Random Glamour

Indeed it is time to at least imagine how life should be...

and no, dears, that's not me but rather - Carol Burnett

Alice and Ellen Kessler knew how to put on the style.

Robert James Collier, very Upstairs Downton.

Hedy Lamarr, whose real name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler.

Adolphe Greenberg, aka Adrian.

The Maharaja of Indore 1929.

My new heartthrob from the TV series 'Indian Summers' Henry Lloyd-Hughes.

What's the point of glamour without a spot of decadence?

...and romanticism -  the new Poldark, Aidan Turner:

Glamour, romance and pure decadence personified - Marlene!

Vivien Leigh placing  the Oscar for her role as Scarlett on her mantelpiece:

Salvador:

Diva of divas with her claws out methinks - Callas:

The lovely Jean Simmons...

Followed by my fave photo of the one and only - there will never Bea another Beatrice Lillie (photograph by Norman Parkinson in London 1951). It looks like to me to be in the Café de Paris:

Dovima could even make Ketchup glamorous:

Why do I never meet boys like this ? Leonardo di Caprio, Gatsby...

To finish we have my own moment of glamour, with a visit to the wonderful Cabaret room Crazy Coqs. Always a treat; this time the artists were Claire Martin and Joe Stilgoe who were Ab. Fab. The venue inside Brasserie Zédel in Soho is a true delight.

As was the discovery of a cocktail I actually really liked.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

    A few drops of absinthe

    1 ½ oz. dry gin

    1 oz. dry vermouth

    ½ oz. Benedictine

    1 dash Angostura bitters

    1 brandy-cured cherry

Preparation

    Swirl a few drops of absinthe in a chilled coupe.

    Shake the other ingredients with ice in a mixing glass,

    then strain into absinthe-coated coupe.

    Garnish with cherry.

     Bitter and sweet and evocative of a Kurt Weill song

and the Weimar —

 I could imagine Sally Bowles knocking back this one.

it's called, fittingly, the Cabaret Cocktail.

Cheers!

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Random Divas and Icons

Here we are me lovelies, with an other random sample of some of my mindless wanderings on 'Tumblr'

 Norma Shearer - Queen of the M-G-M Lot.

Barbara Stanwyck photographed by Eugene Robert Richee 1940

Bea Lillie wielding a lethal lorgnette

Ethel in quotes.

Gertrude Lawrence in Lady in the Dark

The to fabulous for words - Carol Channing

'Best new comer' at the Baftas, Maggie Smith with Jon Voight.

Joan Crawford photographed by Cecil Beaton 1956.

P.G. Wodehouse.

Virginia Woolf.

That ultimate cad, Terry Thomas

Elaine Stritch on the set of Call Me Madam.

A rather dashing Richard Burton.

When smoking was cool - Sophia Loren.

I have no idea who this is but I adore her.

Ann Miller.

Edna Best by Dorothy Wilding 1925.

The fascinating,  Anna May Wong.

Yvonne De Carlo being rather stern in 'Hotel Sahara'.

Lady Diana Cooper Viscountess Norwich as as The Madonna in The Miracle

Who else but, Katharine Hepburn - ClarenceSinclairBull1942.

Cecil Beaton in1938.

And to end with 
Greer Garson "the glorious goddess of good"

With thanks to my fave tumblers

http://mattadoresit.tumblr.com/

and

http://theflamingcurmudgeon.tumblr.com/ 

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Best of Chums - Knights On Broadway

While scanning the forever interesting tumblr 'The Flaming Curmudgeon'/ 'A screaming queen screams.'

click to have a look.

I came across a celebration of the friendship of two of our most cherished Thespians. the adorable Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen.

So I thought I might join in the love fest.

They became friends on  the set of X-Men.(A film I have never seen or wish to).

 

Its a joy to see such a close friendship.

Sir Ian is quoted as saying "We’re so close, we’re the same person really,"

lets enjoy their fun ;

In fact they are such good friends Sir Ian actually married Patrick last September That is he married him to Sunny Odell at Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Sir Ian officiated at the wedding.

Sir Ian got a little choked up at one point, 'There wasn’t a person there who didn’t. I certainly did.' Patrick said and added, the wedding party was 'wild' and that everyone was 'really, properly drunk' the photographer nearly ended up in the lake. '

Finally here our chums working together in Becket's Waiting for Godot on Broadway in 2013.

Bless um

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