"Fate seems to send you to me when I most need you, Lord Bracondale".

There's only one good thing about being sick and that is having a excuse to be lazy and sit on the couch and get lost in movies. And that's exactly what I've been doing. I've been really into silent movies lately and I've been dying to see Beyond the Rocks and I was looking around to see if I could download it somewhere and of course I couldn't find anything so then I just when back to IMDB and GUESS WHAT? It said it was going to be on TCM at 6:00am and I was really excited. I don't know why TCM has to put all the good movies on so damn early, but I didn't care because I just had to see it and it was amazing. I was already a fan of Gloria Swanson and I always thought that Rudolph Valentino was so gorgeous, but this movie really made me fall in love with him. I can totally understand why everyone was in love with him in the 20's. I really need to see more of his movies, I just wish that I could find them to download, but I honestly am willing to buy his DVD collection from Amazon.com. Well, anyways I definitely recommend watching this movie, it's a love story and if you love, love story you will love this one. Honestly just buy it, that's how amazing I think it is.

I'll be having a ton of "movie reviews" coming soon. Like I said I've been really in to a bunch of silent movies and there are a ton on Youtube. x

The Black Dahlia.

Elizabeth Short was born on July 29, 1924 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. Her legal name was Elizabeth Short (no middle name). While a child, many called her Betty, and as she matured, she preferred to be called Beth.

She was raised in Medford, by her mother, Phoebe Mae, after her father, Cleo Short, abandoned her and her four sisters in October 1929. Many believing he had committed suicide, as his empty car was found near a bridge. He later sent a letter to his wife, apologizing for leaving. Phoebe refused to allow him to return.

Beth matured quickly. She grew up to become a beautiful teenager - she looked older and more sophisticated than others her age.

As a child, Beth frequently attended movies with her mother. And later, the girl's goal was to work in movies.

Troubled by asthma, Short spent summers in Medford and winters in Florida. At the age of 19, she went to Vallejo, California, to live with her father. The two moved to Los Angeles in early 1943, but after an argument, she departed, getting a job at one of the post exchanges at Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base), near Lompoc. She moved to Santa Barbara, where she was arrested on September 23, 1943 for underage drinking and was sent back to Medford by juvenile authorities. In the few years following, she resided in various cities in Florida, with occasional trips back to Massachusetts, earning money mostly as a waitress.

In Florida, Short met Major Matthew M. Gordon Jr., who was part of the 2nd Air Commandos and training for deployment in the China Burma India theater of operations. Short told friends that Gordon wrote a letter from India proposing marriage while recovering from an airplane crash he suffered while trying to rescue a downed flier. (He was, according to his obituary in the Pueblo, Colorado newspaper, awarded a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, the Air Medal with 15 oak leaf clusters, and Purple Heart). She accepted his proposal, but he died in a crash on August 10, 1945, before he could return to the U.S. She later embellished this story, saying that they were married and had a child who died. Although Gordon's friends in the air commandos confirm that Gordon and Short were engaged, his family subsequently denied any connection after Short's murder.

Short returned to Southern California in July 1946 to see an old boyfriend she met in Florida during the war, Lt. Gordon Fickling, who was stationed in Long Beach. For the six months prior to her death, she remained in Southern California, mainly in the Los Angeles area. During this time, she lived in several hotels, apartment buildings, rooming houses, and private homes, never staying anywhere for more than a few weeks.

Near Santa Barbara was Beth's next stop. It was here where she was arrested for underage drinking. After her arrest and fingerprinting, police instructed the young woman to return home to Medford.

At one time she had gone home for a visit, but Beth was determined to be in movies, and returned to Hollywood.

It was mid-January, 1947, when Beth was last seen alive at the Biltmore Hotel. It was reported that she was to meet a gentleman. After leaving the hotel, she was never again seen alive.

