As I watch the Tony Awards at home in Sydney, Australia on a rainy, stormy day - as always from a distance to those major events that my family was involved in - I am inspired to post this series of photos of my cousin Irene Mayer Selznick with her sister Edie. Edie and Irene … Continue reading Irene Mayer Selznick – first producer of A Street Car Named Desire
In 1934 they knew they had the biggest and the tiniest star on their hands... At five years old she was making $1,250 a week. At first glance, this is a photo of a beloved child star being presented with a "Resolution of Appreciation and Affection" by my great-grandmother Ida Mayer Cummings on behalf of … Continue reading To Shirley Temple with “Appreciation and Affection”
"She was driven, passionate and unstoppable. It is uncanny to me how alike she and LB were in sheer determination..." It dawned on me recently as I looked at photos of my grandmother Mitzi and my great-grandmother Ida Mayer Cummings that I was looking at me in a few decades. The resemblances are uncanny in … Continue reading What I Will Look Like in 40 Years
“He was the right rabbi in the right temple in the right city at the right moment in time. If he had not presided over our B’nai B’rith, God and Louis B. Mayer - whose overpowering presences tended to overlap - would have had to create him. Or maybe they did." Budd Schulberg, screenwriter and … Continue reading Rabbi Magnin and the Moguls
I am fascinated by amber that contains a trapped primordial insect inside. One moment it is minding its own business on a tree, the next, it is captured in a rolling drop of sticky sap. A millenia later we can hold this same moment in time as fossilized amber in our hands. For me, my … Continue reading Mitzi Transformed by Wizard of Oz Make-up Artist Jack Dawn
Oh, that smile... My grandmother Mitzi is probably in her early 20s in this photo and appears to be signing in at MGM's employee entrance. From the smile, and with a photo to document the occasion, she may very well be doing this for the first time. There's naturally a fine line between nepotism and … Continue reading Mitzi Joins the MGM Star Factory
"...these people lived lives - were friends, were lovers, were enemies. They bickered, they shouted, the cried, they laughed. They went home, flopped down, dropped hats, kicked off shoes and sighed. " Updated 30 July, 2012: Here is another sensational 1920's photograph from our family's collection. Like the one of Ruth Harriet immediately below it, … Continue reading Friends? Lovers? Enemies? Yes.
Ruth Harriet, MGM glamour photographer from 1925 - 1930 I have just watched the trailer for Baz Luhrmann's new movie The Great Gatsby. A gorgeous looking remake if I've ever seen one. Baz has channelled the 1920's and once again I found myself thinking that if ever there was a time I wished I had experienced, it was those magical years of singular expression in fashion, film, art, literature, architecture, dance and design generally. With this on my mind, I then went through my family's collection of photographs and was stopped in my tracks by a photo that appeared to summarize this time in one magical shot. I looked a little closer and realized that I was looking at a portrait of a portrait master, Ruth Harriet who worked as MGM's portrait photographer for only five years but is responsible for thousands of glamorous photos of the stars of the day. In 1930 she retired, for reasons I don't know, and only ten years later she died from complications of childbirth. Now, have a look at The Great Gatsby trailer and I hope you see the same thing I did in this amazing portrait of Ruth Harriet. The Great Gatsby trailer, Director Baz Luhrmann
UPDATE: 2 June, 2012 - When I initially added this post I didn't know who the other man is sharing uncle Louis' desk in his office at MGM. Thanks to my aunt who emailed me recently, I now know this is William Powell, a major star who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best … Continue reading Hot-desking with Louis B Mayer
"Kid, when I tap my glass, you swallow an oyster. Got it?" When I was nine my grandparents brought me along to a formal dinner at the home of General Bradley and his wife Kitty. My grandmother had been friends with Kitty and Omar Bradley separately and introduced the two of them. It was a … Continue reading The General Told Me So
The Film Colony ♛ 
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