Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

"Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world."
— Marilyn Monroe

Rhinestone accessories worn by Marilyn

Salut Mes Amis!  I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I posted (here) this weekend about my visit to historic Max Factor Building a few weeks ago. I went to see the Jean Harlow exhibit that is currently showing there. Little did I know that the museum holds a very large collection of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia. The collection is so large and so diverse, I just couldn't believe what I had stumbled upon! I have been a huge Marilyn Monroe fan since I was in Fourth grade, sick and at home from school, my Mother and I sat down to watch Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I will never forget sitting in front of that TV and wanting to be just like her. She was pure magic on the screen and thus the obsession with old movies, vintage, and glamour began...

Marilyn's bustier from How to Marry A Millionaire

As I mentioned in the last post Mr. Max Factor had four different celebrity make-up rooms dedicated to the stars and designed to enhance a persons beauty by using his theory of Color Harmony. The first room we entered was the "For Redheads only" room. The room is done is shades of Mint Green and had Lucille Ball's personal items as well as Rita Hayworth's. I couldn't have been more excited...or so I thought! The next room was the "For Blondes Only" room. To my excitement and surprise, the entire room was Marilyn! Done in soft shades of Blue, the room contained so many incredible items that had belonged to THE Blonde herself. 

Actual prescription medication belonging to Marilyn Monroe (Wow)!

There in the cases of that gorgeous Blue room (which by the way is not an attractive hue for this Brunette) are studio contracts, handwritten notes, photos, gloves, jewelry, receipts, and so much more, all belonging to that famous blonde Marilyn. There is another large case with one of her dresses and a pair of shoes, and yet another case full of newspapers from the day she died, the prescription medication above, a certified copy of her autopsy, photos from the scene the police found that day, etc. 

The entire makeup table set up with Marilyn's own personal (used) make-up

Her famous makeup case

As I walked out of the room, I thought "Wow, that was amazing, I can't believe I just saw all of those items. I'm so lucky". We walked up the stairs to the first exhibit level and it was more Marilyn! They had her 1961 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine given to her by the studio. Mr. Zanuck presented Marilyn with a Silver Tiffany key chain engraved with her initials. In the back seat they had her pillow used in the limo and a pair of gloves. They also had an original nude calendar, hundreds of photos and magazine covers, personal notes and multiple checks and receipts (lots for vodka, bourbon, and champagne) including the very last check she wrote (it was to her housekeeper). 

Her 1961 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine

The collection is so extensive and so interesting, I could not possibly write about it all here. It was so interesting to see and so incredible to be in the presence of all of this Hollywood glamour!  Of course in addition to all of the Marilyn they had Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Elvis, Judy Garland, Desi and Lucy, Mae West, Rudolph Valentino (another fave of mine), Doris Day, Lana Turner, the list is endless.

The stockings she wore in this famous photo shoot

I wish I could fit all of the photos from the exhibit here but the post would go on for days. 

Her famous Korea/Honeymoon dress

Have a wonderful week! 

XOXO

Glamorous Hollywood

~~"Want to be an actor? Call Mr. Factor!" ~Original lyrics from the song Hooray for Hollywood~~

~This photo from the Hollywood Museum website *The lobby~

Hello! As usual, I have been missing you all! I am so excited about sharing this post with you. A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go to the Hollywood Museum with my Best Friend. I specifically wanted to go for a Jean Harlow exhibit that is on display there celebrating what would be her 100th birthday, little did I know what gold lies inside those doors. The museum is located in the historic Max Factor Building and I was awestruck from the moment I set foot in there! 

The Max factor building is a gem that sits right off of Hollywood Blvd.  just steps away from amazing places like the Roosevelt, El Capitan, and those famous footprints in the forecourt of Sid Grauman's Chinese theatre. Stepping through the heavily marbled entryway and into this historic building was like stepping back in time to the 1930's and that glorious Golden Age of Hollywood.

