Bogie & Bacall - Together Again

September 16, 1924 - August 12, 2014

Today we mourn the loss of an icon. Lauren Bacall is gone at age 89. 

Lauren was first cast opposite her future husband, Humphrey Bogart, in Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not in 1944. She continued working every decade thereafter and left her mark in Hollywood as a legend. You can't be a fan of Old Hollywood and not love Lauren Bacall. 

"She's a real Joe. You'll fall in love with her like everybody else."

-Humphrey Bogart

Bogie and Bacall with son Stephen 

"I am not a has-been. I am a will be."

"I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that."

"Was he tough? In a word, no. Bogey was truly a gentle soul."

With daughter Leslie, named after actor Leslie Howard

"I am still working, I've never stopped and, while my health holds out, I won't stop."

Rest in peace, dear Betty. I hope Bogie was there to welcome you with open arms.

Until next time,

Remembering Marilyn

"When I think of the future, I think, I'm thirty-six years old.

I'm just getting started...But as long as one is alive, one

can be vital. But you don't give up until you stop breathing."

I've been a big fan of Marilyn Monroe since I was in high school and wrote a research paper on her. At the time, I knew little about her, but by the time I finished my paper, I was enamored. The first Marilyn movie I saw was Some Like It Hot and to this day, it remains one of my favorite Old Hollywood movies. My other Marilyn favorites are The Seven Year Itch where she plays The Girl, the upstairs neighbor who Tom Ewell's character falls for while his wife and son are away for the summer, How To Marry A Millionaire, a comedy based around three women (Marilyn, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable) trying to land rich husbands, Niagara, a drama about jealous lovers, and Don't Bother To Knock, the first film where I believe Marilyn really got to showcase her acting abilities, playing a deranged babysitter trying to seduce a man.

The Seven Year Itch with Tom Ewell (1955)

As Sugar Cane Kowalcyzk in Some Like It Hot (1959)

The damsel in distress in Niagara (1953)

The ditzy but lovable blonde in How To Marry A

Millionaire (1953)

Alongside Richard Widmark in Don't Bother To Knock (1952) 

I love to watch old movies, of course, but I enjoy learning about the actors even more. I love a good autobiography or biography written by someone who knew the star well. Marilyn lived such a sad life, full of tragedies and downfalls, though she was also blessed in many ways. She carried the sadness with her all her life. 

I think Marilyn is terribly misunderstood by the general public. Behind the glamour and beauty was a real woman, down to earth, extremely kind and nurturing, someone who just wanted to be loved. Marilyn was intelligent and well-read with an affinity for literature. However, she was plagued by her inability to become a mother and by the lack of love in her personal life, and unfortunately, her grief far outweighed all the positives in her life in her eyes. 

"When I was a little girl I would pretend I was Alice in Wonderland

looking into a mirror, wondering what I would see. Was that really me? 

Who was that staring back at me? Could it be someone pretending to be me? 

I would dance around, make faces, just to see if that little

girl in the mirror would do the same."

"You know, children when they become adults are still at heart children.

Sometimes I watch adult men. They act like little boys who have never

grown up. I suppose it depends on the mood you are in. Our emotions play 

an important part in our lives. We cannot hide from them. My mother,

bless her, used to say, "Norma Jeane, make the most of it,

because that's all you've got."

I wish you peace, Norma Jeane. You are a truly beautiful soul.

June 1, 1926 - August 4, 1962

Until next time,

...away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me.

It's been 45 years since Judy Garland passed away. Instead of focusing on her tragic end, I want to celebrate the joy she brought to Old Hollywood and to millions of people throughout the decades. 

Judy was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She was the youngest of three girls, and her family nicknamed her "Baby". The three Gumm sisters started performing song and dance routines as young girls in their Episcopal Church and in their father's movie theater. In 1926, the Gumm family moved to California, where it didn't take long for the girls to get started in motion pictures. In 1934, the sisters changed their name to Garland, and they appeared together until 1935 when oldest sister Mary Jane was married.

