#WomanEmpowermentWednesday 5 Times When Ginger Rogers Defined Lady Power

The Major and the Minor (1942)

Bachelor Mother (1939)

Stage Door (1937)

Top Hat (1935)

Shall We Dance (1937)

#ManCrushMonday #MemorableSupportingActors Grant Mitchell

Already a Harvard graduated attorney in his late 20s, Ohio-born Grant Mitchell was ready for something different. He would have switched between stage and screen from 1916 to 1925, but Mitchell became a permanent staple in Hollywood in the advent of talkies. Mostly playing supporting roles in businessmen or fathers, Mitchell would go on to film over 100 films until his retirement in 1948. His most memorable roles include "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944), "The Man Who Came to Dinner" (1942), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "Dinner at Eight" (1939), and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935).

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Dinner at Eight (1939)

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Link Worth Checking Out
Grant Mitchell - Jinx Makes Good, Broadway to Hollywood, 1902-1948 - Immortal Ephemera

#FashionSpotlight Irene Lentz

Like Dolly Tree, Irene started out as an actress in secondary silent films. But opening her own dress shop started a different career, being offered to design for the custom salon at the Bullocks Wiltshire luxury department store that catered to the wealthy including actresses. Her first film credit came in 1933 dressing Lily Damita in "Goldie Gets Along," but her big break was dressing Ginger Rogers in "Shall We Dance" in 1937. Billing herself as just "Irene," she would take over as production designer at MGM when Adrian left to create his own fashion house, becoming leading costume designer in 1943. Her crowning achievement came in form of her avant garde designs for Lana Turner in "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946). She left to create her own fashion house in 1950.

Claudette Colbert in "The Secret Heart" (1946)

Jeanette McDonald in "The Birds and the Bees" (1946)

Marlene Dietrich in "The Lady is Willing" (1942)

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday #MemorableSupportingActors Marie Dressler

Although better known as the broke actress Carlotta Vance in 1933's "Dinner at Eight," Marie Dressler has had a long career across film and stage. Her career started at age 18 with the Nevada Stock company which she stayed with for 3 years until leaving for Philadelphia's Starr Opera Company as a chorus girl. In the late 1800s, she started her career on Broadway in 'Waldemar, the Robber of the Rhine.' With the help of the writer Maurice Barrymore, she truly discovered her niche in comedy. It would take many productions and her own formed theater troupe until leaving Edward Everett Horton's Los Angeles theater troupe for a role in Lillian Gish's first talkie, "One Romantic Night." (1930)

It wasn't her first film, having already been in 1914's "Tillie's Punctured Romance," which was known as the first feature length comedy. She, along with writers Helena Dayton and Louise Barrett attempted to sell a script to Hollywood, but was turned down being told that audiences only wanted "young love" and the proposed co-star in Lionel Barrymore or George Arliss as "old fossils." Although her time in film was short, Dressler was nominated twice and had won for 1930's "Min and Bill."

Dressler had spent time entertaining in veteran hospitals and left $15,000 to her maid's husband, which was "intended [to be] used to provide a place of comfort for black travelers."




A Link Worth Checking Out

The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search

#ManCrushMonday Zachary Scott in "The Mask of Dimitrios" (1944)

Dimitrios Makropoulos is tall, dark and devastatingly handsome ... and a dead criminal. Through the research of author Cornelius Leyden, we learn Dimitrios's illicit activity across Europe while at the same time looking absolutely gorgeous on screen.

#ManCrushMonday #ChristmasEdition Aldo Ray in "We're No Angels" (1955)

As 1/3rd of a group of escaped convicts on the run on Christmas Eve Day, Albert would be the ladies man out of all of them. But he is not without any quirks, namely the snake named Adolphe he keeps in a basket on his hip. Regardless, Aldo Ray is at his most charming although dangerous being a previous occupant of Devil's Island before becoming a fairy godmother-like character to the Ducotel family and being absolutely enamored with Joan Bennett's Amelia.



Remake This #ChristmasEdition Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

As a palate cleanser after her Oscar nominated role in "Double Indemnity," Barbara Stanwyck was ready for some lighter fare. It came in the form of an adapted story by Aileen Hamilton, reworked by Lionel Houser and the Oscar winning Adele Comandini. But after distribution and opening to mediocre numbers, "it was considered no great shakes, nice certainly, charming absolutely and popular, but it wasn't a film that had looked at legs, meaning it wasn't destined to be running very long." (TCM Bob's Christmas Eve Picks 1of4 Christmas in Connecticut (Intro) - YouTube)

Troian Bellsario as Elizabeth Lane

Matthew Lewis as Jefferson Jones

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Sloan

Charles Mesure as Alexander Yardley

Tituss Burgess as Felix Bassenak

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday #ChristmasEdition Janet Leigh's Connie Ennis in "Holiday Affair" (1949)

Connie Ennis is one bad ass lady of the 1940s. As a single mother, dating the safe lawyer Carl Davis (Wendell Corey) and working at a job where she more or less makes her own hours as a comparative shopper, she was doing pretty well for herself. Emotionally however, Connie is no different than any other woman whose husband was lost in World War 2. Healthy or not, she dubs her son Timmy "the man of the house," fixes his hair the way his father wore it, and thinks that the unexciting Carl is the man for her even though her in-laws are not too keen. For better or for worse, Robert Mitchum's Steve Mason just comes in and messes her idea of normalcy all up, making her believe in love and excitement all over again.