Diary of a Stripper.... part II

Things can get pretty ugly when stripping....

Did some more work on my desk project this week. Upon examination of the construction of the desk I decided to unscrew the top so I could turn it over, which makes cleaning the old paint and varnish off WAY easier than trying to scrape into corners and stuff like that. You can see that under the desk in the middle it looks as though someone had used it to sharpen their pencil point or perhaps they were just scribbling?

Of course then it hits me that a lot of the other pieces would be easier to strip and clean up if they were removed too, sooooooo I started dismantling one half of the casing.

This is kinda fun but also nerve-wracking because I dont want to break anything! Luckily the glue is pretty dried out and brittle so most of the joints are coming apart fairly easy. I'm leaving half of it together and will work on the other half until it's clean, sanded and all re-assembled, then I'll do the other half. This is so I wont forget how it all goes together!

All the little pieces labeled so they go back in their correct locations!

The little apron pieces along the bottom of the sides are in pretty rough shape. I may try to make new ones instead of fixing these. Only 3 of them had nails which leads me to conclude that originally they were all glued on but over the years 3 had come loose and someone toe-nailed them to keep them in place.

A Lana Turner pic so Joe wont be angry with me.

To be continued...

More Lovelies...

The Parade of Pretties continues...

Sarah Michelle... *sigh*

An awesome early shot of Louise Brooks!

(sorry about the crappy scan, best I could do from the source material.)

Sharon Stone photographed well, no doubt about it!

The exceedingly cute Crystal Bernard.

Tea' Leoni

"Must've been your Cherry Pie" - Humbert Humbert

Roseanna Arquette

And of course we HAD to have a Lana, to celebrate the long-awaited return of Joe Bloke!

2 Lanas for Joe...

My B-Day, woo hoo!!!

Yup, another year older, another year wiser, ummmm, well the first part is certain, dont know about the second part! A few of my fave Hollywood Goddesses to celebrate!

Ahhhhhh, Suzie . . . there will be a full-blown tribute to this gorgeous red-haired lady in the near future. This was scanned from a small promotional postcard.

Sherilyn Fenn, a more contemporary goddess but a goddess just the same! Very possibly this pic was taken by George Hurrell, but I'm not certain of that. She has incredibly striking eyes no matter who takes the picture!

A rather intense Hurrell portrait of Joan Crawford! George took the finest pictures of Joan, some truly amazing examples of studio still photography.

"Gilda, are you decent?"

Another really nice shot of Lana!

One of my favorite early pics of Janet Leigh. What a beauty!

I think this pic says all anyone needs to know about Joan Blondell's onscreen persona! I'd sure love to think it matched her offscreen one as well! Joan is a gem of an actress, totally competent in drama or comedy, had style to burn and looks to match it and is just plain FUN to see in a film! And she made a LOT of them so she shows up all over the place, especially in the 30's. A biography finally came out about her and I really want to get it as I'm sure her life was quite interesting! I did read her novel though, "Center Door Fancy", a few years ago, very good book!

They Had Legs . . .

And they knew how to use them!

Some more stills from my collection.

A Warner's publicity still of an incredibly sultry-looking Ann Sheridan, aka "The Oomph Girl"! I think Ann is one of the most underappreciated actresses of her era. She had style to burn and made any film she appeared in better just by being in it! Some films that really showcase her talents are "Juke Girl", "It All Came True", "City for Conquest" and "Torrid Zone", where she nearly stole the show from all including James Cagney and Pat O'Brien!

Barbara Stanwyck in a publicity still for William Wellman's classic "Lady of Burlesque". Babs also made "So Big", "The Purchase Price" and "Great Man's Lady" with Wellman

BB!!! I've only seen 2 of her films, "Dear Brigitte" with Jimmy Stewart and "The Legend of Frenchie King" with Claudia Cardinale, which was pretty much laughably bad but well-worth seeing anyway!

Carole Landis. What a shame she died so young.

Beautiful Cyd Charrise had one of the most incredible pair of stems in Hollywood history, and brother could that woman dance! She's unquestionably my fave female dancer of all time. The term "body language" was probably invented by someone watching her! I was very sad when i heard she passed away last year.

A great shot of Gloria Grahame

Amazing Grace . . . *sigh*

Ida Lupino in a publicty shot for Warner's excellent drama "The Man I Love". Ides was yet another one of those actresses who had started at another studio but really found her niche at Warner Bros.

A silly publicity still of beautiful Jane Greer.

Lana!!!!!!!

Noir Lovelies

A few beauties who made an impact in Film Noir . . .

Susan Hayward actually played a "nice" girl in the Noir classic "They Won't Believe Me" with Robert Young playing against type as a 3-timing low-life. Susie almost always played "bad" girls in the first half of her career in Hollywood so it's a bit ironic that one of the only noir film roles she ever had was not another one of those.

Lana Turner in a publicity still for Tay Garnett's "The Postman Always Rings Twice". For my money possibly the best picture ever taken of lovely Lana!

Joan Bennet plays an absolutely heartless gold-digging tramp in Fritz Lang's "Scarlet Street", co-starring Edward G Robinson and the eternally oily Dan Duryea. Joan was one of those starlets who's career changed quite a bit simply by her changing her hair color from blonde to brunette!

Gene Tierney . . . *sigh*

Corrine Calvet only made a small amount of films but her first and best performance in William Dieterle's "Rope of Sand" is well-worth seeing! Burt Lancaster, Paul Henried, Claude Rains and Peter Lorre also starred making it a sort of re-hashing of "Casablanca", though not nearly as good.

No one who's ever seen the "Asphalt Jungle" could forget Marilyn Monroe's appearance in it! To quote the slimy Louis Calhern from the film: "Isnt she a sweet thing!"

More Film Noir

Mugs, Thugs, Drifters and Psychotic killers... Molls, Dolls, Floozies and Feme Fatales... dimly lit smoke-filled rooms, cheap gin joints, graft, corruption, theft...and murder!

Good times, good times!

John Garfield, Lana Turner and Cecil Kellaway in "The Postman Always Rings Twice"

Jane Greer and Robert Mitchum in "The Big Steal"

Richard Widmark and Jean Peters in Sam Fuller's Noir masterpiece "Pickup on South Street"

Kirk Douglas in Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" aka "The Big Carnival"