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Gossip Friday: The Perfect Man
From November 1936: Virginia Bruce, who is seen with filmland’s most eligible young men, enjoys a variety of escorts, because, she says, “No one man combines all the qualities I like.” The perfect escort, according to the Hollywood actress, would have to possess the best points of the men. She lists them: Robert Taylor to make all the other girls jealous. Jack Dempsey for protection. Clark Gable for his manly characteristics. Noel Coward for his wit. Fred Astaire as a dancing partner. George Bernard Shaw for his intelligent conversation. William Powell for his spontaneous good humor. James Stewart for his lack of affectation. Cesar Romero for his polished manners. Francis…
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September Movie of the Month: Dancing Lady (1933)
In 1933, Clark was in a musical–but no singing and dancing for him…just brooding and yelling. In Dancing Lady, Clark is Patch Gallagher, a short-fused Broadway producer who hires down-on-her-luck ex-burlesque dancer Janie Barlow (Joan Crawford) for the chorus line of his latest show. Janie is constantly pursued by a rich playboy admirer, Tod Newton (Franchot Tone). Patch begins to have feelings for plucky Janie, but grows bitter as it becomes obvious she is wrapped up with Tod. When he promotes her to the lead in the production, Tod becomes impatient (Janie said she’d marry him if the play fell through) and pays off the Broadway powers-that-be to shut the play…
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{Hollywood} Hollywood Boulevard
The infamous Hollywood Boulevard is about what you would expect: a mix of the old and the new, with buildings like Grauman’s Chinese and the El Capitan Theater sharing sidewalk space with the Kodak Theater and an H&M. The streets filled with hundreds of fans, milling the street taking photos, and hundreds of vendors harrassing you at every turn to buy their stuff or take their tour. An obvious place to start here is Grauman’s Chinese Theater. They do offer tours inside this historic theater, but we did not take one. Instead, we milled around outside and compared our hands to celebrities. Here is Clark Gable, whom I must say had very…