~The "Brownettes" Soft Peach colored room. Judy Garland is featured here~

The lobby is basically unchanged from those golden days. It is a polished Art Deco jewel, a rose colored oasis of endless lavish marble, crystal chandeliers, soft hues, and tropical palms. The Max Factor studio contains four special celebrity make-up rooms, each designed to bring out the best in women of a particular hair color: The first is marked "For Blondes Only" (and is done in shades of blue); another for redheads (in mint green), for brunettes (rose pink), and the brownettes (pale peach). These special rooms have been painstakingly preserved, and are complete with the original make-up chairs, lighting, furnishings, and  multi-angled mirrors. They are also outfitted with display cases full of notable clients personal make-up and personal belongings. Some of the legendary clients featured are Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Rudolph Valentino, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Lucille Ball, Claudette Colbert, Norma Shearer, and Bette Davis. I was inches away from Joan Crawford's false eyelashes (used!) Marilyn Monroe's bustier, and Elizabeth Taylor's belongings. 

Sitting in the makeup chair

It is said that Jean Harlow's hair was first dyed platinum in these rooms and that the color was created specifically for her, as is the story with Marilyn's hair, Joan Crawford, and Claudette Colbert. 

One of Judy Garlands pairs of Ruby Red Slippers  from the Wizard of Oz

I cannot even begin to scratch the surface of what this incredible museum contains and the history behind Mr. Factor and his empire. There are endless incredible pieces of Hollywood history here. The Marilyn Monroe collection alone is worth it. I am going to do a separate post just on her memorabilia at the museum tomorrow. They have a Mae West collection, Elvis items, Lucy and Desi, Shirley Temple, Clara Bow, Carey Grants Rolls Royce....Really it is endless! So, instead of boring you with more photos and my rambling I will leave you photo from the Jean Harlow exhibit I originally went to see. Until tomorrow! XOXO!

~~~All photos taken by me and property of Paris Atelier unless otherwise noted~~~

Ziegfeld Follies

"Fred Astaire: Here's to the beautiful ladies, Here's to those wonderful girls, Adele's and Molly's, Lucille's and Polly's. You'll find them all at the Ziegfeld Follies."

 Cyd Charisse in the 1945 Hollywood musical ~ Ziegfeld Follies

Bonjour chéris! I just finished watching that amazing movie Ziegfeld Follies. I am still trying to catch my breath! The costumes, the dance routines, the stars...Oh my!

Dolores Costello ~ Ziegfeld Girl

 The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions, inspired by the Folies Bergéres of Paris, on Broadway in from 1907 through 1931.

Ziegfeld Girl

The Follies were extremely lavish revues that included many of the days most popular performers. The Follies may have been most known for the beautiful girls that graced the stage.

 Lilyan Tashman ~ Ziegfeld Girl

These girls were known for always being decked out in the most elaborate and beautiful costumes. The costumes were often made by designers such as Erté, Lady Duff Gordon, and Ben Ali Haggi. The next morning the talk of New York would always be the ensembles.

The glorious Louise Brooks ~ She was a featured dancer for the Follies in 1925

I love that the movie includes some actual numbers from the original Follies shows on Broadway and showcases so many of Hollywood's brightest stars of the time. It is such an over the top spectacle that it just makes you feel like dancing!

Stay tuned for an incredible giveaway in the next few weeks and a post about my first trip to an auction & the goodies I brought home. I can't wait!

                                    

Old Hollywood Glamour

Ditas collection of pointe shoes used in her performances

Bonjour! I had so much fun with the last post filled with corsets and feminine frills that I decided to post about the Queen of corsets and femininity...Dita Von Teese.

 An outfit used in her carousel horse act as displayed in her home

I thoroughly enjoyed the Dita feature in February's In Style showcasing her home. I love the way she lives and enjoys all of her vintage treasures daily. She really is a throwback to that glamorous age in Hollywood. She is rarely without her pinup Red lips and stockings.

