| Intl. Notebook | Jul 20 2022 |
Charisse strikes a perfect pose on MGM mailer.
We have something a bit different for you today. We say that every time we have something from Israel, don't we? Well, in our experience items from there are pretty rare. And like our many Japanese discoveries, they're inherently interesting because of the different alphabet used. What you see here is a promotional postcard for the 1957 MGM musical film Silk Stockings, which starred Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire. It's not a film we'll talk about, as it falls outside our purview, but we love this item, which we spotted on an auction site. It's crudely printed, but beautiful just the same, thanks to Charisse, who was one of the special beauties of her era.
According to the vendor, the text says, “See you this week in the Esther cinema hall in the magnificent musical film, Silk Stockings. Yours, Cyd Charisse.” The Esther was a Bauhaus style cinema built in Tel-Aviv's Dizzengoff Square. It opened in 1931 and was a popular social hub for decades before being closed, then reopened as a fancy hotel. As you know, we're into old cinemas, and we managed to track down a shot of the Esther, which appears below. Consider it an addition to our collection of vintage cinema photos. We don't have an Israeli release date for Silk Stockings, but if we had to guess we'd say it played there in 1958 or 1959.
| Hollywoodland | Jun 5 2017 |
When you can move like Astaire, nobody is out of your league.
Only in the movies could a 150 pound broomstick like Fred Astaire score a babe like Rita Hayworth. Or maybe we're not giving him enough credit. He was an amazing dancer, and we know that counts for a lot. Also, Hayworth made it with Sinatra and he was tiny too. So forget what we said. She liked them small. Anyway, the image above is from the rear of a copy of the Portuguese newspaper O Século Ilustrado, and it's a promo for the musical romance You Were Never Lovelier. We've watched it a couple of times, and it's a nice flick set in Buenos Aires telling the story of a very picky Hayworth refusing to marry any of the many handsome and rich men around her. When she meets Astaire she thinks he's a pest—until she sees him glide around the room. We recommend the movie. It's as fun as this photo makes it look. To add to the fun even more, we have a promo image from the film below, and by the way, let's never forget that Hayworth was a professional level dancer too. Check here for proof.
PortugalArgentinaBuenos AiresO Século IlustradoYou Were Never LovelierRita HayworthFred Astairecinema
| Hollywoodland | Mar 23 2014 |
Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire prove levitation is possible.
We love Rita Hayworth as a femme fatale and in our opinion her turn in Gilda, playing a decadent casino owner’s jaded arm candy in Argentina, is by far her signature role. But we should never fail to remember that she was an ace dancer. And of course Fred Astaire was a magician. Here they both are in a series of promo shots made while they were filming the 1942 musical You Were Never Lovelier. Some sites say these are actual film frames, but they aren’t—this was a rehearsal rather than a number from the actual film. Curiously, like Gilda the movie is set in Argentina and features similar lead roles—i.e., a bored, perhaps unreachable woman and a scoundrel with a gambling problem. Since both flicks were produced by Columbia Pictures it’s possible the studio simply recycled a successful theme. Maybe we’ll do some research on that. Meantime, check out the images below.
