Category: Classic Beauty

Ann Rutherford was my kinda gal.  Her speech teacher told her she’d never be anything, so she faked a resume, got a job on  radio and then in 1935 became a huge star, acting in Westerns, romances and ten (!) movies as Polly Benedict, the girlfriend of Andy Hardy (Mickey Rooney).  Take that, speech teacher.

Then she quit acting in 1950 and did rich woman stuff (she was married to the guy who owned the May department store chain).  And yeah, she was gorgeous:

Voted “Most Beautiful Girl Next Door, Ever” in a recent poll SOTI.

Was there ever a screen name that says “All-Murkin Gal” any better than “Julie Adams”?  And the original Betty May Adams was from Iowa, even better.

“Who she, Kim?” you may ask.

Well, old-time movie fans would know her as the hottie from Creature From The Black Lagoon, but I’ll show those pics at the end.  Here she is:

That All-American Girl thing:

But on with the good stuff we go.

 

…wait, here’s a better one, with a Mauser:

And those Black Lagoon  pics?

Scary.

And at last we can look at Brazilian actress Odete Lara, who appeared in over three dozen Brazilian movies — and absolutely none out of Hollywood, which is why most of us have never heard of her.

And she also cut more than a few record albums, so the lady could sing.

Magnificent.

Despite the Anglo surname, Leonor is Spanish.  And our loss is that she has appeared mostly so far in Spanish-language movies.  However:

Color?  Why, sure:

Leanor is also a singer with a band, and has released several albums.

And on that note:

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Here’s one actress of whom it can be said that she was better than any movie she featured in, and when some of those movies are classics, it just proves how brilliant Sarah Miles was.  Here’s a short list of those movies:  The Servant, Ryan’s Daughter, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Blow Up, and White Mischief.  With the possible exception of White Mischief (an historical drama) and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines (comedy), most of her movies during the 1960s and -70s were dark, artistic and might be called “avant garde” — which is why Hollywood never seemed to know what to do with her, and she shone mostly in British films.  Oh, and by the way, in Hope And Glory she was astonishing, her old-fashioned looks perfect for the role.

Exquisite and talented:  the complete package.

I’ve never watched a single episode of any daytime soap opera, in any country.  (I think the soapiest I ever got was Dallas, and that only lasted a couple seasons — when J.R. Ewing was shot, I only discovered the identity of the shooter about a week after the reveal, more or less by accident when I overheard some people talking about it like it was the most important thing in the world.)  So whenever I happen upon some totty who is or was a “soap star”, my interest barely flickers.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been a few exquisite of the type, of course — I remember thinking that Susan Lucci, for example, was quite a doll back then.  But one who did get my attention was Deidre Hall, because a long time ago I saw her being interviewed on some celebrity show or other, and not only was she gorgeous, but… freckles, by golly.  (And I think most Readers will be well aware of this particular  fetish  fascination of mine.)  Then quite recently I saw some newspaper article talking about her recently celebrating her 86th birthday (!!!!), but the teaser contained a pic of her much-younger self.  So off I went, along the highways and byways of Teh Intarwebz.

And I wasn’t disappointed.  I’ve confined myself to black & white pics, because most of the color pics are owned by the Usual Suspects, Getty, Alamy, etc., whereas the non-color pics are blessedly free of their foul little watermarks.

And for the freckles:

Of course, the tout ensemble  is excellent:

…but tucked away in some dark corner of said Intarwebz was a whole ‘nother side of Deidre, most probably before she became famous:

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