The article was fascinating and the photos were glorious! If you have not seen it I highly encourage you to check out the pictures. They just ooze glamour, vintage swank, and retro beauty.

A small portion of Ditas vintage hat collection. She owns more than 300!

After that Jean Harlow~esque spread in In Style I searched for more photos of her "Old Hollywood" home. Unfortunately, these were all of the photos I could find.

Ditavonteesefan.net

I recently purchased her Burlesque book on Amazon and I have to tell you, it's gorgeous. The photos are over the top glamour and luxury. The content is well written and had me enthralled.

Beautiful Kodak 1922 Kodachrome Film Test

This Film Test is so neat! I just love the rich, beautiful colors and the fashion! I am loving that fabulous hat with the hanging accents. Enjoy!

Obsessing Over...

I'm loving Douglas Friedman right now! I've always been a fan but lately have a renewed interest in his work.

He is a genius! I am always so in awe of such incredible talent. The images, the whimsical and lavish subjects, they all make my heart skip a beat.

Could you just imagine waking up to this!?! Hmmm....decisions, decisions!

His portraits never disappoint.

and the celebrity homes he photographs are incredible!

He has done a lot of shots for In Style magazine, including the Christina Aguilera and Fergie shoots that had everybody buzzing. A girl could get lost in his imaginative and vivid world!

Saving Hollywoodland....

Size: 138 acres


Location: Between the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley See map

Recreation Value: bordered by Griffith Park and frequented by hikers and other lovers of sweeping LA basin views.

Habitat Value: rare ecosystem, home to butterflies, the coast horned lizard, and the Plummer's mariposa lily.

Best-known human feature: The Hollywood Sign

That Cahuenga Peak has remained undeveloped to this day is a lucky result of Howard Hughes' difficulty with women. A remnant open space in a spreading sea of development, the peak had already become famous as a backdrop for the Hollywood Sign when the famed industrialist, aviator, and film producer bought it in 1940. Hughes planned to build a mansion for his girlfriend, famed film star Ginger Rogers, whom he intended to marry.

But the relationship failed before the house got built. The reason for the breakup was Hughes’s indiscreet infidelity. Rogers dumped Hughes as he lay in a hospital bed after a serious car crash. She returned all of his gifts of jewelry in a basket before hurling her emerald engagement ring at him.

Huges died in 1976, and the land remained in his estate for another 20 years. In all that time--sixty years total-- hikers drifted over from Griffith Park, butterflies bred in the chamise, and lizards scuttled beneath the chaparral. The city expanded to the edge of the peak, making it even more valuable as a rare close-to-home open space. And the Hollywood Sign and its undeveloped backdrop became a symbol of fame, fortune, and infinite opportunity--the Hollywood Dream.

In 2002, the Hughes estate put 138-acre Cahuenga Peak on the market, presenting a rare opportunity to protect a large, iconic open space in the heart of the nation's most densely settled region. The City of Los Angeles hoped to purchase the land as a natural extension of Griffith Park. But at the height of the real estate market, fundraising fell short, and a development group from Chicago scooped up the property and secured rights to build several estates along the ridgeline.

With the land subdivided, it was again listed for sale in 2008 for $22 million--and once again it seemed that there might be a chance to protect it. In April 2009, The Trust for Public Land secured a one-year option to purchase the property with the hopes of preserving it for generations to come. And because of the falling real estate market, this second chance comes at a very reasonable price of $12.5 million, a little more than half of what the land was listed for in 2008.

Visit back tomorrow for a fun post about the history of the sign and some amazing pics. Thank you!

For more information about the campaign and how to help, please visit SaveHollywoodland.org 

This is the listing for the property, pretty incredible.

 

Reblogged Via SaveHollywoodLand.org

Halloween...Old Hollywood Style

Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow at Truman Capote's famous Black and White Masked Ball

