“All this publicity makes me a little shy and afraid. I’m afraid that people will expect too much of me, right now when I’ve only started my acting career.” — Marilyn Monroe in 1952. Photographer: Frank Powolny (1952) “My father’s occupation is listed as ‘baker’ on my birth certificate, but that isn’t why they […]
“Hollywood is apt to make one lose perspective on life. It takes a steady hand to keep your sense of balance – you’ve got to use four-wheeled brakes on yourself. Otherwise, you can easily wreck your career.” — Luise Rainer Source: Marie Canel (1935) Photographer: C.S. Bull (1935) “All my photographs flatter me. I […]
In 1980, artist Don Shuler dropped an oversized steel nail from a crane into a 1959 Cadillac sedan on the Cal State Dominguez Hills campus. He called his performance art “Death of an Era.” To pay for the event, he stripped the Cadillac and sold its parts as souvenirs. (Photographer: Mike Mullen / LAPL 00078270)
“Trying to be fascinating is an asinine position to be in.” — Katharine Hepburn Photo: Christopher Strong (1933) “I’m a personality as well as an actress. Show me an actress who isn’t a personality, and you’ll show me a woman who isn’t a star.” – Katharine Hepburn “I like doing things as well […]
“I wish I weren’t ambitious. I’m never satisfied. I don’t think I shall ever be really happy because I’m never pleased with what I have done – I can always see something ahead that I must try to do. I never measure up to my own standard.” — Adrienne Ames Source: Alice L. Tildesley (1933) […]
“Like the rest of the original Mack Sennett bathing girls, I had started a motion picture career at three dollars a day, six days a week guarantee. Out of that we trolleyed to and from the studio, bought our lunches and made our clothes (don’t laugh) and those were happy days! We were really school […]
“I learned my lesson about billing a good many years ago. That was with a picture called Night Nurse in 1931. When the picture opened at the Strand Theater in New York, the sign said ‘Barbara Stanwyck and Ben Lyon in Night Nurse.’ “Second day: ‘Barbara Stanwyck and Ben Lyon in Night Nurse‘ with Clark Gable.’ […]
“There’s never been a good actress who couldn’t register sex appeal if the role called for it.” — Dorothy Dandridge Photo: The Decks Ran Red (1958) “It is such a waste. It makes you logy and half-alive. It gives you nothing. It takes away.” — Dorothy Dandridge on prejudice. Photo: The Decks Ran Red […]
“The thing that makes you also breaks you in this business, if you hammer at it too hard. The career is short enough as it is. It is always good policy to change your pace.” — James Cagney on playing certain types of characters on screen. Source: Martha Kerr (1936) “Shy. Intelligent. Genteel, Soft. […]
“My past is as dead as my old name [Imogene Wilson]. I am making a fresh start, and I’m going to stage such a comeback as ‘Mary Nolan’ that nobody will remember anything but that.” – Mary Nolan in 1927. Mary Nolan, aka Imogene “Bubbles” Wilson, (1902-1948) was one of Hollywood’s most troubled film players […]