Small danger of fruit frost

I had several pictures of bathing beauties in the running for this final week in July. Maybe I should continue the theme for August - what do you think?

In the end, I decided on this one because I think she has to be one of the most unbelievably gorgeous women that ever lived: Gloria DeHaven.

from Doctor Macro

On the one hand, if you go searching for classic beauties in bathing suits, your search will be pretty easy. On the other hand, a lot of the photos were just excuses to show off nice bodies and so there's very little work in the lighting and setup that I love so much in old glamor photos. I also have a small opposition to colored photos - this isn't a sweeping and all-consuming fact; but I do love black and white photos better, typically.

P.S. The line in my title has always confused me. Is Marilyn saying that there is a danger of fruit frost, but it's small, or is she saying it's so hot there's no danger of something like fruit frost. I'd guess the latter but it's supposed to be in a weather report, which doesn't seem like the right place for sarcasm. Or maybe I'm the only one confused here.

Sun-tanned, wind-blown...

okay, well, not really wind-blown, but you get the picture. The perfect Grace Kelly in a picture from High Society.

Her anatomy makes the mercury rise to 93

I thought of doing the famous photo shoot with the red and white polka dot umbrella, but decided to go with this cute black and white shot from Monkey Business instead. Although, any picture of her is pretty much perfect. She's so cute!

found on Doctor Macro

Gee, gee, gee...

It seems that photographers loved to take photos of Cyd Charisse at odd angles and interesting poses, but this one of her in a bathing suit is simply sweet and lovely. She was often cast in femme fatale type roles, like her performances in the "Broadway Melody ballet" from Singin' in the Rain, the "Girl Hunt ballet" from The Band Wagon, and the "Frankie and Johnny" number in Meet Me In Las Vegas, so this picture is a refreshing change. Cyd Charisse seems way too nice to have actually been much of a femme fatale, don't you think?

Photo from Doctor Macro

The temperature's rising

Happy July everybody! I thought it would be an appropriate theme for July to have some lovely ladies enjoying the summer weather! Here's the one and only Ginger Rogers. I wish I could tell you where I found the picture. I'm really bad at that.

Ah, the tall tinker.

As if Errol Flynn could disguise his beautiful self from anyone. Psh. I do enjoy this costume. He looks so dashing in it, don't you think? I found this one at the TCM archives.

Two for tea.

I love this photo!!! I'm really not sure where I found it though. I might have found it at that wonderful tumblr blog as well. It's so perfect!

I must be quite a guy.

I found this (and a whole bunch of equally delicious photos) on a wonderful tumblr account. I stumbled onto it when I was looking for production photos of Mary Poppins. I wound up spending a good hour or two scrolling through the infinity that is tumblr, discovering photo after wonderful photo. This was one of them. I was pretty excited because I've had a hard time finding good photos of Gene Kelly. I guess it's just a matter of looking in the right places.

How long has this been going on?

I really don't know where I found this photo. I think I stumbled upon it when I tried to look up a different picture of Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn but I just think it's one of the cutest and funniest pictures ever.

You're my favorite woman

My favorite married couple: Nick and Nora!

This photo is from the TCM archives.

You kiss while you're dancing

I love them so much! And this picture is just perfection.

Imperial princess of the night...

Rudolph Valentino? Why, of course! A great start to Valentine's Day week!



P.S. Anyone get the title?

P.P.S. While we're on the subject of famous silent lovers, you should definitely take a gander over to iamemma.blogspot.com and listen to Emma's most recent podcast. It's laugh-out-loud hilarious and it's romantic! Yay!

Then you do love me, don't you? Don't you?

It's February - the month of love. And what better couple to kick it off with than Errol and Olivia in one of my favorite kiss photos ever!!

It will hit the spot

And of course, just because...



Every time I see this picture, I'm amazed by the physics of it. How on earth is he holding her by her fingers like that? Incredible!

I've kicked Longchamps out

Yet another gem from the TCM archives. This one is from the set of The Adventures of Robin Hood. I love his expression in this photo and I really love the "No Smoking" sign in the background. Classic.

found here

Seriously, if you haven't had a chance to waste several hours looking at the TCM archives, you should go now. You won't regret it.

The sun's in my heart

Love, love, love this promotional shot of Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly. Is it just me, or is it hard to find good photos of Gene Kelly just dancing? I have the toughest time! Anyway, I found this one in the TCM photo archives and got really excited. I have to say, I'm pretty obsessed with the TCM archives. Be prepared to encounter lots of photos from them. I do have to be careful though because some of them have big disclaimers saying that they're the property of the company and blahblahblah. This one doesn't though. So I'm using it.

found here

My friend lent me her two-disc copy of Singin' in the Rain. I bought the movie before they came out with the special edition and now I really want to buy it! I have a hard time buying movies that I already own though. So, in the meantime, I'm watching hers. I was able to watch a documentary I've wanted to see for a while: Musicals Great Musicals which is a bonus feature in the edition. I'm pretty excited about watching the movie with audio commentary!!

This time is my time

I think you all know by now how much I adore Vic Damone. I mean, look at him! He's so cute!!


I recently finished his autobiography, courtesy of my sister (who discovered it at the library and checked it out for me!). It was probably one of the best autobiographies I've read yet. Myrna Loy is still the best, in my opinion, but Vic Damone's is really up there. I mean, he has so many crazy stories to tell. They're all fascinating. Some of them are sad, but most of his book is pretty upbeat. And a great deal of it is just plain hilarious. I think everyone in my break room thinks I'm crazy by now (if they didn't think so already) because I kept bursting into random laughter and "what?" and "woah! that's crazy." Yeah. I'm a loud reader. Anyway, if you're looking for a good nonfiction book that's upbeat and gives some insight into days past, I recommend Vic's Singing Was the Easy Part.

Also, can we talk for a second about everyone (and I do mean everyone) called Jane Powell, "Janie." I think that says something about her personality if everybody connected with her called her by a nickname like that. Just saying. It's yet another reason to love her (as if I needed one). In his autobiography, Vic Damone talks about his first experience working with her in Rich, Young and Pretty. It was his first film and he was pretty inexperienced. At one point, he started drifting out of viewshot of the camera (he and Powell were supposed to be walking down the street together), and she took his arm, very naturally, and guided him back to where he was supposed to be. How nice is that! She didn't take the opportunity to steal the scene or anything. She was so professional and so nice! I love it!

Happy New Year, everybody!

Hooray for 1927!! Or 2012 or whatever it is.

Why do I believe? I guess that I believe because!

Stumbled upon this gem while perusing through Doctor Macro. Such a cute photo!!

it must be beautiful in Vermont this time of year...

One of my absolute, all-time favorite Christmas movies ever!! White Christmas. It's also one of my favorite songs in the movie and it's probably one of my favorite dance scenes period. I don't know. I should compile a list. But it'd be a long list.

Anyhow... I think this photo is simply spectacular. Don't you?