The Skinny: It Happened One Night

Yesterday, I had the privilege of falling in love with It Happened One Night, a 1934 Claudette Colbert/Clark Gable love story about a really long bus ride. I'm not generally into bus movies. (I hope lightning doesn't strike me now as I say that Bus Stop is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, despite having Marilyn Monroe. Maybe it's because they make give me motion sickness, and the exhaust smells so terrible, and the bathroom situation (or lack thereof) gives me anxiety. But I digress....) However, I do love Claudette Colbert, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did, because it was fantastic. It also gave me the refreshing opportunity to see Clark Gable being funny and romantic, because (*gasp!) I kind of hate Gone With the Wind (did you just feel the earth tremble?).

But regardless of the cute love story and typical wholesome characters required by Frank Capra for everything, the movie was expected to bomb. Claudette Colbert was only called in when several other actresses refused the part, and she would only agree to do it for double her normal fee (and that was really only because she was interested in working with Clark Gable). Gable wasn't very inspired by it, either, especially since he was loaned to Columbia and forced to do the movie as a punishment for being a bad boy off the lot. It was allotted a maximum four weeks weeks for production, at the end of which Colbert reportedly told a friend that she had just made the worst movie in the world.

So, it came as quite a surprise when the film was nominated for multiple Academy Awards. The shock was magnified even more when it swept all five of the major categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture. It held this record for almost forty years, and netted Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert the only Oscars they ever received. In fact, Colbert hated the movie so much, she didn't even go to the Academy Awards, opting instead for a vacation. She was hastily fetched from a train station and rushed to the ceremony to accept her statue, very under-dressed for the occasion in a simple traveling suit.

Claudette Colbert & Shirley Temple, 1935 Academy Awards

But even more interesting, because I cannot resist a link to Looney Tunes, is the fact that Friz Freleng loved this movie, rating as one of his top favorite films. AND, he wrote in his memoirs that there were three moments of inspiration in this movie that were later used in the development of Looney Tunes characters:

1. The personality of Oscar Shapely, an annoyingly smooth-talking fellow traveler on the bus:

Roscoe Karns as Oscar Shapely

2. A scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots and speaks in a fast, staccato manner:

3. And a fictional mobster, Bugs Dooley, invented by Clark Gable's character to frighten Mr. Shapely away from the bus:

Clark Gable & Roscoe Karns, It Happened One Night

There were also hints that Yosemite Sam and Pepe LePew possessed characteristics derived from two other characters from this film: Alexander Andrews and King Westley (the female lead's father & husband). It's also noteworthy that for a movie with so few wardrobe changes (Claudette Colbert only has 4 outfits in the movie: 2 items of nightwear, a wedding dress, and a travel suit), Vanity Fair chose to pay tribute to the fashion:

James Marsden & Rose Byrne, August 2009 Vanity Fair

Another interesting tidbit: Claudette Colbert was a prude while making this movie. The "walls of Jericho" were only added because she refused to disrobe on camera, and she put up quite a fight about having to expose her leg during the hitch-hiking scene.

I find this quite confusing, given the fact that Claudette Colbert was also in Cleopatra the very same year (1934), and she looked like this:

Yes, that is close enough, Mr. DeMille....



Information obtained from : www.tcm.com, www.imdb.com

The Skinny: Suzanne Belperron

Suzanne Belperron

The premiere female jewelry designer in the 1930s and 1940s, Suzanne Belperron influenced the evolution of fine jewelry for decades afterward. She was trained as the frenzy of Art Deco hit, but bucked the trend by designing more streamlined, rounded, nature-inspired pieces.

Belperron ruby and sapphire brooch

Belperron ivory, coral, & gold brooch, 1932-1955

Simultaneously bold and restrained, Belperron refused to sign any of her pieces, instead insisting, "My style is my signature." This makes it very difficult to identify many of her pieces today, although it certainly helps that many of her clients were royalty or celebrities, and I'm sure that in many cases, traceable names ease the way for research on the provenance of certain items. Fred Astaire, Gary Cooper, Josephine Baker, Christian Dior, Nina Ricci, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jeanne Lanvin, and Collette counted themselves among her very exclusive circle of clients and friends.

Belperron Gold and Diamond swirl brooch

In 1932, she was hired to work for Bernard Herz at his Paris studio, where she developed a reputation for elegantly carved stones to be paired with precious or semiprecious stones in flora and fauna-based designs such as flowers, fruits, or aquatic creatures. Many of her designs drew inspiration from world cultures, and critics of her jewelry called the pieces "brilliant and barbaric."

