Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942)

Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942) was among the first Hollywood screen beauties who never aged.. Having lived for for 33 years, she will always be remembered as a young and vibrant beauty and screen icon, immortalized by her movies and photos.

Bette Davis (1908 - 1982), ca late 1930s

Colorized a low resolution photo of screen legend Bette Davis (1908 - 1982). The original shows her with a dark hair, but I colorized her hair blonde.

Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942), ca 1932

Colorized a photo of Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942) recognized the Queen of Screwball Comedy, a screen legend and fashion icon. She took the crown from Greta Garbo as the highest paid actress in Hollywood during the late 1930s. Of all the screen goddesses that the "King" of Hollywood" Clark Gable worked with on screen (and with whom he never failed to have an affair), it was the blonde blue-eyed Carole he married in 1938.   That may say a lot about his taste in women, but no matter, Clark continued to have off screen romances with her leading ladies, notably Joan Crawford, which Carole knew but did not make a fuss as she understood her man. When news of Carole's death from the crash of her TWA flight reached him, Clark Gable was in bed with Joan, who consoled and comforted a genuinely devastated Gable.

Loretta Young, photo colorized by Alex Lim

Colorized a vintage photo of Hollywood actress and 1947 Oscar best actress winner Loretta Young (1913 - 2000) for her role in The Farmer's Daughter. She may well be best known for having fathered Clark Gable's daughter, Judith Lewis Young.  The two had affair as romantic leads of the 1935 Call of the Wild.  Young was a beautiful siren at 22 and Gable was already a dashing screen idol at 34 already married to another woman (Maria Langham). 

The affair and the resulting love child was kept under raps as Loretta did not want to damage her career or Gable's. Twentieth Century Pictures learned about the pregnancy and pressured her for an abortion. Young, a devout Catholic, did not accede and the child, born on Nov 6, 1935  was passed off as adopted. But few in Hollywood were fooled as Judith bore a strong resemblance to Gable, and her true parentage was widely rumored in entertainment circles. 

Joan Crawford, 1955

An older Joan Crawford but still alluring. In 1955, Crawford married the Pepsi-Cola Chairman Chief Executive Officer Alfred Steele.

Joan Crawford, ca mid-late 30s

Another undated photo of the actress, colorized.  Possibly taken mid-late 30s.

Joan Crawford, ca late 1930s

Took a short sabbatical from online posting, thanks in great part to a down PC that took some time to repair. Returning now with a post of a colorized photo of Joan Crawford in a rare find. It is undated but I figure it was taken early 40s. 

Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) colorized from a 1953 photo

Taylor transitioned from child star to adult roles when she turned 18 in 1950, ushering a decade when she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world and a celebrated dramatic actress. Colorized her photo at a time when she made MGM's 1953 film, The Girl Who Had Everything, a remake of the 1931 film A Free Soul. She had recently married British actor Michael Wilding, and was pregnant with her first child and was receiving one of the highest salaries in the industry with a weekly $4,700.

Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990) colorized from a late 1930s photo

Came across a rather different looking Greta Garbo without the deep-set eyes and the artificial eyelashes that have become her signature copied by several a actresses during her time and after. 

Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990) colorized from a promo still for her 1929 silent film "Wild Orchids"

Colorized a photo of Greta Garbo by Ruth Harriet Louise for her 1929 silent film "Wild Orchids" directed by Sidney Franklin and co-starring Nils Asther.

Elizabeth Taylor at 15 in a promotional photo of MGM, 1947

When Taylor turned 15 in 1947, MGM began to cultivate a more mature public image for her by organizing photo shoots and interviews that portrayed her as a "normal" teenager attending parties and going on dates. Film magazines and gossip columnists also began comparing her to older actresses such as Ava Gardner and Lana Turner. Life called her "Hollywood's most accomplished junior actress" for her two film roles that year. In the critically panned Cynthia (1947), she portrayed a frail girl who defies her over-protective parents to go to the prom, and the love interest of a stockbroker's son in the period film Life with Father (1947), opposite William Powell and Irene Dunne.

They were followed by supporting roles as a teenaged "man-stealer" who seduces her peer's date to a high school dance in the musical A Date with Judy (1948), and as a bride in the romantic comedy Julia Misbehaves (1948), which became a commercial success by grossing over $4 million in the box office. Taylor's last adolescent role was as Amy March in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Women (1949). While it did not match the popularity of the previous 1933 film adaptation of Louisa M. Alcott's novel, it was a box-office success. The same year, Time featured Taylor on its cover, and called her the leader among Hollywood's next generation of stars, "a jewel of great price, a true sapphire".