The body of Elizabeth Short was found on January 15th, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, a passerby spotted her nude body in a vacant lot near Hollywood. Her body, cut in half, was bruised and beaten. Grass had reportedly been forced into her vagina, and she had reportedly been sodomized after death, severely mutilated, cut in half, and drained of blood. Her face was slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears.Rumors of henna in her hair and BD carved into her body, as of yet to this outlet, have not been verified.

Elizabeth Short has been famous ever since, not the way she wanted to be as aspiring starlet, but brutally mutilated and murdered, dubbed the "Black Dahlia" by the press.

Resource: wikipedia.org, http://www.bethshort.com/

61 years ago today, Elizabeth Short's body was found. The Black Dahlia case is still unsolved and they never never found Elizabeth Short's killer. It was also one of the most famouse murder mystieres of all time. Want to know more? go to www.bethshort.com or buy some books about the cause and Elizabeth Short. I recommend:

The "Hollywood Sign Girl".

Peg Entwistle (February 5, 1908 – September 16, 1931) was a Welsh-born stage actress and briefly a Hollywood film actress, who achieved notoriety following her suicide.

She was born in Port Talbot, Wales in 1908. Then, she spent her early years in London. After Lillian's mother died in 1926, she left England to pursue an acting career in New York City. Peg's father was killed in a car accident. Her two brothers moved away, but Peg stayed in New York to persue her acting skills at the renowned Theatre Guild. She worked on the stage constantly, however she appeared in a span of 8 consecutive Broadway shows, featured opposite such stars as Billie Burke and Humphrey Bogart. Until the Great Depression hit, she was very successful.

Peg married a young actor named Robert Keith, but the marriage only lasted two years and they were divorced in 1930. Hollywood beckoned and Peg moved to the coast, in fact, moving in with her Uncle Harold at 2428 Beachwood Drive in Beachwood Canyon. Just down the hill from the famous "Hollywoodland" sign.

On May 4, 1932, a Los Angeles paper announced that West Coast producers Edward Belasco and Homer Curran brought Entwistle to Los Angeles to co-star with Billie Burke in the Romney Brent play, The Mad Hopes. It was staged solely as a tryout in preparation for a Broadway opening, then opened to rave reviews on May 23, 1932 at the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles. The Belasco had 1,600 seats but the house was standing-room only to the doors. The Mad Hopes was a hit and closed on June 4, 1932 as scheduled. Theatre critic Flo Lawrence commented:

"...Belasco and Curran have staged the new play most effectively and have endowed this Romney Brent opus with every distinction of cast and direction. (producer) Bela Blau ... has developed the comedy to its highest points. Costumes and settings are of delightful quality, and every detail makes the production one entirely fit for its translation to the New York stage. In the cast Peg Entwistle and Humphrey Bogart hold first place in supporting the star (Billie Burke) and both give fine, serious performances. Miss Entwistle as the earnest, young daughter (Geneva Hope) of a vague mother and presents a charming picture of youth..."

She was set to return to New York when the play closed but Radio Pictures (RKO) called her for a screen test. On June 13, 1932, Entwistle signed a contract for a one-picture deal with RKO Studios and reported early in July to shoot her part as "Hazel Cousins" in Thirteen Women alongside Myrna Loy, Ricardo Cortez and Irene Dunne. (This film is noted to be a seminal contributor to the horror genre.)

The film received poor reviews and negative feedback from test screenings. The studio held it back and eliminated scenes deemed unnecessary to reduce running time, cutting back Entwistle's screen time greatly. The film would premiere after Entwistle's death at the Roxy Theater in New York City on October 14, 1932, and was released on November 11, 1932 to poor reviews.

In the brutal Hollywood summer heat of 1932, her once promising career came to a standstill. Within 5 months from moving to california she found her self without friends, money or hope.

On Friday, September 16, 1932, Peg told Uncle Harold that she was going to walk up Beachwood to meet some friends at the local drug store. However, she climbed all the way up the hill (quite a hike from Beachwood Drive streetlevel) to the Hollywood sign. She climbed up the workman's ladder on the back of the letter "H." Entwistle jumped from the "H" of the Hollywood sign (which then read "Hollywoodland"). Her body would not be found in the 100-foot ravine below until two days later.