Mary Jane, Dorothy Virginia, and Frances Ethel, 

1920s

The Gumm Sisters

Judy eventually signed a contract at age 13 with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Judy would soon garner attention by singing her rendition of You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It) to Clark Gable at his birthday party. It would lead to a part in Broadway Melody of 1938 where she would sing the same song to a photo of Gable. 

Judy, age 13. Judy always felt out of place & not as beautiful

as the girls she went to school with at MGM, including Ava Gardner, Elizabeth

Taylor, and Lana Turner. 

Judy c. 1935 

Judy would soon start her series of musicals with fellow MGM star and lifelong friend, Mickey Rooney, in 1937, starting with Love Finds Andy Hardy. The pair would go on to appear in 13 films together. However popular the Andy Hardy series was, Judy's life would change when she was cast as the lead character, Dorothy, in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. It's one of the all time greats, a film every child has seen. I was born and raised in Kansas, just like Dorothy, so The Wizard of Oz means a great deal to me. 

Mickey and Judy in Love Finds Andy Hardy.

"I'm not a witch at all! I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas."

The 1940s were a plethora of musicals for Judy Garland. Standing under 5 feet tall, the little girl with the big voice delighted audiences in musical films such as For Me and My Gal (with Gene Kelly), Babes on Broadway (with Rooney), Meet Me In St Louis, and Easter Parade (with Fred Astaire), among many others. 

"I was born at the age of twelve on the MGM lot."

-Judy Garland

Judy was so gorgeous in the 1940s.

"I made all these great musicals with Judy Garland. It was all

about me going into a barn and saying, 'Let's put

on a show.' That's what me and Judy did."

-Mickey Rooney

Gene Kelly and Judy in For Me and My Gal, 1942

Presenting Lily Mars, 1943

  

Publicity still as Esther Smith in Meet Me In St. Louis, 1944

With Meet Me In St. Louis co-star Tom Drake

Judy and friend Frank Sinatra. Frank would be Judy's 

daughter Lorna Luft's godfather.

With Easter Parade (1948) co-star, Fred Astaire

Judy met her first husband, Vincente Minnelli, on the set of her 1944 picture Meet Me In St. Louis. Vincente was the director, and they began a romantic relationship during filming. The couple married on June 15, 1945. Their only daughter, Liza, was born in March 1946. The pair divorced in 1951.

Vincente and Judy married in her mother's backyard.

Judy and baby Liza.

“It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland's daughter.

 I had tremendously interesting childhood 

years -- except they had little to do with being a child.”

-Liza Minnelli

Judy and Vincente divorced in 1951. Soon after, Judy employed Sid Luft as her manager, and would soon begin a relationship. They were married in 1952. Sid and Judy had two children together, Lorna and Joey. They divorced in 1963 after a seemingly rocky relationship. Judy would marry three more times in her life.

"When we got married in the early '50s, Judy was still very beautiful. 

She was only 5-foot tall -- just a shrimp of a girl, really -- but she 

had a very sensuous body, and up close, her skin was 

like porcelain, pure white. I was crazy about her. 

She had incredibly kissable lips."

-Sid Luft

Judy and Sid with Liza, Joey, and Lorna, 1960s

Unfortunately, Judy succumbed to pill addiction while living in London in 1969. She died in the early morning hours of June 22. It is said that there was a tornado around the same time she died near Salina, Kansas (which is right near my hometown) late at night on June 21. Maybe it's true, maybe it isn't, but I like to believe it is. Judy was a tornado of a woman, in a good way, and her presence and voice are missed terribly. 

Who's gonna fill George's shoes?

“If we could all sing like we wanted to, 

we’d all sing like George Jones.” 

–Waylon Jennings

I'm not a fan of country music, especially the current manufactured sounding songs and artists that are popular (and that goes for any genre). I have a soft spot for the old country music, thanks in part to my awesome grandparents, with whom I've listened to George Jones and the likes all my life. On April 26, 2013, however, my love for George grew into something special. It was the day he passed away, and a radio station was playing nothing but George. I wondered why I had been missing out on listening to George all my adult life, on my own, not at my grandparents' house! He sang with heart. His love songs with Tammy tugged at the heart strings. It wasn't until I read up on George that I learned of his hard and troubled life, and, of course, that only made me love him more.

