Innholdsfortegnelse for 2507 i The Australian Women's Weekly Icons

On December 3, 1975, The Weekly featured an investigative report into the life of Sophia Loren. Journalist Peter Evans spoke to friends and colleagues of the famed Italian actress to discover the true background of a woman shrouded in secrets and myths ... There is something strange about Sophia Loren today. Her disturbing beauty has a sort of flawed perfection, like a great artwork fake, an Old Master’s forgery. And somewhere in the attic of her past is a portrait of the real Sophia Loren, a forgotten woman called Sofia Scicolone, covered in dust and more haunting than all the flattering, coy, garbled publicity portrayals now sold to the world as the real thing. The truth about Sophia is complex, amazing, and buried deep. Even she is confused. Sometimes, she…

Cary Grant appeared to have it all. The movie star looks, the suave charm ... he’d even had roles alongside some of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading ladies, including Mae West, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn. But something was missing – that ineffable element of genuine chemistry. Sure, Mae West was sexy, Marlene Dietrich was sultry and Katherine Hepburn was spirited, but Cary himself was seen as a cookie-cutter Hollywood actor; easily replaced by any other handsome talent. The same couldn’t be said for Irene Dunne, who’d already been nominated for two Academy Awards, and was the classic triple threat: Not only an actress, but also a singer and comedienne. It took comic director Leo McCarey to see their potential as a duo in The Awful Truth (1937). “I’d never met…

For only 10 months, in 1936, King Edward VIII reigned on the Throne of England. He was 42 years old, the most eligible bachelor in the world, and a real charmer, who, as Prince of Wales, had captured the heart of the whole British Empire – as the Commonwealth was then known. But his own heart was making his life as King so unbearable that before the year was out the greatest constitutional crisis of our times shook the Empire. The King abdicated for the woman he loved. When Edward VIII came to the Throne, he was already desperately in love with Mrs Wallis Simpson, the American living in London, married, and with one divorce behind her. She was the light of his life. He had known her for about…

DID YOU KNOW?Dudley Nichols, who adapted the screenplay for Mary of Scotland (1936), found the dynamic of Katharine and John’s relationship so compelling he used it as the gist for another movie treatment – Bringing Up Baby, starring the actress and Cary Grant two years later. Sure, sparks flew when willowy Katharine Hepburn and hot-headed “Irishman” John Ford first crossed paths, but initially it was more akin to a pair of prize fighters sizing each other up in the ring. It was the spring of 1932, and the future Oscar-winning actress was on the up, while the lauded director’s promising trajectory hadn’t yet gone stratospheric. Katharine’s Broadway turn in The Warrior’s Husband had piqued the attention of 20th Century Fox and John was in town to shoot a screen test.…

The dinner party was an intimate gathering hosted by film director Frank Lloyd and his wife. Among the guests was Jeanette MacDonald, a darling of MGM studios, but one invitee was running late. “How rude!” Jeanette thought. Little did she know that the man, Nelson Eddy, would become her paramour for decades to come ... but not her husband. Their chemistry drew audiences to their films, but they shocked the world by marrying others. Secretly though, they kept up a dalliance until their deaths. The road to Hollywood Nelson Eddy was born June 29, 1901. Through the 1920s he was a star of the opera stage, and eventually film companies came knocking. But Nelson was uncertain. “I had worked like a slave to win my place in music ... Hollywood…

Ever since Hollywood’s original power couple Mary Pickford and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, described the ghost of a woman in white who would appear at their mansion, Pickfair, in the 1920s, Tinseltown has been a beacon for visitations from beyond the grave. And with Hollywood’s tragic life stories, intense relationships and dizzying emotional highs and lows, these spine-chilling events only add to its mystique and glamour. Some places are haunted by multiple ghosts – the Knickerbocker Hotel in LA hosts magician Harry Houdini and director D.W. Griffiths, while over at the Rockerfeller on Hollywood Boulevard, Marilyn, Monty Clift and Carole Lombard enjoy a very late check-out. For others, like Errol Flynn and Rudolph Valentino, there’s no place like home. Here we take a look at some of Hollywood’s most famous…

