Showing posts with label Howard Hughes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Howard Hughes. Show all posts

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Jane Greer: RKO’s ‘woman with the Mona Lisa smile’


The model, actress, and fair beauty Jane Greer is laid bare before our eyes in LIFE magazine, 8 June 1942. It was this very photoshoot that compelled Howard Hughes—a man of immeasurable wealth and influence, and one with a keen eye for talent—to take the young aspirant under his wing and bring her to Hollywood stardom. Their business relationship endured roughly a decade but was not without its share of tribulations. Arguably, her best-known role was in 1947’s 'Out of the Past', starring opposite Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas.

She was born Bettejane Greer in Washington D.C. on 9 September 1924 but legally changed her name to Jane Greer in 1945, proclaiming to the press: 'Mine is a sissy name. It's too bo-peepish, ingenueish, for the type of role I've been playing. It's like Mary Lou or Mary Ann.' For a very brief time (separating after just three months), she was the wife of saxophonist and bandleader Rudy Vallee. Her talents were recognised in 1960 when a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was bestowed upon her. She continued to work in television into the 1980s.

Photo: Verily, Jane Greer is smoking in this relaxed and alluring pose. Seated against a dark backdrop, a playful smile dances upon her lips. She is draped in a dark sheet that covers her torso. In her dexter hand, a slender cigarette rests, with a wisp of smoke curling upwards like the very tendrils of desire. Her other hand, a vision of creamy flesh, finds a gentle resting place upon her breast. Her hair is a cascade of soft waves, amplifying her natural beauty.

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Friday, May 17, 2024

Quotables 17 May 2024: Ava Gardner speaks on beauty, stardom, Frank Sinatra, and George C. Scott

Ava Gardner, circa 1945. Photo: PictureLux

‘All I have going is my looks. When my beauty goes, I'm through’.

‘What I'd really like to say about stardom is that it gave me everything I never wanted’.

‘I dealt with men who had tempers, and who could get violent-Lord knows how I had to defend myself against Howard Hughes and Frank Sinatra, and from Artie Shaw's verbal abuse. But George [C. Scott] was a different category of animal when he got drunk. He'd break into my hotel room, which he did in Italy, London and at the Beverly Hills Hotel, attack me to where I was frightened for my life, and scream, 'Why won't you marry me?' Well, I would never marry a man who couldn't control his liquor. Me, I'm a happy drunk. I laugh, I dance. I certainly don't break bottles and threaten to kill’.

‘Our phone bills were astronomical, and when I found the letters Frank wrote me the other day, the total could fill a suitcase. Every single day during our relationship, no matter where in the world I was, I'd get a telegram from Frank saying he loved me and missed me. He was a man who was desperate for companionship and love. Can you wonder that he always had mine’.

‘Love is nothing but a pain in the ass’.

Quotes via https://www.azquotes.com/author/5336-Ava_Gardner

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

The Broken Dolls and Fallen Angels Facebook group returns

https://www.facebook.com/groups/886318992990373/ After a protracted ordeal, the Broken Dolls and Fallen Angels group is back up and runnin...