Tag: Hollywood history

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Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial Miscellaneous Sex Symbols

Keith’s Theatre, 5/10/25

(Silent star from the past materializes out of thin air!)

As someone matures, they start a mysterious rewinding process, much like birth-in-reverse, and ghosts from the past leap out of every nook and cranny.

This week, I was visited by the spirit of the former Ziegfeld Follies and silent screen star, Olive Thomas, who appeared out of thin air with former husband, Jack Pickford, close by her side.  To be perfectly frank (as well as very prima-donnish), the entire experience was completely overwhelming, and I shan’t recover anytime soon.

Olive Thomas, unfortunately, met an early demise in Paris, France in 1920, after swallowing poison, which ultimately resulted in her death on September 10th.  Her beauty had been the inspiration for artist Alberto Vargas’ work called “Memories of Olive,” and the piece was prominently displayed in the lobby of a New York Ziegfeld theatre for years, before being later sold to an art collector.

“Memories of Olive,” 1920 by Alberto Vargas

 Olive Thomas had once been married to actress Mary Pickford’s brother, Jack, and many believe her husband’s drinking, drug use and philandering drove her to take poison (mercury bichloride) in the early morning hours of September 6, 1920.  Also vacationing with the couple in Paris at the time of Thomas’ death on September 10th, was her close friend, actress and former Ziegfeld star, Mae Murray.

Jack Pickford was best remembered for his starring role in the 1917 silent version of Tom Sawyer, as well as its 1918 sequel, Huck and Tom.  He eloped with Olive Thomas in 1916 and by most accounts, their relationship was tumultuous until Olive’s eventual death from ingesting poison on September 6, 1920.  That death, incidentally, was eventually ruled accidental, but many consider it to be suicide.

Olive Thomas, the great beauty of the silent screen
Olive Thomas & friend
Olive Thomas’ husband, Jack Pickford, brother to Mary Pickford

So felt Mae Murray, who’d been in close contact with Olive at the time and implicated Jack Pickford for Olive’s death.  According to the Michael Ankerich book, “Mae Murray, the Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips,” Mae later wrote, “I tried to feel tolerant and understanding toward Jack, who had broken my friend’s heart because he had been himself and therefore was unlike what she wanted him to be. But I could not trust myself with him. No matter how humble and remorseful Jack would have been – and I’m sure that he was intensely so – I could not risk hurting him more.”

Mae Murray in a revealing negligée
Mae Murray, 1924, as “Circe the Enchantress”

Frances Marion, who was a popular screenwriter during the silent era, said of the Olive Thomas and Jack Pickford relationship, “I had seen her often at the Pickford home, for she was engaged to Mary’s brother, Jack. Two innocent-looking children, they were the gayest, wildest brats who ever stirred the stardust on Broadway. Both were talented, but they were much more interested in playing the roulette of life than in concentrating on their careers.”

Kind of sounds like my shenanigans as I terrorized San Francisco during the 1980s and 90s… don’t ’cha know.

Until next time…

Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial Miscellaneous Sex Symbols

Keith’s Theatre 5/4/2025

(More artists from the past appear out of nowhere!)

As someone matures, they start a mysterious rewinding process, much like birth-in-reverse, and ghosts from the past leap out of every nook and cranny.

This week, I was visited by the spirit of artist, Alberto Vargas, who’d suddenly returned to life. 

I’ve always liked this artist’s work, yet the gallery chain where I worked for many years, Dyansen, handled several commercial artists but not Vargas’ art.  Alberto Vargas by this time had achieved worldwide notoriety and was attracting the attention of art collectors worldwide.

Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chávez was born on February 9, 1896, in Arequipa, Perú, the son of a well-known Peruvian photographer.  Vargas, considered one of the leading pin-up girl illustrators and artists, perfected the use of watercolors, often in combination with the airbrush, during his lifetime. 

From January, 1941 “Esquire” magazine

Vargas had been employed early in his career by showman, Florenz Ziegfeld.  Vargas painted one of Ziegfeld stars, Olive Thomas, and the work was prominently displayed in the lobby of a New York Ziegfeld theatre for years, before being sold to a private collector. 

“Memories of Olive” by Alberto Vargas, 1920

Olive Thomas, in addition to being a Ziegfeld Follies star, had once been unhappily married to actress Mary Pickford’s brother, Jack, and many believe her husband’s drinking, drug use and philandering drove her to take poison in the early morning hours of September 6, 1920.  Also vacationing with her in Paris at the time of her death on September 10th, was her close friend, as well as former Ziegfeld Follies star, Mae Murray. 