In December 1933, Movie Mirror magazine reporter Gladys Hall was charged with interviewing Swedish actor Nils Asther. Standing six foot tall and with looks that had seen him cast as a lover opposite Hollywood’s most beautiful actresses, she was – as were many of his female fans – struck by his beauty upon meeting him. But also, she would write, his reluctance to “go Hollywood” or to make the most of his single status and obvious charm. “The man who is more incredibly handsome than any man these star-bedazzled eyes have ever seen or dreamt of seeing,” Gladys wrote, “this man who could have women, worshipful at his feet, plucking their hearts as a strong hand plucks roses – this man lives alone, with his man servant, in a remote…

The editor in chief of Vogue France could hardly believe his eyes. Michel de Brunhoff was no stranger to viewing the latest innovative designs, often seeing the collections of prestigious fashion houses before they made their runway debut. Yet it was when inspecting the latest sketches of 19-year-old International Woolmark Prize winner Yves Saint Laurent that he realised they potentially outshone the most influential designers in France. “I have never in my life met anyone more gifted,” Michel declared. He had spent the past two years writing letters to the young and ambitious designer, but it was in a friendly catch-up between the two that Michel realised Yves’s designs resembled those of renowned designer Christian Dior. Michel went on to introduce the pair, and after being hired on the spot…

Steps to success Vera-Ellen Rohe, born in 1921, began dance training at the age of nine and had gone professional in her teens after winning a talent competition. By 1939, 18-year-old Vera-Ellen had relocated to New York and made her Broadway debut in Very Warm for May. She also appeared as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall which led to work in four more Broadway shows, including A Connecticut Yankee. In the audiences for one of the performances was MGM head Samuel Goldwyn, who wasted no time in signing the talented performer to her first film, the 1945 musical comedy Wonder Man. Starring as a nightclub dancer opposite Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen’s vocals were dubbed for the film, but she shone in all of her dancing numbers.…

This was supposed to be the happy time, Marsha Hunt reflected. At the very least, that was the name of the picture the rising star was making. A romantic comedy-drama, this should have been an easy-breezy shoot for the actress, but in the paranoid political climate of America in 1952 – with the Korean War raging – all was not well behind the scenes. Actor Kurt Kasznar had impressed in the Broadway run of The Happy Time and was set to reprise his star turn as Uncle Louis Bonnard ... right up until the point where he demanded a hefty pay rise. Columbia Pictures baulked and cast Zero Mostel, later of stage show Fiddler on the Roof fame, in his stead. That was until Columbia president Harry Cohn got wind…

As the glamorous crowd assembled for the 25th Academy Awards on March 19, 1953, the competition for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar was fierce. Richard Burton, Victor McLaglen and Arthur Hunnicutt were among those vying for the gong, along with Anthony Quinn. After nearly three decades in the industry as a versatile character player, Anthony was enjoying his first nomination for his role as Eufemio Zapata, brother of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, in 1952’s Viva Zapata!. He was on the brink of superstardom. As Greer Garson made her way to the podium, a hush fell over the crowd. Finally, she read from the envelope. “And the winner is … Mr Anthony Quinn.” To generous applause the crowd craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the actor making his…

On January 5, 1956, Grace Kelly called a press conference at her Philadelphia home. By her side was Prince Rainier III of Monaco and the couple announced their engagement to the assembled reporters. As a result, her studio, MGM, found themselves in a uniquely placed position – and with an incredible opportunity. Grace had been due to reunite with her Rear Window (1954) co-star James Stewart for a new film, Designing Women. But joining the royal family put a pin in those plans. And so, MGM magnanimously declared they would release Grace from her contract under two conditions. First, MGM would be given the rights to film and broadcast her 1956 wedding. And secondly, the wedding dress had to be designed by MGM’s in-house designer, Helen Rose. Luckily for all,…