Comments on: Actual 1930s footage

By: Mary Elizabeth S.

Mary Elizabeth S. — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:04:25 +0000

Skirts will vanish? Never! Good girls don’t wear pants! *hides her fave jeans*

Wedding dress of glass—you know, I think someone might just be crazy enough to try that. In fact, there was already a glass dress made in 1893… http://www.trivia-library.com/a/first-glass-dress-in-history.htm Of course, it would be harder to find that out without the help of the internet.

~Mary

By: Jodotha

Jodotha — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:41:16 +0000

I adore 1930′s NYC. King Kong remains one of my all time favorite movies (both the 1933 and the Peter Jackson). Do please keep sharing your research with us, and via twitter! As for fashion, you’ve pegged my favorite era there, too. THE BIRTH OF THE BIAS CUT! It’s a beautiful thing. Cheers!

By: Justine

Justine — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:22:38 +0000

Don't get me wrong Baby Face (1933) is a better movie. But Night Nurse has drug abuse and child starvation and Clark Cable as an evil chauffeur. Even though Baby Face was only made two years after Night Nurse it's a big leap forward. One of the fun things about the early talkie films in seeing them learn how to do it. By the end of the 1930s you're in a whole other era in terms of script writing and camera work and acting and, well, almost everything.

By: Laurel

Laurel — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:05:37 +0000

I’d better get hold of that right away, then! The pre-Code movies are great.

By: Justine

Justine — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:58:24 +0000

I have indeed seen Baby Face. My current fave early Stanwyck is Night Nurse (1931) which is just mental.

By: Laurel

Laurel — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:52:17 +0000

Oh my, but have you seen “Baby Face” starring Barbara Stanwyck? A must see.

By: Justine

Justine — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:42:29 +0000

E: Hmmm. But how does that explain all the astonishingly mediocre or flat-out untalented stars of every other decade?

By: E. Lockhart

E. Lockhart — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:35:50 +0000

In a film class I took the prof argued that Depression era audiences loved Ruby Keeler because of her mediocrity. It somehow made the American dream possible: that this ordinary looking woman, who could sing and dance but only OKAY, could be a mega-star. They fell in love with her because she was so unexceptional. It relieved them of feeling they needed to be exceptional to get out of their difficult situations.

Not 100% sure I buy that argument. But if correct, it applies to Dick Powell too, methinks.

By: Justine

Justine — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:46:58 +0000

Julia: Also accurate prediction of pants being popular for women. Though not that huge a stretch as they were beginning to be worn by women around then. Though it was still a bit scandalous in some circles.

Sherwood: Yeah Imitation of Life gets me every time. The racism and sexism are just so appalling. And I get so angry at what happens to Peola every time I see it.

Some of us are looking at Keira Knightley RIGHT NOW and wondering how on Earth she became a star. I am one of them!

By: Sherwood

Sherwood — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:56:21 +0000

My daughter and I watched Imitation of Life again just recently, and both of us cried just as much as we did the last time we watched it, when she was ten or so.

The Ruby Keeler thing makes me reflect on what people found attractive at the time. She was very popular. I wonder if, in several generations, someone will be looking at 12 pound Kiera Knightley with her lips pooched out to there, and wonder what the heck was going on at the century change?

The fashion thing was actually more right than not, though of course in thirties perceptive lens. They even predicted the beehive hairdo, though forty years off. Men (and women) do walk around with their own personal phones, etc . . . but men still haven’t got rid of their ties. I wonder if those will get smaller and smaller, like the gorget.

By: Julia Rios

Julia Rios — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:11:00 +0000

He actually is outfitted with a telephone, radio (or MP3 player, but hey, close enough!), and containers for coins, keys and candy for sweetie (they are called pockets)! Of course, she is now outfitted with these things, too. Hurray!