Olive Thomas, Ziegfeld Follies star
Jack Pickford, Mary’s brother
Former Ziegfeld Follies star & friend of Olive Thomas, Mae Murray

Vargas later did work for several Hollywood studios creating movie posters, and one such design was for the 1933 film, The Sin of Nora Moran, starring Zita Johann.  Johann, an Austrian American actress is best remembered for her role opposite Boris Karloff in the 1932 film, The Mummy.

Other well-known actresses painted by Vargas included Ziegfeld’s wife, Billie Burke, silent screen actresses Bessie Love and Nita Naldi, and 1950’s sex symbols Mamie Van Doren and Marilyn Monroe.

Florenz Ziegfeld’s second wife, actress Billie Burke
Bessie Love, silent screen star
Nita Naldi, also achieved silent stardom
Mamie van Doren, Marilyn’s competition
Marilyn Monroe

During the 1940s, Esquire magazine featured many of the Vargas pin-ups, some of which I’ve featured below.  In 1959, Playboy magazine magnate, Hugh Hefner, began using Vargas’ work, which will be featured in a separate Keith’s Theatre column.

Alberto Vargas died on December 30, 1982, in Los Angeles, California.

Wikipedia’s biography of Alberto Vargas can be found at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Vargas

Until next time…

From March, 1945 “Esquire” magazine
From November, 1945 “Esquire”
From February, 1945 “Esquire”
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Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial Miscellaneous Sex Symbols Social Media

Keith’s Theatre, 4/26/25

(Spirits conjure up memories of gallery daze, Erté & artist LeRoy Neiman)

What spirits have been haunting me lately?

Many! Read on to find out more…

As a person matures, they start a mysterious rewinding process, much like birth-in-reverse, and ghosts from the past leap out from every nook and cranny.

This past week, thanks to such forces, I relived my life in San Francisco during the 1980s and 90s.  At the time, I was employed in the commercial art world, installing art exhibitions at the Dyansen Gallery chain.  I traveled a lot on the West Coast between Beverly Hills, San Diego and Maui, where we operated four different galleries, but I was typically stationed at Dyansen Gallery in San Francisco, hanging our many Erté art retrospectives.  Erté had become the poster child for the Art Deco movement, was incredibly prolific and was well into his 80s at that time.

Installing Erté’s artwork was no small feat.  During his eight decades of life, he’d produced a plethora of original gouaches, a multitude of lithographs & serigraphs (silkscreens), as well as several bronze sculpture collections.  It was an incredibly lucrative business whereby many art dealers (as well as Erté) grew fabulously wealthy.

Arranging Erté’s bronze sculpture collections on their signature black lacquer pedestals became my favorite part, as well as the sculpture’s precision lighting.  This was still the era when halogen lighting was state of the art, and it predated the LED lighting that galleries currently use. 

Halogens were expensive to operate and generated a great deal of heat.  My favorite bulbs quickly became 50-watt PAR 36s which came in wide flood, flood, spot, as well as pin-spot versions.  These bulbs were installed in metal casings that plugged into tracks which were mounted in a steel framework known as Structura, manufactured by the Italian company, Targetti. 

Such track lighting was able to achieve dramatic effects on art which has never been equaled to date.  Structura by Targetti was and still is, the definitive method for lighting artwork, not yet surpassed.

Q50 MR16 halogen lights were the next gallery fad.  They were cheaper to use, and their burn time was significantly longer.  The problem with these bulbs – as they aged, they developed an annoying yellow cast, not at all flattering for showcasing art.  To combat the issue, General Electric developed their “Constant Color” which had a silver coating on back of the bulb, thus preventing the dreaded yellow glow that was toxic when selling expensive artwork.  As the GE brand was pricier, many galleries opted to put up with the ever-present yellow haze generated by the standard Q50 bulbs. 

My lighting memories (thanks to the invisible forces at work) morphed into recollections of some of my favorite exhibitions and artists, many of whom it was impossible to display in a negative light.  LeRoy Neiman, (1921-2012), was one such master, and his original paintings, pastels and line drawings once graced Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Clubs. 

