Where Is It?

Back in March I mentioned the Debbie Reynolds Auction, and that there was an item that I really coveted.  I also mentioned that I wouldn't be insulted if one of you all won it for me.  Well, as you've doubtless heard, the auction is over.  (blah, blah, Marilyn's dress, blah blah.)  So I'm waiting to be contacted by the winner to give you my address for the Valentino suit of lights!  Don't be shy....

For a witty perspective on the auction from an attendee, See Paul T. Bradley's account in his blog post for the L.A. Weekly.

Me Want. BAD!!!

I read on Ask The Cool Cookie's blog that Debbie Reynolds will begin auctioning off her store load of Hollywood memorabilia and costumes.  On the one hand this make me sad.  On the other hand, she's got some fabulous shit up for auction!


Of course I saw the item of my dreams.  It would be this:

Doesn't look like much on the hangar, I know.  But it just happens to be the Matador suit of lights that Rudolph Valentino wore in "Blood And Sand"!!! 

The site of the studio lot where this was filmed is on my tour route.  It only seems right that I should own it, right?

So if you happen to enjoy this blog, and you happen to be very well off.........

The auction is in June.

Actors And Other Animals - Part 4

The 'Here Kitty-Kitty' edition....

Bette Davis is a Cubs fan!

Cary Grant - a superstitious moment

Claudette Colbert and friend

Debbie Reynolds nuzzles fluffy

Garbo's thinking - So if I signed with Paramount, I suppose I'd have to climb a Mountain!

My gal Glenda Farrell and her four-eyed Siamese

Joanna Lumley - is that cat coppin' a feel?

Mary Pickford and kittens - is there no end to cloying innocence?

Stewart Granger and kitten.  Wow.

Susan Hayward and her big fat pussy

The Girls And I....

Wish you a Happy Valentines Day!!!

The Body - By Fisher.

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that I am enamored of classic cars every bit as much as I am of classic films and classic Hollywood.  Well I just came across a real honey.  A car with a true Hollywood pedigree as Oscar worthy as the 24 karat gold trim it possessed, as brilliant as the 30 coats of crushed platinum dust that was it's paint job, as garish as the blood red leather interior!

As for the title of this post:

 

We of a certain age will certainly remember this badge on the bottom door sill of all General Motors cars.  While the vehicle in question was indeed a GM product, the body was as much indebted to the legendary George Barris as it was the Detroit Fisher plant.

There is another meaning to the title as well.  You see the owner of this dream on wheels was Marie "The Body" McDonald.

To tell Marie's story I'd have to be gettin' all Confidential Magazine on ya, for the life that she led was an amusement park ride...in a fun-house mirror.  The good news is that my wonderful friend, neighbor and resident Danger Dame, Donna Lethal wrote a brilliant article on the life and death of Marie which I encourage you to read.  And cuz you're so swell I'll put the link for it at the bottom of this post.

Meantime, suffice it to say that "The Body" was a moderately successful showgirl turned band singer, turned pin-up girl, turned actress, turned recording artist.  Perhaps greater than her talents though, Marie had three burning passions:  Alcohol, drugs, and publicity.

Our story picks up in 1954 when the six times married Marie was in the middle of her first of two marriages to Shoe Magnate Harry Karl (you'll recall that Harry is the same fellow that would bleed Debbie Reynolds dry a few years later.  It might also be of interest to note that between the two ladies, he was also married to the the widow of Columbia Pictures President Harry Cohn.  For exactly one month!)  So anyway, Karl decides he wants to give the Mrs. a present and he buys the star of the 1953 Motorama, the Cadilliac Le Mans.  (there were only 4 of these cars produced and he got the Le Mans #1)  He sent it to Barris Kustom Autos in Lynwood and this was the result:

It was featured in the December 1955 issue of Motor Trend Magazine:

Here's what Motor Trend had to say about the 'Barris Bonanza':

Boasting a television set, radio-telephone, tape recorder, and cocktail bar among its many other expressions of all-out individualism, this Cadillac Le Mans by Barris cuts a wide swath anywhere.

The body is mostly Fiberglas with the exception of the lower fender panels, which are formed of body steel and then blue-white chrome plated. Trim between the lower chromed parts of the fenders and the Fiberglas part of the body is 1/2-inch steel bar, plated with 24-karat gold. To stop rattles before they start, a strip of 1/8-inch rubber separates the gold-plated trim and the body panels. Hubcaps are done in a combination of gold and chrome; the thirty individually inserted "spokes" and the protruding center are gold, with the remainder in chrome. Paint is 30 [yes thirty!] coats of "platinum dust" sprayed over a polychromic base sealer.

The rear window and top are trimmed with chrome-plated steel. The whole top assembly including the rear window can be removed, or the window may be left in place and the top removed.

The engine is the 300-horsepower Cadillac with dual 4-throat carburetors set up by the factory for the original Le Mans model. All engine accessories, valve covers, etc., are chrome plated, of course.

In short order Marie wrapped it around a tree but both she and it were soon repaired.

Only a decade later, with the Caddy long gone, Marie, burned out and fresh out of ideas for one more publicity stunt,  hopped on the Percodan train for Fabulon.  She was 42.

In that horrible way that beautiful things are all too often not allowed to last, that beautiful car only made it a decade less than poor Marie.  In 1984 it was purchased by a collector in Pleasanton, Ca.  and several months later in 1985, a fire leveled the warehouse containing the car along with many of his other dream machines.

To read all about Marie McDonald's dizzying life go here

My Latest 'Favorite Line From A Movie Of All Time'

The film is the 1954 MGM comedy "Susan Slept Here".   Dick Powell as a jaded Hollywood screenwriter, Mark Christopher.

 

Alvy Moore is his subservient, yes-man assistant, Virgil.

My girl Glenda Farrell as Powell's wise cracking, soused secretary, Maude.

Obscenely gorgeous Anne Francis plays Powell's girlfriend and Senator's daughter, Isabella.

Into this well oiled machine of dysfunction, is thrown a wrench in the form of perky/spunky juvenile delinquent, Debbie Reynolds as Susan.

Madcap hilarity ensues.


I'm going to take the largely unpopular opinion and say I really like this picture.  The story is ridiculously implausible, but the dialog is brilliant.  The performances, across the board, are appropriately broad.  The set of Mark's fab 50s Hollywood apartment (complete with wet bar) is absurdly groovy.  To top it all off, there is a minimalist- modern dream sequence that is divine (and I'm a push over for a good dream sequence).

The problem most people seem to have with it is the vast age difference between the reluctant love interests. The Powell character is supposed to be 35 (the actor was 50) and Reynolds' character 17 1/2 (she was 22 at the time of filming).  In an overwhelming number of reviews and opinions on the web that I've read, there is a compelling need to refer to this seventeen year spread as 'creepy'.  Perhaps they are reacting to the fact that Susan is under the age of majority.  By six months.  If I'm going to be honest, I really don't see much difference between 17 1/2 years of age and that magic number: 18.  As for the 17 year spread between them, that happens to have been the exact age difference between my parents.  My folks start sleeping together when she was 21 and he was 38 and they married two years later.  For all their problems (none of which had anything to do with their ages) they did just fine.  And they stayed married till the end of their lives.

Oops, as you can see, my love of dream sequences takes a backseat to my tendency to digress.  Never mind.  The picture is in glorious widescreen Technicolor, and has a Holiday theme.  Check it out.

I started all of this out with something about a line - well here it is.

The Set Up

Virgil: What do you know about Motherhood?

The Payoff

Maude:  I happened to have typed the script of Stella Dallas!