To paraphrase another Jerry Herman show, look at the old gals now, fellas!
Showing posts with label Ann Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ann Miller. Show all posts
Hello, Kitty!
L-R: Ann Miller, June Allyson, Dolores Gray, Joan Collins, Ann Sheridan and Joan Blondell in The Opposite Sex (1956, MGM) If only they had started a whispering campaign to get Helen Rose removed from the film.
Connie-Connie-Connie-Chameleon
In the 1930's, Constance Bennett was renowned as a fashion plate even more than she was as a movie star ("I'm a lot more sartorial than thespian," she acknowledged. "They come to see me and go out humming the costumes."). Interestingly, for all her East Coast pedigree, the New York-born and bred Bennett seemed to look southward for her fashion inspiration. To wit: her sleek, polished look of the 1930's was a Hollywoodized magnification of the ultra-chic style of such socialites as the Kentucky-born Mrs. Harrison Williams, later Mona, Countess of Bismarck.
By the 1950's, Connie's screen career had declined, but she found great success in the touring company of Auntie Mame, the fabulous stage play based on Patrick Dennis' novel, and a precursor to the musical. She was the perfect embodiment of brittle, theatrical glamour, and her look seemed to mirror that of Alabama's infamous daughter, Tallulah Bankhead.
As related by our dear friend Poseidon3 over at his utterly fascinating, fabulous blog, Poseidon's Underworld, Bennett made her simultaneous big screen comeback and swan song in Ross Hunter's plush remake of Madame X (1966). In preparation for her return before the cameras, Bennett once again completely transformed herself - this time, apparently taking a page from the Texas handbook of Miss Ann Miller.
And if you're gonna go, you may as well go like Annie!
Hairpiece to Heaven
The premiere of Madame X (1966): a slightly-soused Lana Turner (wearing a gown of her own design), Elke Sommer, Ann Miller, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Maureen O'Hara and Marie Wilson, all trying to out-do (no pun intended) one another in the bouffant wars, while Anne Francis is surprisingly soignee in understated chinchilla and Lizabeth Scott does the sleek lesbian bit and shows off a dangerously chic pageboy. We want to live in this video.
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