Cigarette Girl, 1959
Zsa Zsa, 1983
Bunny Pool, 1963

I recalled in early autumn, 1989, about one month before San Francisco’s infamous October 1989 earthquake, when one of my most memorable shows took place.  It was the LeRoy Neiman exhibition of original Playboy Club art.

It was virtually impossible to display Neiman’s work in a negative light.

The artist was an imposing, impressive figure I might add, who towered above me at well over 6 feet and was always sporting his trademark handlebar moustache.  It was quite a sight and one I shall never forget.

Sinatra, 1967
Hef and Bunnies, 1963
Clark Street, 1955
Roulette, 1969
Mallet Man, 1964

Neiman’s works are pictured below from the book, LeRoy Neiman Five Decades.  A biography of Neiman can be found on Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeRoy_Neiman

I can feel more ghosts in the queue just waiting to confront me, including that of artist and humorist, Charles Bragg (1931 – 2017), that Dyansen carried exclusively for many years, as well as pin-up artist, Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) who we didn’t represent. 

Those are stories for another day.  I’m exhausted from communing with the dead and need a week’s rest.

Until next time…

Beatles, 1966, LeRoy Neiman
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Hollywood, Broadway & More! Miscellaneous Sex Symbols Social Media

Keith’s Theatre, 4/19/25

What’s going on in the world this week? A lot of it I’d rather forget about…

Lots of people up in arms about who said this, who said that, but that’s what makes the world go round, don’t ’cha know…

Those struggling to hold onto power or the outsiders waiting patiently for just the right moment to pounce and strike their prey…

Here in the U.S., opposing political camps choose to go to opposite corners of the boxing ring after doing extreme battle, then take a quick break before the next round begins…

Kind of like that all over the world, don’t ’cha think?

Take a gander at France…where the leading political candidate with a huge following, Marine Le Pen, just happens to make a grave mistake no one with political aspirations would dare ever make, and then the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan.  Hooey!

A jarring revelation just arrived from the United Kingdom (land of our British colonizers), where their Supreme Court decided what a woman is.  Let me repeat that…they’ve issued a proclamation about what a woman is!

Oh, goody, goody! Thanks for the big update…as if I didn’t already know!

Of course, everyone (and their cousin Ethel) weighs in on the issue, so oodles of video footage follow their Supreme Court’s ground shaking verdict. 

Seems we’ve all fallen into a somnambulist dreamworld where up is down and right is actually left, and men suffering from situational transsexuality are really women…

Have I just coined a new term for the psychobabble crowd? Situational transsexuality? Congratulations to Keith’s Theatre for a job well done!

Let’s change the channel, shall we? I feel like talking about something else now.

Blaire White’s channel is enormously funny, and she’s usually spot-on, but Blaire can make mistakes, and I think she’s dead wrong about Dylan Mulvaney.  Dylan’s a work in progress, girl, not frozen in time and space.  TikTok’s in its own little universe, don’t ’cha know, not at all like real life, so let’s give Dylan a break since she’s in a state of metamorphosis…

Somehow during all this madness, I found myself researching Hollywood’s most enduring marriages this week.  These statistics were found on https://stacker.com/

Art & Lois Linkletter 74 years

Bob & Dolores Hope, 69 years (though no official record can be found of Hope’s 2nd marriage)

Kirk Douglas & Anne Buydens, 64 years

Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé, 55 years

Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman, 50 years

How’s that for longevity in marriage? Of course, with the good news goes the bad, and there was a plethora of multiple marriages I just had to rant about.  Some of the culprits like Gloria Swanson and Zsa Zsa Gabor eventually stayed with their final spouse (or perhaps died before they could get to divorce court), but others struck out every time (Elizabeth Taylor and Lana Turner come to the forefront).

Zsa Zsa Gabor
Gloria Swanson
Elizabeth Taylor
Lana Turner

There’s something intrinsically exciting about zeroing in on the multiple alliances of Hollywood celebrities from the past – Gloria Swanson’s six husbands, Elizabeth Taylor’s eight marriages to seven different men (Richard Burton twice), or Zsa Zsa Gabor’s nine husbands.  And perish the thought I mention Lana Turner’s seven husbands or her cadre of lovers, one of whom was gangster Johnny Stompanato, stabbed to death by teen daughter, Cheryl Crane. (Keith’s Theatre feature from December 2023).

“Did these glamourous ladies ever find that one true love we’re all searching for?” Sniffle sniff…

Perhaps the answer was yes for Gloria Swanson and Zsa Zsa Gabor.  They both were, after all, still married at the time of their deaths.  One can only speculate with Lana Turner and Liz, who both died husbandless and quite alone. 

