Today is the 88th birthday of the French artist Yves Klein.  His influence in the minimalist discipline is undeniable.  His vision has pushed the art world forward.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Yves Klein
OCCUPATION: Painter, Sculptor
BIRTH DATE: April 28, 1928
DEATH DATE: June 6, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH: Nice, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Yves Klein was a French painter, sculptor and performance artist whose work greatly influenced the development of minimalism.

Klein was born in Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France. His parents, Fred Klein and Marie Raymond, were both painters. His father painted in a loose Post-Impressionist style, while his mother was a leading figure in Art informel, and held regular soirées with other leading practitioners of this Parisian abstract movement.

From 1942 to 1946, Klein studied at the École Nationale de la Marine Marchande and the École Nationale des Langues Orientales and began practicing judo. At this time, he became friends with Arman (Armand Fernandez) and Claude Pascal and started to paint. At the age of nineteen, Klein and his friends lay on a beach in the south of France, and divided the world between themselves; Arman chose the earth, Pascal, words, while Klein chose the ethereal space surrounding the planet, which he then proceeded to sign:

With this famous symbolic gesture of signing the sky, Klein had foreseen, as in a reverie, the thrust of his art from that time onwards—a quest to reach the far side of the infinite.

Between 1947 and 1948, Klein conceived his Monotone Symphony (1949, formally Monotone Silence Symphony) that consisted of a single 20-minute sustained chord followed by a 20-minute silence[3][4] – a precedent to both La Monte Young’s drone music and John Cage’s 4′33″.[citation needed] During the years 1948 to 1952, he traveled to Italy, Great Britain, Spain, and Japan. In Japan, at the age of 25, he became a master at judo receiving the rank of yodan (4th dan/degree black-belt) from the Kodokan, which at that time was a remarkable achievement for a westerner. He also stayed in Japan in 1953. Klein later wrote a book on Judo called Les fondements du judo. In 1954, Klein settled permanently in Paris and began in earnest to establish himself in the art world.

The critic Pierre Restany, whom he had met during his first public exhibition at the Club Solitaire, founded the Nouveau Réalisme group in Klein’s apartment on 27 October 1960. Founding members were Arman, Francois Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Martial Raysse, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and Jacques Villeglé, with Niki de Saint Phalle, Christo and Gérard Deschamps joining later. Normally seen as a French version of Pop Art, the aim of the group was stated as ‘New Realism=New Perceptual Approaches To The Real’.

A large retrospective was held at Krefeld, Germany, January 1961, followed by an unsuccessful opening at Leo Castelli’s Gallery, New York, in which Klein failed to sell a single painting. He stayed with Rotraut Uecker at the Chelsea Hotel for the duration of the exhibition; and, while there, he wrote the “Chelsea Hotel Manifesto”, a proclamation of the “multiplicity of new possibilities.” In part, the manifesto declared:

At present, I am particularly excited by “bad taste.” I have the deep feeling that there exists in the very essence of bad taste a power capable of creating those things situated far beyond what is traditionally termed “The Work of Art.” I wish to play with human feeling, with its “morbidity” in a cold and ferocious manner. Only very recently I have become a sort of gravedigger of art (oddly enough, I am using the very terms of my enemies). Some of my latest works have been coffins and tombs. During the same time I succeeded in painting with fire, using particularly powerful and searing gas flames, some of them measuring three to four meters high. I use these to bathe the surface of the painting in such a way that it registered the spontaneous trace of fire.

He moved on to exhibit at the Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, and traveled extensively in the Western U.S., visiting Death Valley in the Mojave Desert. On 21 January 1962, in an elaborate ceremony in which Klein dressed as a Knight of the Order of St Sebastian, he married Rotraut Uecker, sister of German artist Günther Uecker, at Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs, Paris. His last works included painting geophysical reliefs of France and casting his friends’ torsos, painting them blue, and attaching them to gold-leafed supports.

He suffered a heart attack while watching the film Mondo cane (in which he is featured) at the Cannes Film Festival on 11 May 1962. Two more heart attacks followed, the second of which killed him on 6 June 1962. His son, Yves Amu Klein, was born on 6 August in Nice. Yves Amu studied architecture, design, cybernetics theory of systems, and Fine Arts sculpture. He went on to create robotized sculptures. Rotraut Klein remarried, and has homes in Paris; Phoenix, Arizona; and Sydney, Australia.

Alongside works by Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning, Klein’s painting RE 46 (1960) was among the top-five sellers at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art sale in May 2006. His monochromatic blue sponge painting sold for $4,720,000. Previously, his painting RE I (1958) had sold for $6,716,000 at Christie’s New York in November 2000. In 2008, MG 9 (1962), a monochromatic gold painting, sold for $21,000,000 at Christie’s. FC1 (Fire Color 1) (1962), a nearly 10-foot long panel created with a blowtorch, water and two models, sold for $36.4 million at Christie’s in 2012.

In 2013, Klein’s Sculpture Éponge Bleue Sans Titre, SE 168, a 1959 sculpture made with natural sea sponges drenched in blue pigment fetched $22 million, the highest price paid for a sculpture by the artist.

come find me, i’m @

Related articles

• Yves Klein: 1928 – 1962
• Happ Birthday Eugène Atget
• Happy Birthday Elsa Schiaparelli
• Happy Birthday Somerset Maugham
• Happy Birthday Sylvia Beach
• Orange Dog & Prince and Princess by K-NARF – CLIC Gallery
• journey to paris
• Perfectly Parisian: City of Light-Inspired I Dos

Today is the 134th birthday of the man who is widely recognized as the co-founder of Cubism: Georges Braque. While his counterpart’s name is much more recognizable, his works in the genre are equal to Picasso’s and breathtakingly beautiful. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Georges Braque
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: May 13, 1882
DEATH DATE: August 31, 1963
EDUCATION: École des Beaux-Arts
PLACE OF BIRTH: Argentuil, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France
FRENCH LEGION OF HONOR AWARDEE

BEST KNOWN FOR: Georges Braque was a 20th century French painter best known for inventing Cubism with Pablo Picasso.

Georges Braque was a French painter born on May 13, 1882, in Argenteuil, France. He spent his childhood in Le Havre and planned to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by becoming a house painter. From about 1897 to 1899, Braque studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in the evenings. Wanting to pursue artistic painting further, he moved to Paris and apprenticed with a master decorator before painting at the Académie Humbert from 1902 to 1904.

Braque started his art career using an Impressionistic painting style. Circa 1905, he transitioned into a Fauvist style after viewing works exhibited by the Fauves, a group that included such notable artists as Henri Matisse and André Derain. The Fauves’ style incorporated bold colors and loose-form structures to emulate deep emotions.

Braque’s first solo show took place in 1908 at Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s gallery. From 1909 to 1914, Braque and fellow artist Pablo Picasso collaborated to develop Cubism as well as to incorporate collage elements and papier collé (pasted paper) into their pieces.

Braque’s style changed after World War I, when his art became less structured and planned. A successful exhibition in 1922 at the Salon d’Automne in Paris garnered him much acclaim. A few years later, renowned dancer and choreographer Sergei Diaghilev asked Braque to design decor for two of his ballets at the Ballets Russes. The end of the 1920s saw another style change as Braque began painting more realistic interpretations of nature, though he never strayed far from Cubism, as there were always aspects of it in his works.

Braque started to engrave plaster in 1931, and his first significant show took place two years later at the Kunsthalle Basel. He gained international fame, winning first prize in 1937 at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.

The advent of World War II influenced Braque to paint more somber scenes. After the war, he painted lighter subjects of birds, landscapes and the sea. Braque also created lithographs, sculptures and stained-glass windows.

In 1910 Braque met Marcelle Lapré, a model introduced to him by Pablo Picasso. They married in 1912 and lived in the small town of Sorgues in southeastern France. During World War I, Braque served in the French army and sustained wounds in 1915. It took him two years to fully recover.

In his elder years, his failing health prevented him from taking on large-scale commissioned projects. Braque died on August 31, 1963, in Paris.

Is the subject of books:
G. Braque, 1959, BY: John Russell
Braque, 1961, BY: Jean Leymarie
The Art of Georges Braque, 1968, BY: Edwin Mullins
Georges Braque: Life and Work, 1988, BY: Bernard Zurcher

Source: Georges Braque – Painter – Biography.com

Source: Georges Braque – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Georges Braque Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story

Source: Georges Braque

come find me, i’m @

Related articles

• #We’llAlwaysHaveParis
• The Widower Swan of the Château de Malmaison
• Happy Birthday Pablo Picasso
• Paris Between the Wars – “P” is for Pablo Picasso

Today is the 108th birthday of Jimmy Stewart.  Chances are that one of your favorite classic movies also happens to be one of his.  Some of my favorites of his are:  After The Thin Man, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Rear Window and  The Man Who Knew Too Much.  I could have gone on naming more, I could have just copied his IMDB listings and it would have been accurate.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME:  Jimmy Stewart
OCCUPATION:  Film Actor, Theater Actor
BIRTH DATE:  May 20, 1908
DEATH DATE:  July 2, 1997
EDUCATION:  Princeton University
PLACE OF BIRTH:  Indiana, Pennsylvania
PLACE OF DEATH:  Beverly Hills, California
GOLDEN GLOBE: 1974 for Hawkins
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 1708 Vine St.
KENNEDY CENTER HONOR: 1983
PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDM: 1985
OSCAR: for Best Actor 1941 for The Philadelphia Story

BEST KNOWN FOR: Jimmy Stewart was a major motion-picture star known for his portrayals of diffident but morally resolute characters in films such as It’s a Wonderful Life.

One of film’s most beloved actors, Jimmy Stewart made more than 80 films in his lifetime. He was known for his everyman quality, which made him both appealing and accessible to audiences. Stewart grew up in the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, where his father operated a hardware store.

Stewart got his first taste of performing during his time as a young man. At Princeton University, he acted in shows as a member of the Triangle Club, which put on shows. Stewart earned a degree in architecture in 1932, but he never practiced the trade. Instead he joined the University Players in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the summer after he graduated. There Stewart met fellow actor Henry Fonda, who became a lifelong friend.

That same year, Stewart made his Broadway debut in Carrie Nation. The show didn’t fare well, but he soon found more stage roles. In 1935, Stewart landed a movie contract with MGM and headed out west.

In his early Hollywood days, Stewart shared an apartment with Henry Fonda. The tall, lanky actor worked a number of films before co-starring with Eleanor Powell in the 1936 popular musical comedy Born to Dance. The movie featured the Cole Porter hit “Easy to Love.” Another career breakthrough came with Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You (1938). This comedy won an Academy Award for Best Picture, and made Stewart a star.

Stewart also played the lead in Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). In this film, he portrayed a young, idealistic politician who takes on corruption. Stewart received his first Academy Award nomination for this film. The following year, he took home Oscar gold for The Philadelphia Story. Stewart co-starred with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, two other major movie stars, in the romantic comedy.

From 1941 to 1946, Stewart took a break from his acting career to serve in World War II. He joined the U.S. Air Force and rose up through the ranks to become a colonel by war’s end. In 1946, Stewart returned to the big screen with It’s a Wonderful Life directed by Frank Capra. This film tells the story about a man brought back from the verge of suicide by a guardian angel and visions of the world without him. It was a disappointment at the box office, but it became a holiday favorite over the years. Stewart reportedly considered it to be one of his favorite films.

Stewart soon starred in Harvey (1950), a humorous movie about a man with an imaginary rabbit for a friend. But he seemed to be less interested in doing this type of lighthearted film in his later career. Stewart sought out grittier fare after the war, appearing in Anthony Mann’s westerns Winchester ’73 (1950) and Broken Arrow (1950). He also became a favorite of director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast in several thrillers. They first worked together on Rope (1948). Vertigo (1958) is considered by many to be Hitchcock’s masterpiece and one of Stewart’s best performances. The following year, Stewart also won rave reviews for his work in Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder.

