Innholdsfortegnelse for 2407 i The Australian Women's Weekly Icons

Hayley Mills, the 16-year-old English pixie, was the most popular film actress in Britain last year [1962], according to box-office returns from 2500 theatres. Her appeal was greater than such internationally established stars as Doris Day and Sophia Loren. Now, having reached the very top as a child star in pigtails and jeans, Hayley is about to blossom as a teenager in a role in which she finds romance for the first time. This will be in her next Walt Disney film Cassandra Captures The Castle, which will be made at Britain’s Pinewood Studios about the middle of this year. [Ed’s note: After time of writing, this project was eventually dropped by Disney.] In the meantime, Hayley is having a well-earned rest at her family’s farm at Cowden, in the…

From the outside, four-year-old Barbara Hutton lived a privileged life. And then one morning she discovered her mother’s dead body. The press reported it as suffocation due to mastoiditis but the rumour – one which was compounded when an autopsy wasn’t ordered – was that it was suicide. This tragic event launched Barbara on a lonely path, one she herself saw a glimpse of as a teenager when she wrote in her journal: “I shall be an old maid. Nobody can ever love me. For my money but not for me. I am doomed. I will always be alone.” Barbara was born November 14, 1912, to Franklyn and Edna Hutton. She was the heiress to the Woolworth empire; the booming retail chain her maternal grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth had established.…

Walking backstage among the crowd at Dublin’s prestigious Gate Theatre, Orson Welles spotted the company co-director, Hilton Edwards. Having spent the last couple of months travelling around Ireland trying to make a living as a painter without any success, Orson was broke but had no intention of heading back to the US with his tail between his legs to enrol in college just yet. Taking a cigar out of his pocket, Orson lit it in the hopes it made him look older than his 16 years, then walked up to Hilton with his hand outstretched. “Mr Edwards, I’m Orson Welles and today is your lucky day,” he boldly declared. Orson spent the next few minutes explaining that he was a visiting actor from New York who’d just completed a successful…

Life’s fortunes can spin on a dime, sliding-doors moments of luck or impetuous choices. For young street rat Louis Armstrong, the crack of the pistol he fired into the celebratory air on New Year’s Eve 1912 might have been the shot heard around the music world. Having “borrowed” the .38 handgun belonging to his mother’s lover and joyfully dispatched six blanks as a parade passed by, the urchin was scooped up by the police on the corner of Perdido and Rampart streets, New Orleans, and hauled off to juvenile court for the night. Louis was already a budding musician for half his life, and 18 months with the band in the tough, spartan Colored Waifs Home for Boys helped hone his latent skills to soul-stirring perfection, his first formal education…

In the summer of 1953, Audrey Hepburn, then 24, packed her suitcase and travelled to Paris for a life-altering appointment to meet with a young couturier named Hubert de Givenchy. Audrey had arrived in Paris that July to purchase key pieces for the film Sabrina. She was greeted by a very confused staff at Givenchy. Hubert and his team were anticipating the arrival of a different Ms Hepburn – the actress Katharine Hepburn. They were befuddled by the appearance of the delicate stranger standing before them. Hubert was hard at work preparing for his autumn collection. “I told Audrey that I had very few workers and I needed all hands to help me with my next collection. But she insisted, ‘Please, please there must be something I can try on’.”…

Dolores del Río held the telegram in her hands, steeling herself to turn it over. Sighing, she finally mustered the courage and slowly read the printed message. It was news she had been dreading – her father was dead. As tears rolled down her cheeks, grief-stricken Dolores found her mind racing. Nearing 40, with her career at a standstill and her love life in tatters, the Mexican actress knew she had a decision to make. And the pull of her beloved homeland was tugging at her heartstrings. Days later, her mind clearer, the decision came into focus. “Divorced again, without the figure of my father, and a film where I barely appeared,” she lamented. Dolores knew it was time to stop being a star and become an actress, to step…

The room went quiet as the envelope was opened. At the 1936 Oscars, few categories had such suspense attached to them. “And the winner is ... Bette Davis for Dangerous” the presenter of the Academy Award for Best Actress happily announced. Bette triumphantly strode forward to accept her Oscar. And while the star-studded room applauded, one man was smiling through firmly gritted teeth: studio boss Jack Warner. His star had thumbed her nose at him for years. But tonight she took it one step further. In a sea of ball gowns his “star” player had donned a maid’s outfit for the occasion – a silent protest against the stranglehold the studio system held over their money-making actors. “What she was saying was that the studio system was treating her like…

“I woke up one day a star. It was terrifying. Then I worked hard toward becoming a good actor.” Overnight star Born in New York in 1913, Burt was a tough street kid from a large Irish family. An interest in gymnastics led to him becoming a circus acrobat, which gave him an incredible physique. His first film, 1946’s The Killers (with Ava Gardner), received four Oscar nominations and made him a star. A self-taught actor, he learned the ropes as he went along. Determined to control his own career in Hollywood, and not be a slave to the studio system, two years later Burt set up his own production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. The company produced many of Burt’s most famous films, including Trapeze (1956) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962).…

