The Bill and Myrna New Year's Blogathon is Here!

Well I'm already off to a great start this blogging year as I post this a good twelve hours later than I intended. I came down with a bad cold Wednesday and last night I ended up going to bed early. But enough about that!

Welcome to the Bill and Myrna New Year's Blogathon!!! I can't wait to read all the entries on my favorite movie couple!

Already we have several posts up. I've linked them below and will continue to update over the course of the blogathon:

Maddy Loves Her Classic Films kicks of the blogathon with Why I Adore Powell and Loy.

The Midnite Drive-In takes a look at the first film in The Thin Man Series with In Like Thin.

Blog of the Darned checks out the third, and his personal favorite film of the series, Another Thin Man.

Love Letters to Old Hollywood discusses the "wonderfully goofy" I Love You Again.

Caftan Woman covers the second film in The Thin Man Series, After the Thin Man.

Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews takes a look at the rare non-comedic Powell/Loy film Evelyn Prentice.

Critica Retro finds Bill funny in drag for Love Crazy.

Hamlette's Soliloquy delves deep in to one of the best WWII films ever made, The Best Years of Our Lives.

Musings of a Classic Film Addict discovers the not-to-be-missed Double Wedding.

Love Letters to Old Hollywood finds an instant favorite in So Goes My Love.

Old Hollywood Films takes a look at the great Screwball comedy Libeled Lady.

Movies Meet Their Match wraps things up with The Great Ziegfeld.

Thanks to everyone for participating and for The Flapper Dame for agreeing to co-host!

ANNOUNCING The Bill & Myrna New Year's Blogathon!

For the past few years, TCM has shown the Thin Man films for a New Year's marathon. To celebrate our favorite fictional married couple, The Flapper Dame and I thought it would be fun to celebrate with Bill and Myrna in another way - with a blogathon!! Therefore, we are excited to announce The Bill and Myrna New Year's Blogathon 🍸 which will take place from January 1-3, 2018.

Bill and Myrna made fourteen films together and many, many more on their own, so there are lots of fabulous movies to talk about. They also had amazing friendships and lots of personal stories that would be fun to write about, so we ask that there be no duplicates so we can cover as much of these two amazing actors lives and careers as possible. Once you've decided on a topic, let one of us know in the comments section with the name and link to your blog. Finally, grab a banner (I'm pretty excited with how they turned out) and spread the word! Oh, and free martini's for everyone!! ;)

The Guest List:

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: TBA
The Flapper Dame: TBA
Love Letters to Old Hollywood: I Love You Again (1940) & So Goes My Love (1946)
The Midnite Drive-In: The Thin Man (1934)
Movies Meet Their Match: The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Maddy Loves Her Classic Films: Powell and Loy as an on-screen couple
Caftan Woman: After the Thin Man (1936)
Musings of a Classic Film Addict: Double Wedding (1937)
Critica Retro: Love Crazy (1940)
Hamlette's Soliloquy: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Charlene's (Mostly) Classic Movie Reviews: Evelyn Prentice (1934)
Blog of the Darned: Another Thin Man (1939)
Old Hollywood Films: Libeled Lady (1936)

Carole Lombard's Star Sapphires

A while back while scrolling through photos of Carole Lombard, as one usually does, I noticed she was wearing a unique brooch and ring in many of them, whether they were shots from a film, publicity photos, or candids. Here is a sampling below (and an excuse to post a lot of photos of Carole):

My Man Godfrey (1936)

With Caeser Romero at the 1936 Mayfair Ball.

Fools for Scandal (1938)

 

   

After her divorce from William Powell, Carole treated herself to some magnificent star sapphires, the most notable one being the 152 carat brooch featured prominently in My Man Godfrey (1936).

I found this quite interesting as William Powell gave his girlfriend Jean Harlow a similarly sized star sapphire ring, as shown below:

I discovered a website which created a copy of the long-since-missing original for a display of the dress (which was itself lost and then found) worn in My Man Godfrey (1936).

The beaded dress from My Man Godfrey (1936) on display with replica star sapphire brooch. You can read how the brooch was made here.

The brooch apparently came apart to create a pendant and a ring (though you will notice in some photos she is wearing both the brooch and a ring so she had more than one).

 

 

Star sapphires, in addition to being Carole's birthstone, were in vogue at the time and popular with several movie stars, as mentioned in the articles above. However, a few years later, Carole was interested in selling her collection. We do not know if she ever did or if they went down on the plane with her. It is a mystery that will hopefully one day be solved. You can read more about her collection and theories here.

This post is part of the Carole Lombard: The Profane Angel Blogathon hosted by myself and Crystal of In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood. Please check out all of the other posts celebrating this one-of-a-kind woman.

My Custom Hollywood Calendar from Shutterfly

For those of you who don't have Facebook or Twitter (or don't follow me *shakes head*) I thought I would share photos of my new calendar I designed on Shutterfly! (click photos to view larger)

Of course after I received it I noticed a few mistakes/omissions. I started making this calendar in 2015 so when I changed it to a 2017 calendar I forgot to move Mother's Day so now it's on a Monday... (btw, Shutterfly offers a free calendar about 4 - 5 times a year so this only cost me $8 shipping instead of $25+!! There's also a way to send projects to others on Shutterfly if anyone is interested. You could probably edit it to include your favorite photos).

I also left out Omar Shariff (*face palm) and Jean Simmons (*double face palm), whose birthday is the same as Tallulah Bankhead (who I fortunately like). Since this calendar is for my personal use I left off a few actors that I don't like or who I haven't seen any films of (or who shared a birthday with an actor/actress I liked better) and included some lesser known actors that I like (Richard Long, Michael Callan, etc.).

The cover of the calendar has my favorite person from each month, though in hindsight I wish I would have put Errol and Olivia on there instead of Vera-Ellen and Mary Tyler Moore, but Oh Well.

What do you think? Which month is your favorite? Who would you dedicate a month to?

I also got my Curious Pip "Nick & Nora" Christmas cards today. Order yours here! Limited supply!