George Glenn Jones was born September 12, 1931 in a small Texas town. When George was seven, he heard country music for the first time when his parents bought a radio, and he was given a guitar when he was nine. He would stay awake late on Saturday nights just to hear Bill Monroe and Roy Acuff on the Grand Ole Opry. His father was a terrible alcoholic, and when he drank, he was physically and emotionally abusive to his wife and children. George said, "We were our daddy's loved ones when he was sober, his prisoners when he was drunk." George's father would come home late at night, drunk, and wake up the entire family and make young George sing for them. George left home at 16 to work for a radio station in another Texas town, and in 1950, he married his first wife, Dorothy, though they divorced a year later. Around this time, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps, and was stationed in San Jose, California until his discharge in 1953. 

Twelve year old George on the streets of Beaumont, Texas

The Possum in the Marines

In 1954, George married Shirley Ann Corley after only 2 weeks of dating and together they had 2 sons, Jeffrey and Brian. When it came down to it, neither one knew what they were getting into with the other. George had his heart set on becoming a country star, and Shirley was set against it. George cut his first record, No Money In This Deal for Starday Records also in '54. George was also working at another radio station in Beaumont, Texas at this time, where he acquired the nickname The Possum, simply because of his looks, his long turned up nose and his small eyes. He was affectionately called Possum all his life. George's first hit came in 1955, Why Baby Why, and he began performing on the Louisiana Hayride with the likes of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. When Elvis became popular with his rockabilly sound, George was pressured into taking on the style as well. Rockabilly wasn't George's style, though. He recorded a couple of rockabilly songs under the assumed name Thumper Jones, because he didn't want his real name on anything that wasn't good. 

George, left, with James O'Gwynne in 1956 

on the Louisiana Hayride

George, right, with friend Johnny Paycheck on stage

His first Billboard number one came in 1959, White Lightnin', which George admitted in his autobiography he recorded drunk, taking 80 takes to do. In the 1960s, he recorded hits like She Thinks I Still Care and a duet with Melba Montgomery, We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds. During this period, he was already becoming well known for either not showing up to his scheduled concerts or showing up under the influence of a great deal of alcohol. This alcoholic behavior would continue throughout the 1970s and gain him another nickname, No Show Jones. After 13 rocky years of marriage, and after George was coming unglued, he and Shirley divorced in 1968.

George married his third wife, fellow country singer Tammy Wynette, in 1969. They recorded an abundance of songs together, and although George was more sober at times than in previous years, he still was an alcoholic. It eventually led to the demise of his marriage to Tammy in 1976. 

George with wife and duet partner, Tammy Wynette

Tammy and George chat with Merle Haggard and wife Bonnie Owens

Audrey Winters, Little Richard, Tammy and George

George and Tammy with their daughter, Tamala Georgette.

Georgette was born in 1970.

George and Georgette in the 1980s

After the divorce, George ran rampant. To add to his constant drinking, a manager introduced him to cocaine. George, broke and homeless, filed for bankruptcy in 1978. A year later, he entered a psychiatric hospital. Although he was still drinking upon his release, he managed a comeback in 1980. The song He Stopped Loving Her Today came out in April and shocked the world with its huge success. Soon after, he met and married Nancy Sepulvado who he credits with turning his life around for good. She took care of his financial situation, she kept him away from anyone providing him with drugs, and she helped him stop drinking for the most part. They had a love that lasted the rest of his life.

"It wasn't love at first sight or anything like that. But I saw what a good person he was,

 deep down, and I couldn't help caring about him."

The beautiful Nancy at George's memorial/gravesite

in Nashville.

George has been hailed as one of, if not THE greatest country singer who ever lived, by Garth Brooks, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard, just to name a few. There will never be another one like him. 

"He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they'll carry him away
He stopped loving her today."

Rest easy, Possum.