We'll Catch the Sun and Away We'll Fly

A weekend of lazying out to early rock and roll vinyl and psychedelic blues was spent somewhat among tissues and shots of cough medicine - the joys of catching your partners cold. Last week ended were this one begins - waiting to hear back from a mortgage adviser in an attempt to get approved so we can properly start house hunting. Once the ball gets rolling I'm thinking about running a couple of posts covering the house hunting and buying adventure - tips we come across and the like especially geared for us first time buyers. But that is for another time.

Managing to hit some estate sales on Saturday and aside from buying new stock we added to our vinyl collection with LPs from the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas to Diana Ross (close enough to Motown) among others. After Easter and weddings this was the first weekend we've had to ourselves to get out and picking although we battled through a huge hailstorm and dreary weather. A Sunday afternoon lazying on the sofa watching Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire dancing their way through Carefree and pouring over vintage model and train reference books, finding old pressed four leaf clovers hidden within their pages merged into watching The Masters for hours and getting my English fix with Call the Midwife and Mr Selfridge on PBS.  

How did you spend your weekend?

The Redford Theatre

On Friday night we went to the Redford Threatre to see the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street. Detroit's Redford Theatre originally opened in 1927 as a neighborhood cinema and now remains as Detroit's only theatre with its orginal pipe organ. Along with the organ, the three storey theater is fully decorated in an ornate Japanese style, although during WWII this was removed. The national downward trend of declining cinema goers which hit during the mid 1960s and 1970s led to many of Redford's contemporaries being demolished, yet the Redford somehow managed to survive. Today the theatre is a haven to those of us who adore old films with their biweekly showings of films from the 1930s to the 1960s. 

I was expecting the theatre to be half full if that - I was wildly surprised when it was at least three quarters full [Redford has 1,571 seats] but it was good to see that many people of all ages were interested in watching such an old film on a Friday night. The night started off with a half hour slot of live organ music - mostly film scores [Sound of Music, Hello Dolly] and the odd Christmas song, even the American national anthem. Yet to be able to see an original black and white film as it was intended to be seen was incredible, and for $4 (about £2.50) you really can't go wrong and to have a couple of hours without having to think, slot out or plan wedding things was very much welcome. Saying that it's four sleeps till the big day! 

VINTAGE: Night and Day

Ginger Rogers is a goddess. Her figure, her acting, her beauty, her everything was truly divine and not only do I cast green eyes of envy over her gorgeous presence and figure, but additionally over her delightfully feminine dresses. Not more so then those within the 1934 film The Gay Divorcee. 
 Every girl needs a sexy little negligee, something utter feminine, ultra gorgeous. Hiding things is often far more sexual then revealing everything.

This dress has given me far too many ideas for wedding dresses ... someday!

Let Yourself Go

"If you get into your dance you'll forget your woe"

In 1936 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared side by side in the RKO Mark Sandrich directed movie Follow the Fleet. With songs and music credited to Irvin Berlin it was sure to be a success. With many of it's songs still known and acknowledged within contemporary society - especially "Lets face the music and dance", this film is most often noted for featuring some of Astaire and Rogers most known and appreciated dancing, and in their career spanning ten films together, is the only to feature Rogers in an individual tap routine. Yet it was a troubled film with Rogers walking out midway in 1935 rehearsals claiming exhaustion and unequal treatment, with her return only coming are a resettlement of wages.

It is a plot following the separated dancing partners of "Bake" Baker (Astaire) and Sherry (Rogers) with a nautical theme throughout. It's songs, its dancing and its acting have led to to always be my favourite and most cherished Astaire and Ginger film, it's the film I probably go around singing the most because the songs are not only memorable, but funny.

And it is "Let yourself go" a song sung by Ms Rogers featuring a backing trio with a very young Betty Grable, it's big band style and power has always excited me. While I haven't sat and watched the film for months this song always appears in my head, and currently it's been stuck on replay for the past two days.

