I love old Hollywood movies. Summer is a wonderful time to watch old black and white movies - deep in the afternoon, when it's too hot and humid to be outdoors, or, at twilight, when the sky is that lapis blue colour, and you can hear the stillness of the night. Whether you're alone in front of a big screen television, or stretched out on the floor of a Summer cottage with your siblings and cousins, and all of your friends, those old movies are pure entertainment.
From the moment I saw this photograph of the yellow rose up on the "big screen" (my computer), I thought of nothing else but an old Hollywood movie. It is one of the Gold Badge Floribunda roses growing on my Toronto balcony this Summer. I've taken many photographs of those yellow roses, and this image is my favourite. There is something about the warm, buttery yellow, melting into the softer yellow, the deep green and palest blue that is reminiscent of the late 1940's and 50's colour palette.
This is the rose that would be growing alongside an arching white trellis, just as Cary Grant would stroll by, tip the brim of his hat, wink, and say,"Afternoon, Rose", to the innkeeper's intelligent, self confident daughter. This is the rose that would be snipped from a New York penthouse balcony garden, and placed in a crystal vase on the piano - the one Frank Sinatra, or Bing Crosby would lean against, while entertaining cocktail party guests.
Which got me thinking...if I were a Casting Director, who would play the part of this rose? Even in a checked jacket, Lauren Bacall is smouldering. This rose is cooler. Rita Hayworth's glorious curls of red hair would have to be sacrificed. Even with a bonnet of roses 'round her head, she's not quite the type. Ingrid Bergman, has the strength of character, and needs a lightness of being.
What about sunny Doris Day? In my Dad's words whenever he'd walk past one of her "helpless female" movies on TV, "Gormless!" Katharine Helpburn could portray this rose. No? She's more the full, multi-layered, wine red, or fiery orange rose. The lovely Donna Reed, who played Jimmy Stewart's wife, in It's a Wonderful Life? Type cast, as the pretty, soft pink wild rose.
Casting call for a classic beauty: one who is sophisticated, yet enjoys the simple goodness in life; one who is elegant, refined and kind; one who possesses - what's the word - grace...
Grace Kelly, also known to the world as Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco.
Grace Kelly was born November 12, 1929 in Philadelphia. Her father, "Jack" Kelly made millions in the brick business. He was a three time Olympic Gold Medalist on the US Rowing Team, and her mother was the first coach of the women's athletic teams at the University of Pennsylvania. With those genes, you'd think she too would have been an Olympic athlete. Her uncles led her astray. Walter Kelly worked in Vaudeville, and George Kelly was a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright.
Her first big movie role was playing Gary Cooper's young wife, in High Noon (1952). The following year, she received an Academy Award nomination, and a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress in Mogambo, starring Clark Gable and Ava Gardener. While filming in Kenya, she had an affair with Gable, and was later quoted as saying, "What else is there to do if you're alone in a tent in Africa with Clark Gable?"
Kelly turned down the chance to work with Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, so that she could work with Director, Alfred Hitchcock. She made three films with Hitchcock - Rear Window (1954), Dial M for Murder (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955) with Cary Grant.
Somehow, she found time to squeeze in The Country Girl (also 1954), for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, playing the role of the neglected wife of an alcoholic. A year later, she was in Cannes with the US delegation, and met Monaco's Prince Rainier III. In 1956, her last film, High Society, the musical comedy remake of The Philadelphia Story, starring Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby (what did I tell you?) was released to the world. It was her last movie.
April 19, 1956 Grace Kelly became Princess Grace, the Princess Consort. Her films were banned in Monaco. The royal couple had three children, Caroline, Albert and Stephanie.
It was Stephanie who was with her in the car, that fateful day in September 1982, when Princess Grace suffered a stroke, while driving along the winding cliffs of France's cote d'Azur. She lost control of the car, and it plunged down an embankment. She was in a coma for 24 hours, and died. She was only 52.
Photos Afternoon, Rose copyright: Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Inc.
What an amazing commentary Ruth! Enjoyed ever second of it. I'll never look at roses the same way again. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing commentary Ruth! Enjoyed ever second of it. I'll never look at roses the same way again. ;-)
ReplyDelete