Hair-raising Tales

THE POUF

Léonard Autié (Monsieur Léonard) was the imaginative 18^th century hairdresser responsible for creating the wildly elaborate coiffures of Marie Antoinette. The rococo hairstyles he concocted during her heyday were called poufs, and several of the fantastical coifs he whipped up for her rose 36 inches or more from the top of her head.  In her offbeat and whimsical Encyclopedia of the Exquisite, Jessica Kerwin Jenkins describes one of Autié’s first important hairstyles for Marie Antoinette, the pouf d’ inoculation - a celebration of Louis XIV’s vaccination: “a rising sun and a serpent holding a club as he shimmied up an olive tree nestled into her hair. The sun symbolized the king. The olive tree stood for peace. The slinky serpent represented medicine, with its club to clobber disease.”

SPELLBINDER: The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Hollywood films about Hollywood behind the scenes didn’t begin or end with Vincente Minnelli’s The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), but none has painted a more glamorous/gimlet-eyed portrait or better mirrored the town’s notion of itself at a particular moment. It was mid-20^th century, just as the old order - the studio system - was about to collapse. David Raksin, composer of the film’s sinuous score, characterized this cinematic self-reflection as “…an affirmative appraisal, one that captures the spirit of the time and place with cunning eloquence; and when it looks at the scars and wrinkles, it is with a lover’s eye. In 1952 we were still infatuated with our little world…”

About Memory, Movies, More...

I’ve been noticing lately that my mind has developed a stubborn habit of drifting, and one of the places it seems to wander most often is into that vast mental warehouse where my memories are kept. I would say that this “mind drift” is worrisome except that it is so frequently pleasurable.

For example, the other day I found myself remembering Strawberries Romanoff.

When I was in my 20s and harbored aspirations to be quite a bit more sophisticated than I was, I mastered a few snazzy recipes, simple but compliment-inducing dishes I’d whip up for small dinners or buffet occasions. My default dessert for a while was Strawberries Romanoff. I haven’t made this confection for decades but when the thought of it popped into my head recently so did distinct memories of berries drenched in Grand Marnier being whirled into a mixture of softened ice cream and whipped cream…and served with chilled champagne.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, MUSIC!

 SF SYMPHONY ANNOUNCES 2014/2015 FILM SERIES

Last year the San Francisco Symphony launched its first film series, film nights at Davies Symphony Hall where the classics played onscreen while the orchestra performed their scores live. It was a runaway success, with sold-out screenings and glowing reviews (one of those rave reviews was mine). Thus, the way was paved for another series, and the symphony has just announced the schedule of films set for its 2014/2015 season,"From ruby slippers to Brando at his best, cinematic greats are made even greater when accompanied live by the San Francisco Symphony...":

"Platinum Blonde and Beyond" Revisited for MGM's 90th Birthday

From June 26 - 28, in honor of the 90th anniversary of the founding of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Silver Scenes is hosting the MGM Blogathon. This post, originally published in 2011, has been updated and re-published as my contribution for the blogathon. Click here for links to all participating blogs. 

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FABULOUS FILMS OF THE '50S: THE PAJAMA GAME (1957)

The Classic Movie Blog Association is hosting a Fabulous Films of the '50s blogathon from May 22 - 26. This is my entry for the event - click here for links to all participating member blogs.

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Doris Day began her ascent to fame and fortune as a big band singer in 1939. She scored several million-selling records during her singing career, beginning with "Sentimental Journey," her hit with Les Brown’s band in 1945. Her next million-seller came in 1948 with “It’s Magic,” but her biggest hits were songs from two of her popular mid-‘50s films, “Secret Love” from Calamity Jane (1953) and “Que Sera, Sera” from The Man Who Knew Too Much (1955). Day’s last hit single, Everybody Loves a Lover was released in 1959. Coincidentally, Pillow Talk, a frothy sex comedy, and a new direction in type for her, was also released in 1959 and it would change the course of her career. For the next several years she would reign as queen of the box office starring in bubbly romcoms, most famously opposite Rock Hudson.

While she was still churning out hit records in the '50s, Day starred in a movie that was all but forgotten once her screen persona shifted and she became the wholesome but feisty, stylishly gowned and bouffantly coiffed icon of the early ‘60s. The Pajama Game (1957) is an overlooked and underappreciated pièce de résistance of a musical that contains one of Day’s most captivating performances – along with 11 songs, quite a few of them show-stoppers - and more.

