all the king's women # 15 - joanna cook moore

born Dorothy Cook in 1934, Joanna Cook Moore became an orphan at an early age when both her parents and her younger sister were killed in a car accident. when her grandmother became too frail to continue raising her, Dorothy was adopted by a wealthy local couple and changed her name to Joanna. she married and divorced her first husband, Willis Moore, while still a teenager, and shortly thereafter attended college in Decatur, Georgia. while in college, Joanna won a beauty pagent and moved to Hollywood, where she would be discovered at a cocktail party and signed to Universal.

Cook Moore made her film debut in Appointment With a Shadow (1957). in 1958 she appeared in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil as well as the cult classic Monster on the Campus. throughout the 50s and 60s, Joanna appeared in numerous television shows, including Gunsmoke, Afred Hitchcock Presents and The Fugitive, and is perhaps best known for her role as Andy Taylor's girlfriend on The Andy Griffith Show.

in 1962, Cook Moore played sultry, seductive social worker Alisha Claypoole in Elvis' ninth film , Follow That Dream [also starring Anne Helm (see previous post)]. Moore's seduction scenes are convincing, while in real life she is reported to have referred to Elvis as "a real bore". [WHAT?!]


in 1963, Joanna married actor Ryan O'Neal. the two had an infamously tumultuous marriage which ended in a bitter divorce in 1967. Joanna suffered from terrible depression upon separating with O'Neal, and took heavily to drugs and alocohol in an attempt to sooth herslef. in 1970, she checked herself into rehab and a year later was arrested for drunk driving, causing her to loose custody of the couple's two children, actors Griffin and Tatum O'Neal. by the late 1970s, following a third failed marriage which lasted only a year, Joanna was being supported financially by daughter Tatum, who had become an oscar winning actress at age 10, and one of the highest-paid child stars of the era.


despite treatment, Joanna continued to abuse drugs and alcohol and was arrested for driving under the influence not once, but five times throughout the 80s and 90s.


in 1996, Cook Moore, a long-time smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer. she died on November 22, 1997, with her daughter by her side.

some girls are bigger than others

polka dot bow dress

i have gained about 50 pounds in the last year or so, and am now a size 14. not to worry, ladies come in a vast array of shapes and sizes and all are equally lovely, but it can be difficult for those of us over size ten to find vintage clothing that fits and flatters. i often feel like all the prettiest dresses have been built for Natalie wood (whose waist was the size of my calf), but don't cry big girls, there is hope. i've gathered some of the many great finds available on etsy for the gal who is large and in charge. (please note that many of these garments have been tucked and pinned to skinny dress forms, but are sized much larger than they appear.)

little black dress

50s fur collar coat

blue 1940s dress

cocktail dress and jacket set

jersey dress

50s plaid dress

50s velvet evening jacket

cutest video vendredi ever.

here's a little kitty suprise to usher you into the weekend. i can barely even watch this it's so cute. like it hurts to watch it. too cute.

have a marvelous weekend everyone! xx

you scream, i scream...

i want these porecelain ice cream cones by Virginia Sin, and i think they'd make a marvelous christmas gift, don't you? [click image to enlarge]

seamtresses

i love this editorial by Momchil Hristov entitled "Seemstresses". the photos are beautiful and the clothes are fabulous. see it here in it's entirety.

invisible man

there is no photoshop hocus pocus used in these photographs. this man paints himself to blend with his environment. see more of these amazing pics here.

yesterday's muse #15 - bettina

Simone Micheline Bodin Graziani, born in Laval, France in 1925, was known professionally as Bettina, a name given to her by designer Pierre Balmain. in the 1950s she was a leading French fashion model and early muse to Hubert de Givenchy, who named his first collection after her in 1952. the Bryonesque "Bettina" blouse, featured in this collection, became an iconic style in the early 1950s and inspired the bottle for the best-selling Givenchy parfum 'Amarige'.

after a short marriage to French journalist Gilbert Graziani, she became the companion of Peter Viertel, an American screenwriter. then, in 1955, Bettina retired from modeling when she became engaged to Prince Aly Khan, the United Nations ambassador for Pakistan. in 1960, while Bettina was pregnant with their child, the couple had a car accident that the prince did not survive. the shock of the accident later resulted in Bettina's miscarriage. after Aly Khan's death, Bettina wrote her memoir, 'Bettina par Bettina'.

new store on kelly vivanco's site

Kelly Vivanco has a new store on her website! so now you can buy prints, pill boxes, i.d. cases and card holders of her stunning paintings.

brandon bird

Brandon Bird's paintings are absolutely brilliant. I Am the Night (above) is my favourite. these images are too small to really appreciate. see more here.

No One Wants to Play Sega With Harrison Ford

Mr. Noodle

Signifier and Signified

behold: the coolest wellies ever

behold the coolest wellies ever.

happy birthday baby!

it's my wonderful husband's birthday today! so i thought i'd post some videos for him and anyone else out there who was also born on this glorious day. or any day, for that matter! happy birthday one and all!

if polygamy were legal #27

if polygamy were legal, i would marry this unassumingly perfect sweater dress in a quiet ceremony in the woods.

flat nails

i'm diggin' this line of flat nailpolish. it comes in a bunch o colours but i like pool and concrete best.

what? how did this get in here?

i just thought you should all check out the article in rolling stone about Obama's Wall street sellout. *tee hee*

all the king's women #14 - anne helm

this edition of All the King's Women brings us to Elvis' ninth film, Follow That Dream (1962), and an actress who hails from my own home town: Toronto, Ontario. Anne Helm was born in Toronto in 1938 and had little under her belt but a Christmas pantomime when she and her mother moved to New York City in 1952. there Anne enrolled in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School and three years later, at the age of 17, was making $25,000 a year doing TV commercials. the compensation enticed Helm away from dancing and toward the screen, where she would land her first film role in Desire In the Dust (1960).

two years later, she would star opposite Elvis as Holly Jones in Follow That Dream. the story of a family who decide to squat on the side of a highway and homestead on crown land, much to the chagrin of local police, this film is absolutely ridiculous, in the most wonderful way. Elvis is hilarious as a not-so-bright country boy who avoids getting married by reciting the times tables to himself whenever a pretty girl approaches. trouble is, he don't know what comes after the 'nines-es'. that's right. Anne is charming in this one as well and i recommend watching it if you're a fan of ensuing hilarity.

the 60s and 70s saw Anne do a few more movies, as well as countless television appearances. she married twice, each union producing a child. having retired from acting in 1986, Annie Helm, is now a children's book author and illustrator.