Elizabeth Taylor once said of Richard Burton, to whom she was married twice, “All the men after Richard were really just company.”  Apparently, Liz had completely forgotten about third husband, producer Mike Todd, who was killed in a plane accident on March 22, 1958. According to a July, 1958 article from Canadian publication, Liberty, Liz was billing herself at the time as Mrs. Michael Todd and the schmaltzy article, as told to Joe Hyams, was titled, “I’m saying goodbye to the movies!”

Until next time…

Categories
Memorial Miscellaneous Sex Symbols

Keith’s Theatre, 2/28/25

Fashion Designer Erté in Hollywood!

What French couturier came to Hollywood to design for the motion picture industry, at the request of director Cecil B. DeMille?

It was none other than Erté, whose real name was Romain de Tirtoff.  This prolific couturier, raised in the Russian aristocracy, emigrated to Paris and worked closely with French designer Paul Poiret.  The talented Erté later signed a contract with Harper’s Bazar, and provided a plethora of covers for the popular Hearst magazine.

Erté was summoned to Hollywood by director DeMille for a prospective film, but when publisher William Randolph Hearst heard of the meeting, he grew uneasy.  Hearst then arranged for Erté to design for Cosmopolitan Pictures, which was dedicated to producing the films of Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies.  Erté obliged and went on to design both sets and costumes for the 1920 film, The Restless Sex, starring Miss Davies. 

Hearst hadn’t forgotten his wife, Millicent, though.  Mrs. Hearst, in addition to Hearst’s mistress, also loved beautiful clothes, so Erté created several designs in her honor.  The entire affair was well publicized to reassure the public of Mr. Hearst’s respectability. 

Erté in his youth

Hearst later recommended Erté’s talents to his close friend, Louis B. Mayer, of MGM Studios.  Mayer had Erté in mind for a 1925 production, to be entitled simply, Paris.  Erté was promised creative control over much of the production, but when the final shooting script arrived, he was incensed since it portrayed Parisian life in what Erté considered a completely objectionable manner. 

To make matters worse, one of the top stars at the time, Lillian Gish, got into an “artistic disagreement” with Erté over her proposed costumes for La Bohème.  According to Erté biographer Charles Spencer, Gish felt that Erté’s calico creations would look “too new” on the silver screen and insisted he use worn silk.  When Erté vehemently refused, Gish sought assistance from MGM’s wardrobe mistress, who dutifully complied.

Hopelessly European and well into his 30s at the time, Erté grew disillusioned with Hollywood and in late 1925, returned to Paris, but not before designing costumes for several MGM films, notably the silent version of Ben Hur.

The sketch for Miss Myers’ costume- later brought to life as “Iris” bronze
Erté with actress Carmel Myers
Number ‘2’ that was later realized as the bronze sculpture “La Plume”
Letter ‘L’ that was later brought to life in bronze as “La Femme à la Panthère”

Fast forward decades later, and Erté’s career in the U.S. was resurrected during an Art Deco renaissance.  His friendship with art dealers Eric and Salome Estorick paved the way for his designs to become successful in the commercial art world.

I was a part of this Art Deco renaissance and from 1985 – 2000, worked for Dyansen Galleries, the American company responsible for publishing several Erté sculpture collections.  I’ve attended countless Erté exhibitions and handled a large volume of Erté’s works, including original gouaches, graphics, and innumerable bronzes, which my employer published.

Having been constantly surrounded by Erté’s art, it never mattered that I never got the chance to meet the man.  Through his countless designs produced over the years, I felt I already had.

I knew Erté through his genius, which was considerable. 

Coming soon…all the gossip about the art world!

Erté’s “Reflections”
Erté’s “Fish Bowl”
“Bubbles”
“The Portrait” (surely a nod to Mae Murray)
“Manhattan Mary”
Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial Sex Symbols

Marilyn Monroe – Sex Symbol Extraordinaire

Just saying “Marilyn,” or even the word “Monroe,” has always been enough to invoke this star’s beauty, glamour and essence.  Monroe was, after all, perhaps the greatest sex symbol of all time and she’ll always remain with us in one way or another.

On Saturday, August 4, 1962, sometime during the late evening hours, Marilyn Monroe expired, and the coroner’s report stated it was suicide.  Monroe had been discovered dead by her physician who’d been called in the early Sunday morning hours by her housekeeper at the time. 

