Bette Davis Celebrates Her 33rd Birthday With A 100 Pound Cake In Littleton, New Hampshire, April 5,

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Peter Pan (1924) Directed by Herbert Brenon

favorite female on pre-code

↳ ann dvorak: three on a match (1932)

Tyrone Power, circa 1937

The Wizard of Oz (1939) dir. Victor Fleming

Charlie Chaplin this, Buster Keaton that, Harold Lloyd blah blah blah. They’re all amazing comedians who contributed a lot to motion pictures and it’s not a competition.

Clara Bow

the first film I saw Norma Shearer in was The Women and I think that negatively coloured my perception of her for years (decades?) because I thought she was the worst one in that (Paulette Goddard, Rosalind Russel, and Joan Crawford outshine her completely and when I saw the film as a teen I found her matronly and submissive). Watching her pre-code films now is wild, she's so sexy and cool! This is a problem I've had with a lot of actresses who took up more "good woman" roles in the late 30s and 40s (eg Claudette Colbert or Myrna Loy) because when I first got into classic films as a teen, I could not relate to those women or their characters and found them old and stodgy. Similarly I always thought actors like Gary Cooper or Cary Grant in the 1940s were so ancient and couldn't believe any woman would be attracted to a man that old

Chanel (Gabrielle Coco Chanel) Art Deco Celeste brooch in white gold, diamonds and pearls, 1932.