Belperron African Mask brooch, 1940-1950

She famously started the trend of pairing precious stones with unconventional settings, such as rock crystal or smoky quartz, a technique that other artists had not yet explored. Other favorite materials included chalcedony, agate, onyx, enameled metal, and glass.

Belperron smoky quartz, platinum, and diamond cuff, 1933

Blue Chalcedony Belperron suite for the Duchess of Windsor

Belperron Blue Agate clip with rubies, sapphires, emeralds

Belperron Chalcedony and Sapphire clip, 1930

Belperron's personal collection: Enameled silver and carved green glass cuff/necklace, 1936

Belperron carved onyx and diamond ring, 1947

When the Nazis came to Paris, Herz was arrested for running a Jewish-named company. Making use of connections with wealthy, loyal clients, Suzanne was able to gain his freedom. She then renamed the company under her own name. However, in 1942, Suzanne and Herz were both arrested after a letter accused them of running the business as a front for a Jewish company. During the drive to the Gestapo offices, she ate Bernard's address book, one page at a time, so that the Germans had no names to use in their interrogation. After providing documentation of her family's heritage and religion, Suzanne was released. Herz ended up at Auschwitz, and did not survive the war.

Belperron diamond & sapphire bangle, sold for $171,575.00 at a Christie's auction in 2012

Belperron diamond and platinum cuff

Belperron ruby and diamond necklace, sold for $340,552.00 at a Christie's auction in 2010

Despite the difficulties in Nazi-dominated Paris, Belperron continued to work, refusing more than a dozen job offers from American jewelry houses in order to keep the Belperron company alive. She joined the French Resistance, and was later decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honor. Herz's son, Jean, returned from time spent as a prisoner of war and signed on as Suzanne's partner, renaming the business after both of them, and remaining her partner until they parted ways (on very friendly terms) in the 1970s.

Belperron Sapphire set

Suzanne Belperron was elusive, and therefore, the best catch in Paris for those in need of fine jewelry. She did not advertise. There were no fliers on shop windows or ads in the newspaper. Instead, her address was only given out by word of mouth, from one exclusive client to another.

Belperron diamond brooch

When designing for a woman, Belperron not only took multiple, precise measurements, she made notes about the woman's skin tone, the shape of her face, and her lifestyle. There would be several fittings, just as with a seamstress, to ensure that each custom piece was a perfect fit, in every way, for the woman who would wear it.

Belperron diamond brooch

Long after Belperron's death, an apartment was discovered near Montmartre that contained her furniture and books, but most importantly, her archives--including photos, news articles, sketches, models, casts, letters, diaries, and appointments and orders from the late 1930s until the company dissolved in 1974.What a time capsule!

Belperron diamond and sapphire cocktail ring

And yes, the matching earrings; Sold at Christie's for $110,023.00 in 2013

The Skinny: The Comforts of Corn

Yeah, yeah. Corn. I happen to love it. I also happen to love finding wonderfully corn-y recipes in those delightful spiral-bound church cookbooks--always a gamble, but often delicious! Here are some from Clinton's First Centennial Cook Book, published by the First Methodist Church of Clinton, Massachusetts in 1950. Enjoy!

Spider Corn Cake (Mrs. Henry G. Whitman)
2 eggs                                    1/4 c. sugar
1 c. sour milk                          2 c. sweet milk
1 tsp. soda                              1 2/3 c. corn meal
1 tsp. salt                                1/3 c. flour
2 T. butter

Dissolve soda in the sour milk. Beat eggs & sugar, add 1 cup sweet milk and sour milk (with soda) and salt. Then mix corn meal and flour with this. Put spider on stove, when hot, melt butter and turn spider so butter can run up sides of spider. Pour in the mixture and put in oven. Add one more cup sweet milk; do not stir. Bake 45 minutes in 350 degree oven. When done, there should be a streak of custard running through it.

(*What's a spider? A cast iron skillet!)

Corn Pudding (Mrs. Genevieve Roncone)
2 c. stewed corn                    2 T. sugar
2 c. milk                                1/4 c. minced green peppers
3 eggs                                    1 minced pimiento
1 T. butter                              1 T. salt
1 T. minced onion

Beat eggs slightly, add milk, sugar, and salt. Combine corn with other ingredients and add to milk mixture. Mix well. Turn into buttered casserole and bake in moderate oven (325 degrees), one hour. Serve hot with cheese or tomato sauce. Serves 6.