Ginger

When life gets crazy or I want to hide from the world I turn to old films, I loose myself in them through their simplicity and their glamour. Most often then not it's a film with Ginger Rogers. It was this all singing, dancing and gorgeous actress who, when dancing alongside Fred Astaire really got me in to the oldies, her dancing and style was, and remains as mesmerising over 70 years since the steps were captured on film. She was as talented as she was beautiful.

Born Virginia Katherine McMath on July 16th 1911, it was through her mothers love of Hollywood which sparked Ginger's (a nickname gained after her younger cousins couldn't say her first name) interest in theatre spending her time dancing and singing to on-stage performances while waiting for her mother. Becoming the stand in for the travelling vaudeville act of Eddie Foy, Ginger later went on to win a six month touring contract. While her first marriage to Jack Pepper with whom she began her own vaudeville touring act failed, when Ginger and her mother arrived in New York she stayed, earning a radio contract and her Broadway début.

At the age of 19 she became the newest Hollywood star after being snapped up by George and Ira Gershwin to star in Broadway's Crazy Girl (1929) a production were Fred Astaire (her later dancing partner) was hired to choreograph the dancing. Yet it wasn't until her casting in her breakthrough film 42nd Street (1933) and later staring alongside Astaire in Flying Down to Rio (1933) that her name and status grew.

Fred became her greatest dancing partner, although their working relationship is said to have been rocky, they produced nine musical films across the six years to 1939 and the later reuniting for a final time to star in Barkley's of Broadway in 1949. By the 1940's however Ginger wanted to turn to more serious acting, and while winning the Academy Award of Best Actress in Kitty Foyle (1940) by the end of the decade her career was in steady decline. Her concluding work was often in minor supporting roles, featuring alongside Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant in Monkey Business (1952).

Marrying five times, Ginger died in 1995 at the 83.

Images taken from Life magazine online

Old School Hollywood

Advert for the Palace Cinema in Slough 1930

The boy meets girl, they teasingly fall in love with one another, some invertible misunderstanding occurs, boy and girl finally get together after upset and tears, with the film ending in their engagement or on the verge of their marriage. This could only happen in a Hollywood musical. Although overtly simplistic in my gernalisation, this plot generally captures the story of a traditional musical film with music and narratives intertwining with song and dance.

Developing from the success of Hollywood theatre, the first short musical films were produced in the 1920s including The Jazz Singer (1927) and continuing into the 1930s with 42nd Street (1933) . These films and its stars grew in fame during the original credit crunch of the 1930s - that of the Great Depression. During this era these films became the light hearted and fun seeking pleasurable place to escape reality into a happy sing along.

This success of the film and its stars would not have been possible without RKO films, most particularly with the all singing, and all dancing Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire during the 1930s. Hollywood would see the rising fortunes of Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews to name but a few. And this success of the musical was to continue well into the 1960s with the production of West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965). But these films hit the box office during the same period of creative and imaginative directors and films. Finally the glamour of all singing and all dancing began to finally fade, its backdrops, its genre and its stars falling into history.

And to be honest, at the end of the 1960s is were my passion for the musical ends. Although more recently since the continuing success of Grease (1978) the musical as a film goes in and out of fashion. A small revival of musicals has occurred through the production of Moulin Rogue (2001), Chicago (2002) and Hairspray (1988) and most particularly Mamma Mia (2007) now credited as being the biggest selling DVD in British history. This suggesting therefore that the success and long-standing reputation of the musical still lingers in popularity. However, this "modern" films are ones I personally put aside over their forefathers.

It would be misguided to suggest that I know why and how I became interested in old films - to blame Fred and Ginger would be on the right path. Yet to explain further and then I come to a standstill. Gone With the Wind was a film I always grew up around - although its colour and length made it a rarity in its time, it is one which drew me into the possibilities of the film. Most of the time I feel like I have to defend my love of old movies, as if its wrong, I'm abnormal or merely rather confused to prefer older films to the more high-tec, effect filled contemporary movies, don't get me wrong there are some modern films I love, but I prefer and believe i'm more suited to the movie of a long ago era.

