Garson Kanin, with Carole Lombard & Charles Laughton as they view a screening of their movie “They Knew What They Wanted” at RKO Studios.

250 Films Meme | 30 | The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)

↳ New Movie 14/50

250 Films Meme | 03 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

↳ New Movie 1/50

“The next day, at the Garden of Allah, where I lived for a while, who should come out of the pool looking like the Emperor Nero with a big towel around him but Mr. Laughton himself. “Well, hullo,” he called like a long-lost friend, settling his considerable girth beside me. “Myrna” - he used my first name, which pleased me - “you know what you remind me of? Venus de Milo at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.” Well, I loved that, because I was bewildered in those early days of stardom, getting started in a new area without much confidence in myself. That apt analogy, although I was hardly a Venus de Milo, showed Charles´s power of perception. He discerned an aspect of me usually hidden by my savoire-faire. I wasn´t shy at home or with close friends; but a lot of accomplished people  were coming into my life, and that could be intimidating. It wasn´t a crippling kind of thing; I could deal with a Barrymore or a Shaw if provoked. But most of us in the business tend to be diffident. For instance, Hank Fonda, when we were working up on Cape Cod, said “You know, I am very shy.” And he was a very shy man. It can be misread sometimes. People think you´re a terrible snow. I wasn´t at all, but besides being shy, I happened to have been well brought up, which could brand you as a snob in Hollywood. Myrna Loy, Being and Becoming (p. 96)

“The next day, at the Garden of Allah, where I lived for a while, who should come out of the pool looking like the Emperor Nero with a big towel around him but Mr. Laughton himself. “Well, hullo,” he called like a long-lost friend, settling his considerable girth beside me. “Myrna” - he used my first name, which pleased me - “you know what you remind me of? Venus de Milo at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine.”

Well, I loved that, because I was bewildered in those early days of stardom, getting started in a new area without much confidence in myself. That apt analogy, although I was hardly a Venus de Milo, showed Charles´s power of perception. He discerned an aspect of me usually hidden by my savoire-faire. I wasn´t shy at home or with close friends; but a lot of accomplished people  were coming into my life, and that could be intimidating. It wasn´t a crippling kind of thing; I could deal with a Barrymore or a Shaw if provoked. But most of us in the business tend to be diffident. For instance, Hank Fonda, when we were working up on Cape Cod, said “You know, I am very shy.” And he was a very shy man. It can be misread sometimes. People think you´re a terrible snow. I wasn´t at all, but besides being shy, I happened to have been well brought up, which could brand you as a snob in Hollywood.

Myrna Loy, Being and Becoming (p. 96)

stardustmelody: Some of the top line Hollywood personalities who participated in the gigantic, all-star Greek War Benefit Broadcast heard over the NBC network, Saturday, February 8, 1941. Left to right: at top, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Owen, Lewis Stone; and seated, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, Ann Rutherford, and Fay Holden. Broadcast by NBC from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

stardustmelody:

Some of the top line Hollywood personalities who participated in the gigantic, all-star Greek War Benefit Broadcast heard over the NBC network, Saturday, February 8, 1941. Left to right: at top, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Owen, Lewis Stone; and seated, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, Ann Rutherford, and Fay Holden. Broadcast by NBC from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

hazelloveswally:

Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton, Garson Kanin during a screening of They Knew What They Wanted.

Some of the top line Hollywood personalities who participated in the gigantic, all-star Greek War Benefit Broadcast heard over the NBC network, Saturday, February 8, 1941. Left to right: at top, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Owen, Lewis Stone; and seated, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, Ann Rutherford, and Fay Holden. Broadcast by NBC from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the program was also taken by mutual and several local Los Angeles stations. (AP Photo) Photo: Pete Churton / Beaumont

Some of the top line Hollywood personalities who participated in the gigantic, all-star Greek War Benefit Broadcast heard over the NBC network, Saturday, February 8, 1941. Left to right: at top, Charles Laughton, Melvyn Douglas, Reginald Owen, Lewis Stone; and seated, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power, Ann Rutherford, and Fay Holden. Broadcast by NBC from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the program was also taken by mutual and several local Los Angeles stations. (AP Photo) Photo: Pete Churton / Beaumont