Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 187

Offhand, I can’t think of any other Ann Dvorak films that received a title change for a re-issue besides The Private Affairs of Bel Ami which hit theaters a second time as Women of Paris. I guess the studio thought the latter was a more provocative title for a film where George Sanders sleeps with a lot of, well -  women of Paris. The image of Angela Lansbury clinging to Sanders leg was on the original poster art, but all the other women were added later, making the re-issue a more worthy addition for my collection than the original. It’s also worth noting that for the Women of Paris, Angela Lansbury’s starring name was curiously swapped out for Marie Wilson’s.

I came across this one through my friend Darin. His buddy, Tanya, picked this poster up at a papershow for $1 sometime in the 1990s. She bought it because she liked the title, but I don’t think she ever hung it up or actually watched the film. After I became friends with Darin and started collecting on Ann, he kept urging Tanya to cough it up. It took a few years, but she eventually turned over her dollar Ann Dvorak poster to me.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 185

Wishing all of you in the U.S. a fab holiday…and a decent Thursday to the rest of the Ann Dvorak fans around the globe!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 183

After yesterday’s post, the Year of Ann Dvorak is halfway over. I have somehow managed to stick to my incredibly foolish commitment of blogging about Ann Dvorak everyday in 2013. For those of you coming late to my silly games, I decided to engage in this year-long blogathon in order to promote my book Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel, which is due out in November from University Press of Kentucky. I also saw it as a way to make up for the lack of content produced for this site while I was finishing up the biography.

I am celebrating entry #183 by posting of photo of Ann-D gussied up in Flame of Barbary Coast.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 182

I’ve been collecting Ann Dvorak memorabilia for over 15 years, and there are a handful of items that I would consider “holy grail” pieces. Her honeymoon photo scrapbook that somehow found it’s way to me last month is one of them, and this photo of Ann with Clark Gable is another.

This snapshot ran in the November 1932 issue of Modern Screen, which is where this scan is from. The article was the second of two parts that was “written” by Ann’s mom, Anna Lehr, with the help of a staff writer. When Ann first started making headlines after landing the role in Scarface, Lehr relished in a semi-return to the spotlight following the demise of her own career in silent films. Once Ann married Leslie Fenton, Mama Lehr was pushed to the side, but when the Fentons looks off on an 8-month honeymoon abroad, Lehr was more than happy to talk to the press and share Ann’s letters, along with family snapshots. The quality of this photo isn’t great, so I am guessing it was probably from Lehr’s personal collection.

My guess is that the photo is from 1931 when Gable first signed with MGM and Ann, who was fed up with chorus girl roles, was getting ready to leave. It’s possibly from around the time of Dance, Fools, Dance, a Joan Crawford vehicle featuring Gable, where Ann served as a dance instructor. Despite this early meeting, I am not under the impression that they crossed paths later on.

I have a photo of a nine-year-old Ann, that ran in the Modern Screen article, so it is possible that this photo of Dvorak and Gable is floating around somewhere. If it is, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll eventually find it!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 181

I believe this is the final image that was submitted to the publisher for inclusion in the Ann-D book, but later sacrificed after I purchased a collection a Ann’s personal photos at the last minute. This shot of Ann with parrots was taken at, I think, the Agua Caliente resort in Mexico. The resort, which also included a racetrack, and located near the border was a hot spot members of the film community, particularly during the prohibition era. Since I was not 100% positive that this photo at the resort, it ended up being cut.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 180

We’re going to have triple digits in Los Angeles the weekend, so here’s a fab photo of Ann keeping cool on the beach in the mid-1930s.

And no, I don’t think she rode the waves on this thing after the photo was taken.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 179

Movie posters come in many shapes and sizes and they can vary from country to country. Over in Britain, they had something called a synopsis sheet which is similar to the American herald but is slightly larger, running around 8 1/2 X 11″.

When I was in London back in September 2002, I was able to visit a few movie memorabilia shops, all of which I believe are now closed. One of the shops called Flashbacks had a few British synopsis sheets from Ann’s 1930s Warner Bros. films. I bought every one they had and I think they were only 5 or 10 pounds a piece.

One of the interesting things about British synopsis sheets is that they bear no resemblance to the American artwork, so I am not sure who was actually designing these.

Another point of note is that British releases sometimes altered the titles of American films. In Ann’s case, Side Streets became A Woman in Her Thirties and Bright Lights was released as Funny Face.

For some reason, my favorite of the bunch is the sheet from Massacre. I guess the red really jumps out, and I have used this on numerous occasions for various posts about the film.

The Murder in the Clouds is a close runner-up for cool imagery.

These are items that I have had for so long, that I have come to take them a bit for granted. Now that we’re revisiting them, I have to admit they are cool pieces of cinema and Ann Dvorak history.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 177

The last two days, we’ve taken a look at lobby cards from Ann’s two lost British war films, Squadron Leader X and Escape to Danger. We’ll spend one last day on these films with the half sheets from the latter.

With a tag line of “Super-Spy…Glamour Girl…,” I really feel like we are being deprived by not being able to view this one. My apologies for the lousy image on the second poster. It’s so awesome, I had to hang it up in the bedroom.