A TIP FOR YOU

You think crawling is going to help? Have some pride. Get up and take it like a man.

Above, a fun shot of U.S. actress Tippi Hedren, née Nathalie Hedren, made when she was filming the 1964 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Marnie. Despite having one of the odder pseudonyms of the era there’s no elaborate story involved. Her father nicknamed her Tippi when she was four. Hedren also appeared in such films as The BirdsThe Harrad Experiment, and the unbelievable Roar. Have you heard of Roar. No? Well, it’s certainly one of the most bizarre movie projects in history.

Rather than get into the plot (such as it is), we’ll just tell you that during its making Hedren broke her leg after being bucked off an elephant’s back, and received thirty-eight stitches after a lioness gnawed the back of her head. In addition, her daughter Melanie Griffith, cinematographer Jan de Bont, and producer Noel Marshall were also mauled by lions. Griffith needed fifty stitches in her face and plastic surgery, de Bont needed one hundred twenty stitches and his scalp sewn back in place, and lucky Noel Marshall merely developed gangrene.

If you haven’t seen Roar and are an aficionado of weird cinema, we can’t recommend watching that one highly enough. Ironically, while we’ve seen that all-time obscurity, we haven’t seen the well-known Marnie. But there’s a reason—one of the worst people we ever knew, someone who stole several of our most prized belongings, was named Marni, so avoiding that reminder has kept us from getting around to the film. But it isn’t like that’s Tippi’s fault, so her movie is finally in the queue. When we watch it we’ll report back.

Hitchcock says no festival for you this year!


The 73rd edition of the Festival de Cannes, aka the Cannes Film Festival, would have kicked off today in the south of France, but was cancelled a while back. It’s just one of a wave of event cancellations that will cascade through the year. Festivals as diverse as Burning Man and San Fermin, aka the Running of the Bulls, have also been shelved. But getting back to Cannes, we thought this would be a good moment to commemorate past fests with some historical photos. Above you see Alfred Hitchcock on a boat with the town in the background, in 1972, and below are about fifty pix from the 1940s through 1970s, documenting various iconic moments, and a few quieter ones. Maybe the Cannes Film Festival will back next year, maybe not. At this point, predicting anything is an exercise in futility. But at least we’ll always have the memories.
Edith Piaf sings on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel on the iconic Boulevard de la Croisette at the first Festival de Cannes to be held under that name, in 1946. Back then the event took place in September and October, but would shift to May a bit later.

Diana Dors and Ginger Rogers arrive at the fest the only way anyone should—breezing along the beachfront in a convertible, in 1956, with an unknown driver.

Kirk Douglas holds court on the beach in 1953, and Brigitte Bardot soaks up rays in the foreground.

Michele Morgan poses at the first Festival in 1946. Photo ops of this sort were essential sources of publicity for stars, and would soon become opportunities for non-stars seeking to be discovered.

Case in point. Robert Mitchum poses with actress Simone Sylva in 1954. Sylva was allegedly not supposed to be there, but shucked her top and photo-bombed Douglas in an attempt to raise her profile. It didn’t work. She made only a couple of credited movie appearances after her topless stunt.

Romy Schneider and Alain Delon at the 1959 fest.

An unidentified model or actress poses in the style of Anita Ekberg from La dolce vita in 1960. This looks like it was shot at Plage du Midi, which is a beach located a little ways west of the Cannes town center.
 
A unidentified partygoer is tossed into a swimming pool after La Dolce Vita won the the 1960 Palme d’Or. The Festival is almost as well known for legendary parties as for legendary film premieres.

Another unidentified model or actress poses on the boardwalk in 1979. Generally, you don’t have to be known to draw a crowd of photographers—you just have to be nearly bare. She’s wearing lingerie, so that explains the interest, though this is modest garb for a Cannes publicity stunt. It’s never a surprise to see a headline-seeking film hopeful strip all the way down to a string ficelle féminin, or thong, which is the limit of what is legal in Cannes

Sidney Poitier and Jean Seberg have a laugh in 1961. This was the year Poitier’s flick Paris Blues was released, so it’s possible he had jetted down from the capital for the Festival.

PhilomeÌ€ne Toulouse relaxes on the sand in 1962 while a boy practices the classic French look of disgust he’ll be using the rest of his life.
 
Actor Bernard Blier, 1975.
 
An unidentified bikini wearer boldly enjoys a lunch in a café on the Croisette, 1958.
 
Natalie Wood aboard a sailboat in 1962.

Grace Kelly, 1955.

Kelly times two—Grace Kelly and Gene Kelly, hanging out, also in 1955.

Sammy Davis, Jr. poses in front of a billboard promoting his film A Man Called Adam, 1966.
 
Joan Scott gets sand between her toes in 1955. Scott is obscure. She isn’t even the most famous Joan Scott anymore. The IMDB entry for the only Joan Scott near the appropriate age is for an actress born in 1920 who didn’t begin acting until 1967. The Joan Scott above doesn’t look thirty-five, though, and we doubt she would have been the subject of this somewhat well-known photo without parlaying it into a film appearance before twelve years had passed. So we don’t think this is the Joan Scott referenced on IMDB.
 