Image via Berkley Library

Hello Friends!!! With Halloween (it is one of my very favorite holidays) swiftly approaching I thought it would be fitting to do a post on some of the glamorous stars of Hollywood dressed up in costume.

I adore this image of Cary Grant, Mary Pickford, Countess de Frasso, and Trullio Carminati at the Vendome Cafe in Hollywood for a costume party

Image via Corbis Images

I would imagine that after dressing in costume all day long for a movie the last thing I would want to do is dress up for a party, well not these fabulous stars! Here are some great images of some of Hollywood's brightest stars in disguise, enjoy!

Clark Gable, Carol Lombard, and WR Hearst

Image via Friends of 415

It seems as though Marion Davies (lover to WR Hearst, that is another post altogether!) threw some of Hollywood's most lavish and exquisite parties! Oh to be a fly on the wall at one of those extravaganzas! Only the most elite and powerful in Hollywood and the publishing business were allowed access to these amazing (often costume) events.

Gloria Swanson, Marion Davies, Constance Bennett, and Jean Harlow at a party at the Marion Davies Beach House in the early 1930's

Image via Robin Chapman News

They say that Marion threw over 100 of these lavish parties over the course of her famous relationship with the newspaper magnate.

Janet Gaynor decked out at a costume fete
Image via Give me the Good Old Days




One of my faves, Lucille Ball at a costume gala
Source unknown

The adorable Claudette Colbert dressed as Scarlett O'Hara!

Image via Classic Movie Favorites



Could you just imagine getting a gorgeous invitation to a fabulous Hollywood costume party and then prancing over to your favorite wardrobe department to request an outfit! Heaven!

My all time favorite "Tramp" Charlie Chaplin dressed as Napoleon for a WR Hearst party
Via Wikipedia



I am so in the mood for Halloween now! I can't wait to don my 40's glamour girl costume (seriously that's my costume this year) and paint the town Red, after I take my little Prince Trick-or-Treating that is. I have my vintage jewelry, vintage shoes, a satin evening gown, vintage opera gloves, and instructions for a fabulous hair do ready to go!

Joan Crawford all gussied up for a party

Source Unknown

For those of you celebrating Halloween this year Be safe and Be Glamorous!

Thank you so much for the always too sweet comments, and support, you are the best!!!!

XOXO

Judith~

Hello Friends! As promised the fabulous Annie Leibovitz images from the infamous "Killers Kill, Dead Men Die". movie that Leibovitz captured for the 2007 Vanity Fair Hollywood issue. They may have already been around the blog world and they may be a few years old, but I believe they are so beautiful and relevant that I had to share them again. Enjoy! I added some great print from the Vanity Fair issue about the original idea and film below...P.S. I am dying over the gorgeous wallpaper in the above photo!

*Sigh* a smokey nightclub filled with gorgeous and mysterious characters. The slinky gowns and a cigarette girl, and men in tuxs! What more could you ask for!?!

"A clean print of the lost film noir classic Killers Kill, Dead Men Die was miraculously discovered at a Mulholland Drive lawn sale last month, resolving a mystery that has transfixed noir fans for decades. Little was known about the film for certain, though it has been the subject of wild rumors ever since the screenplay was written, probably in 1942, by Raymond Chandler (based on “The Big Blood,” a story by James M. Cain, and later revised, as No Orchids for Oscar, by Dashiell Hammett and William Faulkner).

It is believed that Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum were originally cast in the roles of private detectives Oscar Slade and Dan O’Bannion, only to be replaced, several years later, by Sterling Hayden and Glenn Ford, and then—most intriguingly—by Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. We know that Lauren Bacall loved the original script. But she passed her troubled-heiress role to Barbara Stanwyck when Fritz Lang replaced John Huston as director. (Lang later ceded to Stanley Kubrick, who let Joseph Losey take over when RKO sold the project to Republic Studios.) It is suspected that additional scenes were shot with Joan Crawford, Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Lee