Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

That slicked back hair, like Ricardo Cortez or Warren Williams, was quite the style. It actually looked good on some men especially if they had a good hairline.

Another thing we don't see anymore is the compact....the little case with the mirror that held face powder. No woman in the 30-40s would be caught without one and they used it at the dining table. Bad manners.

Good one, yea! But you really think hand-mirrors are less in vogue today? I see New York women using compacts practically every day on my morning train commute. All ages.

Really? I haven't seen one for years but you would get more of a chance to observe since you make an urban train commute every day.

It's a fascinating and even an ancient accessory. Cleopatra had a hand-mirror. I think civilization would teeter and topple, if women couldn't quickly check their faces for blemishes or mars.

I can tell you something else impressive, the deft manner in which a female can reach back behind her head and intricately braid her hair just by touch/feel alone. Some girls I see, definitely use their morning train-time to re-do their mops. But the nimbleness in separating a hank of hair into three separate strands and interlocking them in triplicate around each other, so that it stays perfectly in place all day long ---really, the cat's pajamas!

I am not much a fan of 'page-boy' haircuts, I reckon. Even on Audrey Hep; (or Dorothy Hamill) I'd rather see shoulder-length 'do!

Sometimes hair-dos make the woman. Look at Veronica Lake.....once she dropped the shoulder length over the eye style, it turned out she really wasn't as attractive as we thought.

Wound up waitressing on the Bowery (although her denial was that she was 'doing research')

Nail salons and eyebrow salons are a huge business in my city

Feliks wrote: "Wound up waitressing on the Bowery (although her denial was that she was 'doing research')"

And when she fell, she fell far. I have a weakness for cult films and Lake's last film, made sometime in the 70s was called Flesh Feast. It is so horribly tragic to see her....not only in a bottom of the barrel film (which was probably made for about $100) but the physical condition she was in. The effects of alcohol were so evident. I only watched it once and that was enough. A very sad ending to a career.

Says something not just about Hollywood and not just about the USA but about the human condition.

When Redford reached the status of household name, a reporter asked him how he felt about the nonstop adulation. Remember, he started out just a southern-California hunk like thousands of others.

Not acidly or caustically, or bitterly ...but his calm, realistic reply was, "Where were they when I needed them?"

There was an old catchphrase from the war years which went like this:

"Where were you ...in '42?"

(reminds me as well, of that coming-of-age flick with Jennifer O'Neil ...yowza).

Something that has been around forever but has taken on a different role......blue jeans (or as I always call them, "levis"). Back in the day, they were only seen in westerns and sometimes rural settings (altho' those were usually bib overalls.) Now they are ubiquitous and are even worn with sports coats.

What always confused me were the Levi commercials citing the founder of their product Claude Levi-Strauss. Famed anthropologist.

I think Rebel Without a Cause was a major game changer for that.

Good call, Spencer

I think Eastwood as well.
And quite possibly McQueen and Bronson, in The Magnificent Seven.

Three on a match!

No hat on a bed!

You still see these but not as often as in earlier times......bow ties.

One of the meteorologists on Weather Channel wears one frequently. They only look good on Dagwood Bumstead and with tuxedos.

...and some tuxedos are just plain awful. like the ones on the Dean Martin roasts. Particularly those fat bowties atop white "ruffled" shirts, wide sleeve cuffs, and cummerbunds.

The tradition lives on today--for example, in my neighborhood there's plenty of wedding parties thronged with purple monkeysuits, bow-ties, wide lapels all matched with black loafers, ear-piercings, white socks, tattooes and faux-hawks.

And the men aren't any better attired either.

:>)

Remember the gold toothpick holders that all of the playboys seemed to have? Nothing more polite than picking your teeth at the table!!!!

This is gossip I haven't heard. Never seen this habit myself. Do they carry the picks around with them, slip one in this holder and apply it? Or do they just carry the holder and fill it with picks supplied by the hostess?

Prior to the arrival of the automobile, if you went 'out for a buggy ride' or 'just got back from a buggy ride' it was an elliptical way of suggesting you were out necking (aka, a 'petting party').

Feliks wrote: "This is gossip I haven't heard. Never seen this habit myself. Do they carry the picks around with them, slip one in this holder and apply it? Or do they just carry the holder and fill it with picks..."

They have little cases that contain a golden toothpick which they furiously apply, sometimes at the table. Yuck.

And so they use the same pick repeatedly from one meal to the next? gah!

Yep. You can understand why that fad didn't stay in fashion for long.

I'm surprised today's rapper and hip-hoppers with their rotating bathrooms and revolving beds in their new Mc-Mansions, haven't brought it back into fashion?

:>)

My college age nephews like bow ties.

That's neat. You don't see that very often.

Cravats! Especially when worn with a smoking jacket at home. It looks so affected.

Pepe Le Les always pulled off that look pretty well.

Also, you gotta love Bogdanovich for keeping up the director with cravat look. You can see him in docs and DVD's from the 90's still sporting that look.

So true. Cravats and ascots. I also think of actor Jack Cassidy.

Anyway, ha! ha! Good catch

a 'nickel nurser'

aka, another term for 'penny - pincher'

('she squeezed a nickel so hard Jefferson hollered')

Pocket watches on chains with a three piece suit. That used to be oh so sophisticated.

You would spring that one on us

My grandfather on my mom's side collected them. Some kids burglarized them. Gold. Silver. Really sad.

I have my grandfather's watch on display in my house. It is a lovely thing but doesn't work anymore.

give it the works

How about when almost all men wore suspender or braces?

AKA: 'galluses'

Galluses!!! I haven't thought of that word forever. And I have seen men wear suspenders with a belt......seems a bit much.

And remember when men's suits were made with pleated pants? I don't think I have seen that lately. Although cuffed pants are still around.

Coming forward in time, probably the most offensive men's clothing item were those polyester leisure suits, usually in mint green or some other horrid color. And also the white belts, white shoes and checked pants. The cat's meow.

That's Herb Tarleck you're thinking of.

Although Lee Majors also sported a leisure suit. As did Terry Bradshaw.

Never wear white after Labor Day, yes?

Suspender and belt: that's "Mr. Boot" from 'Ace in the Hole'.

"You strike me as a careful man, Mr. Boot..." [Chuck Tatum, fifty dollar a day reporter]

bonus quote!

Henry Fonda in "Once Upon a Time in the West"

"Never trust a man who wears a belt and suspenders, he doesn't even trust his own pants"

Maybe we should launch a quote challenge quizzo

Don't you dare......we can't get through the photo quiz!!!!

Great Gosh-a-Mighty

Does anything top this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Ai...

An utterly different age.

Airplanes were less than reliable in those days......some people would call that brave, I would call it having a death wish.

Glad you came up with those belt and suspender quotes. There's probably a lot more. I can't imagine Groucho passing that subject up.