Monday 14 October 2013

Thelma Goes to Hollywood


This is rather a special post, even if I do say so myself... Something both inspiring and full of glamour for the first day of the working week.

The background story is that my mother is friends with an amazing lady named Thelma, who lives just down the street in their town. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, she worked for the art department of Hoyts, a big cinema chain in Australia. Her job was to watch the new films and then visit the different cinemas to paint a relevant and inviting picture to entice the audiences in.


Recently, when my mother went to visit, Thelma pulled out some of her old sketch books, filled with her wonderful drawings. My mother was thrilled and asked if she could take photographs of them, which she then shared with me. Equally thrilled, I asked if I could share them with my readers on my blog, to which Thelma gave her blessing.

See if you can spot some of the glamorous stars from Hollywood's golden era:












I'm sure Thelma didn't always see her job as particularly glamorous, when she was rushing from cinema to cinema to meet deadlines and covered in paint, with aching arms and back. But to me, it's like the next best thing to my mother being friends with a Hollywood starlet from the period. And when you think about what other young women were doing at that time, if they were even working at all and not stuck at home while the men went out to earn a living, it is pretty damn awesome and inspiring.

6 comments:

  1. Wow, that is too cool. Beautiful drawings. I can't imagine what that must have been like to work in the film industry and that time!
    Cx http://mixedmediumstheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Isn't it just? And I know what you mean - I'm sure even working for a cinema must have had much more glamourous connotations and excitement than it does now.

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  2. Wow! What a hidden treasure. This feels like stumbling onto a secret passage into a former era. Thank you. I'm sure Thelma will be delighted to see what you've done with her sketches and written about her. That is a very thoughtful observation in your last paragraph.

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    1. It is such a treasure and, like you say, like stumbling into a former era. I have to keep reminding myself that she was drawing the stars of her time rather than just being fixated on the past, like me! With a few exceptions, our modern movie stars just don't have the same something that ones from the past had - if only they did, I'd be off to the cinema much more often...

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  3. Beautiful pictures by Thelma - great story telling as always. Enjoyed having dinner with your Mum ( and Dad) yesterday she told us of Thelma and her art. It's great that you have put it on your blog. Its quite a special story with lots of history and some of the images are stunning.

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I did hear that Mum and Dad had been for dinner with you and that Thelma's drawings came up in discussion but I appreciate you stopping by to put your enjoyment down in writing!

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