How Cinematic!

My moment of demi-celebrity above comes from my participation in an MSN short series "re: discover".  I show off the Hollywood Heritage Lasky DeMille barn to Barney Burman and Amy Gray.  If you are so inclined you can see it here.

Hazel. She Was Much More Than A Maid.....

No, not that one.  We got a whole different Hazel on tap today.


If you are someday on a quiz program and you are asked (for a one million dollar prize) if a Caucasian movie actress ever appeared on the cover of Jet Magazine.........

You're welcome.

But, love Roz as I do, we need to take a closer look at the other woman with her......Hazel Washington.  What a gal.

Hazel was born in Dallas in 1915.  Somewhere in her early teens she came to Los Angeles and was, by age 16, married to Roscoe (Rocky) Washington.  There seems to be much higher ceilings (opportunity wise) for the Washington clan during those unenlightened days than for other minority families.  Rocky, a member of LAPD was the first uniformed African American to achieve the rank of Lieutenant on the force.  Rocky's brother Julius was a Captain in the Los Angeles Fire Department, and Rocky's nephew Kenny Washington was the first Black pro athlete to sign a contract with the NFL!  So, yes, the fellas did well, but Hazel was no slouch!

By the early thirties, Hazel found employment as a 'movie maid'.  To call the position a maid is really a bit of a misnomer.  The people who did these jobs were really a combination of servant, star chef, personal assistant, and (before the costume departments became unionized) wardrobe mistress.  In quick succession, Hazel worked for Virginia Bruce, Ginger Rogers and the Great Garbo.  But in Hazel's case, the number 4 was the charm.  When Garbo went back to Europe, Rosalind Russell was her next employer.   Russell had been looking for a replacement maid.  Her previous one was a tad, shall we say, star struck.  Roz said that when she would sit down to chat with Clark Gable on a set, her maid would park herself right next to them so she wouldn't miss a word that Gable said.  Further, the woman was fascinated by the camera.  "She wound up in more shots than me!"  None of this was an issue with a seasoned pro like Washington and, as Russell was willing to pay her year round and not just when she was on a picture, Hazel stayed. 

Hazel and Roz (being the women they were) found in short order that they had become good friends in addition to their employment arrangement.  Garbo's entreaties to come back to work for her fell on Hazel's deaf ears.  One day in '36 Hazel came to work carrying a beautifully stylish leather handbag.  Russell raved, wanting to know where it came from.  Hazel told her that she had seen one in a magazine and swooned.  She realized that she could never afford it, so she went to a leather and findings shop, purchased materials and made a copy of it for herself!  Flabbergasted at the workmanship from someone who didn't know the leather goods business, Roz told her friend that she wanted her to go to night school and study the craft and further that Russell would pay for it.

Then in early '41, in the most unlikely of places, Beverly Hills......

The Afro American newspaper, March 14, 1942

For a little perspective, that $100 bag mentioned in the article would be $1500 in today's dollars.  And it was on the low end of prices in the shop.  All of Hollywood flocked to the place.  Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Ann Sheridan, Mary Livingstone, and Lena Horne were clients.  Hazel did a custom order of gloves, made to measure, for Gable.  There was a portable bar in black kangaroo skin for Van Johnson at $250.  Picture frames in powder blue suede.

The shop didn't last very long, but not because of poor sales.  It was because leather became increasingly difficult to get during the war.  While planning their next business move, Russell and Washington continued the old arrangement of Star and maid.  Around this time (because apparently there was nothing Hazel couldn't do) Washington also became the first licensed hairdresser hired by the studios to do black hair for such films as "Cabin In The Sky" and "Stormy Weather".

Finally, as both Hazel and Roz were a wiz with the knitting needles, they started a business of handmade luxury cashmere knitwear trimmed, typically in beads, sequins, lace or fur.  That is the business that the Jet cover article above talks about.  You can read the full article here.

Hazel Washington's fabulous life doesn't stop there.  I found continued mentions about her. 

