Asides - Smoke 'em If Ya Got'em

Cigarette ads have been a source of magazine revenues since before the turn of the 20th century, and the tobacco companies realized an endorsement from a Hollywood star would be golden. Lucky Strike exploited this like no other brand during the twenties and thirties. The other major brands like Old Gold, Camel, Chesterfield, and Spud were represented in the various movie magazines, but only Lucky Strike regularly featured stars or starlets in their ads. What follows is a sampling of those Hollywood tie-in ads and a couple of others I just think are fun/interesting/bizarre. Click on the images for a larger view - enjoy.

Sally Eilers - Movie Mirror, February 1932
The lower right paragraph notes that Miss Eilers was not paid one cent for this endorsement. I'm wondering of course if wasn't the Fox publicity department that paid The American Tobacco company to feature her.

Edmund Lowe - Photoplay, February 1932

Of possible interest is that Mr. Lowe was also under contract to Fox during this period.

Jean Harlow - Photoplay, March 1932
Jean states: "It's a real delight to find a Cellophane wrapper that opens without an icepick.

John Gilbert - Photoplay, September 1929
John keeps his masculine physique by reaching for a Lucky instead of a sweet.

Lupe Velez - Photoplay, April 1932
This ad appeared on this blog before under a different context.
Lupe seems to like the Cellophane wrapper as well and was not paid for her endorsement either.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - Photoplay, June 1932
Man, what's with that wrapper, it sounds like all other brands were
impossible to open and that is why people HAD to smoke Luckies.

Some nice lady from Bronxville, NY. - Photoplay, August 1931
She hopes you will consider your Adam's Apple.

The New Movie Magazine - December, 1932
It may just be me, but I think Chesterfield was implying that if males smoke their brand, they will grow to almost twice the size of a normal human, or you will attract very small women.

Joan Crawford - Being Clever

We have featured Joan a few times on this blog, but I thought this four page spread from the Movie Mirror, January 1933, was worth sharing. The spread focuses on Joan's "private life" fashions, and if for nothing else, the line "These are the clothes Joan wears, not in her pictures, but when she is being the clever Mrs. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.", makes this post work for me. I'm guessing the distaff readers have similar leisure wardrobes. Enjoy and click on the pictures for a larger view.

Striking a few poses around the house

A bit severe on the left - don't cross her today Doug

It's all about the neckline

Classic Joan

Here is a recently acquired postcard - She looks pretty clever here too.

Joan Crawford - What do you think - Allure?

Gwili Andre

Gwili Andre was born Gurli Andresen in Copenhagen, Denmark on February 4, 1908. She got her Hollywood break courtesy of David O. Selznick, who cast her opposite Richard Dix in Roar of the Dragon (1932), her first film. This was followed by Secrets of the French Police (1932). In the NYT review she was characterized as "handsome and quite competent." I should mention that I watched this film earlier this week and would concur. Unfortunately other reviewers and the public weren't particularly impressed with her or either film. Despite the lukewarm reception, she was given support of the studios and was even featured on the cover of the October 1932 issue of The New Movie Magazine. Unfortunately the publicity didn't enhance her popularity. She appeared in only five other films, all in non-starring roles, before giving up her career. Her final role was a minor part in The Falcon's Brother in 1942.

Gwili's death in 1959 was a bizarre suicide fueled by alcoholism and the disillusionment of a promising career that never materialized. Alone in her Venice, California apartment, she gathered together all the publicity stills and promotional material from her early career and set them ablaze, allowing herself to be consumed by the flames. She died later of her injuries.

Photoplay Magazine - February 1933

Screen grabs from Secrets of the French Police.

Movie Mirror Magazine - July 1932

Publicity still from Roar of the Dragon

Publicity Still

Gwili Andre - What do you think - Allure?

Asides - Cover Catch Up

This post features movie magazine covers with looks generally different than those shown in previous posts. The first major difference is that none of these covers come from Photoplay, the most popular film magazine in the 20's and 30's, and the publication that makes up the bulk of our collection. Enjoy and click on the images for a larger view.