Giveaway: Signed Centennial Limited Edition of Romina Power's "Searching for My Father, Tyrone Power"

Tyrone Power and Loretta Young: The Romantic Comedies of 1937

Once upon a time there was a feudal kingdom known as 20^th Century Fox and in it lived a handsome prince and a beautiful princess… 

A too-fanciful opening? Maybe not, given that the prince and princess in this particular tale are Tyrone Power and Loretta Young. Talented, in the blossom of youth and blessed with storybook good looks, the two were becoming the American equivalent of royalty – Hollywood movie stars - when they first began working together in the 1930s. Under contract to Fox, the pair first shared the screen (along with Janet Gaynor, Constance Bennett, Don Ameche and Paul Lukas), if just barely, in Ladies in Love (1936), a Budapest-set precursor to 1953’s Bacall/Monroe/Grable vehicle How to Marry a Millionaire. The movie was a success, the studio deemed Power and Young a matched set, and in 1937 starred them opposite each other in three lighthearted screwball comedies in rapid succession.

POWER-MAD, the Tyrone Power Centenary Blogathon

He rose to movie stardom at the ripe young age of 22 and remained an international star for another 22 years, until his sudden death in 1958. During those two-plus decades, Tyrone Power was top-billed in hit films of many genres, from romantic comedy to disaster epic, musical, costume drama, western, adventure, wartime drama, swashbuckler, prestige literary adaptation, biopic, courtroom drama and even film noir. He also made time to serve as a pilot in the Marine Corps during World War II and to carve out a stage career for himself after the war. His wedding in Rome to his second wife, Linda Christian, caused a near-riot. When he collapsed and died, at age 44, while filming a King Vidor-directed biblical epic in Spain, it was headline news around the world. His private funeral in Hollywood was attended by filmdom's great luminaries and his burial was a mob scene of frenzied fans.

Today, May 5^th, 2014, marks the 100^th anniversary Tyrone Power’s birth, and my co-host, Patti of They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To, and I are celebrating with this blogathon honoring his life and career.

Click on the links below for contributions from participating bloggers. And thanks to everyone who is taking part for joining in to pay tribute to one of the true legends of Hollywood's Golden Age.

• Barry Bradford (barrybradford.com): The Razor's Edge (1946)
• Citizen Screen: The Black Swan (1942)
• Citizen Screen: Tyrone Power on the Radio
• Classic Film Freak: The Mark of Zorro (1940)
• Crítica Retrô: Lloyd's of London (1936)
• Greenbriar Picture Shows: One Hundred Years of Tyrone Power
• Hamlette's Soliloquy: The Sun Also Rises (1957)
• Immortal Ephemera: The Films of Tyrone Power and Alice Faye
• Java's Journey: Tyrone Power and Deborah Montgomery Minardos
• Kevin's Movie Corner: Son of Fury (1942) 
• Lady Eve's Reel Life: The Romantic Comedies of Tyrone Power and Loretta Young
• Lasso the Movies: Jesse James (1939)
• Laura's Miscellaneous Musings: This Above All (1942) 
• Movie Classics: Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
• The Nitrate Diva: Day-Time Wife (1939) 
• Phantom Empires: King of the Khyber Rifles (1953)
• Shadows and Satin: Blood and Sand (1941)
• Sidewalk Crossings: Crash Dive (1942)
• Silver Screen Modes: Johnny Apollo (1940)
• Slightly Shabby: Marie Antoinette (1938)
• They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To: Abandon Ship (1957)
• They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To: Happy 100th Birthday, Tyrone Power
• Thrilling Days of Yesteryear: Nightmare Alley (1947) 
• Twenty Four Frames: Rawhide (1951) 
• Tyrone-Power.com/Movie Memories: A Very Special Memorabilia Collection
• Tyrone-Power.com/Movie Memories: Tyrone Power, King of the Disaster Movies
• Tyrone-Power.com/Movie Memories: Supercouples: Tyrone and Annabella, Tyrone and Linda

In addition, today Movies, Silently takes a look at one of the silent films of Tyrone Power, Sr., Sweet Alyssum (1915), released when Ty, Jr. was just a year old...