Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 146

This is a portrait of Ann during the time she was making A Life of Her Own at M-G-M in 1950. In all my years of collecting on Ann, I had never seen any publicity shots from the film, other than the standard scene stills, so I was thrilled when this popped up on eBay earlier in the year. She was 38 or 39 when this was taken, and her career would be done within two years. In A Life of Her Own, her character is a washed-up fashion model and it seems as if she were made-up to look a bit run down and past her prime, but this photo shows how gorgeous she still was.

This is one of my personal favorites, and I had submitted it to be included in the book. However, this ended up being one of the images that was cut in order to make room for the honeymoon scrapbook photos, so it’s now here to enjoy instead.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 145

I am heading off to my kid sister’s college graduation. In honor of this momentous occasion, here is a photo of Margaret Lindsay, Jean Muir, and Ann Dvorak in Gentlemen Are Born. The film was originally titled Just Out of College, and is the not-so-uplifting story of a group of college grads who are unable to start their post-grad careers and can barely make ends meet in the midst of the Great Depression. The film is a great example of how Warner Bros. reflected social issues of the day, and sadly the content of Gentlemen Are Born is too far removed from current times. It is an interesting film, though a complete waste of Ann’s talents.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 144

It’s Friday, and I am heading into a four day holiday weekend, which includes my kid sister’s graduation and a day at Disneyland. So, here’s a fun pic of Ann from The Walls of Jericho acting mortified because she just shot Cornel Wilde.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 143

Ann Dvorak was not a big star, so she did not appear in big budget movies. This means she never made any films in color, except for the early two-color Technicolor titles at MGM when she was a chorus girl. She was seldom photographed in color as well, and in 15 years of collecting on Ann, I have only seen a handful of color shots.

This is one I found on eBay a few years back. Since Ann is sporting the titian tresses,and judging by the hairstyle, it’s probably from around 1947 when she was filming The Private Affairs of Bel Ami. I think she looks quite regal in this image.  Ann was a chronic sun-worshiper so it’s unusual for her to look so pale, though she also looks absolutely flawless.

It’s really too bad we never got to see her in glorious 3-strip Technicolor.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 140

My apologies for the slew of short posts. This past week has been a whirlwind of going through everything in the recently acquired collection of Ann’s personal items, deciding what is relevant for the book, and making the last minute revisions to a manuscript that is scheduled to go to the typesetter this week. Everything is finally winding down, so in the meantime here is another photo of Ann Dvorak and Leslie Fenton from the honeymoon scrapbook.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 139

I am still dealing with 11th hour revisions on the book, so enjoy this lovely shot of Ann surrounded by one of her favorite things – flowers.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 137

I am still in the midst of making 11th hour revisions to the manuscript based on new info and photos from a recently acquired collection of Ann’s personal items. So, instead of having to endure my blathering on, here’s a lovely photo on Ann on her 1932 honeymoon in Europe.

Happy Friday!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 136

Since I am frantically updating my manuscript based on the stash of Ann Dvorak personal items I received this week, the posts for the moment are going to be short and sweet. I thought I would show off some of the items from the collection. Here is a lovely shot of Ann and Leslie Fenton attending the West Cost premiere of Gone With the Wind at the Carthay Circle Theatre in 1939. The quality is not good enough to use in the book, but I think it’s ok for here.

More to come!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 134

I have been up to my neck in edit approvals the passed two weeks and had a very strange Ann-related turn of events occur yesterday. I am taking the easy way out today by posting a photo of Ann & James Cagney in The Crowd Roars. Tomorrow, I promise to have a rather amazing and slightly frustrating Biography Progress Report.

Stay tuned…