Silent Visions

 Happy Monday Sugars!! I hope your weekend was grand. I'm still in the silent mood of my weekend, hence the inspiration of this. I know it's not for everyone, but I don't mind. I first fell in love with the belles of the silent screen as a young teenager performing on the stage. My instructor liked us to know the history of performing and those who had done so before and from the moment I saw them, I was mesmerised. Their ability to reach out and steal the attention of their audiences in an instant, they broke the mold and decided ordinary was just not good enough..not to mention their utter style and originality in appearance. They are remarkable women.

Have a great Monday!!
xxx

Gloria Swanson, an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the Best Actress category.

"I have gone through a long apprenticeship. I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gateman to the highest executive will know it."-Swanson in 1922.

"I won't be a second anyone!"-Swanson to Mack Sennett after he said he could make a second Mable Normand out of her.

My favorite, Theda Bara, The Vamp of the Silent Era and cinema’s first femme fatale. She created and prolonged the 1900 archetype of the demonic man-eater who drove the world to its demise. I read on several occasions that Luisa Casati was no stranger to forming this vamp persona which she conveyed in her looks as well as in her penchant for danger and the occult.

 

"To be good is to be forgotten. I'm going to be so bad I'll always be remembered"! Theda Bara

'The reason good women like me and flock to my pictures is that there is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman'. Theda Bara.

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Interview with Gloria Swanson from 1980

The only known audio clip of Theda Bara 1936