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(…)
It’s the good girls who keep the diaries. The bad girls never have the time – Tallulah Bankhead The picture is taken from a Lobby card for the 1932 film Faithless starring Tallulah Bankhead and Robert Montgomery. Check out her odd triangular manicure in the original (below) – strange eh? Adore that splash of red lipstick(…)
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(…)
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(…)
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(…)
Oh my, it’s definitely getting colder out there. The nights have drawn in and Christmas lights are starting to spring up all over the place (my next door neighbours back garden looks like a plastic Santa’s grotto – they’ve been out there all morning hanging it all up!). It’s definitely time to wrap up warm(…)
A girl de-fluffing her extremely furry angora rabbit, 1930s.
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(…)
A 1930s publicity shot of Myrna Loy with typically high-arched eyebrows – isn’t she lovely?
A very serious-looking class of 5 year-olds in their Halloween outfits, 1937. I particularly like the pirate in the middle row! Who’s your favourite?
Chorus girls from the Theatre Royal on Tamarama Beach, ca. 1938. Photographed by Sam Hood. I’ve never been tempted to do acrobatics on the beach but it seems to be a common theme for vintage seaside photos! Is it just me?
It’s my son’s school trip today. They’re learning about World War 2 in history at the moment and they’re off to have a WW2-themed day at Holdenby House where they’ll get to experience cooking with rations, bomb shelters and various other things which *may* give him nightmares. Having said that learning about the war is(…)
Wow, this photo raises lots of conflicting emotions in me (but I suspect that’s the sign that it’s a good photograph!). I have an enormous amount of admiration for this lady who must have nerves of steel, and I also feel sorry for the lions, who should never have been in captivity like this. Similar to(…)
In 1934 Cecil B. DeMille directed a movie version of Cleopatra which was every bit as sumptuous and decadent as the later movie of the same name starring Elizabeth Taylor. This Cleopatra was dressed in opulent Art Deco style and Claudette Colbert who played the title role looked just wonderful. The costumes which were designed(…)
I love all the early photos of Joan Crawford from the 1920s and early 1930s. They’re so different from the severe studio shots from the late 30s and 1940s and she looks like a completely different person. This photo was taken in 1930.
Carole Lombard from Cinegraf Magazine 1934. The colours seem to be very strange in this picture, any idea why anyone? Is it just discolouration due to the age of the paper? Cinegraf Magazine produced by Eugene Robert Richee (1895-1972) and supplied to CINEGRAF magazine.