Bringing You the Wonder of Yesterday – Today
Dallas is a major city in the state of Texas and is the largest urban center of the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the United States.
Here below are vintage images capturing everyday life of this city in the 1950s.
Claude Monet is the founder of the Impressionism, and he’s the key figure which allows us to understand the transformation process occurred from the second half of 19th century to the early 20th century. Monet’s works still arouse immense enthusiasm among his many fans, and the success of exhibitions displaying his paintings is guaranteed.
Claude Monet was born in Paris on 14 November 1840, but he spent his early life in Le Havre, where he drawed caricatures and he was noticed by E. Boudin, who convinced him to devote himself to landscape painting.
In 1859 Monet moved to Paris, where he discovered the painting by Delacroix, Daubigny and Corot, and he met Pissarro, Bazile, Sisley, and Renoir. Together with those painters, Monet began painting “en plein air” in Fontainebleau wood.
During his early years of his career, Monet didn’t enjoy good moments, especially due to his lack of money, and in 1869 his creditors confiscated all the canvas he had. Monet wasn’t able to paint because he didn’t have his colors.
Monet’s landscapes, painted with a meticulous attention to the reflection of the light on the water, represented the first works of the Impressionism. His 1872 painting “Impression. Soleil levant” (“Impression. Sunrise”), exhibited in 1874, gave the name for the new artistic movement: Impressionism.
Claude Monet made a careful study of the laws of physics which form the basis for perception of the light and color in human eyes. He depicted the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light that could be seen only by the painter at the moment he painted.
In 1883 Monet moved to Giverny, Normandy. There he created a garden and his refuge, or simply he created his own world, which would become his favorite subject of his paintings. Monet lived in Giverny more than 40 years and he used his garden along with its plants and its flowers to produce great masterpieces.
He died in 1926.
Born 1875 in Paris, French dancer and model Cléo de Mérode was sent to study dance the age of eight, and made her professional debut at age eleven.
Mérode became renowned for her glamour even more than for her dancing skills. A particular new hairstyle she chose to wear became the talk of Parisian women and was quickly adopted as a popular style for all. Her fame was such that Alexandre Falguière sculpted The Dancer in her image, which today can be seen in the Musée d’Orsay.
In 1895, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did her portrait, as would Charles Puyo, Alfredo Muller, and Giovanni Boldini. Her picture was taken by some of the most illustrious photographers of the day, including Félix Nadar.
In 1896, King Léopold II attended the ballet and saw Mérode dance. The 61-year-old Belgian King became enamoured with the 22-year-old ballet star, and gossip started that she was his latest mistress.
Very popular in her ancestral homeland of Austria as well as in Germany, her character appeared in the German film Women of Passion (1926), played by Fern Andra. In Vienna, her beauty caught the attention of painter Gustav Klimt, whose primary focus was on female sexuality. Their story was the basis of the film Klimt (2006), in which the character “Lea de Castro” is based on Cléo de Mérode.
Mérode continued to dance until her early fifties, when she retired to the seaside resort of Biarritz in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France. In 1955, she published her autobiography, Le Ballet de ma vie (The Dance of My Life).
Cléo de Mérode died in 1966, aged 91.
Take a look at these glamorous photos to see the beauty of Cléo de Mérode in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
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In her silent heyday, this ravishing and highly photogenic star, known for her voluptuous femininity on the silent screen, rivaled that of Mary Pickford, Marion Davies and Clara Bow in popularity. She retired after only a few years into the talking picture era, however, and is not as well-remembered in today’s film circles as the aforementioned.
Billie Dove was born Lillian Bohny on May 14, 1903 (several sources list 1900), to Swiss parents Charles and Bertha Bohny who emigrated to New York City before she was born. Educated in private schools in Manhattan, she was already singled out as quite a beauty by her early teens. By 15 and 16 she was helping to support the family by working as both a photographer’s and artist’s model. It is said that the renowned poster painter/illustrator James Montgomery Flagg sketched her during this period. Although she could neither sing nor dance all that well, this stunning beauty was subsequently hired by Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. to appear in his famous Follies. She was eventually given solo entrances in his extravaganzas (one was for the song “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody”), and also appeared as gorgeous window dressing in a few of his Follies’ sideshows–the “Midnight Frolics” and “Nine O’Clock Revues”–all between 1918-20. She also served as a dancing replacement in Ziegfeld’s Broadway show “Sally,” which headlined Marilyn Miller, in 1921.
A burgeoning affair between Dove and Ziegfeld prompted Ziegfeld’s wife Billie Burke to arrange work for the young starlet in Hollywood films. She made her feature debut in George M. Cohan’s Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1921), based on the 1910 Broadway play; the cameras instantly fell in love with the beautiful newcomer. She was immediately put into a starring role in only her second picture, the backstage romantic drama At the Stage Door (1921), the story of a chorus girl and her sister (also a chorine) who compete for the affections of a wealthy patron. From there Billie went on to appear opposite some of Hollywood’s most popular leading men–from glossy, dramatic stars such as John Gilbert and Warner Baxter to sturdy cowboy idols Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson–and in several different genres. Billie also graced a number of pictures helmed by Irvin Willat, whom she married in 1923. These included All the Brothers Were Valiant (1923) co-starring Lon Chaney; the Zane Grey western Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924); The Air Mail (1925) with Baxter and Douglas Fairbanks; and The Ancient Highway (1925).