Sharon Tate, with Roman Polanski, and solo, 1968.

Marlene Dietrich brings glamour to a tiki themed bar in 1958.

Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock release caged birds as a promo stunt for The Birds in 1963.

Sophia Loren sits with husband Carlo Ponti, who was a member of the 1966 Festival jury.

Raquel Welch poses on a motorcycle in 1966.

Jane Birkin takes aim with one of her cameras in 1975.
 
Dorothy Dandridge frolics in 1955, when she was promoting her film Carmen Jones.

Cinematic icon Catherine Deneuve and her sister Françoise Dorléac in 1965. Dorléac died in an automobile accident a couple of years later.
 
Robert Redford lounges on the beach in 1972. Based on his outfit you’d think he was in Cannes to promote The Sting, but he was actually there for his western Jeremiah Johnson, which screened May 7 of that year.

Sophia Loren waves to well-wishers in 1964.

Bogie and Bacall paired up and looking distinguished in 1957.

John and Cynthia Lennon in 1965, and John with Yoko Ono in 1971. Every story John told on that second trip probably started with, “When I was here with the first love of my life…” until Yoko smacked him across the mouth.

Rock Hudson and bicycle in 1966.

Unidentified actresses pose on the beach in 1947. To the rear is the Hotel Carlton, mentioned in the Edith Piaf image, built on the Croisette and finished in 1910.

George Baker, Bella Darvi (right—your right, not his), and an unknown acquaintance have a surfside run/photo op in 1956.

Jayne Mansfield and Russian actress Tatiana Samoïlova enjoy a toast in 1958. Mansfield probably shared the story of how she once made Sophia Loren stare at her boobs, and Samoïlova said, “Cheers to you—well played, you provocative American minx.”

French actor Fernandel, whose real name was Fernand Contandin, on his boat Atomic in 1956.

Arlette Patrick figures out a different way to generate publicity—by walking her sheep on the Croisette in 1955.

A pair of water skiers show perfect form in 1955, as a battleship floats in the background.

Jeanne Moreau, for reasons that are unclear, poses on a banquet table in 1958. Most sources descibe this in such a way as to make it seem spontaneous, but we have our doubts. It’s a great shot, though.

Two unidentified women take in the scene from the terrace of the Hotel Carlton, 1958. This shot is usually said to portray two tourists, but the woman on the left is the same person as in the bikini lunch shot from earlier, which tells us she’s a model or actress, and both photos are staged. Like we said, publicity is everything in Cannes.
 
Danielle Darrieux and Sophia Loren at the 11th Cannes Film Festival, 1958.

Italian actress Monica Vitti chills on a boat in 1968.

Aspiring stars catch some rays on the Croisette beach in 1955. The two large posters behind them are for The Country Girl with Grace Kelly, and Jules Dassin’s Du rififi chez les hommes, both below.

The renowned opera singer Maria Callas, 1960.

The women inside the movie camera.

Below are eighteen timeless Hollywood leading ladies, some well-known, some less so, but all gleamingly beautiful. They are, top to bottom, Mari Blanchard, Carmen Phillips, Grace Kelly, Jane Adams, Joan Vohs, Martha Hyer, Laurette Luez, Tippi Hedren, Marguerite Chapman, Janet Leigh, Venetia Stevenson, Annabella, Muriel Barr, Lana Turner, Kim Novak, Paula Drew, Ann-Margret, and Vera Miles. Happy New Year.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1918—The Great War Ends

Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne in France, ending The Great War, later to be called World War I. About ten million people died, and many millions more were wounded. The conflict officially stops at 11:00 a.m., and today the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month is annually honored in some European nations with two minutes of silence.

1924—Dion O'Banion Gunned Down

Dion O’Banion, leader of Chicago’s North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of rival Johnny Torrio’s gang, sparking the bloody five-year war between the North Side Gang and the Chicago Outfit that culminates in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

1940—Walt Disney Becomes Informer

Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI, with instructions to report on Hollywood subversives. He eventually testifies before HUAC, where he fingers several people as Communist agitators. He also accuses the Screen Actors Guild of being a Communist front.

1921—Einstein Wins Nobel

German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which electrons are emitted from matter as a consequence of their absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation. In practical terms, the phenomenon makes possible such devices as electroscopes, solar cells, and night vision goggles.

1938—Kristallnacht Begins

Nazi Germany’s first large scale act of anti-Jewish violence begins after the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan. The event becomes known as Kristallnacht, and in total the violent rampage destroys more than 250 synagogues, causes the deaths of nearly a hundred Jews, and results in 25,000 to 30,000 more being arrested and sent to concentration camps.

1923—Hitler Stages Revolt

In Munich, Germany, Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in the Beer Hall Putsch, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government. Also known as the Hitlerputsch or the Hitler-Ludendorff-Putsch, the attempted coup was inspired by Benito Mussolini’s successful takeover of the Italian government.

1932—Roosevelt Unveils CWA

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create temporary winter jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.

A collection of red paperback covers from Dutch publisher De Vrije Pers.
Uncredited art for Hans Lugar's Line-Up! for Scion American publishing.
Uncredited cover art for Lesbian Gym by Peggy Swenson, who was in reality Richard Geis.

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