HOLLYWOOD HEYDAY

24 August 2009

While attempting to find an ebook version of "I Jerry, Take Thee, Joan" - the novel on which MERRILY WE GO TO HELL was based - we stumbled across the wonderful HOLLYWOOD HEYDAY blog. It has been an unfulfilled ambition here at The Old Dark Arthouse to begin exploring 1930s movie magazines, a proposition far too expensive at the moment to undertake. (Take a look at what individual issues of 1930s magazines go for on eBay!) But thanks to the internets, we can share in this blogger's collection. It fits in perfectly with our current project of absorbing as much 30s-iana as possible over the next few months.

Each post of HOLLYWOOD HEYDAY reprints a day's news and gossip blurbs from the fan magazines of the era. The blog began with items from January 1, 1932, and today's post is up to April 3, 1932. It's a wonderful project, which lets one partake of the minutiae of 1930s pop culture up close.

One fact becomes immediately apparent when perusing old film magazines, which is that stars of previous generations who are most familiar today are only those whose reputations survived, and weren't necessarily the most popular in their times, or even the most talented.

It's wonderful to see Ginger Rogers mentioned in one entry, then Bebe Daniels in the next, with equal attention. It gives perspective to the times. Now we're as fond of Ginger Rogers as anyone, but we have an equal fondness for Bebe Daniels, whose star is quite unfairly obscure. She had a kind of sexy self-assurance which fit the Pre-Code era nicely, and was quite popular in the 6 or 7 years before Ginger's ascension.

We're thinking also here of Wheeler & Woolsey, whom we're starting to regard almost as fondly as The Marx Bros.