In the 1970s, Stewart made two attempts at series television. He starred on The Jimmy Stewart Show, a sitcom, which ran from 1971 to 1972. The following year, he switched to drama with Hawkins. Stewart played a small-town lawyer on the show, which proved to be short-lived. Around this time, he also made a few film appearances. Stewart worked opposite John Wayne, Lauren Bacall and Ron Howard in the 1976 western The Shootist.

Stewart became the recipient of numerous tributes during the 1980s for his substantial career. In 1984, Steward picked up an honorary Academy Award “for his high ideals both on and off the screen.” By the 1990s, Stewart had largely stepped out of the public eye. He was deeply affected by the death of his wife Gloria in 1994. The couple had been married since 1949 and had twin daughters together. He also became a father to her two sons from a previous marriage. Jimmy and Gloria Stewart were one of Hollywood’s most enduring couples, and his apparent love and commitment to her added to his reputation as an upstanding and honorable person.

Poor health plagued Stewart in his final years. He died on July 2, 1997, in Beverly Hills, California. While he may be gone, his movies have lived on and inspired countless other performers. Stewart’s warmth, good humor and easy charm have left a lasting impression on American pop culture.

TELEVISION
Hawkins Billy Jim Hawkins (1973-74)
The Jimmy Stewart Show Jim Howard (professor, 1971-72)

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (21-Nov-1991) · Wylie Burp [VOICE]
North and South II (4-May-1986)
Right of Way (21-Nov-1983)
The Green Horizon (19-Jul-1980)
The Magic of Lassie (2-Aug-1978)
The Big Sleep (13-Mar-1978)
Airport ’77 (11-Mar-1977) · Philip Stevens
The Shootist (11-Aug-1976)
That’s Entertainment! (23-May-1974) · Himself
Fools’ Parade (18-Aug-1971)
The Cheyenne Social Club (12-Jun-1970)
Bandolero! (1-Jun-1968)
Firecreek (24-Jan-1968) · Johnny Cobb
The Rare Breed (2-Feb-1966) · Burnett
The Flight of the Phoenix (15-Dec-1965) · Frank Towns
Shenandoah (3-Jun-1965)
Dear Brigitte (8-Jan-1965)
Cheyenne Autumn (3-Oct-1964) · Wyatt Earp
Take Her, She’s Mine (13-Nov-1963) · Frank Michaelson
How the West Was Won (1-Nov-1962) · Linus Rawlings
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (15-Jun-1962) · Mr. Hobbs
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (22-Apr-1962) · Ransom Stoddard
X-15 (22-Dec-1961) · Narrator [VOICE]
Two Rode Together (26-Jul-1961) · Sheriff Guthrie McCabe
The Mountain Road (Jun-1960)
The FBI Story (25-Jan-1960) · Chip Hardesty
Anatomy of a Murder (1-Jul-1959) · Paul Biegler
Bell Book and Candle (19-Dec-1958) · Shepherd Henderson
Vertigo (9-May-1958) · John “Scottie” Ferguson
Night Passage (24-Jul-1957)
The Spirit of St. Louis (20-Apr-1957) · Charles Lindbergh
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1-Jun-1956)
The Man from Laramie (31-Aug-1955) · Will Lockhart
Strategic Air Command (25-Mar-1955) · Lt. Col. Robert Holland
The Far Country (4-Oct-1954) · Jeff
Rear Window (1-Aug-1954) · L. B. Jeffries
The Glenn Miller Story (10-Dec-1953) · Glenn Miller
The Naked Spur (3-Aug-1953) · Howard Kemp
Thunder Bay (21-May-1953)
Carbine Williams (May-1952)
Bend of the River (23-Jan-1952)
The Greatest Show on Earth (10-Jan-1952)
No Highway in the Sky (21-Sep-1951) · Theodore Honey
The Jackpot (1-Nov-1950) · Bill Lawrence
Harvey (13-Oct-1950) · Elwood P. Dowd
Broken Arrow (21-Jul-1950) · Tom Jeffords
Winchester ’73 (12-Jul-1950) · Lin McAdam
Malaya (27-Dec-1949) · John Royer
The Stratton Story (12-May-1949)
You Gotta Stay Happy (28-Oct-1948)
Rope (28-Aug-1948) · Rupert Cadell
On Our Merry Way (3-Feb-1948) · Slim
Call Northside 777 (1-Feb-1948) · P .J. McNeal
Magic Town (7-Oct-1947) · Rip Smith
It’s a Wonderful Life (20-Dec-1946) · George Bailey
Ziegfeld Girl (25-Apr-1941) · Gilbert Young
Pot o’ Gold (3-Apr-1941) · Jimmy Haskell
Come Live With Me (29-Jan-1941) · Bill Smith
The Philadelphia Story (1-Dec-1940) · Macaulay Connor
No Time for Comedy (7-Sep-1940)
The Mortal Storm (14-Jun-1940) · Martin Breitner
The Shop Around the Corner (12-Jan-1940) · Alfred Kralik
Destry Rides Again (29-Dec-1939) · Tom Destry, Jr.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (17-Oct-1939) · Jefferson Smith
It’s a Wonderful World (19-May-1939) · Guy Johnson
The Ice Follies of 1939 (10-Mar-1939) · Larry Hall
Made for Each Other (10-Feb-1939) · Johnny Mason
You Can’t Take It with You (23-Aug-1938) · Tony Kirby
The Shopworn Angel (15-Jul-1938) · Bill Pettigrew
Vivacious Lady (13-May-1938) · Peter
Of Human Hearts (5-Feb-1938) · Jason Wilkins
Navy Blue and Gold (19-Nov-1937)
The Last Gangster (12-Nov-1937) · Paul North
Seventh Heaven (25-Mar-1937)
After the Thin Man (25-Dec-1936) · David
Born to Dance (27-Nov-1936) · Ted Barker
The Gorgeous Hussy (28-Aug-1936) · “Rowdy” Dow
Speed (8-May-1936) · Terry Martin
Small Town Girl (10-Apr-1936)
Wife vs. Secretary (28-Feb-1936) · Dave
Next Time We Love (30-Jan-1936)
Rose-Marie (28-Jan-1936) · John Flower
The Murder Man (12-Jul-1935)

Source: James Stewart – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: James Stewart – Biography – IMDb

Source: Jimmy Stewart – Film Actor, Theater Actor – Biography.com

Source: Jimmy Stewart

come find me, i’m @

Related articles

• Rear Window – Required Viewing
• Happy Birthday Marlene Dietrich
• Happy Birthday Thelma Ritter
• Happy Birthday James Garner
• Happy Birthday Anthony Perkins
• Happy Birthday Clark Gable

Today is the 110th birthday of the one and only Josephine Baker.  Her iconic everything has cemented her in a time and place forever:  Paris between the wars.  The first song of hers that I ever heard was J’ai Deaux Amors and I remember really listening to it and seeking out more of her music.  Her story is tremendous and her trajectory is that of no other.  She started life in St. Louis and by the time of her death, the entire world was in love with her.  Parisians named a swimming pool in her honor.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Josephine Baker
OCCUPATION: Civil Rights Activist, Dancer, Singer
BIRTH DATE: June 3, 1906
DEATH DATE: April 12, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Louis, Missouri
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who became wildly popular in France during the 1920s. She also devoted much of her life to fighting racism.

Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald on June 3, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother, Carrie McDonald, was a washerwoman who had given up her dreams of becoming a music-hall dancer. Her father, Eddie Carson, was a vaudeville drummer. He abandoned Carrie and Josephine shortly after her birth. Carrie remarried soon thereafter and would have several more children in the coming years.

To help support her growing family, at age 8 Josephine cleaned houses and babysat for wealthy white families, often being poorly treated. She briefly returned to school two years later before running away from home at age 13 and finding work as a waitress at a club. While working there, she married a man named Willie Wells, from whom she divorced only weeks later.

It was also around this time that Josephine first took up dancing, honing her skills both in clubs and in street performances, and by 1919 she was touring the United States with the Jones Family Band and the Dixie Steppers performing comedic skits. In 1921, Josephine married a man named Willie Baker, whose name she would keep for the rest of her life despite their divorce years later. In 1923, Baker landed a role in the musical Shuffle Along as a member of the chorus, and the comic touch that she brought to the part made her popular with audiences. Looking to parlay these early successes, Baker moved to New York City and was soon performing in Chocolate Dandies and, along with Ethel Waters, in the floor show of the Plantation Club, where again she quickly became a crowd favorite.

In 1925, at the peak of France’s obsession with American jazz and all things exotic, Baker traveled to Paris to perform in La Revue Nègre at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She made an immediate impression on French audiences when, with dance partner Joe Alex, she performed the Danse Sauvage, in which she wore only a feather skirt.

However, it was the following year, at the Folies Bergère music hall, one of the most popular of the era, that Baker’s career would reach a major turning point. In a performance called La Folie du Jour, Baker danced wearing little more than a skirt made of 16 bananas. The show was wildly popular with Parisian audiences and Baker was soon among the most popular and highest-paid performers in Europe, having the admiration of cultural figures like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and E. E. Cummings and earning herself nicknames like “Black Venus” and “Black Pearl.” She also received more than 1,000 marriage proposals.

Capitalizing on this success, Baker sang professionally for the first time in 1930, and several years later landed film roles as a singer in Zou-Zou and Princesse Tam-Tam. The money she earned from her performances soon allowed her to purchase an estate in Castelnaud-Fayrac, in the southwest of France. She named the estate Les Milandes, and soon paid to move her family there from St. Louis.

In 1936, riding the wave of popularity she was enjoying in France, Baker returned to the United States to perform in the Ziegfield Follies, hoping to establish herself as a performer in her home country as well. However, she was met with a generally hostile, racist reaction and quickly returned to France, crestfallen at her mistreatment. Upon her return, Baker married French industrialist Jean Lion and obtained citizenship from the country that had embraced her as one of its own.

When World War II erupted later that year, Baker worked for the Red Cross during the occupation of France. As a member of the Free French forces she also entertained troops in both Africa and the Middle East. Perhaps most importantly, however, Baker did work for the French Resistance, at times smuggling messages hidden in her sheet music and even in her underwear. For these efforts, at the war’s end, Baker was awarded both the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour with the rosette of the Resistance, two of France’s highest military honors.

Following the war, Baker spent most of her time at Les Milandes with her family. In 1947, she married French orchestra leader Jo Bouillon, and beginning in 1950 began to adopt babies from around the world. She adopted 12 children in all, creating what she referred to as her “rainbow tribe” and her “experiment in brotherhood.” She often invited people to the estate to see these children, to demonstrate that people of different races could in fact live together harmoniously.

During the 1950s, Baker frequently returned to the United States to lend her support to the Civil Rights Movement, participating in demonstrations and boycotting segregated clubs and concert venues. In 1963, Baker participated, alongside Martin Luther King Jr., in the March on Washington, and was among the many notable speakers that day. In honor of her efforts, the NAACP eventually named May 20th “Josephine Baker Day.”

After decades of rejection by her countrymen and a lifetime spent dealing with racism, in 1973 Baker performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and was greeted with a standing ovation. She was so moved by her reception that she wept openly before her audience. The show was a huge success and marked Baker’s comeback to the stage.

In April 1975, Josephine Baker performed at the Bobino Theater in Paris, in the first of a series of performances celebrating the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut. Numerous celebrities were in attendance, including Sophia Loren and Princess Grace of Monaco, who had been a dear friend to Baker for years. Just days later, on April 12, 1975, Baker died in her sleep of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was 69.

On the day of her funeral, more than 20,000 people lined the streets of Paris to witness the procession, and the French government honored her with a 21-gun salute, making Baker the first American woman in history to be buried in France with military honors.