A 1949 pose Marilyn did for “Playboy” magazine, a calendar fave!
A few months after the Feb. 1952 calendar appeared, Marilyn’s first “Life” spread came!

What really happened the previous night, August 4, 1962? Only Marilyn Monroe herself knows the truth.  Innumerable theories abound, many claiming to be based on rigid scientific principles, or so-called eyewitness accounts and most are likely just hearsay.

w/husband Joe DiMaggio, baseball star
A later husband, playwright, Arthur Miller

People were clearly aware that Marilyn was unstable.  The star reportedly had a bizarre upbringing by a schizophrenic mother and was in and out of foster homes and orphanages as a child.  Her intense beauty and sexuality often attracted the unwelcome attentions of predatory men, which does not lead to later adult stability.

Marilyn’s roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows, extreme melancholy and previous attempts at self-harm laid the groundwork for what followed.  It surprised no one, then, when the news came out about the suicide.  NBC, CBS and ABC were all over the Monroe debacle.  It was big.

From Canadian (Montreal, Quebec) magazine “Biographies”

The public initially accepted the suicide story but years later came those peddling tabloid fodder.  They all cried murder, yet not one has offered definitive proof to date.

So, Marilyn Monroe, who died by whatever manner on August 4, 1962, became the larger-than-life legend that she has.  Marilyn will likely be remembered as the most important sex symbol of our day.

From hit film “The Seven Year Itch”
From April 7, 1952 “Life”
Photographer Philippe Halsman shot celebs jumping in 11/9/1959 “Life” edition
Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial Sex Symbols

Girl with Bee-Stung Lips

Mae Murray w/Prince David Mdivani
Mae Murray, “The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips”

Before Mae West came along in the early sound era, sex symbol Mae Murray sashayed onto the silent screen in the late 1910s.  Starting as a talented dancer, the beauty and the sensuality she projected to audiences drew the attention of dancer Vernon Castle, with whom she first appeared and later, Florenz Ziegfeld, who featured her in his legendary Ziegfeld Follies.

Mae Murray was born Marie Adrienne Koenig on May 10, 1885, in New York City, and not the city of Portsmouth, Virginia as she often stated.  She died in Los Angeles on March 23, 1965.

Mae Murray, early in her career, came under the tutelage of director Robert Z. Leonard, whom she eventually married.  Third husband Leonard carefully crafted the sensuous persona she projected.  It has been written that the close-up photographed through a layer of gauze was created specifically for Mae Murray by Robert Z. Leonard.  That same technique was later used by French Impressionist directors like Abel Gance, Germaine Dulac and Marcel L’Herbier.

“Princess Virtue,” “A Mormon Maid,” “The Delicious Little Devil,” “Mademoiselle Midnight,” and “Circe the Enchantress” are but a few of the Leonard films that starred Mae Murray in which she was able to showcase her many charms, and for which theatre goers had an eager appetite.  Eventually Murray and Leonard divorced.

Early studio still
WW1 pose w/husband Robert Z. Leonard

During the silent film era, some publicity-seeking stars, notably Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson, opted to marry European royalty, and thus gain a title.  Not to be outdone, in 1926, Mae Murray married one of the questionable Mdivanis of Georgia – the country of Georgia that is, not the U.S. state.  

Regrettably, Prince David Mdivani of Georgia became the manager of his Princess, thus signaling the beginning of the end of her career.  He persuaded her to leave MGM Studios, thus offending the powerful Louis B. Mayer, who had her blacklisted.  Mdivani also managed to squander the millions of dollars Mae had earned through her successful starring roles.  An attempt at transitioning to sound roles with her 1930 remake of “Peacock Alley” proved futile.  

Mae’s “Royal Wedding” featuring Matron of Honor, Pola Negri & Best Man, Valentino

Mae Murray did not go down in defeat, however.  Before this dramatic fall from grace, she had been cast in the leading role of Erich von Stroheim’s 1925 film, “The Merry Widow.”  The film turned out to be the jewel in her crown.  Yet it was no longer 1925, it was now 1930 and sound was here to stay! Mae Murray had lost favor with the Hollywood moguls, with the public at large, and thus began Mae’s retreat into her own world of make-believe.