1959 - Rocky and Hazel celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary at Lionel Hampton's opening at Hollywood's Moulin Rouge.

1965 - Hazel has a furrier design a full length lavender mink coat.

1966 - While attending a Shriner's convention in Manhattan, the Washingtons occupy the duplex penthouse of the New York Hilton at a cost of $500 per day.

And this little item from 1962:

The last mention I can find anywhere of Hazel was squib in the Baltimore Afro-American from 1979.  It said that Hazel was planning, with the help of a Paul Gardner, to write her biography.  It doesn't appear that the book ever happened though.  And that, dear readers, is certainly our loss.

The Mystery Gets Revealed.

Ya gotta get up pretty early in the morning.......


Despite my misleading clue, many got this one.  I'd said, "It is perhaps fitting that he's in a sailor middy"

That's because sailor suits were made of cotton!  Joseph Cotten!  (alright, not great, but I was having a bad day)


George W. Tush seemed to be on to me, but Norma (otherwise known around here as 'she who gives gifts') was the first to correctly log the name!!!

Joseph Cheshire Cotten of Petersburg, Va. was born in 1905.  He first tread the boards on Broadway in 1930 but by 1939 he would create the role of C.K. Dexter Haven opposite Kate Hepburn's Tracy Lord in that stage debut of The Philadelphia Story.

While age 36 may be a bit, shall we say, long in the tooth to get your first Hollywood feature, it does help that it's a co-starring role in what many have called the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane.

Cotten enjoyed a 40 year film career and spent the last 15 years of his life in happy retirement before his death in 1994.

The character of Martha in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf refers to him as "modest Joseph Cotten", but I've never regarded him as that.  In fact, despite the wide variety of characters that he played, (particularly in his heyday) I've always thought of him more in the 'creepy/scary/sexy/dangerous' category.

And there may be a clue behind that!  His second screen appearance was in a 1938 short film.  It's title......"Too Much Johnson".

It's A Whole New Mystery!

Now before you go thinking, 'is he doing nothing but the ol' mystery routine anymore', the answer is no.  I'm just cleaning out some old mystery photo files.  And truth be told, I've hit an ebb recently on inspiration. 

Well, that and things have been kinda busy around here what with tours, facebook page updates, other facebook page updates, recent community service commitments, haggling with greedy real estate developers who want to bulldoze Hollywood History for skyscrapers,  and so on.....

And besides, you all seem to get such material enjoyment out of this game.

IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS GAME PLEASE READ.  If you've seen this picture before, or know for sure who this is, feel free to send me an email, but for the sake of unbridled mystery and tension, let the gang have a go guessing in the comments section.

So, without delay, Who's the kid?

It is perhaps fitting that he's in a sailor middy.  ('tho most children were back then)

The Mystery Gets Revealed!!!

Alright, this one was, shall we say, perhaps a little left field.


The beauty in question is Margaret Field.

Margaret has a list on imdb of 91 performances!  They begin in 1945 and conclude in 1973.  She belonged to that grand tradition of "working actor".  If you turned on series or anthology television in the 50s and early 60s you would frequently find Margaret.

As a young divorcee with two small children in the early 50s, Margaret married stuntman/actor Jock Mahoney and so you might also see her work credited to Maggie Mahoney, and handle she sometimes used.

Sadly, many people don't know or recognize Margaret, but they're almost certain to be familiar with her first born child, Sally.

Margaret, at age 89, passed away November 6, 2011, on Sally's 65th birthday.

Mystery Guest Will You Enter And Sign In Please...

Since we all seem to really like this, I thought we might have another go.


IF YOU ARE NEW TO THIS GAME PLEASE READ.  If you've seen this picture before, or know for sure who this is, feel free to send me an email, but for the sake of unbridled mystery and tension, let the gang have a go guessing in the comments section.

Who is this lovely gal?

This Is Everything.

"Second Fiddle", 1939