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)

Colorized promo still for the young ElizzabethTaylor for her 1953 movie The Girl Who Had Everything. Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (Feb 27, 1932 – Mar 23, 2011) was a British-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She continued her career successfully into the 1960s, and remained a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend.

Ava Gardner (1922 - 1990) colorized from a 1951 photo

Ava Gardner started as a model and was discovered by MGM, where she was groomed into a glamorous actress regarded as the Most Beautiful Animal in the world in the 50s. After taking bit roles she got a public notice on loan-out to Universal in The Killers (1946). MGM showed her gutsy persona in Mogambo (1953), against a more refined Grace Kelly and an equally earthy Clark Gable. Director George Cukor was so taken by Gardner that he cast the actress in her best and most complex MGM role in Bhowani Junction (1956), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), reflect her own rags-to-riches personal story. She was cast in some of her best parts during the '60s, notably in Seven Days in May and Night of the Iguana (both 1964), but with increasingly fewer roles for an aging beauty, she eventually retired in London, but not before appearing in supporting roles with Sophia Loren in Cassandra Crossing (1976) and with Elizabeth Taylor in the children's fantasy Bluebird (1976).   After apparing in a few TV serious and her last film Regina Roma (1982), Gardner suffered from emphysema through her in smoking habit and an unidentified autoimmune disorder. Two strokes in 1986 left her partially paralyzed and bedridden. Although Gardner could afford her medical expenses, Sinatra, her former husband, wanted to pay for her visit to a specialist in the United States, and she allowed him to make the arrangements for a medically staffed private plane. She suffered a bad fall a week before she died, and she lay on the floor, alone and unable to move until her housekeeper returned. Her last words (to her housekeeper) were reportedly "I'm so tired". She died on January 25, 1990, of pneumonia at the age of 67, at her London home, 34 Ennismore Gardens, where she had lived since 1968. She was buried in the Sunset Memorial Park, Smithfield, North Carolina, next to her siblings and their parents, Jonas (1878–1938) and Molly Gardner (1883–1943). The town of Smithfield now has an Ava Gardner Museum. She was married and divorced three times -- to Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, and Artie Shaw.

Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990) taken ca 1936

Colorized a rare photo showing Greta in a hearty smile with some liberties on her dress. Her last 1939 Hollywood film "Two-Faced Woman" was a critical failure that devastated her to the point that she retired from Hollywood and returned to Sweden. However, she did entertain a comeback, having signed contracts with MGM to do films that never got off, presumably for her own second thoughts about returning to a career that she was disappointed with. Her absence was a welcome relief to several other Hollywood actresses who were after her crown as Queen of Hollywood who was the highest-paid actress during her reign. After the war, it became even more difficult for the aging actress to make a comeback, especially when the likes of Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and other rising stars were making waves in the next decade of Hollywood's Golden Age (1930s - 1960s).

Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990)

Colorizing vintage shots of Hollywood legends is always a pleasure. There are just so few vintage photos of Philippine movie greats with good enough resolution to colorize. But not so with Hollywood greats. Even during the silent pictures of the 1920s and the first talkies of the 30s, screen legends like Myrna Loy, Lilian Gish, Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and Joan Crawford benefitted from excellent b&w photos, thanks to camera artists who were employed as glamour photographers by the studios. Here's one from a 1930 - 31 photo of Greta Garbo. This photo has been overused as a hairstyle sample in beauty salons and online hairstyle resources.

Greta Garbo (1905 - 1990) a Swedish-American film actress during the 1920s and 1930s. Garbo is ranked as fifth on the AFI list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. She became famous with her first feature film “Torrent” (1926), impressing the head of production Irving Thalberg who would shape Garbo’s distinctive image as an enigmatic, often tragic young woman who had lived many lifetimes and suffered in spite of, or perhaps because of, her incredible beauty.

Garbo would make just a handful of movies over a 15-year period, during the 20s and 30s,  regarded as among the shortest for any Hollywood actress but left a legacy that inspired younger actresses to reach or exceed her fame.  Greta Garbo’s impact on the industry and on audiences — was unparalleled while her potent magnetism and allure defy the ravages of time. Only Joan Crawford and Bette Davis would exceed her fame but they lasted far longer in the industry. At the height of her career, she retired and returned to Sweden, disgusted with the studio system, the glitz and blatant artificiality of tinsel town.