As a child, Frida Kahlo would often sit with her father in his photography studio just outside of Mexico City and help with the colouration of his photos. Using a fine paintbrush, the intense and intelligent young girl would add reds, pinks and blues to the black and white faces Guillermo Kahlo captured. Guillermo encouraged his daughter’s artistry, but Frida was drawn to science. She wanted to become a doctor. A series of events would prevent her from pursuing medicine, and she would instead rise to prominence to become one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Her tumultuous and passionate life can be traced through the intense images she produced, which were as provocative and transgressive as they were original. She would become known in her home…

On October 28, 1932, there was panic in a birthing room in Long Island. The unexpected fourth child of chemist George Lofton Parker and his wife Elizabeth had been delivered blue, not breathing. As the minutes ticked by it seemed every parent’s worst nightmare had come to pass. And then an intern gave the baby girl an almighty slap. A cry broke out to the relief of the family. The arrival who would go on to be called “the most beautiful girl in the world” by designer Christian Dior had been “dead longer than any other baby at that time who had lived,” according to sister Cissie, then 14. The baby would be named after three of her mother’s best friends: Cecilia Renee Ann. It was the Parkers’ precocious oldest…

A modern woman Clara lit up the screen in her first role, 1922’s Beyond the Rainbow, but her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. Undeterred, she made her way to Hollywood, where she was taken under the wing of B. P. Schulberg, one of the most powerful producers in the 1920s. But Schulberg used Clara sexually and financially. Despite this unhappy arrangement, Clara became a superstar, and the very first Hollywood sex symbol. With her big brown eyes and mischievous grin, she exuded sex appeal. Her characters cut their dresses to be sexier, drank and smoked, and danced all night. They also portrayed sex as being fun. As shop girl Betty Lou in 1927’s It, and in other films like The Plastic Age (1925) and Wings (1927), Clara’s…

In 1942, under the gentle flickering of candlelight, three wartime leaders convened in what would become one of the most pivotal moments in modern history. Sheltered from the war by plush carpets and rich leathers, Winston Churchill met with Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle in the iconic Marie Antoinette Suite of The Ritz London. The men furrowed their brows and set to work despite the uncertainty that surrounded them. Chandeliers gazed delicately over the alliance of the United Kingdom, American and French politicians as they paved the path to victory. The Ritz played host to three of the era’s most influential men as they united and strategised the Allies next moves. Surrounded by Parisian architecture, the exterior of the building mirrored the lavishness found within the halls. Corridors boasted…

New York had never seen anything like it. Outside the packed church, 15,000 people lined the streets desperate for a glimpse of the film stars paying their respects inside, and a coffin covered in purple orchids. The police struggled to maintain order, as women sobbed and fainted, and, according to The New York Times, men caught in the crowd had their hats crushed. In 1920, the passing of silent screen star Olive Thomas brought the city to a standstill. Her untimely death at just 25 created a sensation like nothing else before. The tragedy had it all: A beautiful, young actress at the height of her fame, wild nights in Paris, and adultery. And at its heart was a bottle of poison ... and Hollywood’s most famous family, the Pickfords.…

In the basement of the Carpenter family home in New Haven, Connecticut, there were swings that hung from the rafters. A sign emblazoned “Richie’s Music Corner” sat next to a stack of alphabetised records, the strains of Nat King Cole and Perry Como the accompaniment as Richard and Karen swung the afternoons away whilst doing homework. Tall, gangly Richard, the eldest by three years, was fascinated with music – a love passed down from his father, Harold, who introduced his son to the classics. Richard was a piano prodigy, and his parents – who took on a car-washing business for extra cash – poured money into top tutors and the best piano their money could buy. Karen, meanwhile, was more interested in dance and sport. She was short and stocky…

There’s No Business Like Show Business As up-and-coming singer Vicky Parker, Marilyn’s wardrobe for the 1954 musical comedy was elegant and figure-hugging, befitting a performer looking to be noticed. William elevated a simple pale blue day dress (right) by adding a plunging back, button detailing and bow accent sleeves, paired with glittering triangle earrings. Elsewhere, a neutral coloured dress (opposite page) was paired with a fur muff and matching opera gloves for a sophisticated look. River of No Return High-waisted blue denim jeans, prairie tops and cowboy hats transformed Marilyn into ambitious saloon singer Kay Weston in the 1954 film, her only western. William placed Marilyn in dark and skintight J.C. Penney ‘Foremost’ jeans (right). Three pairs were utilised during the production as Marilyn spent a significant amount of time…