My old cartoon for the day

Lamarr: from Plain Jane to glamorous beauty

Hedy Lamarr didn't look very attractive in her early photographs. Even in her "scandalous" movie Ecstasy, she looked pretty ordinary.
Supposedly Hedy herself once said: "My mother always called me an ugly weed, so I never was aware of anything until I was older. Plain girls should have someone telling them they are beautiful. Sometimes this works miracles."

So, how did she transform from a Plain Jane to the glittering Hollywood diva, "one of the most beautiful women in the World"?
Her early photographs show a young girl with rather full cheeks, almost thin lips, non-arching eyebrows, broad forehead, the unflattering hairstyle, which even emphasised the slight asymmetry of her face. The make up and the photography were unprofessionally executed and they didn't exploit the possibilities of the good angle, good lighting and shades.
Comparison with her later photographs reveals that she had blossomed into a gorgeous beauty. There wasn't any surgery involved. She just came into the hands of professionals. The hair was grown longer and curly, the eyebrows were defined to be high and fully arched, the long eyelashes were added, she lost some weight so her face became more elegant and the glossy dark lipstick was carefully placed slightly over the natural margins of her lips to make them fuller. Rest of the makeup was a masterpiece and Hedy learnt how to pose under the flattering lights. Usually holding her chin up and the head slightly tilted sideways.

Lamarr and Hogarth

One of the most beautiful women to ever grace the screen, Hedy Lamarr was born in Vienna in 1914. Hedy was also a talented inventor who developed a spread spectrum technique , without which the modern wireless communication would be impossible.
No wonder that even comic book artists, consciously or not, took her as a "model" for their comics. It seems that Burne Hogarth (1911 – 1996), the famous American cartoonist, illustrator, educator, author and theoretician, best known for his Tarzan comic strip, fancied the gorgeous looking actress and depicted her in his comics.

 

 

 

I have not been that wise. Health I have taken for granted. Love I have demanded, perhaps too much and too often. As for money, I have only realized its true worth when I didn't have it.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hedy_lamarr.html#fEaCWjXSHv12LkT2.99

Hedy: I have not been that wise. Health I have taken for granted. Love I have demanded, perhaps too much and too often. As for money, I have only realised its true worth when I didn't have it.

Hedy: I advise everybody not to save: spend your money. Most people save all their lives and leave it to somebody else. Money is to be enjoyed.

Hedy: American men, as a group, seem to be interested in only two things, money and breasts. It seems a very narrow outlook.

Hedy: The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually a press agent, actor, director, producer, leading man; and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude, but true.

Hedy: I would tell anyone who wants something from someone else to feign not wanting it. People are perverse. If you show great affection to them, they'll run the other way.

More quotes from Hedy: Brainy Quote

Cooper and Luke

There are many examples of comic book heroes which were inspired by the particular movie characters or/and actors and vice versa. Sometime in the 60's, the comics magazine "Kekec", that I had following regularly, started publishing hilarious western cartoonish comic titled "Talični Tom". Later, some Croatian magazines published the same comic strip under the name "Srećko Munja". Only later I have learnt the comic's real title was: "Lucky Luke".
It was created by the Belgian cartoonist Maurice De Bevere, alias Morris, and often written by René Goscinny, scenarist of the Asteryx comic. Luke's name was inspired by that of Luciano Locarno, an Italian American sheriff who lived between 1860 and 1940. However, the real inspiration for the character and his looks was probably Gary Cooper. Just like Luke he was basically nice and benevolent, but tough and a sleek gunslinger when needed. Cooper was a chain smoker and a tuft lock of hair was sticking under his hat.
Later, when the animated cartoons were produced, Lucky Luke was dubbed with the characteristic deep Cooper's voice.
When smoking became unpopular in media, the cigarette in the comic was replaced by a straw sticking from Luke's mouth.
Together with The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix, Lucky Luke is one of the most popular and best-selling comic-book series in continental Europe.

The comic often features the characters which are in fact caricatures of the famous actors or the real people from the old wild West, like Jesse James, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, etc. The funniest "villains" are the Dalton brothers, the fictional "less successful" cousins of the real Dalton gang.

