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In 1935, sixteen year old Antony Beauchamp photographed Vivien Leigh for the first time. It was just prior to her debut ...
10/11/2026

In 1935, sixteen year old Antony Beauchamp photographed Vivien Leigh for the first time. It was just prior to her debut in the play, 'The Mask of Virtue.'

Antony and a friend made up business cards, listing themselves as professional photographers, saying they would be in London just for three months and sent them out. Vivien was one of the people who responded

Antony described that first meeting:
"When she arrived at the studio she busied herself for a while at the mirror, and then sat quite still, apparently waiting. I was terrified of her. Finally, I ventured, 'Shall we make a start?'

"Sweetly,' she said, 'I think you had better wait till your boss comes.' Haltingly I explained that I was the boss.

"'Oh, I see,' she said. Then with just the slightest trace of sarcasm that made me blush all over, 'It is indeed kind of you to fit me into your busy schedule.'

"Anyway, we did the pictures. Her play, 'The Mask of Virtue,' made her a star overnight. At once, my pictures of her were displayed in the newspapers and magazines. Vivien Leigh was established. And so was I. It is by that sort of chance, I found later, that career is shaped."

Antony would continue to photograph Vivien over the next 22 years until his su***de in 1957.

Just received a projected publication date for “Thelma Ritter: Hollywood’s Favorite New Yorker” from the University Pres...
10/11/2026

Just received a projected publication date for “Thelma Ritter: Hollywood’s Favorite New Yorker” from the University Press of Mississippi for November of 2027! Publication may be a little earlier, but pre-order links may be ready as early as April…

Plush terrycloth bathrobes, annotated script pages, and that infectious, sunlit laughter of Marilyn Monroe conferring be...
10/09/2026

Plush terrycloth bathrobes, annotated script pages, and that infectious, sunlit laughter of Marilyn Monroe conferring between takes on the studio lot! 🎬✨📄🤍
A rare and remarkably candid vintage monochrome photograph captured in the spring of 1962 on the 20th Century Fox lot during the production of George Cukor's Something's Got to Give. Clutching her rehearsal pages while wrapped cozily in an oversized terrycloth dressing gown, Marilyn shares an animated, laughing exchange with her close dramatic confidante and acting coach, Paula Strasberg, while production crew and studio personnel move quietly in the background. With her signature platinum hair swept back in a soft, modern cut, Marilyn’s radiant smile captures an unscripted moment of warmth, camaraderie, and spirited engagement right in the heart of the soundstage.
Behind the intense pressures and headlines that surrounded her final film project, quiet off-camera moments between Marilyn and Paula Strasberg were filled with deep mutual trust, focused discussion, and genuine shared laughter. Paula was a constant pillar of emotional and artistic reassurance for Marilyn throughout the later years of her career, helping her anchor her performances in truthful, method-grounded realism. In this spontaneous backstage snapshot, the manufactured pedestal of the silver-screen legend steps aside entirely. Norma Jeane’s authentic, hardworking spirit takes center stage—grounded, affectionately engaged with her mentor, and completely dedicated to her craft amidst the bustling machinery of Hollywood filmmaking.
Brimming with 1960s behind-the-scenes cinema lore, raw rehearsal intimacy, and poignant Golden Age nostalgia, this archival treasure honors cinema’s forever muse at her most vibrant, dedicated, and endlessly captivating. 🎞️🤍

Mary learning French at the beach in the summer of 1918.
10/09/2026

Mary learning French at the beach in the summer of 1918.

Four years after setting his first motorcycle speed record, Glenn Curtiss set an unofficial world record of 136.36 miles...
10/09/2026

Four years after setting his first motorcycle speed record, Glenn Curtiss set an unofficial world record of 136.36 miles per hour (219.45 km/h) on his V8 powered bike on January 24, 1907.
This made him the fastest man in the world, in any type of vehicle. His Overall Speed record stood until 1911, and the record for motorcycles stood until 1930!

