Now, Voyager (1942) Dir. Irving Rapper

Norma Shearer, 1939

MYSPACE 2006.

Propaganda

Hanka Ordonówna (Szpieg w masce)—no propaganda submitted

Norma Shearer (Marie Antoinette, The Women)— First Jewish woman to win an Oscar for her acting!! She pioneered stronger, more independent and complicated roles for women onscreen. One film historian described her as "the exemplar of sophisticated modern womanhood and ... the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen."

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Hanka Ordonówna:

Norma Shearer:

She got into showbiz on a technicality, there was a line of 60 girls to pick from, the studio needed 8 and she was second from last. She coughed loudly and then stood up and grinned when the casting director looked over at her, and he let her in because it made him laugh. After that there was several years of hard work before she landed her first movie. Where she had been repeatedly put down for her face in silent film, he was praised for her voice when the talkies first came about. She was most in her element in the pre-code era, when she played the strong, graceful, self-sufficient type of woman and she won the academy award for best actress in The Divorcee in 1930. She directly competed with greats like Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford for the rest of the 30s.

She just epitomizes Old Hollywood to me and seems criminally underrated these days

Short-haired, modern woman, pre-code queen

someone call the fire department because this woman is H-O-T HOT!! Three chilis and a warning label hot!! Ever-burning passion HOT!!! But also glam and elegant and gorgeous (the side profile portrait is the most beautiful picture of any person ever)... she has the range

“Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of Their Own”

Nina Leen, Life, Dec 11, 1944

Maurice Goldberg ~ Olive Thomas (A camera study). Theatre Magazine vol. 29, Jan–June 1919 | src internet archive

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A Summer Place, Delmer Daves, 1959.

very late 50s early 60s movies are some of the most fascinating historical texts on earth i stg. like they can finally talk almost explicitly about sex, and they’ve finally thrown out the pair of twin beds for a normal queen or whatever, and they can talk about heterosexuality (inherently implies homosexuality)(like in auntie mame). they’re ALMOST there. you can literally feel the film industry grasping and clawing it’s way out of the hays era with every successive movie. it’s pretty incredible actually. and if you really want to feel that exertion just pick a couple of movies from various points in the decade and watch them in chronological order and the change is so astounding. can you imagine being there for that. can you imagine living through 40s movies and suddenly after wwii, the studios start collapsing and a huge tonal shift happens, and things get darker and grimmer and suddenly movies are talking about racism and women’s postwar discontent. and then oh my god it’s 1952 and censorship is suddenly kind of up in the air for the first time but you can’t even focus on that because marlon brando just swaggered onto your silver screen in his sweaty tee, chewing with his mouth open, and you see blanche get raped. and then immediately after that, deborah kerr is lying on top of burt lancaster and really really making out with him like they might as well have been having real sex up there. and don’t look now but dorothy dandridge was just nominated for an leading oscar!!!! what!!!! and all the girls are crazy for sidney poitier and harry belafonte ETC ETC ETC ETC until like the mid 60s when the whole everything is just completely utterly unrecognizable

loveeee gathering information

They should invent a brain that lets you sleep

BETTE DAVIS as Julie Marsden in JEZEBEL — dir. William Wyler (1938)