Star Museum

All hail Bardot.
Less of an actress than a flagrant happening, she foreshadowed the 60’s before flowered. Brigitte had a liberated attitude about freedom yet allowed herself to be used by the predatory, mediocre Roger Vadim. (She would not be the last of his obsessions.)
Vadim’s And God Created Woman made Brigitte into a cultural phenomenon, while Godard’s Contempt cemented her legend, opening with Bardot’s nudity reclining across an enormous CinemaScope screen. Workdwide cages were properly rattled.
Contempt (a Carlo Ponti/joseph Levine production—-Sophia’s husband and a hardcore showman) is the filmmaker’s confession of marriage to an actress. The moving image of Bardot is splendidly sensual, yet the film displays her without affection.
Bardot’s image was hedonistic with a touch of the surly, best early on. She became increasingly mechanical on film, like she’d rather be saving animals.
The sun, the smoking, the lowering of the curtain on Cote d’Azur amour, gave her the freedom to let herself unravel as she protected and preserved so many of God’s creatures. Sadly, letting herself go seems also to have brought some dire politics and misogynistic observations of her own.
A boss of mine recalled seeing her on the Cote. The tumbled golden mop—-a woman falling not out of bed but the cabana—-the little, checked off-the-shoulder blouses that showed tummy, the short-shorts, barefoot, tanned, carrying a few francs tucked in her Gitanes (a cigarette brand that translates to ‘gypsy women’), jumping into a sportscar.
“Pouty, defiant; not really beautiful, but very pretty and exciting. I could see what all the fuss was about. She was utterly fabulous.”

A still image from my collection showing a young Judy Garland dreading MGM’s Thanksgiving publicity machine.
Grown male turkeys are hell on clawed feet, fanning those tail-feathers before going off.
Trust this holiday that u got turkey; he didn’t get u.

God rest this extraordinary, valiant, steadfast public servant.

This is 4 my late, beloved Cheri, on Judy's 100th Birthday weekend.
x+x-

On Judy Garland’s 100th birthday, Her Impact Still Resonates On what would have been Judy Garland’s 100th birthday, NBC’s Harry Smith looks at her lasting legacy and what made her an important icon and heroic figure fo...

A final sextet: Ava Gardner, Tom & Jerry; Esther Williams, Janis Page, Jayne Mansfield, Barbara Eden & early Marilyn Monroe.

Six more: Shirley Temple, Ann Sheridan, Gloria DeHaven, Esther Williams, teen Shirley Temple & Adele Jergens.

A few classic Hollywood greetings of the season: Mary Philbin (silent screen actress who unmasked Lon Chaney's 'Phantom), Janis Carter, Judy Garland (in Dorothy's costume), Esther Williams, Doris Day & Jeanne Crain.

Recommended:

Documentary - Hedy Lamarr (Extraordinary Women 2011)

Miraculous Hedy Lamarr! It's this Scorpio siren's 107th birthday.
At her peak she was considered the world's most beautiful woman, but her screen reign was really 2 support her inventor streak.
One of her inventions is what Wi-Fi is descended from. So this post comes 2 u via Hedy!

Veronica Lake, star of 'I Married a Witch.'

This first medley slays!

Ann-Margret - The Look of You & Put A Little Love In Your Heart 2 more songs from Ann-Margret! For all those who requested it, and for some who didn't. Enjoy!

Remembering master director Alfred Hitchcock, on his birthday, and his daughter, Patricia, who passed into spirit this past week. Her name is on this receipt for donating this Hitchcock portrait, and a suite of monogrammed table napkins, to the Salvation Army.
The portrait is in oils, and features elements of Hitch's films in the background. It was painted in occupied Germany in 1945.
Pat was featured in several of her father's films, and became keeper of the flame after his passing.