Asides - Playing Catch Up

This blog began with the posting of images scanned from our collection of postcards. Well, finances be damned, the collecting didn't stop and here are some newer cards of actresses already featured in previous posts. They are in no particular order, but I hope you enjoy them. If you are a first time visitor, be sure to click the labels on the right to see and learn more about these actresses.

Another image explaining Errol Flynn's inability to resist this French native.

Ok, so I'm in love with Edwina Booth. Here is another image from Trader Horn.

Another image of the "American Venus".

Here is Lupe in a scene from "The Storm", where she is trapped in a cabin with two men who fight over her. Using the skirt to keep from burning her hands probably didn't help the rivalry.

Born in August of 1910 and still going strong.

There is a wonderful article about Sally Phipps in the latest New York Times T Magazine. It is entitled "The Flapper Doesn't Change Her Spots".

A wonderful image of Ms. Sidney.

Never one to overdress.

Lili Damita - Fourth of 4 postings

Lili retired from the screen after her 1935 marriage. As mentioned in the previous post the marriage with Errol fell apart in 1942, but they did have a son, Sean, to whom Lili was extremely devoted. Sean did some acting, then found his true calling as a photojournalist at the height of the Vietnam war. He disappeared in Cambodia in April 1970 while covering the war for Time and Life magazines. Lili spent tremendous time and money trying to locate him, but to no avail. He was declared legally dead in 1984. Lili died in West Palm Beach, FL in 1994, a few months shy of her 90th birthday. The pictures in this post show her during the happy times.

Lili Damita - What do you think? Allure?

Lili Damita - Third of four Postings

Lili met her husband to be Errol Flynn aboard an ocean liner that was taking her and the then relatively unknown actor from England to America in 1935. He felt attracted to her, but she rebuffed him and it led to a mutual dislike. Of course six months later, the couple that publicly hated each other in Hollywood eloped to Yuma, Arizona and were married.

In 1939, Lili said, although contentedly, "Being married to Flynn (she called him Flynn and he called her Damita) is exactly like living on top of a volcano. I like that. A volcano which does erupt. Constantly - yes, but daily! We are always just arriving or just leaving. Flynn and I." She was also quoted that she knew Captain Blood would make him a star and she was right. Her favorite film of his was The Adventures of Robin Hood (What wonderful Technicolor) .

Lili also offered this obvious insight, "He likes a woman to be feminine. That is because he is so very masculine. He is a man's man. He is a man, a young, attractive man. But he has an eye, too, for a pretty face." And that is what eventually led to their divorce in 1942. What a wild marriage that must have been. Her images leave no question in my mind as to why Errol was attracted to her.

Lili Damita - What do you think? Allure?

Lili Damita - Second of four postings

As we continue our look at Lili's career we know that in 1928, at the invitation of Samuel Goldwyn, she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled "The Rescue", where she shared the lead with Ronald Coleman. She then was leased out to several studios where she appeared with Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant, and James Cagney. Her films included the 1929 box office success Raoul Walsh's The Cockeyed World. She then made 11 more films, mostly in staring roles, before she met husband to be Errol Flynn. More on that in the next post.

Lili Damita - What do you think? Allure?

Lili Damita - First of four postings

Liliane Marie-Madeleine Carre was born in Bordeaux, France. She was educated in convents and ballet schools in several European countries, including France, Spain and Portugal. At 14, she was enroled as a dancer at the Opera de Paris and by age 16 was a music hall sensation, succeeding the legendary Mistinguette as star of the Casino de Paris revue. Lili also worked as a photographic model and was offered a role in film as a prize for winning a magazine beauty competition in 1921. She appeared in several French silent films before being offered her first leading role in Das Spielzeug von Paris by director legendary director Michael Curtiz.

She soon became the second wife of Curtiz, but the marriage was over in less than a year following Curtiz's emigration to the USA.

More about Lili and her marriage to Errol Flynn in subsequent posts.

Lili Damita - What do you think? Allure?