surrounding her death was never solved.


Smoldering British actress Julie Christie.


Rugged movie actor Richard Egan working out.


Alluring Asian-American actress Anna May Wong.


Broderick Crawford & Lucille Ball announce their engagement in 1936.


Dick Powell with his adopted son Norman with Joan Blondell.


Claudette Colbert greeting Tyrone Power, wife Annabella & Charles Boyer.


Legendary directors Frank Capra & Alfred Hitchcock sharing a happy moment.


Director Edmund Goulding, Wallace Berry & Joan Crawford on the set of "Grand Hotel".


Stewart Granger and wife Jean Simmons out on the town.


Champion ice skater/actress Sonja Henie and husband Niels in 1968.


Lovable lug Paul Douglas in a kilt.


Zany Judy Holliday with her lover jazz great Gerry Mulligan.


Mickey Rooney with his look-a-like son Timmy.


An excised scene from the movie "Greed" (1923).


Lana Turner and husband Lex Barker frolicking in London.


Rock Hudson about to get a punch from Richard Long.


Silent comics Buster Keaton, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle & Al 'Fuzzy' St. John.


Marlene Dietrich mirrored image.


Ingrid Bergman getting a bite to eat on the set of "Adam Had Four Sons".


A youthful Montgomery Clift.


Shelley Winters packs a punch in 1954.


The cast of "Dinner at Eight" in vibrant color.


The Lane sisters: Priscilla, Lola and Rosemary.


Douglas Sirk directing Lana Turner & John Gavin in "Imitation of Life".

Audrey Hepburn was synonym with CLASS; and besides being classy, elegant, pretty, talented, having good taste, etc. etc., she was a wonderful human being. What more can you ask?

Mongo, kudos on the Paul Douglas kilt picture above. I've never seen that one--it must have been taken when he was making the delightfully fey Alexander Mackendrick movie, The Maggie (1954) in Scotland.