Frankie Fever

Recently, I've been infected with Frank Sinatra fever, which I have subsequently passed onto The Cat. One of the symptoms of this fever is that we have spent the last four weekends watching Frank Sinatra films. Not the whole of each weekend (I'm not sure there's that many) but one a week. I've also just finished reading a big fat tome on Frank. The combination of these things makes me appear pretty unhealthy. Oh, and the other symptom is, obviously, breaking out in songs from the films, which is highly infectious, so there's been a few cases of duets of New York, New York and My Kind of Town happening in our household.

Another type of Frank Sinatra fever, back in the day (Image source)

The film-watching started with Anchors Aweigh, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. One of the extras on the DVD was a preview for On the Town, which advertised itself as 'Twice as gay as Anchors Aweigh!' Our excitement at this prospect was palpable. On the Town became the following weekend's essential viewing.

And, oh boy, was it twice as gay! Actually, that was an underestimation, it was more like ten times as gay! So. Much. Fun!

It was rather a ridiculous film, I'll be the first to admit, with light plot and a whole lot of silliness and singing. But sometimes that's just what you need. It was, of course, in fabulous Technicolor, and it looked pretty damn spiffy, particularly the ladies in their lovely, bright outfits. Here's just a few screen shots to whet your appetite, should you be looking out for a film for a night in, particularly as Autumn draws in.

I'm actually in love with the green dress below. It was definitely my sartorial highlight of the film. I was in love with it even before she started dancing and I caught a glimpse of the matching lining to the skirt... Do you think I could duplicate it? Perhaps that should be an Autumn project for me, to crack out the sewing machine... between watching more Frank Sinatra films, of course.

I rather liked the yellow, black and white ensemble below too. Well, if it's good enough to impress Frank Sinatra (he's not singing to her, he's obviously singing to the dress) then it's good enough for me.

The costume designer was taking full advantage of the wonders of Technicolor, with bright yellow, pink and green (even if the sailors had to stick to white).

So, if you're not going 'on the town' tonight or tomorrow, then why not settle in with this fabulous film? You may well find yourself inspired to go out after watching it, embracing the following 24 hours in the manner of these sailors on shore leave. How can you not be roused by this song?

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.

After Audrey

A few weeks ago, my dear Mama and I went on shopping together on Portobello Road for my birthday. We started out at What Katie Did, getting me kitted out with a full vintage underwear ensemble, which was great fun. We then carried on to browse various shops and stalls at the north end of the market. The day ended up turning into quite the shopping spree as the right things kept cropping up and I let my mother indulge me. (I did also buy her a friendship bracelet as a memento of our fun day, so it wasn't all about me...)

By coincidence, the shopping trip ended up taking on quite an Audrey Hepburn theme. Firstly, my fancy was captured by a print of Audrey by an illustrator called Stanley Chow at one stall. I pondered it for a while, before opting to have a wander and return if I decided I wanted it.

In the meantime, we tried on some clothes here and there, and stumbled across a lovely little black dress  with a rather '60s evening/cocktail feel, at a great price and with a great fit. After buying that, I remembered a fun necklace I'd seen on the way into the market, and wondered if it might go nicely with the dress. People were starting to pack up this point, and I thought we may have missed out, but happily the stall was still there. And the necklace fit perfectly with the dress! I was pleased, as I felt the two together made a sort of nod - without being a patent copy of - Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. The dress was a classic look, while the necklace brought a slightly unusual, modern element to things.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to bring them together for the first time when I went out to Piano, a piano bar in Kensington, with The Cat as part of my birthday celebrations. I teamed the dress and necklace with the amazing vintage Dior gloves my mother got me as another birthday present (ain't she wonderful?), my What Katie Did suspender belt and seamed stockings, kitten heels from Jones Bootmaker and 'pearl' earrings (a Christmas present from my mother years ago).

We had a great night out too, enjoying the jazz and the atmosphere. It was a lovely, chilled Sunday night vibe but we're now planning to go back one night in the week, when there's apparently a pianist who takes requests and a sort of open mic set up. Sounds fabulous!

Oh, and back to the shopping spree... My mother talked me into letting her get me the Audrey print in the end as well.

A League of Their Own

I'm going to Chicago and Boston in five weeks' time (squeee!) and, when I told a workmate this the other day, he suggested that I go to a baseball game while I'm there. At first I was dismissive but then he carried on to tell me that both cities have lovely old baseball fields (which got me more interested) and it's just such a uniquely all-American experience. In our conversation, I did comment, 'well, I love A League of Their Own...' and now, the more I think about it, the more I want to go to a game. Naturally, I will pretend to be going to the baseball in another era and be suitably attired for that fantasy, rather than the modern day.

The conversation also got me reminiscing about A League of Their Own and I ended up having to watch it this weekend. If you don't know of it, it tells a fictional story about some of the young women who were recruited for the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which was established during World War II to keep baseball running while the boys went off to war. They're the Rosie Riverters of the sports world, basically.

When I was young, my sister and I used to pop our favourite films in the VCR and act them out in front of the telly. This one got the treatment many a time. It was released when I was about nine years old and I couldn't tell you exactly what it was that appealled to me about it then. I'm sure I probably enjoyed seeing the girls kicking butt and matching the boys at their own game, even before I really had any idea about feminism:

Though I must confess I did like the uniforms, even if the girls in the film are outraged when they are first revealed:

I'm sure I liked the feminine, pretty dresses:

I seem to recall I particularly liked Dottie's elegant style, and do to this day (even though Dottie's old-fashioned decisions on life somewhat bother me):

Check out that awesome monogramme on her cardigan!

Even her farm-girl clothes are impossibly elegant (and check out the kitchen decor while you're there)

And I definitely liked the dancing:

But really, when you think about it, what's not to love about this film?

Classic wartime-look advertising

Road trips, old school buses, cardigans and lovely prints...

Trains, cars and dapper men with suitcases

Commentators in hats, mid-century microphones, telephones and binoculars

Kissing the sailor boys

More lovely clothes and beautiful old luggage (like you just don't get these days)

Bedtime routines with pin curls, silky slips, etc

If you've not seen it, I can't recommend it highly enough. As this post is already damn long enough already with squillions of pictures, I hope to come back with a post to tell you a bit more about what I've been reading about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. But until then...