But they are all in black and white, I hear you cry. Yes they are, yet that adds to the enjoyment, yes it is a shame you can't see the vivid colours of the dresses, the suits and the backdrops, but with a little creative imagination and you more then half way there with picturing and creating your own version of the film. And that is half the beauty of the older films - they let you play and use your imagination - something we seem to use so little of within the get everything now kinda society we inhabit. These films let you become and play and active part in defining how you interpret the scene being performed before you.

Moreover the turn over of golden era films is more then impressive in itself. Take for example Gene Tierney, who in 1941 featured within five films. This is a turnover that is far from matched within contemporary publications. With musicals having lively, emotional and dramatic scores by George and Ira Gershwin or Rogers and Hammerstein they expand their narratives and plots far into the musical atmosphere, rather then weighing down their plots with contemporary, "bands" and songs. These songs linger today, and are more recognisable then we give credit for. Lines of songs such as "there may be trouble ahead" ... "they all laughed at Christopher Columbus" ... "and all that jazz" are all embedded and developed from musicals. Musicals that we as a society probably don't give enough credit to.

Old films have become my passion, but this is not limited merely to musical films. My obsession has it most frequently referred to by myself welcomes any old film, their simplicity, their true and deep narratives are embedded with a passion and a honest storyline. They are not showcased or down trodden in special effects or actors who are mainly two dimensional in their abilities.

Mind you I write this knowing and openly admitting to never watching Singing in the Rain. That does need to change.

Gene Tierney

"The woman with the Mona Lisa smile who left us haunting images of her presence on screen forever remembered as 'the face in the misty light.'" Neil Doyle

With my obsession and passion for old films, I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon not only a semi decent old film on Film 4 this Sunday afternoon, but that the female holding the staring role was an actress who's name I'd somehow failed to have come across before. Her penetrating stare and wavy deep brown curls jumped from the blackness of the screen , enchanting me into the movie. Watching Laura - an American noir film released in 1944 is plotted around the hunt for the murderer of Laura Hunt - a highly glamorous and beautiful advertising executive, I was welcomed into the dark allure and the glamour of the face of Gene Tierney.

Hereby starting an afternoon in search of drawing out any possible information regarding his starlet. Born in New York into a privileged family, Gene Tierney (1920-1991) was told by Ukrainian Director Anatole Litvak, to become an actress after a visit to the Warner Brothers Studios at the age of seventeen. Nevertheless due to her parents dissatisfaction at her projected contracted studio wage, Tierney instead became a society Débutante. It was only after growing tried of high society that she chose to start her acting career against her fathers wishes.

Ranted 71st in Premiere Magazine's 100 Sexiest Movie Stars of All Time, Tierney began her career with a run of Broadway shows starting with 1938's What a Life! Signing with 20th Century Fox in 1940, Tierney made her movie debut in the western The Return of Frank James. With numerous leading roles under her silk stockings, the noir film Laura became her most famous leading role. Moreover, like Betty Grable she became a famous pin up girl during World War II for the American army.

While appearing in 37 films, her personal life came to overshadow her talents, her life many believe became the narrative within Agatha Christie's thriller The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side. Married twice, after contracting Rubella from a fan during her pregnancy, her first daughter was born prematurely with severe mental and physical disabilities. It this is event which is rumoured to have triggered Tierney's bipolar disease, which during the 1953 filming of The Left Hand of God with Humphrey Bogart, Tierney was forced to face her problems. Admitted for severe treatment, she was subjected to 27 shock treatments - a procedure she spoke out radically against, blaming it for her significant memory loss.

While many critise her persona for her aloof and cold acting mannerisms, her unspoken, unknown problems calls through her eyes, they are dark, enchanting yet dangerous, although her often stares at us so directly they are glazed and hidden. A troubled and tortured mind this radiates through into her brooding melancholy roles heightening them through her personalised troubled life.

