With the Winter Olympics in full swing it’s a great time to talk about 1930s skating and movie star Sonja  Henie. Henie was a Norwegian skater who won pretty much everything in ice-skating from 1927 to 1936 back in the days when figure skating competitions took place on frozen lakes rather than ice rinks (see […]

From the 1920s through to the 1950s Atomic energy was terrifically fashionable. Radium was used in everything from beauty and cosmetics, to household cleaning products (see the photo below of the Radium hand cleaner which ‘takes off everything but the skin’ – yikes!). So, why were people so keen to use radioactive products in every […]

Jean Harlow, the original blonde bombshell, started the trend for bleaching hair in the 1930s. Before this it was very much just prostitutes woman of ill-repute who coloured their hair, it certainly wasn’t something done by ‘nice girls’ When Harlow exploded onto the silver screen in the early 1930s her white blonde hair caused a […]

When two people love each other, they don’t look at each other; they look in the same direction – Ginger Rogers

Nothing can transport you back in time like a fragrance. They say that your sense of smell is the most powerful and evocative sense, and it’s true: Chanel No. 5 will forever remind me of my mum, Armani pour Homme is my husband, and Brut – well that reminds me of staying out late as […]

How can I talk about Gary Cooper without humming Irving Berlin’s Putting on the Ritz? Dressed up like a million dollar trooper Tryin’ hard to look like Gary Cooper (Super duper) That must have been the first time I heard Gary Cooper’s name, from the lips of Fred Astaire watching a Saturday afternoon movie on […]

Some time ago the AFI (that’s the American Film Institute) released a list of the top 50 greatest screen legends from the Classic Hollywood era: 25 male and 25 female stars. I’m not sure exactly what their criteria were for reaching the top spot, but they classified a screen legend as an actor or actress: […]

Bette Davis’ Hollywood career spanned an incredible six decades, but it was her style in the 1930s and 40s combined with her uncompromising movie roles which cemented her as a movie icon. She was no classic Hollywood beauty, and flatly refused to comply with the ideals of the studios, once claiming: ‘Hollywood wanted me to […]

There really was an art to eyebrow shaping back in Hollywood’s Golden Era. When each young actress had their big Hollywood studio makeover their brows were plucked and teased (and sometimes even removed and pencilled in) in the process of turning them from a regular girl to a screen goddess. Each leading lady was able […]

Carole Lombard was one of the most popular comedy film actresses of the 1930s and tragically died because of a decision made with the toss of a coin. How many of these facts did you know about her? She was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s, earning around US$500,000 per year which […]

This image probably depicts crew men of the four-masted steel barque MAGDALENE VINNEN in a boxing match at wharf number 2 in Woolloomooloo. The vessel sailed into Sydney Harbour on 27 February 1933, under the command of Captain Lorenz Peters. The barque was loaded with almost 16,000 bales of wool, the fourth largest shipment to […]

This picture perfectly captures for me the style of the 1930s. I think my glamorous 1930s ideal probably stems from watching too many Poirot and Hollywood movies, where all the young people were beautiful, tanned and althetic, all the men had slicked back hair and dashing looks and the women had perfect pin curls. I […]

I know I’ve missed Thanksgiving and that’s a big ‘turkey’ occasion the the US, but do you still have turkey at Christmas too? Forgive my total ignorance, but I have no idea. Here the the UK, we do have turkey at Christmas (unless you’re particuarly posh and then you go for goose or beef), so […]

The wonderful Bette Davis. I’m guessing this is a promotional photo from the early 1930s judging by her hairstyle and eyebrows. Does anyone know anything about this photo?

A girl de-fluffing her extremely furry angora rabbit, 1930s.

Young women look out on Kalapana Black Sand Beach in Hawaii. The beach gets its black color from volanic lava, November 1937.

I’m fascinated by old mug shots. I love the candid nature of them. They show ordinary people in their every-day clothes photographed perhaps for the first and only time in their lives. Some look worried, some look cocky, some just look pretty vacant (check out John Dodgson), but they’re all really interesting. I feel a […]

Mary Pickford wearing THE most amazing gloves in a publicity photo from the 1931 movie Kiki. I fell in love with gloves like these when I saw a lady wearing them (number 18) at Goodwood Revival last year and never thought I’d see another pair! Aren’t they amazing? If anyone knows where I can get […]