Happy Birthday, Claire Trevor

Claire Trevor was one of those excellent-excellent
actresses. She was underrated and often overlooked.
Claire was excellent in Dead End (1937), Stagecoach
(1939), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Raw Deal (1948),
and Key Largo (1948). I read a lengthly interview
where she discussed her drunken has-been singer
part in Key Largo, the role that earned her a Best
Actress Oscar. Film director John Huston kept
telling her that they would dub her singing in the
scene where gangster Edward G. Robinson makes
her sing a song for a drink. Claire knew she couldn't
sing and wanted to make sure her own voice wasn't
used. Huston assured her that they would use a
real singer's voice for the film. On the day they
shot the scene, Huston told her that the dubbing
was canceled and that she would just have to sing
the song herself. Claire's actual singing voice was
perfect for the part of Gaye Dawn, the washed-up
drunken torch singer. Sly old Huston had gotten a
performance out of her that she didn't know she
had in her. That interview, from William M. Drew's
book At the Center of the Frame: Leading Ladies
of the Twenties and Thirties, is fascinating. Reading
her own words helped me appreciate what a quality
actress she was.

Happy Birthday, Claire.

The Nearness of You

I toyed with the idea of calling this "Too Close
For Comfort" or "Close Enough For Comfort"
or "Embraceable You" or something involving
the sense of touch and proximity and so on.
But the song title The Nearness of You came
to me, and I though, yeah, that'll work. So this
new category will be called "Nearness." I don't
have a lot of pictures in this group yet, so I'll
start off slow. . .uh. . .slowly. Whatever.

Cool Jazz and Hot Women

Uhhh...I just needed some excuse to use the title
"Cool Jazz and Hot Women," which just came to mind
somehow. I'm listening to Wes Montgomery's "Bumpin',"
which of course is jazz guitar. Today's forecast is Breezy
and Colder, but it's not as bad as February. Anyway,
maybe I'll do a "Hot Jazz and Cool Women" post at
some future date. It's one of those strange pairings,
like "Good Wine and Bad Women," "High Heels and
Low Blows," or "Long Nights with Short Men."
That sort of thing. If you think of any others, send 'em.

Girls With Pearls #5

A Dip In The Pool

Sometime. . .

Back in early January when my computer was acting up, I described a Claudia Cardinale photo from a 1964 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, and I promised to post it sometime. Well, I guess March is "sometime."

Monster Balls!

Sisterhood of the Silvery Shoes

Happy Birthday, Barbara Luna

March 2nd is Barbara Luna's birthday.
You might remember her from Bonanza,
Death Valley Days, The Untouchables,
Hawaiian Eye, The Wild, Wild West,
Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,
The F.B.I., Mission: Impossible,
Mannix, Police Story, Hawaii Five-O,
Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island,
Hunter, Dallas, or many other TV
shows from the 50s to, well, now.



You can learn more about Barbara at
the Official Barbara Luna Website.
She spells her name "BarBara" now
and offers a large selection of beautiful
photos that she will autograph for you.

Happy Birthday, BarBara Luna!

Hollywood Harem #6

Silly White Eyes #4

Blythe Danner & Jane Alexander

I used to confuse the very talented actress Blythe Danner with the very talented actress Jane Alexander. I don't know why. I think maybe it's because they both played rather plain women who could sometimes look so utterly beautiful.



My favorite Blythe Danner role is one she did on "The More I See You" episode of M*A*S*H. I also liked her a lot in Hearts of the West (1975) and The Great Santini (1979). She's won awards for her work on Broadway. She's the mother of somebody famous, too.
__________




My favorite Jane Alexander movie is The New Centurions (1972). I also liked her in All the President's Men (1976) and Playing for Time (1980). She's won awards for her work on Broadway. She is NOT Gwyneth Paltrow's mom.
__________
Interestingly enough, both Blythe Danner and Jane Alexander got their first jobs on the revolutionary half-hour 1967-69 TV cop show N.Y.P.D., Jane in a 1969 episode called "The Night Watch" and Blythe in a 1968 episode called "Day Tripper."