"I was hiking near the Hollywoodland sign today and near the bottom I found a woman's shoe and jacket. A little further on I noticed a purse. In it was a suicide note. I looked down the mountain and saw a body. I don't want any publicity in this matter, so I wrapped up the jacket, shoes and purse in a bundle and laid them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station."--- Anonymous female caller to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Acting on an anonymous tip, a detective and two radio car officers found the body of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman who was moderately well-dressed. She remained unidentified until her uncle connected the description and the initials "P.E." on the suicide note in the newspapers with his niece's two-day absence. The LA Times published the note in hopes that she would be identified. She was dubbed "The Hollywood Sign Girl." Her Uncle Harold recognized the initials and identified her body in the morgue.

After identifying her body, Harold Entwistle filled in some of the blanks for authorities and the press. Entwistle was upset at not being able to impress the studios, and told her uncle that she was going to walk to a nearby drugstore and then visit friends. Instead, she made her way up the southern slope of Mount Lee, near her uncle's home, to the foot of the Hollywoodland sign. After placing her coat, shoes and purse containing the suicide note at the base of the sign, she made her way up a workman's ladder to the top of the "H". The cause of death was listed by the coroner as "multiple fractures of the pelvis." Peg Entwistle was just 24 years old when she died.

Peg Entwistle's suicide note read:

"I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E."

Two days later, Entwistle's uncle opened a letter addressed to her from the Beverly Hills Playhouse; it was mailed the day before she jumped. In it was an offer for her to play the lead role in a stage production—in which her character would commit suicide in the final act.

Her funeral was held in Hollywood and the body cremated. Her ashes were later sent to Glendale, Ohio for burial next to her father in Oak Hill Cemetery; her remains were interred on January 5, 1933

People say that Peg still haunts the sign, with her favorite scent, Gardenia.

Resource: wikipedia.org, findadeath.com.

This story always had me interested. I always wondered if there was more to the story, or if she just committed suicide because she wasn't successful. They should write a book about her or maybe even make a movie, I think a lot of people would be interested.

Happy Birthday Norma Shearer!
Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was an Academy Award–winning Canadian-American actress.

Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in the world from the mid-1920s until her retirement in 1942. Her early films cast her as the girl-next-door but after her 1930 film The Divorcee, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies and dramas, as well as several historical and period films.
Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's reputation went into steep decline after her retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was in danger of being known only for her "noble" roles in the regularly-revived The Women and Romeo and Juliet or, at worst, as a forgotten star.

However, Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990's with the publication of two biographies and the TCM and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona, and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards". Simultaneously, Shearer's ten year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized.

Today, Norma Shearer is widely celebrated as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen".

Having become a star, Norma’s new challenge was to remain one. There were many other talented actresses at the studio and she realised she would have to fight hard to stay ahead of the pack. Seeing that sensational newcomer Greta Garbo was one of a kind, she went to Thalberg and "demanded recognition as one of another kind". It was just one of the many visits she paid to his office, always to plead for better material, better parts. Thalberg would listen patiently, then invariably advise Norma to keep toeing the line, that MGM knew best, and that the movies she complained about had made her a popular actress. Occasionally Norma would burst into tears, but this seemed to make “no more impression than rain on a raincoat”.

Privately, Thalberg was very impressed. He admired Norma as a person as well as an actress: responding to her ambition and her capacity for hard work, her intelligence and sense of humour. Most of all, he identified with her determination to overcome physical obstacles that most people would have considered insurmountable. In a story conference, when Norma’s name was suggested to him for the part of a girl threatened with rape, Thalberg shook his head and, with a wry smile, said: “She looks too well able to take care of herself.”