1925: Mae Murray (1889 – 1965) stars as dancer Sally O’Hara in the film
‘The Merry Widow’, directed by Erich Von Stroheim for MGM.
w/von Stroheim & John Gilbert
Mae toured far & wide doing the Merry Widow waltz made famous with Gilbert

Mae Murray’s penchant for living in a fairytale world only grew worse with age, and she eventually morphed into a Norma Desmond-like character.  Many believe the inspiration for Billy Wilder’s famous 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard” was Mae Murray’s overly extravagant sense of self-worth and her steadfast refusal to accept that she was no longer a star.

The 1959 biography of Mae Murray called “The Self Enchanted,” written by Jane Ardmore, is the source for many of the photographs featured here.  Unfortunately, a lot of the material Miss Ardmore cites was provided by Mae Murray.  There is no mention of her childhood growing up in New York City, the daughter of an alcoholic father.  Additionally, the book simply leaves blank a 20-year period from the 1930s through 1959, when the book was released.  A much better source of information is from her second biographer, Michael Ankerich, who authored “Mae Murray:  the Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips.”

w/Jason Robards Sr. in “Love at First Sight”
w/Brian Donlevy in stage play “Milky Way”
Mae posed for a magazine, having designed a fashion line to be named for her

I urge you to search out on YouTube the 1950 video “Mae Murray Speaks on Heart Throbs of Yesterday” as well as one of the many Mae Murray films that are posted.  If you can find a copy of “The Merry Widow,” it is a must-see film.  Currently, TGZ Classic Movies has this film posted on YouTube.  There is also a 3-part radio interview with Mae Murray from 1960, which is worth listening to.  I am listing a Wikipedia link to a February 24, 1964 Ottowa Citizen newspaper article, which reported that the former star was found wandering in a state of confusion in St. Louis, Missouri, mistakenly believing she was on her way to New York.

Yes, Mae Murray had hit rock bottom, wandering hither and yon in a state of delusion. 

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YrMyAAAAIBAJ&pg=990,1605441

The dancing, frolicking sex symbol who danced with Vernon Castle, starred in the Ziegfeld Follies, went on to be a major silent screen idol, Mae Murray…who had all the right curves in all the right places…the girl with the bee-stung lips…Once at the top of the world, her millions had been squandered, and Mae Murray died in obscurity.

Young ingenue, Mae Murray
Mae in “The French Doll”
From the 1931 sound offering, “Bachelor Apartment.” Mae’s star had waned by now.
Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Memorial

His Career Ended with the Coming of Talkies- Tragedy of Silent Star John Gilbert

The life of John Gilbert ended tragically on January 9, 1936 at the young age of 38.  Gilbert’s final performance involved no acting at all.  It was that of a dying man clutching at his chest, writhing in pain, and falling to the floor for his last gasps of air.  What must those last moments have been like for someone who had been at the top of the world, only to become one of the casualties of the nemesis feared most by silent actors…THE MICROPHONE!

John Gilbert’s complete biography can be found on Wikipedia, an excellent source of information.  Informative as well as convenient, Wikipedia always has the most up-to-date information on a variety of subjects.  I wouldn’t be without it when researching the old Hollywood stars.

John Gilbert was a longtime friend of comedienne Marion Davies who is probably best remembered as the decades-long love interest of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.  In Davies’ posthumous memoir, “The Times We Had,” she spoke of Gilbert’s feelings for Lillian Gish with whom he’d been paired for the 1926 MGM film, La Bohème.”

w/Renée Adorée in “The Big Parade”
w/Lillian Gish in “La Bohème”

Davies said, “Jack Gilbert would stay downstairs with a bunch of violets in his hand.  He might as well have waited for the sun to come out at night, because she was dodging him.  They were making ‘La Bohème’ and he was madly in love with her. Jack Gilbert was the sort of person who took the movies seriously.  When he played in a love scene with somebody, he fell in love with her. So he’d be down there, standing with a bunch of violets, waiting for Lillian.  But she was only there for the one picture.  She only did that one picture, and she paid no attention to Jack Gilbert with his violets – none whatsoever.”

Later in her memoir, she references Greta Garbo, who co-starred with John Gilbert in several films, notably 1926’s “Flesh and the Devil,” where the two created a romantic sensation.  Davies wrote, “I felt awfully sorry for Jack Gilbert.  He was in love with Greta Garbo, and she would have no part of him at all.  That was why he was blue.  He was very much the artist type, with flashing black eyes and nervous, emotional moods.  Those writers didn’t understand it.  They were just watching and pushing him.  And imagine the emotions going on inside him.”

w/Greta Garbo in “Flesh and the Devil”

Those emotions must have eventually overwhelmed him, for gossip columnist Louella Parsons wrote in her 1944 memoir “The Gay Illiterate” that, “John Gilbert landed in jail on a charge of disturbing the peace after Greta Garbo got as far as the courthouse – and then refused to marry him.”