Cornmeal Dumplings ( Isabel Currier)
1 c. sifted all-purpose flour        1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. cornmeal (coarse)               1 egg
2 tsp. baking powder                 3/4 c. milk

Mix and sift dry ingredients. If shortening is desired, cut in 1 tablespoon fat. Combine and stir in egg and milk quickly to make a soft batter. Drop by tablespoonfuls to rest on top of hot greens (cooked with salt pork and potatoes). Cover and cook 15 minutes on low heat before serving.

Easy Corn Fritters (Mrs. Charles Pearson)

1 c. flour                                   1/2 to 1 cup corn, fresh or canned
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder           1/2 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt                               1 egg

Sift flour, measure and sift again with baking powder and salt. Beat egg until very light, and add flour mixture, corn, and milk. Mix thoroughly. Drop batter from spoon into 1/2 inch of hot fat in a frying pan. Brown on both sides.

The Skinny: Remington's Brilliant Plan

We love typewriters, regardless of the manufacturer, but I recently came across a cute story about Remington that made them just a little more special. The machine was invented in the mid-1800s, and Remington, who manufactured guns and sewing machines, was asked to put it into production. The first typewriter was debuted at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where a man named Sam Clemens fell in love with it. It wasn't long before he dropped a chunk of change--$125--for his very own machine, a Remington No.2. By today's standards, that's a $2400 typewriter, and it didn't even have lowercase. (It did, however, have the QWERTY layout that we  know and love today.)

Remington No. 2; www.mytypewriter.com

That man, known to most of us as Mark Twain, spent his first blissful weeks with his typewriter writing letters about how much he hated it. And yet he submitted the first-ever typewritten manuscript, Life on the Mississippi, and continued to use (and verbally abuse) his typewriter afterwards. When Remington found out that he owned one of their machines, they asked him to be a spokesperson. He responded with the following letter:

Gentlemen--Please do not use my name in any way. Please do not even divulge the fact that I own a machine. I have entirely stopped using the Typewriter, for the reason that I could never write  a letter with it to anybody without receiving a request by return mail that I would not only describe the machine, but state what progress I had made in the use of it, etc. I don't like to write letters, and so I don't want people to know I own this curiosity-breeding little  joker. Yours truly, Saml. L. Clemens

Mark Twain

Remington turned around and printed the letter in its entirety, effectively allowing Mark Twain to out himself. When people read that the famous author, by his own hesitant admission, owned a typewriter, it was  just as good as any other ad campaign that Remington could have planned. If you knew that the great Mark Twain was clattering away on those keys, wouldn't you want one, too? Of course you would.

And, Remington got him again, decades later, when a portion of his autobiography was released containing the delightful confession that he not only used, but fondly remembered, his Remington typewriter. So, in 1905, they ran this ad:

From twain.lib.virginia.edu

Even though they later sold the typewriter branch of their business, the new machines still bore their name and are probably being used today by hipster writers in loft apartments across the world. We Blackbird girls just think they're cool to look at. Check out these beauties from NeOld on Etsy:

1930s red Remington

Turquoise cursive Remington

*Information obtained from The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean and twain.lib.virginia.edu

The Skinny -- Montaldo's

Montaldo's was a staple of high quality shopping in North Carolina -- or so I hear.  And it's evident to me, in the pieces we find, that Montaldo's was all about quality and style.  I wanted to know more, but...there's not much out there.

I found out on the Vintage Fashion Guild site, here, that Montaldo's was a specialty ladies' shop, started in 1919.  Lillian Montaldo, with her sister Nelle, opened the stores, with locations throughout North Carolina (Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem), Virginia (Richmond), Ohio (Columbus and Cincinnati), Colorado (Denver and Colorado Springs), Missouri (St. Louis), and Oklahoma (Bartlesville).  They were known for their excellent service and quality.

And that's about all I could find.  

Until I found this short article here, that has more information. But it also has conflicting information.  This article states that Lillian founded the first store with her husband, Raymond, in Kasas in 1918.  In 1923, they opened the second location in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Below is a photo of the Winston location, followed by a short article in the Winston-Salem Journal, dated September 21, 1923.  

 

MONTALDO BRINGS STYLE  TO W-SALEM      
The Latest to be Seen of Fifth Avenue   
 and Broadway Shown Here

  SPACIOUS STORE FILLED

  Nothing Better in City than Montaldo 
With the coming to Winston-Salem of  Montaldo’s perhaps as
never before 5th Avenue for the ultra-fashionable, was
brought to North Carolina.  Not only users of the highest priced
gowns and hats, but a complete line of all styles in medium
priced apparel is carried.  In fact the stock consists of a well
selected variety of ladies ready-to-wear and millinery.

