Tarnished Lady

Yay my neighborhood is the best in California!

So says the just released American Planning Association's Great Places in America's Top Ten List.
No other neighborhood in California made the cut!

Echo Lake, originally a man made reservoir became public city park in 1892. Boathouse dates to 1932. Photo Courtesy of Arthi Varma.

Carroll Avenue, in Angelino Heights district of Echo Park, is a quaint and historic block that includes the highest collection of Victorian houses in Southern California. Photo Courtesy of Arthi Varma.

Echo Park thrived in the first decades of the 20th century as a streetcar suburb surrounding Echo Lake. Photo Courtesy of Arthi Varma.



Residents and tourists look for the freshest produce at Waverly's Farmer's Market. Photo Courtesy of Arthi Varma.

They had this to say about Echo Park:

Echo Park    Los Angeles, California

Hilly Terrain  Sets Echo  Park Apart From Other L.A. Neighborhoods

One of Los Angeles's first suburbs, the Echo Park neighborhood is a vibrant mix of cultures, incomes, architecture, commercial activity, and social activism that has retained its unique character and charm for more than a century.

Contributing to the neighborhood's eclecticism and unique sense of place — and reasons for its selection as one of 10 APA Great Neighborhoods for 2008 — are its varied topography, historic architecture, and engaged citizens who, over the years, have gone to great lengths to protect and preserve their historic arts community.

Bounded by Temple Street to the south, North Alvarado Street to the west, Interstate 5 to the north and Park Drive to the east, Echo Park is just two miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The neighborhood became the set for many silent film productions made during the 1920s as the movie industry shifted to California. A number of celebrities have made the neighborhood their home, including writer Ayn Rand, actors Steve McQueen and Leonardo DiCaprio, singer Linda Ronstadt, and director John Huston.

The neighborhood's connections to the film industry aside, its first residents were by and large middle class and white. After World War II, Latinos began moving to the area and now represent more than half of the nearly 30,000 residents. Altogether, three-quarters of current Echo Park residents speak a language other than English at home.

Angelino Heights near Echo Lake is the neighborhood's most picturesque area. More than 50 Victorian homes grace this historic district, which was established in 1983 as the city's first Historic Preservation Overlay Zone. One entire block of Angelino Heights, which also includes Craftsman-style bungalows, brownstones, and Streamline Moderne architecture, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Angelino Heights Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (AH HPOZ) was expanded in 2008 and covers 235 parcels bounded by West Sunset Boulevard to the north and a local shopping destination — Echo Park Avenue — on the west.

The neighborhood's hilly terrain has not impeded building. Many houses are designed to complement the steep slopes and take advantage of views. In some cases, buildings curve in harmony with the crest of a hill. In others, front doors lead not to a street but to public stairways that enable pedestrians to traverse the neighborhood's hillsides.

Many of the neighborhood's two dozen-plus stairways are modest, while others are landmarks that reward climbers with spectacular views of the Los Angeles skyline and Hollywood Hills. The Baxter Steps — all 230 of them — are the tallest in the city.

Unlike many areas of Los Angeles, several parks are close by including Echo Lake and Elysian Park, the city's second largest. The park at Echo Lake, home to the city's annual Lotus Festival, includes an 1896 boathouse and the 1934 Art Deco statue, Lady of the Lake.

There's been a long history of citizen activism in Echo Park. During the 1990s residents drew attention to safety issues, which has help lower property and personal crime rates in the neighborhood to approximately 20 percent below the city's average.

Residents also keep a close eye on affordable housing. Some of the neighborhood's more affordable homes have been stabilized with the help of the city-supported historic preservation efforts. In 2005, for example, the city approved a small lot subdivision ordinance that encourages the creation of several units on one parcel. To some degree the typical size of an Echo Park home — just three rooms — has helped keep prices from rising significantly compared with other parts of the city.   

Such activism and meaningful community participation inspires motivation, commitment, and public debate, which are vital to keeping Echo Park a great place to live.

"For generations people have come to Echo Park, raised their families, started vibrant businesses, and given back to the neighborhood and the city as a whole," says Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "Today kids, parents, and grandparents representing numerous background and cultures come together in Echo Park, making this community an outstanding example of the great neighborhoods found throughout Los Angeles."

I have to say I agree. I love Echo Park, have lived here for almost 10 years and despite the recent influx of hipsters, no one can deny its history or beauty.

Go here to see which neighborhoods made the grade as well, as their top 10 picks for Best Streets and Best Open Spaces!

Goodbye Anita

I was so sad to read that Anita Page, the very last of the MGM silent stars, has passed away. I had the chance to meet her back nearly 15 years ago and loved her charm and energy as well as listening to her stories. She will be missed.
I wrote about her before HERE.
RIP Anita.
xx Vivlish

Silent screen siren Anita Page dies at 98

2 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Anita Page, an MGM actress who appeared in films with Lon Chaney, Joan Crawford and Buster Keaton during the transition from silent movies to talkies, has died. She was 98.