Parsons reported exactly how Gilbert’s career was ruined by sound pictures.  “John Gilbert and Greta Garbo, in such silent pictures as ‘Flesh and the Devil,’ had become the great lovers of the movies.  In one fell swoop – to be exact, a dreadful movie called ‘His Glorious Night’ – Jack was ruined.  It has been said, and is now accepted almost as legend, that the great Gilbert had a falsetto voice that ill became his manly physique and that audiences tittered when he spoke.”

Louella Parsons went on to say, “While Jack’s voice wasn’t so deep as the ocean, it was a thoroughly normal speaking voice.  But in those days there was little ‘mixing’ or regulation of sound.  If the microphone was pitched along the leading lady’s favorite key the hero sounded ‘way up there’ with her, too.”

w/Mae Murray in “The Merry Widow”
Eric von Stroheim’s 1925 masterpiece, “The Merry Widow”

One part of the Marion Davies memoir really showed how troubled John Gilbert really was.  Davies wrote of Gilbert’s frequent mood swings and stated, “One night at the beach we had gotten tired of sitting around the swimming pool and had gone out on the sand. There were thirty or forty of us. There was a group of writers around Jack, and I could hear an argument. I heard Jack say, ‘I’m going to commit suicide.’ And they said, ‘Dare you to.’ Well, that was not the thing to say to a man who was in that mood, but they were teasing him. They said, ‘Prove it. You’ve talked about suicide so much, prove it to us. If you’ve got the guts to do it, show us.’ And Jack said, ‘All right, I will.’”

w/Norma Shearer & Lon Chaney, Sr.

“While everyone was chattering away, he went out and walked into the waves. And he kept on walking until I thought, This is not funny. I said, ‘Somebody stop him.’ But they said, ‘Let him alone. He’ll stop himself. Just watch him. He won’t do it.’ They thought it was a big joke. Maybe their voices carried across. Whatever, he suddenly threw himself down, and then he came wading in and went down on the sand. He burst into sobs and beat the sand and cried his heart out. He couldn’t do it; he had been challenged and he couldn’t do it.”

Ultimately, John Gilbert got his wish.  On January 9, 1936 after a massive heart attack, aggravated by chronic alcoholism, he took a final curtain call.

Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Sex Symbols

“BUtterfield 8,” Liz Taylor in hospital near death! Reynolds/ Fisher scandal, Hedda weighs in…

March, 1960 “MODERN SCREEN”
March, 1960 “Modern Screen” article by columnist, Earl Wilson

In her 1962 memoir, “The Whole Truth and Nothing But,” Hollywood gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper, wrote of Liz Taylor’s “BUtterfield 8” Oscar in the following manner, “She won her Academy Award not for Butterfield 8 but for nearly dying. And her studio joined in by putting on a terrific public relations campaign against Debbie – with planted stories in fan magazines and loaded interviews for the newspapers – to clinch sympathy for Liz.” 

Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor

The aging columnist, who loved judging all Hollywood, was of course referring to the love triangle concerning Elizabeth Taylor, actress Debbie Reynolds and Reynolds’ onetime husband, baritone Eddie Fisher.  In 1958, Taylor began a love affair with Fisher, at the time married to actress Reynolds, during the filming of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”  Eddie Fisher later left Debbie Reynolds to wed Liz.  

Hedda Hopper, chief competition for Hearst columnist, Louella Parsons

The public became either decidedly for or against Taylor – either content to accept that all’s fair in love and war, or the opposite view of Liz as predatory homewrecker. 

Elizabeth Taylor had originally catapulted to stardom at the young age of 12 in the 1944 film, “National Velvet.”  Taylor blossomed into a lovely, sensual young woman as the world watched and was often publicized as the most beautiful woman in the world.  When her third husband, director Michael Todd, was suddenly killed in a plane crash on March 22, 1958, there was an outpouring of public sympathy for Liz. 

w/Mike Todd & Liza
w/one of Michael Wilding’s sons

Then came the Reynolds-Fisher-Taylor romance scandal, turning many sharply against her.  All ill feelings were quickly forgotten though, after Liz’s near date with death from pneumonia two years later, just prior to the Academy Awards.  Nominated for best actress in the 1960 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film “BUtterfield 8,” Liz garnered the coveted award many felt was undeserved.  It certainly hadn’t hurt Taylor (or M-G-M) that she’d languished for weeks in an intensive care unit close to death just before the Oscars that year.