Miss Lillian Montaldo, senior member of the firm, has an office
on 5th Avenue in New York, where she buys not only for her
own stores but for a great number of stores in the middle
west.  Miss Montaldo makes frequent trips to Winston-Salem
and keeps in close personal touch with the desires of her
North Carolina customers and keeps the Winston-Salem store
informed at all times of the very latest styles.  Almost every day
the store receives shipments of the newest patterns and latest
styles in ladies’ ready-to-wear.

With their spacious and attractive show rooms they are well
prepared to advantageously serve the most fastidious.

(Winston-Salem Journal, September 21, 1923)

Lillian Montaldo brought ready-to-wear clothing to areas that didn't have access to it.  Prior to her stores opening, women used patterns -- either making their clothing themselves or hiring a dressmaker.  If you were wealthy, you would travel to larger cities, like New York, for your wardrobe.  She worked out of her office on 5th Avenue in NYC, ordering the newest, freshest fashions for her stores.  This article, by Betsy L. Hendrix, quotes Lillian's nephew, Jack Montaldo:  "She was a dynamic, demanding, and no-nonsense woman.  She had to be."  Lillian's success was during a time when women struggled to have equal footing with men -- Hendrix states it was a "fierce business".

 

1946 Architectural plans for Montaldo's in Charlotte, North Carolina

And Montaldo was fierce.  She advertised in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, as well as other prestigious fashion periodicals.  She wanted her store to be right at the top with other high end retailers.  And to reward that fierceness, she was awarded "Woman of the Year" in 1967 by the fashion industry. 

“Whatever is exceptional in quality and design must be offered to Montaldo’s customers.”

Lillian Montaldo 

Lillian died at the age of 95.  The Montaldo's chain closed in 1995.

Montaldo's, Durham, NC

We have a couple of pieces in our Etsy shop that were sold at Montaldo's.  First, below is a heavy silk and wool blend dress from the 1960s.  It looks so simple, but details reveal quality -- the back zipper is offset and hidden within a seam, pockets are hidden in the front seams, and the lining is hot pink.  Available here. Second, is a lustrous green velvet hat with a hot pink velvet rose.  The overall design and quality is top notch -- down to the beautiful sheen of the velvet and straight, even stitching on the brim.  Available here.

The Skinny: Slovenly Peter

When I was little, I used to love going to the public library. (I still do, but that's beside the point.) In the children's room, they had a big yellow ferris wheel with books in all of the cars, and my favorite thing was to make it spin and then pick a book at random. This is how I ended up with Slovenly Peter.

I have always loved Mother Goose and fairy tales, and this book, at first glance, looked like more of the same. Then, I found this picture:

In case you couldn't tell what is happening, a scary man is cutting off a little boy's thumbs with giant scissors. Here is the actual rhyme:
The door flew open, in he ran
The great, long, red-legged scissor-man.
Oh! children, see! the tailor's come
And caught out little Suck-A-Thumb.
Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out "Oh! Oh! Oh!"
Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast,
That both his thumbs are off at last.

The book was originally published in Germany in 1845 by Heinrich Hoffman, although the first printing was under "Anonymous." The title Der Struwwelpeter actually means "Shaggy Peter," in reference to a rhyme about a disgustingly filthy boy with wild hair and creepily long, grimy fingernails.

The entire book is a collection of rhymes about bad children and unlucky animals, with an implied moral to each--basically a combination of Aesop's Fables and the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books (on a side note, I happen to collect fables, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, and Slovenly Peter whenever I can...). Like Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's adventures, the stories caution children against bad behavior, but unfortunately, Hoffman's children always learn their lesson the hard (and irreversible way). Like Aesop's tales, these stories absolutely allow bad things to happen to the protagonist. Aesop drowns a greedy dog. Hoffman has a scary man maim a thumb-sucking child.

In "Cruel Frederick," a boy kills birds, maims a kitten, and beats his dog. The dog, however, has the last laugh--he bites Frederick, who gets an infection, and the dog is allowed to take his place at supper and eat fine pies. In "The Story of Augustus Who Would Not Have Any Soup," Augustus refuses to eat what his mother has cooked for him for five straight days, and dies of starvation and stubbornness. "The Story of Flying Robert" tells of a boy who will not stay inside on a stormy day, but insists that walking with his umbrella is better than being good and playing with his toys. A strong gust of wind picks him up and blows him away, never to be seen again. Of course, we know what happened to Conrad, who sucked his thumb (see above), but there is also "The Dreadful Story of Harriet and the Matches." Can you guess what happened to Harriet?

The Skinny -- Winter Coat Fashion of 1935

So, we bought Seventeen magazines from the 1970s, as I shared with you a few weeks ago.  But we also bought a stack of Ladies' Home Journal magazines from the 1930s at the same time.  In the October 1935 issue, I was struck by their fashion spread with winter coats.  

