Category: general discussion

Creative Blogger Award

By Kendra + February 12, 2010

Kate from Silents and Talkies and Discovering Dirk Bogarde, and Meredith from Vote For Gracie nominated vivandlarry.com with a Creative Blogger Award! Thanks, Kate and Meredith. Yeay!

Here are the rules and regulations:

1. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
2. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
3. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
4. Nominate 7 other bloggers, and post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
5. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

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7 things about me that surely no one cares about, but I’ll tell you anyway!

1. I used to play competitive soccer. When I was 16 I went to Europe with a team of girls from the West Coast and played in the second largest youth tournament in the world: the Coca-Cola Haarlem Cup in the Netherlands. We got second place! I was moved up to varsity my freshman year in high school, and was team captain during my senior year, and also got named MVP out of all the area high schools. I miss the glorious game. It’s also my dream to attend the World Cup.

2. I’m in love with the Criterion Collection and it’s my goal to one day watch all of the films on their roster.

3. Even though I live not far from Hollywood, I always do obnoxious touristy things whenever I go there (like today!).

4. My favorite autobiographies are The Moon’s a Balloon by David Niven, Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks, Self Portrait by Gene Tierney, and DV by Diana Vreeland.

5. I find the tragic stars most interesting. My top three faves are Vivien Leigh (really?), Carole Lombard, and Louise Brooks

6. One of the prettiest places I’ve ever been is the Pacific Northwest. Who knew Idaho was so gorgeous? It is. Very woodsy and misty.

7. I LOVE California. No matter where I roam, I think I’ll always come back here in the end. CA has everything–ocean (which I currently live by), mountains (which I grew up near–hey, Sierra Nevada), desert, etc. Yosemite is my favorite park (haven’t been? Please go, it’s beautiful!), and San Francisco is my favorite city here.

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I hereby pass this award along to the following people/blogs, all of which I find interesting and entertaining.

Traci at for the love of guava

Tatiana and Marissa at tv rots your mind grapes

Leigh at scarlettohara.org

Almie at apocalypstick

Farran the self-styled siren

Meredith at vote for gracie–yah sorry, I just saw you also nominated me. what goes around comes around! lol

Nicole at vintage film nerd

I had a fun blog post planned about my adventures at the Noel Coward exhibit and subsequent visit to Madame Tussaud’s on Hollywood Blvd., but it’ll have to wait ’til later!

classic film general discussion photography vivien leigh

Everybody Else’s Girl

By Kendra + February 10, 2010

London’s National Portrait Gallery recently added some new Vivien Leigh photos to their online collection, which in itself always makes me really excited because they hide these things away and don’t display them for the public in the museum, so whenever they do put new ones up on the website, it’s like a discovery for me.

There are some beautiful sets of Vivien in the 1930s, but please allow me to flail over this particular one right now. This set by Cyril Arapoff taken around 1936, is one of the most ethereal things I think I’ve ever seen. I absolutely love the contrast of the lighting and shadows, and the fact that Vivien is not all dolled up. Tricia commented on my personal blog yesterday that the expressions Vivien has in these photos are almost somber. I have to agree. But look at how beautiful she is, and the contrast between the beauty of her face and her sweater, which is very plain in black and white (even though $10 says it was a bright color), is great. Despite the grainy quality (or maybe because of it), these feel very modern to me, and this might be my new favorite set of Vivien. They’re so different than most of the portraits we see of her. Ah, variety! The spice of life.

classic film general discussion laurence olivier vivien leigh

Collecta-Belle: Autographs

By Kendra + February 9, 2010

I find old celebrity autographs to be really interesting. The first one I ever got was Lauren Bacall at a book signing she did for her book By Myself And Then Some at Book Soup in Hollywood. It was an adventure for sure, and she was quite intimidating (and it didn’t help that I made a total ass of myself in front of her. I had planned to mention how I loved her and Bogie but all that came out of my mouth was “You were good friends with Larry and Vivien”. FAIL). Of course all of my other favorite celebrities are dead, so acquiring autographs took some work and a bit of good luck, along with the kindness of strangers.

I thought I’d share my collection thus far. It’s not overly big, but I love it!

classic film general discussion laurence olivier the oliviers vivien leigh

Missed Connections

By Kendra + February 5, 2010

A while back, my friend Tanguy, knowing my love for foreign epic amazingness, recommended I watch a film called The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), starring Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinalle, and directed by Luchino Visconti. I finally got it yesterday via Netflix, and decided to google it to see if I could find out any interesting facts. Landing on the wikipedia article about the film, I was surprised to see this:

When Visconti was told by producers that they needed to cast a star in order to help to ensure that they’d earn enough money to justify the big budget, Visconti’s first choice was one of the Soviet Union’s preeminent actors, Nikolai Cherkasov. Learning that Cherkasov was in no condition, health-wise, to take the part, Visconti then set his hopes on getting Laurence Olivier, but he already had another commitment.

How many times have I read that Laurence Olivier was offered a part, or the director had him in mind, but he was doing something else at the time and so another actor ended up playing the character? A lot. The same goes for Vivien Leigh.

This got me thinking about Larry and Vivien’s missed connections, i.e. parts that they were offered or planned to do, but it just didn’t work out. Here’s a little list I put together:

Clive Candy in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). Director Michael Powell, who had worked with Olivier on the 1941 film 49th Parallel, wanted him for the role of Clive Candy. Larry was in the navy and couldn’t get leave to do the film. The part was eventually played by Roger Livesey. Livesey actually played Larry’s father in The Entertainer (1960), even though he was only a year Larry’s senior.

classic film general discussion laurence olivier the oliviers vivien leigh

Revealing David Niven’s “Missie”

By Kendra + February 3, 2010

David Niven wrote two of the best “autobiographies” out of anyone in show business. His first book, The Moon’s A Balloon, is a straight autobiography. His second book, Bring on the Empty Horses is a compilation of stories about his famous friends. In Bring on the Empty Horses, Niven tells the story of a famous girl named “Missie” who had a terrible breakdown in Hollywood (there were actually two ‘Missies” in his book but we’re focusing on the second one today). Whenever I check the stats for vivandlarry.com, it’s amazing how many people land on the site through a google search for “David Niven Who Is Missie?”

The cat’s out of the bag; “Missie” was Vivien Leigh.