Femmes Fatales

March 24 2021

READY, AIM, CAVORT!

This is what happens when you send a dancer to do a killer's job.

This is just ridiculous from Cyd Charisse. She has nowhere near proper shooting stance. Her base is totally off. She doesn’t have her firearm properly braced. Where do you even start with this? She isn’t going to hit anything. Luckily, she didn’t have to rely on marksmanship to make a living. Instead, she danced and acted in numerous hit movies, including Singin’ in the Rain, Brigadoon, and The Silencers. This image was made as a promo for her 1956 musical Meet Me in Las Vegas, which was a who’s-who of musical talent, including Lena Horne, Liliane Montevecchi, Frankie Laine, the Four Aces, Sammy Davis, Jr., and others. Interestingly, it was also known as Viva Las Vegas, a decade before the Elvis movie. We can already picture Elvis fans raising an interjecting finger, but it’s absolutely true. We explained it way back in 2011, and if you check out that write-up you’ll also see Charisse in a slightly better shooting stance. She still won’t hit anything. But at least she’s on two feet.

Singin' in the Rain, Brigadoon, The Silencers, Meet Me in Las Vegas, Viva Las Vegas, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Liliane Montevecchi, Frankie Laine, The Four Aces

Femmes Fatales

February 16 2020

DEE SHARP

Lady sings the blues and reds.

U.S. born actress and dancer Dee Turnell sports two accessories that have gone out of fashion—the ornamental headpiece, and opera gloves—and wears both well in this promo image made for her 1948 film Words and Music. Turnell appeared in about twenty movies between 1947 and 1956. Nearly all of those were musicals, and while she’s considered to have been a real talent, all her roles were minor or uncredited except 1954’s Brigadoon. We don’t expect to run across her again in our excavations for gun toting femmes fatales, but we’re glad we stumbled upon this rare color photo. It’s by Tom Kelley—the same Tom Kelley who shot the most famous photo of Marilyn Monroe ever.

Words and Music, Brigadoon, Dee Turnell, Tom Kelley

Femmes Fatales

November 14 2012

HORSING AROUND

Having a merry go ’round in Hollywood.

American actress and model Elaine Stewart first caught Hollywood’s attention as See magazine’s Miss See for the month of January 1952. She immediately launched a film career, winning small roles in seven movies that year, and eventually appearing in The Tattered Dress, Night Passage, High Hell, The Bad and the Beautiful and other productions, as well as in several television shows. This shot was made in 1954 when she was filming MGM’s musical classic Brigadoon.

Brigadoon, Night Passage, High Hell, Brigadoon, The Bad and the Beautiful, The Tattered Dress, See Magazine, Elaine Stewart, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.

October 2

1919—Wilson Suffers Stroke

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. He is confined to bed for weeks, but eventually resumes his duties, though his participation is little more than perfunctory. Wilson remains disabled throughout the remainder of his term in office, and the rest of his life.

October 2

1968—Massacre in Mexico

Ten days before the opening of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, a peaceful student demonstration ends in the Tlatelolco Massacre. 200 to 300 students are gunned down, and to this day there is no consensus about how or why the shooting began.