Thank you for participating in my one year anniversary of being a pinup today! I am happy to announce that the winner of the My Week with Marilyn Giveaway is Crystal LunaRouge!!!! Congrats sweets! Contact via my email addy: retrolovinmama@yahoo.com
One year ago today-I can't believe it! I had my very first pinup photo shoot! I felt so beautiful and empowered that I highly recommend every woman does a professional photo shoot at least once in their lives.
Here are some of my photos from my first shoot-enjoy!!
Can you believe that these were taken seven months after my third baby!!!??? I still can't believe I did this and I am SO happy I did because it has led me on this incredible journey!
Tune in next month for my BIG One Year Blog Anniversary Giveaway! Spread the word and thank you for participating and making this so much fun!!
It was based loosely on autobiography called "Who Gets the Drumstick?" on the life of Frank and Helen Beardsley. Can you imagine blending two families and having twenty children altogether?? Well that was the life of the real Beardsley's! My house is busy with three little ones although I must admit I find it fascinating on how such large families do make it work. So watching shows on TLC on the lives of the Duggers or other families with multiple children is interesting and defiantly a guilty pleasure.
The stunning Lucille Ball and always handsome Henry Fonda.
The film also stars Van Johnson who basically sets up his friend Frank on a date with Helen. He figures with their large families they would have a lot in common (Frank is a naval officer and Helen a nurse who works on the same naval base) and assumes that it wouldn't work out. They head out on their date and hilarity ensues for them both! All I have to say is watch out for the eyelash scene because Ball just will leave you on the floor laughing!
The North's and Beardsley's together.
When he finds out she has eight children and he has ten-they decide its best to stop there. But love has it way and they marry to the dismay and shock of their children who are all still mourning the loses of their other parents. I could understand their shock and annoyance and most step-parents aren't fabulous but some are. Of course in this case both Frank and Helen try their best to blend the families together and to tend to the needs of each child. In the film the ages of the children ranged from 18 to one years old and in the end of the film they add the 19th child to their fold.
I love this film because its based on reality yet it the stars of the film bring humor and a touch of class to every scene. Van Johnson is outstanding and I was very impressed with his comedic timing! You can almost feel his pain of being the "uncle" of 18 children! LOL
If you see this film, watch out for super handsome Tim Matheson and Tracy Nelson as Germaine-one of the babies in the film!
Maria Montez. Who is she you ask? I was first struck by her fair skin and raven haired beauty. A combination you don't see often-a combination which happens to be mine as well. Then when I found out she was Dominican, my jaw dropped. I knew of Olga San Juan and Rita Moreno being Puerto Rican and that was rare for the time to have actresses/pinups from that Spanish speaking country. But Dominican Republic is a place I had not known of any classic film actors to be from. So I was immediately intrigued and enthralled especially having grown up in a primarily Dominican neighborhood as a child and teenager.
Maria Montez with three of her sisters.
Maria was born Maria Antonia Garcia Vidal de Santo Sila on June 6th, 1912. Typically in Spanish cultures most people have a first and middle name along with their mother's maiden name and father's last name. I tell you if I can to go by my birth name I would have five names! Maria was one of ten children-a typical sized family for Caribbean people.
It is in the mid-1930's that Maria's father is appointed the Spanish consulship in Belfast, Ireland. Maria marries a wealthy Irishman named William G. McFeeters. While he was away with his military duties she would often escape to Paris or London for excitement. Not too long after she informs him while visiting New York that she will not return to Ireland as his wife. She then pursues an acting career.
Maria appeared in twenty-six films and was dubbed "The Queen of Technicolor". Her roles were that of a Latin seductress and she was always bejeweled. One of her most famous roles was in 1944 in a film called Cobra Woman.
"Cobra Woman" Trailer (1944)
Maria with his husband Jean-Pierre
and their daughter Tina-1946
In 1943 Maria married French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont and the story goes that they kissed 112 times during the ceremony. Unfortunately, the very next day he left for war. They were said to have been happily married and very much in love until her untimely death in 1951. It is said she had a heart attack while in her tub and drowned-she was only thirty-nine years old!
