brb, swooning rn.

Old Hollywood. Mostly, FRED ASTAIRE. If you like him and guavas, we are automatically best friends. I post screencaps, artworks & rare stuff. HMU if you wanna talk OH lore.

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OL' HOLLY PORTRAITS

Part- I have lost count /infinity

A young Cary Grant in The Eagle and the Hawk (1933).

Medium: Graphite

Time taken: 6-7 hours

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WHAT IN THE CHIMMICHANGA FUCK IS THIS

Fuck.

And this is an angry fuck you fucktards I am certainly NOT happy you stupid fucks what the HELL is wrong with you

LEAVE FRED ASTAIRE ALONE YOU STUPID FUCKS

let alone you are making TOM HOLUND play him are you crazy is this a joke

Fuck this. I will pray every single day that this shit gets shelved.

HE MADE IT CLEAR IN HIS WILL. NO fuCkiNg BiOpiCs !!

If Holund fucks this up I SWEAR TO GOD I will defenestrate his Spidey ass outta Earth

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Gary Cooper

A graphite portrait.

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Fred Astaire in what seems to be a badly restored/coloured (by me) photograph from the 1940s.

I have been momentarily absent from here since someone else has been demanding my heart's attentions. However, now that I have indoctrinated that poor fella into the Astaire cult as well, I'm here with a heroic comeback.

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Oh Irene how could you ever shout at him ?!?

A rare picture of Fred Astaire behind the scenes of The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle (1939)

One of my favourite Fred pics of all time.

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Just another Astaire head study

Incoming exams overhead makes it all the more beautiful.

Also, I have an interesting piece of story to share.

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Freddie with his Oscar, Academy Awards 1950.

Here's a digital doodle I did while on an unecessarily long call.

It's just so sad that Fred wasn't available to receive the honour in person, and that too from our dear Ginger. Anyway, that would have been just too perfect to take in.

The way Ginger is thrilled as she hears Fred's voice, their immortal tracks being played in the background by the Orchestra and the serenading applause leaves me overwhelmed every time I watch that video.

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To Miss Gustafsson.

No, not Garbo. Allow me not to address you as her, the plagued soul stifled by compelling glory and movie-going frivolity.

I refer to the demure Greta Gustafsson from Sweden, the one Maurice Stiller helmed into Hollywood. But once the camera began to roll, the petite Swedish girl ceased to exist. Garbo galloped to the fore, sweeping us passerbys to the faraway lands crafted in fairytales.

This passage was beset with perils for you; with every single movie a prolonged battle of attrition. Nonetheless, pairs of eyes all around the world have never been more grateful. While they were fixated in a trance, Garbo wrenched out of our hearts feelings we had barred into seclusion, making a seamless incision through any binds with one sharp flick of her eye.

I do not dare of a comparison. You were neither the svelte Dietrich, the coquettish Swanson nor you possessed the seething glamour of Jean Harlow. Garbo is Garbo, an unsurpassed entity all her own.

Your tread upon the silver screen, albeit a brief one still had your footprints etched into immortality. The performance of the enervated Lady of the Camellias must have rivalled that of Sarah Bernhardt herself. Whether it was the faded ballerina or Tolstoy's masterful allegory of pain, there has never been another single-handed display that showered justice upon these roles.

While immersive melancholia was the trademark of your oeuvre, little did we know it shrouded your reality as well. You shied away from public gaze, picked apart and hounded by the Press. We denied you the only wish you ever had - to be left alone. They made a legend out of your mystique, and branded you a snob when you refused to reveal even a single shred of your elusive life. Desperate bloodhounds in action, I'm glad that for all their sniffing they are anything but successful.

It has been almost a century now, and the legend of Garbo lives on . However, I remember you as our Comrade Ninotchka, laughing not only at Leon sprawled on the floor, but at the entire bizarre spectacle of life - of people taking things too seriously and never actually taking a moment to live.

Happy 116th, Miss G !!

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Ninotchka x Cole Porter

Featuring the music of Cole Porter for Silk Stockings (1957) in the original, non-musical masterpiece Ninotchka (1939) starring Greta Garbo.

My tribute to Miss G, on her 116th birthday.

EARPHONES RECOMMENDED

It actually fits quite well.

I have used only instrumental tracks from the Original Soundtrack, notably that of 'All of you', 'Paris loves lovers' and 'Silk Stockings.'

Striking no comparisons here, both movies are immensely dear to me.

Furthermore, both of the movies are a handiwork of a talented trio:

Greta Garbo + Ernst Lubitsch + Billy Wilder

Fred Astaire + Cole Porter + Hermes Pan

Ok if it had been Fred Astaire alongside Garbo in a Ninotchka musical I WOULD HAVE DIED OF ECSTASY so thank God there isn't

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"Men like him should be shot down like dogs!"

Ginger Rogers as Amanda Cooper in Carefree (1938)

Ginger's blissful beauty. That's it. That's the post.

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Of Dreams, Doctors & Dances

82 years of Carefree (1938)

I'll make a separate post just for Ginger's EXTREME beauty in this film.

Frankly, "Change Partners" kept this movie afloat. But we got to see Ginger in her prime, Ginger wielding a shotgun, Ginger obliterating civic property, Ginger being funky, Ginger kissing Fred and finally Ginger marrying Fred.

In a lot of ways, I felt this movie was more about Ginger. GOOD.

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1935: On this day

Top Hat hit the screens worldwide.

They have been dancing in heaven ever since.

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85 years of Swing Time (1936).

I would not err when I hail Swing Time as the best of the Astaire-Rogers partnerships, with only Top Hat to share this position.

It's their most successful picture.

The virtuoso George Stevens transformed it beyond the usual Sandrich jurisdiction.

Jerome Kern + Dorothy Fields = ∞

(Whenever I listen to 'The way you look tonight', I feel like tearing my heart out from my body and hurling it at my beloved)

The genius of Hermes Pan

Helen Broderick + Victor Moore (The best character actors one could ask for)

The impeccable dance routines (ALL of them)

Ginger's BEST dancing

Fred isn't just a mere tap dancer.

This post is in commemoration to all people who made it possible.

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The beauty of

Girl Hunt Ballet

The Band Wagon (1953)

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Romance, Astaire-Rogers style.

Ok it took me a shit-ton of time to make these but it was SO worth it.

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Funny Face (1957) Series (2/?)

The Train

"Your lover just kissed you goodbye."

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Funny Face (1957) Series (1/?)

The Bookstore

"Which shelf for materialism?"

Ladders, an empathic trespasser and dreams of Paris.