Dames & Dogs #11

We Always Knew Joan Crawford Had A Big Head

If you think Joan Crawford looks like a bobble head on this vintage trading card, check out the rest of the movie stars on the 1949 set of Turf Cigarette cards.


Vintage Mildred Pierce card found via The Golden Age Of Hollywood Ning Group.

Set The Table With Olga Baclanova. Literally.

Olga Baclanova as the centerpiece, 1929.

Dames & Dogs #10

Louise Brooks had a nice pair -- but those puppies were fake.

Who Said Brigitte Bardot Never Had A Cross Word?

Dames & Dogs #9

She'd Like To Have Her Hat & Eat It Too

Joan Bennett in The Wedding Present. I haven't seen the film, but I believe this is the scene were she tells the baker she's like her wedding cake to look just like her hat.



Or maybe it's the scene were she is unhappy with her wedding present, the hat. Like I said, I haven't seen the film.

What Cool Looks Like

Muhammad Ali in black sunglasses; photo by Eddie Adams.

Dames & Dogs #7

Georgia O'Keeffe and her Chow; photo by John Loengard.

Mary Tyler Moore Mannequin?

You bet your sweet Petrie!



Via Flickr.

When Andy Warhol Speaks

Everybody listens.


Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick, and Entourage, New York, 1965; Steve Schapiro photographer.

Look Like A Vintage Secretary

You could dress like Maureen O'Hara, or just carry a vintage movie star tablet.


I'm surprised any of these vintage writing tablets have survived... The "tops," with their celebrity images, maybe; but with paper? Amazing.

Read more about them at Things & Other Stuff, who also has some for salenow.

Audrey Hepburn & "Mr. Famous"

A photo I didn't squeeze into my post about Capri pants.

Oh, To Sit at Gene Rayburn's Table

Gene Rayburn, beloved host of Match Game, at dinner with Fran Allison, Gene's wife Helen, and Burr Tillstrom. Since Fran & Burr are from Kukla, Fran & Ollie, dare we hope for dinner and a puppet show? Photo circa early 1950s.

Modern Woman Monday: Kate Smith

Find out why I'm celebrating Kate Smith -- and asking myself, as the Memorial Day weekend nears, if this is the America people defend & fight for... Seriously.

Kilgallen's Boo-Boo

Inside Quick magazine (November 12, 1949), in the fashion pages (page 45), this lovely bit about one of my favorite personalities of yesteryear, Dorothy Kilgallen:

In New York: Dorothy Kilgallen (columnist-radio star) complained on the air that she had to wear a white Band-Aid on her cut finger to a party... said it looked awful. Next day Johnson & Johnson send an assortment of Band-Aids in shocking pink, cassia, leaf green, lavender. Will she start a trend?

Answer: Apparently not. Unless Quick failed to report Band-Aids with SpongeBob SquarePants -- or I guess at that time it would have been The Shadow? (Only he knows.)

This issue of the vintage magazine has Esther Williams on the cover, and featured on pages 48 - 51. I sent scans of the article to Here's Looking Like You, Kid. 'Cuz I'm nice like that.

Clara Bow Cupid Lips 'Round A Cancer Stick

Clara Bow is smokin' in a promo photo for Hoop-La.

Clara Bow Goes Dutch

Via eBay.

Dames & Dogs #1

Lady Diana Cooper & Major, her Blue Bedlington terrier.

Have A Coke & A Smile

Seeing as old Coke came with more than a glimpse of thigh, I can see why New Coke just couldn't make it.

F Troop Postcard 1967

An over-sized postcard from Harrah's in Reno promoting TV's "F Troop" (Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, Ken Berry) in the Headliner Room. Back promos future talent: Don Adams (with mini pic), Jim Nabors, George Kirby/Kim Siters, Bobby Darin (with mini pic), Debbie Reynolds, & Wayne Newton. (I've got a few of these; if you're interested, make me an offer.)

Intro To The Dean Martin Show (April 1969)

Some-Bunny Ears Ursula Andress

Most Awesome Family Portrait Ever

Billy Dee Williams, Drew Barrymore, Ann-Margret and Bonnie Franklin, from Life, 1984.

Seahorses Do Not Have Legs

But are there sea-zebras?



Leila Hyams & zebra sans gams at the beach, via Flickr.

New Year, New You: Workout With Dumbells

You can do it like Crawford...


I prefer Russell's method myself.

This Is How The World's Greatest Entertainer Gets Into His Car

It's 1973, What's Rick Springfield Doin'?

Wishin' he had Jessie's girl -- and growin' out his mullet.



Via Flickr.

Garters On Maids Are Sexy

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas.

Christmas Dey Curls

As in Christmas curls worn by Susan Dey.

The Queen Of The Senile Girls

In the pages of Women's Circle, May, 1978, comes this feature on one Bonie Merrill.