Page died in her sleep early Saturday morning at her home in Los Angeles, said actor Randal Malone, her longtime friend and companion.

Page's career, which spanned 84 years, began in 1924 when she started as an extra.

Her big break came in 1928 when she won a major role — as the doomed bad girl — in "Our Dancing Daughters," a film that featured a wild Charleston by Crawford and propelled them both to stardom. It spawned two sequels, "Our Modern Maidens" and "Our Blushing Brides." Page and Crawford were in all three films.

Page's daughter Linda Sterne said her mother had been good friends with Marion Davies and Jean Harlow, and for about six months in the 1930s lived as a guest in William Hearst's massive castle on the Southern California coast.

"She was the best mother I could have," Sterne said. "She was wonderful.
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In 1928, the New York-born Page starred opposite Chaney in "While the City Sleeps.
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The following year, she was co-star of "The Broadway Melody," the 1929 backstage tale of two sisters who love the same man. The film made history as the first talkie to win the best-picture Oscar and was arguably the first true film musical.

In his 1995 book "A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film," author Richard Barrios reserved much of his praise for Bessie Love, the veteran actress who played the other sister. But he called Page "intensely likable — sincere, well-meaning, endearing, in much the same fashion as Ruby Keeler several years later — and, of course, quite beautiful.
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Variety wrote in 1929 that Page "is also apt to bowl the trade over with a contribution that's natural all the way, plus her percentage on appearance. ... She can't dance, (but) the remainder of her performance is easily sufficient to make this impediment distinctly negligible.
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Among Page's other films were two of Keaton's sound films, "Free and Easy" in 1930, and "Sidewalks of New York" in 1931; "Night Court," with Walter Huston in 1932; and "The Easiest Way" in 1931, in which Clark Gable had a small role.

For a short time Page was married to composer Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote songs for "The Broadway Melody," but the marriage was annulled within a year, Sterne said.

Page stopped acting in 1936 when she fell in love with Herschel House, a Navy aviator. The couple married six weeks later and Page happily adapted to life as an officer's wife, hosting many parties at their home in Coronado, a city peninsula in the San Diego Bay, Sterne said.

The couple had two daughters, Linda and Sandra.

After House died in 1991, Page went on to return to films. In 1994, she appeared in the suspense thriller "Sunset After Dark.
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Most recently, she had a cameo in the horror film "Frankenstein Rising," due out later this year.

Before Bette, there was Kay.

Imagine how excited I was after going to Cinecon last week and having just relayed to my pals Victor and Judson my disappointment over there being no Kay Francis vehicles being shown this year to find out she is TCM's Star of the Month for September!

If you like glamourous 30's films and especially pre-codes, you have to acquaint yourself with Kay. I recommend not missing the campy lurid Mandalay.

Yay!
They started this past Thursday night ( and I tivo-ed them all) and will be showing on every Thursday evening over 40 of her films. *sigh*
Here is an article on her legacy in case you are unfamiliar...
Kay Francis Profile

What?! You’ve never seen a Kay Francis film? That means you have some terrific treats in store this month on TCM -- 42, in fact., and that’s more samples of the work of a single performer than we’ve ever shown before during one of our “star of the month” salutes. Kay was, like Garbo, Crawford, Dietrich, Stanwyck, Carmen Miranda and a very few others, one of a kind. For several years (1933-37) she was also the undisputed queen of Warner Bros. studio, the one name among the company’s female contingent which was a guaranteed draw at the boxoffice, a position she enjoyed until that Massachusetts girl named Davis began sitting on the throne at that studio in 1938. But unlike Bette D. who fought for strong dramatic roles and recognition as an actress, Kay was famous for looking gorgeous and elegant while riddled with angst. There seemed to be an unwritten law that any bonafide Kay Francis movie had to include four basics: Kay wearing stunning gowns, Kay in love and suffering for it, Kay being gallant and true, Kay doing the right thing at the film’s wrap, even if it meant her giving up a great love, be it a handsome swain, an adorable child or a devoted hubby. The public loved the Kay Francis formula so much, ironically, it also doomed her. The more her fans crowded into the local Bijous to see the latest Francis film, the fatter her paycheck became until she was making far more moola than the Brothers themselves. They didn’t like that idea and decided to give Kay the heave-ho and, instead, put their muscle behind a newer actress who’d cost them much less, such as hat new girl named Davis. They did not, however, fire Kay as that would have required them to pay her a fortune in compensation fees - so they plotted instead to embarrass her into quitting. Thus, the studio started casting her in third rate movies, lowering her billing even on those films in which she played the lead and, the unkindest cut of all, riddling her scripts with words such as “ridiculous,” “really,” “resounding” and “Roger,” because she had trouble pronouncing her “Rs.” But it didn’t work. Kay stayed and stayed and stayed. She kept pocketing those weekly checks until the contract expired, winning the battle but, unfortunately, losing her standing in the movie industry, and ultimately also diluting her legacy. But knowing what was going on in her career during those latter days at Warner Bros. does make even the weaker Kay Francis films great fun to watch today. Meanwhile, looking at the four-star Kay movies she made which we’ll be showing this month, such as Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise, Tay Garnett’s One Way Passage and King Vidor’s Cynara, give a chance to see Kay at her finest. Never fear, there are also myriad examples of the kind of Kay Francis films that moviegoers loved best, one of them Mandalay, in which she is miraculously able to jump on a steamer in Burma carrying only a purse, yet for days after she’s on board the small boat wearing a succession of lavish gowns, complete with headdresses, which have appeared from out of nowhere and would seem to require a closet the size of Versailles to hold them. That was the magic of movies. It was also the kind of magic moviegoers always expected, and got, from Kay Francis. Welcome to her unique world every Thursday this month. by Robert Osborne