Of course, I was.  We are bleeding hearts when it comes to vintage coats.  We buy them whenever we find them abandoned in a thrift store or at an estate sale.  People have even just given us their vintage coats they don't want anymore; they know we will love them unconditionally.  One of us Blackbirds (who shall remain nameless, ahem...) has a collection of coats.  She specializes in Persian lamb coats, but loves them all in their turns.

I know she will appreciate this post -- and that she will try them all on in her mind.  The text included is by Julia Coburn, and the photographs are by Fowler-Bagby.  I hope you enjoy a trip back to the fall of 1935!

The Question of Color for Your Winter Coat

It's perfectly true that a black winter coat is the most practical thing you can have.  No matching problem on accessories, and a great choice of colors in dresses, if you don't want all black.

Black is distinguished; it is sophisticated and it can be young, like the coat on the left.  A smooth soft fabric, buttoned down the front, with a turn-down collar of Persian lamb, and a soft flare to its skirt.  But would you like to try your hand with color?

Brown is, of course, the first thing you think of in the way of color, the time-honored alternate for black.  Nice with green dresses, gold dresses, rusty reds, as well as matching brown.  Beautiful with beaver or mink collar, for an all-brown coat.  The one at the right on the opposite page (photo below) uses cross fox with all its varied tones, to lend interest to the coat.  Long-haired furs are very fashionable -- the favorite silver fox, cross fox, light foxes, and very light-colored lynx and wolf, giving contrast to deep winter shades. 

In the brown coat note the tiny flecks of color in the brown, like pin dots.  They are made by colored mohair woven into the fabric.  The coat fabrics have interesting weaves this fall.  Note the sleeve fullness, coming from the back; the way the coat wraps way over to the side, held by a belt of the fabric; and the easy flare to the skirt, worn about two inches shorter than last year.  All these are new fashion points to consider when you buy a winter coat, if you want it to look really new.

If you're bored with brown, look at the gorgeous copper shade on the girl who is stepping up.  Nobody could possibly mistake that for last year's coat.  First its color, which blends beautifully with brown accessories and yet in itself is so much more exciting.  Can't you imagine it with deep auburn hair?  Think of a gray dress with it, matching the fox.  Or almost any shade of green.  Or a pinky beige.  Now look at its other points of newness: The slightly bloused back; the collar of fox mounted on fabric, adjustable, and giving a becoming softness.  Belted in the fabric, as the brown coat is, and again with a generous lap to the side.  Fortunate you are if you can find brown suede step-in pumps banded in calf in just the copper color of the coat, like those in the picture.  For shoes this year can have interesting color effects, and still be in the best of taste.  Experiment a little with shoe colors too.  Green, green and brown combined, and wine red are some of the interesting new shoe ideas to be found in the better shops.

To show you on of the wonderful new wine reds for this winter, we have chosen the perfectly stunning suit worn by the lady with the dachshund.  This type of suit is definitely a luxury, and for the woman who maintains a varied wardrobe.  The coat is long enough to wear over a frock.  The blouse and lining of the coat are of a wool shell-knit fabric in a shade of blue that looks shimmery because two different tones are used.  The coat and skirt are made of a rough soft woolen, just formal enough for the mushroom collar of beaver.  Note how the coat buttons from below the collar to well below the waistline.  Before long we may be having coats with as many buttons as shirtwaist dresses.  If you want to see a new and perfectly stunning pair of gloves, look at those she is wearing with this suit.  They are of suede, with palms, binding and lacing of the gauntlet cuffs of calf.  This year there are some happy mediums in gloves between stark simplicity and overfussy trimming.  In the case of gloves, as with so many of the things you will buy this fall, it would be wise to go shopping with an open mind.

There is one more exhibit in the coat-color family -- green.  For sports coats, you will find gay, vivid greens, a color that makes vivid contrast for fall's browns.  For the all-purpose winter coat, you will probably be more likely to choose an olive shade, of which there are darker and lighter versions.  The one worn by the girl in the center on this page has kolinsky collar and -- big fashion news -- fur cuffs.  Put together, they form a very convenient muff.  The definite flare in this coat is very important.  The flared coat, if worn short enough, is very young looking.  And you can get one in which the flare is put in at the side seam in such a way that it's a simple operation to have it taken out, if you should tire of it.

With all the new ideas there are in winter coats this year, you certainly owe it to yourself to get one that looks new.

*********************************************************************************

We don't have currently have any coats in the shop from the 1930s, but we do have this amazing fox fur collar coat!

Available here.