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Princess Tam-Tam (2-Nov-1935)
Zouzou (1934)

Source: Josephine Baker – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Josephine Baker – Civil Rights Activist, Dancer, Singer – Biography.com

Source: Josephine Baker | French entertainer | Britannica.com

Source: Josephine Baker

come find me, i’m @

Related articles

• Happ Birthday Eugène Atget
• Happy Birthday Fernand Léger
• Happy Birthday Gertrude Stein

Today is the 120th birthday of Wallis Simpson.  The king gave up the throne for her.  Her style remained impeccable for her entire life.  Have you seen W.E.?  Brilliant.  The world was a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Wallis Simpson
OCCUPATION: Duchess
BIRTH DATE: June 19, 1896
DEATH DATE: April 24, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH: Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France
AKA: Wallis Warfield Simpson
Originally: Bessie Wallis Warfield
AKA: Wallis Simpson
Full Name: Wallis, Duchess of Windsor
AKA: Wallis Spencer

Best Known For:  American socialite Wallis Simpson became the mistress of Edward, Prince of Wales. Edward abdicated the throne to marry her, a period known as the Abdication Crisis.

Wallis Simpson was born Bessie Wallis Warfield on June 19, 1896, in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. The daughter of Baltimoreans Teackle Wallis Warfield and Alice Montague, Wallis dropped her first name during her youth. Her father died of tuberculosis when she was a baby, and Wallis and her mother became dependent on the charity of Wallis’s Uncle Warfield. Wallis became the poor relation, which led to an insecurity that followed her into adulthood. Uncle Warfield paid for Wallis to attend Oldfields School, the most expensive girls’ school in Maryland, where she was at the top of her class and was known for always being immaculately dressed.

In 1916, Wallis met Earl Winfield Spencer Jr., a U.S. Navy aviator. The couple married six months later. Win, as her husband was known, was an alcoholic, and in the course of their marriage was stationed in San Diego, Washington, D.C., and China. He and Wallis would be separated for months at a time. When their marriage began to break down, Wallis spent what she called her “lotus year” in China, traveling alone. Win and Wallis divorced in 1927. Wallis then married Ernest Aldrich Simpson, an English-American shipping executive. They wed in London and moved into a large flat with several servants.

Around this same time, Wallis met Lady Furness, then the mistress of Edward, Duke of Windsor (then known as the Prince of Wales), and on January 10, 1931, Wallis was introduced to the Prince of Wales at an event at Burrough Court. The prince later remembered that Wallis had a cold that night and was not at her best.

In January 1934, Wallis became Prince Edward’s mistress. He denied this to his family, who were outraged at his behavior, but by 1935 she had been presented at court and the couple had vacationed in Europe multiple times together.

On January 20, 1936, George V died, and Edward ascended the throne. It had become clear that Edward planned to marry Wallis as soon as she divorced Simpson. This caused a scandal in Britain that is now known as the “abdication crisis.” The consensus from the Church of England and the conservative British establishment was that Edward could not marry a divorced woman who still had two living ex-husbands. The king’s ministers also disapproved, finding Wallis’s behavior unacceptable. Britons were reluctant to accept an American as queen. During this time, Wallis fled to France to avoid the heavy press coverage.

On December 5, 1936, after Edward was told that could not keep the throne and marry Wallis, he decided to abdicate.

On December 11, 1936, Edward made a BBC broadcast, saying he could not do his job as king without the support of “the woman I love.” In May of the following year, Wallis’s divorce was made final, and on June 3, 1937, she became the Duchess of Windsor.

Wallis and Edward referred to themselves as “W.E.”—their initials, but also a dig at the royal “we,” which refers to a person in high office using a plural pronoun rather than a singular one to refer to him- or herself. Subversive and playful, their nickname reflects their relationship. Wallis had charisma and sex appeal. She was famous for her wit and her style. Though seemingly unimportant, Wallis played a cataclysmic role in the future of the British monarchy.

Source: Wallis Simpson – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Source: Wallis Simpson – Duchess – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Related articles

• #We’llAlwaysHaveParis
• Happ Birthday Eugène Atget
• Today is the 109th birthday of the one and only Josephine Baker….

Today is the 112th birthday of the poet Pablo Neruda.  His Sonet XVII (below) is one of my very favorite poems of all time.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Pablo Neruda
OCCUPATION: Poet
BIRTH DATE: July 12, 1904
DEATH DATE: September 23, 1973
EDUCATION: Temuco Boys’ School
PLACE OF BIRTH: Parral, Chile
PLACE OF DEATH: Santiago, Chile
Chilean Ambassador to France
Nobel Prize for Literature 1971
Lenin Peace Prize 1953

BEST KNOWN FOR:  Pablo Neruda was a Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet who was active in world politics through his role as a diplomat.

Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda.

Neruda became known as a poet while still a teenager. He wrote in a variety of styles including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and erotically-charged love poems such as the ones in his 1924 collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” Neruda always wrote in green ink as it was his personal color of hope.

On July 15, 1945, at Pacaembu Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, he read to 100,000 people in honor of Communist revolutionary leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions and served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When Conservative Chilean President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda’s arrest. Friends hid him for months in a house basement in the Chilean port of Valparaíso. Later, Neruda escaped into exile through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina. Years later, Neruda was a close collaborator to socialist President Salvador Allende. When Neruda returned to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people.

Neruda was hospitalized with cancer at the time of the Chilean coup d’état led by Augusto Pinochet. Three days after being hospitalized, Neruda died of heart failure. Already a legend in life, Neruda’s death reverberated around the world. Pinochet had denied permission to transform Neruda’s funeral into a public event. However, thousands of grieving Chileans disobeyed the curfew and crowded the streets.

Sonnet XVII

Author of books:
Crepusculario (1923, poetry)
Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (1924, poetry)
Tentativa del Hombre Infinito (1926, poetry)
Anillos (1926, poetry, with Tomás Lago)
El Hondero Entusiasta (1933, poetry)
Residencia en la Tierra, 1925–1931 (1933, poetry)
Residencia en la Tierra, 1925–35 (1935, poetry, 2 vols.)
España en el Corazón (1937, poetry)
Canto General (1950, poetry)
Alturas de Macchu Picchu (1943, poetry)
Tercera Residencia, 1935–45 (1947, poetry)
Odas Elementales (1954, poetry)
Confieso que he Vivido (1974, memoir)

Source: Pablo Neruda – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Pablo Neruda – Diplomat, Poet – Biography.com

Source: Pablo Neruda – Biographical

Source: Pablo Neruda

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 132nd birthday of the first movie mogul, Louis B. Mayer.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Louis B. Mayer
OCCUPATION: Business Leader, Producer
BIRTH DATE: c. July 12, 1884
DEATH DATE: October 29, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH: Minsk, Russia
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
Full Name: Louis Burt Mayer
AKA: Louis Mayer
Originally: Eliezer Mayer

Best Known For:  Louis B. Mayer was a film mogul and the most influential person in Hollywood from the mid-1920s to the late-1940s.

Film producer and executive Louis Burt Mayer was born to an Eastern European Jewish family in Minsk, Russia. Though he was reportedly born on July 12, 1884, Mayer would claim throughout his life that he was born on the Fourth of July; he was similarly unclear about the exact location of his birth. The future mogul was the middle child of five siblings, with two sisters and two brothers, all of whom grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

At the age of 12, Mayer quit school to help his father run the family scrap metal business. When he was 19, he moved to Boston, expanding the father-son scrap enterprise into the United States. Soon after he arrived, Mayer met and married a butcher’s daughter, Margaret Shenberg. The couple had two daughters, Edith Mayer (1905-1987) and Irene Mayer (1907-1990), who would both go on to marry movie executives.

It wasn’t long before Mayer grew tired of the family business and began to look for a less gritty line of work. Luckily, a friend in the know tipped him off to a burlesque theater for sale in Haverhill, Massachusetts, a joint known derisively as the “Garlic Box.” It was a rundown theater with a bad reputation, but the enterprising young Mayer smartly chose to premiere a religious film at the establishment’s opening, immediately currying favor with community skeptics.

The budding businessman soon got a taste for success and began to acquire more and more old theaters in the area, rebuilding their reputations and facades in equal measure. After taking over all five of Haverhill’s theaters, he partnered with Nathan Gordon to gain control of a large theater chain in New England.

In 1914, Mayer made his first foray into film distribution when he bought exclusive rights to the landmark picture The Birth of a Nation with the money he earned pawning his wife’s wedding ring. He would also start a distribution agency in Boston and a talent-booking agency in New York. However, the siren song of Hollywood couldn’t be ignored for long; in 1918, Mayer moved to Los Angeles to form Louis B. Mayer Pictures Corporation.

By then the producer had gained a reputation for his hunger, audacity and ability to spot talent. Far from a hands-off studio honcho, Mayer cultivated a specialty for acquiring talent and roaming the back lots looking for his next glamorous lead. Some of Mayer’s landmark discoveries included Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable and Fred Astaire.

The producer’s watershed moment would come when Marcus Loew came knocking on his door. Recently having merged his company with Samuel Goldwyn’s studios to give birth to Metro-Goldwyn, Loew found himself without a head executive for the company. Soon Metro-Goldwyn became Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the iconic MGM Studios was born. Over the next 25 years, Mayer built the studio’s reputation on a string of glamorous and mostly uncontroversial films. Some of the biggest hits of Mayer’s era were Ben-Hur (1925), Grand Hotel (1932),  Dinner at Eight (1933) and The Good Earth (1937).

At its height MGM, was Hollywood’s kingmaker (and queenmaker), churning out more films and stars than any other studio. The MGM lot itself was legendary—over 150 acres and as self-sufficient as a town, complete with its own opium den, barbershop and 24-hour dining establishment. Also housed on the property was none other than the iconic MGM lion, whose digs amounted to an onsite zoo.

Louis B. Mayer himself had gained a reputation of leonine proportions not long after his arrival in Hollywood. Characterized by his strong will and tell-it-straight relationships, Mayer once told Robert Young, “Put on a little weight and get more sex, we have a whole stable of girls here.” Clearly, the approach worked; MGM was the most successful studio in Hollywood, even managing to stay profitable through the Great Depression. For almost a decade Mayer held the rank of highest paid man in America, a far cry from his days diving in the Bay of Fundy for scrap metal.

By 1948, the heyday of the Hollywood studio era had begun to fade. MGM had gone years without an Oscar and relations between Mayer and other executives began to fray as profit margins thinned. In 1951, Mayer left MGM after 27 years at the helm. Six years later, on October 29, 1957, the legendary producer and executive died of leukemia.

One of Hollywood’s first true moguls, there is no denying his influence on the early years of the film industry’s boom, but as Mayer himself once said, “The sign of a clever auteur is to achieve the illusion that there is a sole individual responsible for magnificent creations that require thousands of people to accomplish.”

Source: Louis B. Mayer

Source: Louis B. Mayer – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Louis B. Mayer – Business Leader, Producer – Biography.com

Source: Louis B Mayer

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 111th birthday of the original It Girl:  Clara Bow.  She is still seen as and and example of empowerment and strength for women and appreciated by all.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Clara Bow
OCCUPATION: Film Actor/Film Actress
BIRTH DATE: July 29, 1905
DEATH DATE: September 27, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH: Brooklyn, New York
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
REMAINS: Buried, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale, CA
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 1500 Vine St.

BEST KNOWN FOR: American motion-picture actress Clare Bow was a major box-office draw during the silent-film era, having starred in dozens of projects.

Clara Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, NY. She was the youngest of three siblings and the only one to survive past childhood. Her father was sexually abusive and left the home for long periods of time while her mother suffered from severe mental disorders, later threatening her adolescent daughter’s life.

Bow took to watching movies as an escape from the horrors of home and dropped out of school. At 16, she entered a magazine’s beauty contest and won a small part in the film Beyond the Rainbow (1922), though her scenes were initially cut. Even while facing resistance, Bow persevered in continuing to audition at New York studios and eventually received a part in Down to the Sea in Ships (1922). The new actress also contended with the institutionalization and death of her mother.

Bow made her way to Hollywood and signed with Preferred Pictures under honcho B.P. Schulberg, with the actress also working with other studios. She starred in an array of silent films such as Grit (1924), The Plastic Age (1925) and Dancing Mothers (1926); the latter was filmed by Paramount Studios, which Schulberg joined after Preferred’s bankruptcy.

Bow became wildly popular after 1927’s It, a film adapted from a Elinor Glyn novella. The project proved to be a tremendous box office success and lent the actress the nickname the “It” Girl. Bow’s imagery and electric, sexy performances spoke to the flapper persona of the times. She was a style icon as well, with her particular look taken on by women across the country.

The actress made cinematic history with her 1927 co-starring role in Wings, which went on to receive the first Best Picture Oscar. She later made the transition to talking movies with 1929’s The Wild Party. Bow ultimately starred in dozens of films over the course of her career, though rigorous shooting demands and industry exploitation took its toll.

Known for having a fun and affable personality with a winning Brooklyn accent, Bow nonetheless still suffered from an overloaded work schedule, celebrity scrutiny and the lingering traumas of her upbringing. She had been associated with a number of men off-screen and her romantic life became the object of much hurtful speculation and gossip, including a pamphlet put forth by an assistant with stories of Bow’s relationships. In 1931 she had a breakdown and entered a sanitarium.

While recovering, Bow met fellow actor and future politician Rex Bell, and the two married in 1931, going on to have two children. Bow starred in a couple of other films with Fox Studios before retiring from acting in 1933. Over time she still struggled deeply with her emotional and mental health, attempting suicide in the mid-1940s and undergoing a score of examinations.

A widower after her husband’s death in 1962, Clara Bow died at the age of 60 on September 27, 1965 in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack. Decades later, her trailblazing role in shaping film and general culture has continued to be explored. A biography was published in 1988, Clara Bow Runnin’ Wild by David Stenn, while 1999 saw the release of a documentary, Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl, directed by Hugh M. Neely and narrated by Courtney Love.

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Call Her Savage (24-Nov-1932)
Her Wedding Night (28-Sep-1930)
Love Among the Millionaires (Jul-1930)
Paramount on Parade (22-Apr-1930) · Herself
The Saturday Night Kid (25-Oct-1929) · Mayme
Dangerous Curves (13-Jul-1929)
The Wild Party (6-Apr-1929) · Stella Ames
Wings (12-Aug-1927) · Mary Preston
It (15-Feb-1927) · Betty Lou
Mantrap (24-Jul-1926)
Dancing Mothers (1-Mar-1926)
The Plastic Age (15-Dec-1925) · Cynthia Day
My Lady of Whims (Dec-1925)
Kiss Me Again (1-Aug-1925)

Source: Clara Bow – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Clara Bow – Film Actress – Biography.com

Source: Clara Bow

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 80th birthday of Yves Saint Laurent. His style and innovation are current and iconic. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Yves Saint Laurent
OCCUPATION: Fashion Designer
BIRTH DATE: August 1, 1936
DEATH DATE: June 1, 2008
PLACE OF BIRTH: Oran, Algeria
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France
FULL NAME:  Yves Henri-Donat-Mathieu Saint Laurent

REMAINS: Cremated (ashes scattered)
MILITARY SERVICE: French Army (drafted, 1960)

BEST KNOWN FOR: Yves Saint Laurent was best known as an influential European fashion designer who impacted fashion in the 1960s to the present day.

Yves Henri Donat Matthieu Saint Laurent was born on August 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria, to Charles and Lucienne Andrée Mathieu-Saint-Laurent. He grew up in a villa by the Mediterranean with his two younger sisters, Michelle and Brigitte. While his family was relatively well off—his father was a lawyer and insurance broker who owned a chain of cinemas—childhood for the future fashion icon was not easy. Saint Laurent was not popular in school, and was often bullied by schoolmates for appearing to be homosexual. As a consequence, Saint Laurent was a nervous child, and sick nearly every day.

He found solace, however, in the world of fashion. He liked to create intricate paper dolls, and by his early teen years he was designing dresses for his mother and sisters. At the age of 17, a whole new world opened up to Saint Laurent when his mother took him to Paris for a meeting she’d arranged with Michael de Brunhoff, the editor of French Vogue.

A year later, Saint Laurent, who had impressed de Brunhoff with his drawings, moved to Paris and enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture, where his designs quickly gained notice. De Brunhoff also introduced Saint Laurent to designer Christian Dior, a giant in the fashion world. “Dior fascinated me,” Saint Laurent later recalled. “I couldn’t speak in front of him. He taught me the basis of my art. Whatever was to happen next, I never forgot the years I spent at his side.” Under Dior’s tutelage, Saint Laurent’s style continued to mature and gain still more notice.

In 1960 Saint Laurent was called back to his home country of Algeria to fight for its independence. He managed to secure an exemption based on health grounds, but when he returned to Paris, Saint Laurent found that his job with Dior had disappeared. The news, at first, was traumatic for the young, fragile designer. Then it became ugly, with Saint Laurent successfully suing his former mentor for breach of contract, and collecting £48,000.

The money and the freedom soon presented Saint Laurent with a unique opportunity. In cooperation with his partner and lover, Pierre Berge, the designer resolved to open his own fashion house. With the rise of pop culture and a general yearning for original, fresh designs, Saint Laurent’s timing couldn’t have been better.

Over the next two decades, Saint Laurent’s designs sat atop the fashion world. Models and actresses gushed over his creations. He outfitted women in blazers and smoking jackets, and introduced attire like the pea coat to the runway. His signature pieces also included the sheer blouse and the jumpsuit.

By the 1980s, Yves Saint Laurent was a true icon. He became the first designer to have a retrospective on his work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. Under the direction of Berge, who continued to manage Saint Laurent’s firm even though the two had broken up in 1986, the fashion house flourished as a money making venture.

But Saint Laurent struggled. He became reclusive, and fought addictions to alcohol and cocaine. Some in the fashion world complained that the designer’s work had grown stale.

In the early 1990s, Saint Laurent found firmer footing. His designs were rediscovered by a fashion elite that had grown tired of the grunge movement that dominated the runways. Saint Laurent, too, seemed to have conquered his demons. By the end of the decade, with Saint Laurent slowing down his work pace, he and Berge had sold the company they’d started, netting the two men a fortune.

In January 2002, Saint Laurent participated in his final show and then retired for good in Marrakech. Five years later, Saint Laurent’s imprint and importance on French culture was cemented when he was appointed Grand Officer of the Legion d’honnerur by French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Yves Saint Laurent passed away in Paris on June 1, 2008 after a brief illness.

Source: Yves Saint Laurent (designer) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Yves Saint Laurent – Fashion Designer – Biography.com

Source: Yves Saint Laurent

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 117th birthday of Alfred Hitchcock.

My mother first introduced my sister and me to Alfred Hitchcock via the movies Psycho and Rear Window (we watched them after school quite often), she taught us to look for his cameos at the beginning of the films. I am not exactly sure what age, I feel like I have always known him and I went on to read a Hardy Boys type of mysteries called “Three Investigators” that Hitchcock wrote the introductions to and even loved the old reruns of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on TV. I have gone on to love both of those movies and have added The Trouble with Harry, Lifeboat, North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief, The Birds, Strangers on a Train, and The Man Who Knew Too Much to my list of favorite Hitchcock films. How can you not fall in love with North by Northwest? The color of the film, the cut of the clothes, the architecture, train travel. The Trouble with Harry is so absurdly clever and Shirley MacLaine is absolute perfection.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
OCCUPATION: Director, Producer, Television Personality, Screenwriter
BIRTH DATE: August 13, 1899
DEATH DATE: April 29, 1980
EDUCATION: St. Ignatius College, University of London
PLACE OF BIRTH: London, United Kingdom
PLACE OF DEATH: Bel Air, California
EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD: Grand Master (1973)
EDGAR ALLAN POE AWARD: Raven Award (1960)
OSCAR: (honorary) 1968 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
GOLDEN GLOBE: 1958 for Alfred Hitchcock Presents
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: 1979
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 7013 Hollywood Blvd. (television)
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME: 6506 Hollywood Blvd. (motion pictures)
KNIGHTHOOD: 1980

BEST KNOWN FOR: Alfred Hitchcock was an English film director known for his work in the suspense genre. He made over 60 films, nearly all commercial and critical successes.

Television has brought back murder into the home – where it belongs.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen, whilst remaining a British subject.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside “icy blonde” female characters. Many of Hitchcock’s films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or “MacGuffins” meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock’s films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon.

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, which said: “Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else.” The magazine MovieMaker has described him as the most influential filmmaker of all-time, and he is widely regarded as one of cinema’s most significant artists.

FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Family Plot (9-Apr-1976)
Frenzy (21-Jun-1972)
Topaz (17-Dec-1969)
Torn Curtain (14-Jul-1966)
Marnie (22-Jul-1964)
The Birds (28-Mar-1963)
Psycho (16-Jun-1960)
North by Northwest (17-Jul-1959)
Vertigo (9-May-1958)
The Wrong Man (22-Dec-1956)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1-Jun-1956)
The Trouble with Harry (3-Oct-1955)
To Catch a Thief (5-Aug-1955)
Rear Window (1-Aug-1954)
Dial M for Murder (29-May-1954)
I Confess (22-Mar-1953)
Strangers on a Train (30-Jun-1951)
Stage Fright (23-Feb-1950)
Under Capricorn (8-Sep-1949)
Rope (28-Aug-1948)
The Paradine Case (31-Dec-1947)
Notorious (15-Aug-1946)
Spellbound (31-Oct-1945)
Lifeboat (11-Jan-1944)
Bon Voyage (1944)
Aventure malgache (1944)
Shadow of a Doubt (12-Jan-1943)
Saboteur (22-Apr-1942)
Suspicion (14-Nov-1941)
Mr. and Mrs. Smith (31-Jan-1941)
Foreign Correspondent (16-Aug-1940)
Rebecca (27-Mar-1940)
Jamaica Inn (15-May-1939)
The Lady Vanishes (1-Nov-1938)
Young and Innocent (Nov-1937)
Sabotage (2-Dec-1936)
Secret Agent (May-1936)
The 39 Steps (Jun-1935)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (Dec-1934)
Waltzes from Vienna (Mar-1934)
Number Seventeen (1932)
Rich and Strange (10-Dec-1931)
The Skin Game (26-Feb-1931)
Murder! (2-Aug-1930)
Juno and the Paycock (29-Jun-1930)
Elstree Calling (1930)
The Manxman (6-Dec-1929)
Blackmail (30-Jun-1929)
Champagne (20-Aug-1928)
Easy Virtue (5-Mar-1928)
The Farmer’s Wife (2-Mar-1928)
Downhill (24-Oct-1927)
The Ring (1-Oct-1927)
The Lodger (14-Feb-1927)
The Pleasure Garden (3-Nov-1925)

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (8-Nov-2007) · Himself

Source: Alfred Hitchcock

Source: Alfred Hitchcock – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Alfred Hitchcock – Screenwriter, Director, Producer, Television Personality – Biography.com

Source: The Book That Gets Inside Alfred Hitchcock’s Mind – The New Yorker

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 106th birthday of the French photographer Willy Ronis.  His photographs of mid-century Paris are some of my all time favorites.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Willy Ronis
DATE OF BIRTH: August 14, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, France
DATE OF DEATH: September 12, 2009
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Willy Ronis was a French photographer. His best-known work shows life in post-war Paris and Provence.

Willy Ronis was born in Paris in 1910. He became a full-time photographer in 1945. He joined Doisneau, Brassaï and others at the Rapho Agency. He was the first French photographer to work for LIFE Magazine, and Edward Steichen exhibited him at the Museum of Modern Art in 1953 in a show called Four French Photographers. He was also part of the Family of Man exhibit. The Afterimage Gallery gave him what was perhaps his first American art gallery show in 1985.

The work of photographers, Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams inspired Ronis to begin exploring photography. After his father’s death, in 1949, Ronis closed the studio and joined the photo agency, Rapho, with Ergy Landau, Brassaï, and Robert Doisneau.