 

Grey and Cooper

One of my favourite western actors was Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; 1901 – 1961) who wanted to be an editorial cartoonist, but thankfully, failed in that goal of his. He choose to pursue an acting career. Cooper together with my favourite western writer, ex dentist Pearl Zane Grey (1872 –1939),  joined forces in a way, to put one of the Grey's novels on the silver screen in 1931. The western movie was"Fighting caravans". This film costarred Lily Damita. It is still a well produced and amusing old movie.

 

 A site with many Gary's photographs:

Gary Cooper scrapbook

More of my seasoned cartoons

 

Visit my site BDW

My old gag cartoons

My old cartoons again

 

Nudity sells

It is interesting how some nations are sensitive about nudity, while other are more or less easy about it. The great rush of nudity in the cinematography started in the mid 60's and now most of the movies have it in smaller or larger quantity.  Since the film nudity was a novelty in the movie theatres of the 60's and 70's and the censorship only started to loosen its grip, the film makers started to exploit the "novelty" in the various ways. Often, the nude scene still or expressive, suggestive painting was displayed on the movie poster, to tease the audience who wanted to see the "forbidden" stuff. The movie goers were usually taken for a ride and saw much less than expected. The scene was either very short, taken from another ankle or cut from the film by the censors. The modern public living in the world flooded with more or less free Internet information wouldn't understand the "good, old innocent times" of "sexual revolution". The nudity was available in very, very small quantities at the time. In today's measures, speaking in the chemistry jargon, it was present in traces. The newly acquired freedom soon took off and some of the movie makers started doing with the nudity what today's producers are doing with the special effects and cgi: overusing it! If you clogs the movie with the "special" stuff, there is no time left for the story, plot, characters, and all the other elements that make the movie interesting to watch. Over flooded with the excess nudity, the bad films couldn't become better. Indeed, they managed attracting more audience, anyway. But usually not for long. The clever way to "smuggle" a lot of naked actors and extras into the movie was to package the scenes into a comedy film. Thus, so many sexy humorous films from that time. I remember Danish erotic comedies being smashing hits at the beginning of the 70's. The so called "bedside-films" with the main male star. Later, the audience grew tired of the same old jokes and repeated stuff. Several films were produced using the "same formula for success" and basically the same plot and cast, but only a couple of first ones managed very well at the box office. The audience got tired watching stupid movies regardless of the naked actors, in a relatively short time.

Yet another idea was to make a musical with naked singers and dancers. I remember watching that rather boring musical comedy filled with nudes, shot from far away, so it   would probably even not be PG rated by today's standards. It was the American "The First Nudie Musical" (1976)
Quoting IMDB: "This movie should define the genre, with nudity and predictable plot but done in a way that the nudity is not the major theme, only spice. It would be worth watching without nudity, though it would not be as entertaining. If you like movies with stereotypical characters and lots of nudity, this is the one.
I have found only the last chorus line dancing act amusing. The rest of the film is not worth wasting time on.

The poster for the Danish sexy comedy "Mazourka in bed" bares an interesting resemblance with the poster for the "Graduate" from 1967:

 

... and there's a certain similarity with this poster for a flop starring Raquel Welch:

Some of my old non erotic cartoons

HERE ARE SOME OF MY OLDER CARTOONS (1997-98)

The new sensational Cretaceous bird

Although, I know that many birds and dinosaur-birds lived alongside dinosaurs some 125 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous, I always get surprised by the new discoveries. How come the ancient birds looked so advanced and modern as early as  that?
The newly described Chinese fossil bird Hongshanornis longicresta wouldn't make you turn your head if it flew by you. It seemed so common. Only a closer look, a very close look, would reveal that it had tiny teeth in the front of its beak and claws on it's wings.
A couple of years ago I was engaged in a project of producing and mounting a theropod  sculpture on the famous and rich Barremian track site on the Main Brijun island in Croatia. The tracks are roughly of the same age as the Chinese Jehol bird fossil. There are theropod tracks of various sizes at the site. The largest footprints measure about 60-65 cm in length. I have also noticed a large crock footprint, iguanodontoid tracks and possibly a pterosaur footprint there.

The sculpture:

More photographs of the M. Brijun theropod sculpture 

A couple of theropod footprints at the V. Brijun Barremian site (125 mya):

Here is my restoration of the ancient bird Hongshanornis longicresta:

You can read more about the find here:
National Geographic
... or if you are interested more, here is the free scientific paper:
 A new specimen of the Early Cretaceous bird Hongshanornis longicresta: insights into the aerodynamics and diet of a basal ornithuromorph