Bonie (pronounced "Bone-Knee", entertained at hospitals, convalescent homes, social & service clubs, private parties and charity functions for 35 years. Her acts were patterned after some of the Phyllis Diller routines, but Bonie wrote her own jokes & song parodies.

Two years prior to this article (so that's be 1976-ish), Bonie decided she needed a gimmick for one of her song parodies and designed a crazy hat. Eventually she ended up with some 200 hats used in her acts -- hence the article's "Hat Comedy Show" titular use & the photographs.

Deciding that some history would be nice to throw into the shows, she made a trip to the library to study the history of hats -- but "You wouldn't believe how dull the history of hats is, so I invented some history of my own." Here's one of Bonie's jokes, on the origin of ladies' wide-brimmed hats, which audiences supposedly believed:

"Way back in history in some European country, the ladies of the court were always passing gossip by whispering in each other's ears," Bonie explains. "Now the king was jealous because he couldn't hear the gossip and decreed that the ladies would have to wear wide brimmed hats so they'd have to talk louder because they couldn't get their heads close together."

But my favorite quote is this:

"Of course, we have to clean up the act a little, when we are performing for a church group or something like that," Bonie said. "Some of our jokes, songs and routines might be considered a little risque."

While the article doesn't explain it, the teasing, tantalizing comment makes me wonder just what sort of dirty hat jokes &/or song parodies Bonie had.


If you know anything about Bonie, or Barbara Ludwig (piano accompanist) and Frances Harvey (Boni's "favorite stage 'stooge'"), please let me know.

Don't Mess With The Gene Autry Fans

They know how to pen a scathing letter to the editor.



I wonder how they felt about Autry being being misspelled.

Liberty magazine, February 22, 1941.

Mommas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Linda Blair

An article in the February 13, 1979 National Enquirer by Donald McLachlan warns, "Cocaine Sniffing by Celebrities Blamed For Soaring Use of Drugs by Youngsters."

"The kids see photographs of them wearing coke spoons as decorations around their necks. They read of stars like Louise Lasser and Linda Blair getting into trouble over coke... Kieth Richard of The Rolling Stones being arrested in Canada... comedian George Kirby going to jail for dealing it."

And where would the kids of 1979 see such photos and read such stories? Oh yeah, the National Enquirer.

Then again, who believes anything in the National Enquirer?

But if McLachlan and the National Enquirer really believed that peer pressure or the cool-kid factor were so strong, why didn't they stop publishing the stories -- or advise that parents keep the rag away from their kids.

Maybe the National Enquirer should use the tagline: Promoting the coke spoon & harming your kids since (at least) the 70's.

Get Seduced By Laverne & Shirley

A collection of Laverne & Shirley clips set to the tune of Seduce Me Tonight.



Inspired by Slip of a Girl's Laverne & Shirley post.

Recognize Me Without The Fruit On My Head?

I'm Carmen Miranda.

"The Practical Self May Try To Hold You Back"

That's what it says inside this retro brochure for the Movieland Wax Museum. "But," it continues, "let yourself go and time and time again, on every set at Movieland, you'll re-live the most dramatic moments of the screen."



It also says you might find yourself walking among the living stars, as they "regularly visit" the museum. Those who do so, are awarded their own special director's chair (with their own name!) upon their first visit.



I didn't scan the whole thing; but enjoy the pages I did. Or not. It might be creepy even in digital pixels.



Also from my travel and tourism collection; see something you like there, let me know, and maybe I'll scan &/or provide additional details.

It's Not My Mom

This looks like my mom, but it's not; this lady's name was Jeri and she was famous. I don't know her. But I do know my mom.



It's a small photo, just like the ones you give away to your friends in school. Only I didn't get this from Jeri herself (I told you I don't know her); I got it with some other vintage photos of famous people. That explains why it's not signed on the back with a note for me to 'stay sweet' (which I did) or how fun I was in math class (which I was).

If you know who this lady is -- even if she's not your mom -- please let me know.

The Corn Is Green -- And 1945's Knee-Deep In It

In Calling All Girls (December, 1945), Nancy Pepper, Fashion Editor, has a kitschy column called "Jabberwocky and Jive". This bit is teaches the not-so-cool kids on the cool lingo the kids were using that day based on Hollywood.

Here are some of my favorites (you can click the image to read the larger scan).

B 'n B -- That's what you call them if they're Co-Starring of Going Steady, on account of they're a Bogie 'n Bacall.

HI, VAN--HOW'S JOHNSON? -- Instead of plain "Hi." There are lots of them -- like "Hi, Garson -- how's Pidgeon?"

HEAVENLY HURD -- A smooth boy. Inspired by the Man of your Screams in "Dorian Gray."

CROON ANOTHER, CROSBY -- Means "Tell me more."

THE CORN IS GREEN -- You say that when anyone tells a corny story.

A Reason To Get Pregnant

No, Brooke Shields, it's not the VW Routon which has me in the mood for a baby; it's BambinaMia who makes the most kitsch-tastic baby duds for dolls and dudes! (Also available at Etsy!)