Top stardom came while she was swept up in the arms of the dashing Fairbanks as the starry-eyed princess who is rescued by The Black Pirate (1926) in the classic silent adventure. Billie was the first actress to receive a color screen test via this pirate yarn. Lovingly dubbed “The American Beauty” after appearing in the movie of the same title, The American Beauty (1927)–in which she played a social-climbing hat check girl–her acting talent was considered modest. Her better pictures were those opposite stronger male actors by stronger directors. Pioneer female director Lois Weber fit the bill and brought out the best in Billie in two of her films–The Marriage Clause (1926) with Francis X. Bushman and Sensation Seekers (1927).
Divorced from Willat in 1929, Billie was still at the peak of her popularity with the advent of sound. The multi-millionaire eccentric and (at that time) budding producer Howard Hughes became an obsessed admirer, which resulted in an all-consuming three-year affair. Hughes, who tried to take over and control her career, actually proposed to the star and they were briefly engaged. She abruptly ended the relationship, however, when she was unable to handle his quirkiness and long, unexplained absences. For Hughes she appeared on screen in the dramatic The Age for Love (1931) and comedic Cock of the Air (1932).
In Blondie of the Follies (1932), the Marion Davies starrer, Dove was dismayed when her third-billed role was “trimmed” and “reshaped” at the urging of Davies’ highly influential paramour William Randolph Hearst (who happened to own Cosmopolitan Productions, which made the picture). This was to be her last film; she retired from the screen shortly thereafter. By 1933 she had remarried and focused on having a family. Married to Robert Kenaston, a rancher, oil executive and real estate investor, they had one son (Robert Alan) and an adopted daughter (Gail). The couple divorced in 1970 after 37 years of marriage (he died three years later). A third marriage to architect John Miller also ended in divorce.
Other than an unbilled bit part of a nurse in the movie Diamond Head (1962) with Charlton Heston, Dove never returned to the screen. She was eventually transferred from her Rancho Mirage (California) home to live out the rest of her life at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills. The nonagenarian died of pneumonia in 1997.
(Text by Gary Brumburgh via IMDB.com)
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910 – May 23, 1934) and Clyde Champion Barrow (March 24, 1909 – May 23, 1934) were an American criminal couple who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, known for their bank robberies, although they preferred to rob small stores or rural gas stations. Their exploits captured the attention of the American press and its readership during what is occasionally referred to as the “public enemy era” between 1931 and 1934. They are believed to have murdered at least nine police officers and four civilians. They were killed in May 1934 during an ambush by police near Gibsland, Louisiana.
The press’s portrayal of Bonnie and Clyde was sometimes at odds with the reality of their life on the road, especially for Parker. She was present at 100 or more felonies during the two years that she was Barrow’s companion, although she was not the cigar-smoking, machine gun-wielding killer depicted in newspapers, newsreels, and pulp detective magazines of the day. Nonetheless, numerous police accounts detail her attempts to murder police officers (although gang member W.D. Jones contradicted them at trial). A photo of Parker posing with a cigar came from an undeveloped roll of film that police found at an abandoned hideout, and the snapshot was published nationwide. Parker did smoke cigarettes, although she never smoked cigars. According to historian Jeff Guinn, the photos found at the hideout resulted in Parker’s glamorization and the creation of myths about the gang.
The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in the title roles, revived interest in the criminals and glamorized them with a romantic aura. The 2019 Netflix film The Highwaymen depicted the law’s pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde. (Wiki)
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, director, and producer of film and television, considered a sex symbol and icon of American popular culture.
Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in several different television series such as Gunsmoke (1962–1965), Hawk (1966), and Dan August (1970–1971). Although Reynolds had leading roles in such films as Navajo Joe (1966) and 100 Rifles (1969), his breakthrough role was as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance (1972). Reynolds played the leading role – often a lovable rogue – in a number of subsequent box office hits, such as White Lightning (1973) The Longest Yard (1974), Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Semi-Tough (1977), The End (1978), Hooper (1978), Starting Over (1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Sharky’s Machine (1981), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), and Cannonball Run II (1984), several of which he directed himself. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Reynolds was voted the world’s number one box-office star for five consecutive years (from 1978 to 1982) in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a record he shares with Bing Crosby. After a number of box office failures, Reynolds returned to television, starring in the sitcom Evening Shade (1990–1994), which won a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for him. His performance as high-minded pornographer Jack Horner in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997) brought renewed critical attention for him, earning another Golden Globe (for Best Supporting Actor—Motion Picture) for him, with nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Reynolds died of a heart attack at the Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter, Florida, on September 6, 2018, at the age of 82. His ex-wife Loni Anderson issued a statement explaining that she and their son Quinton would miss him and “his great laugh.” On September 20, 2018, the two held a private memorial service for Reynolds at a funeral home in North Palm Beach, Florida. Those in attendance included Sally Field, FSU coach Bobby Bowden, friend Lee Corso, and quarterback Doug Flutie. Reynolds’ body was cremated and his ashes were given to his niece. He was subsequently interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on February 11, 2021, on what would have been his 85th birthday. (Wiki)
