On the Jukebox at Dolores Delargo Towers

Objets de désir

Cartier


Bulgari


Chaumet


Dior


Tiffany

"High-end" jewellery that was on display at the recent Paris Couture Fashion Week.

My birthday is in a couple of weeks. Hint. Hint.

Miss Showbusiness

And so farewell to the marvellous Miss Dora Bryan, comedienne, actress, singer and stalwart of British light entertainment for many decades.

Miss Bryan was probably most famous worldwide for her award-winning performance as the harridan mother in Tony Richardson's adaptation of Shelagh Delaney's gritty drama A Taste of Honey. Here's a great clip of Dora in full flood:

However, her showbiz career was hugely varied - from the aforementioned light entertainment of TV shows alongside the likes of Bruce Forsyth, radio episodes with Tony Hancock, parts in Ab Fab and Dinnerladies, and film series such as St Trinians and the Carry Ons, to (remarkably) serious dramas by Ibsen, Pinter, Shaw and Shakespeare.

She was the star of West End musicals such as Show Boat (with Dame Shirley Bassey! - a copy of the soundtrack of which we proudly hold in our collection alongside Dora's eponymously-named first album), Hello, Dolly!, Sondheim's Follies and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. From the latter, here she is singing Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend:

Dora Bryan - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

Dora was adored in the entertainment industry; so much so that that she was afforded a glittering star-studded West End charity fundraising gala in her name back in 2009. She even has an entire exhibition dedicated to her in the local museum close to her adopted Brighton home - and this footage from its launch is possibly the great lady's last public appearance:

Dora Bryan At The Exhibition "Miss Showbusiness – A Celebration!”

Yet again - in what is turning into a bit of a bad week for losing treasured divas, following so closely as her death does after the loss of Stritchy - we mourn the fact that we will never see her like again. RIP, another important lady in our lives...

Dora May Broadbent OBE, known as Dora Bryan (7th February 1923 – 23rd July 2014)

Dora Bryan, Miss Showbusiness – A Celebration! runs at The Grange Art Gallery & Museum, Rottingdean, East Sussex until April 2015.

Never alone

[with Rosie Clooney]

She collected gay icons...


[with Agnes Moorehead]


[with the Tilton sisters, the King sisters, Jo Stafford and Peggy Lee]

...and gays!


[with former "fiance" William Eythe]


[with husband - and gay porn star - Jack Wrangler]


[with Charles Pierce]

Dear Margaret Whiting would have been 90 years old today.

More of Miss Whiting over at Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle - here, here and here

Here's to the Lady Who Lunched

“I find it easier to abstain than do a little bit of anything. I’m not a ‘little bit’ kind of dame. I want it all, whatever I do.”

“I don’t think there’s any thrill in the world like doing work you’re good at.”

“I never found anyone who could look after me as well as I could look after myself.”

“I have not had any of that surgical stuff. I am too curious to find out exactly how I progress every day of my life naturally. That is what fascinates me.”

“I could have made a lot of money doing 'Golden Girls,' and I would have been good. But the image of it! And for me to work with Betty White every day would be like taking cyanide.”

"These performers that go on about their technique and craft - oh, puleeze! How boring! I don't know what 'technique' means. But I do know what experience is."

“I’ve looked my worst, I’ve seen myself photographed badly, goodly, whatever. I’m not afraid of anything like that any more. That’s dumb, to be afraid of that. ‘Ohh, no make-up! Wait, my hair!’ Please. You know what I mean? I’m not scared of that any more in life.”

“I am not influenced by other human beings. But I am inspired.”



RIP one of the most incredible, most energetic, most inspiring women in the business we call "show" - Elaine Stritch!

We are very sad indeed.

Elaine Stritch - Ladies Who Lunch

Elaine Stritch (2nd February 1925 - 17th July 2014)

Une étoile qui explose dans le ciel

Folies Bergère costumes by Erté




Clare Luce in one of Mistinguett's outfits

"In spite of the conventions of the time, a woman of spirit could easily make an interesting life for herself if she did not waste too much time visiting, attending fittings at her dressmakers, or engaging in love affairs.

