But, Darling...

...they're your Auntie Mame!

Miss Arden appears courtesy of Stephen Marshal Jones

The Good Wives

"It was a role no one could live up to, really." - Myrna Loy on being typecast as "The Perfect Wife"

"There always was a broom or a vacuum cleaner in my fist, or I was at the sink, scrubbing away for dear life." - Claudette Colbert on her screen image

"Some perfect wife I am. I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg." - Myrna Loy on real life vs. reel life

"I married a wonderful doctor, and I was very happy -- period." - Claudette Colbert on being a real life doctor's wife

Fine Feathered Friends

"To me, Joan Crawford’s screen portrayals are all one: a series of transparencies through which she projects her daydream –- herself –- a wonderful abused kid. On the screen, every ladylike effort is stretched by the memory of self-abasement; the salt of every tear is the salt of self-pity." - Louise Brooks

Miss Colbert Regrets She's Unable to Lunch Today

She is sorry to be delayed, but to Banton's atelier she strayed.

Space Age Suits

Afro Puff

Soulful hair knows no color.

Gail Force

"I just don't have an actress's soul. I think mine has a dollar sign on it." - GAIL PATRICK

Cool, collected, chic - those were Gail Patrick's trademarks in her films of the 1930's and 1940's. She appeared in everything from musicals (Mississippi, 1935) to westerns (Wanderer of the Wasteland, 1935) to whodunits (The Preview Murder Mystery, 1936), and the majority of her output was in "B" productions - but the silky, professional elegance she brought to her roles as the haughty second lead in a quartet of "A"-list comedies cemented Patrick's reputation as the Art Deco Bitch nonpareil. She was Carole Lombard's scheming sister in My Man Godfrey (1936); Ginger Rogers' sparring partner in Stage Door (1937); Irene Dunne's rival for Cary Grant's affections in My Favorite Wife (1940); and, in Love Crazy (1941), Myrna Loy's nemesis vis-à-vis William Powell.

GAIL PATRICK IN COSTUME FOR LOVE CRAZY (1941)

Strangely, Patrick's career stalled during the 1940's. Perhaps it was that lack of an actress' soul, and ambition; or because her brittle, satin-smooth, cold-as-ice persona was too firmly rooted in the Deco Thirties to make the translation to the gutsier, wartime Forties. Retiring from films in 1948, she successfully transitioned to the business world, running her own children's clothing company and selling her product (all self-designed) to her movie star friends and colleagues. She then became a very successful producer, along with her third husband, Thomas Cornwell Jackson, of the Perry Mason television series.

GAIL PATRICK JACKSON WITH PERRY MASON STAR RAYMOND BURR AND AUTHOR EARLE STANLEY GARDNER

Obviously, Patrick retained the patrician good looks and regal bearing which made her a movie star, albeit a second-tier one. Those qualities were also on display in our last Mystery Guest entry - and it would have been a clean sweep of wrong guesses, had dark horse Stewie G not nabbed the prize at the finish line. Congratulations - your harlequin unitard is on the way, Stewie!

GAIL PATRICK
June 20, 1911 - July 6, 1980

Fro Hair to Eternity

Inspired by our Lady of the Bayou, Jason!

Glamour in Black and White, a la Moderne

Somehow, La Francis and La Hopkins manage to make furs and feathers appear modern and minimalist - the mark of genius.