So said Humphrey Bogart.
We can only assume he’s doing his best to keep ahead of the world here, while Clifton Webb angles Bogey’s hat just so. Laurence Olivier, in his own straw hat, looks on.
Is it me or does actor Howard Duff look mortified by his wife, Ida Lupino? It can’t be her florist skills; they’re right on point. At this point, in 1957, they’d already been married 6 years. Ida was only 39, but the harsh make-up makes her look much older. Though they separated in 1966, they didn’t actually divorce until 1984.
But perhaps Howard’s raised brows have nothing to do with Ida. He had, in fact, been listed in Red Channels as a communist subversive in 1950, so maybe he was still miffed about that.
In her own right, Ida was quite the woman, being the only one to direct episodes of the original The Twilight Zone series, as well as the only director to have starred in the show. Thinking many roles to be “beneath her,” the British Lupino spent much of her years at Warner Bros being suspended. But Ida was strong-willed. She wrote stories and composed music, including “Aladdin’s Suite,” which was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937, two years after she’d written it while being on bedrest due to polio.
Here she is in one of your typical 1940’s “tug my own hair” pics.
Fresh as a daisy, happy as a lark. And yet by the next decade, cakey white pancake powder gave her an eerie vampire complexion.
Vampire or not, the issue seems to simply have been with Howard’s brows, perpetually in a forlorn state. Take note.
Even SMOKING, his brows fought gravity. Was that their natural state? Why, I’d wager he even SNEEZED with raised brows!
He seems perplexed as to why they both got roles on the 60s Batman series as well. While his left eye seems calm, the right is horrified!
Even in his later years, he was still vexed. What to do, what to do?
This happy family is full of love, but they aren’t muskrats. These are.
Chubby little things, aren’t they?
“Muskrat Love” was a love song from the bicentennial year, which peaked at #4 with the Captain & Tennille’s version. No, it doesn’t make any sense.
You can see below how the silliness seeped forth. Note Tennille’s pageboy bob, popular at the time.
While the song does not deserve a listen, the video is worth it, if not for Toni’s beautiful smile and rich voice–and Daryl’s absolutely wretched keyboard noises. Ultimately, love did not keep them together, and Daryl is no longer doing that to her one more time, but such is life. No?
Seated are Steven Spielberg and the young Christian Bale on the set of 1987’s Empire of the Sun.
What do you think? I prefer his Magnum P.I. look on an Indiana Jones set with buddy, George Lucas.
The evil big-box stores have already stocked their aisles with back-to-school items, an affront to all American children, trying their durndest to enjoy the apex of global warming seasons. As a parent of a teen, my days of purchasing Elmer’s Glue and huffing markers and dull scissors are over, but we’re still expected to pony up for supplies. Evidently, $7000 in property taxes on a mighty modest home does not cover Kleenex.
To all this mid-summer school rigmarole, I at least ask the makers of supplies to look backwards for inspiration, and not to the future. This ad makes education positively dreamy.
Let’s not forget that Donny nor David would give you the time of day if you weren’t svelte. Lace stockings look gauche on thicc (yes, thicc) thighs.
But what if you’re too thin, and you need to bulk up? Simply sport a Hugh Downs jacket!
Hugh Downs was a once-relevant broadcaster who is still kicking it at 97. Look how attractive his family is, wearing bulky red-orange. And who’s the lady fondling his son’s hood? Go back to Paris, Simone.
Maybe you’re too young and hip to wear anything from an old fuddy-duddy and his family. Maybe you’re avant garde like Pat Boone, who lives life on the cutting edge.
Dressing like Pat Boone ensures that girls think you are a liberal arts professor. And maybe they’re into that kind of thing. Remember, remember, you’re mine… Wow, he really did wear white shoes.
Speaking of white, perhaps you missed my earlier post on putting more sugar in Lisa. Here’s another misguided Sugar Information ad, advising moms to put more sugar in their teens, so they can become slovenly-dressed sugar-swinging freaks–just in time for back to school!
Turtles don’t need seat belts, y’all. They just don’t.
Happy Birthday, Jane Russell!
Such a fun opening riff, a soft and easy California feeling. Chewin’ on a piece of grass, walking’ down the road…
Then Jorge stops his strumming to assert that there is no actual Ventura Highway, only Ventura County. But Otilia (the older, haggard woman in the back whose hair is struggling to flee her scalp while she strums the hammock strings) says, “No seas tonto, Jorge” and explains that the actual song was about a young boy standing on the side of the road while his dad changed a flat tire. Get with the program, Jorge. Common knowledge.
Maybe it wasn’t actually Nancy Culp from The Beverly Hillbillies. Did she even play classical guitar? She clearly hated doublenecked guitars.
And while she gained notoriety playing a spinster, she was actually married for 10 years. Per wikipedia, one reviewer said she had the “face of a shriveled balloon, the figure of a string of spaghetti, and the voice of a bullfrog in mating season.” Perhaps that’s a bit harsh. Ribbit.
It’s not often that I get to say “I’m too young to remember this,” but since I wasn’t alive in the 60s–hey, I’m too young. I was flipping through my 1967 LIFE and saw this image of Bert Lahr.
It didn’t make me want to eat Lay’s. It didn’t make me want to wear a blackjack dealer visor. Instead, it raised red flags.
If you’re over 55, you may recall this ad. It’s chock full of everything that makes people cringe these days, and I don’t mean the minimalist background. Racism and poor acting and stealing, oh my!
I’ll choose to remember him as the Cowardly Lion, and not as the Lay’s pitchman. RIP.
I know, I know–a lot of Baby Boomers love them some White Diamonds. There’s just something about the scent that makes me cringe. I could be innocently shopping at TJ Maxx or standing in line for coffee at church, and then WHOOSH! the stench of White Diamonds infiltrates my personal space and sticks to my clothes and hair, and nine hours later, there it is, wafting on the wind as I try to snack on cashews or flip through Southern Living magazines. It is in-escapable.
People often say the first thing they notice about Oprah is how great she smells, but you never hear anyone saying that about Liz Taylor. Why? No, not because she’s dead. White Diamonds, friends. White Diamonds.
CricketKitty wrote on http://www.basenotes.net:
I really wanted to like this fragrance out of respect for Liz Taylor, but try as I might, I couldn’t. I occasionally got whiffs of coconut, but it’s not listed in the notes. The rest of it is plastic and screechy synthetic notes.
Nukapai said:
This perfume has the odour of an old wig that’s been in heavy use, perfumed, powdered and seldom washed.
Debbie R. agreed:
This is one of the most vile fragrances ever created. Harsh, shrill and cheap-smelling. It’s for someone pretending to have money.
I see I am not alone in my assessment.
I Don't Get It 