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The Book Of Beauty
''The Book of Beauty'' by Cecil Beaton was his first published book of photographs. In his concept of beauty, Beaton, with sketches and photographs, highlights actresses such as Tallulah Bankhead and Anna May Wong but also modernist literary figures like Edith Sitwell and Nancy Cunard. Contents * Lillie Langtry *Lily Elsie *Gaby Deslys *Gina Palerme *Mary Curzon, Lady Howe *The Morgan Sisters (Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness and Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt) *Gladys Cooper * Rosamond Pinchot * Diana Bridgeman, Lady Abdy *The Beaton Sisters (Nancy Beaton and Baba Beaton) *The Jungman Sisters ( Zita Jungman and Baby Jungman) * Edith Sitwell *Virginia Woolf *Hazel Lavery * Tallulah Bankhead *The French Sisters ( Essex French and Valerie French) *Lillian Gish * Marion Davies *Norma Shearer *Alice White *Greta Garbo * Irene Castle * Gertrude Lawrence *Lady Eleanor Smith and Lady Pamela Smith *Hon. Daisy Fellowes * Tilly Losch *Vicomtess Alice de Janzé *Marjorie Oelrichs *Mrs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre. Early life and education Beaton was born on 14 January 1904 in Hampstead, north London, the son of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), a prosperous timber merchant, and his wife, Esther "Etty" Sisson (1872–1962). His grandfather, Walter Hardy Beaton (1841–1904), had founded the family business of "Beaton Brothers Timber Merchants and Agents", and his father followed into the business. Ernest Beaton was an amateur actor and met his wife, Cecil's mother Esther ("Etty"), when playing the lead in a play. She was the daughter of a Cumbrian blacksmith named Joseph Sisson and had come to London to visit her married sister. Ernest and Etty Beaton had four children – Cecil; two daughters, Nancy Elizabeth Louise Hardy Beaton (190 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zita Jungman
Zita Jungman, later Zita James (13 September 1903 – 18 February 2006), was one of the Bright Young Things. Life Jungman was born on 13 September 1903. Her father, Dutch-born artist Nico Wilhelm Jungmann, was a naturalized British subject who, in 1900, married her mother, Beatrice Mackay, from a devout Roman Catholic family in Birmingham. Her parents were divorced in 1918, after her father had been interned in Germany due to his British citizenship. He died in 1935. Her mother Beatrice then became the second wife of Richard Sidney Guinness (1873–1949), one of the banking Guinnesses, and a paternal uncle of Thomas Loel Guinness. Jungman attended Miss Wolf's school in London and Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate School. At Queen's Gate she met Lady Eleanor Smith and Alannah Harper and together they became early members of what the British press would call the "Bright Young Things". With her sister Teresa she tried to spend the night in Madam Tussaud's chamber of horrors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Smith (writer)
Lady Eleanor Furneaux Smith (7 August 1902 – 20 October 1945) was an English writer and active member of the Bright Young Things. Life Born in Birkenhead, England in 1902, Smith was the eldest child of the politician F. E. Smith's three children; her mother was Margaret Furneaux, daughter of the academic Henry Furneaux. Eleanor Smith was great-granddaughter of Joseph Severn on her mother's side, the Devonshire Furneaux, a Norman family. Her brother was Frederick Smith, 2nd Earl of Birkenhead, and her sister Lady Pamela married Hon. Michael Berry. Her father was created Earl of Birkenhead in 1922. She went to Miss Douglas's school at Queen's Gate. At Queen's Gate she met Lady Allanah Harper, Zita Jungman, and Teresa "Baby" Jungman and together they became early members of what the British press would call the "Bright Young Things", a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. As a young girl, she spent t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York. Early life Lawrence was born Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen, Alexandra Dagmar Lawrence-Klasen, Gertrude Alexandra Dagmar Klasen or some variant (sources differ), of English and Danish extraction, in Newington, London. Her father was a basso profondo who performed under the name Arthur Lawrence. His heavy drinking led her mother Alice to leave him soon after Gertrude's birth. In 1904, her stepfather took the family to Bognor on the Sussex coast for the August bank holiday. While there, they attended a concert where audience members were invited to entertain. At her mother's urging, young Gertrude sang a song and was rewarded with a gold sovereign for her effort. It was her first public performance. In 1908, to augment the family's meagre income, Alice accepted a job in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vernon And Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers and dance teachers who appeared on Broadway and in silent films in the early 20th century. They are credited with reviving the popularity of modern dancing. Castle was a stage name: Vernon (2 May 1887 – 15 February 1918) was born William Vernon Blyth in England. Irene (7 April 1893 – 25 January 1969) was born Irene Foote in the United States. The couple reached the peak of their popularity in Irving Berlin's first Broadway show, '' Watch Your Step'' (1914), in which they refined and popularized the Foxtrot. They also helped to promote ragtime, jazz rhythms and African-American music for dance. Irene became a fashion icon through her appearances on stage and in early movies, and both Castles were in demand as teachers and writers on dance. After serving with distinction as a pilot in the British Royal Flying Corps during World War I, Vernon died in a plane crash on a flight training base near Fort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, tragic characters, and her subtle and understated performances. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on its list of the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Garbo launched her career with a secondary role in the 1924 Swedish film ''The Saga of Gosta Berling, The Saga of Gösta Berling''. Her performance caught the attention of Louis B. Mayer, chief executive of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), who brought her to Hollywood in 1925. She stirred interest with her first American silent film, ''Torrent (1926 film), Torrent'' (1926). Garbo's performance in ''Flesh and the Devil'' (1927), her third movie, made her an international star. In 1928, Garbo starred in ''A Woman of Affairs,'' which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice White
