1957 Modern Screen: The Ads

The May 1957 Modern Screen is full of ads that give us a glimpse into the fashions of the time. Max Factor's Roman Pink lipstick ad had a real life 'Barbie doll' gal. Look at those heavily made up eyes in a side long glance, the dark arched brows, the bright lips. She is such a "doll" that it brought back to life an ancient Roman sculpture. His eyes are pretty creepy though.

 

'Modern Screen Beauty' suggests trying a new hair color, like Arlene Dahl's. Every one's doing it after all. "When you've bleached your hair to a completely pale blond shade you can test your secret yearning to be a redhead by using a temporary color."

Then you had to keep that hair clean and in place.

I remember Mom putting her hair up in pin curls.

Solitair "moisture makeup" contained "Vita-Lite" to restore moisture. Use it and look like those co-eds.

 

Those 'detergent hands' were a dead giveaway that you were a working gal. Working in the home that is. 

To be attractive you also had to smell good. 

 

 Hope chests to store up all those things you needed at marriage...

 Movies out included 12 Angry Men with Peter Fonda. A classic.

 

"Summer wardrobe" necessities--slips and girdles and granny pants.

The magazine includes an ad for the novel Raintree County by Ross Lockridge. The only reason for this ad was that the movie based on the book was released in 1957. 

I have read the book. I really liked the book. But I doubt many 1957 housewives would have been able to get through the book. It is over a thousand pages long. It is told in a series of flashbacks. The language is gorgeous in the style of Thomas Wolfe, but more stream-of-consciousness. It draws from mythology and is full of symbolism. 

The movie version of Raintree County starred Elizabeth Taylor.

It isn't just the American myth that Mr. Lockridge sets out to re-create; it's the myth that governs Life itself. Raintree County isn't simply the secret source of American life; it is also the Garden of Eden, and the raintree is the Tree of Knowledge whose golden boughs shed fertilizing blossoms on the land. Raintree County is nothing short of a primer of human Kultur: it refurbishes the Bible legends and the ancient myths, popularizes Freud's Totem and Taboo and Frazer's Golden Bough, delves into literature, history, ethics, psychiatry, religion. Every character, every event, is loaded with a portentous symbolism. 

Read the full 1948 Atlantic Magazine review at: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/raintree.htm

http://www.raintreecounty.com

http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/classrev/raintree.htm

http://www.collectorsworldonline.com/raintree-county.html

1957 Modern Screen: The Stars

What was happening in Hollywood in May, 1957? Quite a bit...Parties and marriages, babies and deaths.

Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher married in Acapulco, commanding four pages of pictures of partying. There were 22 cases of champaign and 15,000 white gladiolas flown in by Eddie. 

Luella Parson's "in hollywood" covered a big party thrown for Merle Oberon's birthday.

Prince Rainier and Grace Kelley celebrated the birth of Princess Caroline by publishing her first photographs.

Bogie had died that January. "The last words he spoke were to his adored Betty--"Good-by, kid." So wrote Louella Parsons in her story about Humphrey Bogart's last days. She goes on to say, "Let me repeat, no scriptwriter could have conceived for Bogey the role he played in the last thirty days of his life."

 

Deborah Kerr's challenge was "can an actress be a good mother?" The article relates Kerr's considering leaving her career for her daughter's well being. Luckily, her husband had filled her loneliness so "now she's learned to give to the very little ones the same fulfillment that a gentle man had brought her when she showed her a love without fear. And she's teaching her children what she herself had never known--how to be alone, and know that you are not alone."

Kerr's then current movie was Hello, Mr. Allison.

Ingrid Bergman was notorious for having a baby before she was married. The only headline this would merit these days would be "congratulations".

Judy Spreckels shared this drawing she made when she met Elvis. It was for sale at the Elvis Presley Fan Club.

Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were pregnant. They had married June, 1956.

 "The receptionist was very surprised...Mr. Miller...wasn't grinning. Not that he looked sad, or anything...Marilyn came out. Marilyn was crying. You could see the tears streaming down her cheeks and you could see that her lips were trembling, trembling hard."
"No baby, huh?"
"Sure she'd going to have a baby."
"But she was crying!"

Marilyn had two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy during her marriage to Arthur.

Dennis Hopper's first "complete story" told of his childhood on a farm outside of Dodge with a pig named Porcupine and Puddles the dog. His family moved to Kansas City and then to San Diego where he discovered art. He was star-struck and at age eighteen was in Giant.

"His family disapproved. All this talk about acting and poetry and painting; these things would never bring in any money. They thought, and they told him, that he was going to turn into a bum."

We really liked bad boys. First they called Hopper a rebel. Now we read about Nick Adams was "wild" before he starred in No Time For Sargents. 

Back in Jersey City Adams was Nicholas Adamshock, hanging around pool rooms, hitch-hiking, chasing girls, throwing snowballs at strangers, sneaking into movies--all with his homies. They knocked off a man's hat, for crying out loud, and that's when he discovered they were juvenile delinquents. He flirted with greater danger until he auditioned for a play. Jack Palance got him the part. In 1952 he hitch-hiked to Hollywood where he was in Mr. Roberts, Picnic, and other films.

In 1968 he died of a drug overdose, but some call his death an unsolved mystery. No one knows how he obtained the drugs. His death certificate was changed three times, from homicide to suicide to undetermined.

  

In 1957 the current Hollywood mystery was "what happened to Jean Peters". One day she just dropped out. The long article relates friends glimpses of her here and there. Her New York Times obituary of 2000 relates she had secretly married Howard Hughes!