*CANDIDS*

[charliechaplinfan]

Vechiolarry how come you know all these people so well?

Pola Negri, did you know her, what was she really like? I read her autobiography and quite liked her. The one thing I felt was really strange was she had only a couple of pictures in there of Rudy and one of those was at a Marion Davies party. I'd have thought if the relationship was a important as she made it sound she would have put more pictures in the book.

Did you meet any other stars. I'm sorry if you've replied to this on other threads but your input really intrigues me

[mongoII]

CCfan, Larry knew many Hollywood stars and has told some wonderful stories throughout the years.
Many are on the TCM boards as well as some on SSO. It's always a treat to read about them.
___________________________
Anita Ekberg before...


...Anita Ekberg now.


Carmen Miranda before the glitz, and Nipper the RCA dog.


Mae West pouring her pal Gary Cooper a beer.


Ann Sheridan & Leo Gorcey relaxing on the set. The Ded End Kids adored her.


Little girl Julie Andrews already into music.


Louis Armstrong mesmerized by the earthy Anna Magnani.


Gina Lollobrigida and her ex-fiancee Javier Rigau Rafols.


Joan Fontaine & Jean Simmons primping Sandra Dee on set of "Until They Sail".


Elizabeth Taylor & Burt Lancaster comparing Oscars in 1961.


Brother and sister dancing team Fred & Adele Astaire.


Rudolph Valentino at leisure and without make-up.


Western star George 'Gabby' Hayes with his wife Olive


Actor Steve Landesberg with zany movie star Judy Canova.


Cowboy star Buck Jones (without his hat).

[moira finnie]

Gina Lollobrigida and her ex-fiancee Javier Rigau Rafols.

I heard that they broke up when Javier had to repeat Junior year of high school and was forced to take his SATs--again. Just kidding...what's good for the goose, etc...You go Gina!
____________________________________________

Hi Alison,
If you'd like to read much more about our friend VecchioLarry's adventures in LaLaLand, you can find a treasure trove of stuff here:
Larry's Classic Star Reminiscences

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Thank you Moira for linking that thread over at TCM to here.
CCF - brew so tea and get a few biscuits and scones and start reading! And, good luck getting your eyedrops in straight afterward as there's a lot of words adding up to nothing really - a lot of useless information.

Poor Anita Ekberg, her eyes look in poor shape and she has not aged well...
Gina Lollobrigida, on the other hand, looks fantastic and very movie queenish! Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson would have been proud that she's kept up the tradition of STAR........
I read somewhere that she was going to marry that guy last year but everybody made so many jokes about it that she backed out.
Hope she kept him around for services - 'needed & rendered'.........

Larry

[charliechaplinfan]

Moira thank you so much for posting the link.

Wow Larry I've just started the thread, I'm now going to sort myself out with a drink and a snack and settle down and read.

Larry, I read Memoires of a Star what came across was a very warm and intelligent woman, the kind of lady who could entertain for hours with her memories. The bit that fascinated me the most in her autobiography was the chapter about Chaplin, for obvious reasons, it's interesting to read a ladies opinion.

Just one question, did you ever meet Charlie?

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi CCF,

No, I never met Charlie Chaplin.
Despite knowing Marion Davies, Pola Negri and Paulette Goddard very well, I was never in his presence.

When I arrived in LA in 1946, Chaplin was going through or just laterly involved in that "statutory rape" case and was probably a 'stay at home' kind of guy then.
After he married Oona O'Neil, he was not a party guy anymore and he was older and now a father of young children then.
He then left for Europe in the early 50's and never came back.

I did go to school in Switzerland in 1957 and he lived not far away but never saw him there either.

If you want to ask me any more questions, perhaps you can start a new thread as this is Mongo Joe's domain and I don't want to divert the "Candids" topic away from the photos and their output...

Larry

[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks Larry, I'd love to know someone who met the great man but you knew one of his wives, that's good enough .

Are you sure you don't mind going over old ground? I'm sure other members will contribute.

[mongoII]

Larry, I was also surprised to see that Anita Ekberg didn't age well since she was such a beauty.
I believe that Gina is still keeping company with Javier. Good for her.
__________________________________________


Actor Walter Huston with son director-to-be John Huston.


Angie Dickinson & Earl Holliman at a reunion in June 2008.


Uh-oh, did Marlon Brando goose Marilyn Monroe?


A still of the great tenor Mario Lanza as "The Great Caruso" (1951)


Betty Lanza, actress Johanna von Koczian & Marion Lanza on set of "For the First Time" the final film made by Lanza in 1959.


Mario Lanza in repose. Sadly he died on October 7, 1959 at the age of 38.


Sidney Poitier and his wife of 32 years Joanna Shimkus.


Leslie Howard enjoys his den amid his hounds.


Nightclub entertainer/actress Mitzi Gaynor looking swell in March of 2008 at 77.


Mexican spitfire Lupe Velez cooking up some Spanish chowder.



Exotic-looking actor Turhan Bey then and now.


