Summer in Old Hollywood

Ginger Rogers sunbathing in 1936 (Side note: I LOVE her shoes!)

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart with their son, Steven (early 1950s)

Ava Gardner in Phillip Island, Australia during the making of On the Beach (1959)

Rita Hayworth and Robert Mitchum in Trinidad and Tobago during the filming of Fire Down Below (1957)

Natalie Wood and Steve Rowland at the Thalians Beach Ball in Malibu (July 1956)

Henry Fonda at the Atlantic Beach Club (1936)

Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks at Catalina Beach in 1929

Diane Ellis and Carole Lombard at the beach in 1929

Rock Hudson at the pool (1950s)

Audrey Hepburn in Monaco during the making of Monte Carlo Baby (1951)

Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan in their pool (1940)

Randolph Scott and Cary Grant poolside at their Santa Monica beach house (1935)

I hope you are having an amazing summer!

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Golden Couples: Gary Cooper & Patricia Neal

It was April 1948 when director King Vidor spotted 22-year-old Patricia Neal on the Warner Bros. studio lot. A drama graduate from Northwestern University, she had just arrived in Hollywood following a Tony Award-winning performance in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest . Impressed by Patricia's looks, Vidor approached the young actress and asked if she would be interested in doing a screen test for the female lead in his newest film, The Fountainhead (1949). Gary Cooper had already signed as the male protagonist, and the studio was then considering Lauren Bacall and Barbara Stanwyck to play his love interest. Neal liked the script and about two months later, she met with the director for sound and photographic tests. Vidor was enthusiastic about Patricia, but her first audition was a complete disaster. Cooper was apparently watching her from off the set and he was so unimpressed by her performance that he commented, « What's that!? » He tried to con

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