Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 59

Ann Dvorak and Leslie Fenton were regarded as one of Hollywood’s oddest couples and were often described as recluses because they lived on an isolated walnut ranch in the San Fernando Valley. When they built their home, they deliberately made it too small to accommodate house guests! As much as they may have wanted the public and film community to think of them as hermits, they were occasionally spotted at the Brown Derby or Ambassador Hotel and could frequently be found at the boxing matches.

Boxing was a sport that many celebs of the day enjoyed, and the Fentons were no exception. They had season tickets and made the trek from Encino to Hollywood almost weekly, unless they had been working during the day. In this particular photo from 1935, Ann is wearing a coat from Sweet Music and what appears to be a dress from  ‘G’ Men, so it’s possible she had gone to the fights directly from the studio.

This is an image I like a lot  because even after three years of marriage and being together nonstop, Ann still gazes at her husband like a wistful school girl (while two guys pummel each other a few feet away).

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 58

Ann Dvorak had many hobbies during her life; horticulture, language learning, poetry writing, hat making…the list goes on. Out of the bunch, the oddest was probably bacteriology. That’s right, in her spare time, Ann Dvorak studied bacteria.

This was something she picked up from her first husband, Leslie Fenton, when she was 21 and he was the center of her universe. Fenton was probably introduced to bacteriology by director/scientists Paul Fejos with whom he worked with in the 1920s. Ann claimed she read a book on the subject while they were traveling back from Europe in 1933, and instantly fell in love with the science.

For the next couple of years, the Fentons would study bacteria at their ranch and Leslie would buy Ann higher-powered microscopes on her birthdays. After about four years of engaging in this mad passion, they moved on to other hobbies and the bacteriology equipment was given away.

I do like to think that whenever Ann was in the midst of viewing magnified bacteria, she did so in full hair and make-up, like in this photo.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 57

I have over 1,200 original Ann Dvorak photos in my personal collection, and there are a handful that stick out as favorites. This is one of them. It’s from the opening scene of the 1935 Warner Bros. comedy Bright Lights. Star Joe E. Brown is easy to spot in the light suite and  holding up luggage, while a slightly visible Ann can be spotted on the back of the train. Busby Berkeley was the director of Bright Lights, and that’s him in the middle of the photo wearing a white sweater and cap, surrounded by his crew.

I found this one at a paper in show in London in July 2005. With the currency conversion, I probably paid close to 50 bucks for it, but considering I have never seen it again, I think it was worth it.

Enjoy!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 55

Over the years, some sources have credited Joan Crawford with helping Ann launch her acting career. This is not exactly accurate, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Joan’s part. Ann met Joan while the pair were both under contract to MGM. Dvorak was a lowly chorus girl, while Crawford was well on her way to becoming one of the studios biggest stars. Despite this gap in the studio system hierarchy and a perceived resemblance between them, (people on the lot would frequently refer to Ann as “the dancer who looks like Crawford”), Joan took a shine to the young aspiring actress and became an early mentor. She tried her damnedest to get Ann parts outside the chorus, but the best she managed were extra roles in her own films  This Modern Age and Our Blushing Brides. Fortunately for Ann, there was another actress at MGM who saw the same amount of potential that Joan Crawford did, but was able to help her land the biggest role of her career…

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 54

One of my favorite areas of Ann Dvorak collecting is finding photos from her uncredited MGM days. There’s a certain rush in searching through a random folder of photos at a memorabilia shop and finding an image with a 19-year-old seated at a table in the background (I guess there’s a reason I was the one destined to write the book on her).

Ann was with MGM from 1929-1931, primarily as a chorus girl and assistant choreographer. By 1931, the public had grown tired of the many musicals that had been coming out of Hollywood, so the chorus roles dried up for Ann. Instead she started getting the occasional extra role, like this one in the William Haines feature Just a Gigolo, as a nightclub guest. She became so frustrated by the lack of opportunity at MGM, that she seriously considered abandoning the movie industry altogether.

What happened next? I guess you’ll have to wait for the book…

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 50

Image from Heritage Auctions

A few years back I was going through the Ann Dvorak collection with my friend Darin (you’ll learn more about him at some point). I had just moved to a residence with ample wall space and we were looking for posters to hang up in the stairwell. I was delighted to pull out one sheet for the 1939 Columbia feature, Cafe Hostess, starring Ann and Preston Foster. It’s a cute poster, but the reason I was so happy to see it is that I had no memory of buying it. None. I remember getting outbid on one sometime in 2003, but could not recall actually paying for one myself. After Darin finished making fun of me (actually, he’s never stopped), we popped it in a frame and hung it up. I now live in a house with less wall space, but the Cafe Hostess one sheet still has a place of honor in my daughter’s bedroom.

As I started working on this post, I went to an auction website to see if maybe I had bought the one sheet there, and to pull a scan. The website did not have the one sheet, but I was instead dismayed to see a gorgeous Cafe Hostess half sheet that had been available last October. I clicked on it and was even more bummed to see that it sold for a mere $26! Then I saw that the high bidder was…me. Keep in mind this was only four months ago. Not sure why I can’t ever remember buying Cafe Hostess stuff (I also recently bought a duplicate photo), but it sure is fun when I re-discover them again!