The 1930s was such an elegant decade, and nothing shows this more than the beautiful wedding dresses people wore. Here’s a gallery of a few of my favourites. I particularly love that little flowergirl’s striped dress, which is your favourite? Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and copyright:
Marion Davies is as well known for being a famous man’s mistress as she is for being a movie star. She already had a successful movie career when she first met newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and became his lover. The relationship didn’t do her career any harm at all. He both financed her movies(…)
It was a total coincidence that I watched Grand Prix on the same weekend we heard about James Garner’s death. It is a movie I’ve meant to watch for a long time. I spent this weekend pretty much immersed in motorsport, with my son karting at Buckmore Park all day on Saturday plus it being(…)
Some of the biggest movie parts in history were first offered to other actors, including the part of Indiana Jones. Can you imagine anyone else playing that part? Take a look at the actors who turned these parts down below. Do you think the movies would have been as successful if the directors had secured(…)
My blog seems to have taken a decidedly Russian turn this week, what with clearing up the rumours about Rasputin and the last Tzar’s family photos! I’m continuing the trend today with the beautiful Vera Karalli, who was a successful ballerina at the Bolshoi in the 1910s as well as being a popular Russian silent(…)
Historical stage costumes are by their very nature fabulous. Rarely understated they needed to communicate the nature of a character as soon as they step onto the stage. Some are ridiculous intentionally, some not (I fear poor Andreas Dippel was supposed to look heroic but fell rather short of that), and some are simply wonderful(…)
Chaplin, along with his mother and siblings, were sent to the dreaded Victorian workhouse when he was aged just 7. After the breakdown of his parents marriage, his mother struggled to keep the family from destitution but without any help from his father she was unable to keep them out of the workhouse. Parents were(…)
I’m embarrassed to say that a great deal of what I knew about Rasputin came courtesy of Boney M (Lover of the Russian Queen, Russia’s greatest love machine etc.) and urban myth. After looking through the last Tzar’s family photos yesterday I was intrigued enough about Rasputin to try to find out more about him.(…)
It was fascinating to come across these family photos which make Tzar Nicholas II of Russia look like just a normal family, despite the Tzar constantly wearing a stiff impressive uniform and military hat regardless of whether he’s on a cruise, or playing tennis! On the subject of outfits, his daughters Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga and(…)
I loved the look of this recipe. It sounded like all my favourite ingredients from a Danish Pastry made into a loaf cake. The only thing missing would be some white icing drizzled along the top which I might try next time. The original recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery Cakes book, and looks way(…)
This week’s vintage fashion inspiration comes from Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 movie Sabrina – one of my all-time favourite Hepburn movies. If rumours are correct she was mostly dressed by Givenchy in this movie although costume-designer Edith Head won an Oscar for them. Either way she looked fabulous throughout! I’ve picked 3 of my(…)
Continuing on the theme from yesterday with Hollywood stars before they were famous, here’s a very young and rather risqué photo of Joan Crawford back in her flapper days. Totally different to her later on-screen image isn’t it! Image source and copyright: Some rights reserved
We all know what Mae West looked like (above). Her sexy on-screen image is probably one of the most iconic of all time. So much so that she had life preservers named after her during WW2 and Salvador Dali created his iconic lips sofa because of his fascination with her. But what did she look(…)
‘I learnt one thing on my honeymoon – to take drugs’. Tiger Woman is the autobiography of Betty May, a bohemian wild-child and the unlikely heroine of this truly astonishing story. Born in a poverty-stricken area of London, we hear Betty’s shocking journey which culminates in her becoming a notorious 1920s flapper and artists muse,(…)
I thought I’d indulge in a little wedding nostalgia from the 1920s today, partly because I was wondering when the next series of Downton Abbey is due to start. (I’m guessing in the Autumn once the weather has turned and the summer of sport is over!) I love the styles of the 1920, these wedding(…)
People the world over have found breast cakes entertaining (not to mention titillating) for a long time. I seem to remember that there’s a story of Marie Antoinette outraging her tea party guests with them (“let them eat boobie cakes!”), and there’s even a festival in Sicily where they eat little breast-shaped cupcakes called ‘Saint(…)
Marie Doro was an American silent movie actress of the early 1920s. Isn’t she stunning? She started out as a chorus girl and actress at which time she inspired a young Charlie Chaplin to fall madly in love with her. She moved into silent movies in 1915 but sadly 13 out of the 18 movies(…)
French Impressionist painter Monet, photographed in his gardens in Giverny, the inspiration for his famous Water Lilies series of paintings. Monet painted more than 200 paintings of water lilies during the last 30 years of his life, many of which were painted whilst he had cataracts. I’ve seen the paintings so many times, and it’s(…)