Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball

Nina Simone - Don’t Smoke in Bed

Footlight Parade’s “By the Waterfall” sequence (1933, dir. Lloyd Bacon, choreographed by Busby Berkeley)  (via drmacro) Behind every elaborate Busby Berkeley production number…

Footlight Parade’s “By the Waterfall” sequence (1933, dir. Lloyd Bacon, choreographed by Busby Berkeley)  (via drmacro)

Behind every elaborate Busby Berkeley production number…

…there’s a dedicated tech crew - behind-the-scenes shot of the Warner Bros. electrical department & the mechanism they built to produce the spinning fountain in Busby Berkeley’s Footlight Parade “By a Waterfall” routine.

…there’s a dedicated tech crew - behind-the-scenes shot of the Warner Bros. electrical department & the mechanism they built to produce the spinning fountain in Busby Berkeley’s Footlight Parade “By a Waterfall” routine.

Gary Cooper & Fay Wray in Legion of the Condemned (1928, dir. William A. Wellman), which has been classified as a “lost film”.  (via)

Gary Cooper & Fay Wray in Legion of the Condemned (1928, dir. William A. Wellman), which has been classified as a “lost film”. 

(via)

Shirley Temple as pint-sized gangland enforcer Cindy “Maddog” Ellison in Baby Take a Bow (1934, dir. Harry Lachman) (The above description of Temple’s character may or may not be wildly inaccurate, in the interest of a better story)

Shirley Temple as pint-sized gangland enforcer Cindy “Maddog” Ellison in Baby Take a Bow (1934, dir. Harry Lachman)

(The above description of Temple’s character may or may not be wildly inaccurate, in the interest of a better story)

Brigitte Helm in L’Argent/Money (1928, dir. Marcel L’Herbier)

Brigitte Helm in L’Argent/Money (1928, dir. Marcel L’Herbier)

Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless (1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard) “When I accepted the role, [Godard] gave me the script. Three little pages on which he’d written: He leaves Marseilles. He steals a car. He wants to sleep with the girl again. She doesn’t. In the end, he either lives or dies - to be decided.  That was it. So every morning, I learned about Poiccard’s further adventures. I had no idea what would happen to me that day. I found out each morning.” 

Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless (1960, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

“When I accepted the role, [Godard] gave me the script. Three little pages on which he’d written:

He leaves Marseilles.

He steals a car.

He wants to sleep with the girl again. She doesn’t.

In the end, he either lives or dies - to be decided. 

That was it. So every morning, I learned about Poiccard’s further adventures. I had no idea what would happen to me that day. I found out each morning.” 

“Howard [Hughes] and I were indeed a strange pair. We each had a wild desire to be famous. I think this was a dominant character failing. People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.” -Katharine Hepburn, Me (1991)

“Howard [Hughes] and I were indeed a strange pair. We each had a wild desire to be famous. I think this was a dominant character failing. People who want to be famous are really loners. Or they should be.”

-Katharine Hepburn, Me (1991)

“The writer’s role is to menace the public’s conscience.  He must have a position, a point of view.  He must see the arts as a vehicle for social criticism and he must focus on the issues of his time.” -Rod Serling (1957, via corbis)

“The writer’s role is to menace the public’s conscience.  He must have a position, a point of view.  He must see the arts as a vehicle for social criticism and he must focus on the issues of his time.”

-Rod Serling (1957, via corbis)

“Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn’t make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A lesson to be learned— in The Twilight Zone.” -Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone, “Eye of the Beholder” (1960) Posted in loving memory of the annual July 4th weekend Twilight Zone marathon, which has been cancelled, reportedly because the Syfy Channel hates America.

“Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn’t make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A lesson to be learned— in The Twilight Zone.”

-Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone, “Eye of the Beholder” (1960)

Posted in loving memory of the annual July 4th weekend Twilight Zone marathon, which has been cancelled, reportedly because the Syfy Channel hates America.

Shirley Horn - Lazy Afternoon

Bluebeard (1901, dir. Georges Méliès) “King Bluebeard turned all the keys of the castle over to his wife, saying, ‘You may go anywhere in the castle, unlock everything, and look at anything you want to, except for one door, to which this little golden key belongs. If you value your life, you are not allowed to open it!’ ‘Oh no!’ she said, adding that she surely would not open that door. But after the king had been away for a while, she could find no rest for constantly thinking about what there might be in the forbidden chamber. On the morning of the fourth day, she could no longer resist the temptation, and taking the key she secretly crept to the room, stuck the key into the lock, and opened the door.” -Charles Perrault’s Bluebeard

Bluebeard (1901, dir. Georges Méliès)

“King Bluebeard turned all the keys of the castle over to his wife, saying, ‘You may go anywhere in the castle, unlock everything, and look at anything you want to, except for one door, to which this little golden key belongs. If you value your life, you are not allowed to open it!’

‘Oh no!’ she said, adding that she surely would not open that door. But after the king had been away for a while, she could find no rest for constantly thinking about what there might be in the forbidden chamber. On the morning of the fourth day, she could no longer resist the temptation, and taking the key she secretly crept to the room, stuck the key into the lock, and opened the door.”

-Charles Perrault’s Bluebeard

The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody (Summer 1965,  Les Baxter version: Summer 1955)

“During the 40 years since rock-and-roll first altered the course of pop music, a soulful summer tradition has emerged. Each year, one song separates itself from the pack, exercising a deep, calling-out power over anyone who falls in love between June and September. If you came of age in the summer of ‘56, the Platters’ worshipful My Prayer was the Great Summer Love Song. In 1963, it was the Beach Boys’ Surfer Girl; two years later, Otis Redding’s achingly bittersweet I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now).

What becomes a Summer Love Song most? That is a tricky question, for like love itself, the song cannot always be measured by traditional means; both science and intuition play a role in its creation. But there are certain patterns:

For instance, the song is usually a ballad and addressed to a universal lover, so that any teenager can fill in its “I love you” sentiment afresh, like a blank Valentine card. The song will become a hit, of course, but not necessarily the biggest hit of the summer. It will be neither a dance track (too impersonal) nor a novelty song (too goofy) nor a song with a message (too earnest). If it is a country song or a rap song, it must transcend its genre, because the Summer Love Song turns up at high-school proms and weddings in every kind of American neighborhood. Crucially, the song will feature at its core something indescribably sublime - a bone-deep groove or a lover’s moan - that helps it survive over time. For the Summer Love Song’s true role is to carry the moment into the future, not as history, but as a madeleine of pleasure and heartbreak.”

-Stephan Talty, The No. 1 Summer Song of Love

Stills from Vertigo’s (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) title credits, designed by Saul Bass. Full sequence can be seen here. “My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.” -Saul Bass

Stills from Vertigo’s (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) title credits, designed by Saul Bass. Full sequence can be seen here.

“My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.”

-Saul Bass

Marlene by Brassaï (1937) “You are getting so beautiful they will have to make passport pictures of you 9 feet tall. What do you really want to do for a life work? Break everybody’s heart for a dime? You could always break mine for a nickel and I’d bring the nickel.” -Ernest Hemingway in a letter to Marlene Dietrich (1950)

Marlene by Brassaï (1937)

“You are getting so beautiful they will have to make passport pictures of you 9 feet tall. What do you really want to do for a life work? Break everybody’s heart for a dime? You could always break mine for a nickel and I’d bring the nickel.”

-Ernest Hemingway in a letter to Marlene Dietrich (1950)