Ronis became the first French photographer to work for LIFE Magazine. In 1953, Edward Steichen included Ronis, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Izis, and Brassaï in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art entitled Five French Photographers. In 1955, Ronis was included in the The Family of Man exhibit. The Venice Biennale awarded Ronis the Gold Medal in 1957. Ronis began teaching in the 1950s, and taught at the School of Fine Arts in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Saint Charles, Marseilles. In 1979 he was awarded the Grand Prix des Arts et Lettres for Photography by the Minister for Culture. Ronis won the Prix Nadar in 1981 for his photobook, Le fil du hasard.

Ronis’ wife, Anne Marie was the subject of his well-known, [1949] photo,Provencal Nude. The photo, showing Anne Marie washing at a basin with a water pitcher on the floor and an open window through which the viewer can see a garden, is noted for its ability to convey an easy feeling of provencal life. Late in her life, Ronis photographed Anne Marie suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, sitting alone in a hospital yard. Anne Marie died in 1991.

Ronis continues to live and work in Paris, although he stopped photography in 2001, since he required a cane to walk and could not move around with his camera, and now works on books for the Taschen publishing company.

Source: Willy Ronis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Willy Ronis – TASCHEN Books

Source: Willy Ronis | Photography Artist | Jackson Fine Art

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 126th birthday of the photographer Man Ray. You recognize his images, they are iconic. I think what I most love about them is their timelessness, a lot of his contemporaries have great photographs, but you can pinpoint them to a specific decade. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Man Ray
OCCUPATION: Painter, Photographer, Filmmaker
BIRTH DATE: August 27, 1890
DEATH DATE: November 18, 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France
FULL NAME: Man Ray
ORIGINALLY: Emmanuel Radnitzky
REMAINS: Buried, Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Man Ray was primarily known for his photography, which spanned both the Dada and Surrealism movements.

Born Emmanuel Rudnitzky, visionary artist Man Ray was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father worked as a tailor. The family moved to Brooklyn when Ray was a young child. From an early year, Ray showed great artistic ability. After finishing high school in 1908, he followed his passion for art; he studied drawing with Robert Henri at the Ferrer Center, and frequented Alfred Stieglitz‘s gallery 291. It later became apparent that Ray had been influenced by Stieglitz’s photographs. He utilized a similar style, snapping images that provided an unvarnished look at the subject.

Ray also found inspiration at the Armory Show of 1913, which featured the works of Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and Marcel Duchamp. That same year, he moved to a burgeoning art colony in Ridgefield, New Jersey. His work was also evolving. After experimenting with a Cubist style of painting, he moved toward abstraction.

In 1914, Ray married Belgian poet Adon Lacroix, but their union fell apart after a few years. He made a more lasting friendship around this time, becoming close to fellow artist Marcel Duchamp.

Along with Duchamp and Francis Picabia, Ray became a leading figure in the Dada movement in New York. Dadaism, which takes its name from the French nickname for a rocking horse, challenged existing notions of art and literature, and encouraged spontaneity. One of Ray’s famous works from this time was “The Gift,” a sculpture that incorporated two found objects. He glued tacks to the work surface of an iron to create the piece.

In 1921, Ray moved to Paris. There, he continued to be a part of the artistic avant garde, rubbing elbows with such famous figures as Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. Ray became famous for his portraits of his artistic and literary associates. He also developed a thriving career as a fashion photographer, taking pictures for such magazines as Vogue. These commercial endeavors supported his fine art efforts. A photographic innovator, Ray discovered a new way to create interesting images by accident in his darkroom. Called “Rayographs,” these photos were made by placing and manipulating objects on pieces of photosensitive paper.

One of Ray’s other famous works from this time period was 1924’s “Violin d’Ingres.” This modified photograph features the bare back of his lover, a performer named Kiki, styled after a painting by neoclassical French artist Jean August Dominique Ingres. In a humorous twist, Ray added to two black shapes to make her back look like a musical instrument. He also explored the artistic possibilities of film, creating such now classic Surrealistic works as L’Etoile de Mer (1928). Around this time, Ray also experimented with a technique called the Sabatier effect, or solarization, which adds a silvery, ghostly quality to the image.

Ray soon found another muse, Lee Miller, and featured her in his work. A cut-out of her eye is featured on the 1932 found-object sculpture “Object to Be Destroyed,” and her lips fill the sky of “Observatory Time” (1936). In 1940, Ray fled the war in Europe and moved to California. He married model and dancer Juliet Browner the following year, in a unique double ceremony with artist Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.

Returning to Paris in 1951, Ray continued to explore different artistic media. He focused much of his energy on painting and sculpture. Branching out in a new direction, Ray began writing his memoir. The project took more than a decade to complete, and his autobiography, Self Portrait, was finally published in 1965.

In his final years, Man Ray continued to exhibit his art, with shows in New York, London, Paris and other cities in the years before his death. He passed away on November 18, 1976, in his beloved Paris. He was 86 years old. His innovative works can be found on display in museums around the world, and he is remembered for his artistic wit and originality. As friend Marcel Duchamp once said, “It was his achievement to treat the camera as he treated the paint brush, as a mere instrument at the service of the mind.”

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Entr’acte (1924)

Source: Man Ray – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Man Ray Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works | The Art Story

Source: Man Ray (Getty Museum)

Source: Man Ray – Painter, Filmmaker, Photographer – Biography.com

Source: Man Ray

come find me, i’m @

Today is the  126th birthday of Elsa Schiaparelli.  Her designs are still considered cutting edge today, 80 years later.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Elsa Schiaparelli
BIRTH DATE: September 10, 1890
DEATH DATE: November 13, 1973
EDUCATION: University of Rome
PLACE OF BIRTH: Rome, Italy
PLACE OF DEATH: Paris, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Elsa Schiaparelli was one of the world’s leading fashion designers in the 1920s and ’30s.

A pioneering Parisian fashion designer, Elsa Schiaparelli was born on September 10, 1890, in Rome, Italy. She was the great niece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, who discovered canals on the planet Mars.

Hailing from upscale stock, Schiaparelli, at a young age, seemed to be driven to upset her aristocratic mother and scholarly father. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Rome, where she studied philosophy, and soon published a book of poetry that was deemed so sensual by her parents that they directed her to a convent. To expedite her release from the convent, Schiaparelli went on a hunger strike; once released, she dashed off to London for a job as a nanny.

In London, Schiaparelli met and eventually married her former teacher, Count William de Wendt de Kerlor, who was a theosophist. The couple soon relocated to New York, where they had a daughter, Maria Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor.

New York proved to be an enlightening experience for Schiaparelli. There, she began working at a boutique specializing in French fashions, and soon cultivated her own taste in clothes and accessories. After her marriage failed, Schiaparelli returned to Paris, where she continued her work in the fashion industry. She soon began designing clothes of her own, and in 1927, opened her own business.

Schiaparelli’s debut collection, a series of sweaters featuring Surrealist “trompe l’oeil” images—which would come to serve as her trademark—caught the attention of the fashion world, including French Vogue. She followed her initial success with another well-received collection of bathing suits and ski-wear, as well as the “divided skirt”—an early form of women’s shorts. In 1931, Schiaparelli’s divided skirts were worn by tennis champion Lily d’Alvarez. That same year, “Shiap,” as she was known, expanded her work into evening-wear.

For Schiaparelli, fashion was as much about making art as it was about making clothes. In 1932, Janet Flanner of The New Yorker wrote: “A frock from Schiaparelli ranks like a modern canvas.” Not surprisingly, Schiaparelli connected with popular artists of the era; one of her friends was painter Salvador Dali, whom she hired to design fabric for her fashion house.

As her fame continued to grow, Schiaparelli traveled increasingly in famous circles. She was worshipped by some of the world’s best-dressed women, including Daisy Flowers, Lady Mendl and Millicent Rogers.

Schiaparelli also designed clothes for film and the theater. Her work appeared in more than 30 movies over the course of her career, most notably in Every Day’s a Holiday, starring Mae West, Moulin Rouge and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Schiaparelli discontinued her couture business in 1951 and closed her design house three years later, but continued to work in fashion, designing accessories and, later, wigs. In 1954, she released an autobiography, Shocking Life.

Schiaparelli died on November 13, 1973, in Paris, France. In the decades since her death, Schiaparelli has continued to be regarded as a giant in the fashion world. In 2012, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art featured her work, along with that of Italian designer Miuccia Prada, in a major exhibition.

Source: Elsa Schiaparelli – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Elsa Schiaparelli – Fashion Designer – Biography.com

Source: Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Source: ‘Schiaparelli’: The Shocking, Shadowed Life Of A Fashion Icon : NPR

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 126th birthday of Groucho Marx.  I think of him often, especially quotes of his.  I try my best to live by this one:

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

 Obviously, his more humorous quotes are brilliantly crafted and memorable, such as:

I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.

and

Either he’s dead or my watch has stopped.

The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Groucho Marx
OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Comedian
BIRTH DATE: October 2, 1890
DEATH DATE: August 19, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH: New York, New York
PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
ORIGINALLY: Julius Henry Marx
REMAINS: Cremated, Eden Memorial Park, San Fernando, CA
OSCAR (honorary) 1974
EMMY 1951 Most Outstanding Personality
RADIO HALL OF FAME
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6821 Hollywood Blvd.
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 1751 Vine St. (television)

BEST KNOWN FOR: Comedian and film actor Groucho Marx was one of the Marx Brothers. He spent nearly seven decades making people laugh with his snappy one-liners and sharp wit.

Comedian, actor, singer and writer Groucho Marx was born Julius Henry Marx on October 2, 1890, in New York City. Groucho Marx spent nearly seven decades making people laugh with his snappy one-liners and sharp wit. He once described his comedy as “the type of humor that made people laugh at themselves.”

While he originally aspired to be a doctor, Marx started his career as a singer. One of his earliest efforts proved to be disastrous, however. As part of the Le May Trio, Marx got stuck in Colorado for a while after another group member took off with his pay. He had to work at a grocery store to earn enough money to make it back to New York.

Marx’s father Samuel never had much success as a tailor, and the family struggled financially. His mother Minnie hoped that she might find prosperity through her five children. She became the quintessential “stage mother,” guiding her children’s theatrical acts and even performing herself. The act eventually featured Groucho and his brothers Leonard, Adolph and Milton.

Groucho received his colorful nickname from fellow vaudeville performer Art Fisher because of his personality. Fisher also coined amusing names for Marx’s brothers, renaming Leonard “Chico,” Adolph “Harpo” and Milton “Gummo.” Milton left the act to fight in World War I and was replaced by youngest brother Herbert, known as “Zeppo.” Both Herbert and Milton later became theatrical agents.

The Marx Brothers had a career breakthrough in 1914 while performing in Texas. During a show, some of the audience left to go see a runaway mule. When they returned, the Marx Brothers put aside their usual routines to make fun of the audience. Groucho’s quick-witted quips won over the crowd. The switch to comedy proved to be their ticket to success.

By the 1920s, the Marx Brothers had become a hugely popular theatrical act. Groucho had developed some of his trademarks by this time. He often wore a long coat, a painted-on mustache, thick glasses and held on to a cigar on stage. In addition to just liking cigars, Marx explained that they proved useful, too. He said that “if you forget a line, all you have to do is stick the cigar in your mouth and puff on it until you think of what you’ve forgotten.”

The Marx Brothers had a string of Broadway hits, starting with 1924’s I’ll Say She Is, which Groucho helped write. The following year, they returned to the stage with The Cocoanuts, a spoof on land speculation in Florida. The Marx Brothers hit it big again in 1928 with Animal Crackers.

In great demand, Marx appeared on Broadway in Animal Crackers at night while filming the film version of The Cocoanuts during the day. Around this time, he nearly suffered a complete mental breakdown. His hectic schedule and his enormous financial loss in the 1929 stock market crash had taken a toll on the performer and left him with a lifelong struggle with insomnia.

Working with producer Irving Thalberg, the Marx Brothers created one of their most popular movies: A Night at the Opera (1935). As the decade drew to a close, the Marx Brothers continued to make more films, but none matched the success of their earlier efforts. Their last film together was 1949’s Love Happy.

