Here's one of my favorite pictures (above) of Veronica Lake, who sacrificed half her vision to give her fans a new look. Here the hair looks like it's glued on her face...Holy Cow, maybe it was!
Big ears, bare neck and a shaggy poodle skin collar with Frankenstein shoulder pads.
Poodles (above) have great hair...but you know that already.
Here's (above) one of my all-time favorite girl drawings. It radiates humor and energy!
This (above) portrait photo would be a great present if it were larger and framed. Maybe it needs a little cropping on the sides.
I'm speechless!
Sam Shepherd (above) in drag?
I propose that the National Bird Dropping Society use this picture (above) for their logo.
Here's a picture (above) of Camille Claudel, sculptor and mistress of Rodin.
Here's (above) a famous portrait by Edward Weston. Boy, Weston sure could take 'em!
Weston doesn't get near enough credit as a portraitist. Those bell peppers get too much attention!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the cartoon, I think it noteworthy that one of the most overlooked and discouraged (but most feminizing) features of women is a weak chin, or at least a lack of a sharp angle.
ReplyDeleteI think it's discouraged because in old age it turns into a person's waddle/double chin (on men and women both), which I think you can categorize as an entirely different feature that evolves from an entirely different source of wear and tear.
We don't have women in hollywood with faces like this anymore. Back then they knew they had to be beautiful but also be distinctive. Today they want to look the same and weigh 90 pounds soaking wet.
ReplyDeleteHow about that Susan Boyle from Britan's Got Talent? Jesus, how does someone go about being that ugly. You kind of just have to stare at her face in awe of how fucked up someone's genes can be. Good thing she can sing or I'd assume the townspeople would have chased her away with torches and pitchforkes by now. Yeesh.
ReplyDeleteCamille Claudel was hot!
ReplyDelete"who sacrificed half her vision to give her fans a new look" lol
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with you men and our faces? Why can't you value us for things that really matter and lack chauvinistic undertones? Like the ability to cook or sew... no, wait.
The "Sam Shepherd" shot was taken at Bethesda Fountain in New York's Central Park.
ReplyDeleteYes, standards of beauty/style have certainly changed. But don't imagine that actresses back then weren't also 90 lbs soaking wet--that's exactly what Veronica Lake weighed(she was very petite). They were just photographed differently. Also, many actresses were much more petite then overall than now. Ingrid Bergman was something like 5.9" and as beautiful as she was, she was considered something of an ungainly giantess to costume for some designers. Some things don't really change that much.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the Clampett closeup of an insect character, albeit female? I much prefer his Coal Black and other designs to this. Funny and pretty, but mostly pretty. And Tex Avery had fantastic funny women in his cartoons.
I agree with Jenny - there were a NUMBER of actresses back in the 30s and 40s that were really tiny, and just like today, Hollywood put pressure on these women to get that way. Execs thought that Greta Garbo was "too fat" when she first arrived in Hollywood (she was actually quite slim!). Joan Crawford wrote about how execs thought she was "fat" when she arrived in Hollywood (she had an athletic frame from her dancing), and she virtually starved herself with coffee and soda crackers because she was told that if she wanted to be a leading lady, she had to "lose weight".
ReplyDeleteBack to the post - That last picture had me laughing! That girl looked like she wanted to kill someone. The "Sam Shepard in drag" looks really familiar - who is that?
Oscar: You think women are better off with weak chins because they don't deteriorate as much with age? I never heard anyone say that before.
ReplyDeleteRick: True, so true!
Jenny: Insect! Insect!!!??
Jennifer: I don't know who that is, or even where I got the photo. It does look like Sam Shepherd, though.
Interesting about the size of women actresses. There were a number of short men, too. The 3 Stooges, Chaplin, etc.
"that's exactly what Veronica Lake weighed(she was very petite)."
ReplyDeleteWell that's understandable for the smaller women, she wasn't even five feet tall or just about.
The standards Jenny refers to were carried over from the androgynous fashions of the 30's; slim, athletic, boyish build representing the liberated woman - ironic. The 40's movie star look, although more feminine was not complete without a ridiculously cinched in waist (Jessica Rabbit, party of one), which would explain the smaller bmi. At the risk of being controversial I think they looked fine, especially compared to the Twiggy look of the 60's.
ReplyDeleteJenny: Insect! Insect!!!??Yes. I thought this was from Meatless Flyday" or whatever the Clampett cartoon with the spider-woman was?
ReplyDeleteNot just women but most men in Hollywood films were a smaller average height than now. Smaller people (with large heads proportionately) were easier to photograph. Not just Chaplin and the Stooges, but most lead actors weren't super tall by our standards. The exceptions looked really obvious on camera, ex: James Stewart(6'3"), Gary Cooper(6'3"), John Wayne(6'4).
Sorry for off-topic, perhaps, but I just discovered this on The Internet Archive, the only Fleischer Color Betty Boop - she's a red head! - Poor Cinderella and I'd thought I share.
ReplyDeleteThe spider from "Living On The Cuff" is right up there with Olive Oyl, maybe better!
Tom Cruise must be the exception to modern leading men - he is not tall at all but is always photographed tall. He would have fit right in with Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Cagney, sizewise.
Jenny, Robert Mitchum was tall, too!
ReplyDeleteBut I actually find most leading actors are short these days. Tom Cruise, Al Pacino, Matt Damon, Dustin Hoffman. These are all tiny, tiny men with fingers the size of Virginia Slims cigarettes.
Small actors have a crisper timing. They just need a lower camera angle. Stewart, Cooper & Wayne always seemed slower than life in the movies.
ReplyDeleteClint Eastwood (6'4 at his peak), Sean Connery(6'2), and Burt Lancaster (6'1) were classic tall leading men as well.
ReplyDeleteI do notice most leading men are shorter. The tall guys are actually mostly on TV these days.
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ReplyDeletei always wanted to be veronica lake
ReplyDeletePoor Camille. She has one of the saddest stories in all of art history. She really was a great sculptor in her own right. Rodin never committed to her and she got her own studio in 1905. She went a bit insane after that, destroying a lot of her work, claiming that Rodin and his circle were conspiring to kill her and steal her art. In 1913 she was committed to a psychiatric hospital and stayed there until she died in 1943.
ReplyDeleteApparently at some point, her brother (i think) wrote her a letter explaining that Rodin had stopped by her studio. He found him caressing one her sculptures, crying. The letter describes how drastically he had changed in the years since her confinement and how she was only one he ever really loved. (I need to find where I first read that so I can be sure I'm not messing up any facts.)
Like I said, sad, but a really fascinating story.