Dita Thursdays!

Time Traveler

I saw this on YouTube last year when it first came out. I forgot about it and something reminded me about it again so I decided to post it. Has anyone seen this?
This man named George Clarke found a piece of footage from behind the scenes in Charlie Chaplins film 'The Circus'. The movie is from 1928. In this scene, it shows a large woman dressed n black and a hat covering her (or his?) face, holding what appears to be a cell phone. To everyone's knowledge there was no cell phones in the 1920's. If you look closely (and look at the scenes in slow motion) you can see this person is holding something to their ear and talking. George Clarke believes this is a time traveler. What do you think?? If you could travel to the past, what year would you pick?

Bathing Suit browsing

It's that time of the year where I start browsing for bathing suits. I know it's a little early but I just love browsing through the retro style bathing suits. In the past few years I've bought vintage bathing suits but I wasn't 100% happy with them. So I decided this year I will buy a retro styled swim suit. Right now I have my eye on Esther Williams swimwear and Pinup Couture at Pinup Girl Clthing. All these gorgeous bathing suits to choose from! I wish I could find one like the one Esther Williams is wearing in the picture above. I didn't see anything like that one in her website.
I always seem to go for the color black (it is slimming and classic, after all) but maybe I'll try a different color or pattern this summer. Where do you ladies get your swimwear???
Here are some from Esther Williams.

Elizabeth Taylor passed away

The beautiful, legendary actress, Elizabeth Taylor has passed away from congestive heart failure. She was 79 years old. She was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles earlier that week for symptoms caused by congestive heart failure, and she peacefully died there, according to her publicist. She was surrounded by her children – Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton. In addition to her children, Taylor is survived by 10 grand children and four great grandchildren.
In a recent Harper's Bazaar interview with super-fan Kim Kardashian, Taylor opened up about her many husbands, jewels and philanthropic work.
"I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," Taylor told the 30-year-old Kardashian sister. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things. But I have never felt more alive than when I watched my children delight in something, never more alive than when I have watched a great artist perform, and never richer than when I have scored a big check to fight AIDS."
Elizabeth Taylor, you will be missed.

Carmen Miranda

Carmen Miranda was a young hatmaker before she was invited to display her singing talents at a music academy. That attempt proved successful and she went on to become a popular singer in clubs and on radio in Brazil. It was during this time that she developed the costume with the distinctive fruit hat from the traditional headdress seen on black women fruit sellers. In the mid-thirties, a theatrical producer named Lee Shubert saw her act in Brazil and offered her a spot on his new Broadway show. Knowing the need for a real Brazilian band to keep the appropriate music true, she insisted that her backup band be included in the deal. With the help of the Brazilian government who saw the good national image opportunity in Carmen, her demand was met. She proved to be a hit on Broadway, though her image was that of a foreign bimbo because she didn't know english. She later made films, but by then much of Brazil thought she became too "Americanized". When the US entered World War II, South America became the subject of American diplomatic attention, because it was an alternative source for raw materials that previously came from Europe. Carmen was the showpiece of Hollywood's contribution to this attitude of trans-Continental chuminess. Unfortunately, in doing so, Carmen became trapped in the image of the fruit dancer that every producer insisted on having. Even her attempt at a break-out role in Copacanba had to have her doing the same dance act for part of the film. It proved to be a disaster in many ways since it failed and she married the producer of the film, David Sebastian. He proved to be an abusive and oppurtunistic brute who made Carmen's life hell. Yet Carmen was a good Catholic and never considered a divorce. Instead she kept up a grueling schedule of shows, taking uppers and downers to remain functional, even when they began to damage her health. Eventually she collapsed and her doctor ordered her to go back to Brazil. She recovered and returned to America to resume the grind until she died of a heart attack hours after her final appearance on the Jimmy Durante Show.

Dita Thursdays!

Marilyn's love of reading

I'm currently reading "The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe" by J. Randy TaraBorrelli (which I got from the library ;-). In the book it mentions Marilyn's appetite for knowledge. Johnny Hyde, Marilyn's talent agent from early in her career, wanted her to expand her intellectual scope and suggested she read books by Turgenev and Tolstoy. As she became famous, she was often seen and photographed reading different books and she was made fun of and ridiculed because they didn't believe she could read and understand those books. Those who were close friends would say that Marilyn did read books and would have lengthy and knowledgeable discussions about them. Marilyn wasn't a dumb blonde like some in Hollywood thought.
Some other books read by Marilyn: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman,
Psychology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud, Lust for Life by Irving Stone, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens by Lincoln Steffens, The Thinking Body by Mabel Elsworth Todd, Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton, An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavsky and To the Actor by Miachael Chekhov (just to name a few).

Photo Editing Fun

Here are some pictures I edited at Photofunia. They have tons of effects you can play around with. Yes, I'm a nerd, but I have a alot of fun with this! Plus how can you not smile when you see your face on Madonna's or a hot guy's t-shirt? ;-)

Marilyn & Jane

Everyone knows about Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in the movie "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". But maybe what alot of people didn't know was the friendship that developed between the two glamorous stars.







In her very last interview, (10 years after making "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,") Marilyn Monroe recalls the lack of respect studio execs had for her, but makes a point of mentioning co-star, Jane Russell: "I remember when I got the part in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Jane Russell, she was the brunette in it and I was the blond. She got $200,000 for it, and I got my $500 a week, but that to me was, you know, considerable. She by the way, was quite wonderful to me."




They got along well. Russell called Monroe "Blondie" and was often the only person on the set who could coax Monroe out of her trailer to begin the day's filming. "When we made Gentlemen Prefer Blondes together and I discovered that she was nervous about going on set, I finally went to her dressing room and said: 'All right, baby, come on set with me now, we've only got a few minutes.' And she said: 'Ooh'."



Jane Russell had gone to school with Marilyn's first husband, Jim Dougherty. She recalled when he came up to her one day and said, "I'd like you to meet my wife, Norma Jeane". Jane says, "It was Marilyn. She was a pretty girl, and later on I discovered that she was shy and sensitive," she remembers.


Jane never believed Marilyn committed suicide.
"Right before she died, she was planning to marry Joe DiMaggio, her second husband, again, and she had a new movie contract. So I don't think she killed herself.
Someone did it for her. There were dirty tricks somewhere".

Jane Russell, you will be missed!

June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011
I first saw her in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" when I was younger. At that time, I had only known Marilyn Monroe, whom I adored. But when I saw Jane Russell in that movie I remember thinking, "Wow. She's just as stunning and sexy as Marilyn, only she's a brunette." She always striked me as a strong woman who didn't take s*** from anyone. Since then, I've seen more of her films and she's woderful in all of them.