Jean Harlow: The first Hollywood car crash? - Page 23

AliceInWonderland · September 22nd, 2009, 06:39 PM

thnx for this thread!

pookie207 · September 23rd, 2009, 04:16 PM

I always had a mad crush on Rod Taylor, not that he is old Hollywood, more mid-centuryish. Shocked to learn he's from Australia and even more shocked to learn he's still kickin.

Zee · September 23rd, 2009, 05:31 PM

Forgot about this thread!

WalshFlesh · November 3rd, 2009, 03:12 AM

I know bumping old topics is annoying but this one needs to continue... Does anyone ever feel creepy, thinking the dead celeb you're writing about is standing right behind you? Anywho...

Garbo, I love that woman. She had so much going on inside, didn't know what to do. I'm not attracted to blonds, and hell I had to put the captions on when I first watched "Anna Karenina" but she stole my heart. I don't care what is said about her, lonely, anti-social, a man perhaps? I love her movies. Her "romance" with John Gilbert, however I believe was just a friendship in her mind. I read that she had some abortions in the late 1920's that messed up her body. John Gilbert's? Probably. I've wondered if the no kids thing was due to that. I don't think she was the only one. I also read that MGM had a special doctor just for abortions.

Garbo was secretive, but she did some scandalous things. I swear up and down she was lez.

HWBL · November 3rd, 2009, 03:58 AM

In the documentary "The Celluloid Closet" there's a bit about the gay subtext
in "Ben Hur". Gore Vidal, yes that one, was asked to rewrite part of the script,
but had a hard time trying to come up with a credible motivation for the ill-
will between the characters played by Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd.
Struggling over this with director William Wyler, Vidal suggested that the two
had been lovers in the past, and because Ben-Hur turned his back on that,
Boyd's character resents him. Wyler agreed and together they let Boyd into
new background story and urged him to act on it. Heston was not clued in,
though, because he "wouldn't be able to handle it.

YouTube Video

levitt · November 3rd, 2009, 11:55 AM

I love this thread!

AliceInWonderland · November 3rd, 2009, 01:20 PM

^ lol at Heston.

Garbo, yes very complicated person indeed! but it was the times she lived in too that helped make her that way imo although Dietrich hardly gave two shits about the times and went on publicly with her swinging ways

. Garbo had a sad early life as well.

BITTER · November 3rd, 2009, 03:03 PM

Heston might be one of the worst actors to win an Oscar....how hammy he was.

Novice · November 3rd, 2009, 05:03 PM

Why did I real that as "tranny"????

olivia · November 3rd, 2009, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BITTER

I think Joan Crawford was the slutty one. She allegedly has a porno film floating around somewhere.

A Japanese friend once showed me a celeb mag from Japan with old raunchy photos of Joan Crawford. It was her alright. Pornographic stuff, though the fuzzy Japanese cloud modestly covered her nethers,

Quote:

Originally Posted by buttmunch

I never like Stanwyck but now I'm starting to see the joy of her.

Rent The Lady Eve. You will understand the Stanwyck attraction after that. Perfect comedian. Why aren't actresses today that good at comedy? Is it botox?

I can't think of one actress today who could pull of Lady Eve or His Girl Friday. Where are they?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BITTER

LOL, I find most musicals nauseating. Except for West Side Story and Funny Girl.

You must re-watch Gypsy. It's about the only musical I can bear. It's just great and has aged very well. It's billed as the life of a stripper when it's really the life of the mother of all stage mothers.

Oh and Sweet Charity - I always forget it's a musical because the dancing and drama are so good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BITTER

West was also rumored to be biracial, as were Kay Francis, Dinah Shore and Howard Hughes discovery Faith Domergue

Carol Channing is also bi-racial. Her father could "pass" and became a prominent newspaper editor. He taught her black gospel music secretly at home.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Novice

I don't know it you know but there are a lot of anglo-indians all over the subcontinent due to the British.... Also anglo-indians can be anything from very fair to dark...

Merle Oberon's mother was dark enough that she had to pretend to be the housekeeper of Merle's home to keep their relationship undercover.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zee

Forgot about this thread!

It's just amazing! I've spent all day reading it off and on. My favorite thread ever!

A rumor I heard from an older woman who worked in the industry was that Lesley Howard like young boys.

WalshFlesh · November 3rd, 2009, 06:15 PM

Not to sound all holier than thou, but I'm so glad Garbo never diddled Joan.

What about Rita Hayworth? Seen her movies but did she really dawg her heritage? I need to read a book on her this winter.

sluce · November 3rd, 2009, 06:42 PM

I love this thread too. It inspires me to rent old movies and read some old bios. It also points out that what was old is new again. Nothing ever really changes.

AliceInWonderland · November 3rd, 2009, 07:03 PM

lol im reading some interesting wiki's as we speak! i didn't know Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind) died so relatively young in the 2nd world war!

that sad...

WalshFlesh · November 3rd, 2009, 10:27 PM

I have to admit I've never seen "Gone With the Wind." *violin stops*

But in my defense I only recently, in August started getting into old movies.

BITTER · November 3rd, 2009, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by olivia

A Japanese friend once showed me a celeb mag from Japan with old raunchy photos of Joan Crawford. It was her alright. Pornographic stuff, though the fuzzy Japanese cloud modestly covered her nethers,

I've seen these pics. I got my ex a Joan Crawford bio for Christmas last year. It said that when Bette Davis accused Joan of using the notorious "casting couch" to further her career, Joan snapped back, "Well it sure as hell beat the cold hard floor!".

Quote:

Rent The Lady Eve. You will understand the Stanwyck attraction after that. Perfect comedian. Why aren't actresses today that good at comedy? Is it botox?

I can't think of one actress today who could pull of Lady Eve or His Girl Friday. Where are they?

Only Streisand in What's Up, Doc? has come remotely close. And that was 37 years ago. Today's comedies are either too silly, too raunchy or too forced.

I remember when Loni Anderson re-made Sorry, Wrong Number and Leave Her to Heaven for TV. She should have been waterboarded for that shit - both movies were execrable. In Sorry, I found myself screaming to the killer on TV, "She's on the COUCH!!!! GET her!!!! She's on the COUCH!!!"

Dyan Cannon did Christmas in Connecticut. The less said about that, the better.

Quote:

You must re-watch Gypsy. It's about the only musical I can bear. It's just great and has aged very well. It's billed as the life of a stripper when it's really the life of the mother of all stage mothers.

Oh and Sweet Charity - I always forget it's a musical because the dancing and drama are so good.

The latter film did have some good moments, and I do like Miss MacLaine.

Quote:

Merle Oberon's mother was dark enough that she had to pretend to be the housekeeper of Merle's home to keep their relationship undercover.

Yup. And she had her official portrait lightened to make her complexion appear white. Poor Merle. She spent all of her life hiding.

Quote:

A rumor I heard from an older woman who worked in the industry was that Lesley Howard like young boys.

I never understood the fascination for him - I thought he was funny looking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WalshFlesh

What about Rita Hayworth? Seen her movies but did she really dawg her heritage? I need to read a book on her this winter.

Hayworth's dad, I was told, was of Spanish Jewish descent, and her mom Irish-American.