Category: Classic Beauty

What can you say about an actress who was independently famous in three countries?  Well, Pola Negri first became a household name in her native Poland as a stage actress, then in Germany as a movie star, and then became the first foreign actress to be hired in Hollywood — before Dietrich, Banky and all the other, perhaps more famous names.

Today, she seems to have been largely forgotten, but in her time she was not only famous, but infamous — not the least because she was the lover of (among many) Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.

She also popularized the fashion of painted toenails, which no one had ever done before (except maybe prostitutes, which may have been why she was regarded as scandalous).

She also became fabulously wealthy — in 1922, her personal fortune was estimated (in today’s dollars) at just under $100 million.  Her house in Hollywood looked like the White House.

I don’t think the photos of the time did her justice, largely because of the clothing fashions of the 1920s were terrible.  And her acting style would today be called “histrionic” or “over-dramatic”, but that was the style back then in the silent movie era — and in any event, she was very definitely a product of her Polish upbringing, being passionate and over-the-top.

So what did she look like?

Here she is, snogging Chaplin:

…and giving ol’ Rudi Valentino the glad eye:

And here’s what she looked like in the 1940s, when clothing styles were better and the makeup less stagey:

Exquisite.

Other than perhaps Rosamund Pike, no modern British woman personifies the term “English rose” better than Naomi Watts.  Over Here in Murka, we haven’t seen much of this fragile beauty (other than perhaps in Mulholland Drive  and the latest King Kong) , but I intend to rectify that now.

 

 

Exquisite.  And, like Rosamund Pike, an excellent actress.

 

I remember seeing Jan Sterling in a couple of movies — Ace In The Hole and The High And The Mighty — back when I was going through a 50s-movie craze.  The former was forgettable, the latter anything but, and it came as no surprise when I learned that she’d got an Oscar nomination for her performance in that one.

Anyway, that’s enough of the bio stuff.

Jan once told the story of traveling in Europe on her own (as a 16-year-old!) back in 1937.  At the end of the trip and needing funds to come home, her father sent her airfare to fly back.  However, on seeing some lingerie she liked in a shop window, she traded in the airfare to buy it, and with the leftover money booked a cheaper ticket aboard a steamship.

Midway through the voyage, she found out that the airfare had been for a flight on the Hindenburg.  So she was beautiful and lucky.

Anyway, here she is in some period-correct lingerie.

Gorgeous, in any period.

…in which we look at Liz, in color and in the later years (during which I think she was at her most beautiful):

And with Hubby #Whatever:

Matchless, sexy… oh yeah, all that.

Just don’t get her mad at you…

I was never really fan of Elizabeth Taylor’s acting — that squeaky voice drove me crazy — but was there ever a lovelier woman to look at?

Today, we’ll concentrate on the younger Liz:

Next time we’ll do color, just to see those violet eyes in all their glory.

I’ve spoken about Loretta Young and her sister Polly Ann before, and in the intro to the latter, I said the following:

Actor David Niven once described the Young sisters (Polly Ann, Elizabeth and Loretta) thus: “Each one was prettier than the others.”

So if I’ve looked at Loretta and Polly Ann, then where’s Elizabeth Young?

Here she is;  only she changed her stage name to Sally Blane.  In the early years:

And later on:

Good grief.  Small wonder that David Niven was so frequently a guest at the Young sisters’ house, the old dog.  Here he is with Loretta: