It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for “Classic Hollywood Photos”.
When I was 19-years-old, I purchased and acquired hundreds of classic Hollywood photos from a retailer who wanted to pass his photo collection before he passed. For several decades, friends and classic cinema fans have asked me to share my collection and I decided for the purpose of identification, I’m going to start sharing photos in my collection.
The first photo is of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert for “It Happened One Night”.
The 1934 award winning film that would usher in a genre of romantic comedies known as the “Screwball Comedy”. It was the film that would set the stage for filmmaker Frank Capra and would lead him on the path of more Academy Awards and hit films, it would earn screenwriter Robert Riskin an Academy Award and it would be a film that would earn Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert an Academy Award. In fact, “It Happened One Night” would win all five major Academy Awards, a feat. that would not be accomplished until 40 years later.
It was a film that generated excitement during its time and would be so popular that the film would stay in theaters for years after it premiered.
A photo I have in my 8×11 photo collection is of Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda from the Irving Cummings film “Down Argentine Way” (1940). Originally, the film was supposed to star Alice Faye but she was sick and Betty Grable ended up taking up her role. The film ended up receiving three Academy Award nominations. The photo is absolutely beautiful.
The following is one of my favorite Greta Garbo photos that I have. UPDATE: (from Danny Burk): The photo is from her 1931 film “Susan Lennox: Her Fall and Rise”.
The Swedish actress Greta Garbo is known for her silent films in the 1920′s and her contributions to film in the Golden Years through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as she was nominated for an Academy Award for the films Anna Christie (1930), Romance (1930), Camille (1937) and Ninotchka (1939). Garbo was also voted as the fifth greatest female star by the American Film Institute.