Would you leave your whole family behind and cross an ocean with your baby, to start over in a country you had never liv...
10/09/2026

Would you leave your whole family behind and cross an ocean with your baby, to start over in a country you had never lived in? More than 40,000 war brides did, and one of their babies grew up to be General Roméo Dallaire. 🇨🇦

They had married Canadian soldiers overseas during the Second World War. 💍 When the war ended, Canada brought them and their children across the Atlantic, and most of them stepped off the ship at Pier 21 in Halifax.

For some, the hardest part came after the pier. Ella Barron, a war bride from Amsterdam, landed at Pier 21 on June 15, 1946. She spoke no English, she missed her train, and for a while she thought she had been left all alone. Her first house in Ingonish, Cape Breton, had no electricity and no running water. 🏚️

She stayed anyway. She learned English, learned to bake bread, and raised nine children in Ingonish. (Ella's story is told by historian Ken Donovan in the book Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century: https://read.aupress.ca/read/cape-breton-in-the-long-twentieth-century/section/4c49b2fa-fe44-42dd-bc7a-e3176ca4e02a)

🤔 So who was the mother of that future general?

Catherine Vermaessen, a Dutch nurse. 🚢 In December 1946, she landed at Pier 21 with her six-month-old son, Roméo, and boarded a Red Cross train heading west. Roméo grew up in Montreal, joined the Canadian Army in 1964, and rose to become Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire.

More than 40,000 women crossed that ocean for love. One raised nine children in Cape Breton, another raised a general, and thousands of Canadian families began on that pier in Halifax. 💙

❓ Was your mother, grandmother or great-grandmother a war bride? Tell me her name, where she came from, and where she settled.

I came to spend time with Garson Kanin after he married Marian Seldes in 1990, one year after I moved to New York. Garso...
10/09/2026

I came to spend time with Garson Kanin after he married Marian Seldes in 1990, one year after I moved to New York. Garson and Marian helped me in securing many interviews, and they read so many drafts of chapters as I wrote them. When Marian spoke of an actress she loved and had known since their days together at the Neighborhood Playhouse—an unbalanced and vituperative woman—Garson told me that she was still a friend because they refused to see her as evil or dangerous, simply sad.

“Ruth [Gordon, Kanin’s first wife and writing partner] was attacked a lot. So much jealousy. I get attacked. Why? Ruth wanted to do so much. She wanted to act and write and travel and see everything. This enraged some people. Ruth would invite them along: Ruth had an open-door policy about adventures. Come along! she would say. Then they said she was a show-off. My instinct was to respond, but Ruth would tell me they were unhappy, and they weren’t allowing us to help them. People will think that you are responsible for their misery, or they think you’re strong enough to handle the excess sadness they’ve decided to drain out and wash over you. Sluicing with sadness. Ruth once asked a woman—a peer—why she kept criticizing her, telling her nasty gossip she’d heard, gloating over a bad review, and she then asked ‘What do you want? Money? Food? A job? Company? I’ll give it to you. Ask!’ But the woman slunk away, asking for nothing, taking nothing. Back to her room. We never saw her again. Well, I never saw her again. When she died, her sister thanked Ruth for all the money and food and books that kept coming. The sister wanted to give Ruth the money—there was some left. Ruth refused. ‘Listen,’ she said. ‘Take that money and have a party. People loved your sister. Get them together and eat and drink and tell stories and laugh. I’ll send flowers. But at the toast, I want you to raise your glasses and yell ‘F**k sadness!’ That was Ruth. She forgave by loving. She knew she was lucky. She wanted everyone to be free of fear and sadness.”—Garson Kanin in 1992

Photograph of Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, from 1976, by Jack Mitchell.

Jane Birkin seen through the lens of Daniel Lapied. (1968)
10/08/2026

Jane Birkin seen through the lens of Daniel Lapied. (1968)

What the first word that come to mind when you see this photo? 🤣🤣🤣
10/08/2026

What the first word that come to mind when you see this photo? 🤣🤣🤣

💋 Inspiration 1931 Photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull for MGM.
10/08/2026

💋 Inspiration 1931 Photographed by Clarence Sinclair Bull for MGM.

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