Gotta Sing Part One

So here is part one of some of the images out of an adorable book I found at an antique centre called Gotta Sing Gotta Dance A Pictorial History of film Musicals by John Kobal.

Art Deco India & Sri Lanka

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was pleasantly surprised to find on my trip in january to Sri Lanka and India, lots of beautiful old Art Deco Buildings. Sadly a lot of them are in need of restoring to stop them from completely falling apart. Don't get me wrong, I am drawn to the aged look and don't mind a little decay, it often adds charm but some of these need a spruce.

Sprucing aside I often wondered around with my jaw flapping looking up at the gorgeous architecture with glee, often tripping over pot holes and getting curious looks from locals who sometimes looked up too to see what the fuss us about haha.

Unfortunately I didn't get photos of my absolute favs, the huge pair of olden glam apartments titled Moonlight and Sunshine on their doorways in super pretty metal Deco font as we rushed past in a taxi on the way to an art gallery in Mumbai. As well as many others when we were on wheels but these are the ones I managed to capture.

Making Waves

In my experimentation with 30's hairdos I've done a lot of different pincurling techniques and finger waves. I strive to wear these styles everyday. For finger waves involving the common damp hair, gel, comb and clip in waves till dry method. It has yielded some dreamy results but one problem is that you've gotta be prepared to clip it 24 or sometimes up to 48hours in advance for your hair to be fully dry enough to take the clips out. Which is fine if you always know exactly what days you're going out and always have the energy and memory to do it every night. But of course some mornings I find out I'm going out and haven't prepared for it.

Sooooo when pondering this puzzle my mind wound back to images I saw of Heated wave tong How to articles in 30's magazines and advertisements. Though this means you need the time to do it in the morning but some days it will be really helpful when I haven't been able to clip or pin it the night before. So I thought there must be a modern equivalent to achieve the same look and after a bit of research I chose the Vidal Sassoon Hair Waver. It's available in Kmart in Australia for $49, it had good reviews online and has a 2 year warranty. I also saw hairdresser quality ones for $80-$100 in Hairhouse Warehouse but felt I'd start with a cheaper one first as I've never even used one before. The VS one also has different attachments you can pop on like a curling iron so I can wave the top and curl the bottom like a lot of 30's styles. I've only used it once so far and it was pretty nifty but I'll keep experimenting to see what looks I can achieve and get back to you :)


You can find this book on fingerwaving on Amazon, it's been on my wishlist a while! Need to get a copy soon.

**EDIT** I love my electric waver and now use it every single morning!! It may not be as good as pincurling or traditional fingerwaving in terms of achieving the PERFECT 30's do but it's a pretty good tool to get  a very similar look in a much faster timespan, making it more practical for a busy modern day women like myself who has to stay up late doing homework and get up super early and out the door to speed off to uni. Recommended for you hectic deco dollies out there!

Art Deco Buildings

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As I mentioned on my art blog www.snowskinmooncakes.blogspot.com these are some buildings I am in love with. I also saw a bunch in India that I was drooling over in the street and tooks tonnes of photos of, I'll post those here soon!

Tattooed Ladies

From 1880 to the end of the 1930's it was common to see tattooed ladies as an attraction in a travelling side show as it was incredibly taboo and so thus very exciting. Usually seen on a small stage telling fictional stories about themselves explaining how and why they were tattooed. Scantily clad to show off their artwork in the days where women could be arrested for showing off a knee *gasp!*. They were also often tattoo artists themselves.









Even though their acts maybe have been dramatised to make it more entertaining I still feel that they were pioneers, in the long run helping normalise body art on women, traveling all over the world for crowds of people to see and then also having tattoo artists there too for people who were so thrilled by the sight of these ladies they could get their own ink done too. By the 40's people weren't shocked enough by seeing tattoos for it to be as big enough money maker.

Happy Valentines All!

These fantastic vintage valentines images are from the wonderful: http://mothgirlwings.tumblr.com/
Check out her blog it's a really cool. Thanks Moth girl!

Would you be shocked if I changed into something more comfortable?

My favourite actress, Jean Harlow (1911-1937).




Known as the sex symbol of the 30's, it was Jean that originally sparked the term "Blonde Bombshell". She was very talented at playing the sensual magnetic siren and also had quite a knack for sassy comedic acting. She was in many films including :
The Secret Six, The Public Enemy, Iron Man, Platinum Blonde, Goldie, The Beast of the City, Red-headed Woman, Red Dust, Hold Your Man, Dinner at Eight, Bombshell, The Girl from Missouri, Reckless, China Seas, Riff Raff, Wife vs Secretary, Suzi, Libeled Lady ,Personal Property.

Her final movie was Saratoga in which she died of Kidney Failure during filming. Strangely it had to be finished with a body double without showing their face to please her adoring fans who wrote thousands of distaught letters begging the film makers to complete the movie so they could see their beloved Jean one last time. Saratoga became the highest grossing film of 1937 and set all-time house records.

Hard to believe she did so much before she died at 26! And to think that these days kidney failure could be cured, that makes it even more tragic. Also it was rumoured that her mother wouldn't allow doctors to treat her when she was ill as her mum was a Christian Scientist, who don't believe in medicine only prayer, though it was proved to be untrue.

Some interesting facts about Miss Harlow:
Her nickname was The Baby.
She never wore any underwear and always slept in the nude.
First actress to get on the cover of LIFE mag in 1937.
She turned down lead roles in both Freaks (1932) and King Kong (1933)
She was photographed in the nudie at the tender age of 17! By a Hollywood photographer in a park.
She wrote a book in 1934 called "Today is Tonight", which wasn't published untill long after her death in 1965. Anyone read this? I'm quite curious and hope to snag a copy one day.
She'd rub ice on her nipples before a scene to look sexier!
Her fav brand of cigerette: Fatima.
The only colour film of Jean is in the movie Hell's Angels (1930) in an expensive eight-minute two-color Technicolor sequence .
She was Marilyn Monroe's Idol and also they were both in their last films with Clark Gable... spooky!
she held the famous doggie actor Rin Tin Tin in her arms as he died.
She was very superstitious, always wearing her lucky ankle chain on her left leg and a lucky mirror which she looked into before leaving her dressing room, always.
To keep her famous sexy figure she had a strict diet of mostly vegies and salad.
Her real name is Harlean Carpenter, Jean Harlow is her mothers name.
She was marriaged 3 times, the first when she was still a teenager, and she was engaged to actor William Powell when she died, they had been engaged for 2 years but they couldn't marry as MGM wouldn't approve.
On the eve of 1933 April 6th when Prohibition was to be made offically over and booze once again legal on the strike of Midnight, Jean was at a Los Angelos Brewing Co to christen the first truck delivery leaving the brewery and then stayed to party with a factory employees, woohoo!
She was buried in a beautiful translucent gown that she wore on screen in a scene depicting her laying down ill.
she started a trend, fans started to dye their hair platinum blonde to match her famous lightened locks.
Also her pale and shimmering aesthetic started a trend of silky white on white outfits and interiors.