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Showing posts with the label Jean Harlow

Jean Harlow: A Life in Photos

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Jean Harlow is one of most the defining figures of the early decades of American cinema. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911, she made her feature film debut as an uncredited extra in the silent drama Honor Bound (1928). After a small speaking part in The Saturday Night Kid (1929), starring Clara Bow and Jean Arthur, she was hired by Howard Hughes to star in his World War I epic Hell's Angels (1930), which turned her into a overnight sensation. Signing with MGM in 1932, she became one of the studio's most profitable leading ladies, appearing in such hits as Dinner at Eight (1933), China Seas (1935), Wife vs. Secretary (1936) and Libeled Lady (1936), the last three co-starring Clark Gable . Her final picture, Saratoga (1937), which also paired her with Gable, was released after her death and became not only the highest-grossing film of her career, but also the biggest moneymaker of that year. Although she was in the motion picture industry for only nine year...

10 Random Facts About Classic Hollywood

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The Golden Age of Hollywood was all about the glitz and glamour. Movie stars were fashion icons, western heroes, brooding outsiders, average Joes, and femme fatales. Some had careers that spanned decades, others were short-lived in their success, and most of them were no strangers to scandal. In such crazy times as these, there are bound to exist some wild facts about the stars and films that made Old Hollywood legendary. I've rounded up 10 of them. In all honesty, they're not really «wild» facts; they're more like random, useless tidbits. 1. When Clark Gable appeared without an undershirt in It Happened One Night (1934), women across the nation stopped buying the garment for their husbands. This caused a depression in undershirts in the United States in the 1930s. In 1957, Gable said, «I didn't know what I was doing to the undershirt people. That was just the way I lived. I hadn't worn an undershirt since I'd started school. They made me feel hemmed in and...

Seasonal Pictorials: Christmas in Old Hollywood

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Esther Williams looking fabulous as always. Loretta Young is struggling to carry all of her presents. Christmas with Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Ann Blyth looking lovely and festive. Colleen Moore singing Christmas carols. Jean Harlow putting up her Christmas garland. Little Shirley Temple dressed in a little Santa costume. Carole Lombard sitting next to her gorgeous Christmas tree. Your tree looks great too, Janet Gaynor. Christmas at the Stewarts. That's James Stewart's wife Gloria, with their twin baby daughters, Judy and Kelly, and sons, Ronald and Michael. Merry Christmas to you too, Janet Leigh. And Merry Christmas to all of you. 

Seasonal Pictorials: Happy Halloween from Old Hollywood

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Clara Bow in her Hollywood costume (1920s).   Here she is again in a different outfit (1930s). Esther Williams is ready to dive into Halloween. Jerry Lewis is right in the Halloween spirit, but Dean Martin doesn't look too pleased. Maybe he's more of a Christmas kind of guy. Betty Grable reading spooky stories. Judy Garland also likes to read scary stories. Look how cute her little furry friend is. Black cats are my favourites. Cyd Charisse makes for a very classy witch. Also, is it me or do the pumpkins look like villains from a swashbuckling film? Janet Leigh also choose to go as a sexy witch. Yet another witch, this time in the form of Colleen Moore. I think Veronica Lake wins on the witch department. She even has cauldrons! Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies, Constance Bennett and Jean Harlow at a costume party hosted by Davies (early 1930s). Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Mervyn LeRoy and William Randolph Hearst at another of Davies' lavish cost...

The Second Annual Barrymore Trilogy Blogathon: Dinner at Eight (1933)

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Directed by George Cukor, Dinner at Eight (1933) revolves around the eminent dinner part hosted by Millicent Jordan (Billie Burke), the snobbish socialite wife of shipping magnate Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore). Millicent is so aggravated about everything going wrong that she is oblivious to Oliver's impending bankruptcy and serious heart condition, as well as her daughter Paula's (Madge Evans) preoccupation about the return of her fiancé, Ernest DeGraff (Phillips Holmes), from Europe. One of the guests is Carlotta Vance (Marie Dressler), a former stage star and Oliver's one-time flame. Also invited are corrupt mining tycoon Dan Packard (Wallace Beery), who is secretly consuming Oliver's business, and his brassy young wife Kitty (Jean Harlow).   LEFT: Madge Evans and John Barrymore. MIDDLE: Jean Harlow and Marie Dressler. RIGHT: Lionel Barrymore, Billie Burke and Edmund Lowe. On the eve of the dinner, Millicent, short of an extra man for Carlotta, invites washed-up s...