"Va Va Voom" Star of the Day

Grace Kelly
Today let us highlight the Princess of Monaco.

Grace struck out on her own after high school, heading to New York's bright lights to try her luck. Grace worked as a model but made her acting debut on Broadway in 1949. She also had a brief stint in television. Not content with the work in New York, Grace moved to Southern California for the more prestigious part of acting -- motion pictures.

In 1951, she appeared in her first film Fourteen Hours when she was 22. It was a small part, but a start nonetheless. The following year she landed the role of Amy Kane in High Noon, a western starring Gary Cooper and Lloyd Bridges which turned out to be very popular. In 1953, Grace appeared in only one film, but it was another popular one, Mogambo. The film was a jungle drama in which fellow cast members, Clark Gable and Ava Gardner turned in masterful performances. It was also one of the best films ever released by MGM.

Crushing on Clark Gable

Look at Clark in his nice little turtleneck and his big ol' eyes and bushy brows.  Yum...

Happy Birthday, Clark Gable!

Clark's birthday is this Sunday, February 1st.

Must-See Movie: Teacher's Pet

Teacher's Pet (1958)
I got the chance to watch this movie over the weekend (as Dyno watched football). It's yet another Doris Day comedy where a man pretends to be someone else after he finds out she hates him, although she's never met him.

James Gannon (played by Clark Gable), the gruff city editor of a newspaper, believes that the only way to learn the business is by doing, and so thinks college education is superfluous. Thus he's not pleased when he's invited to lecture at a college journalism class. He turns down the invitation and writes a nasty letter to the instructor. Yet his editor-in-chief orders him to go. When Gannon shows up to confront Professor Erica Stone (played by Doris Day), he finds her attractive. Before he is able to introduce himself and apologize for the letter, Erica reads it aloud and mocks Gannon before the entire class.

Humiliated, he decides to join the class to show her up, posing as a wallpaper salesman named Jim Gallagher. As they circle around their mutual attraction, they both begin to gain respect for each other's approaches to reporting news.

I found myself laughing out loud many times during the movie. Especially whenever the character of Dr. Pine was on-screen. Played by Gig Young, the character is the successful doctor that Gannon sees as his competition for Erica's affections. Young has played these types of characters before (especially in Doris Day movies), and he's always hilarious. His role in this film, however is different in that we don't know what kind of relationship he has with Erica.

Gable is great in this comedic role (much like his gruff It Happened One Night character), and his reactions are priceless. The only thing distracting is the obvious age difference between Gable and Day. Apparently the movie was deliberately filmed in black & white in an attempt to disguise Clark Gable's age and weight. And other actors turned down the role, seeing that there was such a huge age difference (Cary Grant and James Stewart, allegedly -- although it didn't seem to bother Grant in That Touch of Mink). But all in all it was a fun movie to watch and laugh along with.

Monday's This & That

Things are really ramping up around here... I'm getting ready for a well-deserved 2 1/2-week vacation, and that means cranking away at work to get all my shtuff done so I can get the hell outta Dodge! As a result, I haven't found much time to do anything fun lately, but I have found a few choice tidbits of frivolity here and there...

Lighters, handbags, coasters, and other goodies featuring pin-up girls, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra, and more retro characters are for sale at PinupgirlLighters.com. They're enough to make smoking cool again!

Go back in time by checking out these WWII posters...

And Wired provides us with Air Hostesses of Yesteryear. Fly the friendly skies with an air of nostalgia!

Well, back to my march... And remember, VOTES FOR WOMEN!

Mee-Yow Friday

Gary Cooper was first up for the role of Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, but he turned it down, saying "'Gone With The Wind' is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history," and "I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."

Dreams Almost Squashed

Clark Gable
Failed his first screen test at Warner Brothers because Darryl F. Zanuck thought his ears were too large.

Clint Eastwood
In his early days he was told his speech was too soft, he was too tall, he squinted too much, and his teeth needed capping. "That's all still true today," he says, "but the attitude is a little different now."

Cary Grant
A casting director once informed him that he was bowlegged and that his neck was too thick.

Fred Astaire
The report on an early audition read, "Can't sing, can't act. Dances a little."

[source]

Mee-Yow Thursday

While filming Gone With the Wind, Vivien Leigh reportedly did not like kissing Clark Gable because she said that he had excessively bad breath due to smoking.

Meee-yow Thursday

Clark Gable says:

Working with Marilyn Monroe on 'The Misfits' nearly gave me a heart attack. I have never been happier when a film ended.

"Va Va Voom" Star of the Day

Shelley Winters
The Oscar-winning actress passed away over the weekend. Many people remember her roles as older, crotchety ladies, but she was actually a very successful pin-up girl in her younger years.

A plain-looking former chorus girl, Shelley Winters was glamorized by her movie company and starred in seductive roles. But she wouldn't be defined by a stereotype. Winters shed the temptress image to become a polished dramatic actress, claiming two Academy Awards in a career that spanned more than 100 films.

Winters won Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue." She sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself.

Winters wrote openly in her autobiographies of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. She also said after she came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s she was roommates with another rising starlet - Marilyn Monroe.

Winters received her last Oscar nomination for 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure." Among her other notable films: "Night of the Hunter," "Executive Suite," "I Am a Camera," "The Big Knife," "Odds Against Tomorrow," "The Young Savages," "Lolita," "The Chapman Report," "The Greatest Story Ever Told," "A House Is Not a Home," "Alfie," "Harper," "Pete's Dragon," "Stepping Out" and "Over the Brooklyn Bridge."

Winters died of heart failure Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She was 85. Winters had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.