"These demi-mondaines loved making theatrical entrances... in very light dresses standing out clearly from the dark suits of their admirers massed behind them and over whom they towered with their plumed hats or lofty sprays of feathers. If every head did not turn on recognising her flourishing soprano laugh, her entrance had failed.

"This is the moment when the Champs Élysées, from the Place de la Concord to the Étoile, and especially around the Rond-Point, gradually awaken[ed] to a night life quite different to the daytime."

- extracts from La Belle Époque: An Essay by Philip Jullian.

In 1895, at the height of La Belle Époque, a young Jeanne Bourgeois made her début as Mistinguett at the Casino de Paris - and the legendary era of the Parisian Folies began in earnest.

Facts about Mistinguett:

• At the pinnacle of her fame she was the highest paid female entertainer in the world.
• It was she who first popularised the "showgirl look" of massive feather headdresses, and the art of entering her stage down a glittering staircase - a look upon which many early Hollywood musical numbers by Busby Berkeley relied heavily for their impact.
• Her early cabaret partner (and lover) went on to eclipse her fame when he landed parts in Hollywood - Maurice Chevalier.
• She became notorious worldwide when, during argument with her American dancing partner Earl Leslie, she shot at him twice but missed him both times.
• Her signature song Mon Homme was destined to become a torch song standard when it was given English lyrics and became My Man, a hit for Fanny Brice that was immortalised by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.
• Mistinguett died, aged 80, in 1956.

"There have been greater comediennes, greater singers, greater dancers - but all in a single package, there has been only one Mistinguett. Complete shows were built around her, she would carry an entire revue on her lovely shoulders, the spirit of the whole evening. Truly, there is no one like her now - and if another great personality like hers should come along, she would be a star exploding across the sky. - Maurice Chevalier.

Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

Mistinguett on Wikipedia

Couture woman

“I always say that beauty is difference and Conchita has shown us all that she is unstoppable. And she looks great in couture; she is a real couture woman.” - Jean-Paul Gaultier

Conchita Wurst makes her catwalk début

The years have been fairly kind

Soft Cell - Youth [Old Grey Whistle Test, 1982]

Youth has gone
I heard you say
It doesn't matter
Anyway

Don't hide the photos
Or turn off the lights
I'm quite sure we've both seen
Funnier sights

Youth
Sleep in a deep deep deep
Beauty is skin deep

Youth has gone
Though we're still young
It's hard I know to believe
That I was somebody's son

The memories
Of what you once were
The memories of what
We both were

Youth
Sleep in a deep deep deep
Beauty is skin deep

Youth has gone
Though don't think
I don't cry
We let ourselves slip

And now
I ask myself why
I'm on my own
And don't think I really mind

When after all
The years have been fairly kind
Youth
Sleep in a deep deep deep

Beauty is skin deep
Sleep in a deep deep deep
Beauty is skin deep
Youth... Youth... Sleep!

Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond (born 9th July 1957)

Binkie

From the West End Theatre History site:

Hugh Beaumont, famously known as Binkie Beaumont, was one of the most powerful West End theatre managers of his, or any other, generation.

As co-founder and managing director of play producers H.M. Tennent Ltd, he controlled much of the West End for forty years. He was famously very publicity shy, avoiding his picture being in the papers and leaving scant details about his parents, upbringing, education or even his real name.

He worked out of a small office above the Gielgud Theatre (then the Globe Theatre) on Shaftesbury Avenue and at one time was running a staggering fourteen productions at the same time in London. From 1936 to 1973 the company produced over 400 plays, musicals and revues, covering every aspect of British theatre from big musicals such as My Fair Lady to the edgy new work of Joe Orton.

He touched the lives of many of the most famous writers and actors of the Twentieth Century, forming close working relationships with people such as Noel Coward, Terence Rattigan, Emlyn Williams, Cecil Beaton, John Gielgud, Vivien Leigh, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and Edith Evans.

Thought for the day - not many people these days are known as "Binkie".

Which is a shame.

Incidentally, the actress on the puppet-master's stage is Miss Angela Baddeley (later world-famous as "Mrs Bridges" in Upstairs Downstairs), whose 110th birthday it would have been today...

A word from our sponsor

...a woman's work is never done!

[I wish our task of cleaning this new flat were so ably assisted...]