Movie Classic, November 1935 - Artist: Charles Sheldon
I think this is one of the most sophisticated and alluring portraits of Jean Harlow I have ever seen. As covers go, it is unusual as well, because unlike most movie magazine covers of the time that portray the subject in close-up, this and the next two covers provide a fuller length view of their subjects.

Picture Play, March 1932 - Artist Modest Stein
Modest Stein was born in 1871 and became a prolific, if under appreciated commercial artist whose work can be found in and on numerous magazines, books, and advertisements. He died in Flushing, NY, in 1958. See my post on Peggy Shannon for another of his covers.

Picture Play, November 1932 - Artist: Martha Sawyers
Martha Sawyers (1902-1988) designed Broadway Playbills and art work for the theater section of the New York Herald Tribune in the 1930's. She also provided covers for American Liberty and Collier's Magazines. Martha drew illustrations for novelist Pearl Buck, and she is featured with such notables as Norman Rockwell in "Forty Illustrators and How They Work" by Earnest W Watson.

Picture Play, January 1933 - Artist: A.D. Moscon

I can find absolutely no information on artist A.D. Moscon. However, searching the NYT archive I did find a 1968 obituary notice of a Hanna Moscon. It listed her as a distinguished member of the American Society of Contemporary Artists. Quite possibly she is A.D. Moscon because the name itself is quite rare. Anybody with more information, please share.

Shadoplay, April 1933 - Artist: Earl Christy
Well here we are, back at the close up - real close up. Christy's work is all over this blog, but Shadoplay (who came up with that spelling) is really quite rare. This particular issue is Vol. 1, No.2, and I have only seen a couple of other issues, including one from October of 1934, so they had a bit of a run.

Delores Costello

Dolores Costello was born on September 17, 1903, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to actors Maurice and Mae Costello. Her father was a most popular matinée idol and gave Dolores and her sister Helene their screen debut in 1911. She was in approximately thirty films prior to 1920, including The Evil Men Do (1915), where she appeared as a boy. She later appeared on the New York stage with her sister in the George White Scandals of 1924. They were then signed by Warner Brothers where she met her future husband, John Barrymore.

Barrymore made Dolores his costar in 1926's The Sea Beast, the same year she was named a WAMPAS Baby Star. Around that time she also acquired the nickname "The Goddess of the Silver Screen." From that film forward, Dolores was the lead actress in fifteen successive productions, including When a Man Loves (1927), again starring Barrymore as the male lead. John and Delores married in 1928 and had two children, DeDe in 1931 and John Drew Barrymore in 1932. At that time Dolores left the film world to raise her children, but after a divorce from John in 1935 due to his increasing alcoholism, she resumed acting at the pleading of her sister.

She returned in 1936 to star in Little Lord Fauntleroy, however her physical appearance had been damaged due to harsh studio make-up used on her face in the early years.This forced Delores into early retirement after only eight additional films, her last in a supporting role in 1943's This Is The Army.

Dolores has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street and may be best known today as Drew Barrymore's grandmother.

Photoplay - January 1929

Motion Picture Classic - January 1929

Publicity still for Glad Rag Doll

Motion Picture - September 1929

A publicity still for Hearts in Exile

Hearts in Exile publicity still

Publicity still from Madonna of Avenue A (1929)

Motion Picture - August 1928 - Artist Marland Stone

Dolores Costello - What do you think - Allure?

Asides - M and M

This is of course a blog featuring images of actresses from the twenties and thirties. But I guess a post featuring actors of the era won't cause the earth to shift on its axis. However, I still want to keep the theme focused on "Allure". So, what the heck was it at the time that had so many actors sporting those pencil thin mustaches; I have to presume they or the female movie going audience found they presented a certain allure, or nobody had the nerve to tell them any differently.

The images in this post all come from the 1930 Stars of the Photoplay hardcover book published by Photoplay magazine. The cost of the book, which has individual portraits of 250 stars, sold for $1.25! Under each portrait is a brief bio, at least up to 1930, so double-click on the images for a larger size. Enjoy.

Ronald Coleman

Warner Baxter

William Powell

John Loder

Kenneth McKenna

Ralph Forbes

Rod La Rocque

Conrad Nagel

Edmund Lowe

Gilbert Roland

John Boles

John Gilbert

So what do you think - Men and Mustaches - Alluring?