Alice White (born Alva White; August 25, 1904Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: The Most Comprehensive Encyclopedia of World Cinema in a Single Volume''. Perigee Books. , pg. 1228. – February 19, 1983) was an American film actress. Her career spanned late silent films and early sound films. Early years Alice White was raised by her maternal grandparents in Paterson, New Jersey, and she attended schools in Paterson and East Orange, New Jersey. Her grandfather owned a fruit business. Film After leaving school, White became a secretary and "script girl" for director Josef Von Sternberg, Josef von Sternberg. She also worked as a switchboard operator at the Hollywood Writers' Club. After clashing with von Sternberg, White left to work for Charlie Chaplin, who decided before long to place her in front of the camera. Her bubbly and vivacious persona led to comparisons with Clara Bow, but White's career was slow to progress. In his book ''Silent Films, 1877-1996 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norma Shearer
Edith Norma Shearer (August 11, 1902June 12, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress who was active on film from 1919 through 1942. Shearer often played spunky, sexually liberated ingénues. She appeared in adaptations of Noël Coward, Eugene O'Neill, and William Shakespeare, and was the first five-time Academy Award acting nominee, winning Best Actress for ''The Divorcee'' (1930). Reviewing Shearer's work, Mick LaSalle called her "the exemplar of sophisticated 1930s womanhood ... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards". He described her as a feminist pioneer, "the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen". Early life Shearer was of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. Her childhood was spent in Montreal, where she was educated at Montreal High School for Girls and Westmount High School. Her life was one of privilege, due to the success of her father's construction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, '' Runaway Romany'' (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the '' Ziegfeld Follies''. While performing in the 1916 ''Follies'', the nineteen-year-old Marion met the fifty-three-year-old newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst, and became his mistress. Hearst took over management of Davies' career and promoted her as a film actress. Hearst financed Davies' pictures and promoted her career extensively in his newspapers and Hearst newsreels. He founded Cosmopolitan Pictures to produce her films. By 1924, Davies was the number one female box office star in Hollywood because of the popularity of '' When Knighthood Was in Flower'' and '' Little Old New York'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893February 27, 1993) was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was called the "First Lady of American Cinema", and is credited with pioneering fundamental film performance techniques. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Gish as the 17th greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema. Gish was a prominent film star from 1912 into the 1920s, being particularly associated with the films of director D. W. Griffith. This included her leading role in the highest-grossing film of the silent era, Griffith's ''The Birth of a Nation'' (1915). Her other major films and performances from the silent era are: ''Intolerance'' (1916), '' Broken Blossoms'' (1919), ''Way Down East'' (1920), ''Orphans of the Storm'' (1921), ''La Bohème'' (1926), and '' The Wind'' (1928). At the dawn of the sound era, she returned to the stage and appeared in film ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Valerie Violet French
Violet Valerie French Brougham Kindersley (13 February 1909 – 18 July 1997) was a Natal-born English socialite. She and her sister Essex Leila Hilary French were known as the "French sisters" and included in ''The Book of Beauty'' by Cecil Beaton. Biography Violet Valerie French was born on 13 February 1909Hammond, Peter W., editor. The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda. Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998Townend, Peter. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970 at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa,Burke, Sir Bernard. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 51st edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1889 the daughter of English cricketer Lt Col the Hon Edward Gerald Fleming French DSO, Deputy Governor of Dartmoor Prison and Governor of Newcastle Prison (1883–1970), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essex Leila Hilary French
Essex Leila Hilary Eyres-Monsell, Viscountess Monsell' (formerly Drury, née French; 26 September 1907 – March 1996) was an English socialite. She and her sister Valerie Violet French were known as the "French sisters" and included in ''The Book of Beauty'' by Cecil Beaton. Biography Essex Leila Hilary French was born on 26 September 1907, at Dundee, Natal, South Africa, the first daughter of English cricketer Lt Col the Hon Edward Gerald Fleming French DSO, Deputy Governor of Dartmoor Prison and Governor of Newcastle Prison (1883-1970) and Leila Elizabeth Fyfe King (d. 1959), daughter of Robert King, of Natal, South Africa.Townend, Peter. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 105th edition. London, U.K.: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1970 Her grandfather was Field Marshal John French, 1st Earl of Ypres (1852-1925), Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I. In the 1920s, Essex French attended St James's School, a contemporary of Joan Leigh Fermor, who detested he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