Even before the Marx Brothers split up, Groucho had been exploring other career opportunities. He wrote the 1930 humorous book Beds, and followed it up in 1942 with Many Happy Returns, his comic attack on taxes. On the radio, Groucho worked on several programs before landing a hit in 1947 with You Bet Your Life. He hosted the quirky game show, which focused more on his quick wit than on contestants winning prizes.

You Bet Your Life moved from radio to television in 1950, and Marx entertained America with his wisecracks for 11 years, also winning a 1951 Emmy. After that program ended in 1961, he appeared on Tell It to Groucho, a short-lived game show the following year. Then Marx largely retreated from the limelight, making only sporadic appearances on television and in films.

Later in life, instead of performing, Marx wrote a follow-up to his 1959 autobiography Groucho and Me. This time around, he focused on love and sex in 1963’s Memoirs of a Mangy Lover. The thrice-married comedian had a lot to say on those topics. Marx had been married to first wife Ruth from 1920 to 1942. The couple had two children together, Miriam and Arthur. He had his third child, Melinda, with his second wife, Catherine Gorcey. His third marriage to Eden Hartford lasted from 1953 to 1969.

A prolific correspondent with friends and associates, Marx had his personal writings published in 1967 as The Groucho Letters. He returned to the stage in 1972 with a one-man show at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Crowds turned out to see the performer, then in his 80s. He had trouble hearing and his voice was much weaker than it was in his prime. Still, he managed to charm and entertain the audience. Two years later, Marx received a special Academy Award for his stage and screen efforts.

By 1977, Marx was in decline both physically and mentally. He struggled with health problems, and his family battled with his companion Erin Fleming over control of his affairs. After spending nearly two months in a Los Angeles hospital, Marx died of pneumonia on August 19, 1977. “He developed the insult into an art form,” The New York Times mused on his death. “And he used the insult, delivered with maniacal glee, to shatter the egos of the pompous ??and to plunge his audience into helpless laughter.”

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Skidoo (2-Dec-1968)
The Story of Mankind (8-Nov-1957) · Peter Minuit
A Girl in Every Port (13-Feb-1952)
Double Dynamite (25-Dec-1951) · Emile J. Keck
Mr. Music (8-Dec-1950) · Himself
Love Happy (12-Oct-1949) · Det. Sam Grunion
Copacabana (1-Nov-1947) · Lionel Q. Deveraux
A Night in Casablanca (10-May-1946) · Kornblow
The Big Store (20-Jun-1941)
Go West (6-Dec-1940) · S. Quentin Quale
At the Circus (20-Oct-1939) · Attorney Loophole
Room Service (30-Sep-1938) · Gordon Miller
A Day at the Races (11-Jun-1937) · Dr. Hackenbush
A Night at the Opera (15-Nov-1935) · Otis B. Driftwood
Duck Soup (17-Nov-1933) · Rufus T. Firefly
Horse Feathers (10-Aug-1932) · Prof. Wagstaff
Monkey Business (19-Sep-1931) · Groucho
Animal Crackers (28-Aug-1930) · Capt. Jeffrey T. Spaulding
The Cocoanuts (3-May-1929)

Source: Groucho Marx – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Source: Groucho Marx – Film Actor, Comedian – Biography.com

Source: Groucho Marx

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 122nd birthday of the poet that wrote Listen; there’s a hell of a good universe next door: let’s go.:  e.e. cummings. His writing and his writing style including the architecture of his prose was revolutionary at the time and still is today. The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: E.E. Cummings
OCCUPATION: Artist, Author, Poet, Playwright
BIRTH DATE: October 14, 1894
DEATH DATE: September 3, 1962
EDUCATION: Harvard University, Cambridge Latin School
PLACE OF BIRTH: Cambridge, Massachusetts
PLACE OF DEATH: North Conway, New Hampshire
REMAINS: Buried, Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston, MA

BEST KNOWN FOR: E.E. Cummings was a 20th century poet and novelist known for his innovations in style and structure.

Edward Estlin Cummings was born on October 14, 1894, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a minister and professor, while his mother instilled in the youngster a love of language and play. Cummings went on to earn both his B.A. and his M.A. by 1916 from Harvard University, where his father taught, before going on to serve in World War I overseas as a volunteer for the ambulance corps.

A pacifist, Cummings was imprisoned for several months by French authorities for suspicion of treason due to letters he’d written. He later recounted his jail experiences in the autobiographical novel The Enormous Room, published in 1922.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are

His next book, Tulips and Chimneys (1923), was a collection of poems. He published a few more volumes of poetry in the 1920s and ’30s. Cummings, who lived in Paris and New York, became known for poems that played wildly with form and spacing, punctuation, capitalization, overall grammar and pacing (a sample title of one of his poems: “the hours rise up putting off stars and it is”), perhaps serving as a structural metaphor for the writer’s belief that much of modern society killed individual creativity and freedom.

Nonetheless, he was also able to write traditionally styled verse such as sonnets with a flair for wit and whimsy. Cummings’ work was also known for its focus on nature, sexuality and love, in both a sensual and a spiritual sense.

Cummings wrote the avant-garde play Him, performed by the Provincetown Players in 1927, and a few years later traveled to the Soviet Union. Though curious, he was in fact put off by the government’s social policies, which he wrote about with unconventional prose in his 1933 work Eimi.

Unable to find a publisher, Cummings self-published much of his work and struggled financially. It was only in the 1940s and ’50s, with a burgeoning counterculture, that his style of writing came to be more favored by the masses and he gave live readings before full houses.

He received a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets at the start of the 1950s. He later spoke about his work as part of Harvard’s Charles Eliot Norton lecture series, presented in the 1953 book i: six nonlectures. Later in the decade he won the Bollingen Prize for Poetry from Yale University.

Cummings was also a noted visual artist who presented one-man gallery showings. He was married three times.

Cummings died on September 3, 1962, in North Conway, New Hampshire, from a brain hemorrhage, leaving legions of poems as a literary legacy. An overview of his writing can be found in E.E. Cummings: Compete Poetry, 1904-1962, while other published volumes include Erotic Poems, The Early Poems of E.E. Cummings and Fairy Tales.

Source: e. e. cummings

Source: E. E. Cummings – Wikipedia

Source: E.E. Cummings – Artist, Author, Poet, Playwright – Biography.com

come find me, i’m @

Today is Rita Hayworth’s 98th birthday.  I recently watched Gilda and was reminded about how much I adored her.  She is really just magnificent.  The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Rita Hayworth
OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Dancer, Pin-up
BIRTH DATE: October 17, 1918
DEATH DATE: May 14, 1987
PLACE OF BIRTH: Brooklyn, New York
PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
REMAINS: Buried, Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, CA
Full Name: Margarita Carmen Cansino
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 1645 Vine St.

BEST KNOWN FOR:  American film actress Rita Hayworth is best known for her stunning explosive sexual charisma on screen in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

A legendary Hollywood actress whose beauty catapulted her to international stardom in the 1940s and 1950s, Rita Hayworth was born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918, in New York City. She changed her last name to Hayworth early on in her acting career on the advice of her first husband and manager, Edward Judson.

Hayworth hailed from show business stock. Her father, the Spanish-born Eduardo Cansino, was a dancer, and her mother, Volga, had been a Ziegfeld Follies girl. Soon after their daughter was born, they shortened her name to Rita Cansino. By the time Rita was 12 she was dancing professionally.

Still a young girl, Rita moved with her family to Los Angeles and eventually joined her father on the stage in nightclubs both in the United States and in Mexico. It was on a stage in Agua Caliente, Mexico, that a Fox Film Company producer spotted the 16-year-old dancer and inked her to a contract.

Rita Cansino, as she was still known, made her film debut in 1935 with Under the Pampas Moon, which was followed by a string of other films including Dante’s Inferno (1935) with Spencer Tracy, Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935), Meet Nero Wolfe (1936), and Human Cargo (1936).

In 1937 she married Judson, a man 22 years older than her, who would set the stage for his young wife’s future stardom. On his advice, Rita not only changed her last name, but also dyed her hair auburn. Judson worked the phones and managed to get Hayworth plenty of press in newspapers and magazines, and eventually helped her get a seven-year contract with Columbia Pictures.

After a few disappointing roles in several mediocre films, Hayworth landed an important role as an unfaithful wife opposite Cary Grant in Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Critical praise came Hayworth’s way. So did more movie offers.

Just two years after the relatively unknown actress shared the screen with Grant, Hayworth was a star herself. Her stunning, sensual looks greatly helped, and that year Life magazine writer Winthrop Sargeant nicknamed Hayworth “The Great American Love Goddess.”

The moniker stuck, and only helped further her career and the fascination many male movie fans had with her. In 1941 Hayworth took the screen opposite James Cagney in Strawberry Blonde. That same year she shared the dance floor with Fred Astaire in You’ll Never Get Rich. Astaire later called Hayworth his favorite dance partner.

The following year Hayworth starred in three more big films: My Gal Sal, Tales of Manhattan, and You Were Never Lovelier.

Hayworth’s high-voltage power of seduction was affirmed in 1944 when a photograph of her in Life magazine wearing black lace became the unofficial pin-up photo for American servicemen serving overseas in World War II.

For her part, Hayworth didn’t shy away from the attention. “Why should I mind?” she said. “I like having my picture taken and being a glamorous person. Sometimes when I find myself getting impatient, I just remember the times I cried my eyes out because nobody wanted to take my picture at the Trocadero.”

Her stardom peaked in 1946 with the film Gilda, which cast her opposite Glenn Ford. A favorite of film noir fans,  the film was chock-full of sexual innuendo, which included a controversial (tame by today’s standards) striptease by Hayworth.

The following year she starred in another film noir favorite, The Lady From Shanghai, which was directed by her then-husband, Orson Welles.

Hayworth’s marriage to Welles in 1943 and subsequent divorce from the director and actor in 1948 garnered plenty of press. It was Hayworth’s second marriage, and with Welles she had a daughter, Rebecca.

It was during the filming of The Lady From Shanghai that Hayworth filed for divorce from Welles. In court documents she claimed, “he showed no interest in establishing a home. When I suggested purchasing a home, he told me he didn’t want the responsibility. Mr. Welles told me he never should have married in the first place; that it interfered with his freedom in his way of life.”

But Hayworth had also met and fallen in love with Prince Aly Khan, whose father was the head of the Ismaili Muslims. A statesman and a bit of a playboy, Khan eventually served as Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations.

Hayworth and Khan married in 1949 and had a daughter together, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan. After divorcing Khan after just two years of marriage, Hayworth later married and divorced the singer Dick Haymes. Her fifth and final marriage was to movie producer James Hill.

As her personal life was dogged by turmoil, her acting career sputtered. Periodic film roles did come her way, but they failed to capture magic and project the kind of star power her earlier work once had. In all, Hayworth appeared in more than 40 films, the last of which was the 1972 release The Wrath of God.

In 1971 she briefly attempted a stage career, but it was quickly halted when it was apparent that Hayworth was unable to memorize her lines.

Hayworth’s diminished skills as an actress were largely chalked up to what many believed was a severe alcohol problem. Her deteriorating state made headlines in January 1976 when the actress, appearing disheveled and out of sorts, was escorted off a plane.

That same year a California court, citing Hayworth’s alcohol issues, named an administrator for her affairs.

But alcohol was only one of the factors ruining her life. Hayworth was also suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, which doctors diagnosed her as having in 1980. A year later she was placed under the care of her daughter, Princess Yasmin, who used her mother’s condition as a catalyst for increasing awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. In 1985, Yasmin helped organize Alzheimer’s Disease International, and eventually helmed the group as its president.

After years of struggle Hayworth died on May 14, 1987, in the apartment she shared with her daughter in New York City. Her passing elicited an outpouring of appreciation from fans and fellow actors.

