by Joanna Paxinou George Raft was a big movie star in the 1930s and ‘40s. Frankly, I wasn’t a fan of his and only watched his films when James Cagney or Humphrey Bogart was in the movie with him. Then I found out recently that Raft had grown up in…
#Atthemovieswithjoanna
by Joanna Paxinou George Raft was a big movie star in the 1930s and ‘40s. He played gangsters and was believable. Some people felt his believability was because he was close to many gangsters and considered them friends. This was well known in Hollywood and these associations even helped him…
by Joanna Paxinou At the beginning of his career, he was nominated twice for a Best Actor Academy Award—in 1940 for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and in 1941 when he won the award for his performance in The Philadelphia Story. He was just 33 years old. He went on…
by Joanna Paxinou “Gimme a whiskey—ginger ale on the side. And don’t be stingy, baby.” Greta Garbo spoke those words in her first “talkie,” Anna Christie in 1930. Garbo had been a great silent screen star and one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s biggest assets. Her first three silent films accounted for 13%…
“Men like me because I don’t wear a brassiere. Women like me because I don’t look like a girl who would steal a husband. At least not for long.” That’s how Jean Harlow described her appeal. She became a star playing a sexy, wise cracking, bad girl. Harlow died at…