For a few brief years, dazzling, dusky, model-turned-starlet Dusty Anderson was up there in the public gaze – on magazine covers and the silver screen. But as a model her shelf-life was finite, while her acting talents were limited – she was never going to make it big as a movie star.Her marriage to Jean Negulesco transformed her life and enabled her to pursue her interest in painting. It has also given us a window onto the life of a starlet who might otherwise have sunk into oblivion.1945. Dusty Anderson publicity shot for Tonight and Every Night. Photo by Ned Scott.Dusty Anderson grows upLike so many models and movie stars of the 1940s, “Dusty” is not Dusty Anderson’s real name. Born in 1918, she’s christened Ruth Anderson. Her mother is of Cherokee origin and has given up her career as an opera singer to marry a Swede who has settled in the US.Dusty attends De-Vilbiss High School in Toledo, Ohio, where she becomes president of the dramatic association. She also … [Read more...]
Cover Girl – fashion goes to the movies
Cover Girl is a 1944 movie in which Hollywood embraces the business of fashion. It offers an opportunity to take a look at the modeling businesps, then burgeoning but still in its infancy. And it provides a showcase for the fashions of the day and the talents of Rita Hayworth and a bevy of models.It’s a bright spectacle with songs by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin, costumes by Travis Banton, Muriel King and Gwen Wakeling, choreography by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and that special early-Technicolor lushness. Donen would go on to direct Funny Face, another musical about the world of fashion, with Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn as its stars. Funny Face would help to cement the reputation of Paris after World War II as the world capital of fashion.The plot of Cover Girl is both pure fantasy and pretty banal. A Brooklyn nightclub owner loves his principal dancing girl. The dancing girl loves the nightclub owner. But the dancing girl has a driving … [Read more...]
Hollywood Hallowe’en cheesecake
1947. Lillian Wells in the shadow of a suggestive Hallowe'en cat. Read more.Anyone fancy a slice of Hollywood Hallowe'en cheesecake? It's not for all tastes and some might find it a bit sickly. But if you're not feeling too straight-laced, it should bring a smile to your face.For the Hollywood studios, never shy about using sex to sell their movies, from the 1920s and into the 1950s, Hallowe'en, is a great opportunity to get their (female) stars into the press.The result is a welter of truly trashy shots, some of which are simultaneously coy and suggestive while at the same time retaining a certain period charm.In an article for LIFE magazine, Ben Cosgrove reminds us that:Many Hollywood studios put their faith in photographs of their comeliest stars striking what, in retrospect, were perfectly absurd poses, wearing perfectly absurd outfits. The creation of these “pinup” shots — often referred to by the catchall term “cheesecake” — was a miniature industry all … [Read more...]
