Adrian

[tom]

Jun 1, 2021 8:02:21 GMT -6 davidmorrocco said:

I love Sunset Boulevard. I have it on DVD. They asked Billy Haines to play a part of wax work people that come to Norma Desmond’s house to play cards, but he turned it down. The wax work actors are older Hollywood stars from the silent movie days. Joan learned from Gloria that you should not only answer your fan club mail, but make a list of who they are and a note of what they wrote and when they wrote it. Also include names of family, friends and even their pet. I bet that kept Betty Barker very busy. It was also great advice for Joan.

Billy Haines as one of the Wax Works might be about the only thing that could have improved Sunset Blvd!

[Admin]

Jun 2, 2021 14:30:00 GMT -6 tom said:

Jun 1, 2021 8:02:21 GMT -6 davidmorrocco said:

I love Sunset Boulevard. I have it on DVD. They asked Billy Haines to play a part of wax work people that come to Norma Desmond’s house to play cards, but he turned it down. The wax work actors are older Hollywood stars from the silent movie days. Joan learned from Gloria that you should not only answer your fan club mail, but make a list of who they are and a note of what they wrote and when they wrote it. Also include names of family, friends and even their pet. I bet that kept Betty Barker very busy. It was also great advice for Joan.

Billy Haines as one of the Wax Works might be about the only thing that could have improved Sunset Blvd!

I think by 1950 Haines had moved on to his interior design career; he probably didn't want to be seen as a decrepit "waxwork"!
RE "about the only thing that could have improved Sunset Blvd": I read that Montgomery Clift was originally considered for William Holden's part. I think Clift would have been much more psychologically subtle than Holden. For instance, Holden often looks overtly disgusted with Swanson. One scene I'm thinking of is when she has on her Chaplin getup, which, I think, is genuinely cute and entertaining. Perhaps Clift would have shown a bit of appropriate amusement. (Throughout, I think Holden plays his character as too overtly "straight male." An actual "regular guy" would not have been hanging around Norma Desmond. The character was for either a gigolo or a gay hanger-on.)

[Admin]

May 30, 2021 17:32:09 GMT -6 tom said:

May 25, 2021 12:31:31 GMT -6 davidmorrocco said:

I was reading that Erte was born in 1892 in Russia and lived until 1990 and passed away in Paris at 97 years old. Can you even begin to imagine everything he lived through? All the technology he saw in his lifetime from the horse and buggy to cars and indoor toilets and electricity and radio and TV, microwave ovens, computers and everything else you can think of. Unbelievable!

I was reading up on Erich von Stroheim after watching Sunset Boulevard and also watching a whole mess of Gloria Swanson movies (she's awesome by the way! JC said GS was her hero IIRC). Stroheim said, per IMDB...

If you live in France and you have written one good book, or painted one good picture, or directed one outstanding film, 50 years ago, and nothing ever since, you are still recognized as an artist and honored accordingly ... In Hollywood - in Hollywood, you're as good as your last picture. If you didn't have one in production in the last three months, you're forgotten, no matter what you have achieved ere this. It is that terrific, unfortunately necessary, egotism in the makeup of the people who make the cinema, it is the continuous endeavor for recognition, that continuous struggle for survival and supremacy, among the newcomers, that relegates the old-timers to the ashcan.

How true! Makes me glad that folks like Erte and Adrian and JC and many others, who'd be largely forgotten, are still recognized and honored thanks to the Internet.

I must differ, though: Erte and Adrian are niche artists, remembered by specialists. Joan remains a wide-spread pop-culture icon---enhanced by the Internet, sure (websites), and also by recent TV programs ("Feud"), as well as multitudes of scholastic commentary. Even post-death and pre-Internet, people were still discussing her in the media (albeit, post-1980, primarily and shallowly in Mommie Dearest terms). Joan is a perfect example of the ultimate "Sphinx" or "Muse": Constantly being discussed as a representation of... Whatever you want her to be.

[davidmorrocco]

I watched Sunset Boulevard the other night. Even though I know every line and every scene, I still love every minute of the movie. Those gestures are so over the top. Part of the old silent movie days. It would be fun to play her for a day. What would People would think? I’m glad that you mentioned you watched it because I hadn’t seen it in a while. Great movie.

[tom]

Jun 8, 2021 12:22:15 GMT -6 davidmorrocco said:

I watched Sunset Boulevard the other night. Even though I know every line and every scene, I still love every minute of the movie. Those gestures are so over the top. Part of the old silent movie days. It would be fun to play her for a day. What would People would think? I’m glad that you mentioned you watched it because I hadn’t seen it in a while. Great movie.

I hadn't seen it in such a long time, until recently. But, after reading GS's autobiography, I watched it, and then some of her silents for background and context. To be honest, the heavy DeMille melodramas just don't do it for me. Her light comedies - Manhandled & Stage Struck - are IMO much more enjoyable. Interestingly, I enjoyed her earliest talkies - melodramas - Indiscreet & The Trespasser - more than her silent melodramas. Very interesting the parallels between she and JC.

[davidmorrocco]

Tom. You’ve got me reading Gloria Swanson’s autobiography. Swanson on Swanson. I’m halfway through it, so don’t give anything away. I want to be surprised with each page I turn. I’m loving it. Thanks for recommendation. I’ll let you know when I finish it. It may take me a while, but it’s so worth it. 

[davidmorrocco]

Finished my Gloria Swanson book, Swanson on Swanson and loved it and recommend it as a good summer read.

[tom]

May 25, 2021 12:31:31 GMT -6 davidmorrocco said:

I was reading that Erte was born in 1892 in Russia and lived until 1990 and passed away in Paris at 97 years old. Can you even begin to imagine everything he lived through? All the technology he saw in his lifetime from the horse and buggy to cars and indoor toilets and electricity and radio and TV, microwave ovens, computers and everything else you can think of. Unbelievable!

Another nice story about Erte that I just came across.

www.francetoday.com/culture/art_and_design/erte-history-art-deco-paris/

[tom]

poppitytalksclassicfilm.wordpress.com/2019/05/12/joan-adrian-adrian-alaia/