"Life is a little like a message in a bottle, to be carried by the winds and the tides." Gene Tierney

Selected Filmography: The Return of Frank James (1940), Tobacco Road (1941), Bella Starr (1941), Sundown (1941), The Shanghi Gesture (1941), China Girl (1942), Laura (1944), Dragonwyck (1946), The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947), That Wonderful Urge (1948), Whirlpool (1949), Night and City (1950), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), Black Widow (1954), The Left Hand of God (1955), See Imbd for more films.

The Glamour of Betty

Pin up girl to the American GI's during World War II - her pin up body adorning the sides of American jets, the iconic beauty of this Hollywood actress is lost in contemporary films. Noted and credited for her legs - insured by her film studio for the sum of $1,000,000, she began as a Chorus Girl and went on to grace such films as Follow the Fleet (1936) and Gay Divorcee (1934) alongside Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Her deal in 1940 saw the highlights of her career - Down Argentina Way (1940), Pin Up Girl (1944) and Dolly Sisters (1945).

Betty Grable offers us a glimpse into a forgotten Hollywood and it's films, her appeal may not be as known or as overt in sexuality as Marilyn Monroe, nor her film as breathtakingly rich in dance and singing as Ginger Rogers. While this may be so, she has a aura of a naturalised glamour and "femininity". Her photographic appeal captures her in time, capturing her often staring and gazing deep into us through the camera lens - she stares at us completing and happily as she did in her era and still looks and drawing us in. Her playful charm, lustful and elegant gaze draws us deeply into an era that may have long been forgotten.

Through her dancing and singing, her perfected talent is through her talents and hidden appeal behind Hollywood's overt stars. So much so her influence draws my addiction to inking her as a Pin Up girl on my skin - just when this twenty something finds the money.

Faded glamour

War Time Femininity - taken from 1944 Yank Magazine

There seems to be a missing glamour to contemporary femininity. I surround myself through my passion for Hollywood musicals in a magical lost era - I am use to a feminine body which is happy, smiley, curvy and long legged. These films and these bodies hold traditional feminine traits of seeking love and acceptance, caring for her friends, battling against all the odds to find her parted lover. These films, these delights of cinema may have changed the production and position of the role of film within everyday society, they are built upon a femininity and glamour which seems to elude and be lost from our contemporary world. Nevertheless their femininity and their stories couldn't ring more true? Aren't we all still seeking to find our lover? Our partner? While battling masculine assumptions of the right place for women within society? Although we are now not all fighting to be on the stage as in 42nd Street, we are remaining in our battles between home and workplace.

These actress, the chorus girls and the faceless names of feminine bodies making up he background scenes, hold a femininity which is simplistic yet so overtly beautiful. Tight cast however in dumb, simple playful roles. Yet these roles, however marginal and narrow they may be, they failed to curtail the power of their womanhood in the likes of Betty Grable, Vivien Leigh and Ginger Rogers. The former becoming a noted beauty - the pin up girl for American GI's in WWII, her glamour radiating a friendliness, American beauty.

While women have marked their position within society, in addition to taking more powerful, central roles within major films, how come they - (or so it appears) have lost their glamour, their flare and their femininity? Is being beautiful, being overt in your feminine body, your feminine appearance, a pre-selection for being seen as dumb within films?

To some extent I see Keira Knightley as the contemporary exception. The radiating beauty, one natural and simple flows from her intense stare is one, I believe would allow her to fit most perfectly within the era of the black and white film. She still somewhat maintains this lost appearance of femininity and glamour yet with a noted intellect. Yet does this tight cast her into roles of passionate (or passionless) emotionalised women? Her role as Georgiana the Duchess of Devonshire within The Duchess invokes a passion somewhat drawing back to the drive for desire and love matching those of Scarlet O'Hara.

But has the glamour of the musicals, of dramas, being truly lost in a world of manipulation and airbrushing? Has natural glamour and beauty being replaced by the flare of the movie maker and the digital power of the computer? Is being in touch with your femininity, of making it overt within film or photography too against the assumptions and calls by feminists? To be so feminine is that a compliance with masculine desire? To meet their visual needs and wants?