Looped

I love it when you think your guy has no tricks up his sleeve and no surprises.
Matt surprised me last week with tickets- 3rd row- to see the World Premiere of a play about my favorite person Tallulah Bankhead on its opening weekend at the awesome Pasadena Playhouse!
I hadn't even heard about the play- tsk tsk- so had no idea. He thankfully listens to NPR every morning and they did a piece on it. I was so thrilled and touched that he would remember my geeky love for all things Tallu. As you may know, the name of this blog Tarnished Lady is from the title of a 30's Tallulah flick.
We really should be pinching our every last penny right now for Wombat's arrival but this was a must-see for us. And of course Wombat's first theatre excursion would fittingly be a smoky toned Tallulah expletive-filled ranty venture. She did grow up coincidentally in Jasper Alabama which is Wombat's name- the Jasper part not the Alabama- and he did move around and give me some love taps during the show. I think he rather enjoyed himself.

Here's me before we left- check out the burgeoning belly- as I am hitting the 6 month mark with our Bebe Wombat.

Here is Tallu sipping from her shoe of course. The name of the play is LOOPED and it is cleverly based on a true incident from the late 60's when Tallulah was needed to come in and loop one line of dialogue from her just finished film "Die Die My Darling!" and in true Tallulah fashion, it took over 8 hours.
Valerie Harper of Mary Tyler Moore (Rhoda) fame plays Tallulah and she does it well.
I am certainly picky about my special people and how they are portrayed but she got the deep husky bourbon-tinged, ciggie infused voice just right. Even her strange Southern meets British accented way of speaking way pretty dead on.
Tallulah was from Alabama of course but spent considerable time in the UK and this coupled with her theatrical affectations made for her special way of talking.
They had a photo exhibit next to the theatre with original photos and portraits of Tallulah when she was young. I was in heaven.

If you didn't know, Tallulah is known for her bon mots. Here are some of her classic ones:

• Cocaine isn't habit forming. I should know - I've been using it for years.

• I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That's what I call a liberal education.

• I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right.

• I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late start without me.

• If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.

• If you really want to help the American theater, don't be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.

• I've been called many things, but never an intellectual.

• Nobody can be exactly like me. Even I have trouble doing it.

• It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.

• (On seeing a former lover for the first time in years) I thought I told you to wait in the car.

• They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.

• The less I behave like Whistler's mother the night before, the more I look like her the morning after.

It was a really fun play, snappy dialogue of course, good acting and hey, its about Tallulah!
So if you want to catch it here before it likely goes onward to Broadway check it out now...tickets here.

Real Quick

Before I have to get going on our last minute preps before leaving town tomorrow for the wedding trip, I wanted to post some pictures from our lovely co-ed wedding shower party yesterday plus some snaps of my beautiful antique engagement ring!
Darcy & Kelly hosted a co-ed party for us downtown on the Hotel Figueroa's pool terrace.
Us wearing our prerequisite (as per Darcy- heehee) tiara and top hat and my belly now beginning to show as you can see...

The Hotel Fig is Moroccan style and from the 20's, one of my favorite haunts in LA and it was over 100 degrees yesterday so the tented shading beside the pool was a great respite.

The food included artichoke tarts, roasted chicken and pepper skewers, mini bean burritos, hummus and pitas

and a wonderful dessert spread which included cream puffs and peanut butter mousse in chocolate cups.

We sipped on cool cocktails (mine were mixer only of course) and watched the sun go down.

Some guests who came earlier on I didn't have the foresight to snap before they jetted off but you can get the gist of the party and how relaxed and fun it was.
We were really touched and blown away by our friends' generosity and the thoughtfulness.
Darcy for the day gifted us a gorgeous crafted scrap book and made sure to snap each guest with the polaroid camera and crafted each page/filled the book in and presented  it to us at the end.
Here is our page...

Such a lovely idea...!

Oh yes, here are some shots of my ring...its an antique amethyst set in white gold with diamonds and workings on the sides. I love it!
Since its hard to photo a ring, the first is with flash and the rest without...

Off for trip readying/packing and then a massage for Matt and a facial (courtesy of Darcy!!) for me.
*smooch*