Technologies change, power changes, tastes change, but if anything has remained a constant in the West coast film colony it has been the fickle romantic tastes of all the various performers, directors and producers who toil in the vineyards of Hollywood. An old salt once remarked that if a Hollywood marriage lasts longer than milk it can be judged a success; with this old saw in mind, a wise anthropologist sat down, put pen to paper and seriously attempted to understand mating habits of Hollywood, California.
The attached article from 1938 heralded a new day in the fashion industry where fashion magazines would no longer be relied upon to set the trends in clothing; henceforth, that roll would only be played by movie actresses in far-off Hollywood. It was Hollywood movie stars who introduced sunglasses to the world of fashion... A magazine article by Leonora Ross in which she recalled her high school days with one of Kansas City's most famous sons, actor William Powell (1892 – 1984). At the time this article appeared, Powell had some forty-two films to his credit (37 of them silent) with his best work yet to come. If you would like to read more articles from Photoplay Magazine, click here.
CLICK HERE to read about Powell's most famous film: The Thin Man...
Here is a profile of the actor Lew Ayres (1908 - 1996) that was published, quite coincidentally, shortly before the release of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Universal):
"Naturally a great deal depends on the outcome of this picture. Lew is not the type that will go on for years as a moderate success. He will either be a tremendous hit or or a failure."
Click here to read about Lew Ayres and his status as a conscientious objector during the second World War.
Pulled from the business section of a 1940 issue of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE was this list of Hollywood statistics that should be of interest to all you old movie fans. If you've ever wondered how the Dream Factory fared following the Great Depression, you can stop scratching your head bone - herein you will learn how many souls were on Hollywood's payroll, how many movies did the town make each year (give or take), what percentage of global film production was turned out by Hollywood and how many American movie theaters were there in 1940.
Prior to reading this Photoplay article we were convinced that Oliver Stone's Vietnam war film, Platoon (1986) was the first production of it's kind to actually take the effort to school all cast and extras as to the horrors of war, however, it seems that this unique distinction goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.
In this interview the seven leading cast members discuss how the making of that movie disturbed each of them in profound ways: "We went into that picture a group of average wise-cracking fellows. We didn't come out that way..."
A small notice has been added that announced that the movie had been banned in Austria.
A 1929 review of the book can be read here
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