Norma, for her part, found herself increasingly attracted to her boss. “Something was understood between us,” she claimed later, “an indefinite feeling that neither of us could analyse.” Irving’s appeal was not primarily sexual — what attracted Norma was his commanding presence and steely grace; the impression he gave that wherever he sat was always the head of the table. In spite of his youth, Thalberg became a father figure to the 23 year-old actress — the first real candidate for the role in her life.

At the end of a working day in July 1925, Norma received a phone call from Irving’s secretary, asking if she would like to accompany Mr. Thalberg to the premiere of Chaplin’s The Gold Rush. Suspecting that Irving was listening silently on the line, Norma told the secretary she would be delighted. That night, she and Thalberg made their first appearance as a couple.

A few weeks later, Norma went to Montreal to visit her father. While there, she had a reunion with an old school friend, who remembered: “At the end of lunch, over coffee, Norma leant in across the table. “I’m madly in love,” she whispered. “Who with?” I asked. “With Irving Thalberg,” she replied, smiling. I asked how Thalberg felt. “I hope to marry him,” Norma said, and then, with the flash of the assurance I remembered so well, “I believe I will.”

This was no impulsive whim on Norma’s part: she had given the idea years of thought. Love aside, she realized that marriage to the boss was a unique opportunity for her career — her wedding to Irving would, essentially, be a double ceremony, also seeing her crowned Queen of the MGM Lot. She also realized she would have to work quickly, for Irving was not only the youngest member of Hollywood’s ruling class, but also its only bachelor. With the same formidable will that had made her a movie star, Norma began rehearsing for her next assignment, the most important role of her life: Mrs. Irving Thalberg.

She could not afford to be subtle about it. To Joan Crawford, whose humiliating first job at MGM was to double for Norma in 1925’s Lady of the Night, it was obvious that the star was playing up to the boss — and that he was responding. “I don’t get it.” Joan commented. “She’s cross-eyed, knock-kneed and she can’t act worth a damn. What does he see in her?” Possessed of similar ambition and drive, Crawford would go on to become Norma’s chief rival at the studio.

"It is impossible to get anything major accomplished without stepping on some toes. Enemies are inevitable when one is a ‘doer’.” — Norma Shearer

Over the next two years, both Norma and Irving would see other people, but Hollywood insiders knew it was something of a charade — she was just waiting for him to propose. Louise Brooks remembered: “I held a dinner party sometime in 1926. All the place cards at the dinner table were books. In front of Thalberg’s place was Dreiser’s ‘Genius’ and in front of Norma’s place I put ‘The Difficulty of Getting Married’. It was so funny because Irving walked right in and saw ‘Genius’ and sat right down, but Norma kept walking around. She wouldn’t sit down in front of ‘The Difficulty of Getting Married’ – no way!”

Perhaps writer Anita Loos made the most astute comment: “Norma was intent on marrying the boss and Irving, preoccupied with his work, was relieved to let her make up his mind...”

By 1927, Shearer had made a total of thirteen silent films for MGM. Each had been produced for under $200,000 and had, without fail, been a substantial box office hit, often making a $200,000+ profit for the studio. She was rewarded for this consistent success by being cast in Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg — her first prestige production, with a budget of over $1,000,000. Although it was her first film to lose money, it was well received by critics and the public. Today, it is the best remembered of Shearer's silent films (sadly, most of her silent work is considered lost).

While she was finishing ‘The Student Prince’, Norma received a call summoning her to Thalberg’s office. She entered to find Irving sitting at his desk before a tray of diamond engagement rings. Looking up with a smile, he asked her to choose the one she liked best. Norma picked out the biggest.

On 29 September 1927, Norma and Irving were married in the Hollywood wedding of the year.

Norma was married to Irving Thalberg from 1927-1936 and after Thalberg's death, Shearer embarked on romances with the then married actor George Raft, Mickey Rooney, and James Stewart.