Still frail from her recent illness, Elizabeth Taylor was helped to the stage by Eddie Fisher, who’d co-starred with her in “BUtterfield 8.”  He’d recently divorced Debbie Reynolds to be at Liz’s side, making him Taylor’s fourth husband to date.

As Helen of Troy in “Doctor Faustus”

To decide for yourself if Elizabeth Taylor’s 1961 Oscar was really a “sympathy award,” check out her competition that year:  Shirley MacLaine for “The Apartment” – a satirical look at office politics; Melina Mercouri for “Never on Sunday,” the story of a Greek prostitute; Greer Garson for “Sunrise at Campobello,” a dramatization of former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s battle with polio; and Deborah Kerr for “The Sundowners,” a film about life in the Australian outback.

The many husbands of Liz:

1. Conrad Hilton, Jr. (1950-1951)

2. Michael Wilding (1952-1957)

3. Mike Todd (1957-1958)

4. Eddie Fisher (1959-1964)

5. Richard Burton (1964-1974)

6. Richard Burton (1975-1976)

7. John Warner (1976-1982)_

8. Larry Fortensky (1991-1996)

Categories
Hollywood, Broadway & More! Sex Symbols

Jayne Mansfield Meets Mickey Hargitay at the Divine Mae West’s Las Vegas Revue

Jayne Mansfield was amply suited for promo during the 1950s

Jayne Mansfield, popular sex symbol of the 50s met future husband, Mickey Hargitay, a bodybuilder on stage one evening at Mae West’s popular Las Vegas revue featuring musclemen.  Mansfield and Hargitay enjoyed a whirlwind romance, married, then later divorced yet the couple remained close friends throughout the remainder of Mansfield’s short life, which ended on a lonely Louisiana highway the night of June 29, 1967.

Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian bodybuilder, with Jayne Mansfield

In video footage posted on YouTube, Mickey Hargitay wistfully recalled his visit to a mortuary containing the remains of his ex-wife, Jayne Mansfield, shortly after her tragic automobile accident which killed three people.  Hargitay was visibly disturbed when reliving the moment, was overcome with emotion, and struggling for the words to explain what he’d found, “I saw her the last time…it wasn’t really her anymore, you know, soul was gone, spirit was gone…it was just a machine, it wasn’t her…”

Hargitay had met Jayne Mansfield while performing at Mae West’s renowned 1950’s nightclub revue which broke Las Vegas box office records.  In Mae’s typical Westian style, a collection of musclemen would cavort about the sexagenarian star, while flexing their biceps and chest muscles.  It was all carefully orchestrated by the aging West to create the illusion that she was just as luscious and desirable as ever, as the men dutifully paid her homage by lustfully ogling her.  West would then sing a few songs, knock off a few of her double-entendre one-liners and sashay about the stage, looking as voluptuous as a sex symbol in her mid-60s could. 

Mae West’s 1950s Las Vegas act w/entourage of bodybuilders

While the bodybuilders were little more than props for West’s increasingly inflated ego, Mae’s exaggerated sense-of-self unwisely entertained the notion that Mickey Hargitay was perhaps interested in something more, namely the incomparable Mae West.  Yet Hargitay happened to be looking in another direction that evening, and the object of his attention was Miss Jayne Mansfield. 

In West’s inimitable egomaniacal and narcissistic manner, Mae quickly turned the page by arranging publicity about a few musclemen in her show that were battling for the elderly star’s affections, reportedly coming to blows in the process.

Mae West circa 1933 in her younger years

West was then left with her successful show minus Mickey Hargitay, and had only to reap the enormous financial rewards, not to mention several choice musclemen, in particular a bodybuilder named Chester Rybinski (aka Paul Novak).  Novak, smitten with Mae West, doted on the aging star for over 26 years until her death in 1980.

Sex symbol Jayne Mansfield, some 40 years younger than West, and Hungarian bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay were soon christened “couple of the hour” by the American press, quickly married, and left the aging Mae West far, far behind.  The two likely never looked back…