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A Blog For Thelma Todd Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
Showing posts with label Billie Dove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Billie Dove. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Sunday, May 4, 2014
CAREERS Herald
This is a herald for the movie CAREERS. The star was Billie Dove, who was a friend of Thelma Todd's. Also in the cast: Antonio Moreno, who had known William Desmond Taylor and was in THE BOHEMIAN GIRL, Sojin, who appeared in SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN, Noah Beery ( brother of Wallace Beery ) who was in COCKEYED CAVALIERS, and Carmel Myers, the sister of Zion Myers, who used to work with Jules White and directed many comedy films.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Beery,_Sr.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019751/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19290703&id=CJAzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KeEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1918,494566
Billie Dove:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/02/billie-dove.html
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/02/lee-heidorn.html
Antonio Moreno:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/10/antonio-moreno-and-bohemian-girl.html
Carmel Myers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmel_Myers
Sojin:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0436787/
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Monday, December 30, 2013
Thelma Todd Letter
Thelma Todd wrote letters to various people, including fans. Here is a letter Thelma Todd wrote on her own stationary to a Miss Heidorn, who I believe was Lee Heidorn, head of the Billie Dove Fan Club.
Lee Heidorn:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/02/lee-heidorn.html
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Sunday, December 29, 2013
Autograph Thelma Todd Letters
There are some copies of Thelma Todd's hand-written letters in the FBI files. Here are a few notes and letters in her own writing.
This one appears to be a note sent to a fan, possibly along with the photograph.
A note to Thelma Todd's friend Billie Dove, dated 1929.
The note to Billie Dove, at a larger size.
Letter on a menu from Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café.
Letter on "Joyita" stationary. The Joyita was Roland West's yacht,
which was used in the movie CORSAIR in 1931.
A letter to Zasu Pitts, which was published in MODERN SCREEN in 1931.
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Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Max Factor
Max Factor was a real makeup man in Hollywood who became famous and came out with his own line of makeup.
Thelma Todd at top left
Jean Harlow at bottom right.
Bessie Love with Max Factor.
Thelma Todd with Max Factor
Loretta Young with Max Factor
Testimonials from the stars
Max Factor with Joan Crawford
Reccomended by Billie Dove
Lupe Velez with Max Factor
Front and back covers
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Saturday, May 5, 2012
The Ideal Screen Figure
About the same ideal measurements that had been given out for Thelma Todd in VAMPING VENUS in the 1920's were given out again in the 1930's, this time as set of composite measurements from a number of thirties beauties.
Here we see a photo of Anita Page together with a figure drawn according to the specifications taken from a number of different screen stars, the final result looking a great deal like Anita Page.
The height of 5'4" is given for Pola Negri, this same height was given for many others, including Thelma Todd, Clara Bow, and later Marilyn Monroe. Here we see Paula Negri, whose career began in the silent era.
Greta Garbo was more usually associated with big feet rather than a big bosom. With all the publicity she got for hers, I'm surprised they didn't say "Jean Harlow" instead.
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Ann Pennington's small foot size was related to her her small size overall. Here we see her on the left with Billie Dove ( also on the list ) on the right.
Clara Bow:
http://www.clarabow.net/
Bebe Daniels:
http://www.silentsaregolden.com/articles/bebedanielsarticle.html
Dorothy Dell:
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/16531/dorothy-dell/
Mabel Normand:
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/hp/
Ann Pennington
http://operator_99.blogspot.com/2007/12/ann-pennington.html
Norma Talmadge
http://www.stanford.edu/~gdegroat/NT/home.htm
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Let's take a look at the other glamour girls on the list. Some of them are better known than others now, but they were all famous in their day.
The height of 5'4" is given for Pola Negri, this same height was given for many others, including Thelma Todd, Clara Bow, and later Marilyn Monroe. Here we see Paula Negri, whose career began in the silent era.
Famous silent star Mary Pickford was still active in the talkies. She was actually smaller than many of the other girls on the list.
Norma Talmadge was the better-known sister of Buster Keaton's wife Natalie. Constance Talmadge was another sister.
Greta Garbo was more usually associated with big feet rather than a big bosom. With all the publicity she got for hers, I'm surprised they didn't say "Jean Harlow" instead.
Clara Bow at arms. In height and weight she was close to the ideal woman depicted in the drawing above, but the 120 pounds or so usually given for her weight was a low figure that she tended to pass up as an adult.
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Bebe Daniels started out with Harold Lloyd in silent movies. In talkies, she was still a star.
Gloria Swanson started out in Mack Sennett comedies.
Gilda Gray danced the shimmy. She made some movies.
Aileen Pringle was still active in the talkies.
Norma Shearer was a top star at MGM.
Marion Davies has her detractors, and she has her fans.
Ann Pennington's small foot size was related to her her small size overall. Here we see her on the left with Billie Dove ( also on the list ) on the right.
Looking at the measurements on this list, today, we see a lack of emphasis on the bust that was carried over from the silent era, when there was a pretense that women were flat chested. Later on there would be more emphasis on the bosom, which would lead to the studios giving out exaggerated claims for the glamour girls in the Jayne Mansfield era.