Maria's grave in Paris, France.
Maria left a legacy of beauty and fantasy/adventure films for us to enjoy all of these years later. She would have been 100 years old this June 6th-Feliz Cumpleanos Senora Montez!
xox
PS I am sorry I am posting this now in June although she was meant to be the Pinup of the Month for May. May was so jam packing with things that I totally forgot. I hope you enjoyed it!!
The past few days I have been receiving inspiration from all sorts of places. And how ironic because lately I have been feeling a tad bit frustrated with where I am going with my blog. Earlier in the week I was inspired by the images from the book Va-Va Voom!, then midweek I was inspired by an enlightening post made by Micheline Pitt who is a hairstylist, make-up artist, designer, and model! She shared on her facebook page an image on all sorts of women's shapes and sizes and shared her own personal battles with her image. She really opened my eyes and reminded me not to judge a book by its cover. If you want to see what she wrote, its on my facebook page (attached to that image).
I was also inspired by Brittany's recent posts about body image from Va Voom Vintage; what a real woman looks like and one size fits all. To pour your heart out to someone let alone to lots of someones via a blog is not always an easy thing to do. You never know if people will understand where you are coming from or be able to relate, but I feel if you have something to get off your chest its better out than in as good 'old Shrek always says.
Vinny Vandal~Petite, Puerto Rican, and a Pinup!
Today I read a post from an amazing fashion blogger from New York named Vinny Vandal. Her blog is called Vintage Vandalizm. If you haven't heard of her yet, now you have. She has been blogging for over seven years and has mastered the skill of thrifting and has a keen eye on today's fashions while still keeping one foot dipped into the vast sea of fashions of the past. She does her own thing and makes it work for her. Something I think we all want for ourselves whether people understand it or not.
All of these inspirational events that happened to me weren't huge or in your face. They were subtle. Sometimes you really have to pay attention to the world around you because when you have questions or wondering about something, I do believe the answers will find you. You just have to look and listen and be open to having it revealed to you.
I have been a bit frustrating lately with my blog, wondering if I am going the right direction or wondering if my posts are clear. I mean I am not a fashion blogger or a mommy blogger and not fully a vintage blogger since I am still very much a newbie. I am not a classic film blogger or a food blogger...so what am I? I have no clue-honestly I don't.
Reading Vinny's post reminded me that I just need to keep talking about the things I love and keep doing it no matter if others don't get it and no matter if I know where it's going or where its going to take me. I love expressing myself, I love teaching, I love learning, I love connecting with others, and I love the heaps of history that we have on the past.
I hope someday I can define myself a little more clearly and find my place in this wonderful world of vintage and blogging. Until then, I am grateful to have been inspired by all of these amazing women and I am looking forward to the day when I have my "a-ha" moment.
On Friday's date night I lucked out and found a copy of Va-Va-Voom! by Chris Chang with a forward by Mamie Van Doren. It is a book filled with pages and pages of pictorials of starlets from the 1920's to the 1970's as pinups. I first saw this book a few months ago and said to myself, "Oh I will get it later." Those words are dreadful ones because when you mean to get something later that item could be sold out or as in this case very expensive. Barnes and Noble had a smaller copy of the book that I now have for only seven dollars!!! On amazon they are now over thirty dollars! When I say I lucked out, I mean it! There were only three copies left in the store and this copy with eleven dollars so I just had to get it now.
If you are enamored with the past Pinups and Old Hollywood Starlets, are an aspiring modern pinup/vintage model, or just looking for some inspiration this is the book for you! I purchased this because of all the reasons I just mentioned and I am so glad I did!! I found a few photos that are the exact ones that are included in the book for you to see. If you are able to get a copy-get it! It is every vintage girls MUST-HAVE!
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