Jennifer Jones & Robert Walker in the hay filming "Since You Went Away".


83 year old actress Coleen Gray with husband Fritz in 2006.


Farley Granger with companion Robert Calhoun in Rome in 1972.


Marilyn Monroe & Jack Lemmon on the set of "Some Like It Hot".


Rosemary Cloony & Jose Ferrer with their 5 children.


Julie Andrews with her baby Emma in 1962.


Director Vincent Minnelli & Judy Garland with their daughter Liza.

[klondike]

The living, breathing "hounds" sharing Leslie's den look to be Springer Spaniels; the two in bronze topping the bookcase are definitely Borzois, but I must say, I've seen truer examples of their anatomy.
Leslie Howard would be a Dog Man; I can easily imagine him breezing through many an afternoon tramping the countryside with his Best Friends!

[jdb1]

Oh, my, poor Mario Lanza. You can see, even in the coffin, how very fat he had become. Does my memory serve me correctly that he was in some sort of private hospital in Europe trying to lose weight when he died?

Interesting photos of Turhan Bey, too. I don't think I've ever seen him without the "exotic" makeup the movies put him into, little moustache included. He looks a lot less exotic here. More natural - he was only Turkish on his father's side, and Czech, I think, on his mother's. This photo sort of reminds me of Bobby Darin.

By the way, Larry, it would be wonderful if you to started another reminiscences thread here. You know we love to hear your stories, as well as your insights, and you have some fresh audience here as well.

[klondike]

E R R A T A :

It was brought to my attention today that the two live dogs posing with Mr. Howard are not Spaniels at all, but rather English Setters; there's a delightful backstory to how I now know this, but that would be irrelevent & unfair to the primary purpose of Mr. Goodheart's wonderful thread here, so rather than my rattling-on here, please join me at your earliest leisure @ the new To Dream of Dogs thread, over in General Chat.
And Mongo, as ever, thanks for these amazing pix; paraphrasing Dickens: please, Sir, m'y we all have suh' more?

[mongoII]

Klondike, I had no doubt about your love for man's best friend. Although I don't know much about breeds I had a few in my day with my favorite being a boxer called Huntz. He was something else.
We now have something called Jackchi and he is a whipsnade. I just got the broom after him for taking eggshells out of the trash bin. His name is Jeter and he makes me laugh.
I wish you luck with your thread which I will be sure to visit.

Judith, in 1959 Lanza suffered a minor heart attack, followed by double pneumonia in August. He died in Rome in October of that year at the age of 38 from a pulmonary embolism after undergoing a controversial weight loss program colloquially known as "the twilight sleep treatment," which required its patients to be kept immobile and sedated for prolonged periods.
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Robert Blake performing the old hat trick.


Bridgitte Bardot awaiting her masseuse.


Gilbert Roland getting ready to cool off.


Gary Cooper loses fight with Ingrid Bergman...nahhh.


Clark Gable bragging again?


Lana Turner & Peter Lawford dining out...ho hum.


George 'Superman' Reeves & Virginia Grey laughing it up.


83 year old Joan Leslie at a salute to Bette Davis.


Glenda Farrell at home with her wide eyed kitty.


Tom Neal & Ann Savage on the set of "Detour".


June Lockhart looking swell at 83 accepts an award recently.


Shirley Booth & Eileen Heckert filming a hiliarious scene from "Hot Spell".


Ultimate cowboy stars Gene Autry & Roy Rogers.


Susan Hayward appears impressed with Elvis Presley.


Sophia Loren is proud of her Mercedes.

[moira finnie]

Um, Mr. Blake, I realize that you've been under a lot of extraordinary pressure in the last few years, but, uh, there are some of us who would appreciate it if you could please perhaps rethink that "all for our art" bit. You and Harvey Keitel might be among those I'd put at the tippy top of that list.

Great photo of Clark Gable, Mongo. Don't think he needed to brag, even facetiously. Nature and a really talented photographer (George Hurrell, Laszlo Willinger?) took care of that for him.

[klondike]

Um, Mr. Blake, I realize that you've been under a lot of extraordinary pressure in the last few years, but, uh, there are some of us who would appreciate it if you could please perhaps rethink that "all for our art" bit. You and Harvey Keitel might be among those I'd put at the tippy top of that list.

Sadly, oh so sadly, you can squeeze Frank Langella's name in under Harve's. There's just not enough Jameson's this side of Tir na Nogh to boil away that memory . . for me or Nabokov!

Oh, the humanity . . the small, flaccid humanity!

[Birdy]

Mongo - I'm really enjoying this thread. Thanks for sharing with all of us. Only one picture I didn't care for, back on page one: June and Dick playing house. Don't they just look cozy-wozy? Yech. They look like they got everything they wished for and were bored to death with it.

Larry - is there an established thread on TCM that tells of your history in Hollywood? I've enjoyed reading several snippets posted by you over the years but wondered about your connection/history. Thanks for the great stories.

B