“A girl is…well, a girl. It’s nice to be told you’re successful at it.” – Rita Hayworth Quote source: Rita Hayworth: A Photographic Retrospective by Caren Roberts-Frenzel. Rita Hayworth, poolside at the Ambassador Hotel, in 1936. At the time this photo was taken, she had signed with Fox as Rita Cansino (her birth name being Margarita Carmen […]
“As a little girl sitting in the dark of a theater, I came to believe in magic. Magic could happen in life because I saw it happen on the screen. It was the truth, and I wanted to become part of that truth. And I did.” – Fay Wray A photo of a 14-15 […]
“There’s nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight.” — Lon Chaney The Penalty (1920) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). With Patsy Ruth Miller, Norman Kerry, Kate Lester, Tully Marshall, Brandon Hurst, Winifred Bryson, Raymond Hatton, Nigel De Brullier, Gladys Brockwell, Eulalie Jensen and Ernest Torrence. “The role of the […]
“Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas on which women paint their dreams.” — Rudolph Valentino “He’s too foreign looking. The girls would never like him.” — D.W. Griffith‘s early assessment of Valentino. Source: Emily W. Leider’s […]
“I never will believe there is such a thing as a great actor.” — Robert Mitchum With Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster. Self-portrait/caricature. Date: NA. Ink on paper. 5 x 8 inches. “Just after we shot Secret Ceremony [1968], lesbianism came in … I’m no damned good as a lesbian.” – Robert […]
“Just because I’m a little – well, you know, different – people believe anything weird about me.” – Mabel Normand Photographer: Aaron Tycko (1919) “When Miss Normand first came to my company, she got such a small salary that I can’t think of any word short enough to tell about it. Now she gets the second […]
“My name is properly pronounced ‘vor’shack.’ The D remains silent. I have had quite a time with the name, having been called practically everything from Balzac to Bickelsrock.” – Ann Dvorak. Source for quote: “What’s the name, please? A guide to the correct pronunciation of current prominent names.” (1936) New York and London: Funk & […]
“The actor is always a ‘man’s man.’ It’s doubtful whether I qualify or not. I don’t hunt big game or mice, because I don’t like to kill things….I don’t fish because I fished for ten years and never caught anything….I’m not a big, hearty eater either, downing two dozen oysters and a haunch of venison […]
“Darlling [sic], sweetheart. I lof you.” These were Russian born actress Anna Sten’s first English words once she arrived in Hollywood in 1932. Her interpreter explained that Sten (real name Anel Sudakevich) felt that the sentence would come in handy once she started work. Sten’s failure to command the English language or gain an American following became an embarrassment for producer Sam […]
“I never said, ‘I wanted to be alone.’ I said, ‘I want to be left alone.’” – Greta Garbo Photo: C.S. Bull (1931) “I have to thank Mauritz Stiller for everything in this world.” — Greta Garbo Here she is, on her way to the U.S. with her mentor/director in 1925. The […]