Following her retirement in 1942, she married Martin Arrougé (March 23, 1914 - August 8, 1999), a former ski instructor twelve or fourteen years her junior. Confounding the skeptics, they were still happily married at the time of her death (from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease) at 80 years old, although in her declining years she reportedly called Martin "Irving".

Shearer has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6636 Hollywood Boulevard. She is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in a crypt marked Norma Shearer Arrouge, along with her first husband Irving Thalberg. Her friend Jean Harlow is in the crypt next door. Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer.

She would of been 106 years old, if she was still alive today. For more information about her life and career, please visit wikipedia.org! (which is also the resource of this entry).

The New Joan Crawford Fashion Doll - A 16" tall Starlet Legend.

Fashion doll innovator Robert Tonner, CEO of the TONNER DOLL COMPANY, returns one of Hollywood’s greatest treasures to her ardent fans! Named one of the top ten ‘Greatest Female Stars of All Time’ by the American Film Institute, Joan Crawford is sure to be named the Greatest Fashion Doll of All Time by fans and collectors everywhere.

The new Joan Crawford Fashion Doll is accurately sculpted in an amazing likeness of the Academy Award® winner herself, in cooperation with her family. "I am very pleased to work with The Tonner Doll Company in creating the first ever, authorized Joan Crawford doll collection,” said Casey LaLonde, grandson of Ms. Crawford. “Joan Crawford fans and doll collectors worldwide will be equally delighted with this high quality, life-like and collectible doll line. Tonner's attention to detail and features will make this a much sought after collection."

The approximately 16” tall starlet is crafted of fine quality vinyl and hard plastic with 13 points of articulation (neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, bustline, waist, hips, and knees), so she can recreate all of her most glamorous poses before the camera. She features high end details such hand painted facial features and hand styled, rooted saran hair.

TONNER’S Joan Crawford collection will hit specialty retail store shelves later this year. For more information, contact the Tonner Company Store at 845-339-2960.

For more information about Joan Crawford, check out this web site http://joancrawfordma.tripod.com/news.html and more about the doll please visit http://www.roberttonner.com/jcrawford.htm

Resource: TCM.com

Paul Newman says he will die at home

PAUL Newman has finished chemotherapy and has told his family he wants to die at home.

Film star Paul Newman reportedly is suffering from cancer and may only have weeks to live, said a source described as a close family friend.

The Daily Mail newspaper quoted the insider as saying the 83-year-old Oscar winner is done with chemotherapy treatment and has told his family he wants to spend his last days at home.
Yesterday, it was reported in America that Newman, 83, had only weeks to live and had returned home to his wife, Joanne Woodward.

The source, described as a close family friend, said that the star had spent the past few weeks getting his affairs in order.
It was claimed that some of Newman's actions had caused tension among of his children.

"Paul didn't want to die in the hospital," the newspaper quoted the source as saying. "(His wife) Joanne (Woodward) and his daughters are beside themselves with grief. ... He gave a prized car -- a Ferrari with his racing No. 82 on it -- to a longtime pal. The sudden move angered his children. It's especially hard for them to come to grips with what's going on. The word they've been given is that he has only a few weeks to live."

It was reported last month that he had been readying their oldest child, Nell, to take over his Newman's Own salad dressings company, the profits of which are given to a charitable foundation.

Newman and Woodward have been married for 50 years and have three daughters. Newman also has two daughters from a previous marriage.

The Mail said the star of "The Sting," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" has, thus far, declined to comment on reports regarding his health, other than to say he's "doing nicely."

Resource: Google News

I will be totally devastated when he dies! He is one of my favorite and it will just be so sad :-(

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid. - Esther Williams.

Happy Birthday Esther Williams!

Esther Jane Williams (b. August 8, 1921) is a retired United States competitive swimmer and movie star, famous for her musical films that featured elaborate performances with swimming and diving.

