Vintage images from 30's, 40's and 50's

Lucille Ball: Just Loving Life

Lucy was adored by millions right around the world. Not only was she funny, beautiful and talented. She was a redhead too. Lucy with her beloved Ricky Ricardo.

It’s that time of year when we all want to be giving, loving,caring, hopeful, happy people. I don’t know about you but I get a little fed up with violence in the movies. Especially at Christmas. When you watch a classic old Christmas movie and I mean the real classics of the 30s, 40s and 50s you know you’re going to get class, style, humour, and oodles of hope, love and heaps of old time magic.…

Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon

Who could forget Mrs Miniver and her stoic optimism in the face of imminent danger? She alone takes down a German soldier stealing from her kitchen during the raids of WW11. The scene is, however, not one of good verses evil but of a shared need for empathy and understanding because of Garson’s tender handling of the situation. To all her roles Garson brought a humility and deep sense of…

A Vintage Christmas Movie Quiz

Who are the stars and what’s the film? Also what is the song? Complete the title ‘Christmas in ……?‘ Who is the famous star upgrading his Christmas tree? What makes this family’s Christmas ideas so different and what are they famous for? What sets a vintage Christmas tree apart from the way we decorate now? This is probably the most famous vintage Christmas movie of all time with the most…

A Christmas Like No Other

We are in desperate times. It’s the sad truth. Yet we all live in hope and that is what makes us human. We must more than ever love our fellow beings and be kind to each other even though we cannot be as close as we would like. People have likened this experience we are all going through to the horrors of WW11 but even then people could touch each other, hold each other, love each other. We may…

A Who’s Who in Screen Teams

See how many you can name.  Clues at bottom of the post.

James Gagney and Jane Wyman

Bette Davis and Walter Pigeon

Clark Gable and Anne Sheridan

James Cagney and Joan Blondell

Errol Flynn and Loretta Young

Tyrone Power and Carole Lombard

Greer Garcon and Walter Pigeon

Ronald Reagan and Olivia De-Havilland

Clark Gable and Sylvia Sydney

Frederic March and Mary Astor

One couple is correct and two…

Divine Screen Teams: Liz Taylor And Monty Clift.

Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift were hailed as one of the most beautiful onscreen couples ever.  They remained firm friends throughout their lives but never took their friendship to the next level.  Clift was a gay man and was very open about it at a time when many were too afraid to come forward.  Rock Hudson, another of Liz’s leading men and also quite beautiful, was gay too but unlike Clift…

Vintage Black Hollywood Stars

There were just as many black stars in Hollywood as there were white.  It didn’t matter how talented they were, however, as most were relegated to the roles of house servants,  baggage handlers, valets, porters, criminals or all singing all dancing sidekicks. Their roles were generally one dimensional and did little to show off the talent of the actor.  

When Hattie McDaniel became the first…

A Christmas story

Albertha from Alberta .

  Albertha walked briskly through the thickening snow. Icicles hung from the mountain tops like fine lace on a white wedding gown. It was Christmas Eve in the small town of Jasper Alberta and there was only one store that would remain open that day. She must hurry before it  too was closed. Her mother was sick with a virus and was running a terrible fever.…

Famous Screen couples from the classics.

What is it that makes a classic screen couple?  Well it’s chemistry to which is added a little something magic that cannot be measured.  That is why many couples teamed up on screen took it to another level and actually fell in love for real.  Many, however, did not last the distance and once the magic spilled over into real life it became a little too…

So much as been written on the life of Judy Garland that there seems to be little more one can add.  Her childhood, her career, her marriages,  were all scrutinised by the press every minute of every waking day but how many have written of her warmth, her generosity, her vulnerability and her vitality outside of her inner circle.  It seems that there were many who put her down at a time when she…

1930s Noir Style Who’s who in the gown department?

So how many of these stars can you name?

Doris was adorable in every movie she ever made.  Beautiful inside and out with a superb whispery, jazzy, melodious voice to match. That was adorable too. What many people don’t know is that Doris was originally a dancer until a car accident permanently damaged her legs She had broken them both. What did Doris do? She didn’t give up.She spent her months, years, of recuperation teaching herself…

Christmas films in the forties and fifties

Christmas films in the forties and fifties reflected what was happening in the world at the time much like those of today.  In the forties there was a war going on and many Hollywood films were centred around soldiers going to war, coming home or on families waiting for news of loved ones. Spies were also a very big storyline for Hollywood writers.  Many stars were involved in selling war…

Elusive Stars and Starlets of the 30s

I’ve called these starlets elusive because they were not in the mainstream and,even though some were well known in their day and made some very famous films, were not widely remembered by the general public beyond their era.  Some had very short careers and went on to lead normal everyday lives, some died young and some turned to character roles becoming secondary to the leads and sometimes…

Hollywood Daughters Of Vintage Stars

We’ll begin with the scandalous story of the very beautiful Loetta Young who had an affair with Clark Gable during the making of ‘Call Of The Wild’ and had to adopt her own daughter from an orphanage.

Clark Gable did not want to acknowledge the child and Loretta could not for if she had she would have lost her career.  Little Judy Lewis ( After Loretta’s second husband ) didn’t find out she was…