“Rita Hayworth was one of our country’s most beloved stars,” President Ronald Reagan said upon hearing of Hayworth’s death. “Glamorous and talented, she gave us many wonderful moments on the stage and screen and delighted audiences from the time she was a young girl. Nancy and I are saddened by Rita’s death. She was a friend whom we will miss.”

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Wrath of God (14-Jul-1972) · Señora De La Plata
Road to Salina (17-Nov-1970)
The Rover (1967)
The Poppy Is Also a Flower (22-Apr-1966)
The Money Trap (7-Sep-1965) · Rosalie Kelly
Circus World (25-Jun-1964)
The Happy Thieves (Jan-1962) · Eve Lewis
The Story on Page One (Dec-1959)
They Came to Cordura (Jun-1959) · Adelaide Geary
Separate Tables (18-Dec-1958)
Pal Joey (25-Oct-1957) · Vera Simpson
Fire Down Below (8-Aug-1957) · Irena
Miss Sadie Thompson (23-Dec-1953) · Sadie Thompson
Salome (13-Feb-1953)
Affair in Trinidad (30-Jun-1952) · Chris Emery
The Loves of Carmen (23-Aug-1948) · Carmen Garcia
The Lady from Shanghai (24-Dec-1947) · Elsa Bannister
Down to Earth (21-Aug-1947) · Kitty Pendleton
Gilda (14-Feb-1946) · Gilda
Tonight and Every Night (9-Jan-1945) · Roz Bruce
Cover Girl (30-Mar-1944) · Rusty Parker
You Were Never Lovelier (5-Oct-1942) · Maria Acuña
Tales of Manhattan (5-Aug-1942)
My Gal Sal (30-Apr-1942) · Sally Elliott
You’ll Never Get Rich (25-Sep-1941) · Sheila Winthrop
Blood and Sand (22-May-1941) · Dona Sol
Affectionately Yours (10-May-1941) · Irene Malcolm
The Strawberry Blonde (22-Feb-1941) · Virginia Brush
Angels Over Broadway (2-Oct-1940) · Nina Barone
The Lady in Question (31-Jul-1940) · Natalie Roguin
Susan and God (7-Jun-1940)
Blondie on a Budget (29-Feb-1940) · Joan Forrester
Music in My Heart (4-Jan-1940)
Only Angels Have Wings (12-May-1939) · Judy
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (27-Jan-1939) · Karen
Juvenile Court (7-Sep-1938) · Marcia Adams
Who Killed Gail Preston? (24-Feb-1938)
Trouble in Texas (6-Mar-1937) · Carmen Serano
Meet Nero Wolfe (17-Jul-1936)
Human Cargo (15-May-1936)
Paddy O’Day (29-Oct-1935) · Tamara Petrovitch
Dante’s Inferno (31-Jul-1935) · Dancer
Charlie Chan in Egypt (4-Jun-1935) · Nayda

Source: Reel Infatuation: My Gilda Crush – B Noir Detour

Source: Rita Hayworth (1918 – 1987) | ming movie reviews

Source: Rita Hayworth – Wikipedia

Source: Rita Hayworth – Biography – IMDb

Source: Rita Hayworth – Dancer, Film Actress, Classic Pin-Ups – Biography.com

Source: Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies

Source: Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Rita Hayworth, Tragic Princess

Source: Rita Hayworth

come find me, i’m @

Today is Montgomery Clift‘s 96th birthday.  His life seemed to be full of super highs and super lows and I think that makes the best life story.  It makes me root for them (even if I know the outcome) and love their humanity, vulnerability, and fragility.  Plus, his best friend was Elizabeth Taylor, the 1950’s Elizabeth Taylor at that.  Have you seen A Place in the Sun or Misfits lately?  Have you seen them ever?  They both have ridiculously talented casts that make them more than worthwhile to watch.  The world is a better place because he was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Edward Montgomery Clift
OCCUPATION: Film Actor
BIRTH DATE: October 17, 1920
DEATH DATE: July 23, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH: Omaha, Nebraska
PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York
REMAINS: Buried, Quaker Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY
HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME 6104 Hollywood Blvd.

BEST KNOWN FOR: Actor Montgomery Clift starred in films like Red River (1948), A Place in the Sun (1951), and From Here To Eternity (1953).

Hailed as one of Hollywood’s first true Method actors, Edward Montgomery Clift was born October 17, 1920, in Omaha, Nebraska. “Monty,” as his family called him, was the son of William Clift, a successful Wall Street broker, and his wife, Ethel.

Clift’s early life was shaped by privilege. While his father was away on work, which was often, Ethel led her family on jaunts to Europe or Bermuda, where the Clifts had a second home.

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, however, the family’s situation greatly changed. The Clifts, which included Monty’s twin sister, Roberta, and a brother, Brooks, settled into a new, more modest life in Sarasota, Florida.

At the age of 13, Clift started acting with a local theater company. His mother was impressed by her son’s commitment to the stage and encouraged him to pursue his craft. Shortly after the family moved to Massachusetts, he auditioned and won a part in the Broadway play Fly Away Home.

When the family moved again, this time to New York City, Clift earned a second Broadway nod as the lead in Dame Nature. The role cemented Clift, just 17 years old, as a Broadway star. Over the next decade, he appeared in several other productions, including There Shall Be No Night, The Skin of Our Teeth and Our Town, among others.

For years Clift had resisted calls to jump to the big screen. He was particular about his work and his directors. He finally made the leap with the 1948 release Red River, a Howard Hawks–directed western co-starring John Wayne.

That same year audiences were treated to a second Clift film, The Search, which starred the actor as an American G.I. in post-war Germany. The film catapulted Clift to full-fledged Hollywood star status and earned him an Academy nomination for Best Actor.

Over the next decade Clift starred in several high-profile films, including A Place in the Sun (1951) with Elizabeth Taylor, Alfred Hitchcock’s I Confess (1953) and the box-office smash From Here to Eternity (1953), co-starring Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra and Deborah Kerr.

For Hollywood, Clift represented an entirely different kind of leading man. He was sensitive and vulnerable, and fearless in the roles he accepted, even if they cast him as a villain. While the film world celebrated his heartthrob status—gossip columnists constantly linked Clift with Taylor, a close friend—Clift and those around him hid the fact that he was gay.

In May 1957 tragedy struck when Clift, driving home from a party at Taylor’s California home, veered off the road and struck a telephone pole. The accident devastated Clift, physically and psychologically. He had already been dealing with alcohol and prescription drug problems, and his addictions soared.

Over the next decade, Clift continued to work, appearing in seven more films. He received an Academy nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role of Rudolph Petersen in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), which co-starred Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster.

His final role came in The Defector (1966), in which he played an American physicist working with a CIA agent in Germany to secure the defection of a Russian scientist.

Clift died of a heart attack at his home in New York City on July 23, 1966.

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Defector (20-Oct-1966) · Prof. James Bower
Freud (12-Dec-1962)
Judgment at Nuremberg (14-Dec-1961) · Rudolph Petersen
The Misfits (1-Feb-1961) · Perce Howland
Wild River (26-Mar-1960) · Chuck Glover
Suddenly, Last Summer (22-Dec-1959) · Dr. Cukrowicz
The Young Lions (2-Apr-1958)
Lonelyhearts (1958)
Raintree County (4-Oct-1957) · John Shawnessy
From Here to Eternity (5-Aug-1953) · Robert E. Lee Prewitt
Station Terminus (2-Apr-1953) · Giovanni Doria
I Confess (22-Mar-1953) · Fr. Michael Logan
A Place in the Sun (28-Aug-1951) · George Eastman
The Big Lift (26-Apr-1950) · Sgt. Danny MacCullough
The Heiress (6-Oct-1949) · Morris Townsend
Red River (1-Sep-1948) · Matthew Garth
The Search (26-Mar-1948) · Ralph Stevenson

Source: Montgomery Clift – Wikipedia

Source: Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Long Suicide of Montgomery Clift | Vanity Fair

Source: Montgomery Clift – Film Actor – Biography.com

Source: Montgomery Clift

come find me, i’m @

Today is Elsa Lanchester‘s 114th birthday.  I tried to include a wide range of photos because if you are like me, you will have had no idea that the Bride of Frankenstein was the same woman as one of your favorite episodes of To Catch A Thief.  Range and longevity are unique in her line of work.  The more I have been learning about her life and career, the more I simply adore her.  Raise a glass and toast Elsa Lanchester on her birthday and see if you can learn a bit from her life.  She really really lived it.  The world is abetter place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.

NAME: Elsa Lanchester
DATE OF BIRTH: October 28, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH: Lewisham, London, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH: December 26, 1986
PLACE OF DEATH: Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, CA
SPOUSE: Charles Laughton (m. 1929–1962)
GOLDEN GLOBE Best Supporting Actress (1958)

BEST KNOWN FOR: English-born American actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.

Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was born into an unconventional a family at the turn of the 20th century. Her parents, James “Shamus” Sullivan and Edith “Biddy” Lanchester, were socialists – very active members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in a rather broad sense and did not believe in the institution of marriage and being tied to any conventions of legality for that matter. Her mother had actually been committed to an asylum in 1895 by her father and older brothers because of her unmarried state with James. The incident received worldwide press as the “Lanchester Kidnapping Case.”

Elsa had a great desire to become a classical dancer and to that end at age 10 her mother enrolled her at the famed Isadora Duncan’s Bellevue School in Paris in 1912. But the uncertainties of WW1 brought her home after only two years. At age 12, she was sent to a co-educational boarding school in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, England, to teach dance classes in exchange for her education and board. In 1918, she was hired as a dance teacher at Margaret Morris’s school on the Isle of Wight.

Next to dance, she loved the music halls of the period, so in 1920 she debuted in a music hall act as an Egyptian dancer. About the same time she founded the Children’s Theater in Soho, London and taught there for several years. She made her stage debut in 1922 in the West End play Thirty Minutes in a Street. In 1924 she and her partner, Harold Scott, opened a London nightclub called the Cave of Harmony. They performed one-act plays by Pirandello and Chekhov and sang cabaret songs. She would later collect and record these and many others. The spot was frequented by literati like Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells and also James Whale, working in London theater and soon to be directing on Broadway and Hollywood’s most famous horror films. Lanchester kept busy including, on her own admission, posing nude for artists. During a 1926 comic performance in the Midnight Follies at London’s Metropole, a member of the British Royal family walked out as she sang, “Please Sell No More Drink to My Father”. She closed her nightclub in 1928 as her film career began in earnest.

Perhaps not beautiful in the more conventional sense, Lanchester was certainly pretty as a young woman with a turned-up nose that gave her a pert, impish expression, all the more striking with her large, expressive dark eyes and full lips. She had a lithe figure that she carried with the assuredness of her dancing background. Her voice was bright and distinctive, and had a delightful rush and trill that had an almost Scottish burr quality. What clicked on stage would do the same in the movies.

Her first film appearance was actually in an amateur movie by friend and author Evelyn Waugh called The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama (1925). Her formal film debut was in the British movie One of the Best (1927). She continued stage work and became associated in 1927 with a rather self-possessed but keenly dedicated actor, Charles Laughton. He appeared with her in three of four films Lanchester did in 1928. Three of these were written for her by H.G. Wells). They did a few plays as well and wed in 1929. According to Lancester, after two years, she discovered he was homosexual but they remained married until his death in 1962. Lanchester declared in a 1958 interview that she kept to a separate career path from her husband. They were never an on-screen team but appeared together on occasion — moving through 1931 with several smart play-like films including Potiphar’s Wife (1931) with Laurence Olivier. She had done the play Payment Deferred in London in 1930 and followed it to Broadway in 1931.

MGM offered her a contract in 1932. In 1933 Alexander Korda was casting his The Private Life of Henry VIII. (1933) and decided that Laughton was the perfect choice – and his wife would be just as perfect as one of Henry’s six wives. Elsa’s versatility pointed to a part with some comedic elements and fitting more into a caricature. She looked most like Hans Holbein’s famous portrait of Anne of Cleves (Henry’s fourth wife who was actually somewhat more homely than the painter depicted). In costume Lanchester was charming if not striking. Her interpretation of Anne was a perfect integration with herself, and her scene with Laughton informally playing cards on the marriage bed and deciding on annulment is a highpoint of the movie.

