Asides: Covers, Cards, and Cocoa

Here is another grouping of recent and not so recent postcard and magazine acquisitions from our favorite era, guaranteed to brighten your day. There are no new faces, but what alluring faces they are.

Click on the images for a larger view.

New Movie 1931 quarterly - Artist: Jules Erbit
This quarterly has photos of the stars, brief bios and autographs. There are 62 actors and actresses pictured.

Screenland magazine, February 1933 - Artist: Charles Sheldon

Photoplay, September 1934 - Artist: Earl Christy

Screenland magazine, August 1934 - Artist: Charles Sheldon

Love that clutch, and the shoes match.

The house she had built in Los Angeles was modeled after the White House, quite a step up from a childhood spent in poverty.

Elegant and alluring as usual.

Anita and Ramon appeared together in 1929's The Flying Fleet.

La Jana's card is one of the "jumbo" cards that the Ross company produced. It's about 25% larger than a standard postcard. La Jana of course, still kept her outfits small.

Yes, yes, yet another postcard of my girl Edwina Booth.

This is an example of a handtinted (painted) card. Tinted cards were not infrequent, but sold for a bit more. This particular card is also oversize, though not from Ross.

Nothing better on a cool evening that a nice mug of cocoa shared with Billie or Bebe.

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.

Conchita Montenegro

Conchita Montenegro was born in Bilbao, Spain in 1911. During her childhood she was a dancer and ultimately was credited with revolutionizing the presentation of Spanish dances. She performed in Spain, France, and Germany by the time she was thirteen years old. Conchita came to Hollywood in June 1930 with a contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She was sixteen years old and could not speak a word of English. However, she learned the language well enough in three months to play the female lead opposite Leslie Howard in Never The Twain Shall Meet (1931).

Her next film was Strangers May Kiss (1931). The production stars Norma Shearer, with Montengro as the ingenue lead, playing a Spanish dancer. By mid-1931 Montenegro left MGM and signed with the Fox Film Company where she starred in The Cisco Kid. Conchita made 37 films before retiring from the screen in 1944. She never received the same attention as her contemporary Hispanic stars Delores Del Rio, Raquel Torres, or Lupe Velez, but she was active and well respected in the Spanish film community until her death at age 95 in April 2007.

Here is a snippet of the New York Times review of Never The Twain Shall Meet..."and another newcomer, Miss Montenegro, flashes an appealing Latin loveliness in the role of Tamea."

Click on the images for a larger size view.

New Movie Magazine - September 1931

A Still from The Cisco Kid - Film Fun Magazine - January 1932

Lobby card for The Cisco Kid

Still from Hell In The Heavens (1934)

Conchita Montenegro - What do you think - Allure?