Happy Valentine's Day

From Greta Garbo!

Ay tank.



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The Robert Woolsey Gag

                Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey with frequent costar Dorothy Lee.

                                                  Bert Wheeler as Robert Woolsey

 

 

 

Dorothy Lee as Robert Woolsey

 

 

 

Thelma Todd tries the disguise on for size,

 

 

 

to be eventually emulated by Madonna.

 

 

 

 

 "That's All, Folks!"

 

 

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HAP LEE'S MOVIE GAGS

HAP LEE'S MOVIE GAGS is a "Big Little Book" published by Whitman in 1934. It's a little joke book with pictures and jokes from the movies.


The front cover has caricatures of a number of movie stars.

 

Depicted on the cover are ( top ) Groucho Marx, Greta Garbo, Mae West, Maurice Chevalier, Jimmy Durante, ( middle ) Harpo Marx, Lionel Barrymore as Rasputin, Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel, ( bottom ) Wallace Beery, William Powell, Groucho Marx again, Leslie Howard, Will Rogers, and Charlie Chaplin. I'm not certain about the others.

 

 

 

 

The spine of the book.

 

 

 

 

 

The back cover,

 

 

which is the same as the front cover, only reversed.

 

 

 

 

Bert Wheeler and Thelma Todd

 

 

from HIPS, HIPS, HOORAY

 

 

 

 

Lupe Velez and Jimmy Durante

 

 

in PALOOKA.

 

 

 

Groucho Marx

 

 

 

Mae West

 

 

 

 

 

Greta Garbo

HAP LEE'S MOVIE GAGS:
http://biglittlebooks.com/graphic-sounds/whitman-1932-1949EH.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=lJdaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=Hap+Lee's+Movie+gags&source=bl&ots=DgQ-bPA56z&sig=3pKv72O022m1wlhy_g8mn4fDzME&hl=en&sa=X&ei=c8diUv-ANqrfyQHUnYDICw&ved=0CGIQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Hap%20Lee's%20Movie%20gags&f=false


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I'D LIKE TO SING A TORCH SONG

I'D LIKE TO SING A TORCH SONG was a 1933 Warner Brothers cartoon with many movie star caricatures, including Joan Blondell, Jimmy Cagney, Greta Garbo, and Wheeler and Woolsey . We see both Zasu Pitts and Mae West in this cartoon. It was not unusual to see them together in cartoons, but I don't know if they ever worked together in real life.

 Although the flappers had rebelled against corsets, some women still wore them,

 and occasionally they would be the subject of cartoonists.

 A radio fan, in the days before television.

Ed Wynn as "The Fire Chief", a reference to his radio program.

Seven Earths. By interpretation, this symbolizes completeness,

but I don't know if that's what they had in mind.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw is represented as punching the world, something that they seem to have put in because of some sort of socialist remarks he'd been making at the time.

The note on the flowers reading "From Shaw, to Shaw" tells us that he's stuck on himself, which is also why he has all the pictures of himself on the wall in the background.


Mussolini on a rocking horse, which seems to resemble him somewhat in the face. Mussolini's unlovely picture also hangs on the wall in the rear. As with Shaw, he is stuck on himself.

The feeling that I have is that this is a less favorable depiction of Mussolini then we see in I LIKE MOUNTAIN MUSIC, which was made around the same time at the same studio.

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                                               Bing Crosby is singing in the bathtub.

                                     Which was the name of another Warner Brothers song.





                                 A group of college girls listen to Bing Crosby on the radio.

which incidently was censored out of the version that I've actually seen. I've only seen this scene of this scene on the internet.

Tough guy Jimmy Cagney slapped women around in the movies ( something that evidently was considered acceptable at the time that I don't approve of myself ). I recognize the blonde as Joan Blondell by the eyes. She hits Jimmy Cagney with her shoe next. That sounds like her, too.

Besides being useful implements for hitting Jimmy Cagney with, the shoes are also in this scene because they were "dancing" with their hands on the table in the shoes during the opening shot of this sequence, which then panned upward to show the rest of them.

According to the imdb, this sequence references the 1931 movie BLONDE CRAZY.

                                                                Radio personality Ben Bernie.

Wheeler and Woolsey in SO THIS IS AFRICA.

Wheeler and Woolsey would also be depicted in the Flip the Frog cartoon SODA SQUIRT, which was made at around the same time, but at a different studio.

Greta Garbo was a serious dramatic actress, but the cartoonists liked to make fun of her..

Incidently, the significance of station KFWB was that it was owned by Warners at the time.

Zasu Pitts worked on the radio as well as in the movies and used to have a radio show with Thelma Todd as well as costarring with her in two-reel comedies. But at the time this cartoon was released, Zasu Pitts had already been replaced in the film series by Patsy Kelly.

Mae West is shown by herself and then with Zasu Pitts*. The cartoonists liked using them as characters and it would also be a recurring thing that they would be depicted together in cartoons.

Possibly that could be related to Zasu Pitts having worked with Thelma Todd.

A trio of girl singers.

The closing line "That's All, Folks!" seems to have first been used by Greta Garbo at the close of this cartoon. The line would later be swiped by Porky Pig at the same studio for other cartoons.       

* And with Greta Garbo, who actually was kind of important in this cartoon.   

I'VE GOT TO SING A TORCH SONG ( Zasu Pitts character shown )





BLONDE CRAZY ( Joan Blondell and Jimmy Cagney movie ):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021673/?ref_=tt_trv_cnn

Garbo Forever - Garbo in cartoons:
http://www.garboforever.com/Garbo_Cartoons.htm

I'D LIKE TO SING A TORCH SONG ( Cartoon )
http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/10/torch-song-celebrities.html

http://forgottenfilmcast.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/ive-got-to-sing-a-torch-song/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024167/?ref_=tt_trv_cnn

I LIKE MOUNTAIN MUSIC:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024155/

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STARS OF THE PHOTOPLAY

This edition of STARS OF THE PHOTOPLAY has pictures and brief biographies of various movie stars from the year 1930..

 

 

 

 

This is an old picture of Thelma Todd from the silent era, in talkies her hair was shorter. Her height was usually said to be 5'4".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doesn't that soft focus effect make Laurel and Hardy look so much better?

 

 

 

Notice how they kept giving out the weight of 120 pounds for glamour girls. That weight was given for Thelma Todd at other times, although this book said she weighed 117 pounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

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.

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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