“What should I tell you about clothes? I will tell you this. A woman should not follow the fashion. She should wear what is becoming. For instance, I cannot wear one of the modern styles, the straight long waisted dress. I am too short. It makes me look terrible, like a pole. But today a woman is not supposed to look like a woman. She must have a flat chest, no hips and a waistline where there never was a woman’s waistline.” — stage star Irène Bordoni in1922.
Photo: Elmer Fryer for the Warner Bros. film Paris (1929).
“And zen zay say, ‘Why do you not let go in ze movie?’ And zen I say, ‘Because I do not like it at all!’ It is ‘sit so’ and ‘walk slowly’ –‘now look surprised’ — ‘now laugh’ and ‘now cry.’ What kind of acting is zat?” — Stage star Irene Bordoni in 1922, when asked why she didn’t pursue an acting career in Hollywood.
She finally did come out to Los Angeles to appear in a couple of films for Warner Bros. in 1929. Here she is in photo taken by Elmer Fryer.
Photo: Elmer Fryer (1929)