Williams was born in Inglewood, California to Bula Myrtle Gilpin and Louis Stanton Williams. She was enthusiastic about swimming in her youth. She was National AAU champion in the 100 meter freestyle. Williams went to Hollywood, where she quickly became a popular star of the 1940s and 1950s. Her brother, Stanton Williams, also had a brief acting career during the 1920s before his untimely death while still a teenager.

She appeared with swimming star Johnny Weismuller in Billy Rose's "Aquacade" during the San Francisco World's Fair, 1939-41, where she first attracted attention from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts, as she noted in her autobiography. She also had to fend off the amorous attentions of Weismuller, whom she said acted as if he were Tarzan on and off the screen.

The scene most people associate Esther Williams with is the famous and often spoofed grand water ballet finale in Bathing Beauty (1944). Several moments, such as the swimmers who dive past one another in the pool, the moment where Williams is received as a queen, then dives and reappears above water, surrounded by several other swimmers who form a circle around her, became iconic.

Many of her MGM films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) and Jupiter's Darling (1955), contained elaborately staged synchronized swimming scenes, with considerable risk to Williams. She broke her neck filming a 115 ft dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for the film Million Dollar Mermaid which landed her in a body cast for seven months. She subsequently recovered, though she still suffers headaches as a result of the accident. Her many hours spent submerged in a studio tank resulted in her rupturing her eardrums numerous times. In her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid (1999), Williams detailed several other occasions in which she nearly drowned shooting her oxygen-defying stunts, since she rarely used a stunt double.

After years of appearing in musical comedies at MGM, she moved to Universal International in 1956 and appeared in a non-musical dramatic film, The Unguarded Moment. After that, her film career slowly wound down. She later admitted that husband Fernando Lamas preferred her not to continue in films.

Her love life was a source of media interest. She has been married four times. She met her first husband Leonard Kovner while at Los Angeles City College. She later wrote in her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid that "he was smart, handsome, dependable...and dull. I respected his intelligence, and his dedication to a future career in medicine. He loved me, or so he said, and even asked me to marry him." They were married in the San Francisco suburb of Los Altos on June 27, 1940. On their split she said "I found, much to my relief, that all I needed for my emotional and personal security was my own resolve and determination. I didn't need a marriage and a ring. I had come to realize all too quickly that Leonard Kovner was not a man I could ever really love." They divorced in 1944.

She married singer/actor Ben Gage on November 25, 1945, with whom she had three children. In her autobiography, she portrays him as an alcoholic parasite who squandered her earnings. She also disclosed in her autobiography that she had a passionate affair with actor Victor Mature while they were working on the film Million Dollar Mermaid (1952), citing that at the time her marriage was in trouble and, feeling lonely, she turned to Mature for love and affection, and he gave her all she wanted. She was romantically linked with Jeff Chandler, but broke off the relationship when she discovered that Chandler was a cross-dresser, which she revealed for the first time in her autobiography. She and Gage divorced on 20 April 1959.

She then married former lover, Argentine actor/director, Fernando Lamas on December 31, 1969. They were married until his death from pancreatic cancer on October 8, 1982. She currently resides in Beverly Hills with actor-husband Edward Bell, whom she married on October 24, 1994.

Esther Williams retired from acting in the early 1960s and currently lends her name to a line of women's swimwear and to a company that manufactures swimming pools and swimming pool accessories. She co-wrote her autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999) with popular media critic and author Digby Diehl.

Resource: wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Esther Williams fun facts:

• Received her first screen kiss by Mickey Rooney in Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942).
• Esther Williams' youth was spent as a teenage swimming champion. She eventually was spotted by a MGM talent scout while working in a Los Angeles department store.
• Before her stint in MGM musicals, she had been training as a competitive swimmer, and probably would've participated in the 1940 and/or 1944 Olympics (she would've been 18 and 22 years old respectively) if World War II hadn't canceled them.
• Was inducted into the Swimming Pool Hall of Fame in 1967.

She is 87! today, Best Wishes and Health to Miss Esther Williams on her birthday! - Want to get some of Esther Williams products?