Maude Adams as Duke of Reichstadt in L’Aiglon, c.1900. (via NYPL Digital Library & Bookmice)
Norma had a great love for animals and hated to see them mistreated. One day, when she was still a girl, she encountered a group of boys torturing a squirrel that they had cornered in a maple tree on the Humber River bank where Norma would spend much time relaxing.
The first thing she knew, they had tied a rope around the helpless creature and began to drag it down the road. Tearfully, Norma pleaded with the young tormentors to free the animal, but they merely laughed at her. Norma could not contain herself any longer and before she realized what she was doing she lunged at the little rascals and pounded them with her fists. The boys were stunned at this sudden attack from a girl and they quickly released the squirrel and fled. This apparently, was an early sampling of the grit she was to display, in her quest for theatrical jobs some years later.
Jack Jacobs & Myron Braum, The Films of Norma Shearer
Alexandru Ciucu - Lady vs Gentleman 2013
One more painting before
bed. Alex Kingston and Marlene Dietrich are two of my favorite people ever, so I decided to merge them! I thought, Alex totally has enough spunk to pull off that top hat, so why not. I am not too happy with the face. I used a reference, but I followed it too closely, I think. I should have adapted it more for the pose, but i was sleepy.Also, this could tots be river. Yep.
Marlene Dietrich in ‘Morocco’, photographed by Eugene Robert Richee, 1930.
“Giulietta. I’d wanted for some time to make a film for her. She’s singularly able to express astonishment, dismay, frenetic happiness, the comic somberness of a clown. For me a clownesque talent in an actor is the most precious gift she can have. Giulietta’s the kind of actress who’s very congenial with what I want to do, with my taste.”
- Federico Fellini on his wife Giulietta Masina
my heart
