The Jean Harlow Blogathon Day Two!
Okay kids, day two of the Jean Harlow blogathon is here and I am thrilled to present another lineup of some simply terrific contributions! The photos presented are particularly beautiful and I am sure that every Harlow fan is going to have a ball pouring over them.
Here we go with today’s lineup!
***
Clarosureaux
Kevin at Clarosureaux is back again today with more of his lovely colorized images of Harlow, this time from her beloved 1932 pre-code Red Headed Woman. He also includes a few film reviews from the press that are a kick to read:
Lucius Beebe
New York Herald Tribune
All this viciousness, and a dose of gratuitous snideness to boot, is transferred to the screen version of Red-Headed Woman, which was presented to a generously admiring audience yesterday at the Capitol as a fast and at time hilarious satirical comedy… Whether the pleasure of the first audience of this picture was derived from appreciation of Miss Harlow’s satirical characterization of a feminine type, or from the belief that she is the hottest number since Helen of Troy started her career of firing topless towers, was difficult to determine. That it enjoyed the film vastly was patent.
***
Harlean Heyday
Lovely Riika runs the Harlean Heyday blog, a site dedicated to vintage fashion, classic lifestyle and, of course, classic movies. She’s going to be posting a few Harlow pieces throughout the week and explains her fascination with Harlow’s fashion in the post “High Glam a la Harlow”:
This post is all about gorgeous gowns, flamboyant feathers, high glamour and high drama! “You have to have faith in your clothes, just as you have to have faith in yourself, to be successful in dressing,” Jean told Modern Screen magazine in 1933.
When one thinks of the Jean Harlow look, what comes to mind first is her iconic look in the George Cukor directed movie Dinner at Eight (1933). To this day it still largely defines the quintessential Harlow look. All of those long, sweeping, bias-cut white gowns created by MGM costume designer Adrian highlight her every curve and stunning silhouette. They are an essential element of the character of Kitty Packard. “Even Jean’s clothes show emotions. They live and breathe with her,” the designer said.
***
Immortal Ephemera
Cliff Alperti at Immortal Ephemera is really hitting on all six cylinders for this Blogathon. Today in his “Happy Hundredth to TCM Star of the Month: Jean Harlow” he outlined TCM’s outlined his plans for the festivities and unveiled a gorgeous vintage movie card gallery. Do yourself a favor and swing by to be visually dazzled:
Then there are the collectibles, and hopefully that’s where I come in! Below I’ve gathered over 60 images of the Jean Harlow vintage movie cards and collectibles I’ve seen come through here over the years. Enjoy the gallery, I’ll try to add to it as more items make their way through. It looks like I currently have a dozen of these beauties left, at least in my eBay Store. I wonder if they’ll last the month?
I’m also going to be taking a look at one of Harlow’s movies sometime this week–I actually haven’t decided which one yet, but I do have it narrowed down! In the meantime I have written about a couple of Harlow films in the past, The Beast of the City (1932) and more recently China Seas (1935), feel free to check those out.
Also, time permitting, I’m going to put my NewspaperArchive.com subscription to work with hopes of turning up some interesting Harlow items from her own time. Certainly there will be nothing new with a star so huge, but maybe I’ll come across something interesting and at least a little out of the ordinary. We’ll see…
***
Jungle Red
Jungle Red has posted a fun little excerpt from a 1931 Photoplay interview with Jean Harlow. It’s a total kick to read the flowery fan magazine prose of yesteryear, such as:
“Yes, young men, your worst fears are turue! Miss Harlow (Jeanie to me) is calculated to knock you over with an eyelash at fifty paces. Both in circumference, diameter and altitude she is altogether eminently satisfavtory. Oh her right ankle (and what an ankle it is, not to mention the left) she wars a silver anklet, or “shackle d’amour” as we French have it….”
***
Midnight Palace
Gary Sweeney at Midnight Palace has graced us with this gorgeous profile of the Baby. The Midnight Palace is generally regarded as one of the most thorough, handsomely researched classic film sites out there and his words about Jean reflect that same integrity that is the undercurrent of his work:
Jean Harlow was the face and personality of a generation. On-screen, she usually portrayed the kind of woman who could make a man fall to his knees. She had a devil may care attitude like the rebellious flappers who kicked a hole in the 1920s. Her platinum blond hair, infectious laugh, and blatant sex appeal made her a triple threat – a triple threat that left an irrefutable mark on Hollywood in the wake of her sudden death at the young age of 26…
***
The Clark Gable Project
Michelle Morgan is the author behind Marilyn Monroe: Undisclosed and currently in the middle of a Clark Gable project entitled The Ties That Bind. Given Harlow’s onscreen partnership with Gable, it was only natural that Michelle send The Blogathon this sweet little post about Harlow:
Jean was Gable’s co-star on many occasions and when she passed away Gable was too upset to even give a statement to the press. It has been said that his wife, Carole Lombard, told Clark that if she died, he was to make sure her funeral didn’t turn into the ‘spectacle’ that she felt Jean’s was. When Carole did pass several years later, her husband made sure that it was the quiet, respectful funeral she had wanted…
***
The Platinum Page
Ever wonder what Jean would have looked like in the flesh? Harlow fan extraordinaire Lisa Burks over at the Platinum Page is back again today with “Jean Harlow in Living Color”. She writes:
Back in the day when The Platinum Page was just getting started the only photos I had to add to the site were in black and white, just like Jean’s films. Who among us didn’t watch her on screen and wonder what she looked like in real life?
Early on I met the very talented artist and fellow Harlow fan Victor Mascaro who felt the same way, and had begun to colorize her images…
The Kitty Packard Pictorial 
What kills me about people who make Gods out of old movie stars is that they forget they were human. Jean Harlow was not the saint that people paint of her and the so called experts even missed the beat of their interviews with Harlow’s friends. They know who they are. I also don’t understand people that live in her houses who let these “Hollywood experts” in. Very creepy. The past is gone and should stay there.
Thanks for sharing– always great to get all points of view!! Funny you should say that about ‘forgetting old movie stars are human’, because for me what was wonderful about spending the day in Harlow’s former residence is that it brought home exactly how human she was! Flesh and blood and flawed and every bit as imperfect as she was marvelous.
And is it really a healthy thing to allow the past to be ‘gone’? I mean … if you don’t make a conscious effort to remember it, how can you learn from it? (And we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot, aren’t we, if we don’t learn from it!)