Of course, it would be hard to mention her film career of the 1930s without mentioning the one role that would forever dog her, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Having come to Hollywood with Laughton in 1932 (but not permanently until 1939), Lanchester did only a few films up to 1935 and was disappointed enough with Hollywood’s reception to return to London for a respite. She was quickly called back by old friend from London, stage and film associate James Whale, now the noted director of Frankenstein (1931) and The Invisible Man (1933). He wanted her for two parts in Bride: author Mary Shelley and the bride. A central joke of the movie build-up was the tag lines: “WHO will be The Bride of Frankenstein? WHO will dare?”

Indeed, it was no honeymoon for her. For some ten days, Lanchester was wrapped in yards of bandage and covered in heavy makeup. The stand-on-end hairdo was accomplished by combing it over a wire mesh cage. Lanchester was in real agony with her eyes kept taped wide open for long takes – and it showed in her looks of horror. Her monster’s screaming and hissing sounds (based on the sounds of Regents Park swans in London) were taped and then run backward to spook-up the effect. She was delightfully melodramatic and picturesque as Wollstonecraft, and her bride would become iconic. Many have considered The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) the best of the golden age horror movies.

Lanchester stood out in her next movie with Laughton the next year, Korda’s dark Rembrandt (1936), but she only did a few more films for the remainder of the decade. Through the 1940s she was doubly busy – a couple of films per year while regenerating her beloved musical revue sketches. She performed for 10 years at the Turnabout Theater in Hollywood, using old London music hall/cabaret songs and others written for her. Later she would have to split her time further doing a similar act at a supper club called The Bar of Music. By the later 1940s she had become rather matronly, and the roles would settle appropriately. But she always lent her sparkle, as with her charming maid Matilda in The Bishop’s Wife (1947). She would be nominated for best supporting actress in Come to the Stable (1949).

She entered the 1950s busy with road touring of her nightclub act with pianist J. Raymond Henderson (who went by “Ray” and who is sometimes confused with popular songwriter Ray Henderson). There was a series of tours to complement Laughton’s famous reading tours, called Elsa Lanchester’s Private Music Hall which ended in 1952; Elsa Lanchester–Herself which ended in 1961; and once more in 1964 at the Ivar Theater. She was equally busy with a stock of film roles and a large share of TV playhouse theater.

She had made ten movies with Laughton, the last of which, Witness for the Prosecution (1957) garnered her second supporting actress nomination. But her dizzy Aunt Queenie Holroyd of Bell Book and Candle (1958) is a fond remembrance of that time.

With the two decades from the 1960s to early 1980s, Lanchester was a fixture on episodic TV and an institution in Disney and G-rated fare — perhaps a bit ironic for the unconventional Lanchester. She wrote two autobiographies: Charles Laughton and I (1938) and Elsa Lanchester: Herself (1983), both recalling nearly 100 roles before the camera.

Elsa Lanchester remained humorously reflective in regard to her film career: “…large parts in lousy pictures and small parts in big pictures.” It was the mix of silly, bawdy, and outrageous in her revues that was her great joy: “I was content because I was fully aware that I did not like straight acting but preferred performing direct to an audience. You might call what I do vaudeville. Making a joke, especially impromptu, and getting a big laugh is just plain heaven.”

Aujourd’hui, c’est le 101e anniversaire d’Edith Piaf. Cette année marque le 52e anniversaire de sa mort, malheureusement, qui est six ans de plus que le total de ses années dans la vie. Il ya une citation attribuée à elle où elle dit qu’elle veut faire pleurer les gens sans comprendre les mots qu’elle chante. Elle s’en rendait compte. Peut-être est-ce une chose française, ils semblent avoir perfectionné l’ennui (ils sont la seule langue avec un mot pour elle), mais j’adore absolument, cette tristesse, qu’elle manque, cette perte. C’est une émotion beaucoup plus difficile à transmettre par rapport au bonheur explosif et l’accident de colère et de haine. Il est subtil, calme, un peu perdu. Le monde est un meilleur endroit parce qu’il était en lui et ressent encore la perte qu’il lui reste.

NOM : Edith Piaf
Métier: Singer
NAISSANCE DATE: 19 Décembre , 1915
MORT DATE: 10 Octobre , 1963
Lieu de naissance: Paris, France
ENDROIT DE MORT : Alpes-Maritimes , France
ORIGINE : Edith Giovanna Gassion
RESTE: Enterré, Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, France
GRAMMY HALL OF FAME AWARD (1998)

MIEUX CONNU POUR : La chanteuse française Édith Piaf, également connue sous le nom de “Le Petit Moineau”, a été l’une des artistes les plus emblématiques de son pays natal.

Tout ce que j’ai fait toute ma vie, c’est désobéir.

Édith Piaf est née Édith Giovanna Gassion à Belleville, Paris. Elle a été nommée après l’infirmière britannique Première Guerre mondiale Edith Cavell, exécutée pour aider les soldats français échappent à la captivité allemande. Sa mère, Annetta Giovanna Maillard, était un chanteur de café italien, qui a effectué sous le nom de «Ligne Marsa.» Le père d’Edith, Louis-Alphonse Gassion, était un saltimbanque.

Les parents de son Édith bientôt abandonnés, et elle peuvent avoir vécu pendant un court temps avec sa grand-mère maternelle, qui a couru un bordel. En 1929, à l’âge de 14 ans, elle rejoint son père dans ses spectacles de rue dans toute la France.

Édith bientôt séparée de son père, la mise sur sa propre comme un chanteur de rue dans et autour de Paris. A 17 ans, elle avait une fille nommée Marcelle, qui mourut d’une méningite deux ans plus tard.

En 1935, Piaf a été découvert par Louis Leplée, qui possédait le club réussie Le Gerny hors des Champs-Élysées. Son énergie nerveuse et petite taille ont inspiré le surnom qui serait rester avec elle pour le reste de sa vie: La Môme Piaf (“The Little Sparrow”). Leplée a mené une campagne de publicité majeure promotion de la soirée d’ouverture de Piaf. Elle était assez populaire pour enregistrer deux albums de la même année.

Louis Leplée a été assassiné le printemps suivant. Après que les autorités de son enquête comme un complice du crime, Piaf a pris en charge de son image. Elle a adopté son nom de scène-Édith Piaf-permanente, et a commandé des chansons qui romancée de sa vie dans les rues, en insistant sur sa passion et de force intérieure.

Piaf était l’un des interprètes les plus populaires en France pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ses concerts pour les militaires allemands étaient controversés, mais elle a déclaré plus tard qu’elle avait travaillé pour la Résistance française. Alors que la véracité de cette revendication est claire, elle a contribué à aider un certain nombre de personnes échapper aux persécutions nazies.

Après la guerre, sa renommée se répandit rapidement. Elle a visité l’Europe, l’Amérique du Sud et aux États-Unis. Bien que le public américain ont d’abord été rebutés par son attitude austère et des vêtements sombres, Piaf a recueilli des critiques élogieuses et finalement obtenu assez d’une audience pour justifier deux spectacles télévisés sur Ed Sullivan Show.

La vie personnelle de Édith Piaf était caractéristique dramatique. Elle a été impliqué dans trois accidents de voiture graves après 1951, conduisant à la morphine et de l’alcool de toxicomanie.

Piaf avait très médiatisées romances avec plusieurs de ses associés masculins et certaines des plus grandes célébrités en France.

Je veux faire pleurer les gens même quand ils ne comprennent pas mes paroles.

Elle se maria deux fois . Son premier mariage , le chanteur Jacques Pills , a duré quatre ans . Son mariage avec 1962 Théo Sarapo , un salon de coiffure grecque et interprète de 20 ans son cadet , a duré jusqu’à sa mort en 1963 .

Piaf est resté actif professionnellement jusqu’à ce que les dernières années de sa vie , effectuant fréquemment à Paris entre 1955 et 1962. En Avril 1963, elle a enregistré son dernier morceau .

Édith Piaf est mort d’un cancer à sa villa de Côte d’Azur le 10 Octobre , 1963. Elle était 47. L’archevêque de Paris a rejeté les demandes d’ une messe de funérailles , citant vie irréligieux de Piaf . Elle est enterrée au cimetière du Père Lachaise à Paris à côté de sa fille Marcelle .

[I would like to thank Google Translate for all the translation done above.]

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
French Cancan (27-Dec-1954)
Royal Affairs in Versailles (9-Mar-1954)
Étoile sans lumière (3-Apr-1946) · Madeleine

Source: Édith Piaf – Wikipedia

Source: Édith Piaf – Songwriter, Singer – Biography.com

Source: Edith Piaf

come find me, i’m @

Today is the 133rd birthday of the French artist Maurice Utrillo.  His art is most widely recognized due to the reproductions into post cards of the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris.  The paintings are representations of how we wish we could see Paris now.  The world is a better place because Maurice was in it and still feels the loss that he has left.

NAME: Maurice Utrillo
OCCUPATION: Painter
BIRTH DATE: December 26, 1883
DEATH DATE: November 5, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH: Paris, France
PLACE OF DEATH: Le Vésinet, France

BEST KNOWN FOR: Maurice Valadon was a French painter who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous painters of Montmartre who was born there.

Utrillo was the son of the artist Suzanne Valadon (born Marie-Clémentine Valadon), who was then an eighteen-year-old artist’s model. She never revealed who was the father of her child; speculation exists that he was the offspring from a liaison with an equally young amateur painter named Boissy, or with the well established painter, Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes, or even with Renoir.

In 1891 a Spanish artist, Miguel Utrillo y Molins, signed a legal document acknowledging paternity, although the question remains as to whether he was in fact the child’s father.

Valadon, who became a model after a fall from a trapeze ended her chosen career as a circus acrobat, found that posing for Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others provided her with an opportunity to study their techniques; in some cases, she also became their mistress. She taught herself to paint, and when Toulouse-Lautrec introduced her to Edgar Degas, he became her mentor. Eventually she became a peer of the artists she had posed for.

Meanwhile, her mother was left to raise the young Maurice, who soon showed a troubling inclination toward truancy and alcoholism. When a mental illness took hold of the 21-year-old Utrillo in 1904, he was encouraged to paint by his mother. He soon showed real artistic talent. With no training beyond what his mother taught him, he drew and painted what he saw in Montmartre. After 1910 his work attracted critical attention, and by 1920 he was internationally acclaimed. In 1928, the French government awarded him the Cross of the Légion d’honneur. Throughout his life, however, he was interned in mental asylums repeatedly.

Today, tourists to the area will find many of his paintings on post cards, one of which is his very popular 1936 painting entitled, Montmartre Street Corner or Lapin Agile.

In middle age Utrillo became fervently religious and in 1935, at the age of fifty-two, he married Lucie Valore and moved to Le Vesinet, just outside of Paris. By that time, he was too ill to work in the open air and painted landscapes viewed from windows, from post cards, and from memory.

Although his life also was plagued by alcoholism, he lived into his seventies. Maurice Utrillo died on 5 November 1955, and was buried in the Cimetière Saint-Vincent in Montmartre.

An apocryphal anecdote told by Diego Rivera concerning Utrillo’s paternity is related in the unpublished memoirs of one of his American collectors, Ruth Bakwin:

“After Maurice was born to Suzanne Valadon, she went to Renoir, for whom she had modeled nine months previously. Renoir looked at the baby and said, ‘He can’t be mine, the color is terrible!’ Next she went to Degas, for whom she had also modeled. He said, ‘He can’t be mine, the form is terrible!’ At a cafe, Valadon saw an artist she knew named Miguel Utrillo, to whom she spilled her woes. The man told her to call the baby Utrillo: ‘I would be glad to put my name to the work of either Renoir or Degas!'”

Source: Maurice Utrillo | artnet

come find me, i’m @