Yesterday, vivandlarry.com visitor Meg sent this wonderful article and anecdote about Vivien Leigh that was written by British journalist Godfrey Winn. A close friend of the Oliviers, Winn had known Vivien since 1936, and stayed friends with both her and Laurence Olivier even after they divorced. He is also the one who arranged for photographer George Douglas to shoot the lovely photos of Vivien in a rowboat on the lake at Tickerage Mill near the end of her life. There was a particular passage in the anecdote Meg sent from Winn’s autobiography, and I thought it was so poignant, I just had to make a blog post about it.
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Today on Summer Under the Stars, Turner Classic Movies is honoring the ethereal and troubled Gene Tierney. If I had to make a list of the most beautiful women ever, in my opinion, Gene would definitely be near the top. She was a beauty from the day she was born in Brooklyn, and with a face like that, it’s obvious she was destined for fashion and the movies. She starred opposite many of Hollywood’s biggest leading men such as Rex Harrison, Tyrone Power and Clark Gable, and worked with the best directors of her time, including Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, John Ford and Michael Curtiz. She also frequently modeled for Vogue in the 1940s.
I’ve been a collector of photography books for a long time, and over the years had accumulated quite a large stack of them (mainly classic Hollywood and fashion photography books). When I moved back home in July, I packed of all of the books I hadn’t given away or sold and brought them with me. Some are in storage and others are in a big box in my parents’ garage. So, I thought I would take photos and share some recommendations with you, readers. Some of these are out of print, others are still available in stores, and all of them are very nice to look at. This will also give you an idea of some of the resources I use for the photos in the vivandlarry.com photo gallery.
Today’s recommendation is Vivien Leigh by John Russell Taylor. This book was published in 1984 and is now out of print, but you can still get a used copy for fairly cheap.
As you may have heard by now, TCM will be honoring Vivien Leigh by featuring her as Star of the Month in September. This is the first time since I’ve had TCM anyway (10 years or so?) that they’ve put her in the spotlight, and I’m so glad she’s finally getting credit where credit is due! Last November at the GWTW Re-premier event in Georgia, I got up the courage to approach TCM host Robert Osborne at the GWTW Museum after the autograph session, and I asked him why Vivien never gets a day on Summer Under the Stars. I mean, she was technically an A-list actor despite only making a fraction of the films her peers made, and some of the people they feature on SUtS are people I’ve never heard of (I didn’t say that part out loud). Well, he was very kind and said that TCM didn’t have the rights to enough of her films, and that when they wanted to show a film that was not in their library, they had to pay copyright fees. This made sense, but I wish that someday they could get enough of her films for a day on SUtS, mainly because I love the promos and the pre-film introductions they do for the stars being honored during the celebration.
Despite not being able to feature Vivien on SUtS, it’s really exciting that they’ve dug up enough of her films to do a month-long tribute to her enduring screen legacy! Everyone has seen Gone with the Wind and Streetcar, so it will be a great chance for viewers to catch some of her eariler films, and to see how she grew exponentially as an actress on screen.
If you missed it, I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to speak with TCM’s Robert Osborne about Summer Under the Stars and Vivien Leigh. Vivien is one of his favorite actresses, and he has a lot of good/interesting things to say about her. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript here.
For more information on the lineup of Vivien films being shown next month, and for a chance to win a copy of TCM Now Playing magazine with Vivien on the cover, check out the vivien-leigh.com blog.
And now, I have a small request: I will only be in the States for the first week of September, and will miss most of the Vivien tribute. I’m guessing TCM will put together a short promo montage, as they do with every star of the month, and I would be absolutely tickled pink if someone out there could record it and upload it to youtube, so that I can watch it and feel like I’m part of the party!
The vivandlarry.com blog has gotten (another) facelift! I liked this layout because it’s a bit different and has a sort of magazine feel to it…as it should since it’s called magazine. Feel free to take a look around; most of the info and everything is the same but there are a couple of new additions.
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Yesterday, I decided to make a new list of my top 25 favorite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh photos. This may seem redundant as I’ve done favorite lists before, and frankly, there really isn’t a picture of them that I don’t love, but every time I sit down and think about it, my favorites change–especially since new photos of them keep popping up. It’s always hard to choose a favorite photo, but my favorites usually jump out at me because I find them beautiful, or silly, or a combination of both. I also love photos in which they look happy together. So, I hope you enjoy this little photo tribute, and I’d love to know which ones are your favorites!