The ideal of the "Perfect 36" goes way back. Mabel Normand made a movie called A PERFECT 36 in 1918.
Mabel Normand was also drawn by artist Charles Dana Gibson as the "Gibson girl" prior to her career in films and it could even be said that she more or less represented the standard of beauty they had at that time. But as the silent era progressed, a new standared of beauty emerged that was different from the old and leaned toward the androgenous. With the comng of sound, the movies became more realistic and girls themselves began to appear more like girls again, but the influence of the silent ideal would linger for some time and it is not surprising that about the same set of measurements were still being presented as the then current ideal.
Here is a picture of Dorothy Dell from the early thirties with a list of measurements they were attributing to her, which again were very similar.
Clara Bow:
http://www.clarabow.net/
Bebe Daniels:
http://www.silentsaregolden.com/articles/bebedanielsarticle.html
Dorothy Dell:
http://www.things-and-other-stuff.com/16531/dorothy-dell/
Mabel Normand:
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/hp/
Ann Pennington
http://operator_99.blogspot.com/2007/12/ann-pennington.html
Norma Talmadge
http://www.stanford.edu/~gdegroat/NT/home.htm
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Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Billie Dove
Billie Dove
From Wikipedia:
Billie Dove
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Billie Dove | |
|---|---|
 Billie Dove, early 1920s | |
| Born | Bertha Bohny May 14, 1903[1] New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 31, 1997 (aged 94) Woodland Hills, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Lillian Bohny |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1918–1932 (brief reappearance in 1962) |
| Spouse | Irvin Willat (1923–1929; divorced) Robert Kenaston (1933–1970; his death); 2 children John Miller (1973–19??) |
Early life and career
She was born as Bertha Bohny in New York City to Charles and Bertha (née Kagl) Bohny, Swiss immigrants. As a teen, she worked as a model to help support her family and was hired as a teenager by Florenz Ziegfeld to appear in his Ziegfeld Follies Revue. She legally changed her name to Lillian Bohny in the early 1920s. and migrated to Hollywood, where she began appearing in silent films. She soon became one of the most popular actresses of the 1920s, appearing in Douglas Fairbanks' smash hit Technicolor film The Black Pirate (1926), as Rodeo West in The Painted Angel (1929), and was dubbed The American Beauty (1927), the title of one of her films.
She married the director of her seventh film, Irvin Willat, in 1923. The two divorced in 1929. Dove had a huge legion of male fans, one of her most persistent being Howard Hughes. She shared a three-year romance with Hughes and was engaged to marry him, but she ended the relationship without ever giving cause. Hughes cast her as a comedian in his film Cock of the Air (1932). She also appeared in his movie The Age for Love (1931).
Other
She was also a pilot, poet, and painter.[4]
Early retirement
Following her last film, Blondie of the Follies (1932), Dove retired from the screen to be with her family, although she was at the time still popular. She next married oil executive Robert Kenaston in 1933, a marriage that lasted for 37 years until his death in 1973; they had a son and an adopted daughter. She later had a brief third marriage to an architect, John Miller, which ended in divorce in the 1970s.
Last years/death
Aside from a brief cameo in Diamond Head (1962), Dove never returned to the movies. She spent her retirement years in Rancho Mirage before moving into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California where she died of pneumonia in 1997.
Other
Dove has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6351 Hollywood Blvd.
References
- ^ Other sources including the California registry of births and deaths cite 1900 or 1901 as her year of birth, although the 1910 census supports 1903 as her year of birth.
- ^ Drew, William M. "Billie Dove - Silent Star of May 1997." The Lady in the Main Title: On the Twenties and Thirties. Vestal Press. 1997.
- ^ Wagner, Bruce. "Annals of Hollywood". "Moving Pictures", The New Yorker. July 20, 1998, p. 54
- ^ Obituary, New York Times, January 6, 1998.
Filmography
Personal Details
Other Works:
(1921) Stage: Appeared (as "Chorus Girl") in "Sally" on Broadway. Produced by Florenz Ziegfeld Jr..
Publicity Listings:
2 Magazine Cover Photos |See more »
Alternate Names:
Lillian Bohny | Lillian 'Billie' Dove
Height:
5' 6" (1.68 m)
Did You Know?
Personal Quote:
When you're up there on that film, you are that person completely all the time. You think the way that person thinks, you do what that person does and you're not acting. You're actually living it.See more »
Trivia:
Silent film actress.
Nickname:
The American Beauty
* * *
Billie Dove was in THE BLACK PIRATE, a famous movie which is still considered a classic today. That's mostly what I remember her from.
Billie Dove had her own fan club, Lee Heidorn was president and published a fanzine called 'Dove Tales"
Read more about Lee and her adventures at:
http://michaelgankerich.wordpress.com/
Billie Dove was in THE BLACK PIRATE, a famous movie which is still considered a classic today. That's mostly what I remember her from.
Letters from Billie Dove and Lee Heidorn appeared in each issue.
Read more about Lee and her adventures at:
http://michaelgankerich.wordpress.com/
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