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

Morgana King - I Know How It Feels To Be Lonely

Julie Harris & Richard Johnson in The Haunting (1963, dir. Robert Wise) (via)

Julie Harris & Richard Johnson in The Haunting (1963, dir. Robert Wise) (via)

Krzysztof Komeda - What Have You Done to Its Eyes? (Rosemary’s Baby: Original Motion Picture Score)

Billie Holiday, 1958. Photographer: Dennis Stock (via) “I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do. Or the word ‘love.’ Maybe I remember what those words are all about. Maybe I’m proud enough to want to remember Baltimore and Welfare Island, the Catholic institution and the Jefferson Market Court, the sheriff in front of our place in Harlem and the towns from coast to coast where I got my lumps and scars, Philly and Alderson, Hollywood and San Francisco, every damn bit of it. All the Cadillacs and minks in the world - and I’ve had a few - can’t make it up or make me forget it. All I’ve learned in all those places from all those people is wrapped up in those two words. You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave. Everything I am and everything I want out of life goes smack back to that.” -Holiday, quoted in Lady Sings the Blues (1956)

Billie Holiday, 1958. Photographer: Dennis Stock (via)

“I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do. Or the word ‘love.’ Maybe I remember what those words are all about. Maybe I’m proud enough to want to remember Baltimore and Welfare Island, the Catholic institution and the Jefferson Market Court, the sheriff in front of our place in Harlem and the towns from coast to coast where I got my lumps and scars, Philly and Alderson, Hollywood and San Francisco, every damn bit of it.

All the Cadillacs and minks in the world - and I’ve had a few - can’t make it up or make me forget it. All I’ve learned in all those places from all those people is wrapped up in those two words. You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave. Everything I am and everything I want out of life goes smack back to that.”

-Holiday, quoted in Lady Sings the Blues (1956)

Billie Holiday - (In My) Solitude

Robert Mitchum in publicity still for Night of the Hunter (1955, dir. Charles Laughton)  “You’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one against the other.” (via)

Robert Mitchum in publicity still for Night of the Hunter (1955, dir. Charles Laughton) 

“You’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil?

H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one against the other.”

(via)

Clark Gable on the set of The Misfits (1961, dir. John Huston) Photographer: Eve Arnold (via)

Clark Gable on the set of The Misfits (1961, dir. John Huston) Photographer: Eve Arnold (via)

Jacques Tati & Billy Kearns in Mon Oncle (1958, dir. Jacques Tati) (via)

Jacques Tati & Billy Kearns in Mon Oncle (1958, dir. Jacques Tati) (via)

Franck Barcellini - Mon Oncle Theme (Mon Oncle: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Tippi Hedren in publicity still for The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) Photo by Philippe Halsman. (via)

Tippi Hedren in publicity still for The Birds (1963, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) Photo by Philippe Halsman.

(via)

Henry Mancini - Main Theme (Sunflower: An Original Soundtrack Recording)

1910’s-era movie theater etiquette Public Service Announcements (via 1,2)

Most early movie theaters had only one projector so “etiquette slides” were used to divert the audience while reels were being changed. These glass slides often featured lighthearted instructions for proper behavior while viewing a film.

Dakota Staton - Misty

Excerpts from Martin Scorsese’s storyboards for the climactic scene in Taxi Driver (1976) (via)

Masaru Sato - High and Low (The Complete Soundtracks of Akira Kurosawa)