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 - Woof! Woof!

W.C. Fields once said, “Never work with children or animals." I guess it's fine to pose with them though, as these cards attest. Not sure if these were actual pets or merely props.

Marion Davies and friend

The dog for lounging around.

The dog for taking a walk and feeling safe.

Brigitte and friend leaving the florist.

A quiet day in the park.

This card is the only one I have seen from a series entitled Film Stars and Their Pets. Therefore there must be more and I guess this is actually her pet.

This is the back of the Miriam's card and it provides a short bio.

The August 20, 1934 text on the card is:
Miss J. Stapley, Butts Villa, Wisborough Green, Billingshurst, Sussex
Chatham, Monday - We have had a nice time here, hope you are having as nice weather as we are. Our dear love to the three of you and Auntie. Try to be good. Love, Missy.

Minus the address it's short enough to be a Twitter message.

Not everyone had dogs.

Asides: Earl Christy Was On A Roll In Early 1932

F. Earl Christy (1883-1961), who has been mentioned on this blog in the past, was one of the most prolific illustrators of the early half of the twentieth century. Christy studied commercial art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His work was found on or in practically every movie magazine published in the 1920's and 30's and in advertisements, sheet music, postcards and general publications as early as 1906.

He was particularly busy providing covers for Photoplay. I generally like the work he did for Photoplay, but occasionally he seemed to miss the mark in capturing the essence of his subject - probably because he was turning out so much work. I am sure at the height of the depression it was rare that he turned down any assignment.

However, I think the first three Photoplay covers of 1932 are wonderful examples of his best work. The colors are vivid, the expressions of the actresses capture their allure, and the easy, yet stylish approach are a pleasure to view. Click on the images for a larger view.

Photoplay - January 1932

Photoplay - February 1932

Photoplay - March 1932

And if you are wondering "How Garbo's Fear of People Started" - well guess what, some came from what we hear about everyday now, paparazzi, though that term wasn't yet coined in 1932. From the article, "Every time Garbo tried to take a quiet walk in Central Park she was dogged by reporters and cameraman."

For a bit of history, here two Christy postcards from 1906.

Miriam Hopkins

Born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1902, Ellen Miriam Hopkins was raised in nearby Bainbridge and attended a finishing school in Vermont and Syracuse University. Studying dance in New York, she began her show business career as a chorus girl in 1922 and successfully moved onto legitimate theater. In 1930, after feeling the call to the silver screen, she signed with Paramount Studios, and made her official film debut in Fast and Loose that same year.

Her first great success was in Ernst Lubitsch's masterpiece Trouble in Paradise (1932), in which she charmingly plays Lily, a thief posing as a countess. During the rest of the 1930s she appeared in such films as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), where I first saw her and was captured by her allure, Becky Sharp (1935), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, Barbary Coast (1935), These Three (1936) and The Old Maid, opposite Betty Davis (1939). BTW it was on TCM earlier today, so look for it on their schedule. She was known as being very difficult on the set and most bios point to this consistently.

She was married and divorced four times. In 1932, at a time when single-parent adoption was illegal in most states, she adopted a baby boy while between marriages. She adored her son, Michael, and always called him the most important man in her life.

She died in New York city in 1972.




This image (double click for larger image) comes from my September 1931 copy of New Movie Magazine. It oozes allure as far as I'm concerned.

Miriam Hopkins - What do you think? Allure?