Marvin, Gloria Grahame, Ida Lupino, and Jimmy Stewart throughout the 1950s, when the picture was known by its two shooting titles, Dame Danger and He Died by Murder. After acquiring the Republic library in the 1980s, Ted Turner reportedly planned a colorized version of the film, which, curiously, is one of the few noirs actually shot in color. In this period certain scenes are also thought to have been reshot with Kathleen Turner, William Hurt, Melanie Griffith, and Michael Paré, under the direction of Brian De Palma. Based on a close examination of the newly discovered film stock (and the movie’s credit sequence, opposite), several noir scholars have even gone as far as to suggest that the picture was not completed until this year.It’s too bad, since this delay has deprived us of viewing an undeniable film noir classic. Every element of the genre is here: The Femme Fatale, sultry, scheming, and doped up on tranquilizers; The Private Dick, crawling through the gutter in search of a diamond garter; The Chanteuse and The Champ; The Doll and The Aristocrat; The Spy who knows too little and The Moll who knows too much; mistaken identity and double indemnity; high life and low society; shocking—though possibly nonsensical—plot turns; despair, lust, blood violence, and the cruel fist of fate. Finally, lurking in the shadows behind all this is the menacing figure of The Killer. And what does he do? Why, he does what all killers do: he kills.

~Excerpt from Vanity Fair

A Technicolor Dream World

The incredible Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe in Gentleman Prefer Blonds

I've been a little obsessed with these fabulous Technicolor wonders lately.

Hi Friends!!! I've been working on my surprise for you all and this post is a little clue! These movies and so many more, have always inspired me and they take me to a more glamorous and refined time. A time not so long ago, filled with glitz, glamour, and enough fashionable movie stars
to light up the nights sky!

Grace Kelly (who after all married a French Prince)

The colors and feeling invoke a sense of richness and luxury to me.

America's favorite mermaid Esther Williams

Why is it that my hair and make-up never look like this when I swim? Movie magic!

Doris Day

I love all of the Doris Day movies. Especially the Rock Hudson (va va voom) ones!
Her ensemble is another clue...

The beautiful Betty Grable

Betty Grable movies are always magical! If I catch one on TCM I'm hooked. So down to earth and the fashions are always mind blowing! Oh to be a fly in Edith Heads
office!

Diana Dors

How Amazing is this bed!?! If you love it...keep watching out for my surprise, you will not be disappointed! ;)

I LOVE Carmen Miranda! Her joy of life and her sunny personality always make me smile! What a woman!

The incredible and classic Audrey Hepburn. What more can I say that hasn't already been said so eloquently by so many. A true icon.

Ava Gardner and her turbulent life. Her work is wonderful and her beauty is timeless.

I love the hat!

Betty Grable in Moon over Miami. I LOVE this movie and again those costumes are to die for!!!! I know I'm crazy but I'm in love with the chair in the back ground :)

Because I have not done a true French post in a while. An American in Paris with Gene and Leslie! I'm a sucker for this movie. Look at those flowers (another clue).

This is a rare 1930's movie and for the life of me I can't remember the name of it right now. I'll update the post when it pops into my head in the middle of the night! I just love the bathing suits.

Esther Williams again proving going to the pool can be as glamorous as going to a ball. Look at that beautiful monogrammed cover up. What a wonderful idea and the colors!

Marilyn and the diamonds! I have always loved the quote from Gentlemen Prefer Blonds where she exclaims that she loves finding new places to wear diamonds! Anytime my husband has ever given me jewelry I just want to blurt it out! I know I'm a little nuts.

I just love this image of Carmen Miranda via Worth 1000.com. It gives me ideas for a Halloween costume! :) Those nails!

Another image of Betty Grable. Makes me want to dance my worries away.

One of my all time favorite movies is Singing in the Rain. This scene is fabulous!

Another short post for you today, but don't worry, I'll be back in full force in the coming weeks!

Have a fantastic Thursday!

xoxo

~Judith~